Good morning
I hope you are all grand and had a good summer, although hopefully it is not over yet!
A lightning quick blog, after a 2 month writing drought.
Not a lot of running going on. Took a sabbatical from racing to get fitter, stronger and healthier, then got injured pretty much immediately!
Life is not linear…
So without any 10,000 word race reports, I will try to keep this as short and sweet.
No photos nor fluff, written in under an hour (and boy does it show!)
NO (Pennine) WAY
After being sucked in by the very, very clever marketing people at “The Spine” a very, very expensive week long running “holiday”* up the 268 miles Pennine Way, my big summer holiday soft option adventure was to walk the PW in its entirety. I had read the guidebooks, studied the maps, bought some bits of shiny lightweight kit and started packing.
The girls were away at a wedding in Italy and I had almost 2 weeks to do what I pleased, so I was on the verge of taking a one way train to Edale.
THEN, the PW caught fire between Crowden and Black Hill, a wildfire which spread to the be the size of a small town and then went subterranean and got in the peat, which is in itself a very good fuel, ironic in one of the boggiest parts of the world. Some very brave firefighters and volunteers worked long, smelly hours to try to put it out, but in the dry, windy conditions it smouldered on.
I looked at diversions and alternatives, then after rethinking it to death, I lost my head and went back to work, saving my jollies for another day.
*The Winter Spine is the absolute antithesis of a holiday!
Lyke Wake Lightweight
My solo summer outing.
(I am the all time heavweight champion of squanding opportunities).
A chance opportuinty of a lift back from the coast prompted me to do an impulsive day out on THE LYKE WAKE WALK. Originally a 24hr challenge to cross the North Yorks Moors from Osmotherley to Ravenscar. A 40 mile/64km jaunt following the old corpse road eastwards.
A 1am alarm led to a 2am drive to Osmotherley and a 3:30am departure.
My friends, Steve and Angela, were meeting me at the other end at around 5pm, and as I was walking as opposed to running, I spent most of the day calculating pace and panicking I wouldn’t be there on time!
The Lyke Wake Walk is a cracking route, sharing much of the Coast to Coast walk and the Cleveland Way up to halfway point at the Lion Inn and then it becomes an obstacle course over boulders and christmas tree stumps, leading up to the ominous Fylingdales early warning system base and then some desolate bare moors which was also victim to a wildfire in recent times. The end is the beacon at Ravenscar, but it seemed to be attached to a beach fisherman’s hook as it appeared to be getting dragged away from me, as I got closer. Met a lady supporting her husband (he had set off just behind me apparently) who had done the LWW 200 times!
All done in 13hrs, only getting lost once right after the end in a farmer’s field full of nettles, cowpats and some angry looking bullocks.
Raiders round-up
The mighty Shipbuilder’s season ground to a halt in the 3rd week of the play-offs. Beaten away by Doncaster, a team who we had beaten recently in the last minute of play by one point, who were still smarting and definitely more fired up than we were and the Raiders ran out of steam. Finishing in the top 6 was a fantastic result in a league where the top teams are full-time players, with way more cash to splash and useful feeder systems from the Superleague. The Raiders started well and ended well. Roll on next season.
COYR!!!
And finally – How I became a Tentbox W@nker!
I am a hypocrite, the biggest hypocrite in recent times or maybe of all time.
For years I poo-pooed RTTs (RoofTopTents), publicly denouncing them as only useful for khaki Land Rover driving overland types, but completely overkill for a lion/scorpion/hippo free campsite in the Lakes in July.
“Tentbox” are the leading brand and a brand who seem to have the marketing dialled, but a brand which has possibly become a status symbol (something I desperately try to avoid at all costs, heaven forbid ever being called a Trendy Wendy!)
The name has become a synonym for RTTs, similar to Hoover, Kleenex. Post-It, Xerox, Googl and KY (none of whom sell RTTs, yet) Genericization!
A chance email dropped in my inbox one Friday lunchtime announcing the closure of the Alpkit store in Ilkley, with half-price rooftents on offer (half price is still way more than the very best “normal” tents), I rang up, it had gone, end of story…
But the seed had been planted.
I started looking online. Questions, questions???
Why did people have them on their cars all the time? (Answer: because they are so bloody heavy and awkward to get on/off).
Were they worth the hype???
Online opinion was polarised. It was definitely a love/hate thing.
I sold a LOT of my stuff on ebay & Vinted, and with any brass buttons saved from not going away, I had just about enough to buy a cheapo model.
I was outbid on a few second-handers on ebay.
Brand new, these tents were way out of my budget, even with my biased justification system. Second hand go for about half the price.
As the Idea Weevil buried deeper and deeper into my mind, I realised I would need a roofrack set-up on my Berlingo-a-go-go, (bear with me on thsi).
Found the absolute ideal RTT being sold by Colin in Carlisle. Happy to deal with a fellow Cumbrian, I explained my issue to him (below):
L-O-N-G story short.
– Ordered a new roofrack on ebay from the main distributor, one box got lost in the post, the seller didn’t believe me, but refunded me then ghosted me.
– Tried to get all the missing bits and bats separately, none of which fitted or were compatible.
– Found the same roofrack second hand in Newark, trotted down the A1 for it.
– Tried fitting it, all the bolts were too short.
– Got longer bolts, these didn’t fit.
– Bought different size bolts (wrongly guessed they were 7mm. £6 per bolt), these didn’t fit.
– My ever patient engineer/mechanic mate Steve did a Tap & Die (!) operation and rethreaded my rack, new bolts bought (87p each), these fit, rack fitted!
By this time, Carlisle Colin had gone cold (who can blame him) and I had gone through several yes/no/yes/no cycles and dismissed the idea.
It was not to be, move on.
Then…
Damn-you-eBay!
A search notification popped up. A Tentbox Classic, in Oban!
Now, in the past I have bought (blind) a motorbike from a bloke at Edinbuugh Airport, a van from Oxford and a C90 from Shroshire. I sold a Flying V guitar to a madman in Cornwall during Lockdown (“I broke no rules your Honour”) and sold a keyboard/synthesizer to a Mission in Nigeria, BUT a one-way trip when diesel prices were topping £2-a-litre would be an expensive option if this RTT was a duffer
A lovely lady by the name of Michelle was selling her Tentbox and after last minute roofrack fettling the date was set.
A 4am start, a 7hr drive, a 3 man installation (friendly Jamie and a passer-by, also called Jamie, who was also friendly, then led to 2hrs of head scratching and knuckle-skinning (my low profile roofrack has issues with clearance and my caffeine racing brain was fading fast), an 8hr drive home was riddled with roadworks and I finally got home just before my Tentbox turned into a pumpkin. A 662 mile round trip burning all my Green Runner points in one go.
Spirit Level or Chives???
Watch this space…
Hasta la proxima amigos,
Johnny
