Good morning folks
I trust you are in fine festive fettle and more ready than me, for the big chap in red to come down your chimney.
Taking full advantage of a full day waiting in for a BT engineer, to scribble up an end of year review style blog, so here it is!
(Apologies, this blog has become a bit fellrunningcentric this year, this will only continue until my legs drop off, which will probably happen soon).
A wrap up of 2024
It is natural to compare the present with the past, but with age, one does not want to go back too far, due to the laws of diminishing returns!
So I will go as far back as last year (2023), which was a bloody good year (up to bashing my ribs at Borrowdale) compared to the previous year (2022, written off with Long Covid) or the year before that (2021), which was a weird kind of post pandemic cocktail of getting settled back in the UK, unemployed/frantically looking for any job at all, dabbling (& ultimately failing) in Cyclocross and ultimately squandering a whole year in effect.
2024 high highs and low lows looked something like this:
March
Eskdale Elevation. Misjudged the (biblical and cold) conditions & subsequent kit choice. Messed up the nav completely, ran an extra 3 miles, missed last checkpoint, disqualified!
May
Jura
This should have been a highlight of the year, but it was a definite lowpoint in general!
Jura is an absolute gem of a race, a Scottish classic. A tough and rocky route, 3 BIG climbs over the Paps with a bit of bog and 3 miles of road at the end.
A tough race to get in and (as fell races go) not cheap.
The race is only half of the weekend and experience…
To get there, one must take either double car ferry option (Mainland-Islay-Jura) or the fast (non-car & non-chaepo) Hydrofoil Most folk travel on pushbikes and camp, in a big field by the sea, in front of the pub/distillery. A very sociable weekend and quite unique.
I drove over to the Lakes early on the Thursday morning, we then travelled up north catching the 2 ferries and then pedalling the last 10 miles, bagging an early spot on the field (a pitch that was moved after 1 night, due to the incessant midges). A real carnival atmosphere ensued as the campsite filled and suddenly it was kick off time on Saturday morning.
Why was it a lowpoint?
I had a LOT going on in my life just then, had been promoted at work and neither my head nor heart was in it (work or the race).
I was massively in 2 minds about the whole weekend. If John had said “I don’t fancy that drive, let’s do something like a Wasdale recce”, I would have agreed before he had finished the sentence!
As it happened, the journey went well and it had a bit of an adventure feel to it.
In the race itself I got this really weird back spasm/seizure really early on in the race and I just could not straighten up, even though I still had a lot left in my legs for the road bit, I was doubled over like a 100 year old man.
This VIDEO explains everything:
June
Ennerdale
I have run Ennerdale more than any other classic. I love it. It is a bit quieter than other races, a bit tricky to get to and very, very committed, If you bail out at half way, you still have a 10 mile walk of shame back to the start.
The last 6 miles are fast and runnable, it’s just the first 18 miles of rough and rocky stuff that is not so easy!
I had saved a bit in the tank and had a special supercharged Kendal Mint Cake gel (and a BIG slab of KMC too), so I felt like I was on speed for the last 10km (although my legs/time maybe didn’t reflect this!)
A joy of a race, even if it does look absolutely bloody MILES to the finish from Pillar (because it is!)
Buttermere Horseshoe
A new one for me, and boy did I underestimate it hugely!
Had a major cock-up at the start, getting there really, really early, chatting way too much and then leaving everything to the last minute. As a result, I left the bulk of my food in my coolbag in the car, and only realised about 1/3 of the way round.
It was a l-o-n-g day out, as a result.
I did meet and make a new friend, in Darren of CFR. Great bloke and a navigational wizard. I finished absolutely trashed. (Outstanding tucker afterwards made up for everything!)
July –
Wasdale
The Wasdale Horseshoe is arguably the toughest race in the English calendar. 20 miles with 9000ft of climbing and all the tricky stuff in the second half.
A BIG field for an English championship race this year.
Made a weekend of it and took the girls up.
The plan was to meet them en-route at Greendale Bridge, with my sumptuous pack-up. Best laid plans and all that…
Wasdale is tricky, in that the first ¼ is fast and runnable, and the cut-offs are tight.
However, it is all very well getting to Great Gable inside the cut off times, but you need some legs left to then get over the Scafell Pike ridge and then get down off Lingmell. One of the greatest run-ins in any race.
A mix-up with timings/communication meant that I arrived to Greendale Bridge bang on time (in my timings in my head) but 10mins earlier than the timings I had told the girls.
What to do?
I couldn’t hang around, as the cut-offs were not giving me much room for loitering, so I carried on and got round on just gels.
Somehow survived and was faster than last year, so that’s a result for me 😊
Rydal Round (Fairfield Horseshoe)
The first day of our Lakes summer holiday and the start of the 2024 lazy taper!
The race is part of the brilliant day out that is Ambleside Sports, but I ran an absolute stinker of a race, never got out of first gear, got lost and then ended up in the crags near the end. One to forget.
August
Borrowdale
My birthday and a day of decisions, as I could have been an extra as a walk-on zombie in the Danny Boyle film “28 Years Lates (The Bone Temple)”.
Fellrunning came first and it was a great day out with no mishaps, (apart from a near certain death head first fall at the top of the steep screes off Scafell Pike, where I got my size 13s tangled up!)
Didn’t bash my ribs this time and it was a top day out.
Still some life in this old dog 🙂
Rusland Show
Lina’s first fell race and a podium finish + cash prize!
In her first race, she won more than I have won in the last 38 years of running 🙂
Thanks to BGS for the tip off about the race, always the bridesmaid and never the bride, until next year!
Steel Fell
A last minute decision. The rare treat of a midweek straight-up-&-straight-down 3 mile dash with free entry! I have avoided short fell races since forever, but I don’t know why, as they are just brilliant, brilliant fun and don’t take weeks to get over.
A cracker of a race.
Grisedale Horseshoe
Having tapered (for what I am not sure) for a whole month, I felt fresh for Grisedale.
A red hot day (just how I like it) and a relentless cat-&-mouse ding dong with a mate Stewart, from Bingley. We both buried ourselves on the last (cruel) climb, then at the last checkpoint, he went left, I went right. I ended up in head high bracken, he ended up beating me by 15 minutes.
September
Laid low by mystery virus. Possibly/probably Covid, but who has tests these days?
Felt like death for a week, took 3 weeks to feel remotely human again. Missed Peris Horseshoe and Three Shires. The start of problems with asthma. Not good.
November
Dunnerdale
An end of season condensed Lakeland classic and Lina’s first proper fell race.
Did a full write up in the last blog, but just to reiterate how good the course is and how tasty the pies were. Great social afterwards and the end of the season for me, having been a cheapskate with my subs and opting out of UKA affiliation, thereby writing off any cross country action!
December
Trying to cook up some kind of training plan, after having tapered since July!
Whilst it would be wrong to class it as a highlight, the most special day out of 2024 was attending the late, great Joss Naylor’s funeral, at Wasdale in July.
A pre-dawn start up T’Lakes and a very enjoyable trot over from Langdale (& back) with Ambleside AC, for a very special funeral service for a great man.
A perfect summer day and a huge turnout of fellrunners, in club colours as Jos had requested. I felt very proud to be part of such an amazing community.
RIP Joss
ON THE BACK FOOT!
Absolutely out of nowhere, came the amazing fun that has become our cameo nonsensical ramblings that is our guest spot on the ON THE BACK FOOT Podcast.
“Our” being the bairn and myself.
One of the original founders of this fantastic ocular entertainment spectacle is Mr. Charlie Barker, who we all met for the first time at Wasdale.
Señor Barker handed over the reins (of a runaway horse) to Sir Jacob Tonkin, a man widely known in fellrunning circles.
Apart from our “contributions”, we were also invited to the incredible day out, organised by Lord Ted Masoneer of Appletreewick, that was the British FRA Relays, where Valentina and I had composed 60-odd (they were indeed odd) songs, one for each team running, as we were part of the commentary team, inside an ice cream van. Almost impossible to describe here, you just had to be there 😊
We both agreed it was our best day out of the year and hopefully, we might be invited to next year’s event in North Wales. Watch this space.
If you haven’t heard ON THE BACK FOOT, check it out here
Special THANK YOU to the following folk:
Angela & Steve S
Mr. Barker
BGS
Charlene B
Darren P
Doni C
Emma H
George F
Glen
JT
John M
Pete T
Ted M
Everyone in P&B.
A special thank you to Josie for getting Lina into/onto the fells 🙂
Dashing blindly into 2025
Desperately trying to not fill the calendar too soon, it is currently looking something like this:
February – The revival of the Mickleden Straddle, it’s back!
Hoorah for a Pennine winter classic.
Followed swiftly and boggily by the Wadsworth Trog (The Beast). A boggy and tussocky legend of a tussocky Pennine bogtrot.
March – The Haworth Hobble. 900+ entries and basically a series of massive buffets with some running in between.
Eskdale Elevation – Hopefully not making the schoolboy errors of this year!
May – Old County Tops. After marshalling this year, I was mega inspired and I am teaming up with my mate John, for a crack at this long distance Lakes classic. BIG day out.
June – Ennerdale and Buttermere Horseshoes.
Will hopefully remember my pack up this time.
July – Wasdale Horseshoe
Will pack my pack-up this time!
Lakeland 50. A race that I entered, not really expecting to get in, but I did and felt obliged to take my spot, as over 7000 people entered. Will need to knuckle down on training for this one!
August – Nada/nothing/zilchio, summer break!
September – Grisedale Horseshoe & Three Shires.
October – Langdale Horseshoe. Normally I am crocked, ill or avoid it, hopefully not in 2025. An autumn classic.
November – Dunnerdale (mmm, pies), Tour of Pendle (not sure why) & 2024 Lee Mills Relays (carried over from this year’s cancellation.
Other stuff!
We moved house (horrendously chaotic and overcomplicated but worthwhile, no more moving until the youngster leaves home, (she is currently 10 years old!)
Jimbo & the Crazy Gang came to visit 🙂
The little red rocket Micra went 😦
The blue Berty Berlingo came 😊
Got promoted and stepped down at work (progress?)
Did more S&C in one year, than I have done in my entire life!
Most importantly, and above absolutely everything else, the Nipper bounced back from a nightmare month in and out of hospital last December.
Christmas 2023 never happened and it was a New Year to forget.
2024 has been ok and hopefully 2025 will be even better for everyone!
Raiders round-up
Another emotional season and year.
After bouncing up a league the previous season and finishing in a highly respectable position at the business end of the league, this season was a more common Hanging-on-by-the-fingernails-that-you-haven’t-chewed-off season!
It all went to the wire and in the end we relied on our local rivals, Whitehaven, to mess up at the end of the season, which meant we stayed up for another year of emotional rugby league.
COYR – Onwards & upwards!
And finally
28 Years Later – The nightmare continues…
I suffer from nightmares, they are trigggered by I don’t know what, but when they come, it’s bad news.
I have always been a bit of a wuss with guts, blood I can handle no problem, I can mop up sick all night and I have had plenty of jobs cleaning khazis (and experienced toilets infinitely worse than in Trainspotting, in Latin America), but the sight of guts and innards send me dizzy:
Dissecting a rat in Biology – Had to go outside for air.
Watching a brain operation in Biology – Fainted, smacking head on door on way out.
Watching a graphic anti-abortion video in a wedding “charla” in Peru – Not good.
I am destined not to be a Surgeon.
(I can gut fish all day though!)
So what started the nightmares?
I pin it down to watching “Seven” with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. (They were in the film, I wasn’t watching it with them).
Not a horror film, but one that really plays on your mind.
Ever since then, anything a bit scary is off the cards for me, for fear of the nocturnal torment guaranteed to follow.
In 2004, I was in Patagonia, the windiest place apart from the draft howling through my back door (absolutely not a euphemism) last weekend.
I was doing a lot of walking with 3 Irish Radiographers (I don’t think there were any young people in Ireland at that time, as they all seemed to be travelling).
El Chalten feels like the absolute end of the world, wild, one of my favourite places.
After a day of high speed hiking (them more than me, I had spent 2 weeks in Buenos Aires on a Quilmes cerveza and pizza diet, I suffered as a result).
Post walk it was suggested we go to watch “28 Days Late” at the local cinema, which was actually set in a barn (which served beer and pizza), very atmospheric.
Especially when a Patagonian blast of wind almost took the corrugated roof off, at a very tense point in the film!
I didn’t faint, so I was quite proud of my little self.
28 Days Later was the sequel (but not directed by Danny Boyle, but starring Robert Carlyle, but not playing Begbie!)
Scary in a different way. I didn’t faint.
I won’t revisit the sad tale that was me missing out on certain Hollywood stardom &/or getting my tackle out on screen as a zombie (although they are not essentially zombies) extra in 28 YEARS LATER – THE BONE TEMPLE (Story here: )
Fast forward to this week (after countless AI generated fake trailers online), my mate Matthew P, sent me the trailer for 28 YEARS LATER.
Trailers nowadays just seem to pick all the best bits and basically you have seen the film before you even go to the Pictures.
This trailer is different, you are left wanting for more, but you will have to wait until June 2025 I am afraid!
Hopefully I won’t faint in the Flicks.
On that note, here it is, it could have been me ☹
(If you were curious, the poem is a 1915 Rudyard Kipling piece called “Boots” about 60,000 soldiers marching across Africa, a third of whom perished).
To lighten the festive mood here is a picture of a kitten 🙂
Hope that you have a mighty fine Christmas and an awesome New Year!
All the best
Johnny, Lina & Valentina
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