Good morning folks
Here is the latest from ladfromtadland.
The Youngster.
Although this is a blog and a blog is just basically an open diary, there are some things that should remain private, it is a fine line.
The Youngster had to go into hospital this week for an operation and after our last time in hospital, we were all a bit worried, but the bairn was the calmest of the three of us. She just seems to take things in her stride.
The NHS gets a lot of flak these days, it is not the force of old, but then how could it be? The poplulation has grown and the powers that be have decimated services and resources, although thousands of doctors, nurses and staff carry out their labour of love, day in, day out, often without an ounce of praise. It is a strange thing, but I think if you are of a certain age, you do (perhaps less these days) still defend the NHS as it was once a wonderful organisation, and it still shines!
I can definitely say, hand on heart, that the staff at the LGI were absolutely blooming AMAZING! Every single one of them.
Just taking things easy for a little while. Hoping the Nipper will bounce back and be up to full fitness again soon. Thank you for your messages.
28 Years Later.
Oh, what could have been…
I have my ticket for the opening night premiere of the long awaited “28 YEARS LATER”, (not the red carpet, just at my local flicks).
Resisting the temptation to shout out “THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ME, HIM THERE, THAT NAKED ZOMBIE” will be hard.
IF, I had resisted the temptation of Borrowdale fell race on my birthday last year and prematurely ended the family holiday, it might have been me (or it might not have been!)
Either way, I am looking forward to it immensely, (but not the nightmares afterwards. I am a proper wuss who suffers from nightmares, especially after horror films, so this will be interesting!)
Pennine Way – Lessons learned.
Ambitious doesn’t come close!
Long story short…
The Spine Race is a twice annual race up the Pennine Way, north to south, from Edale (Peak District) to Kirk Yetholm (Scottish Borders). 268 miles/431km with lots of lumpy bits, and even more boggy bits. The organisers have got the social media absolutely dialled! They do a daily video round-up which sucks you in (as much with the epic tales of the midfielders and tailenders, as the elite bods at the front), competitors have exactly one week to do the full distance and THEN one week later, entries open for the next year. (There is a winter Spine and a summer Spine).
For a split nanosecond, I was on the website hovering over the “Enter now” button, but thankfully an instant reality check told me that I could not afford, nor justify the entry fee for a week long jolly, in winter, that I most probably wouldn’t finish. (I will get my Raynaud’s syndrome in as my first excuse and generally being crap in winter as a follow-up!)
It sells out very fast…
So, following a conversation on a running chat group, someone said “Why don’t we just do it ourselves?” and from saying yes to that, the idea and a new chat group was born!
The plan: Pennine Way, north to south, from Kirk Yetholm to Hardwaw/Hawes. 161 miles, over 3 days and 3 nights. Not exactly stopping for a good long kip anywhere, but stealing opportunist naps wherever. That was the plan and the months whizzed by and suddenly it was time time to:
a) Pack.
b) Go.
Part (a) was problematic. Even with super skimmed down kit, I had a CHUNK of gear. I skimmed it down even more to bare bones, but sufficient/survivalist.
Part (b) wasn’t straightforward either. I had a 20 litre box full of food and cooking kit ready to burst at the seams, plus a holdall with camping kit for the end of the trip and all my running kit.
I wanted to do as much as possible of the trip on public transport, so the first leg, walking to the Coastliner bus stop to York was helped by the girls helping me lug my load to the Leeds Arms/Broken Bridge.
Then, after flitting between platforms at York Station, I boarded the Berwick-upon-Tweed bound train and finally met my compadres (two of whom I had only met once, the others only in Whatsappland. So it was great to finally meet and chat about the epic in front of us.
A mini bus took us to the final border outpost village/town of Kirk Yethom where we frittered away the afteroon in the Border Pub, run by an exuberant Italian man, who tried to ply us with complimentary Limoncello (being a self righteous teetotaller, I had to politely decline this kind offer!)
Jo and Diane were away at 5pm.
Sinead and I were off at 6pm.
Christine was setting off at first light.
Nathan was away by 6pm.
All of us were conscious of a big storm coming in over the Cheviots around 1am.
This was to be my first downfall.
The Cheviots were a delight. Windy but not cold, rolling grassy fells, a gorgeous sunset and into the night. The rain started around 1am…
In a nutshell, I wussied out after 40 miles, for a number of reasons but mainly the weather, and the fact that I am just crap in the cold these days.
(I used to be tougher, but I genuinely think that running in the very different climate(s) in Peru has buggered my thermostat. I revel in the heat and shrivel in the cold!)
All is revealed in the video at the foot of the page.
Big THANK YOU to Sinead for her amazing organisation and to Jo, Elaine, Christine, Nathan and the amazing support drivers, Ian and Rebecca.
Marsden folk are tougher than the old boots stacked outside the Border Hotel at the (northern) end of the Pennine Way!
Onward to Ennerdale
My early departure from the PW left me in limbo.
Suddenly I found myself in June, with less than 8 weeks until the Lakeland 50.
The thought of sunshine and warmth in June is the ONLY thing that keeps me going throughout the long winter months.
The Ennerdale Horseshoe is one of my all time favourite races.
It is one of the Long Lakeland Classics and has a long history, but for some reason it is not an especially “busy” race, compared to the likes of Borrowdale in August, or Langdale in October.
My mate Baz summed it up nicely, “The last 6 miles are good, fast, easy running, but it’s the first 18 miles that are tricky!”
24 miles with just short of 6000ft of up and down. Nor essentially a horseshoe, more of an elongated out and back. Starting at the Scout Camp at the blobby end of Ennerdale Water, one goes straight up the bulk of Great Bourne, skirting round to Red Pike, down the steep bit of High Crag, contouring the back of Haystacks, dibbing at Blackbeck Tarn, an uphill stroll to Green Gable, round the back/front of it’s greater, loftier neighbour Great Gable, straight up Kirk Fell (confusing in the clag), down “Joss’s Gully, straight up Pillar, then a tricky bit of nav round Scoat Fell to Haycock and then a straightforward sprint (or an endless death march if you’ve burtn all your matches) over Iron Crag, a hop, skip and a jump up Crag Fell and then a delightful freefall down to one last uphill bit and home, to the ample catering of the Scouts, with ice pops and sausage rolls galore!
Finlay Wild is the man who can!
A part time GP from Fort William, I would stick my giraffe neck out to say that Finlay is currently the best long/rough stuff fell runner in the UK.
He has won the Ben Nevis race every year since he was a toddler.
He beat 2nd place by 20 minutes, and the lads following him are among the best of the rest! He was probably finished, changed, fed, watered and half way back up to Bonny Scotland by the time I lumbered in.
In a marathon, I reckon I would be within an hour of Kipchoge (best marathon runner in the World?) So, the fact that I was 2hrs behind FW shows that
a) I am a crap fellrunner & he is an outstanding fellrunner.
b) I am better at road running, but I shouldn’t really have the audacity to compare myself (in a favourable light) to Kipchoge!
(Close to the start, big thank you to Peter Trainor for the photo).
My race went well-ish. The forecast had been bordeline catastrophic all week, but wasn’t that bad on the day. I was expecting a right royal drowning, but just got a bit damp!
A delicate balance of pacing to get under the cut-offs/saving a bit in the tank, until Pillar and then upping it for the runnable bit!
All was ok until going astray in the clag on Kirk Fell. My Strava map shows my clueless wanderings.
A bit of map and compass work and a most fortunate momentary clearing of the clouds showed me a handful of runners heading to the checkpoint from a very different direction, (Kirk Fell is a confusing lump).
Back on track and running with a lass from Helm Hill who I had coincidentally also ran with from exactly the very same spot last year, we took a perfect line to Haycock.
After Haycock the going gets better and better (less rocks) but one sneaky boulder snipered me coming off Crag Fell, with a crashing, no-time-to-get-hands-out faceplant, when I took my eye off the ball mometarily.
However this was minor league compared to the guy who passed me an had a cheese rolling somersault shocker.
I stopped to check he was ok, fearing that he was going to be a bad way, but he just got up with a quick “nothing happened” and limped home.
(Final descent, thank you to Peter Trainor for the photo).
Sub 6hrs was sadly just out of my reach, but I properly emptied the tank and finished in my 2nd fastest time ever and then ate my weight in vegan sausage rolls (didn’t realise they were vegan, I am not vegan and they tasted meaty to me).
After a 3hr drive straight afterwards, I needed a crane to get out of the car and felt like my quads had been run over by King Kong in a steamroller until about Wednesday. Overall, a very pleasing run 😊
What’s next?
The next big gig is helping out Felix on his Bob Graham Round.
Felix is a Dark Peaker, DPFR have an annual crack at the BGR and “The Green Machine” is an impressive force of nature. I cannot wait to get back on leg 4 after not being back to Yewbarrow since 2009!
Limited time/options are then leading me to the Wasdale Horseshoe A race I love, although possibly not ideal 2wks before the Lakeland 50, but it is the classic of classics! Unmissable.
I was originally considering baling from thr L50, especially as I had paid £14 extra for “insurance”, but “changing one’s mind” is not covered and therefore short of the world stopping spinning, (in which case a 50 miles trail race would not be a priority of mine or anyone), the insurance looks a trickier minefield than the race itself, so barring my legs dropping off, I will be there.
Raiders round-up
The mighty Raiders were in storming form, until May.
After a trio of impressive victories, there was a draw against Batley and then a loss away at Toulouse (no pun given) and then another loss Vs. the Flatcappers of Fev Rovers.
Coming up next are Sheffield Eagles at home, Hunslet away and then a tussle with the in-form Bradford Bulls.
We have dropped down to 6th spot, so every match is a cup final now.
COYR!!!
And finally…
To film, or not to film?
In races, I have a bit of an inner turmoil about this topic.
Under race conditions, shouldn’t one be going as fast as possible, with minimum “faff”?
Maybe, maybe not?
If it was the Olympic 100m final, I would say definitely “no filming”.
If I was coming back from injury or just having a “steady” race, maybe I would get my camera out.
On the Pennine Way, the original plan was 160 miles, almost non-stop, but not a race. Filming along the way wasn’t difficult or too time consuming, but as I bombed out very early, it was an unfinished film project.
That is where I give thanks to my mates from Marsden, as they were tougher than me and thanks to some of their footage, I managed to amateurishly stitch in enough content to finish the story. Hurrah!
So here it is:
That’s all for now folks.
Hasta la proxima,
Johnny
p.s. Charity shop DVD find of the century!
I have been after this for years 🙂
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