Inspirational

I’ve not been blogging for a while for number of reasons. Latterly, it has been for IT problems and a poorly sick lap top. This is also the reason why I have been a bit ‘absent’ of late.

Lots has happened over the past weeks, with events and occurrences of contrasting experiences and emotions. The dust has settled, (or is that, ‘the wind died down’?), on The Hebridean Challenge, which I now affectionately term ‘The Heb Training Camp’. This is because it is such a tremendous week, and if you survive it without breaking yourself and you recover via an easy week or so, the training effect on body and soul is brilliant. ‘Head training’ is the key.

I sampled my first Open24 a few weeks later, again with ‘Wilko’ and can see why it is a very popular event. I think we did ‘OK’ for our first attempt together as a pair, and were able to draw on Wilko’s experience of the previous three year’s when she has been paired up with Johnny 5 Legs. Many people suffered in the heat generally and with extreme sunburn from some unexpected brilliantly blue skies, which appear whilst we were sea kayaking. I found it a bit odd trying to get the pace right, as 24 hour racing is a bit of a sprint when done in a multi-sport format. I suppose I have a lot of experience of multi-day and non-stop exped racing and a lot of 24hour ‘foot racing’ but as new pair it was just a bit ‘odd’. I’d been nursing a very sore throat all week at expected to suffer but survived to finish sixth mixed pair, and not far from the top. We only made one or two small navigation / strategy errors, due mainly to mis-interpretation of special stage instructions. The secret is just to keep moving steadily in the right direction and score points, and you must include all the special stages which are highly valued. Overall I think we under achieved by a small margin, but this is always better than over reaching and the ‘crash and burn’ scenario. It’s no doubt an adventure, and I enjoyed it, but the navigation input wasn’t all that challenging. But an excellent event well planned and executed by James and his team and in a great part of the country. Recovery was good, the journey not too much of an epic, and sleeping soundly for several hours on Sunday afternoon a good tactic to avoid weekend traffic.

A week later was Borrowdale Fell Race; the perennial favourite. If I had to choose one iconic long fell race, this would be it. Wilko and I ran steadily in difficult conditions for a pleasing 4:19 finish. (We are becoming very compatible especially on foot, but she does have a turn of speed that leaves me behind, and she used her sprint finish to gain some Championship points.) We were keen to run steady as we were due to pace Rachel Vincent on the Leg 4 – Helvellyn, and Leg 5 – Skiddaw sections of her Bob Graham Round. Unfortunately, the evening turned out a little unexpectedly but ultimately successful. We sat drinking tea and stoically stuffing the food down, whilst others were waving pints of beer around, killing time prior to our Keswick pick up time later. On arrival in Keswick and finding phone coverage, I was shocked and dumbstruck to find that Rachel was at least two hours up on schedule and we had effectively missed Leg 4!
This meant Rachel had pressed her husband, Phil, into acting as pacer, and all we could do was kill more time and wait at Threlkeld. I did consider trying to find them along the Helvellyn range but dismissed it as a foolish gamble. Happily, we soon got a phone message and then saw lights on top of Clough Head indicating that they still going strong. However, frustration turned to anguish as we watched them take an appalling line down the fell and become entangled in Threlkeld Quarry losing 45mins or so. I so wish I had gone up Clough Head to meet them. With plenty of time still in hand, Rachel had a quick refuel break and was focused on pushing on. She was climbing very strongly, but it was evident that a sore knee was limiting her downhill and running speed. The bad luck continued with me not finding the perfect lines between Blencathra, Great Calva and Skiddaw, and so Leg 5 became a slow painful experience shrouded in an uninspiring cold grey dawn, to finish just inside 23hrs. You can read Rachel’s own account at on http://www.tynedaleharriers.com/ and it’s an interesting read. Well done Rachel – an excellent effort and great performance in difficult conditions.

The following weekend was even more exciting. Marcus had asked me to act as oad support for his ‘Devil O’The Highlands’ race. This is 43 miles along the West Highland Way, from Tyndrum to Fort Bill. I’ve considered it myself before but it is just to fast and runnable for me. Marcus had prepared a schedule with times ranging ranging around 6 – 6 hours 15. He had all the splits worked out and was quietly confident of getting inside the record of 6:08. He was also keen to race against Jez Bragg, the current record holder for The Highland Fling and West Highland Way. Marcus has a phenomenal turn of speed and has been winning local road races. He also has a lot of Elite mountain marathon class experience, so it would be an interesting exercise in speed endurance.

The first support point is at Bridge of Orchy after just seven miles, and the pace was very fast and inside Marcus’s predictions. Marcus himself was comfortably cruising at the back of the leading bunch of five or six, and confident in his ability. At Glencoe Ski Station the leaders were now strung out a little with the pacing not slowing. Jez’s own blog http://jezbragg.blogspot.com/2008/08/battling-it-out-at-devil-o-highlands.html describes the race really well.

Was I ever bored doing road support? No chance! I was never waiting around for more than 20 minutes at any road support, and the tension was quite unbelievable. Marcus left Kinlochleven with a clear gap of 2-3 minutes having used his downhill fell running abilities. I tried to suss out how Jez was at this point, but I hadn’t met him before and he didn’t show much emotion at all, in the very short time he was there, and I certainly wasn't going to intrude on his focus. Again, his blog sums it up correctly. I saw them both, briefly, at the final road access point about six miles from the end. Marcus was just 200 metres ahead, and Jez reeled him in on the next tortous section of forest trail and made his vast experience count while Marcus suffered a minor wobble.

Jez finished in 5:22, with Marcus only 10mins behind, well inside the record. That 10 minutes is nothing, To lose just 10 minutes is a great effort considering he suffered with a slight route finding glitch which dropped him on to the road to earlier, while Jezz pushed his advantage to the finish line. They both smashed the old record as did another 3 or 4 runners. I think my club mate, Andy Davies of Mercia was inside the record as first Vet 40 too.

Marcus can be very pround of his race and ultra trail debut. I was just very pleased to be there and see it, so much so that I have entered The Highland Fling next April … eek!

I've also been looking at a certain Welsh 24 hr Round but the weather hasn't been too encouraging, and finding the right mindset difficult in the current circumstances. Perhaps, I'll have success to report soon.

Finally, if you are interested in joing on our NAV+art course on 13/14 September, there is still time. Please get a form to me asap.

Joe