This Week

Thursday 13th - Two Lads Race

Saturday 15th - UTUP.

Endure24

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The idea was very simple: get together a team of 8 runners and then run as many laps of the 5 mile circuit as possible in 24 hours! So we duly turned up at Wasing (its very near Aldermaston for anyone old enough to remember the "Ban the Bomb" marches in the 60s) on Friday afternoon to put the tents up.

Me, David and Nathy trying to look as though we know what we are doing!

 

Luckily David did.

 

Once we had the three tents up we went home, taking advantage of the fact we live near the course to get a good night's sleep in our own beds.

 

Saturday was hot, with the temperature well into the 20s, nice for lounging about with a cold beer but not too good for an endurance event. The rest of the team duly appeared and we worked out our running order.

 Now this might seem like a simple operation but not everyone wanted to run as many laps as possible. Indeed the only way to get the team together was to give in to the demands of anyone who said " I only want to do 2 laps". In the end we settled on some sort of system - best runner off first and then the next best etc- and when the gun went at 12, Pete K set off on the first lap for our team. We had decided that as we were not likely to be in the hunt for prizes, we would all jog round at 10 minute mileing. Now having got a degree in sums, I was able to compute that 5 miles at 10 minutes per mile, works out at 50 minutes per lap; so when Pete duly re-appeared in 38 minutes, we had to hurridly rewrite our schedule! He said he got carried away, which assumingly was the case with all our team, judging by our times. By the time I ran my first lap (going off 4th for our team which shows you that we not exactly an elite team) the temperature was 25C and no fun at all. Luckily, it was an off road course and much of it was shady so apart from the last mile, it wasn't too bad.

 

We all completed one lap and started on our second round. By this time it was much cooler, but we were down to six runners as the two 2 lappers had decided on one lap Saturday and one lap Sunday. The knock on effect of this decision, was a shorter rest between laps, so having run at 2.30 and 8, I found myself running again at 1am! Now I have run off road in the dark before, but never raced - it is an odd experience, especially at 1 am. By the time of my next lap at 6am, it was light again so the only problem was fatigue.. By now, we were beginning to struggle as a team; ok we had both the 2 lappers back, but against that, Peter M had pulled a muscle in his leg, Neil had hurt his knee and Carolyn's hips were very sore. A quick council of war ensued; Pete K and Nathy volunteered to do a fifth lap, and we decided that if Nathy got back before 11.30, then someone would have to go out for the last lap. As that someone was me, I spent the next three hours hoping that fatigue would set in and the fast lads would slow down. Luckily for me, it did, and Nathy completed our 29th lap with about 20 minutes left of the race.

The End!

After that it was food and photos then home to sleep.

The Team

 

A great event and great fun. What about a WFDBWGUA team in 2014?

 

Ennerdale

Glorious day supporting the competitors at the race.  Mark and I were eaten alive by the midges on Haycock, but it was well worth it to be there.  A gentle jog back along the race route was most enjoyable.   Some pics from the day here if you have time.

Looking back to the race start

Mark on the shoreline path

Looking back along the race route from Iron Crag – I’m sure you don’t need me to name the tops there!

Ennerdale Horseshoe 22.9m/7513ft Sat 8th June

In a nutshell, it was warm, unable to sustain a fast enough pace and officially timed-out on Kirk Fell.

Lovely to see loads of familiar faces at the start. Well done to Ian, Albert and Mark's mate Chris for completing the race. For NLN and Mark for their support and gallant effort by Tony Marlow for making it to Pillar but then deciding to retire.

The stats (cut off times in brackets)

Check Point	Distance	Ascent	Time
Gt Bourne	3m	510m	57mins              (1hr:15)
Red Pike	5.4m	731m	1hr39mins        (1hr:45)
Black Beck Tarn	8.7m	975m	2hrs47mins      (2hr:45)
Green Gable	10.4m	1276m	3hrs32mins      (3hr:30)
Kirk Fell	11.6m	1453m	4hrs17mins      (4hrs)

Last one up to Gt Bourne. At Red Pike I collected a couple of Denby Dale runners (Jo and Richard) who then followed my contouring lines around High Stile, Seat and Haystacks.

I'd have quite happily turned back at Black Beck Tarn if told to do so, but was allowed to carry on. Given the visibility it seemed to good an opportunity not to miss out on a recce of the next section for future(?) reference. Again reached the control marshalls who told me I was out by a couple of mins but you can carry on if you'd like. (On the way up I'd passed a clockwise BG group, one of the support had checked I was ok for food, how nice was that!)

Jo and Richard were a fair bit further behind having taken a longer stop at the tarn and had been joined by Manhar (Calder Valley). As I dropped down the path from Windy Gap I realised that officially I'd only have 15mins to make it onto Kirk Fell and would not make it. Assuming that the others would have been told to turn back by the Green Gable marshalls I decided that I'd wait for them and head back in a group to the finish.

Greeted with the news that they were carrying on. As I'd not been up Kirk Fell and it was such a nice day, I joined them. A steady pace was maintained and we met the checkpoint marshall on his way home as we drew level with the tarn some 300m short of the summit. We were now officially timed out. We headed off to find Black Sail Pass, on reaching the gully descent we decided it would be best to attempt one at a time, I offered to go first. Reached the bottom to find the other 3 had found an alternative route and less hairy route down! Info stored again for future reference.

It was a tiring run/walk back, as a group we opted for the shorter looking route along the south edge of the Lake, in hindsight we'd have been better to stay on the track and head north round the Lake. Finally back at the Scout Camp some 7.5hrs after I left. Thanks to Jo, Richard and Manhar for dragging me back to the finish, I'd have been a lot slower on my own.

I now have to turn my attention to the next race entered - The Buttermere Horseshoe, and whether it's worth putting myself on the start line. I've included the stats for comparison.

Check Point	Distance	Ascent	Cut Off Time
Whiteside NY 170 220	2.6m	589m
Hopegill Head NY 186 222	3.6m	676m
Grasmoor NY 175 204	5.3m	933m	2hrs15mins
Whiteless Pike NY 180 190	6.9m	994m
Newlands Pass NY 193 176	8.2m	1100m	3hrs
Dale Head NY 223 153	10.9m	1655m
Honister Pass NY 225 136	12m	1656m	4hrs15mins
Innominate Tarn (E end on path) NY 198 130			5hrs
High Stile  NY 167 148			6hrs
Melbreak (South Top) NY 148 186			7hrs

The one good thing about this race is the option of a lift back on the 'Honister Rambler' from Honister Pass and Buttermere.

A couple of options I'm considering are doing the race as far as Whiteless Pike then down to Buttermere and heading part of the way up Red Pike to pick the route up to Melbreak and then to the finish. Or continuing on to Newlands and Dale Head (finding the contouring route round Robinson) and getting the Bus back from Honister. If the hills are clag bound, then I don't think it'd be worth the trip. If the weather is nice it would be a shame to miss out on the recce potential. There are still plenty of places left if any one would like to join me. I'd be aiming to beat the cut-off at Grasmoor and take it from there.

TF
(trying to look on the +ve after a DNF)

Dates for Your Diary

The Summer Solstice 'do' is at the Rivington on the Solstice! Friday 21st June.

Tri Winter Hill - Saturday 6th July 9:00 start at Horrocks Fold car park - my show, contact me for details.

My Coope's Dozen - I'm out of the country on the proper date - 27th July, but I'm planning to do the round on 29th June - grateful for company.  I'll leave it to someone else to organise the formal round.

Henderson's End last night

No UTUP for me as I joined a record entry of 118 runners for this evening frolic on Winter Hill. The route had to be altered thanks to our favourite helpful company, United Utilities, who would not allow the race to go up the back of Winter Hill so we got the pleasure of climbing (and descending) the Pike not once but twice. I set off fairly leisurely and managed to catch up with Paul Murray by the Pigeon Tower. Good running along George's Lane and the climb to the Pike meant I gained a few more places, losing some but not much on the descent before reclaiming them on the way to Pike Cottage. Greeted by Ed close to the cottage, I decided not to push to hard on the climb, running alongside Newburgh's Brian Kennedy. Paul had gained a decent lead on the climb.  Another slight deviation from the announced route up near the mast due to nesting birds and we then rounded the trig point. Obviously I lost some ground on the descent but didn't actually lose any places as I passed some noisy locals picnicking on Two Lads. George's Lane and the ascent of the Pike meant I was pulling back a bit but no-one I spoked to liked the descent from the Pike as we had to take the spiral bridleway rather than the grass or steps: this caused at least one faller. I spoke to the RO about this and it may well be adjusted for next year. To my surprise, nobody overtook me on the final descent to finish in 90th 73:42 for 7 miles recorded with nearly 1700ft of ascent. This gives 5.7mph - I would normally be pleased with 5mph on Winter Hill routes.
At one time I thought I would not be alone amongst our group in the race, but Colin's race plan would be far two sinister to relate.
Photos on Mark's Swindell's facebook page
Here's one with Paul, Brian and myself on George's Lane, approaching Pike Cottage from the Pike.
I'll put a link for the results when they are available on the net.

Saturday 8th June

I shall be UTUPping tomorrow -- must remember to pack the suncream.

By special request - Manchester 10k aka Bupa Great Run

This is not a race that I would normally think of doing. In fact is it a race? Yes, if you are a paid elite athlete but for most of the 28,000 other entries it is a challenge, often for different reasons. As a reward for members of the club marshalling at the event, we get a couple of places gratis - it is normally £38 to enter, which contravenes the wfdbwgua membership rule of not paying more than £1 per mile (or has, that gone up, Ed, maybe to £1 per km?).
Our contact the event, Tony Hesketh, kindly decided to give first refusal to myself and Martyn Bell, based on his misguided view that I do something useful for the club (Martyn has put in much effort recently to motivate the club into winning ways, and results are showing that he is succeeding).
I travelled with Tony, Brenda, her granddaughter, Lauren and occasional Saturday morning UTUPer, Christa Whatmough. They all had a long day as part of the finishing team dashing out the goody bags and directing the 28,000 runners finishing after seven start waves.
Normally a 10k would be a case of turning up and running, not a problem for someone with a few ultras under their belt. However, I had managed to pick up a calf strain 10 days earlier. I had spent the previous weekend at the soul festival in Morecambe where I would have been happy to get an early morning run but found that I had difficulty walking nevermind running. So it was a case of treating the calf with plenty of ice and ibuprofen through the week and just one gentle 4 off-road miler on the Thursday before.
Arriving at 8.30 for a 10;55 start gave me a bit of time to kill so I helped out building the Guide Dogs stand in the Charities Village at G-MEX before heading to the start at about 10.30, warming up in the empty Chinatown Car Park. I think some people were at the startline 40 or more minutes before their starting time - didbn't fancy that so I ended being near the back of the wave. As this was the second fastest of the five mass waves, I presumed this would be a sensible place to start. I thought the majority of runners in the wave would be faster than me. How wrong could I be?  The chip timing and sort of funnel at the start helped for a decent start but after a few hundred metres the problem started. The problem being runners going at slow pace or walking - yes by 2km there were plenty walking, some three abreast, in what is supposed to be a relatively fast wave. I saw someone fall and I had to weave in and out to avoid accidents. I'd hoped to be inside 50 minutes and over the first 5k, I was just ahead of schedule. After that, the slight incline and exertions early on meant although my garmin said I was on schedule I'd run an extra 120 metres so my finishing time was 50:17, putting me in the first 5000 and 75th in the V55 category. I didn't see Chris during the day but saw Stuart Edmondson and Tim Roe (whose wife or girlfriend was running - apologies as don't know the relationship). I was happy enough with the result as it was quite hot but could have been better. I was also very happy that my calf had stood up to the race. Afterwards I had a warm down, chatted more on the Guide Dogs stand and found my way to the finish where Tony, Brenda, Lauren and Christa were doing there stuff.
Advice for anyone running in the future - forget warming up and get near the front. Or do what I believe loads do, lie about your expected finish time. I noticed that had I run in "faster runners" race for fast club runners, there would have still been 10 finishers behind me in the 170 runners. In my wave, my time was about 1250th fast of over 6000 runners.

Duddon Results

See TF's recent post - the wfdbwgua final descent times make interesting reading.

Split times are on for Duddon (Long and Short) for those interested. www.duddon.fellrace.org.uk . Whole minutes only, but an outstanding effort by all the marshalls. One of my fav races now, 2 PB vouchers arrived yesterday, 2nd Lady and 1st LV40. I've already phoned my order through for the PB Van on Saturday.

Does seem a bit unfair on the 2 Abbey Runner Ladies as I'm guessing there may have been enough vouchers for us ladies to have one each. But having said that I've missed out before at this race when someone else got 2, so what goes around etc.

TF

The End of Henderson's End?

It is rumoured that tomorrow night's running of the Henderson's End Fell Race will be the last one which may or may not be down to United Utilities to whom we all pay hundreds of pounds every year. No doubt further information to the reality will come about through the various organisations that we support as to whether we are heading in the direction of the 19th century as far as access to the countryside goes.
Therefore I have ensured that I am not tutoring tomorrow evening and will be at Rivington Hall Barn for the race. Maybe I'll see some fellow bloggers there.

This Week

UTUPing Thursday 6th and Saturday 8th.

Manchester 10k

Two of the gang did this, but no report?

At Honister - Tim’s BG

Great  conditions for Leg 4 of Tim’s BG – some pics of Tim and his team here

Boats on Derwentwater – Causy Pike beyond

Duddon - the other version.

Thanks to Gordon's generosity I got a lift up to Seathwaite for this outing.  I must admit that my confidence in completing the course was eroding as we drove up Dunnerdale, made worse by the first sight of cut-off times at registration.  Extreme self doubt had now wrapped its cold hands around my confidence and was squeezing the life out of it.  Ed's parting comment of "you'll be looking at the wrong side of 5:30" didn't do much to help.  So a realignment of strategy meant that rather than go steady all the way round I would get my head down and go as fast as I could for 3 Shires Stone within 3 hrs to at least give me some breathing space to make the other cut-off times.  As it turned out my legs were like lead at the start and I was soon as the back with 2 or 3 others, where I was to remain for the duration.

The back was where I stayed all the way up Harter getting there in 59 mins.  Nobody in sight on the descent had me self doubting even more about completing. The down hilling was abissmal but once on reasonable terrain I opened up a bit.  Mark Sammon was on hand to photograph this rather sad slow old geezer as I hit HardKnott pass before the next ascent which was OK.  Navigation was proving easy in the clear weather.

Next came the one everyone had warned me about: Little Stand, which proved to be no worse than anything else on the route.  A slight nav error took me 50m past the control, which was a quick spin round then off north for a decent bit of running, by which time I had collected a few people who were crap at navigating and followed my every word and footstep - fools!  As it turned out we did have a good solid run with no-one in front to follow and arriving at 3 Shires Stone bang on my E.T.A.

Going up to Swirlhow was a cold drag and forced me to put my waterproof on to keep the cold out. On reaching the summit I had lost all but one old chap who stuck to me like a limpet.  All the way along all I heard was what's next? Where do we go? Which is the route?  I learned later he was a proper old fell runner who has no time for maps and route learning!

From Swirlhow on to Dow where the control was not in the right place!  According to the Bland map it was supposed to be 200m west of the Summit but we had to climb back up where it was located 50m from the summit - not best pleased.  Onward to the next and a shock decent down the rock face off White Pike loosing a lot of time due to lack of descending "bottle".

Next was the heartbreaking optical illusion of Caw.  Approaching the lower ridges I was convinced the summit was just above the lower Pikes.  As I came over the ridge and saw the summit was a further 400-500m further on with a small descent in the way; the air instantly turned blue.  Luckily by then the old geezer was out of earshot behind me. Caw achieved bang on the closing time at 4:15pm.  Now just a long careful slow descent to the finish.  Strangely, picking up somebody descending even slower than me!  It was Gordon who had actually climbed part way up to chivvy me along - how's that for thoughtfulness.  I had to leave him behind while I ploughed along the flagged route trying to keep ahead of the few remaining people I had left behind earlier.

5hr 34 mins - the wrong side of 5:30 as Ed had predicted but still finishing.  I was tired all the way round so it was a bit of a slog, the upside was the return of confidence at reaching Swirlhow well within the cut off time.

A very good day in the end with the usual menu of splendid views all the way round.  A big thanks to Gordon for the lift and his encouragement.  Finally a congratulations to Andy and Julie for their fast races and EtU, JTY &T'Y for completing a long tough route.

A second short Duddon, but longer

I had a great day on Short Duddon, despite being over 20 minutes slower than three years ago. I have to put the comparison in perspective. Three years ago I was near the end of a successful training regime for my 550 mile Pyrenees Walk. I was a stone lighter than now, and three years younger. I had already competed in numerous long distance races : the Amble, Haworth Hobble, etc. This year my longest race so far had been the 10 mile Cake Race, which although slightly longer than Short Duddon, is far less demanding at only 1600ft of climb, mostly on good paths, compared with Short Duddon's 3000ft, with much route choice and challenging terrain.

I was determined to set off conservatively and think I did so, but with only 31 runners in the race route knowledge (or lack of it) would make a difference.

Up to Dow Crag it was good, seven runners were all within sight on the climb, including TF who was showing her strength on the climbs, and I got within a few seconds of her on the faster sections. I reached Dow Crag in 1:24, only 5 minutes down on 2010. From Dow Crag my usual poor choice and lack of ability on rough terrain came into play.  I thought I had seen the route choice of those in front but think I veered too high and had to contend with rocks. Gradually my good early pace was eroded and I lost ground, passing White Pike checkpoint in 1:53 (1:42) and Caw in 2:35 (2:14). My descent from Caw was only a minute slower than 2010 with relatively not too much wandering around. I did have an advantage that the leaders of the long race were now passing me to provide hints on the best route down, whereas previously I finished before all the long course runners.

TF had a magnificent second half. If she was only a minute in front of me at Dow Crag, her second half was completed in only 55 minutes, some 13 minutes quicker than 2010, resulting in her category winning finish time of 2:18, and only beaten to 2nd lady by 22 seconds, and only 6 minutes adrift of Andy.

The fact that both Ed and YJ completed is to be commended given the setbacks they have endured in recent months. In the long race, Kev found it hard going but completed in about 5:40.

The team for the short race (if a race in which the winner takes 1hr 32 can be called short!)

A short one.

I really enjoyed Short Duddon today and did far better than I expected (I heard talk of 12th, not sure though). Hope everyone enjoyed it too.

Didn't managed to catch Tim's BG, got to Wasdale too late but it seems from reports that he's going strong.

A quickly celebratory drink is in order. Oh and EtU, how strong is the Landlord?

This Week

UTUPing Thursday 30th May

Duddon Short Course (race) Saturday 1st June

If anyone is intending to UTUP on Saturday, it may be helpful for you to post, for the benefit of casual attenders.

A trip north and a small detour

I’ve forgotten the reasons behind deciding to apply for the Edinburgh marathon last year, I recall yet another of my injuries keeping me from doing it at the time (along with the deferred entry to Manchester) but all other elements surrounding it have since passed from my mind. I know that purely based on the fact I didn’t do it the year before, I thought I’d actually go this time.

 

I went up on the Friday to visit an office in Bathgate, this was really just thinly disguised way doing most of the travel before the bank holiday began and also getting one of my nights in a hotel paid for, although I  did do some work while there.

 

On the way up I also found that one of my well know route choice problems had occurred and rather than going straight to Bathgate, I found myself not only in Kendal, but out of the car and in Pete Bland’s, which was handy as I had an order to pick up which I also added a new pair of Mudclaws to while I was there.

The Saturday was probably where I started to go a little wrong, the bright sunny day and new shoes enticing me out in to the Pentlands to go and Scald Law along with West and East Kip. Last time I was there the visibility was so bad I got lost and ended up on Black Hall to the north of the peaks I was after.

Not long after starting the run I caught up with a runner from Carnethy HRC called Maggie who was  heading along the same route for a decent day out, she had intended to be at the Jura race but ended up unable to make it. A club mate of Angela Mudge, talk turned to the races and training to be found in the Pentlands and the suggestion that it would be worth heading up that way to do some of the races. I can’t argue, I quite like that range of hills, looked glorious in the sunshine. I decided not to overdo it and turned back at West Kip for 6.5 miles and 1300 ft, leaving Maggie to carry on along the trail. After that it was over the next hotel by Arthur’s Seat and a walk up to look at the marathon start area and visit Royal Mile Whiskies for some supplies.

 

The day of the marathon was far, far hotter than Paris or Manchester had been, clear skies and a starting temp around 14 C. My plan was to use the slight drop in the first 10K to assist my plan of 7.37 min/miles (or even lower it) as I’d hit that pace on Manchester and then faded around the 20 mile mark.

I started off well enough but about four miles in the ITB problem that had started with the fade on Manchester (and I had aggravated again the day before) started to play it’s part and I slowed. A couple mins down at the 10K marker, I decieded it wasn’t too big a deal and just to keep a pace that managed the pain and to see how I went, a 3:20 could still be on. Within nine miles that idea was out the window and the notion of matching Manchester and then Paris became the new plan. The heat really didn’t help and with head, face and shoulders that could match the red of my Horwich vest I was feeling it quite distinctly.

 

By the half marathon point I was quite ready to jack it in but then thought of not only the shame of doing so, but the distance I’d travelled to do this and I had the encouraging logic of Tim Roe (does he have a name on here?) going round in my head, in summary that’s; “You’ve passed the point where it takes longer to go back to the start than to carry on to the end” and “If you quit one, you could quit any, so never quit.” So my plan became push on, finish it, run at a pace that the pain is bearable and hopefully get inside 3:45 which was the point I’d said I’d be happy with if I hadn’t hit 3:30 on Paris. I also had it in the back of my mind that after this, no more roads, no more marathons (for the foreseeable anyway). After this it would be just hills, the fun stuff.

With all that in mind I carried on and feeling a little more settled, found some sort of rhythm again around mile 19 and decided to push for the end at just under 8min/m. I maintained that, used a few people as pacers and felt quite good that a number of people who had passed me earlier while I was hobbling, were now dropping back and in relative terms, I was actually being fairly consistent in my pace.

 

The end was still a welcome sight though and did just about make it in within the 3:45 limit I’d set myself, 3:42:13 by both my Garmin and the chip time. I see it as while I’m not happy at having lost 22 mins on my plan, at least I got round, got the medal and shirt and now it’s done with.

Looks Like An 'Andy Lad

You look OK on these Andy, tell us about the pain.

http://www6.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?new_search=1&event=Sports%2FCPUK%2F2013%2FEdinburgh%20Marathon%20Festival&match=4607