Martin's running blog

Lakeland 50

2010-07-27T12:28:00.002+01:00

I raced the Lakeland 50 mile race at the weekend. I was pleased to get a faster time than last year (my finishing time of 8h39m was 7 minutes faster than last year). I came 4th in the race. This was partly due to John Morgan and Andy James running incredibly quickly! My 4th place has earnt me about 900 points for the runfurther series. This score really doesn't cut the mustard as a long score for the series and so I'm now committed to running the Round Rotherham race.

Race conditions were pretty perfect. It was cold and drizzly for most of the race. These conditions are so much better for me than hot and sunny conditions (though I think I am getting better at those). I had to put on my rain jacket a couple of times, but I generally adopted my mate Tom's mantra: if you're getting cold, then run faster.

I ran with Martin Indge until Haweswater and then was pretty much running on my own. I caught third placed Marcus Scotney at Ambleside and stayed ahead of him until Langdale. The physios at Ambleside must have done a good job on his legs as after Langdale, he just shot of (doing 5 minute miles on the final downhill into Coniston!). I kept looking over my shoulder (which I always say to myself I shouldn't do) to see if Mark Hartell was about to catch me up: he usually does. It was different this time and I finished ahead of him for the first time in a UK ultra race. I was pleased with this. I must race Mark more often when he has a chest infection!

The one thing I was pretty annoyed about was going the wrong way in the valley out of Howtown. I knew deep inside that I shouldn't be running up to the farm in the valley, but I did this anyway. When I got to the farm, there were people having a picnic and laze about by the farm. We said "hi" to each other and then they told me that I shouldn't be there and should not have crossed the cattle grid (500m back - and downhill to boot!). This was all fair enough, so I had to retrace my steps. This cost me a good 4 minutes and got me out of contention with the lead pack, almost getting caught by the runners behind. I also had a minute of head scratching with map in hand on the way between Kentmere and Ambleside. I was at a Y-fork in the path and couldn't decide which way to go in the clag. I eventually chose the right way, but it cost me a little time.

The Lakes 100 runners did well this year. I was passing a steady stream of them all the way to the finish, showing that the standard and number of completions has increased from last year. It has to be said that I was wondering whether I should have been on the 100 mile race instead (it probably wasn't right for me this year).

There was a good atmosphere throughout the race. The checkpoint marshalls were all very supportive and all the walkers who were out and about were cheering us on. Even the lads downing pints in Ambleside seemed to have an interest in the race. It felt great running into the event centre in Coniston at the end. I got a big cheer and it made me feel really special. The physios did an excellent job throughout the race. It was great to have a massage after the race. It has to be said though that I would have been quite happy to lay down anywhere.

The whole Lakeland 100 / Lakeland 50 event seems to be gaining momentum. There were more runners in the race than last year, the standard seems to have improved and the whole aura of the event seems to be building. I wonder how long it will be before these races reach an equivalent stature to that of the UTMB races. I'm planning on getting my entry in earlier next year: just in case.

Camping sauvage

2010-07-17T23:29:00.001+01:00

We made it over le brevent and are now very close to the end at les houches. We were going to end up in a benightment situation in the woods and decided to camp. The campsite is flat but tenuous as the pegs are not really on for going in. We have had a nice picnic meal with two bottles of swiss fendant wine which has been carried for 2 days and 3000m ascent. It tastes all the better. We have seen a lot of ibex and dodged thunder storms. All good stuff.

The next day, we finished off the walk down to Les Houches through the woods. We took just over an hour to get down and headed straight for a cafe (to satisfy Chris's hot chocolate fetish) and then to the boulangerie. We completed the Tour du Mont Blanc in under 7 days. For the following few days of the holiday, we hung out in the Argentiere campsite, doing a few day walks. Being a glutton for punishment, one day walk was from Les Houches back over Le Brevent and Lac Blanc to Argentiere. We had great views of the Aiguilles Rouges and the Mont Blanc massif: in contrast to our cold, foggy and windy experience on the Tour du Mont Blanc itself.

Le tour

2010-07-16T23:57:00.000+01:00

We are now in le tour. We had a long walk over fenetre d'arpette and col de balme. The refuge de balme is operated by the transylvanian alpine club. We are not members and were not welcome. We then descended to le tour where the caf hut was full. After some discussion we were allowed to camp in their donkey field. The main hut is full. To show our gratitude we have run up a bar bill. Tomorrow we will finish. Tonight it rains and the thunder roars now and again. Today vindicates the decision to bring tents.

Champex

2010-07-15T19:42:00.000+01:00

We made it to champex today. We had a good long day from courmayeur via two high obscure passes with great views of the glaciers. We got to refuge elena at 8pm just as it started to hammer it down. I went ahead to order dinner which was a good job as it was last orders.
Today we went over the col ferret: a scene of previous utmb nightmares. The climb to champex also brought back grim memories. Maybe i have it sorted in my head now. I still have thoughts of utmb going through my head. The tents are pitched and we are heading for dinner and beers.

Into italy on TMB

2010-07-13T15:44:00.000+01:00

We are now in italy on the tmb. Yesterday we walked from the auberge du truc to the refuge des mottets which thankfully had space for us as we arrived in a hail storm with thunder hitting the surrounding peaks.
The walk up to the col du bonhomme was hot but we stuck at it and made it there as the thunder clouds were building. There was a nice suprise at the refuge as dad had left us a present of a bottle of champagne when if was there a week or so ago. This was a nice suprise. We carried it all the way over the col du fours to the refuge mottets by which time it was well fizzed up and went everywhere when we opened it!
The col du fours was really snowy. Where it was not snowy there was scree that was liquified with the snow melt: not a nice combination. The route was pretty enough though and we saw a magnificent male ibex on top with huge horns.
Today we are heading for courmayeur or preferably beyond. It is downhill all the way now to the town. I am seeing bits in the daylight that i never say on the utmb race as the race crosses this bit in the dark. It is pretty scenic. I am having thoughts about whether i should be doing the race next year.

Tour du mont blanc day 1

2010-07-11T20:13:00.000+01:00

I arrived in geneva with my brother and sister after a white knuckle ride to luton airport. We are out here to do the tour du mont blanc. I would naturally want to light pack this but this time i am team porter. This suits me as lugging a big rucsac over alpine passes is good training. I am trying to pack as much team lit in my pack as possible.
Today was the first day and we walked from les houches to auberge du truc: a very quiet little refuge above les contamines. We've had great weather and views. At the col du tricot we admired the ascent line of mont blanc that we did with my dad about 5 years ago. We have had a nice meal with the domes de miage as a backdrop. Tomorrow we will walk as far as the fancy takes my bro and sis and then i might see about ticking off a side objective before camping.

Surprised at Osmotherley

2010-07-07T23:03:00.002+01:00

I came third at Osmotherley in my best time yet: 4h45m. This was a bit of a surprise for me.

The Osmotherley Phoenix is at a bad time of year for me. It is too close to the Three Peaks Yacht Race and the Cotswold Way Relay and (most importantly / destructively), it is at the hottest time of the year. Part of the reason for doing the Osmotherley Phoenix is to test myself in difficult hot conditions. I have to admit that the other part of the reason is that its a great race, crossing some brilliant scenery with a great atmosphere. I don't expect Osmotherley to count in my final series result, but I suspect that it will this year.

The 2010 race was run under beautiful sunny skies, but the temperature was only in the low twenties and there was a good 10mph westerly breeze. These conditions were almost perfect, especially for those who could finish before things really started to heat up in the afternoon. At the event centre. there was a graph showing the number of entrants over the years: this had been steadily increasing, to the extent that the 2010 event was a sell-out: 400 people gathered on the start line in the centre of Osmotherley. This is a testament to the increasing interest in ultra-running in the UK and the effect of the Runfurther championship (I feel).

Having not run for a week before the race, I was actually a little unsure how it would feel to put one foot in front of the other when the village church bell chimed 9 o'clock. The answer was that it didn't seem totally natural. I felt I struggled a bit for the first couple of miles, before getting into my stride. I was in something like 10th place when I saw Adam Perry go up Cringle Moor instead of taking the (legitimate) route below the moor. At this stage, he had established a lead of several minutes over the chasing pack, but he was caught by the lowlanders after his (unnecessary) descent.

I ran pretty well for the next 10 miles or so, always in contention with the leading pack, but always about 2-3 minutes behind. At least the gap wasn't increasing. I had a good run across the rougher terrain of Noon Hill / Wether Hill and was quite close to the leading pack by the time I arrived at the Wheat Bridge checkpoint (CP6).

The navigation from checkpoint 6 to checkpoint 7 is really desperate. I think it is impossible to navigate this section at speed (I tried that in 2007 and ended up wallowing through forests, blocked by 10ft high pheasant fences) - unless you've recced it. Neither Martin Indge nor Adam Perry (the leading pack) had recced this section and their navigational nightmare allowed me to finally catch them up (after shaking off a pack of "excitable" farm dogs). I saw them run off down to the river, off the route, and called them back. We then essentially ran together through the navigationally difficult section to checkpoint 7.

It has to be said that neither Martin nor Adam showed me much mercy on the final run into the finish. The Drove Road across the Hambleton Hills seems to go on forever and seems to rise forever. Maybe the heat was beginning to affect me here, or maybe I was going through a low patch, but Martin and Adam pulled away from me. I tried my best from Black Hambleton on in as Adam pulled away from Martin and Martin pulled away from me. I think that Martin was held back a little in the final couple of miles by the bursting of a painful blister (he thought he'd broken his toe - it was that painful), but Adam probably "had" the race won by that stage anyway.

The final run into Osmotherley is always great. It's always a party atmosphere as the Summer Games are on (coconut shies, win a goldfish, egg and spoon race... : all great traditional stuff). To add insult to injury. Martin and Adam were having a friendly chat at the finish while I ran into the shade, collapsed under a tree and felt both sorry for myself and pleased with myself at the same time.

Adam Perry won the race in something like 4h40m. Martin Indge was second in 4h44m. Nicky Spinks was first lady home, not long after the first men were through the finish. This "sorted out" her second place in 2009: maybe she doesn't like the heat either!

Preparing for Osmotherley

2010-07-02T10:06:00.002+01:00

I'm not sure I've had the best preparation for the Osmotherley Phoenix. I was racing in the Three Peaks Yacht Race 10 days ago and ran 34 miles along the Cotswold Way in stinking hot weather last Saturday. Since then I have been stuck in a meeting in Dresden for 5 days. I really have no idea how I'll run in the Osmotherley Phoenix. My main concern is the heat.

The Osmotherley Phoenix race last year was very hot. I know it is hot for everyone, but some people seem to handle the heat better than others. The heat is not for me. Having said that, I had a very interesting run along the Cotswold Way in 28 degree heat last Saturday. I was running as part of the Cotswold Way relay race. After 24 miles of running (several hours before), I lined up for leg 10: the final leg. I had to rest in the shade prior to the starting gun as the heat was just stifling. On the race itself, I seemed to suffer for the first couple of miles and quite a few people overtook me (who hadn't already run the 24 miles: at least that made me feel better). By the fourth mile, I was feeling hot and a bit irritated that I was losing position. I'd been drinking isotonic drink and looking after myself reasonably well. When I decided that enough was enough and it was time to start overtaking people, I just seemed to move into another gear. When I got into that faster gear, things actually seemed easier. I was running more in my stride: it didn't seem like such a desperate effort and I started moving through the field.

I think that two things I learned were firstly the importance of drinking and looking after myself and secondly getting my attitude right. When it's hot, there are times when the running is less stressful and times when it is more stressful. When in the shade, the wind or going downhill, it seems like there is no excuse: you really have to run. These are the free miles where you can get some speed without suffering too much. I just need to be able to link these free miles with the painful hot uphill ones in between. The faster I can go uphill in the heat though, the sooner the painful miles are over. I'm hoping that I can learn something about running in the heat this weekend!

A week in a telecoms standards meeting is not the ideal preparation for an ultra-race. At least the meeting is in a decent place. Dresden is a beautiful city on the banks of the river Elbe. There are good long walks to be had along the river bank and further away is the Dresdener Heide: a large deciduous wood with trails all over it. This is an excellent place to relax and stretch ze legs. The main problem is the temptation of the biergartens by the sides of the Elbe, overlooking the Italianate skyline of Dresden, on my return from the woods. If only we had the Dresdener Heide on my doorstep in Bristol!

We love tactix

2010-06-23T18:30:00.000+01:00

We had a good run on ben nevis and have won the three peaks yacht race. We are very happy as team eads innovation works and really happy for tactix. She is a fantastic boat. We all love her. It would be unwise to write more on this blog after the bottle of champagne i've drunk.

Corpach ahoy

2010-06-23T13:17:00.000+01:00

Corpach is now just a couple of miles ahead. The runners are ready to go. There are two boats right behind us and we would like to hold them off to corpach as a matter of style. We are aiming for a good sensible run: try to hold off the opposition and don't make any mistakes.
We need to just prepare mentally for the run and in for it.

Farewell lismore

2010-06-23T10:55:00.000+01:00

We are now exiting the top of lismore. The seagulls are singing to us and there is the occasional seal supporting beached on an isolated rock.
This blog post was temporarily suspended while the martins were transferred to rowing duties and we pulled a few hugies to get us into a patch of wind. In some ways we are motor sailing fired by the copham 1 cylinder or the martins 2 cylinder. There are eco engines fired by pasta and, soon, porridge. I am on porridge cooking duties once this post is over. Gary has been on the meths and the burner is now ready for us.
The absolute priority at the moment for us is to row. If the boat speed falls below our chosen minimum we row. We are learning how to motor sail eads innovation works on the copham 1 cylinder. They don't teach you how to do this at sailing school.
The next objective is porridge. After that we look to the corran narrows and the finishing straight to corpach. Martin and i then have ben nevis to think about but we are psyched.

We rowed all night

2010-06-23T09:25:00.001+01:00

The team have rowed con night. This got us through the sound of luing before the tide turned. Two other boats made it through that tidal gate and the dockers took a great line round the outside. We are now sailing up through the top of lismore and expect to make the next tidal gate: the last one before corpach. Spirits are good on board. I woke up to the sound of singing as gary and piers were rowing above luing. Short post for coverage reasons. Out.

Nice race conditions

2010-06-22T17:55:00.000+01:00

The conditions continue to suit us. We have been doing a combination of light winds sailing and rowing. We are watching the islands slowly transit us. At the moment we are passing the north end of gigha and the paps of jura are on our port side (they bring back memories of a long hard tick infested run in the scottish islands peaks race. We had almost no wind in that race either).
Torbellino as visible in the distance. They come in and out of relief as the visibility changes.
We think we are doing quite well at the rowing. I like rowing with piers. We seem to have a rowing rapport. Martin also seems to row stylishly. We all row from time to time. We have an unofficial target speed below which we row. At the moment we are sailing again with a wind direction 180 degrees away from where it was 15 minutes ago. We rowed into this patch of wind. We know when we have hit the wind as the boat starts to heel over. The oarsman on the leeward side then needs to feather their oars: some of us learned to do this years ago, others are learning on the job.
We have little idea when we will arrive in corpach so just keep going. At the moment the conversation centres around how to traverse the sound of luing. Gary has just got up and seems suspicious that he is destined for another night shift. This seems to be his speciality.

Into sound of jura

2010-06-22T13:43:00.000+01:00

Since about 5am we have been rowing. The learning experience may say dividends later in the race. We rowed all the way round the mull of kintyre and now have the spinnaker up in a light wind in the sound of jura. Torbellino are just off our starboard side a a couple of miles away. We suspected some boats might catch us up. It looks like we might need to be well rested before ben nevis but may have to decide between focussing on running or on rowing at some stage. Phone coverage is poor here. Buy more base stations!
Out.

Sailing to the mulls

2010-06-22T01:22:00.000+01:00

We have passed the mull of galloway and are now somewhere in the firth of clyde sailing towards the mull of kintyre. The wind is a bit fickle but seems to be there. We currently have all the sailors on deck as we have the spinnaker up and need to keep a sharp eye on things when the wind gets up. There are sounds of sail trimming from on deck.
Most of the sailing today has been quite chilled out in the sunshine. We think we are still reasonably ahead of the rest of the fleet but we never know when this might change and we haven't allowed ourselves to raise our hopes too much yet. Things are certainly looking better than they did when we were in the middle of the fleet tacking round bardsey.
The runners have been having a minor inquest on what happened on scafell pike. We felt like we ran well but the cycling let us down. Giving that when i sat on my iron steed at whitehaven it was the first time i had been on a bike since last year's three peaks yacht race there is clear scope for am improvement in my performance here. I need to address this. We do not know for sure wat the scafell pike result was. We know it was close.
We are thinking of our running strategy on ben nevis. Things really depend on how the sailing goes. We suspect that we could do better than last year if we really pushed it but will have to decide what the risk vs reward balance is when we get to corpach.
I am trying to sleep but am finding it hard. The best i seem to be able to do is to relax with the ipod on.

Scafell pike

2010-06-21T15:44:00.001+01:00

The goal on scafell pike was to get up and down quickly enough that there would still be enough water in the outer harbour to allow us to sail out, avoiding a 5 hour wait on a whitehaven harbour mudbank as we did in 2008. The small draught of eads innovation works really helped here. We have such a shallow draught of something like 1.6m that we had the first oak all to ourselves. All the other boats had to wait at least another 10 minutes for the water level to rise to provide clearance for their keels. And so is was that we were the first runners off.
We seen to have a fan club composed of members of my family. We saw my nieces and their mum and dad at various headlands along the lleyn peninsula. While we were anchored off whitehaven i got a text message from my mum saying that she was waiting for us in whitehaven. She met us as we pulled alongside and then at the marshalls' control point on the dock side. She had spent the night waiting for us in her car until 3:30am which was really sweet and showed real commitment to the cause.
The start of the run was inauspicious. The run starts with an 18 mile bike ride for which bikes are useful. We were carrying our bikes on board and with eads innovation works being so small we did not have space to fully assemble them before we set off. Assembly took longer than expected with gary frantically tending to bikes: a whirlwind of spanners and pumps. Despite his best efforts we exceeded our scrutineering time and ate into our mountain time.
The cycling itself just seemed like hard work. It just felt uphill all the way which in reality it was. We took 1h22m on the bikes: probably longer than any previous year.
Walking was pretty desperate after the biking let alone running. We did get into a post of rhythm on the uphill track to black sail youth hostel, getting there in just over 30 minutes. A stiff climb up to black sail pass on heavy legs and i run down the other side say us at wasdale head. Wasdale head was packed with minibuses of teams doing the three peaks challenge (where the same peaks are climbed but you drive between them: it doesn't take quite as long as our three peaks yacht race!). Everyone seemed to be having fun: maybe not the ones hobbling. The other three peakers helped us in the fog as their banter helped us find the route in the fog. It was a hard slog up but we were rewarded not only with the checkpoint but also sunshine above the clouds. We descended carefully getting back to wasdale head 1h50m after setting off up from there: this seemed like a reasonable run to us and bang on our prediction. More painful running over black sail pass and then some quite good running down ennerdale saw us to the youth hostel with an overall running time of 4h22m.
The bike ride back started with a vicious hill that took the wind out of us. After this it was downhill all the way. We took the same time on the way back as the way out. This was probably caused by the hill that shall not be mentioned and a puncture (that martin swiftly repaired).
The sailors met us at the dock and we moved quickly onto the boat, slipped the lines and heade for the lock. After a little wait we were in the lock. The lock dropped and we were out. I could barely watch as we chugged through the harbour. This was where elation turned into despair when we grounded in 2008. I saw the depth sounder bottom out at 0.1m: 10cm below the keel. There was relief when the depth increased and we passed through the harbour walls: we were out.
We were the only boat to make it out on the tide: although a boat called the dockers made an attempt about an hour after us. I think their attempt was doomed to failure as they had 30cm more keel than us and the tide would have receded. We are now sailing nicely at about 5 knots towards the mull of galloway. The lake district is receding into the distance. It is unlikely that any of the other boats will have left yet but we know that they will be chasing us down. We just have to sail as well as we can and ride our luck, hoping they don't catch us before corpach. We are being philosophical about our chances.

Scafell pike: short post

2010-06-21T12:39:00.000+01:00

The pike felt like really hard work. We think our running time was 7h06m which we are happy with. The goal was to get up and down the hill in about 7h30m in order to get out of the lock on the same tide. We managed this just. We had 10cm under the keel it the outer harbour at whitehaven. We are the only boat to have got out on the same tide and so have a 5 hour head start. I suspect the other yachts will be hunting us down over the next 24 hours or so. We currently have nice wind and calm rear and are going well. Fingers crossed.
My fan club is continuing to support us. We saw my nieces in wales prior to there ascent of snowdon and mum met us at whitehaven at 3am. It is great having this support.
Coverage is about to run out...

Time and tide wait for no man

2010-06-21T01:53:00.001+01:00

Time and tide wait for no man. These words are in the front of out minds as we kill time at the entrance to whitehaven harbour waiting for enough tide to allow us to reach whitehaven's sea lock. There are 4 or 5 other boats out here too. None have been able to get into whitehaven yet.
The race will start again in whitehaven but now it is a running race. There will be maybe 5 teams starting at the same time on the scafell pike leg. This will provide a good race on the hill. Out overriding concern is to get back to whitehaven while there is still enough water in the harbour on the falling tide. Realistically this means we have 7h30m to get up and down. We are confident we can do this if we run well. We thought we had managed to pull this trick 2 years ago but we grounded in the outer harbour. This year we intend for things to be different.
We have had a good sail over from caernarfon. There has been enough wind to keep up 6 or more knots on a close reach. Eads innovation works has been sailing beautifully. She is a small boat but a real gem. Piers and gary have been doing a long stint on deck helming and pulling strings. Geoff has now taken over in the small hours. I can here the round of the anchor being prepared so we must be right by whitehaven harbour.
eads innovation works is an x99 yacht. On paper the other yachts in the leading groups should be quicker than us. We do have several advantages. We have a relatively shallow draught: we can get in and out of harbours at more states of the tide. We are light and easier to row. Maybe these attributes can keep us ahead if we are able to get out of whitehaven on the same tide and others can't. If we do manage to pull this trick we know that the rest of the fleet will hunt us down mercilessly.
We have one more hour's sleep before the fun begins!

Menai straits

2010-06-20T13:14:00.000+01:00

We went through the menai straits without incident. We did a bit of rowing but there was a fair amount of light wind sailing to break up the hard work. One boat was not so lucky and grounded on the swellies. They were trying to get off by taking a line to the shore to heel the boat and thence hopefully get her keel off the rocks. We don't know how successful they were.
After the swellies we navigated carefully between the buoys out into the irish sea. The wind has built and we are now sailing quite nicely towards whitehaven. Anglesey is receding into the distance. The welsh mountains are poking out of the clouds in the distance.
We are going to be out of mobile coverage for a while now and the phone battery is running low. Piers is going to rewire eads innovation works so my phone will be useable in the future. The phone is really useful both for the blog and for communicating with the crew towards the end of a run. We need to wake them up at the end of a run so they will have the boat ready to set off as soon as we get back.
Next stop whitehaven in maybe 12 hours time.

Snowdon climbed

2010-06-20T07:52:00.000+01:00

We did 3h40m on snowdon which we thought was pretty good for us. We were the 9th boat to arrive at caernarfon and the 4th to leave after the run. The time we gained is probably not important as all the boats are likely to get caught by the tide at the swellies and the race will effectively restart.
The conditions on the hill were really great. We started along the road just before dawn and started up the hill in the cool of the morning. As we were approaching the summit we saw the sun glinting off the upper slopes of the mountain's east face. On the run down we had a cloud inversion so there were blue skies above us and there was a blanket of fluffy white clouds beneath us. There are really special conditions.
The run back along the road from llanberis was a drag as ever but we showed good courage and stodged out the miles. A disappointment was that our water stash that we had preplaced on the road to caernarfon was no longer there. Our run back was thus quite thirsty.
We are now battling against the tide in the menai straits. This might take some time!

Round bardsey

2010-06-19T22:07:00.000+01:00

We are now through bardsey sound and sailing towards caernarfon. We left the tip of the lleyn peninsula about 15m to leeward: quite close. Geoff seems to know how close he can get to land without actually shipwrecking us!
Once round the tip we have been close tacking round little headlands and into sandy bays. It was a thrill to see our fan club in one of the bays: my nieces emma, laura and kate and their mum and dad. We say them waving from the shore (really not that far away) and waved back between flinging the jib across as we tacked.
We are now in about 6th position. The run is about to set into a cloudless horizon and we need to sleep before the run which should start in the small hours of the morning.

The start

2010-06-19T21:51:00.000+01:00

The start of the race felt pretty strange. We were pretty close to first over the line which showed a remarkable amount of forward planning for us. Indeed we seemed to have a good 20 minutes to spare before the gun went off.
There was a fair breeze at the start but this soon died off and we came to a stop in the waves created by some motor boats at the start-as did most of the rest of the fleet. We briefly had the oars out and were the first crew to get the spinnaker out but both were soon stowed as we all hit a pretty brisk force 5 northerly.
We've had a wet couple of hours sitting with our legs over the side of the boat to try to keep her upright to balance the force of the sails with the weight of the boat. We are now close to bardsey sound at the western tip of the lleyn peninsula. We are trying to work out whether we want more sail up or less as the wind is changing strength from moment to moment. Our boat seems quite happy to have the full sail up with geoff at the helm so maybe we will stick with that.
We are probably about 4 hours from caernarfon and so will probably climb snowdon in the dark. We think a lot of the boats will get caught in the tides at the swellies after the snowdon run. We are thus not overly worried about not being near the lead on the water at the moment.

The mobile blog

2010-06-17T11:16:00.000+01:00

I've worked out how to update the blog from my mobile phone. This means trouble!

Three Peaks Yacht Race preparations

2010-06-16T14:38:00.001+01:00

It hardly feels like a year ago that we were last racing in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, but it's that time of year again. We have a new boat this year (one of Geoff's racing fleet!) but are proudly racing as EADS Innovation Works again.

Last year's race was something of an epic event. Sailing and running races can develop into epics when there is either too much wind or no wind at all. The windy epics are white knuckle rides with the runners gingerly watching the sailors control a racing yacht surfing down big waves with a massive spinnaker up: the sailors nervously walking the tightrope between speed and instability. The windless epics turn into cat and mouse games trying to catch little wafts of wind by luck, judgement or by the physical exertion of rowing between the wind patches. Last year's race was essentially windless. I think we won it partly by sheer determination on the rowing.

Is a bigger boat always a better boat? Usually, yes. The critical word is "usually". In light wind conditions in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, smaller boats could have an advantage. When a boat cannot achieve "hull speed", when size matters, lightness matters. Tactix is a light boat. When you have to row, the less boat you have to slug through the water, the faster you'll go. This year we've taken a punt on conditions and have chosen to race in Tactix, a light X-99 type racing yacht. Tactix is 32ft in length and will be one of the smaller yachts in the fleet.

We have been much more fastidious in preparations this year. In May, some of the sailors and runners sailed and ran the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (Mull, Jura and Arran). We got quite a few ideas from this race and ironed out some of the potential problems with both Tactix and the way we live on Tactix (it is important to be able to live well on the boat in order to preserve strength of both body and mind in an endurance race). I fell in love with Tactix on this race. She's an absolutely fantastic racing yacht.

We rowed for long distances on the Scottish Islands Peaks Race, giving us ideas about how to battle against the calm conditions that we're hoping for in order to do well on Tactix. One great idea Geoff had was to enlist Piers Copham into the crew. Piers is a great all rounder, being both a sailor, rower and runner. Piers has been busy applying himself to optimising Tactix's rowing ergonomics. As a national-standard oarsman, Piers needs a tip-top rowing set up on board and has been making visits to Tactix with saws, wood and drills in hand. With a national standard oarsman and an ex-university rower on board, we are hoping to make good rowing progress this year.

The two runners (Martins Beale and Indge) have been competing in the Runfurther UK ultra-running championships and are feeling both confident and nervous at the prospect of the running stages. Snowdon was recce-d the Sunday before the race. Scafell PIke and Ben Nevis have also been climbed recently.

Geoff, Gary and Piers are our primary sailors. Geoff owns Tactix and knows her well. I'm hoping that he has become akin to Tactix's massive new kevlar-reinforced mainsail during the Scottish Islands Peaks Race. It is unlikely that we'll be under-canvassed in this race! Gary and Geoff have been planning tactics for the race and are meeting up on Thursday night in Barmouth to make the final sailing preparations. As past winners in the race, I know they'll be keen to give things a really good shot this time.

A little story from the preparations....

I visited Tactix last week in Barmouth harbour. I needed to go and take some measurements for Piers. It was getting late in the day and the water taxi service was not operating (due to the late hour). I used my own dinghy (from my yacht, Cervisia) to get out there. It was an extremely exciting affair (in a small blow-up dinghy). A spring tide was rushing into the harbour: it looked like a fast flowing river. I aimed well upstream of Tactix and paddled like mad. As I was paddling across, I could see my upstream advantage being rapidly eroded as the tide was rushing up the estuary towards Dolgellau. I landed pretty much spot on top of Tactix, which I was most relieved about: a happy combination of brute paddling force and good judgement. I spent more than an hour on Tactix. This was both to measure up for Piers and to wait for the tide to abate. As the sun was setting, I plucked up the courage to head back to dry land. The tide was still like a maelstrom and I was getting washed towards the Barmouth railway bridge despite my paddling efforts. At the level of the last boat in the harbour, I got out of the tidal stream and felt so relieved as I calmly paddled through the calm water to the slipway and safety. I've never had quite such excitement with a tape measure before!

Pumlumon Challenge

2009-09-15T23:08:00.001+01:00

It was third time lucky for me on the Pumlumon Challenge. I got the second fastest time in 2007 (Allen Smalls and Matt Davis crossed the line to beat me) and was second in 2008 too (Mark Hartell beat me: I caught up to within 30 seconds of him at one stage, but he pulled away from me: agghhh!). I was motivated to have a good crack at the race this year: it's a lovely race, the first prize is fantastic (a beautiful framed photo of part of the course) and I'd set myself the goal of giving the Vasque series a good crack in the second half of the year.

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day for the race. There was a cloudless blue sky. As we drove up the A44 from Llangurig, we exited the fog to see the beautiful clear mountains of Pumlumon: what a sight! The event centre is the Forest Commision complex and red kite feeding centre on the A44 and is an idyllic spot for the start of a race.

Once we started, someone went off like a shot: really, really fast. I'd never seen him before and was really concerned that this could end up being a brutally fast chase (until someone blew up). I gave chase (with Martin Indge and some others) and we were doing a stupid pace round the lake: 5m30s / mile! Things calmed down after the first little hill, but then it was full pelt again along a forest track: 5m30s / mile again!

We hit the real open country at Dinas mountain. This allowed us to get into more of a rhythm. My local knowledge was starting to pay off here as I was clearly choosing better lines than the others around me. They seemed to settle into the idea that I knew where I was going and was a good person to follow. I'd have liked to shake them off, but this seemed too early for any of that sort of heroics. I was planning on running the race with team mate Martin Indge too, so I was trying to match pace with him.

There followed a steep hill up onto the Plumlumon plateau. A runner, who I later learnt was called Hugh, set off in hot pursuit up this and he was clearly catching me up. I decided that now was the time to go for a big push. The tactic I decided on was to to run as hard as possible for as long as it took: a do or die approach. I knew my lines across the terrain really well and executed them well. I ran all the hills and ploughed on through the heather and the boggy patches (on my secret little paths that were unfortunately being shared with Hugh about 30 seconds behind me). The one place I seemed to make a real difference was on the forest track near the source of the River Severn, but Hugh was catching up with me as we approached the source itself. He finally caught up with me at the north eastern most point of the course. We'd run flat out for over an hour and about 8 miles: it was pretty tiring stuff, especially as the heat was starting to build up.

Hugh was starting to run away from me a bit along the big wild valley that forms the northern section of the race, but I hung on in there and did my best to catch him up. I seemed to catch him in a particularly boggy patch and from there, we ran together and chatted. I found out that Hugh had done a 17h40m South Wales Traverse which I found pretty impressive and made me wonder what I'd got myself into: trying to race someone who was clearly so capable.

The dreaded Drosgol this year was a pussycat. Although the ascent was gruelling, the descent line that I had this year was great. I managed to avoid the tussocks by picking up some good quad bike tracks. Although my line was significantly longer than the direct tussocky line, I'm sure it was quicker and was definitely less soul destroying.

I noticed that I seemed to have the edge on Hugh once back on the track. I was still chatting to him, but I felt I had something in reserve. We stayed together to near the final manned checkpoint (on the Nant y Moch reservoir road) and then up the next hill, but after that, I just decided that I'd run at what felt like a comfortable pace and see what happened. I seemed to ease away ever so gradually. We were still only 30 seconds apart at the final checkpoint (in the middle of a bog!), but I just sensed that the tide was turning in my favour. I had a great line from the final checkpoint (near a hill called Disgwlfa: a checkpoint that many people had trouble finding) towards a ford and the final big hill. I managed to run on a good little path and avoid the nearby tussock field: those sheep know their way around Wales! This got me a little further ahead. I then ran in well along the tracks to the finish to win by about two minutes: a great feeling after two second places in the previous two years.

It's given me quite a lot of confidence knowing that things aren't over when someone catches you up. If you stick with them (whatever the temporary pain is), it seems like you can still regain the initiative. Or maybe Hugh was just being sociable and running with me along that northern valley and I did the nasty at the end. I hope it wasn't like that.

I really enjoyed the race. It's a highlight of the Vasque series for me. What a wonderful place to hold a race. The remoteness should not deter people.

There's now less than a week to get back in shape for the next race in the Vasque series: it's going to be quite an intense finish for me this year!

Lakes 50

2009-07-29T22:13:00.000+01:00

Blorenge: my new training ground

I wasn't very happy with my result at Osmotherley Phoenix. I went away and had a bit of a think about things. Although I could blame things on the heat and having done a lot of racing for the 4 weeks beforehand, those excuses didn't really hit the nail on the head. I think the edge had just gone from my running. Something needed to be done. I formed a plan:

- do some serious interval training: this would get me running faster, just getting used to moving my legs faster

- do some hill training. I had always been good on the hills in the past and I think things had lapsed a bit with most of my training being done around Chippenham

- get more competitive

Based on all this, I decided to enter the Lakes 50 and use that to focus my training. Training has been going well. I've been doing 800m and 1000m intervals on the Peckingell straight (a leisurely mile and a half jog from work to a wonderfully quite section of country road by the Wiltshire Avon). I've been running up and down Blorenge in the Brecon Beacons: multiple ascents per session. Blorenge has the biggest vertical ascent in the Brecon Beacons (470m) and is steep. I've got my ascent time down from just under 25 minutes to 21.5 minutes. More importantly, I now feel confident: I feel like my old self on the mountains. I ran the Stroud AC Cherington 10k race last week and posted a time of 38m30s: I was pleased with this run as my first 10km road race, I was even more pleased with the mental state that I ran the race in: I was always pushing, always competing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what effect the training will have on my ultra-running. The Lakes 50 should be a really good place to gauge my progress. I tend to get inspired by running in the mountains and the Lakes has some special mountains. It looks like the weather is going to be cool and I'm not going to have to put up with the same heat that I suffered in at Osmotherley.

The big potential problem I see for myself is that I know very little about the course. I know a bit of the section in Langdale and I've caught fleeting glimpses of the early stage from a cloudy and wet KIMM five years ago (is there any other type of KIMM?). I am going to be navigating the Lakes 50 on sight with map and compass: this is something that I'm quite looking forward to, but it will add another dimension and more stress to the race.

A part of me says that I should be running in the Lakes 100. I just don't think this is a good idea. I know how the UTMB (Mont Blanc 100 mile race) affected me in 2007 / 2008 and I don't want that this year. I want to enjoy the last races in this year's series (and the plan is to do quite a few of them) and doing the Lakes 50 should leave me something in the tank for later in the season. If I'd done better at Osmotherley, I'd have been tempted to have a crack at the Lakes 100 (the points would have been in the bank before the Lakes race). As it is, I need a solid performance at the Lakes 50 followed by a couple more solid performances in the series's latter races.

And what if it doesn't go to plan at the Lakes 50? I'll just have to redouble my training efforts for the next race! Whatever happens, it'll be fun.

Osmotherley Phoenix: too hot to handle

2009-07-05T21:41:00.000+01:00

I think I enjoy really hot races in retrospect, but never at the time. I've never run well in a hot race. This year's Osmotherley Phoenix was a hot race (last year's Downland Ultra and UTMB are other classic examples).

I had an "interesting" preparation for the race. I'd done the Three Peaks Yacht Race the week beforehand (finishing 10 days before the Osmotherley race). I'd gone for a 6 mile run round Chippenham in stinking heat about 5 days beforehand to prove to myself I could run in the heat (it was hard work, I don't know what I proved!). I drove up to Osmotherley on the Friday night and ended up sleeping in the car on the moors as the local campsite and youth hostel were fully booked: it was not the best night's sleep.

Osmotherley had a great atmosphere on race day: both at the start and at the finish (when the Osmotherley summer games were in full swing). There seemed to be a lot of runners on the start line and the organisers seemed to be really pleased to announce that this was their biggest race yet, with more than 350 runners on the day (it is a race that deserves to do well as it is well organised, crosses some great scenery and chooses a good runnable route across that scenery).

So, what went wrong with my race? It basically came down to the heat. The heat got to me right at the start. I felt I ran really badly for the first 10 miles. The sun just got to me. The morning was cloudless and whenever I was out in the sun (9 of the first 10 miles), I just seemed to wilt. I ran OK in the shaded sections, but these were few and far between. I felt bad enough to pull out, but I've never DNF-ed, and this didn't seem like a good place to start. I think I was about 15th at checkpoint 4.

Things started getting much better for after midday (after checkpoint 4) as a wind picked up and the clouds built. I ran pretty well for the next 10 miles and was probably running at a similar pace to the leading pack (based on reports I was getting from the checkpoints): just a mile or more behind (such was the impact of a really poor start).

My recce between checkpoints 6 and 7 proved to be irrelevant as the course map posted on the wall of Osmotherley village hall was different to the line I'd recce-d. It was back to square one and I had to navigate my way across the intricate line of footpaths. It's a shame that the line I recced isn't allowed as (I feel) it's more in keeping with the rest of the route (in my view), following moorland tracks and paths. The Osmotherley Phoenix is a "defined route" race, so as long as everyone sticks to the route, it's a level playing field.

Black Hambledon was hard work, as predicted. I caught sight of the leading pack here, but was unable to reel them in: they were just that bit too far ahead to be "in touch". When it came down to it, I was just happy to have a good push to a solid finish. Sixth wasn't exactly the result I'd wanted, but I was pleased that I'd pushed through a bad patch (oddly right at the start of the race) and had a good run over some of the race. The Osmotherley Phoenix is too good a race to be disappointed with though: the moors are too beautiful and the atmosphere at the finish is too happy to feel down.

A great weekend out. It's time for me to rest for a few weeks and dream it all up again....

Osmotherley Phoenix recce

2009-06-16T12:44:00.000+01:00

Martin Indge and I had done the Castles and Islands race on the Saturday (13 June) and Osmotherley was on the route south (that doesn't happen very much for a Bristolian!); it was a beautiful day and a little recce of the hard section of the Osmotherley Phoenix seemed to be in order.

The good news is that Osmotherley is already preparing itself for the Phoenix: the Summer Games advertising is up all over the place and it looks like party time. It's a beautiful village and will provide a great place to hang out for anyone coming to support the race.

The south eastern section of the phoenix is pretty desperate to navigate. While the rest of the course is along great swathing tracks, the SE section is across an intricate section of paths across farmland. I'd taken a pretty wayward route through here in 2007, ending up in a pheasant coop and am aiming to navigate better in 2009. Anyway, we were out to recce this section, to practice our navigation and to loosen off after the Castles and Islands race. All objectives were met. I think I've committed the route to memory and what a great little route it is too! We were so enthused at New Hall (the very SE-most point of the route) that we continued along to the west and up to the Hambleton Hills where we were greeted by great long views across the Vale of York to the Yorkshire Dales and an immense sky full of fluffy white clouds.

Martin did some navigation training on Locker Low Moor as we headed back to the car (parked at Locker Low Wood). I found a beautiful "single track" path through the heather down here. It was gently downhill and on the most beautiful springy dry peat: I forgot all my aches and pains here and just pelted it back to the car for the shear joy of it. It would be nice if I ran like that in the race itself. It was just a 2 hour, 10 mile recce, but it was great to get out and I'm looking forward to the race now (hopefully the Three Peaks Yacht Race won't do me in in 2009 like it did in 2008).

Green Man Challenge record

2009-05-06T12:23:00.000+01:00

The Green Man Challenge is a 47 mile run that basically follows the Avon Community Forest Path circumnavigating Bristol. Why do it? It's actually a great run through some nice scenery and is a pretty hard navigational challenge. As a Bristolian ultra-runner, it's something of a right of passage. One other thing: there's an excellent trophy that is kept on the wall of the Green Man pub in Kingsdown (my local).

Fellow Team Vasque runner Martin Indge and I pencilled in May 4th 2009 for a record attempt. Part of the goal of our run was to get some good training in for the Three Peaks Yacht Race and Old County Tops: a couple of races that I'd like to do well in this year.

We had been a bit worried about having to put up with sunshine and warm temperatures (another benefit of the Green Man Challenge: it's in the sunny south!), but on the day there were no such problems. We had pretty perfect conditions: cool, cloudy and with the occasional drizzle shower: we could run at the perfect temperature all the way round.

It must be said, I wasn't feeling the best for the first half of the run. I think that two solid days working on the boat wasn't exactly the best preparation. We were 2 minutes down on the previous record pace after the first section (Clifton Bridge to Dundry) and we had to put up with this 2 minute deficit for the next four hours. The running in the southern section of the route was particularly nice, through fields full of wildflowers, along the banks of the Chew river. The eastern section of the route (Keynsham to Shortwood Hill) is along the line of the Dramway - a really ancient old industrial tramway linking collieries to the river Avon. There are the old stone sleeper beds still in the path. You run along thinking you've left the Dramway behind and then a few miles later you'll see the stone sleeper beds and Dramway signs again.

The northern section of the run crosses agricultural land, then down the beautiful Frome river before heading across the not quite so beautiful Bradley Stoke. One thing that is really noticeable about the Green Man Challenge is that where it crosses a built up area, you can't see the built up bits. There seems to be this amazing green line round Bristol that the Green Man Challenge seeks out. By the northern section (starting at Hambrook), I was starting to feel more my usual self and we started moving well from here. We took 10 minutes off the record time to Patchway, another 10 minutes off to Blaise Castle and the last 10 minutes off for the final leg back to the Clifton Bridge. I knew that I'd struggled over these last sections last year and was pleased to find the going easier. One thing that really helped was having Martin's parents in a support vehicle. There's no water to drink on route and so having supporters to carry some water makes a real difference.

Looking for a good time, we put our foot (feet?) down for the last couple of (hilly) miles. The Mariners Path through Sneyd Park was as desperate as usual - will it never end. As we rounded the Clifton Downs, we could see the Clifton Bridge gracefully spanning the Avon Gorge: journey's end. One last push up the hill to the observatory and we were there. I stopped the watch and we'd got round in 7h20m: 28 minutes faster than the old record. We were pleased with a great run. It bodes well for the future!

One of the odd things about our run was that I made almost exactly the same navigational mistakes that I made last time even though I was looking out for the known problem areas. I guess I am going to have to recce these places in the future if I want to better my time.

We finished off the day with a contented pint in the Green Man / Kingsdown under the gaze of the Green Man Challenge trophy.

Three Peaks Yacht Race training weekend

2009-03-30T12:31:00.000+01:00

The multicoloured cliffs of Alum Bay
March 28th saw Martin Indge and I down on the Isle of Wight for a Three Peaks Yacht Race training weekend.

We met the sailors at 1am on Lightning Reflex (the team yacht!) in Cowes and proceeded to talk and catch up over a few cold ones. Getting to sleep at 2:30am was probably not the best preparation for a long Saturday.

After a cold night aboard, I was kicked out of my berth at 7am. I dreamt of bacon butties (as promised by Gary, one of the sailors), but they were not forthcoming (although there seemed to be a lot of activity around the galley). Breakfast consisted of some nice Original Crunchy for me, but Martin mistook my description of us having muesli for breakfast to mean that we were going to eat cold Quaker porridge oats. He chomped valiantly. It didn't look appetising.

We were doing the Junior Offshore Group Nab Tower race. This is a race for offshore yachts from Cowes, round the Nab Tower and back. The Nab Tower is an old fort that was sunk onto the Nab Rock in 1920, lying some 5 miles off the east tip of the Isle of Wight. They built the tower on land, floated it out into position and then sank it. Maybe their marine surveying was not up to today's standards, but the Nab Tower leans at an angle of 3 degrees and hence has the air of a nautical Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The yacht race down to the Nab Tower was fantastic. We were powering along under spinnaker with the boat humming nicely (Lightning Reflex seems to hum when she's going well). Going downwind, everything's calm and you feel like you are going really quickly. Things changed as we turned around the Nab Tower and tacked back to the finish line. We were now going upwind and hanging off the weather rail of the yacht (the rail is the edge of the yacht and the weather rail is the top rail when you're sailing upwind, as opposed to the lee rail which will be the one dipping into the water on the other side), with Lightning Reflex heeling over at 40 degrees. Going upwind is traditionally considered to be harder on the crew than downwind sailing and I was pleased that Martin and I still felt good after a 4 hour pounding in the boat.

Martin and I left the sailors in Cowes and drove over to Yarmouth in the west of the island for a run. By the afternoon, the skies had cleared, though there was still a brisk wind. The running into the wind was hard, but we seemed to be greeted by fantastic views around every corner: the beaches around Totland, the multi-coloured cliffs of Alum Bay, the distant hills of the Isle of Purbeck, The Needles, the south coast of the Isle of Wight sweeping off into the distance. I think we were running pretty well, trotting up all the hills at a nice pace. We covered nearly 20 hills miles in just under 3 hours. The skipper, Geoff, decided this wasn't good enough and told us we'd have to run faster up Snowdon. I think this is good: no room for complacency and he obviously wants to be competitive. For me, it was a training run: getting used to sailing and then running, so I was pleased with how we went (and we actually did OK). We'll get some harder training in before the big event though.

Martin Indge running on the western tip of the Isle of Wight with The Needles behind
A gruesome drive back to Wiltshire and Bristol followed and, feeling somewhat tired on the Sunday, it struck me that a good short sharp little run would be a good way of simulating the Three Peaks Yacht Race. I thus put in 9 miles along the Portishead coast path. It was another beatiful evening, with the sun setting over the Holm Islands with Exmoor in the distance. It's going to be nice getting out to sea again. The Bristol Channel is going to be a good Three Peaks training ground for us. We'll be able to sail to Cardiff and do the South Glamorgan coast path or go running in the Portishead / Clevedon areas after a day out at sea in my yacht. First things first though, there's some more hill training to be done.....

Lake District training weekend

2009-03-30T12:10:00.000+01:00

March 22nd saw Tom and I out on our inaugral Old County Tops training weekend of the year (this might be my only Old County Tops recce this year depending on how things work out). Tom is my Old County Tops running partner. We've won the race two years on the trot and we're going to do our best for the hat trick.

The goal of the day was to recce some of the alternative lines of the race route and to cement our knowledge of the rest of the route. We were out for seven and a half hours and we probably found one better line. However there were four or five places where we decided that we weren't executing the known route very well, so we'll work on that before race day.

For me, it wasn't just about the out and out recce of the Old County Tops race route that was important: it was also important to have a good training session out on some big hills and to enjoy the Lakes again (almost every Lake District pimple is a better training venue than Bencroft Hill: the closest you'll get to a mountain in Chippenham - my workplace). Funnily enough, we did find some big hills and I was pleased by how we powered up them, especially the ones late in the day.

We ran most of the day into a headwind (how can that happen on a circular course?). When we were on top of Helvellyn in a howling gale, the dark views over to Scafell Pike looked really forboding. The weather never really did go that nasty (certainly not as nasty as the 2007 Old County Tops race when we ran over Greenup Edge into a horizontal ice storm) and I think it was good training to run into the wind as we did.

We got 28 miles and 7 and a half hours running in which I was pleased with. This clearly isn't race pace, but I don't think that's what recce-ing is about.

Before my running career, I was (and still am) well into rock climbing. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and so we headed up to Pavey Ark for a day climbing some of the classics. I was a bit nervous about how things would go, but as soon as I was delicately crimping my way up the first pitch of Arcturus I knew that the old magic was still there. We were really enthused by the first climb and were up and at it until the sun went down (and the clouds came over). We walked back down to the Old Dungeon Ghyll using our headtorches, well pleased with a great Lake District weekend.

Team Running at Wuthering Hike

2009-03-15T09:16:00.000Z

I ran Wuthering Hike with my Three Peaks Yacht Race partner, Martin Indge, and we were well pleased to win the team event (6th runners across the line).

I think it was really good for us to run this as a team. It was Martin's first ultra and the first time we've run that sort of distance together (which is a sort of obvious statement, but there you go!). What seems to help when running as a team is to keep each other motivated. That is especially important on the Wuthering Hike as the first half of the race is invariably very fast and you tend to suffer from Hebden Bridge back to the finish. We kept going well on this latter stage by breaking the hills up into stages, agreeing to run set distances ("the bent tree", "the third lampost") and then having little walks to recover. Another aspect that seems to be really important is to make sure you're both eating and drinking well (Martin perked up particularly well after being fed some Shot Blox by Todmorden golf course).

One of the hardest aspects of the early portion of the race was the headwind. This was something in the region of 25mph from the west (and you're running west): Force 6 to us sailors. It was in some ways natural to gauge the wind on the Beaufort scale as there were white horses on the Widdop reservoir and more than the odd competitor will have been drenched by a wave coming over the top of the dam wall! The way we tried to get round the wind problem was to run in the lee of someone else. The best plan here is to run behind another competitor, but when Martin and I were on our own, we'd take turns at the front to keep the pressure off

Navigation went well. In fact the map never came out of the bag! It was my third time round the Wuthering Hike and I seem to have committed it to memory. I even got the section over Penistone Hill correct: go in what seems like the wrong direction round the left side and you take a sweeping arc back round to Howarth.

The start of our Three Peaks Yacht Race training seems to have gone well. Next stop the Welsh 3000ers (some time in April).

Wuthering Hike here we come

2009-03-11T22:52:00.001Z

I've spent the week since the High Peak Marathon thinking about the Wuthering Hike. It's always been difficult to prepare for this race with it being so close to HPM. I think I'm doing quite well this year, taking it easy and then going for a 6 mile run north of Chippenham this lunchtime. The lunchtime run felt good: I was pleasantly surprised with how I was running.

This lunchtime I was running with Martin Indge. I'm running with him as a team in Wuthering Hike. We have ulterior motives here as Martin is going to be running the Three Peaks Yacht Race with me this summer and we want to see how we can run together effectively as a team. Martin is also hoping to have a crack at the Vasque series this year, so running with him should be a good way of easing him into the scene (and showing him the way!).

I keep visualising the course in my head. This will be my third time in the race and I think I know it quite well now. I'm hoping to navigate well. The section round the back of Todmorden golf course is a particular concern as there are loads of little alleyways and ginnels round there. I'm also looking at navigating the very last section better than last year. In 2008 I had to ask the local dogwalkers where Howarth was: not my best navigational effort to date, but at least I showed resourcefulness!

Whether Wuthering Hike will make a big impact on my final position in the Vasque series is not my greatest concern (but we'll be giving it everything). I'm going to be running several team races with the other Martin this year and Wuthering Hike should be a good learning curve for us.

Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!