Running out of time…

Good morning folks

Here is the latest claptrap compilation that is my life, the Ladfromtad.com blog.

Taken a day off work, so rather than going fishing or trying to sort out my shed, I thought I would maximise my £36 investment in WordPress and write something.

Now, warning, this blog is a bit running-centric and I know that running is boring, look at me, I’ve run all my life and I am the most boring person I know! So, I will keep it brief.
It is just that I have been putting so much of my time/effort into running, now that I can run again, that there is not much time for anything else.

A few things have been appartaining since the last wrap-up.

The Nipper (and I) went on a Fishing course, where she wasn’t been advised by someone who had fished a long time ago and wasn’t very good at it back then, so we both learned a lot, thanks to the Get Fishing team, Dave (LDSA) and Kippax Pond.

Summer is here, what’s not to like about that (apart from nettles, sunburn and hay fever).

So, here goes.

For a man who thought that his running/racing days were over this time last year, it has been a bit like being released from prison, (without the poll tax exemption, bent screws or cavity searches!)
Running is a fickle game though, injuries are way more common than purple patches and fitness is hard gained/easily lost.
It is a very difficult balancing act indeed!

Ennerdale Horseshoe

My first “proper” fell race since my comeback. I had run Guisborough Moors, but most races in the Lakes are a step-up, mainly due to ascents and terrain.
Ennerdale Horseshoe is not actually a horseshoe, it is an out and back, which means if you bail or miss the cut-off times, you’ve got a long way to get back as Green Gable is about 10 miles from the start.

“HOTTER THAN IBIZA” screamed the headlines.

Water was everyone’s worry. Water is dead weight, 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilo, but due to there having been no rain for weeks, most water points (streams and becks) were empty. Fortunately some marshalls (and some very kind spectators) had a bit of water.

Now I had run this race twice before. Once in 2001, again in 2011.
Both times I had been fit and had no worries about getting the trip.

This time I was full of doubts and getting around was my only goal.

Things started well. Great Borne, Red Pike, good line round Haystacks, Green Gable, feeling brilliant round Great Gable (thankful for a bit of shade, it was bloody hot) and thinking “THIS is what I have been missing!”

Over Kirk Fell, down the gully, passed a bloke who was chucking his guts up and onto Pillar and Haycock. In races you use a “dibber”, a piece of very important plastic which goes in the checkpoint box, bleeps and records your time (at that point). It is a safety measure and has replaced the old “bread tag” system where you frisbeed a bread tag at a marshall on some windy summit and they threaded it onto a wire, thence giving positions at various points on the course. Courses have checkpoints which you must visit. If you miss one, you are disqualified. Five minutes after passing the summit of Haycock, I had a thought. Had I “dibbed”?

After a bit of “Of course I must have” dithering, I went back and dibbed again (I had dibbed the first time I found out later), that is when the wheels started to fall off and I started going backwards.

Heat, the dreaded “bonk” (when your body runs out of fuel) and dehydration all conspired against me, but I got around and finished.
The catering team (Scouts) had made huge amounts of food, but I just couldn’t stomach the sausage roll that the Scout Mistress was trying to force on me, I wasn’t making much sense.

I had supped 2 litres of water before the race, 2 litres during and 3 litres afterwards and I was still dehydrated.

Two separate crashes (not me) made it a long detour ride home, including reversing back down a one way track for longer than my gearbox/clutch liked.

Runningwise, a grand day out 🙂
Brilliant to see some old friends, after a long Peruvian sojourn and time away from the fells.

As a perfect summary, check out my mate John’s video HERE

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BGR part I

The Bob Graham Round is a fellrunning challenge.
A simple circuit of mountain tops first run in 1932 by a Keswick Hotelier called Bob Graham, who ran round in a pyjama top, sustained by boiled eggs.
There are 42 summits over 66-72 miles with 27000ft of ascent and it has to be done in under 24 hours. I did mine in 2009 (Club member No.1508) with my mate Glen. It is a tough day/night out.
The deal is that once you have done it, you agree to help other people on their round. To do a BGR involves a LOT of training, recces, eating on your feet and a big slice of good luck with the weather.

This bit gets confusing, so I will use names here.

Scott: A runner I met whilst running back to the start after the Calderdale Way Relay. Doing his Bob Graham Round on 1st of July.

Richard: A mate of Scott’s, who I met after the Ennerdale Race, but when everyone was a bit heat-monged to be coherent.

Abby: Another runner, doing her BGR on the 17th of June. Richard had volunteered to help her via a FB group and I offered via Richard, the morning after Ennerdale. (However, 20 minutes after agreeing, I took a crashing fall on the rock strewn terrain that stretches for at least 10 feet down by Tad river.
Grass for 3 miles in either direction and I tripped over an invisible tree root. Daydreaming about the the day before before I hit the deck hard, smashing my head, elbow, hip, knee and twisting my metalwork ankle. I limped home, body and pride battered. It was touch and go whether I could run, but when one of her team dropped out,I felt morally obliged).

So, I got up at 3am and drove to Keswick to meet Richard, then we drove to Dunmail Raise, where we would run to Wasdale then later get a lift back to Keswick where I would pick my car up and give Richard a lift back to Dunmail, then drive home. Complicated logisics? You bet.

So, meeting up with Richard (who I had met once) and Abby and team (who I had never met) was a big departure from my not-wanting-to-meet-anyone post pandemic malaise, and it was bloody brilliant!

Leg 3 is tricky in the mist and clag, but fairly straightforward if it is clear (famous last words). It is all about the “lines”. There are paths between some peaks, but it is the best lines that keep you on schedule.

All went well apart from a slightly dubious line on Bowfell. There must have been 100+ hikers on top of Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England, in stark contrast to the 4 people on Scafell, it’s lower neighbour, only 46ft lower and England’s second highest, but sadly neglected mountain top.
Lord’s Rake was as loose as ever and the scree run down to Wasdale was l-o-n-g and hot. It was a fantastic day out on the fells.

Sadly Abby started slipping behind schedule but gallantly carried on to get round in 26 hours. She will be back!

Running Out Of Time Relay!

In a brief nutshell I joined the Green Runners, as their ideas (pillars) struck a chord with me:

1) How YOU Move

2) How YOU Kit-up

3) How YOU Eat

4) How YOU Speak Out

As I previously said, I am not a tree hugging vegan hippy, but who knows, one day I might be!

Through the Green Runners I heard about the RUNNING OUT OF TIME RELAY.

A national relay snaking from the top of Ben Nevis, up the road in Bonny Scotland, to Big Ben, down the Old Smoke.

I signed up for 3 stages, 2 of which I did a recce of and one I didn’t, which came back to bite my ar$e!
Leg 1: Copmanthorpe school – Bilbrough Three Hares pub
Leg 2: Bilbrough Three Hares pub – Tadcaster Costa coffee
Leg 3: Tadcaster Costa Coffee – Aberford Arabian Horse pub

The incredible summer gave way to one morning of monsoon rain as I waited for my bus (pillar 1: use public transport).

I was invited into the school where a very enthusiastic hallful of school kids asked and answered questions from the support team (3 Cumbrians, what are the chances of getting 4 Cumbrians together, outside of Cumbrian?!)

Radio York were there to capture the occasion and to a roar of applause, Graeme from York ran in with the baton and to the biggest cheer I have ever heard, I was off, into the torrential rain, soaked to the skin by the time I left the school grounds and down a country lane, where a rocket powered DPD van almost cut my relay short and simultaneously obscured the ever-so-slight, but very important road junction I should have taken. Splashing blindly onwards, I did sense I was off route but the magical power of the Pudsey and Bramley vest and its calming “Don’t fret, it’ll come good” mantra took me 3 miles off course, meaning that the generous time schedule (which was running exactly to time after 10 days) became a race to get to Taddy in time, to pick up another runner.

I raced down quiet country roads, past the Three Hares pub (shut) to Tadcaster, running through town with a golden baton!

Picking up Emma at Costa we waded on through the rain to Hazlewood Castle for the off road death-by-nettles section (which luckily I did know).
Why do these stinging buggers sting more when wet?
Who knows?

Onwards to Aberford, bang on time, then jogging back to Tad, when the rain eventually eased and I went home with very red legs, but a feeling of “job done” and 20 miles in the bank.

The 4th pillar is SPEAKING OUT and here was my bit on the telly.
(The questions I was asked were not the questions I had in my head, hence the pained expression!)

Remember, don’t burn your trash, don’t take private jets, don’t buy single use plastic stuff and don’t fill your drawers with brand new clobber when your old gear can still be used/fixed/flogged on 🙂

The bumbag is 35 years old and still going strong 🙂

BGR part II

Scott (who I met at CWR) is doing for his BGR this weekend and has been training harder than Kilian Jornet and Jack Kuenzle put together.

I am on leg 3 with Richard. Bring it on 🙂

Wasdale!

Ennerdale was optimistic, Wasdale is shorter but has more climbing than Ennerdale. Ennerdale was just passed my current physical limits!

Ennerdale: 23 miles/7513ft ascent
Wasdale: 21 miles/9022ft ascent

A week on Saturday I will be dragging myself round
Brackenclose-Whin Rigg-Seatallan-Pillar-Great Gable-Esk Hause-Scafell Pike-Lingmell Nose-Brackenclose, with a fair bit of up and down in between.

I ran Wasdale once, but it was 20 years ago.
Getting round is my ambitious aim!

Raider’s round-up.

If I had pulled my finger out and scribbled this nonsense before Sunday, I could have enthused about stringing 3-wins-in-a-row together and how we were safe from the drop, so we will casually ignore yesterday’s defeat and stay positive!

Consistency has been a problem (which is also evident in some Superleague teams, even Hull won at the weekend!)
Injuries and the other usual excuses are also playing a part in the case of the Shipbuilders. It seems ironic that last season, after going up a league, with zero expectations and just a hope of staying up resulted in getting into the play-offs for promotion to this season, where we had expectations and have been dire. Similar to York’s current plight.

Just hoping that Newcastle and Swinton both continue to be rubbish and we might just be safe!

And finally…

“Who’s yer man?”
This ancient mystery is finally unravelled…

Until the next time amigos!
(If/when I have recovered from the daft idea of trying to relive my youth in the form of trying to run races I last ran 20 years ago!)

Cheers
Johnny