Wednesday 12 September 2012

ULTRAS NO 30 - 35

Yet again I have been pretty busy so sorry for not posting for ages.

Since the Lakeland 100, I have ran the 'Dovedale Dipper' a 26mile route (plus 2 extra miles to make it an ultra) The event took place on Sunday 5th August, 1 week after the Lakeland. The Dovedale Dipper is a beautiful hilly course in the White Peak. (Ultra 30)


Jenny Wyles to the left and David Cremmins behind at the Dovedale Dipper


The weekend after I decided to rest and went down to watch a great race in the Peak District called the 'Long Tour of Bradwell' I wildcamped the evening before and did a few miles of running around Hollins Cross. Lose Hill and Edale. The race looked pretty brutal and good fun, certainly one for next year.

The reason for the weekends rest was to help prepare myself for another Bob Graham attempt.
I travelled down to the Lakes with Shirley on Friday 17th August, met up with Garry Scott, Flip, Jen and Ken Wyles, Karen Mc Donald and Craig. Leg 1 went well despite a very wet and claggy descent of Hall's Fell  which ate away at the time and gave myself and Garry kittens (especially as I remembered and then decided to tell Garry the story of a friend who was supporting on a BGR and had fallen of here and had woken up a month or so later in a hospital with a broken neck!) Garry of course thanked me for that story;o). We eventually dropped into Threkeld bang on time and set off up Clough Head with Shirley, Flip, Jenny and Andy Scaife (plus mate)  Clough Head felt exceptionally steep and painful on the quads. My climb was pretty slow and there seemed to be nothing left in my legs to push with.(more the lack of recovery time in my legs then running the first BGR leg.

On reaching the Summit of Clough Head the clag was down and  once again no visibility ( becoming a regular occurrence with leg 2) Then the heavens opened up and Andy really had his work cut out navigating. Without reliving another painful story Ill cut it short  here. The weather deteriorated pretty badly, some of my pacers headed off the hill and I pushed onto Fairfield very much behind schedule, I recognised the symptoms of Hypothermia and in haste managed to take a bad line off Fairfield, in our confused state we ended up dropping off quite a way west off Fairfield. Hours later we arrived at Dunmail Raise and could see John Vernon and Garry Scott in the distance looking for us. I greeted them both and a dozen or so metres away was Shirley, I ran over to her and we hugged each other. I had been missing for hours and purely by mistake my warm kit was in somebody elses bag who had dropped off the hill earlier. She had been so worried that something pretty serious had happened to me in the awful weather conditions. They had been on the verge of calling Mountain Rescue. Shirley had told me that John V had been watching the mountains for hours without a break, scanning the area for signs of us! What a guy to have on your team. Many thanks to my support team (some I never got chance to actually meet) who had generously given up their weekend to help me have another BGR bash

I had completed over 27 miles in the two sections plus the extra few miles gained taking the wrong line off Fairfield, so an Ultramarathon distance was reached! (Ultra 31)


L-R Ken Wyles, Jenny Wyles, Craig, Me and Shirley, Flip, Garry Scott outside the Moot Hall (Keswick)


                                                         SMUGGLERS TROD (Ultra 32)

I ran the LDWA's 25th Smugglers Trod, an event I had wanted to run for several years but due to it being usually on the same weekend as the UTMB I had always missed it. The event starts at Robin Hoods Bay and dips between Moorland and coastal paths. A beautiful but pretty muddy route. The course was 26 miles long, I did a fraction short of 30  ;0). One course that is better to reccy first, or follow somebody who actually knows where they are going ;0))) I passed the same runners 6 times in the course and I never saw them overtake me once!!

                                                          GLENMORE 24 (Ultra 33)

Wow what an event! I need to do a bigger write up then this so for now ill just post the stats
Glenmore is a 24 hour event, which incorporates 4 mile hilly loops with the Cairngorms for scenery.
I took 5th place and completed 112 miles. Blog to follow.. (Ultra 34)




YORKSHIREMAN OFFROAD MARATHON (Ultra 34)

This was my second running of the event, last year I had completed it in 4hrs 19, this year 5hrs 26mins. Lovely route, fantastic weather. Trashed quads from the Glenmore 24 downhill (taken a bit fast) and the loss of most of my toenails plus the attached skin, had left my toes as bloody stumps, made the last 15 miles of the event pretty painful. I had to walk the majority of the  last 10miles as my quads felt like I had completed 3 hours of weighted squats prior to the race. ( throughout the challenge, my quads seem to have been the one muscle that takes longer to recover. Glutes are never touched, sometimes DOMS in my calves and no real problem with my hamstrings. Flat courses I'm fine running but don't have the speed in my legs at the moment, the ascents are where I currently have the problem and descents I just suffer and take them at speed using gravity. I believe there may be quite a bit of inflammation around my knees but just try to ignore it.)  27 miles in total (added just under an extra mile to make it an Ultra) 

Coming up..... Tooting Bec 24hr Track Race (Self Transcendence)
                       My aims for this event are 100k in 10 hours (Spartathlon qualifier) 200k in 24 hours
                       This will be my first track race so should be pretty interesting. The laps are 400m long.


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