The Spine 2016 Part 2

The next section for me was full of trepidation. The legend of Cross Fell was something we'd heard all about. It sounded like something of nightmares, where folk disappear into the mountains, fall down disused mineshaft deep in the ground, or return a different person, scarred by what they've experienced up there. On the map, this section looked very bleak. Approx 12k of heavily contoured fells, featuring several peaks across empty high altitude moorland. I was nervous about what was ahead. Thankfully, we'd be crossing in daylight and the snow storm from the night before had passed.

Doug and I left Dufton a couple of minutes ahead of Zoe and we agreed she would catch  us up, dawn was breaking so I didn't bother with my head torch, I got myself into my map and started trying to identify the surrounding hills, cross checking with Doug in agreement. Very soon, we were regrouped and heading up our first climb. We were all moving well, and had given each other orders to remind one another to eat. (It's easy to get stuck in a pace and forget the important bits like grazing) as we crested the first climb we all turned round to look back at where we had come from. It was stunning. The day had broken, the vast expanse of hills and fields spread out below us, above and beyond. Some way in the distance we could see huge white snow top peaks and plateaus. My phone didn't like the cold weather so I was unable to take any photos on this trip but I have an amazing mental image of that moment and it was lovely to share it with my two adventure companions. We continued up up up, and were soon above the snow line, and the mist thickening. Before long we we were ankle deep in snow and following the footsteps of those ahead of us. At times the footsteps didn't agree with our tracking so we made new tracks of our own. 

I was enjoying this. What was the big deal? Cross fell is nothing more than a snowy adventure! We made slow progress through the snow, across the various peaks, great Dunn fell, came and went. We stopped briefly, as the sun broke through the mist, we could have been skiing in France. Taking care not to veer off track (not that we could see the track) and fall 100ft down one of the disused mine shafts we continue our journey up towards the highest part of the pennine way. I was ticking off the peaks along my map just one more to go before Cross Fell. I finally felt like I'd clicked with my navigation, it felt empowering. We were very lucky with our crossing, the weather was largely in our favour, the fog made visibility difficult at times but the blizzard from the night before was just a memory underneath our feet.

Knowing after Cross Fell we had not far to go before reaching Gregs hut, another legendary location on the pennine way, somewhere we'd only dreamed of reaching until today. We summitted cross fell and I tried taking a bearing. I didn't do it right. I was annoyed with myself. Zoe set off into the mist, practically skipping towards John bamber waiting for us in Gregs hut. Doug and I were eating, I was annoyed at my nav error, Doug was trying to help me take the bearing correctly. We set off in the direction that we thought right, and could no longer see Zoe. I panicked a bit and we shouted into the mist. I blew my whistle and got nothing back. Doug said let's carry on, she'll just be ahead. We shouted and blew our whistles, where was she? She was just there? What if she'd gone off the wrong way?? A minute later, a figure appeared in the mist, wondering what all the fuss was about I'm sure!

We continued on, the navigation was a little tricky here as the cairns were difficult to see in the mist and visibility was down to about 25m or so. We knew we were only about a km from Gregs hut and were all excited to get there. Before long, we saw a little stone building appear down below from the mist, buoyed up by the thought of warmth and humans and a hot meal we bounced our way down and into the hut. Once inside, we were greeted by John, Paul, a medic and Paul's dog appropriately named Mist. We were given hot drinks and a bowl of noodles each. It sounded like we'd timed our descent perfectly as a big snow storm was heading in and the folk behind were sure to be caught in it.

We didn't stop too long as we were keen to get off the hill before the snow came and into Alston check point for a snooze. We left once more before Zoe, down the hill towards garigill. It was easy navigation from here to Alston, so we didn't need to think much. We looked back to see Zoe was on the move again so slowed to let her catch up before moving once more as a group. Soon we were passed by Ryan who seemed to have an amazing burst of energy running briskly downt the hill.

The snow was thinning and the path was becoming gravelly and making my feet sore. My legs were more than happy to jog to keep up with the fast walk of Doug and Zoe but my feet did not appreciate it so I trotted on the grass where I could to keep up. Along here we bumped in to Joe who had given us some nav instruction last spring. Hoping he was impressed that we'd not gone horrifically wrong yet he walked with us a little while and took a few snaps. Leaving joe behind to catch other racers on their descent we continued on through garigill and on towards Alston.

The last km into the checkpoint was a bastard. It took us around a field and up a fucking steep Tarmac hill. We rolled into the cp and got on with eating, foot care, and I took advantage of some lovely showers. Ronnie was at the cp with Ryan, he said the weather was turning and big snow was forecast further up so Ryan was only taking an hour stop and then out to keep ahead of the weather. Outside I could see it was snowing now but I was so tired, we needed to sleep. Once more, alarms set for no more than 90 min from now we tried sleep. I was struggling. I was so cold. We had fancy beds again with duvets. I had two Quilts on and was still shivering. When I wasn't shivering my legs were spasming in pain. I finally got off and had about 30 min sleep before getting up and getting in the medic queue for foot checking.

I ordered some breakfast
"is it morning or night?" Always it's night.

Doug was still asleep so I sent someone to wake him. He appeared Bleary eyed and very sweet but not happy with being woke up and too got in the queue for foot taping and handed a porridge and coffee. This checkpoint saw a lot of faffing. Our earlier efficiency was gone. Our kit was exploded across the room. It took us ten times longer to vacate, Zoe was ready before us and finally we were out the door. Next target was Green head. We weren't sure if there as going to be somewhere to sleep along here but we hoped so. Out into the night we went. It's surreal. It feels like morning and the sun should be coming up soon. But it quickly dawns on you that it's night. always night. And only just night, and there is a whole night of hiking and cold ahead of you.

Leaving Alston was shit. I was navigating confidently through some fields. We were all tired so we worked as a team to navigate. Doug was on the gps, I was in my map, Zoe had a 1:25k map so had much more detail to offer. Cross checking with each other. Before long, we felt trapped. I poked around in the bushes and found myself thigh deep in a bog. Struggling to get out, fell backwards into it. Zoe and Doug helpless whilst I hauled myself out of it and Zoe located the correct route. The next few hours was just awful. Tricky nav, through awful wet boggy fields. We were really struggling to stand up in the mud, slipping over constantly we we getting exhausted and not to mention caked in mud, so we took the road which ran parallel to this part of the route. I looked down and saw I'd dropped my map. It couldn't have been far back so I dropped my bag with Doug and ran back to find it. I felt like a deer! Bounding easily without the restricting weight on my shoulders. This is what running feels like!!

We popped out onto a road Crossing and spotted a barn to stop in and put some more layers on as it was getting chilly. Whilst Doug and I layered up, Zoe had seen what treats the barn had. Chairs and tarpaulin, some ducks hanging by their necks. She sat down for a few minutes whilst we fettled. We were jealous of her sleeping so we climbed into some chairs and pulled the tarp over us and set an alarm clock for ten minutes time. Power nap in, we felt happy to continue. It's amazing how much of a boost you get from a short nap.

I don't remember much of the night from here until greenhead but we reached greenhead with the most impeccable timing, we were exhausted and wanting to eat something and have a nap, by now there was snow heavily under foot. We saw a tea shop that looked closed but there were lights on, I poked my head in to enquire if they were open and luck had it , they opened at 9am (it was 9:01!) so relieved to be inside and the prospect of breakfast we huddled round the fire and were treated to coffee, and a breakfast of eggs and bacon. Also a short nap on a lovely comfy sofa. We stayed here longer than intended but enjoyed the welcome relief from the cold.

We pushed on through greenhead where Tom was waiting to offer hot chocolate but aware we'd already stopped longer than planned we pushed on through towards Hadrians wall. I'd never seen Hadrians wall before and it was exciting! It was huge and Imposing and I was feeling fantastic. We cocked up our nav a little in the beginning but were soon back on track traipsing through the the fine deep snow. Through the next couple of hours I felt great. I could have run and skipped along the whole section but as we were moving as a team I ran along then stopped to admire the views whilst I was caught up. Doug was getting some leg pain so I insisted we stopped and taped it up, it was still a bloody long way to go to risk not dealing with niggles as soon as they cropped up.

The day was beautiful. I felt almost guilty for the sun being out. Most unspinelike. We were moving well as a group once more when we turned off towards the forest. I'd heard that this was boggy and unpleasant so was expecting this to be a shit part. I'm sure if I was in a bad mood or feeling particularly sleepy it would have been but I was feeling energised by the sun. When we reached the forest it was like an alpine dream. Deep snow, big evergreens heavy with glittery snow. Still I was feeling good so I'm probably rose tinting it. Zoe had reccied this part of the route so was familiar with which way to go which took a little bit of pressure off thinking. We caught up with Stuart who was struggling a bit. Saying his batteries are low. We pushed on passed, I told Doug and Zoe I'd catch them up whilst I nipped in to the bushes for a pee. Stuart edged past me and I quickly caught him back up through the deep snow. I offered him some malt loaf as I passed which he gladly took. I hung back with him a while and chatted briefly.

I pushed back on to catch up with my teammates and the course opened up on to a fantastic plateau. The sun was setting and turning the sky pink and we were all enjoying the fantastic view behind. I felt like an alpine skier (minus the skis) As the day faded to night (It's always night) we approached a farm which was offering coffee, sit downs, soup and snacks. I could see Doug was struggling with his feet and needed to get off them I was tired and getting cold. We were only 5 miles from Bellingham checkpoint and he and I were keen to push on. Zoe went on in to the farm and we reluctantly followed. We discussed between The two of us what we wanted to do, not really knowing what was right or wrong. Do we push on to the cp and have a proper stop, or have a brief stop here? We were ushered inside, but we'd all but decided to carry on, but Zoe was keen to stop and enjoy a soup.

I felt really rude and ungrateful to our hosts and bad that Zoe wanted to stay. Already having only stopped for a minute the cold was setting into my bones and we had a rushed stop which I still feel awkward about as I know we must have seemed so rude and we should have acted as a team and not rushed Zoe out. When we were back on the move, I apologised to Zoe that I didn't want to appear rude but was keen to get on to the proper check point. I sure if she'd stayed she'd still have caught us up!

The navigation into Bellingham was pretty easy from here but the temperature had dropped significantly and the ground under foot was really icy, we stopped to look at the sky which was glowing red like a strange aroura. Eventually we found our way into Bellingham CP where we faffed and Put kit on to heaters to dry out. Ronnie was once more here, telling us to get our shit together, the weather was shit ahead. Stop faffing, and helping us in any way he could to hurry the fuck on. He was ace though, he was rooting for us to finish but knew that the next section was a beast and had our best interests at heart. We popped over to have a hot meal and Jenny was there being super lovely and mothering me a bit, which is always nice.

Heads down in the hope for a decent sleep once more. I looked over to where Zoe was asleep under a table and Doug asked if she was alright. She certainly didn't look alright. I sat up and looked to where she was appearing to have a fit on the floor. What was really happening was her legs twitching severely while she slept. I managed about 30 mins of broke sleep once more, my legs were cramping horrifically. I got up and got my feet taped up, not that the medics thought there was much wrong with them. Doug had to wait as someone had just been brought off the hill with hypothermia. While he got his feet sorted, I went in search of breakfast as was donated some porridge by the supporter of Richard who was the hypothermic racer, now warmed up but sadly out of the race but in fantastic spirits already planning his return assault.

As we left Bellingham.

"Is it morning or night?" Always night.

The Spine 2016 - Part 1

As I write this, I’m still decompressing from last week. I’m trying to figure out what is real and what my tired mind created out there.

It’s sounds dramatic but I’m struggling to understand myself what my mind as well as body went through. It was a week like no other I’ve ever had, nor imagine I will again.

It’s no secret to our friends, that this was our fourth trip to the Pennine Way on one of the Spine races. The first year, we had a successful trip to take on the Challenger, came back with a medal, t-shirt and a sense of deep achievement.

Why then would we come back to have another bash at the same race? Having got soaked through, kit failure (leaky jacket) and bailed not far from Malham, being repatriated from a phone box by Scott and Justin we went home feeling a little deflated but not so bad as we’d come along with nothing to prove and enjoyed a couple of beers in the pub all the same.

Last year we came back with the intent of completing the full spine and never coming back. What happened was something which we hadn’t counted on. An ignored hotspot on my heel, which appeared 30 miles into the event. By the time we passed over Malham Tarn, my heel was inflamed, and I was limping. Doug did his best to go at my painstakingly slow limp. The limp caused knee inflammation in the opposite leg. Periods of “OK” sorted by painkillers, followed by appalling limping and whimpering. We limped our way to Hawes and uncovered a revolting infected ankle. We were kicked out of the checkpoint almost immediately due to our tardiness in arriving at the CP by an ever patient Nici (though she did feed me Pizza which I loved her for!).

By the time we ascended over Shunner Fell. We knew it was over. I popped behind a rock to make a toilet stop, returned to find Doug asleep. It took us an hour to cover half a mile into Thwaite, the pain in my knee too much. The time running away from us. Our dream of finishing gone and once more, repatriated back to HQ.

Fast forward to this year. This was definitely going to be our last Spine. There was no doubt in our minds we would finish. We discussed our weak points, where we lose time. Where we can cut faffing. Our Nav is so much better than it was a year ago. We’d been on training courses, and navigating events and we knew the first part of the course pretty well by now! We knew we could work as a team and as long as we could avoid injury and kit malfunctions, keep eating, keep moving, keep ahead of the cut offs, everything else was out of our control.

Our biggest asset was that we could now navigate on the move much better and with much more confidence than ever before. I much prefer to use a map, I struggle to get on with technology. Doug is very good with being logical and keeping his head straight. With my thumb on the map, and the odd grid reference check and Doug keeping us sane, we would prove to move pretty well. My other asset was “Cheddars”! which I’d take on last year’s OMM as my race fodder and found to be a great race snack when moving at a slower pace than a trot. I bought shit loads of them, in fact too many to fit in my overfilled drop bag, resulting in bags of cheddar crumbs. Yum!

I won’t bore you with the usual kit stuff. We had all the kit, we’d used it all in anger at various times. The pre-race routine was as previous years, though it’s become a lot slicker over the years from the organisers. The briefing similar to last year, but still we listened intently. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt since last year is that I respect this race. I think I’ve been a bit flippant before. “How hard can it be”? We knew by now how hard it can be. Or did we?? No number of blogs you can read can really prepare you for how you will cope. We caught up with familiar faces, JZ was doing the Challenger this year, Jenn was there to see everyone off. We had dinner with Chris Mills and Steve (they were hoping to get round the Challenger in 40 hours. I didn’t have the heart to explain that this was likelty to be a death March from Hebden Bridge, not a trail run, as I have no idea of the training and preparation they had done.)

The race started off well, in mild weather along my favourite part of the route. Up and over Kinder Scout. I could run this route until the cows come home. We were moving well. Taking off layers when required, putting them back on. Not stopping to move whilst doing so. All saving valuable time. Our goal was to reach Hebden Bridge in 15 hours. The main issues which we had along this part was that Doug’s shoes did not like the mud. They just acted like ice skates, his legs going in all directions when he met a bit of wet mud which made the going tricky and slow at times whilst we focussed on not turning an ankle so soon in the day. I urged him to swap shoes at Hebden Bridge as the section following is pure bog and sludge! Nothing much else of interest happened along this part, we were enjoying ourselves and we moved well into the darkness not aware of where we were in the field. Just focussed on not wasting time and getting to the first CP in a good state for a short break, foot check, feed and nap. The ground underfoot along this first section is pretty decent, you can run* (*the sort of run you can imagine whilst carrying a heavy pack!) much of it. We didn’t get our poles out until we reached the last climb into CP1, it’s a shitty part of the route, which I never fail to hate. We bumped into a guy doing the MRT event struggling, so I offered him one of my poles. Some folk took some interesting routes in to the CP round here, but we were confident that we had the correct route in. The mud and slime certainly felt right! We found our way down to the scout hut at exactly 1am (15 hours in) – talk about sticking to the plan! I discovered I was first lady back which was a great boost. But assuming some of the others would turn straight back out again, I didn’t think any more of it.

We had a few hour stop here, to refuel, foot admin, a short sleep in a very hot room, as we were getting ready to leave, I saw Zoe getting ready to go back out, and was impressed to see her pushing straight through. She told me, her parents (who were supporting for the first few days) were parked 5 miles away where she’d get a couple of hours sleep and some tlc. Upon leaving the CP, the snow started.

We dug out our goggles, and added some more layers in a bus shelter. Around here, we were joined by Colin, who asked if he could stay with us, I assumed through the snow storm as the next part can be tricky with Navigation. He hadn’t slept at all at Hebden Bridge so was looking a bit sleepy. As soon as we got on the moor, we took a wrong turn. After correcting ourselves, we got back on track and continued into the snow. As we crossed the reservoir the sun was up, and I was feeling very cold. I spotted a couple of camper vans and hoped they were supporters of the race, I knocked on one door and was greeted by a lady who wasn’t too happy at the racket we were making. I asked if I could step inside to add some layers, it turned out to be Zoe’s parents. They let me inside and asked us to keep the noise down as Zoe had just got her head down to sleep. I couldn’t have been more grateful to them at that point. But I took rather longer than I should have and the others were getting cold outside.

We headed back out, across the moor and on to familiar paths. The pace we had from yesterday wasn’t quite there. It may have been due to the additional team member, or general fatigue or the fact that we could barely keep our feet in one plane. We took a slight detour round a particularly flooded and muddy area, with a steep muddy climb like the travelator from “The Gladiators” (we’d been told this was acceptable should we think it impassable) came across our friend Chris’ van and realised that he’d popped out to see us en route but had gone down the muddy hill to see us. I rang him and he said he’d catch us further along the route.

Dropping into Lothersdale for a bite to eat at the Hare and Hounds, we had too long a stop that planned (about 90 mins)as Doug managed to lose his gloves and the usual temptation of the warmth of the pub kept us inside. Gloves borrowed, and then gloves found, we pushed on and bumped into Chris. He walked with us for a while back to his van and we carried on our way towards Malham. We were expecting this part of the route to be pretty waterlogged as it usually is without the weeks and weeks of solid rain we’ve had lately.

To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’m sure Doug would disagree with his slip sliding shoes! We reached Malham and stopped for a while in a comfy bus shelter, Colin and Doug went to the Co-Op to pick up snacks whilst I tended to a bit of a hotspot on my foot.

Re-stocked and back on the move, we pushed on through to Malham Tarn. Colin was beginning to get pretty tired, and starting to lose concentration. Convinced we were going the wrong way, we took a bit of a detour the wrong way. Doug put us back on track and we made our way up towards Malham Cove. Still Colin was in a bit of a bad place. I convinced him we were going the right way but he wasn’t having it. We helped each other up and over the Cove which was slick with ice by now and not much fun crossying the icy rocks waiting to suck you into a gap and snap an ankle or two!

We reached Malham Tarn CP1.5 and had a foot admin session, a sleep on the floor (in Colin’s case, he was asleep immediately face down on a table). We headed back out a couple of hours later into the dark. It was pretty icy under foot over fountains fell but I quite enjoy this part of the route, there’s less mud and it feels like you’re well on the way to Hawes by now.

We approached Pen-Y-Ghent in the dark, I hated this climb from the first time I was tricked up there 4 years ago in a blizzard. But after the summer I have had scrambling shitty mountains in Wales it wasn’t as bad as I remember. It was however very icy. I was nervous about any of us slipping to our death. (Dramatic yes, but absolutely likely near the top) Doug took the lead and I followed on with Colin behind me. We reached a slippery patch with a dodgy camber, another racer was frozen in front of us and Doug was trying to help him up. He moved on and I climbed up, managing to find a few good hand and foot holds. I locked myself in position and turned back to check on Colin. He was unable to get himself up. Part frozen with apprehension of the rock sliding him off the mountain, half frozen with sleep. It took as 5 or so minutes to help him up the next few steps with some physical foot placing and dragging, then a few more meters and we were up and we were treated to the sky brightening! (Although the sunrise was hidden by a heavy mist)

The descent from here was even worse. It was so slippery, it took a long time to get down. But once down we dropped into Horton-on-Ribblesdale for some breakfast and a few minutes of shut eye. I took a look at the tracker and could see I was a good 7km ahead of the next lady.

The next part of the route, is my most hated section. It is a shitty shitty long stretch of unforgiving road which just goes on and on and on. It has a slight upward gradient which means you can’t really jog it either. It’s just horrid. I’d been dreading it the whole way until now. In actual fact it wasn’t as horrific as I recall. We took a wrong turn (impressive on a straight road huh!) at a fork as there was a landrover parked up with its lights on blocking the way. The 3 mile or so turn off into the wind was probably worse as I’d forgotten how long this stretch was.

We descended into Hawes happy and in a good time, and had time to pop to the kit shop to buy Doug some pants (he’d forgotten to pack any!) before heading into the Checkpoint proper. Some friends were there so this was a bit of a social stop, (probably too much so) we were fed, watered, and treated to PROPER beds! Unfortunately the instant our eyes shut the fire alarm went off. We managed about 45 min sleep here before departing once more into the dark.

On leaving Sarah (3^rd Lady) was on her way in. She was in a bad way, crying, saying she’d had enough, was out of time. I told her to get inside, get some food, have an hours sleep and get back out. She had plenty of time, just needed to refuel and shut her eyes for a bit. I prayed she’d carry on as we’ve all been there and stopping for no good reason is a shit thing to look back on.

We continued on up and over shunner fell, some nice messages were written in the snow and someone had even had time to make an enormous snowman up there! We were so far improved on this time last year, some 10 hours ahead in time, in good shape. Doug had changed into his walking boots and was unhappy with his sock arrangement. So on the decent we stopped to sort him out, Colin and I taking a foot each to speed up the process, removing a layer of socks that was compressing his feet too much. We continued on, but he still seemed unhappy with the arrangement. I continued on, while the two of them fettled some more. I was getting really sleepy now and had pushed on enough to have made a gap so I snuggled into a bush and closed my eyes for 5 minutes whilst they caught up. Jealous at my sleeping, we all agreed to take ten minutes nap. Doug set an alarm clock and we snoozed blissfully! When we woke, we were pretty cold so pushed on and decided to keep an eye out for suitable shelter for a nap, as we knew it was a long climb up to tan hill.

Reaching the bottom and a roadhead we bumped into Ronnie, who was supporting Ryan. We cheekily asked if he had room in his car for us to snooze, he did offer to make room but we thought it was too much of a piss take so pushed on. Just round the corner we found an amazing little stable, with a lovely bed of hay. So we took advantage of a little snooze. This ended up being an hour stop, pretty chilly too so I pulled out a foil blanket to lay over us. We were aware that people were passing us in the dark, but we were so tired we just wanted to nap. From Thwaites this is all new territory to us, having done the first section a few times. Beyond here is all shiny and new! We don’t really believe in Reccying, it kind of takes the adventure away. A bit like peeking a look at an exam paper before a test. Not to mention we don’t have the free time to travel up north to do so!

Sleep in the bank, and we were all suddenly pretty cold, I tore the foil blanket and wrapped each piece under mine and Doug’s jackets (Colin seemed happy with his layers) and enjoyed the heat the hill ahead created in our bodies. We caught up with some others who’d overtaken us in our sleep, including Zoe and walked as a group for a while chatting sleepily. We reached Tan Hill around 5am to the most epic joy of it being open! We hadn’t expected this and decided immediately we’d have a good sleep here. Mark C fed us chips and coffee and we slept on the most gloriously comfy sofa for a while. The Pub was very busy with people with the same ideas.

The three of us continued on out of Tan hill, expecting hideous bogs from what others had said, but it wasn’t so bad. The sun came up and once more we were treated to a beautiful morning.

The day went on with few incidents a few stops to eat, taken in some views etc. A few miles from Middleton on Teesdale we were intercepted by a local photographer who was keen to meet the leading lady! I didn’t realise that I was still, so this was quite a boost. Although I did feel a bit of a phony, as I’m no Beth Pascall. I was feeling pretty chipper, able to trot a bit. What happened over the next hour I’m quite ashamed of. I’m not really sure what was said or how it came about. Colin made some sort of comment I took out of context, which ordinarily I’d take on the chin, or laugh off. I can only assume it was my fatigue making me particularly crabby. But I got in a strop about something and started to storm off ahead. Doug stuck with me dutifully, while tears streamed down my face and we continued quietly down into Middleton. Colin jogged past us down the final descent and wished us good luck. We walked the last mile slowly into the CP as it was on tarmac, our feet were both a bit tender and there was no value in racing in to the CP.

When we arrived, I took care of my feet and the first thing I wanted to do was apologise to Colin for overreacting that I was probably tired and took it out of context. This was the last we saw of Colin for a while and I hope he forgives my outburst!

We’d seen Zoe before bed and she asked if we could join forces from here, we obviously agreed. Her support crew had gone back to normal life, and it’s not the nicest race to be out on your own and we were all moving at a similar pace now so we agreed we’d get back on the move at 7. We had proper beds again and a semi decent nap. I woke up “is it morning or night?” It didn’t really matter.  I needed quite a bit of foot care at this CP and we took longer than planned to get out, so Zoe headed out at 7 as planned and we followed on about 30 minutes later. I wasn’t expecting to see her until several hours later but the going was great along here, a good flat solid path to follow and we put in a good pace and had caught up within an hour or so. We continued on together for a while, all feeling strong. There was a diversion around Cauldron Snout to avoid some flooding. I suddenly started to drop off the pace, Doug hung back with me, while Zoe pushed on and caught up with some lights ahead.

My shoulders were in agony from my pack, I was whinging, tears came. I was getting cold. I didn’t want to play anymore. Can I have a hug? Why aren’t we there yet? I want to go home. This is shit. Poor Doug. He deserves a medal for putting up with me. I managed to get some more layers on and take some painkillers for my shoulders. It was so cold. The snow was now coming. We were back on the Pennine Way now, all I wanted to do was sit down for 5 minutes. But there was no option.

Pretty soon I was feeling better again, the snow was falling, it felt like a proper adventure. We had to use our navigation skills as the path became intermittent across the moors up towards High Cup Nick and we were both enjoying ourselves. This next section, I was loving it. Making patterns in the snow, feeling like I was in the arctic, knowing that we weren’t far from Dufton and another nap! It was cold and bleak up over the top but the change in climate and scenery made it feel exciting. We hadn’t seen any head torches for a long time, having passed Zoe and a few others some time ago who had taken shelter in a funny little van on the trail. We descended towards Dufton to be greeted by some of the Mountain rescue team who advised us that if we wanted to continue over CrossFell, the snow was very deep and we were to do so in teams of 3 or wait until dawn. We wanted to sleep anyway so we didn’t much care for now. We arrived in Dufton, all but sleep walking and made a couple of beds out of chairs and snuggled down for a while. When we woke up, Zoe had caught up and was stirring beside us, and this is where the three of us combined efforts to become the “dream team!”

To be continued....

Welsh Trail Series - Round 1 - The Black Mountains - 46km, 1600m ascent/descent

I entered this round at the beginning of the year, it is the full series of the event I did in December.

I love the area, the MCN team put on great, tough and affordable events in a part of the world I love. The distances are always a "guideline" with this one being pegged at "26ish miles" (42km in new money)

This was my first event back after this years' Spine Race (I'm part way through writing that up) and having been injured, I had a couple of weeks full rest, and the residual destruction stayed with me some time. Really I've only felt back to full strength the last few weeks.

Taking this into account, Robbie wasn't all that happy about me taking part in the Marathon and asked if I could be convinced to do the Half Marathon instead I'd also signed up to do the next day! After a discussion, we agreed I'd do the marathon and just go along and cheer the Half Marathon and have an easy run that day.

I'd arranged to pick up my friend Rich en route, this time not dressed like a chicken (a la the Piece of String race). Thursday night, I had an epic 11 hour sleep, and woke up feeling a bit crook. There's been a lot of virus' knocking about at work and I think I'd been contaminated. I spent the day hydrating and drinking lemsip before heading to Wales via Bristol.

We stopped at the White Hart for dinner where I've been a few times -  even if you're not a vegetarian - if ever you're there they do the most amazing Glamorgan Sausages! I'd booked a YHA in Talybont, about 30 minutes from the race start and at £18 a night, which I got a whole room to myself, there were no complaints. That night, for various reasons I had very little sleep. I finally got off to sleep around 4:30am, and woke to my alarm at 5:30. I put off the inevitable for 20 minutes and got my ass up and packed. There were no cooking facilities at the YHA so I had some cold oatsosimple and some paracetamol to get rid of the fuzzy head and scratchy throat I was feeling.

We headed to the race HQ, parked up, collected our numbers etc. Whilst Robbie had told me not to race, to enjoy it and have fun, I couldn't help but set myself some targets, and of course, I wanted to do well.

Some final snacking, and sitting around. Garmin on. I checked my HR, which was bobbing around 110bpm and upto 120 if I stood up! This was slightly alarming as I've been trying to run to HR on my longer runs, and this left me not very far to go! I put it down to excitement, and possibly the slight bug I'd picked up. I'd see how it went, if I worked too hard for too long, then I'd have to seriously consider not completing the full course. The weather forecast was pretty bad, heavy rain forecast between 9am and midday, and gales on the tops. So with about 15km of high ridge running, it was looking like it would be a blustery day!

8am and the clock chimed, signalling the off. I was surprised at the spring in my step as I bounded up the road with the front guys. We were soon on grass and steadily climbing out of  Talgarth. My HR was rocketing, but i put that down to excitement, the hills and the current pace.

I was keen to put some space between myself and the other girls so I kept up with the guys for a little while (not the front guy, he was already 100m away) we gradually climbed, over a couple of stiles, up a rooty piece of single track and onto what was possibly once a lovely gravel track. What it was now was a slimy path of ankle deep mud. I kept running through it, trying not to slip over, over a couple of fallen trees, and continued to climb slightly some more.

About 4km in, I could see a lady closing the gap behind me, and when we hit a grassy stretch of slight descent she pulled away. Another slight climb and we were on a bit of a flat, and Rich appeared to my right. I commented that my HR was going a bit mental. We ran together very briefly before he departed and that was the last I saw of him.

I was running comfortably along, feeling strong, running all the hills, legs not really feeling anything. I was feeding well from the start. The main challenge was the slippery choss under foot. After a while, I was joined by another lady, Kate - who beat me right at the end of the last round. She is a very strong runner and really lovely. We stayed together for some time, we climbed up a steep rocky climb where we met our first big hit of the wind. Fortunately it was behind us, so pushed us up the steep climb, aiding us to break from a hike to a trot now and then. The trail took a hairpin turn and we were face on into the wind. We tried to talk over the wind, but it was futile. Just ahead I could see the first lady and told Kate that she was our marker, the lady in the bright yellow top.

We battled our way up to the top of the climb and hit the bogs of eternal stench. We were on high ground, with gales, and now sleet trying to keep our balance through the ankle deep bogs, the wind buffetting us around, we could barely see the shapes of people ahead in the cloud. This section seemed to go on for ages, Kate was struggling to get her coat out from her bag so I helped her out and ran on, I glanced back to make sure she was still coming and not gone off course.  The rolling ridgeline over slabs that had kindly been laid to stop you falling neck deep in the bogs. The wind was crazy strong up here, blowing us sideways and forcing me to push my full weight against it at an angle to avoid getting blown off the ridge. We ran on and after a few km started to lose altitude. Coming up to half way I checked my watch - I was bang on where I wanted to be timewise and this gave me a warm feeling of accomplishment. I was still feeling great at this point. Kate started to pull away, but I could still see her. We had a good long descent down to the valley to the half way checkpoint (which actually ended up to be 26km not their suggested 14miles) I was descending well until we came a particularly shitty section. I'm notoriously bad at descending, this part was tricky steep rock, coated in slimy mud, grass  patches with skid marks where people ahead had already slipped. I picked myself down, hating myself for the embarrassment I was causing. One guy came flying past. I was getting towards the bottom after a painfully slow hike down, and a girl overtook me. Shit! i thought as I kissed goodbye to a podium chance. I ran on as the descent took a less technical feel and rolled into the next Check point and put in a bit of a chase to catch her up.

I was closing the gap on the next climb, up we went again...  but whatever happened in the next 10km isn't pretty. As my wheels fell off, she disappeared into the distance. I was struggling with energy, my glutes were tight, I was feeling the previous 3 hours running at 85% HR. I decided to have a break, hiked it out as best I could, trotted where I could. We were on another shitty ridge. With the weather battering me from the side. It was here, I wanted to stop. If there was a road to bail out at, I was going to take it.Thinking back, I had a similar feeling at the same point of the last race. I think perhaps i need to eat more in the middle sections.

The rain was soaking me, the wind was making my fingers go dead. I'm sure the views were fantastic, but I couldn't see through the cloud. I was soon greeted by another girl, we ran along together for a few km, I tried to keep ahead, but I kept having to drop to a walk in the crazy winds. We were signed down towards the reservoir where it was more sheltered from the weather. But the descent was pure shit. How I didn't break an ankle amazes me.

Along the reservoir was rocky trail, puddles full of frog spawn, a few mountain bikers coming in the other direction. I decided whilst I was feeling shit, I'd get my map out and practice a bit of the navigation I'd learnt with Joe Faulkner on a Nav/Dragons back training day the week before. This i found useful, I could read the contours, count off feature, tick off streams. I hiked my way along, feeding myself out of the bad patch, reading the map, I could see it was about 3km to the final check point, then a final 5km descent to the finish.

After a fun descent down to the last checkpoint, I was finally feeling strong again. I was running on through the fields thinking I could make up some time back on the final leg. Only to find myself dropping into a riverside singletrack, again I am certain in the summer this is amazing. Here it was a mudslide. To be fair passing by a fantastic waterfall, I was in awe, and semi laughing to myself at the pure shit I was trying to run through. Knowing it was only a little way more to go, I pushed on through the choss. The final km was on tarmac and into the finish chute where I finished 5th lady. I need to work on the mid sections of these, and try and up my game for the next round.

Kate and Rich were there at the finish, some high fives and chatting. Kate said "I thought you said that girl in yellow was just ahead, I caught up and it was a bloke!"
"Ha  - did you not see her put on a black jacket in the rain?"

In summary - this round was much harder than I expected. Harder than the last round no doubt but I'm happy with how I ran in the first 30km.

Looking forward to round 2 back in Brecon this time. Sorry - no pics, my phone wouldn't take any in the rain!

X-Man

I'm writing this, not knowing if I'm going to make it.... it's the first race I've approached feeling truly out of my depth - in all respects!

Well, as always this started out as me looking on the net for something massive/stupid/crazy to enter. I happened upon it towards the end of last year and I made a sort of decision that if there were any spaces left at the end of January I would enter.

January came and went, and I totally forgot and got caught up in new jobs, dabbling in adventure racing and enjoying weekend binge drinking.

I don't know what brought me back to this, but I think maybe around April/May time I stumbled across it again - I think maybe because a friend was doing an ultra marathon in Exmoor by the same organisers. I had half thought about doing the ultra - but given i'd not run more than 10 miles in the last 6 months that was dumb, plus I'd told myself I wouldn't do anything big this year until I'd lost weight (I'm fatter than I've ever been currently!)

Throughout May I was doing a running challenge for charidee - I had to run 5k everyday in May - sounds easy? you'd think. But I don't like to do things by halves and my aim was to do as many as I could - generally I was doing about 8k each day, and a weekend long one. But I also cycle a minimum of 30 miles a day commuting, so many of these runs were what multi sports folk call brick sessions. By the end of the month my running mojo was back - it had been missing for a couple of years. The last day of the challenge was poignant in a few ways, it was the last day, and two days prior an old friend sadly passed away being treated for a rare cancer at the hospital the challenge was raising money for. He'd also generously sponsored £50 - calling it "an investment"  so I decided to up the challenge and do my normal bike commute on foot - 15 miles each way - before and after work. Pretty hilly too! That done, I felt like I had a bit of decent fitness in the tank so started thinking seriously about entering the race. I hadn't swam in 6 months and that was only a pool paddle, so I did a trip to the lake and limped round a lap.



Oh you're probably wondering what the hell this race is?

It's this:

a 2.4 mile sea swim
a 102 mile off road cycle along the whole of the South Downs Way (through the night)
a 28 mile trail marathon

The event starts at Eastbourne seafront and ends in Salisbury and is to be completed in 24 hours.

What the fuck am I doing?
_______________________________________________________________________________

Rewind  3 years to the event which marked the end of triathlon for me.

I thought I'd written this, but I've just come across this in my drafts whilst I'm thinking about what to write about this year's Spine race and thought I'd finish this off. It won't take long!

I'll keep it brief if I can.

The race had to be renamed at the last minute due to copyright laws from Marvel, so it became X-24 or something, because we had 24 hours to complete the race.

My first ever sea swim didn't look like it was going to be fun. With 10 foot swells forecast for the 7pm start. The weather was sunny but really windy, with the forecast looking pretty grim from about 8pm. There weren't many other women racing and I as usual, felt really out of place, too fat (proven further by the fact that I had to borrow Doug's wetsuit because mine was too small)

I'd had my bike resprayed fairly recently and serviced so didn't feel the need to test anything out. My kit bag was ready, with snacks, spares, clothes. In transition a change of clothes and various bag to shove stuff in. I don't remember too much detail as it was so long ago. So let's get on with the race and the bits I can remember.

We got shuttled down to the start on the seafront train, which was a pretty novel way to start the race. We then had a send off by some pretty awesome morris dancers.

The Race Director. gave us a final briefing, also telling us that the course had been changed. Much to my glee the swim course was being cut short, due to the now even bigger swells. I was so happy!

My happiness was to be short lived as we were told to go. The pebbles really hurt my feet as I teetered down to the water. I hobbled across the stones, and waddled into the water. It was bloody cold.

Everyone else was already in the water, either elegantly dolphin diving into the waves, or swimming away from me as I tried to breast stroke out to sea.

I finally got out of my depth enough to need to swim rather than wade. Pretty quickly, I found myself at the back, whilst the dolphins dived away into the surf. The current was terrific, throwing me around. I tried to breath bilaterally, only to find everytime I breathed left I got a face full of the huge waves, which were now crashing over me whilst I flailed hopelessly. I tried to breath just to my right but found myself careering off course. I couldn't get any rhythm. I was getting frustrated. I hated this. I was terrified. Were there sharks? What if I drowned out here? Was the last thing I heard really gothic morris dancers?

The only way I could stay afloat was to do a painfully slow breast stroke, I could see the pier which we had to swim to, way off in the distance. It couldn't really be that far since the swim was now only going to be a mile long!

I realised soon that I wasn't alone. To my left, I had a guy on a paddle board, waiting for me to submerge once more, to not reappear, so he could fish me out and get himself back for dinner at a reasonable hour.

He asked if I was OK. I spluttered "no, not really. This is shit" as another wave hit me in the face and he disappeared behind it briefly.

The next 800 meters or so, continued like this, slow breast stroke, getting dunked, getting lifted 10 feet up as the waves swelled, getting dropped back down. Was it possible to get seasick when swimming? I was beginning to think so. That and the diesel taste of the sea water.

Finally the marshal next to me told me to hang a right and head back to shore. I thanked him for his company, and bid him farewell. A couple of hundred meters away I could see the Race Director waving. How was I so far out? I don't remember swimming that far out. I could see the only person left in front of me, a speck in the distance dragging himself out of the water.

Now the waves were behind me, I hoped I could just surf my way back in. Boy, was I wrong. The tide was now pulling me out! The swim time has been carefully planned to coincide with tide times. Given I'd taken so long now, the tide was now against me. I was swimming with all my might and seemingly getting nowhere. The paddle boarder appeared next to me again. "are you OK?"
"no I whimpered. I can't get back"
"Do you want to stop?"
"No. I'm nearly there"
The lad, coached me back to shore, counting my strokes, telling me when to push hard against the current.

Finally, I could almost see the bottom. I was nearly there. The organiser was cheering me out of the water. I found my feet and stood up.

I fell straight over. My legs were not working.

The terror that had filled me for the last 40 odd minutes, had left me wasted. The pebbles weren't helping me either. The RD helped me out, and got  me back on my feet. I hobbled my way to the promenade so happy to be out of that damn water! I didn't care that I now had a 2km run back to transition in a wetsuit. I was looking forward to a night on my beloved mountain bike.

I ran on taking off my wetsuit as I went. I actually overtook the man who got out of the sea in front of me.

I reached transition to find my bike was one of the only three left. The man I'd over taken and another woman just getting changed to go out on the bike.

I was inside the cut off (thanks to the shortened run!) a quick change, a bite to eat and I set off on my way towards the South Down way. It was beginning to get dusky already and my friend Martin Pounder and the boys from The Big Adventure store had fixed me up with some shit hot exposure lights so I was good to go for the whole night!

I rode on upto the SDW and there was a short sharp climb. I dropped the front gear onto the middle ring, to find it not wanting to shift. "Shit!" I muttered as I hit the hill in a big gear, ground to a halt ad had to push up to the top. Past a marshal. Embarrassing start.

The few miles went by nicely, the ground was in good condition, pretty dry, not dusty  and I was enjoying the time on my own in the darkening night. The first check point wasn't for 30 miles so I had a good few hours riding to go before I reached there.

Before long, the weather which was promised arrived. I put on my waterproof jacket. The rain came down. The rain came down hard. It continued for several hours. My jacket lost it's waterproofness. I was getting quite cold but continued to pedal on. I hadn't seen anyone for hours. I realised after a few miles, I'd not seen a marker for a while either. Shit.

This event, was before I learned how to read (and carry) maps, how to use GPS and what kit I should carry. I back tracked the way I'd come, and I got back to a familiar place but still could see no signs. It was still pissing down.

There was nothing else for it. I picked up my phone and ran (not my daddy) the Race Director, my phone was a fancy touchscreen. Not inside a waterproof case. Therefore, the screen was covered in water and I couldn't dial any numbers. I was shivering and tried to dry off the phone. Eventually I dried the phone off enough to make the call - the RD picked up and asked where I was. I tried to explain. I explained very badly.

He told me that it sounded like the sweepers had gone through and taken away the signage whilst I was off course. He would try and get them to turn back and find me. but I needed to keep warm and carry on to see if I could reach the checkpoint.

I wasn't really sure if I was going the right way. But some sort of gut feeling told me I was right. After another hour, I reached the Check point. It was 2am, I was cold wet and unable to carry on, having missed the cut off (and come in behind the sweepers!)

I was given a foil blanket a dry coat and a hot cup of chocolate before being piled into a car with a few other casualties who'd stopped there.

Unfortunately due to the car not being full, and not being quick enough to be in the front drop out car, we had to wait for a full load before being relayed back to the finish somewhere near Winchester. So we spent a few hours at the next Check point, watching people come in, coated in chalk from the wet trail, some covered in cuts where they'd come off on the ice like chalk.

Eventually we found our way back where I was able to get a beer (not that I deserved it), had a snooze and waited for my kit to make it's way back before I could go home with my tail between my legs never to talk about the horror of the night ever again. (Or so I thought)

It's a shame I was so unprepared for this, in hindsight, knowing what I know now about kit, and preparation and maps I was a fool to even give it a go. Swimming talent or lack thereof aside, I was punching way above my weight. Whilst on paper it looks like an amazing event, it was way too hard for me at that point in my life, and it resulted in me never taking part in a triathlon again, and not so far having the desire too.

It was a shame, I didn't get to the run as that's the bit I was most looking forward to.

As it happened, only a handful of people got to the finish, the ones I saw come in were pretty destroyed.

Brecon Winter Trail Marathon

I was back in Brecon for the second year running, last year I took part in the Ultra distance and loved it so much, I decided to come back.
When I told Robbie I was entered, he was none too impressed, given The Spine is less than 6 weeks away now, quite rightly basically telling me that if I want to train well for my main events I need to not be recovering from races all the time. Point taken and ass slapped, I compromised and asked if I could do the 10 miler or marathon distance instead - he said I could do the marathon - yay!

I've recovered well since the Piece of String - rest seems to feature heavily in my training plan - it's funny as before I started training with Robbie, I would feel guilty for taking rest days but having someone tell me when and where to take them takes the guilt away a little. It also seems to make me a bit more consistent as rather than suddenly feel smashed and need to take longer rest periods of do days and days of shitty training, generally because I'm taking rest days where I should, most of my training days are good quality ones - go figure! Don't get me wrong, as he'd tell you, I'm no angel - I miss the odd session or do things I shouldn't but it's a fairly new partnership and I'm trusting his expertise the more I see the results.

I've really been looking forward to this, and had convinced my friend Jonathon to join me - he was going to do the Ultra distance and we'd make a weekend of it. I'd looked at the times from last years winners and made some plans, the course was 2 miles longer this year though which I hadn't factored in, these are the few plans I had in mind:

Plan A - go for the win in time X
Plan B - go for podium in time Y
Plan C - top 5 in Time Z
Plan D - Finish, go home and sulk.

The last two weeks I've been pretty poorly, having caught a pretty bad chill during a cold and horribly wet half marathon, I was off work a few days (being a contractor, this isn't the done thing - you don't work, you don't get paid) subsequently feeling pretty crap for most of the week and not doing any running for 9 days I was approaching the race feeling suddenly unfit and unprepared. My first run back was pretty painful to say the least. My legs felt great but my chest was awful, I got home and coughed up my innards for around an hour. The next day's run, less terrible but I was still feeling under the weather and decided to call it on Friday - if I still felt shit then I shouldn't do it. No point getting sicker.

I felt OK on Friday - my throat was still quite sore and I was coughing up shit still but my legs felt good (which they should with only an hours running in them in the last two weeks) and if nothing else, at least my legs should be fresh, right?

We arrived in Brecon nice and early - too early to register so popped to the pub for a beer. We ambled back, still too early to register but managed to bag a room which we'd booked for the next two nights, so bagsied the best one and went to another pub for another beer. Finally it was 6pm and we could register so back we went to get our maps and numbers then, yep, back to the pub for another beer and some food this time. Early night for a reasonably civilised start the next morning. The ultra was on for a 7:30 start, the marathon and 10 miler at 8am. Delicious Bacon Butty for breakfast, then back to have a lay down for a bit, sort my kit out, wave JZ off, bottle of juice and a banana then off to the start. my throat was more sore than yesterday too so I took a couple of pain killers.

It's a well organised race and it's great that if you're quick you can book accommodation at the race HQ. The course was really well marked and they booked fab weather for the day!

As we headed to the start it was below freezing so I had on gloves, base layer, tshirt and a wind proof. There were lots of people with dogs attached to them - I thought this is cheating somewhat and recalled getting tangled in leads last year so I hoped I could stay ahead of them this time.

Standing around the start I got my usual feeling of not being good enough, not being skinny enough, not looking the part. I shook it off - I know I need to lose a few kilos but it's too late now. I can only do what I can do. I lined up near the front and set off as we were started. The course takes a steady climb for a few km. I've been much more confident on the climbing the last few months so I didn't hesitate in setting off in front. I had several guys in front of me, but I soon realised I was the first girl. A tall hot leggy girl doing the 10 miler shot past - but there was no point trying to keep with her - she was doing a different race.

I maintained a comfortable pace, feeling pretty strong, checking my garmin I saw I was doing between 5 & 5:30 min/km which didn't feel uncomfortable at the moment even on the climb. I knew I shouldn't blow it all up too early so focussed on my breathing and keeping it controlled and pulling back the pace if it felt rushed.

After a few miles, we descended down an icy rocky trail, descending is my biggest issue at the moment - I'm a pussy. I've got no confidence on where my feet are landing at pace so I backed right off the pace. Before long another girl came past me. Shit! I got to the bottom in one piece and we started to climb again. I worked my way back up the 100feet she'd pulled away and was back with her. At this point we hit a check point, where the 10 milers would peel off and we'd head off up Tor y Foel and the summit at 550m. It wasn't too horrific at this early stage and I tried to maintain a steady jog. I stopped to hike for a couple of minutes, which allowed the girl to slip back in front. Along with another lady who'd gained on me significantly on the decent. She powered on past  and started to put in a bit of a gap. I stuck with the girl from before.
The hill was slippery with ice in paces so foot holds weren't perfect and I've recently found that I'm not a very fast walker (something else I need to practice before The Spine) so to walk fast was actually more effort than to jog really steady so I tried to stick with that tact. When it got really steep I did have to walk (slowly to keep my HR sensible) I reached the summit right behind the girl and looked around me, the morning was beautiful. The Sun was shining brightly to our right, and the icy ground was shining back up at me. I was pretty happy right now! The hill climbed with a couple of false summits and trail which was fab underfoot aside from the frost.

The first big descent was super slippery, there was trail which was threatening to kill me on every tentative step and a slightly grassier path to the right. I took the latter where I could and slowly jogged down being careful not to die - watching the girl gradually get away, and the lead lady gradually become a dot in the distance - that was the last I would see of her! From here we started overtaking the ultra runners - it was  a good feeling to be doing so, so early in the race.

Another lady drew up to me, and flew past me on the descent. "For fuck's sake Anna! Stop being a pussy" I said to myself.

As the hill came to lower ground it was a shallower descent and less slippery so I picked up the pace a little. We hit a bit of tarmac briefly. I could see both the two fast descenders just in front of me. Soon we were once more climbing, and I was back on them. If they hiked, I'd make sure I kept jogging and stayed on them. Again we descended, again they got away.

The race took on this format for most of the way. I was working hard on the climbs to make back the distance I lost on the descents. Around half way I started to bonk and managed to source a gel from a check point, I'd wished I'd brought more paracetamol as my chest and throat were a bit grim.

The route was brilliant, it went through lovely flowing trails, great climbs that made me feel strong, a few bits of woodland, some pretty boggy sections, as well as finding myself trapped in some thorn bushes. At one point the three of us all missed a sign post as we were all too busy looking down at the slippery rocks, we corrected ourselves and went back the way we'd come. Back up another climb. Walking this time as my calves were burning a bit. An ultra guy who we were passing said we were 1st, 2nd and 3rd females. I corrected him and said no we're 2nd, 3rd and 4th. This surprised one of the girls and she seemed to take fuel from this and started to put distance between us. I was pissing quite frequently today, I'd counted 4 already. Must be well hydrated I guess but the last couple of multi stage races, that's meant I've got a kidney infection, but this isn't a long effort so I should be fine!

She was never more than about 100m ahead at this point and the other lady just a few meters in front. I wanted to keep her in front of me so I could keep an eye on her, rather than wait for her to fly past me again. At 18 miles the route split again and the ultra guys went left and we carried on up a fire road. The fire road soon became a sticky track damaged by the recent deforestation.

The next 9 or 10k was fairly uneventful, not very technical, just fairly sticky underfoot. I was still just behind lady number 3, number 2 had now disappeared. I was still in a chance for a podium. and looking at my watch, I wasn't far off my plan A time. The track descended slightly so I opened up my hips a bit to extend the pace and close the gap some more. I was now within talking distance of her and she put the pace in a little too on the descent. I saw we were about to climb a little, so waited for that to close the gap again. Back within a few meters, we hit the final check point. It was a couple of miles gradual descent now down a rocky river bed type trail. I overtook a guy who was picking his way down, and still not able to get any closer to her.

I checked my watch, and we'd done the marathon distance already and happy that I was Plan A time + 5 minutes.... we were close to the start which I foolishly thought was very close to the end. I reached the two marshals there who said it's another couple of miles along the canal to the finish. The flat terrain, really fucked up my stride, I needed a piss and I was totally out of water.

I had a minor huff as I saw the lady opening up the gap. Fuck it.

I stopped on the side to piss again, and jogged it in steadily to the end, I finished in 4th place about 30 seconds behind number 3 in the end, and was 3rd open female, so not too shabby. Plus I got inside my Plan B time, even with the extra mileage!

I enjoyed some of the amazing food that was being made (half a brownie and a welsh Tartiflette), had a shower, and a nap then headed back down to wait for JZ to come back in. After he'd returned, showered, we headed back to the pub for a celebratory couple of beers and some chips and back for another semi early night.

I didn't get any pics out on the course today as I was kinda busy trying to win ;-)

Couple of days rest now, before getting serious for The Spine!

Bit of an update.......and The Piece of String Race

I can't believe it's a year since I posted on here. I think part of that is that everyone is blogging these days  and I'm not sure if people are that interested in the shenanigans I get up to, or if indeed they ever were! Also, the events I've been doing have been a bit long and I can't really be arsed to write about them.

I've had a pretty awesome year so far (it's only November) having completed The Fellsman, AAUT (5 day Stage Race in Spain), Snowdon Race and most recently the incredible Grand 2 Grand. As well as that I've enjoyed amazing trips running in Switzerland, Transylvania and lots of places around the UK. There have been a couple of DNFs in there too, which I'll gloss over!

Here's some snaps....

 

AAUT - about 40 degrees - Awesome "Holiday"

Running around Zermatt

Dicking around in the Bucegi Mountains



Transylvania

En Route to top 20 place in G2G

Running through Slot Canyons - G2G

I've also invested in a Coach since around July time. I was losing my mojo a bit and not improving, so with the help of Robbie Britton, I've got a more consistent training structure and am now seeing improvements. I struggle with being told what to do, so I'm quite surprised that I've taken to this so well - Robbie might disagree and I can almost hear him sigh with some of the comments I send back in my training log, but I'm sure I warned him I'm a bit of a joker.

Swennyway, here I am wanting to share this weekends adventure - The Piece of String Race. I had seen this event a year or so ago and thought it'd be a fun challenge to go for. I missed the entry deadline for last year so made sure I was there ready to enter this year.

The clue is kind of in the name but here's the info from the website

http://www.centurionrunning.com/piece-of-string-2014/

As you can see - there are no details of distance, time, elevation, location or anything remotely useful in training for such an event. What could be easier!? So when the entries opened I dutifully sent in my entry email with the subject "Piece of Piss Race" - I hoped this cheeky subject would help me with my selection - or lure the race directors to try and prove me wrong or as it turned out, punish me.

I'd forgotten about the PoP race for a while until an email popped into my inbox in early August informing me that I'd been unlucky with my entry and had been accepted to take part. The only instructions provided were on mandatory kit, where to be and when and that no further email follow up would be provided.

I forgot about the PoP again for a while whilst I gallivanted around the Utah and Arizona Desert and ran around the mountains with bears in Transylvania. With 4 weeks between G2G and PoP and the assumption that it would be a 100+ mile race (worst case scenario) there wasn't heaps of time to recover and then get ready for another potentially tough event, throw in The OMM the week before and you've got yourself an interesting taper.

The OMM done, it was all about recovery for Saturday's start. I'd been hoping for something hilly and traily as I've been running well on the trails lately and have been working fairly hard on the hills, a long flat canal run or treadmill run would be my worst case.

Wednesday I went to bed with dreadful cold, full of fever and and sore throat and aches everywhere. I dosed up on lemons and lemsip and woke up Thursday not feeling much better. I continued to drink all the hot lemon I could and all the drugs I could find. By Friday I was feeling a little better, sore throat and snot stage now, and was thinking that if I felt like this in the morning I wouldn't be starting the race. That night, I went off to a Halloween party and managed not to drink ALL the booze, and was in bed by 1am.

My alarm went off at 6am. I checked my snifflometer. Not 100% but I could give it a crack, worst case I could do a few hours running and call it a long run..... so I made some bacon butties for the journey and packed the last of the kit I'd need for the race.

I arrived in Wendover in time for a quick briefing - "you'll be heading west along the Ridgeway" - Yay! This is one of my favourite trails in the south as it runs close to where I grew up. "it'll take no more than 2 hours to get to X and a further 2 hours to get to Y" implying we were off for a long jaunt.

My friend Rich was taking part too, dressed as a Chicken - natch.

 


We gathered outside and James said "go on then" so off we went, following Claire out who was leading us to the Ridgeway.

I felt a little bit sickly but my legs were feeling pretty good and settled into a fairly decent pace. (Not knowing whether to pace for a 100m sprint or a 100 miler is tricky!) Soon on the Ridgeway and onto a gentle climb, I was near the front and enjoying a lovely sunny morning. A couple of miles into the run rose a large monument, I could see that the lead guy had stopped there and there was Nici with a clip board.

I instantly thought this is the finish, at the same instant Sam did and we both put in a bit of a sprint to the top - just in case! We reached the top and Nici told us to wait there until everyone else arrived, and there had been a 25 minute cut off to get to there. Already some of the back runners were going to be close to this.

When we were all gathered, we were instructed to run back down the way we came and the cut off was 15 minutes. So off we ran back down the hill, through the gate we were marshalled left down a gully of leaves and mud and roots. We gently ran down here for 500m or so until we came to James who turned us round the corner and sent us up a massive hill.

The first part of the hill was fairly runnable, some people were walking fairly soon but I picked a marker that I'd get to before I walked - at the point where it got very steep and more fell running terrain. Slippery muddy grass. I laughed to myself as I heaved myself to the top. As the gradient lessened I jogged it out over the top and I could see the monument where Nici had been again another 100m to the top and she took our times and numbers.

I knew what was happening here. Hill Reps. Excellent. In total we did 8 reps each loop was a little under a mile. I was enjoying it to be honest and feeling pretty strong. A year ago, I'd have been missing the cut offs and walking the easiest of gradients. Nici once more sent us back down the hill and said we had 16 mins this time.

We got to the gate and were met by a marshal who sent us back to Wendover to the start we'd left a couple of hours earlier. Nicely warmed up from the hill training session I ran briskly back to the Hall and got back in 2nd place. (not that this counted)

We took the opportunity to reload our snacks, water bottles and I necked a couple of lemsip to keep the snot at bay, whilst awaiting our next instructions.  These came in the same form as the last set - head west on the Ridgeway, it's 13:00 you can go anytime from now. So off I went trying to keep pace with David, Brian and Sam. Not far behind were Richard, Antonio and I think Adam. Once more I could see the Coombe Hill up ahead, I tried to see if I could spot Nici up there waiting to give us more hill reps - they wouldn't be that mean surely!!? I got over the brow and started descending the other side. Stopped for a slash and to put some music on, went for a drink to find that I'd not my lid down properly so half of the contents was on the inside of my bag. Rich et al appeared as I set off once more, I was keen to catch up with the others. I was loving the trail, feeling strong running the hills and bounding down the other side, a few were a bit steeper so had a little walk and sent some text feedback to a couple of friends.

The weather was fantastic and I was really enjoying myself, I was running well and feeling positive I think this was probably against the rules! I was soon out of water and stopped briefly at a water trough to see if there was a way of getting clean water from the tap- there wasn't but I could see that unless I wanted a dose of dysentary I'd best go thirsty a little longer. I was met at a gate by Claire and instructed to take the next right off the Ridgeway, running down the hill I was soon met by the front runners heading back my way. Then a further couple of minutes I stumbled across James and Nici with her clipboard and some water. I refilled, had a quick progress update, instructions to go back the 10 miles we'd come  back to Wendover - ha! Also, I was told not to tell the others. So off I went back the way I'd come.

I gradually passed the rest of the field heading my way over the next few miles, last to pass was Rich, who'd finally got out of his chicken costume but had picked up an injury and was limping along. (Sadly he had to stop at the next CP)

I was still running strong but beginning to feel a little sleepy so I decided that I'd nip in to tescos to grab some coke as it was pretty close to the CP (if indeed that was where we were really going!?) It was starting to get dark in the woods and I could hear owls hooting and I'm pretty sure I could see bears in the shadows, so I got my headtorch out, which actually didnt help as it was that awkward darkness that a light doesn't make any better, so I carried on at a quicker pace to escape the bears. I eventually popped out into the town and ran on to tescos where I had to wait for 10 minutes to be served my 12 pack of coke. I ran the rest of the way to the CP with the coke on my head trying not to fizz it up too much. Rolled into the CP after a little over 50k.

I'd set myself a few mini goals for this event:

1) to be the first lady finisher of this event
2) Get a sub 12hr 50 mile section
3) if it goes to 100 miles - sub 24

With that in mind, I was keen to crack on, so I took a few minutes to change tops, put on an extra layer, down some coke and refill snacks and water. Not that I'd been eating a lot. Drew gave me a map andtook me out to show me the entrance to the Grand Union Canal, where we were to head to Berkhampstead (approx 12 miles away) I started running and quickly realised I'd forgotten my water bottle so ran back for it, Steve was just being set off. I ran back and quickly overtook Steve and was pretty surprised with my pace, knocking out 12km/h - OK so it was flat but still I'd got over a marathon in my legs by now. I could still see monsters in the bushes waiting to push me into the canal so I kept the pace up, as long as I could outrun the rapists and murderers I'd be OK, right? I was enjoying the pace and the firework displays I passed en route and was soon at a tricky junction at a pumping station, consulted my map and it wasn't any clearer, I took a right down a lovely looking trail and after about 500m I couldn't see the canal. It didn't seem right, so I turned back round and went back to the pumping station, took a different right and still wasn't on a canal, but I was heading generally north so it felt right. I found myself next to some reservoir which once more felt wrong, I got onto the road nearby and switched my phone off airplane mode and found a text from James E telling us to go careful at the junction as it goes underground for a couple of miles - I didn't believe this, I thought it was a prank. I called James and asked for advice on where I was and how to get back on track as the map wasn't really helping me. It turned out I'd gone too far west but would eventually pop out on the same canal just a mile too far to the west - what's an extra bit of distance hey!?

Finally back on the correct route I came across Steve who I'd overtaken an hour earlier and a marshall with some water. This wasn't Berkhampstead.

The next instruction was to get back on the Ridgeway and head back to, yep - you guessed it - Wendover! Funny buggers. :)

I was told that I had now dropped from 3rd to 5th place having overtaken Steve once more - a bit miffed at my cock up, and having been told the others were only 5 minutes ahead, I set off about trying to catch them. I had a few minute walk when I got back in the woods, sent some progress updates back home before setting off again. Loving the trail again I was pretty happy right now. I'm not sure at which point I went wrong again, but there were some posts which looked like they had acorns cut into them (the national trail signs that we were following) - it later transpired that these are in fact foot prints not the acorn signs! I followed the wrong signs for a couple of miles before popping out by a spiral bridge.

Time to consult the map. I ran the wrong way for a bit further before sitting down and working out my location. Unfortunately the garmin I'd borrowed, I didnt know how to find my co-ordinates. After looking in the wrong part of the map for 5 minutes, I realised that actually I was to the East of Wendover - what a muppet. I figured if I just picked up a West-ish bearing for a bit I'd hit some sort of trail.

It worked and I hit a trail - it wasn't the right one but it got me on to a road where I could try and get  my bearings and myself back on track. As I switched my phone back on, James rang me, asking if I was OK - "no, i'm pretty lost" - "yep, we thought so"
James confirmed the road I was on, would lead me back to the Ridgeway in about a mile so I set back off at a grumpy walk. I was a bit annoyed at my navigation as it's something I do try to practice, but haven't done any night nav for a while. I had something to eat - some beef jerky that wasn't a very nice brand so I spat it out and had some cheese and nuts instead.

I text James to see what time the cut off was for the next CP, about 21:20 I received a reply - 22:00. I looked at the map, I was a good 5k out still, I better run! I ran into the CP with 5 minutes to spare and asked do I have to be out by 22:00 - yep. Ace.

A bit of faffing, a bit of grub and a take out can of coke and I was back out the door after receiving the next set of instructions "follow this road, up this hill, blah blah, it'll be clear what you have to do when you get there" uh oh!

I found myself following some glowsticks, tempted to pinch one for a night rave, i decided against it in case I got in trouble. I popped out on a track to see David looking utterly miserable and a table with Nikki and Rich looking a little bit evil. All they needed was a cat to stroke making "muhahahah" noises. I took my headphones out of my phone and put my music on blaring, from my pocket like my own personal mobile disco - something told me I'd need it.

I already knew in my gut what we were about to face - more hill reps! Fuck yeah! With 85k in my legs I wasn't relishing this. I followed David up and he'd made some unhappy comments about this being inspired by the Berkley Marathon, and that the first bit wasn't even the worst of it. He was on his 3rd loop - Ouch.

The first bit wasn't the worst of it, no, but it wasn't runnable. It was a hard hike up, but at least it was on firmish ground. The odd slippery bit but generally fine. I reached some evil masterminds en route, Drew I believe sent me further up the hill and said to follow the glow sticks left. When I got to the top, I was relieved at a nice flat bit that I could run. After a few hundred meters I was greeting by a shape jumping out of the shadows - no it wasn't a rapist, it was just Chris Mills, apparently rolling in Badger shit. We had a quick chat, he took an unflattering pic of me and promptly sent me down a cliff. I was stil having fun but I hate descending steep hills.

This was one ridiculous. The soil was soft and skiddy, the leaves and roots made it even harder to get traction. Fortunately there were trees to career into to use as a break when you found yourself dangerously out of control.

After picking my way down I was back on a lovely lovely flat section once more, I could see a headlight in the distance and there was James Adams, waiting to send me to hell! What we didn't know was that there was a twitter vote going on, deciding who should get a trick (hell) loop and who should get a treat (heaven) loop, heaven being a flat run back to Rich and Nikki hell being, well.... hellish! I told James on the second loop that it was a piece of piss. This did me no favours and I was promptly punished (actually I was punished for tweeting - what else am I going to do walking slowly up a ski jump?)

Reaching the top of "Hoka Hell"

I was sent up a giant hill that I wouldn't even have ridden down in my mountain biking days. It was hands and feet to the floor, pulling myself up through the mud and leaves, grabbing trees for anchorage. I couldn't see the top, just the little flashes of glow sticks. After what must about been 10 miles (Possibly a slight exaggeration) of climbing I could hear evil laughter and see head torches, but I still wasn't at the top, the last bit was the worst, feet sliding back nails filling with mud. I dragged myself over the top, to the sound of Pharell singing "Happy" - irony at it's finest - and greeted the evil marshals with big grins and ran back down the first hill I'd come up. Back to Nikki and Rich.

This routine went on no less than 5 times! Although I did get a heaven loop which was AMAZING! By the fifth, I was feeling that I was beginning to break, with a whimper I left Rich and Nikki once more and miserably went up the hill once more. The flat bit was again a relief, the downhill again a bastard. I rolled back into Nikki and Rich to be told there was good news and bad news:
Good news - that was the last rep, Bad news, I'm going back to Wendover to find out what is next.

"What else can they throw at us?" I said, I wasn't sure I had much more in me, but a can of coke and a few minutes sit down would set me up for some more I'm sure. I gave Nikki and Rich a big sweaty hug and jogged back down to Wendover hall. Greeted by Nici and James and a few other faces I faceplanted the floor and vaguely heard Nici say "Anna, you've finished"

"Yay!" I was so happy! I was the first and only lady to ever finish this event (ok, it's not comparable to previous years), I'd actually done a sub 11hr 50, the sub 24hr 100 can wait. The final distance was just under 60 miles and 2900m ascent. Although I think a few of those were unnecessary miles as others only clocked 55 miles.

Nici drove me back to London and I was back clean and happy with a glass of bubbly by 4am.

What an incredible adventure. It was amazing seeing the support on social media and from my friends. I better do some Nav practice before The Spine I guess!

Thanks Centurion - it wasn't a total piece of piss ;-) but I had an absolute blast! :)