Mount Teide

We’re taking my sister with us to Tenerife and she’s no good at coach travelling on windy roads, so its unlikely that we’ll get up to Teide to take some pictures. However, here’s some I took earlier. About 5 years ago.

 

   

Hope there’s not too many!

Tomorrow

Got a slight cold but unless it worsens overnight I'll be Utuping. I'd like to at least recce that bit from the tarmac road to Smithills Shooting Hut. No doubt we'll decide on the day. Sorry to hear of your injury YJ. Sounds to me as though the niggle was the difference between 1st and 2nd place.

A report from the front

Thank you Matt for your report of the Chernobyl 10k and you gracious remarks about my second place. Up to 2 miles I was ahead of the eventual over 70 winner and kept in touch for most of the remaining distance to be be beaten by a strong finisher and a flagging pace on my part.

To put the time in perspective in last year's Power of Ten rankings I was 43 rd over 70 in the country with a time of 47.53 achieved at Catforth while still recovering from the Pennine Way challenge. Sunday's victor, John Riley of Northern Vets, and myself have a lot of work to do if we are to challenge runners higher up the rankings.

Sadly after starting the race with a niggling knee injury the race aggravated the damage and I have not been able to run since. I will however be UTUPing and will endeavour to complete a short hobble or even better if the rest has proved a cure. At worst I hope to manage a walk if the predicted heavy snow allows.

Utup

RO might be reading and requested on the FRA forum that there are no recces of race route. So we won't be doing the Winter Hill route will we, as being proper fell runners we would never dare put a race in jeopardy.

We just have to decide on Saturday how proper we are. If we're not proper fell runners then who knows what we might do......

TF

Saturday 4th Feb

Sounds like there may be few of us UTUPing; the more the merrier. Winter Hill Race route?

Too Many Hurdles

Car stolen, hubby in hospital, race full.
Managed to leap over the first two hurdles to ensure my place next to ( or rather behind) the three wise(?!) men for the Chernobyl 10k but unfortunately could not overcome the third.
Shame as my time for this race last year was 53;33!

Going backwards at the Chernobyl 10K

On Sunday I met EtU at the back of the starters for the Chernobyl 10k  race. I could tell he was up for it from the start. This was confirmed by the fact that he concentrated on his running rather than employing his normal tactic of talking throughout the race to anyone who would listen.  It was a flattish course made for fast times. For the first 4 miles EtU and I were neck and neck and as he has a thicker neck than me, not to mention legs, he was winning. From thereon he gradually got away and there was no burst of lightening pace from me, but then there never has been, at the end of the race to catch him up. When I got in, there waiting was YJ who I hadn’t realised was racing. I think he’d showered by then.

YJ’s time was a superb 48:47 and astonishingly he was only 2nd M70. There were 551 runners and he came 221st. Not bad for an over 70. EtU  was 366th in a time of 53:54, whilst I had a disappointing run coming 378th in 54:.30. That was 1:33 slower than my Garstang time and that’s a tougher course with much more hillwork. YJ’s time by contrast was 2:18 better than at Garstang. Anyway having moaned about my performance here are a couple of piccies.

At the start with YJ nowhere in sight and it remained that way until..

 

..well after he stopped running

Two Go to Tenerife

Well, not at the same time, but just a few weeks apart.

OK, we've seen details of TF's Tenerife excursion, apparently Matt is also off there shortly. How good a shot can you get of Mount Teide? Understand that you need an official permit to go to the summit (do volcanos have a summit, or just a rim?), but even without that, let's see how close you can get. Over to you Matt.

Shap Weekend

What a stunning weekend!  We were lucky enough to be in the North Lakes staying with friends in Shap.  Some pics here.   Lovely run out with three Bowland runners round and about the Shap Wells Hotel bagging a trigpoint in the process.  The big boys, including FSS headed out into deep snow on the Pennines and you can see a stunning shot of High Cup Nick on his blog.

Looking forward with baited breath to reading what you were all up to at the weekend, especially the grudge match between EtU and Matt !

Bit of a back problem at the moment, but hoping it will settle down for a UTUP on Saturday, fingers crossed 

The ToT Has Got His (her?) Hat On...

The Lawman (who lives within spitting distance of the ToT) has sent me this detail from BBC News Lancashire:-

"A Lancashire landmark that lost its crowning dome in high winds more than a year ago has had a new top lifted into place by helicopter. Darwen's Jubilee Tower lost its fibreglass dome and weather vane during winds of up to 80mph (129km/h) on 11 November 2010. The new steel dome was made by Darwen engineering company WEC Group Ltd, as a gift to the town. It cost more than £35,000 and was winched into place at about 12:00 GMT. The new top, made from powder-coated stainless steel, is the third to crown the tower.

The original, made from wood, also blew off in high winds in 1947. It was eventually replaced by one made from fibreglass after Darwen mayor Bill Lees launched a fund in 1971. Peter Roberts, who has overseen the building of the new dome, said: "A stainless steel structure will never corrode away, and will be there for another 500 years." Many residents from the town climbed the moors to witness the dome being being put in place.

Darwen Tower, a Grade II listed structure, was built in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubillee."

Couldn't tie the date down exactly, but looks like it was round about the 12th Jan.

S'pose NLN (aka RoA) will expect a team viewing.

Return of the Native

It appears that navigating skills don't translate well into Spanish. My first attempt at an off-road route didn't fair too well.

M&D had got an article from the local (English) paper for a 8m route setting off from a small village on the west of Tenerife. They'd stopped at a little 'cafe' nearby before and were happy to sit and drink coffee whilst I set off to explore.

On setting off from the village plaza (behind the trees)

the written instructions seemed straight forward enough, anyway it was becomming apparent by point 3 on the map that things could get a bit tricky. The intention was to follow the green route, or short cut using the blue route, M&D had walked this far with me, Sebe the dog had sniffed every plant on the way so progress was slow!We finally made it to the lakes marked on the map. Quite a bit of detail of crossing paths etc was missing from the instructions. Next task was to get onto the ridge.

Well I got there and here's the view of Teide, when you turned round, believe me it's there, just hidden by a few clouds, a bit to the right of the treee covered hill in the middle!
Then things got a bit more tricky. Too many paths in the woods and not enough detail on the map/instructions meant I ended up here

Slightly south of point 7. This was only worked out on my return having studied a better map of the area. This wasn't in my rucksack, and had spent an afternoon in the cafe!

After that I stuck to the routes I knew along the coast. Nearest village to M&D's house is called Los Abrigos. All the sea front restaurants have their own fishing vessels for the 'catch of the day'

Anyway just to prove you can see Teide sometimes here it is looking from near M&D's house

Their house is one of the green ones with the sloping roofs on the right edge of the photo. The airport runway runs right across the middle of the photo just infront of the smallest little hill. If you zoom in you might just be able to make out the fuel tanks (white with red band) and the control tower.

Should be out for a Utup this Saturday (Icy roads permitting)
TF

ps To zoom in on photos you now have to hover mouse over picture and right click and then either choose to 'open link' or 'open link in new tab' or 'open link in new window'. Any of these methods will bring up the choosen photo and then allow you to zoom in, cursor shows as a + or -. If you just 'double click' on the photo it brings up all the photos in that 'post' as a slide show, but wont allow you to zoom in, or at least I can't seem to find a way to do it.

Saturday 28th Jan

I'm UTUPing, definitely not resting up for Sunday's mis re-match with Matt.

Saturday on Healey Nab and Great Hill

What a morning!  Strong winds howling around the house almost kept me in my bed, but glad I struggled out, enjoyed the outing – setting of with YJ, IK, EtU and Matt.  Headed out to Healey Nab passing the cascades (below) which were in fine fettle with the overflow from Yarrow down to Anglezarke res looking amazing.  Went back with FSS on Sunday to get another shot for blip (see right hand side of blog) and the flow wasn’t nearly as strong, but with a better camera I was able to get a smooth flow effect.  A few more snaps of the morning here.

Looking through the arch at the top of the Cascades towards Yarrow Res

Here come the boys  -  you know who you are!

Below - coming down from Healey Nab

White Coppice, where YJ left our company. IK turned for home at Drinkwaters

Some Chorley runners showing off in shorts !  At the shelter on Great Hill

As planned the wind was behind us going up Great Hill, but we could barely stand up when turning to head for Spitlers.  At the stile we decided to head back along the valley, following Dean Black Brook back to White Coppice to take the bridleway to Watermans and head back below the quarries.

Great Hill farm

Above and below the Brook at the fall just above White Coppice – the wind was so strong it was blowing the water back upstream.

A good outing giving just under 13 miles, which given the conditions wasn’t too bad.

Later in the day FSS and I went out to the coast – a few pics from Fleetwood below with more here if it’s of interest.

Not out Saturday in North Lakes – have fun

NLN

OCT Recce 31st March - Should be ok for this one.

Not out on Saturday for Utup. I was doing the Hebden, but had to pull out of this event as I've had a bad cold/cough this week. Rested up, thinking I could drop down to the shorter route, but a short 40min test run last night proved that even this would be a couple of steps too far.

Jetting off on Tuesday for a bit of sunshine, hopefully will be back fully fit/fat to start all over again in February, so far 2012's training not been up to 2011's standard!

TF

I shall be keeping you company on Saturday EtU. The March 31st recce sounds interesting. Hope the swimming goes/has gone well.

Now I know why I'm getting slow ... it's because...

I'm getting old.

But why do I think I'm getting old?

Maybe it's because of a present Julie received on Christmas Day.

It was a book called "The Good Granny Guide". The present then obviously resulted in further questions being asked to the source of the present. The result is that Diane will not be doing this year's Pike Race and certainly not this year's UK Ironman.
The super-injunction has finally been lifted so I'm at last able to use it as an excuse for my lethargic rate of motion when supposedly running.

As we are visiting them this weekend, I may be able to make UTUP before we travel to God's own county, missing out on the XC but hopefully listening to yet another Jordan goalfest en route - not sure who HTFC are playing but I expect little resistance from them whoever they are. I'm sure TLOB will agree now that he has reached a wise old age.

Saturday 21st January

I'll be at the Bottom Barn for 8:30, hope to have company.

Old Age

I have made it: free prescriptions, a bus pass and cheap football tickets are all mine!!!! I have not been for a 60th birthday run as lunch was alcoholic ( and so I hope will this evening be) but I intend to go tomorrow.......

The Northern version of my party is on Sat Feb 4th in the Ridgeway - further details available from the galloping major.

A Date for Your Diary?

Picking up on SN's request for another outing, how about Saturday 31st of March for an Old County Tops recce? The worst of the winter weather should be over, although it seems as though that doesn't matter.

Put it in your diary, folks.

Catching Up

Long time, no see, looks like a good outing on Saturday can’t go wrong on a day like that.  Weather in Glasgow on Saturday wasn’t nearly so good, but we made the best of it by taking father-in-law for a run (in the car) up the coast to Gourock.  Pleased to find the birthday boy in fine spirits and feeling well in his 87th year.  Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny and although I declined FSS’s invitation for a run, I strolled out to the highest ground and took some piccies of the rising sun.  More eating and drinking ensued before the journey home.

Cardwell Bay from the Free French Monument on Lyme Hill

 

FSS at the Trig point above the Beacon on Lyme Hill

Birthday Boy

Free French Monument

Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor to commemorate the French sailors who sailed out of Gourock and lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second world war

Redundant – cranes from the ship building era

Unusual Trigpoint

Sunday morning dawned bright and cold and I had a walk up the hill to get a couple of snaps.  The two below are of the local primary school’s windmill.

 

 

Recognise these chaps?  The lions guarding the cenotaph in George Square, Glasgow.

The ferris wheel with a typical Victorian equine sculpture.

Clyde Riverside  shots

Central Station

Glasgow Police Box reflection

 

Probably not out again this weekend as further birthday celebrations on the cards.

Having fun – NLN

Too little too late!

I've finally got 5 minutes to put pen to paper/finger to key but it appears everything has been said already.
I had a fantastic day out with NLN over Christmas but would just like to point out that I did not "just sit down." Those ahead of me did not see the wind literally sweep me off my feet and unlike the dog I was unable to turn this misfortune into an elegant backward somersault and so instead got dumped on my bottom. Despite pouring rain and gale-force winds I really enjoyed the day out which brings me to my next point. Etu had mentioned during the Christmas Thursday run that he was considering organising more days out this year, but no amount of planning could book the weather. I hope this shows that it is not the climate and conditions that are important, but the conquering of the mountain and the companionship. So get that map and diary out and start planning - please!
Derian House were very grateful for the donation from the pub kitty, though my 9 year old could not understand why I had gone into a shop, paid money and not bought anything.
Finally the Garstang 10k. Despite being beaten by men twice my age ( well almost!) I found the phrase "I'm really enjoying this" going through my mind. I'm obviously not pushing myself hard enough! Still at least coming last out of the group meant I had people cheering me over the finishing line.
Hope to make Chernobyl if I can fit it in between hospital visits and 2 footy matches!
Oh and by the way, Happy New Year everyone!