LADFROMTAD.COM

That mad time of year…

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 would move to the village of Kirkland in a heartbeat!**

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.

**Way before Arthur Shelby Jr. lost his rag in a flat cap.**

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: )

The Bone Temple 😦

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

Where did November go to?

Good morning folks

I hope you are in fine pre-festive fettle.
Here is the latest hotch-potch of bobbins from the blend of chaos that is called my life!

The BIG move

And hopefully the last move for a good number of years!
A move that came out of nowhere really.
We have been renting since departing the caravan in 2023 (& probably will be renting until the end of time now). I went to see the Landlord about something and this new place was mentioned, so without thinking (about timescales and the practicalities of shifting soooo much junk), I agreed to a move date in 2 weeks time.

Without going into the boring details of a more-than-usual-chaotic-move, it was hellish. I was not a well man before we started and ground myself into the ground to get it done. Nosebleeds, conjunctivitis, dizziness (more than normal) and a weariness I have only felt whilst doing shifts on that bloody awful once every 3 weeks, L-O-N-G W-E-E-K, which was a 72hr grueller, I ended up doing four 14hr days back to back, just to get the flat emptied and into the new gaff.

As it was a midweek move, I couldn’t ask my usual moving crew (my Dad and my brother), so I thought I would get some hired muscle.

Obviously living in 1970s price land, as I do, I got a shock when I checked prices.

If you are thinking about moving, discard ANYVAN.COM

Website looked ok, easy enough to book. Got a follow up phone call straight away. Paid upfront (always risky). All looking good until a week to go.
Half the price of cheapest local mover, who had warned me about going on prices!

Email: “Check your removals information, as it will cost you more to add items on the day”

So I checked and realised that the original booking (which I had checked and rechecked and written down in my yellow “House Move” pad, was missing a few items: Fridge freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer, sofa and two armchairs!

Add to booking, which then asked me for all the measurements, which I did (all a bit of a pain at 6am, whilst trying to get out of the door to work).

“Recalculate price”

“£133,615” (no word of a lie, I wish I had got a screenshot).

I must have missed a decimal point, so I did it all again and the price came in as roughly double what I had paid (and now the same price as local bloke).

I rang to check the day before that all was set and that van and two burly blokes (or ladies) would come to my flat in a big (enough) van, walk up my stairs, carry my dismantled stuff downstairs, transport it roughly half a mile, then carry it in/upstairs to the new place.

“You have booked a ground floor to ground floor move!” was the reply.

Bugger, so the wallet and card came out again (struck a side deal on the day with driver).

Removal day arrived, I was up at 5am and ready, even carrying some stuff down the stairs to save time (I know, I know, you don’t buy a dog and bark yourself, but I just had a bad feeling).

At 8am, Tadjudeen texted, “Just leaving Manchester, will be there at 9am.
9:30am, a HUGE, long Mercedes Sprinter did an audacious sweeping reverse into the side street and straight away his grumpy mate was not happy about the stairs.
He asked to use the toilet and piddled all over the seat, floor and everywhere.
Dealing with professionals then, good start, keep calm…

“Please do NOT take the legs off the sofa, as one is dodgy and won’t go back on again.” Did they listen?

Washing machine got damaged on the way (it was on its last legs), so had to source a new/second hand one the next day.

After about 6hrs, they were done and off.
Then it was just a case of 5000 shuttle runs with the car…

So, for the next 4 days I worked my sorry ar$e off and somehow got the old flat empty and filled the new house and shed with a million boxes.

I have enforced a ban on any question starting with “Where is the…”

Wish me luck 😊

Dunnerdale fell race.

Way before I knew we were moving, I put two entries in for the Dunnerdale fell race.
One for myself and one for Lina.
She had done the Rusland Show race and enjoyed it and had a shiny new pair of Inov8s, so I thought I would show her a classic Lakes race, without trying to kill her round Ennerdale, Wasdale, etc…

“A condensed Lakeland Long” I was told.

Just 5 miles/8km with 5 climbs and a good social do afterwards.

As it happened, it fell on the weekend before the move and common sense said “Scrap the race, pack some boxes”, but we had already sorted for my parents to look after the bairn and the atmosphere was a bit over tense in the flat, (plus I had paid for the race and heard good things about the pies!)

So, ignoring the half packed boxes and work to do, we snook out at dawn to get to Dunnerdale. A drive that is not straightforward, even for runners in the Lakes!

A good turn out, a semi decent day (for early November, I,e. it wasn’t snowing) and a rare chance to run together! We set off at the back of the back and watched the leaders disappearing into the distance. A race with a bit of everything; mud, rocks, bracken, some good running, more mud and more rocks. It felt like a longer Lakes classic, but over much quicker. What is not to like about that 😊

The pies at the end were outstanding and it was great to catch up with the likes of Mr. Tonkin, Darren Parker (the mapmaster man) and Rob & John (old school P&Bers).

The A65 has become an absolute nightmare drive, so it was the long way round via the M6-A66-A1, which is longer but as quick in my eyes.

Next stop, persuading Lina to join P&B!

Lee Mills is not happy!

The last Sunday in November was supposed to be the auspicious LEE MILLS RELAYS. A four person/four leg/same leg relay from Bacup, in deepest, darkest Pennine Lancashire. Lina and I had been chosen as half of an all-star (!) team of 4 by the legendary Doni Clarke of Todmorden (who was in another one-man team, running all 4 legs himself!)

Lina & I had been for a recce round the course a few weeks back and everyone was psyched up for what is an end of season low key but competitive relay.

Nobody was quite as competitive as the weather, which snowed heaps, then melted and then flooded everywhere.

After weeks of trepidation, the race organiser did the only thing they could do and called it off. All bets carried over until next year!

2024

Early December is too early for a review, so will try and shoehorn one more blog into this year.

2025

(This is about as close to the Lakes as I am getting right now!)

An empty calendar is a dangerous thing (as it gets overambitiously filled with races), but as a rough draft, next year looks something like this:

February: Wadsworth Trog
March: Haworth Hobble
April:
May:
June: Ennerdale Horseshoe & Buttermere Horseshoe
July: Wasdale Horseshoe & Lakeland 50
September: Three Shires fell race
October: Langdale Horseshoe
November: Dunnerdale fell race & Lee Mills Relays

(Something will happen in April & May, but I just don’t know what yet!)

So with an unbalanced mixture of mystery cardboard boxes and lame arsed running, that is all for now.

Raiders round-up

Close season, which means no victories nor defeats.
A time to calm one’s nerves before the nervous-breakdown-in-weekly-instalments that is the new season!

Hurrah for OTBF.

On The Back Foot podcast signed off for the season and the Nipper & I scooped an award 🙂

And finally…

A possibility for 2025?

This soundtrack is ace 🙂

Until the next time amigos
Johnny

Ted’s Ice Cream van!

Good morning folks

I trust you are in fine fettle.
Here is a wrap-up of recent events and happenings.

A quiet-ish time. The lurgy gave way to back issues, so not much running action.
One BIG day out made up for everything though 🙂

Ted’s Ice Cream Van & ON THE BACK FOOT PODCAST LIVE!

How on earth do I even start to explain this one?

The youngster and I have been involved with a fellrunning podcast called ON THE BACK FOOT for a while now, our main slot is a generally light hearted/nonsensical look at what people eat when they are “Munching on the moors”. It is good fun and we both love it. Jacob Tonkin is the main man of the show, who took over from Charlie Barker, who won the Pools and moved to Devon to join the circus. Bobby Gard Storry is another star of the show. Awesome people who we have got to know this year.

Anyway, the British Fell Running Association (FRA) relays were held at on Ted Mason’s farm. in Appletreewick this year, in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.
Ted is an outstanding runner (& cricketer, and rugby player and an all round Sport Billy, plus a good dancer and he is also outstanding at climbing up to the top of Big Tops/Marquees, but that is another story).

I have known Ted for 20+ years, he is a fellrunning legend.
The team worked their backsides off to get everything ready and it was an absolute showcase for fellrunning, an amazing day.

The FRA Relays are a BIG event, the end of season relays are more fiercely contended/contested than the World Cup. It is different to normal individual races, you have to absolutely bury yourself for your club. It is where all the best teams of British fellrunning come together in teams of 6, running 4 legs, all starting and finishing in the same place, which was, right in front of a green ice cream van used by Appletreewick Cricket Club and although not serving ice creams anymore, it is decked out for sound, so Ted asked Jacob to bring his OTBF team along to do the commentary!

So, having absolutely zero experience of commentary, we composed a song for each team (thankfully Jacob, Bobby & Darren were all experts at actually commentating!)

I actually started scribbling songs a week before the relays and thought I was ready for the big day until I glanced at the entry list on the Thursday night and saw an additional 22 teams, so it was a late night.

I won’t go into the full details here, but if you listen to OKTOBERFEST, it is all in there 🙂

Definitely our best day out of the year 🙂

p.s. ust what is “THE BROWN COW”? Find out on the podcast above!

Jog on?
So, the grand finale to the fellrunning season (for me) was supposed to have been something like:

Peris Horseshoe – Langdale Horseshoe – Tour of Pendle.

However, after the lurgy has disappeared I picked up a mysterious back injury and all the shops shut early for my season! (Although Langdale did sound like a grim exercise this year!)

Tour of Pendle is a great bogtrotting curtain closer, but I just have no miles in my legs, so my last race will be DUNNERDALE.

Never run it, have heard good things about it, taking Lina for a trot round her first proper fell race, so I am looking forward to it.

In my quest to become as bulletproof as humanly possible, I am regularly torturing myself in my lounge with various instruments of S&C pain, the latest being a plyo box.

All good fun!

New wheels.

Nostalgia is a bloody powerful thing!

I learned to drive in a Nissan Micra, my first car was a Nissan Micra, we drove to Mongolia in a Nissan Micra. I have had 6 Micras in total and none were duffers. After the Honda Jazz debacle that we don’t mention, I bought the little red one from a very nice man in Kettering.
It was a brilliant car and never missed a beat (as Micras don’t), but…
We needed more space, after the Tetris/Rubik’s cube exercise that was packing-our-car-for-the-summer-holiday, where the poor Nipper had about a foot square space in the back!

I won’t bore you with all hours and hours and hours of ebay browsing and all the non-starters, duffers and plain old wrecks that I trawled.
The big news is that the Micra has gone 😦
Sold to a man in London, (I never get a simple local sale on ebay).
To be replaced by Berty the Berlingo, bought from a friendly car salesman called Nick from Castleford. I have never bought from a car dealer before, but it was easy as pie, he even delivered it to our house.

I wanted a van, and had been looking for an unhealthy amount of time for one, but they had all been ragged to death to Jupiter and back, plus we needed something we could use on a daily basis, so the Berlingo is a good compromise.
Thanks to Aly for the tip 🙂

Planning a big road trip next summer 🙂

Met our match?

Fishing has been light this year. We have only been a handful of times and maybe we have both lost a bit of enthusiasm for the sport, but the last junior match of the year popped up on a free weekend, on a nearby pond, so went along. There were only 4 others, all mad keen young and experienced teenage Anglers (all with very keen and competitive Fisherman dads), then there were us 2 chancers!

Valentina started catching a fish every cast and at one point we thought she was going to pull off a remarkable victory!

However, all the fish were tiny little tiddlers and as results go on total weight and not quantity, it wasn’t to be. Cracking day out though 🙂

Trick or treat???

Another year, another make-up job!
Pushing my pronouns to their limits this year with a bit of cross dressing.
Valentina did my make-up, but as every year, I am still disappointed that this face slap doesn’t dissolve overnight, it takes as long to get off as it does to put on!

A good time was had by all and nobody died!

Joker part II

Continuing with the theme of make-up, but with more casualties than a kid’s halloween party, went to the pictures to see the latest Joker film.
I loved the first one, although it was at the cinema in Peru, when I was wearing my infamous mail order “Colourblind, I thought it was blue and it was closer to silver” Elvis suit, and we arrived late and there was only space on the front row, and Lina thought that (apart from all the killing bits) that the film reflected me a bit too closely for comfort!

Moving on to the new “Joker Folie Deux“, which opened to mixed reviews, although I am no Barry Norman, I thought it was definitely worth a watch.
If you want a film to make you feel better about yourself, but not in a Jennifer Aniston way, go and see it, now!

Raider’s round-up

Life is always an emotional roller coaster being a Barrow Raiders fan!
Nothing is ever easy nor clear cut and as expected it went to the very last match/points difference/relying on another team to lose, to avoid the drop, but we survived.

A gutsy performance against Widnes was a losing one (just), but Swinton did us a favour and lost, so we live on for another season in the Championship.

Onwards and upwards!

And finally

Has this ever happened to you?

Until the next time amigos….

The Bone Temple :-(

Morning folks

Hope you are fit and well.
I am netither right now, hence haaving patched this twaddle together on a Monday off work, wearing 100 layers, on a sunny day!
Being the sad sap that I am, I took a day’s holiday, not wanting to tarnish my 30yr sick-free record, (apart from Covid)
30yrs though?! What has it gained me? Absolutely bugger all.
Take a day off sick right now folks 🙂

Mustn’t grumble, (but I will), been struck down with some kind of back-to-school-lurgy/flu, it has kind of buggered up my plans, but “life is not linear“, as someone once said.
(I had started to write this blog a week ago, but it has all been scribbled out and rewritten).

The Bone Temple

Where to start with this one? This was potentially the most exciting news ever!

28 Days Later was the 2002 Danny Boyle produced ” post-apocalyptic survival horror” film, exploring societal collapse following an infection cross-contaminated from animals (sound familiar?)
Starring a young Cilian Murphy (Ewan MacGregor was first cast, then Ryan Gosling and then James McAvoy, but it was our Peaky Blinders man who woke up in a London hospital after very bad things had happened, and even worse things continued happening).
Shot on a £5M budget on a Canon XL1 digital video (DV) camera, I am not Barry Norman, but it is an absolute Genre classic!

28 Weeks Later was the follow up, but not directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Robert Carlyle (sadly not as Begbie, from Trainspotting, he would have sorted them all out in the opening scene), it is also definitely worth a watch.

Fast forward to 2024 (not quite 28 years later, but near enough).
THE BONE TEMPLE…

(I have signed a confidentiality agreement on this, so cannot give too much away for fear of being sued!)
About 3 months ago, I saw an advert “Extras needed for film, ultra-runners & cyclists”. (I am guessing because they can run like zombies and are generally skinny, whereas it maybe wouldn’t be PC to just ask for a load of skinny people?)

It piqued my interest but the application process was really overcomplicated, so I left it. Then, whilst on holiday (1st of August to be precise) a friend sent me another advert “Extras urgently needed for new DANNY BOYLE film, ultrarunners and cyclists…”

(In my brief and unillustrious previous ventures into the world of acting, everything seems to be URGENT, or perhaps just last minute, or both!)

This time, I filled in the application (ticking a box to say “Yes, I will bare my bottom to the World on cinema“, so very, very desperate was I to be in that film!
So, I sent my application that same evening and the very next morning I got a text “URGENT, BE AT HARROGATE TOMORROW AT 08:00…”

Therein laid a problem.

We were on our way from Kendal to Wasdale, the next day was my birthday and I had an entry for the Borrowdale Fell Race, the feature race of the whole summer! It was basically slap bang in the middle of our jollies. Could I pull the plug and go to the film set for my own selfish needs? To be honest, neither of the girls were overimpressed that I might be going nuddy in this debacle anyway.

The pros:
– 10 days filming at £600 per day. (New van! A decent van, not the sheds I have been looking at forever).
– Get to be in a bloody DANNY BOYLE film!
– Worldwide fame and fortune to follow, with free cups of tea and fish and chips, wherever I went, plus the opportunity to possibly retire before the age of 80.
– Starring in a DANNY BOYLE film (have I said that already? This was a seriously big deal for me, AND getting paid 6 grand!
Winner, winner, zombie dinner!

The cons:
– I didn’t have 10 days leave (I could worry about that minor detail later).
– It would mean missing the August classic Borrowdale fell race (& the slight chance of getting on “Countryfile!”.
– Messing up family week in Wasdale.
– It would stop the holiday show to go home!

I spent several hours deliberating over and over and over, but ultimately a decision had to be made.

In the end, Borrowdale Fell Race won. I had a few ghosts to banish after my fall the last year.
A love of fellrunning won over film-fame-fortune.
I thought that was it…

Then, a week later, another “urgent” text.
“YOU ARE REQUIRED IN SKIPTON FOR FILMING AT 06:00 ON MONDAY 23/09/24”

Bloody ‘ell. A second bite of the cherry!

So, I booked the day off work, started a starvation diet and didn’t shave off my moustache (as that had been in my application photos and description. A good zombie always has a good tash, obviously!)

Then, a painful bombshell, “URGENT TEXT, YOU HAVE NOW BEEN RELEASED FROM FILMING…”

So, it was not to be, absolutely gutted, but it was bloody exciting for a few weeks whilst I thought it was going to happen!

All change!

The Grisedale Horseshoe was my last outing, on a glorious hot August Saturday. A sprint of race at 16km/10 miles with1525m/5003ft of climbing.
I have a mate who runs for Bingley called Stewart. Good fellrunner.
If I am really on top of my game, I can just about beat him (thinking about it, I have only ever beat him once).
At Grisedale we were neck and neck all the way up Catsycyam, Helvellyn, St. Sunday Crag and still, with only a cigarette paper betwen us, on the last brutal vertical climb to the last checkpoint. Then, being the navigationally inept dipstick that I am, I took a duff route choice, losing 15 places and 2 minutes, whilst I extracted myself from a field of head high bracken. Stewart beat me by 2 minutes! (On a day when visibility was about 100 miles in every direction, I can’t even blame it on the mystical, magnetic properties of the magical P&B vest, known to make a compass spin wildly!)

Before being struck down with the lurgy, training was going well!
I have increased my S&C (not to be confused with S&M) by 6000% from previous years, the dedication to which included selling our fishtank (minus previous inhabitatts, after 3 baby booms in short succession, sadly they all had to go, back to the shop, not down the toilet, or in Tad River!)
Thereby making space for a growing armoury of things to try to lift, wobble on or jump on/off.

Plyometrics and callisthenics were words that were new to me until recenty.

All of which is good, and will hopefully prevent me from getting crocked (the constant worry of a runner), but…
The only thing that will get me good at running up and down hills, is running up and down hills, a bit tricky in the flat wastelands of the Vale of York. So run I must, up hills and down dale if at all possible.

Racewise, all I had left were
– Three Shires Race – Pulled out.
– Peris Horseshoe – Pulling out.
– Langdale – Unlikely now.
– Dunnerdale – Hopeful. (It will be Lina’s first “proper” fell race, so I will be jogging around with her).
– I am sidestepping Tour of Pendle.
– November – two-dayer adventure in the Highlands with my mate John, hoping to avoid getting walloped by a 2024 version of Storm Babet, like last year!

As 2024 has suddenly/prematurely fizzled out, 2025 is already off the back burner!

2025 Plans?

On our jollies in August, we were lucky to be in the right place for a sporting spectacular day including the Blisco Dash and the Lakeland 50/100.

The Lakeland 100 is a trail race loop of the Lakes, starting at Coniston, passing through Eskdale, Wasdale, Ennerdale, Buttermere, Braithwaite, over the Coach Road to Ullswater, to Dalemain House (halfway, and start of Lakeland 50) through Pooley Bridge, Fusedale, Haweswater, Longsleddale, Kentmere, Ambleside, Chapel Stile, Langdale, Tilberthwaite and back to Coniston.

I did the Lakeland 100 in 2011, as part of a NYE bet. The event was in its infancy then and I just clicked online and was in.
(The race itself wasn’t quite so easy, I was the only person without walking sticks, long socks and a fancy rucksack, but I somehow got round!)

Fast forward to 2024, Lina was so inspired by the sight of runners with headlamps, passing through the valley, that someone/one of us said “Let’s do it”
(Dejavu of Mongol Rally. Who said “Let’s do it” then?)

I had already made a plan to train, coach and coax Lina round.

Nowadays it isn’t quite to simple to get in.
There is a ballot for everyone.
6000+ people applied this year.
Unfortunately Lina didn’t get in, but I did.

Now going solo wasn’t really on my gameplan, it’s not a race I would normally target, but at least it would make me get some miles in, something I have been sorely lacking this year. so I am going for it!

So, the 2025 “lightly racing” plan (rather than shoehorn everything into the calendar), is:

March – Howarth Hobble

May – Old County Tops

June – Ennerdale

July – Lakeland 50

August – Tranter’s Round!

September – New legs please! (I have finally learnt to not plan past August, anything at all after August is a bonus!)

Watch this space…

There is No Wall.

Quite simply, the best book I have read in ages.
(I am a snailpaced reader, but I read this in a week, which is a record for someone who reads for 10mins per night!)

Allie Bailey is a UK Ultrarunner, sponsored by Inov8.
She was also a chronic alcoholic, with very serious depression (depression is never not serious) and mental health issues.

This is her story.

We have all got our demons to battle and all have a different “why”.
If you have issues or know someone with addiction, drinking, depression or mental health issues, this book is definitely worth a read. Not a feelgood book and you won’t learn anything about ultra running, but it is a very, very honest read. Thanks to Angela for the lend.

“Running won’t save you, but it might buy you the time to save yourself”.

Berlingo-a-go-go

In the latest quest for a new Batmobile, the search has most recently led me to deepest, darkest Castleford, twice in 24hrs no less.
Berlingos/Kangoos/Partners are basically all the same dog with more hair.
Zero fashion points, but with ACRES of space, cheaper to tax/insure than a van and if looked after, they last forever!

We did recently go all the way to Keighley on the Berlingohunt, but the van was an absolute wreck and (probably fortunately) there was nobody at the car dealership anyway, despite making an appointment. Which in itself had caused problems as a previous enquiry with a different private seller (who when I called previously didn’t seem to want to sell their vehicle) in South Yorkshire had led to a missed call on my phone.

I (wrongly) assumed it was Mr. Keighley.

Text conversation:
Unknown: “Hi, are you still interested in the car?”
Me: Yes, we are on our way. Be there by 2:30pm.
Unknown: “Okay, will be waiting for you. Do you have the address?”
Me: (Sends Keighley postcode).
Unknown: “I’m from Doncaster!”

Watch this space…

Leeds United Ladies

The Youngster’s last outing with Brownies, being a mascot with Leeds United Ladies, before stepping up to Guides.
A match that was postponed from last autumn.

Leeds United Ladies play in National League Division 1 (North).
They used to play here at Tadcaster (Albion), but the Albions is a pitch that too many times become more suitable for water polo.
They now play at Garforth Town, so that is where we headed on a soggy Sunday morning.

Big THANK YOU to these 2 amazing ladies, Bev & Jenny and their team for everything.
And now, into the world of Guides!

Raiders round-up

It’s always extremely nerve racking and never a simple task being a Barrow fan!

The wrap-up to a scrappy season is as follows:

We went to Toulouse – to lose 😦
We beat Whitehaven, the “Jam Eaters”, in a highly important local derby at the weekend.
We face Wakefield – Top of the league, on their way back into Superleague.
And finally, Widnes – Who are aiming for the play-offs. so will want the best result possible to ease their plight.

(Why do so many rugby league teams begin with W?)

So basically, Barrow are on the edge of a relegation cliff and partially relying on the 3 teams below them to mess up!

The ladies beat Huddersfield at home but got trounced by Saint Helens away.
They did however secure 5th spot in their first Superleague season, which is brilliant 🙂

It’s not going to be easy for the men!

And finally…

Another reminder (for me) of yet another squandered opportunity and possible bad life choice 🙂

Stay safe folks!

Johnny

p.s. Next blog. On The Back Foot British Relays gig!

Vacaciones!

Good morning folks

Here is the latest ladfromtad.com blog.
Less writing and more pics this time.
Just back from our first family jollies in the last 6 years.
T’Lakes. (Which means this blog is heavily Lakes & fellrunning biased).
In this mixed bag summer of sunshine and showers, we didn’t do too badly.

Packing as lightly as possible for 2.5 weeks was always going to be one of our biggest hurdles, but as long as we packed the car in exactly the same way, each time, in between moving around the Lakes, we would manage!

Valentina “borrowed” my phone whilst I was driving, and I found this, and others, later on 🙂

Ambleside Sports

So, we loosely planned our trip around the school holidays, my holidays and a few things going on in the Lakes. kicking off with Ambleside Sports.

The Nipper & I have got involved with a brilliant podcast by the name of “On the Back Foot“, which is mainly about fellrunning, but interspersed with other (mainly daft) stuff too. Although I had met mein host, JT, today was the day that Valentina first met the man himself 🙂

Meeting the legendary Jacob Tonkin, from ON THE BACK FOOT podcast.

Rydal Round fell race, the less said the better!
In a nutshell, I got everything wrong; pacing, training, food, navigation, shoes, and more.

Blue ice cream, before watching the Guides Race and Hound Trailing, after the Cumberland Westmorland Wrestling, what more could a person want?!

The Bridge House wasn’t quite as impressive, as in the photos!

Whilst I do like to support the local community, the price of this loaf came as a shock, and it wasn’t made with cocaine and saffron either!

Saturday sporting spectacular!

Saturday 27th August was a bit of a mad day sports and weatherwise.
Awaking to torrential rain, we headed from Langdale to Whinlatter Pass, near Keswick for Lina to take part in one of the hilliest Parkruns in the country, for which the monsoon halted and it slowly turned into a cracking day!

Back to Langdale for the British Championship race, The Blisco Dash. It was a bit of a Challenge Anneka for us to get there in time, but we did it.

**Still haven’t seen any famous climbers at the ODG.**

The men’s winner, Matthew Knowles (Lancaster & Morecambe AC).

Pudsey & Bramley legends: Rachel Pilling (V40 British Ladies champion) and Rob Hope (V50 British Mens champion).

Headlights of Lakeland 50 & 100 runners floating through the valley on the Saturday night. To be continued…

Kendal

We headed back to my hometown for a few days to stock up on Kendal Mint Cake and shoes at Pete Bland Sports.

The best fellrunning shoes I have ever had. VJ Irocks, found a pair which fitted me. Sticky as glue on wet rock. These are the future!

Spent the hottest day of the year in this souless launderette! Always good to have clean clobber though.

Borrowdale

(After Wasdale) the big race of the year for me, coinciding with my birthday and the race being covered by Countryfile (which I haven’t seen yet).

A race I love and a route I know. Last year I fell and bashed my ribs within the first mile. This year was better, but despite the insane grip of my out-of-the-box VJs, I almost took a headlong plunge down the steepest part of the descent off Scafell Pike, my birthday guardian angels were looking down on me, as I somehow righted my right size 13 mid-fall and didn’t kill myself, nor break my neck!

Perfect conditions. Big field. Got under 5hrs. Job done 🙂

Wasdale

We headed up to remote Wasdale for a family meet with the club.
It is a place that I absolutely love to bits. A bit of a hike, but more than worth it.

The elusive Emerald Pool.

Before the storm!

Descending from Styhead Pass, blowing a gale, driving rain, Lake District summer!

Less than 24hrs later…

Free fish pedicure! They musy have been blooming starving to tackle my plates of meat

Paddleboarding. I was too traumatised to have a go, due to by trying//failing to windsurf on a school trip to Morecambe Bay, 75 years ago.

Drigg beach, August.

Natterjack Toad, released unharmed, although maybe a bit bemused!

Steel Fell

Got word of a midweek sports special. The Steel Fell race.
Fellrunning at its simplest.
100 people in a field, someone (Scoffer) shouts “GO”, run up hill, run down hill. Free entry. How could one resist?

On a day of constant on-off downpours, we just sat in the hut, chatting and I broke my tea drinking record with 14 cups before 5pm!

My first “short” fell race in over 20 years and I absolutely loved it. No need to think about kit, food, navigation. Just a straightforward as it gets up-&-down blast. Steel Fell is convex, so on the descent you can see Thirlmere, but it looks like you are dropping off the edge of the earth to get to it. Pure, trying not to fall on your ar$e, fun 🙂

Josie, too fast for the camera!

Jose, Josie & Johnny!

Even I couldn’t get lost on a race like this 🙂

Josie & Lina.

A special mention to a friend from the club who has done something that I have been failing at for the past few years; tempting Lina on to the fells!

Josie took Lina under her wing and showed her the ropes around Langdale.
It gave Lina the confidence to take on her first ever fell race, let’s see where it leads to!

Wild swimmers.

Not a sport I am likely to get into soon, but I have nothing but respect and admiration for people who do it. (I am too much of a wuss, blaming it on Raynaud’s Syndrome and I am sticking by that).

Big THANK YOU to Josie, Rachel & Katie for the motivation for getting the girls in the water.

Next stop, crossing the Channel!

Fiestas Patrias.

Peruvian Independence Day was spent rambling around the Langdale valley.

**Fleeing the cloud of Horsefiles which descended on us at Blea Tarn.**

We had no Peruvian tucker, but managed to rustle up some Venezuelan Arepas, which meant we were all full for the rest of the week 🙂

Second bite of the cherry!

Rusland Sports.
Our friend, Bobby Gard-Storry, had tipped me off about this hidden gem.
The original plan was a trip to N.Wales, to recce the Peris Horseshoe route, but this crumbled a few days before, so with 2 days off work, we headed back to Langdale, to try and cram as much in over 3 days as possible!

Always the Bridesmaid and never the Bride! BGS 2nd to Jack Wright (again & again & again!)
My first ever live interview, right here: https://shows.acast.com/otbfpod/episodes/prost

Lina, not 100% about her impulsive entry into her first ever fell race.

BGS (2nd male) & Lina (1st Lady V40). Although she was the only Lady V40, you have to be in it to win it and with her £20 cash prize, she quadrupled my winnings of the last 35 years.

1st Lady V40 in the BOFRA Fell Race and 3rd in the U12 Fancy Dress competition.

Raiders round-up.

After countless inconsistent results, then a draw against Bradford Bulls and a win last week away against Dewsbury, the mighty Raiders are hopefully

turning things around. They kept their cool against Swinton. This drags us out of the quicksand at the bottom of the Championship league table, with only 5 games left.

Barrow Ladies take a 3 week break but really need to up their game against Featherstone next weekend, with only 3 games left in the Superleague season.

COYR 🙂

Take Hart!

Raynaud’s Syndrome is my standard excuse for being crap at anything in the cold and colourblindness is my excuse for being crap at anyhting arty, (as long as the source of a lifelong pain that I could never make it as a Pilot and then get picked as an Astronaut!)

Thankfully the Youngster has inherited her Mum’s artistic flair.

Capybara made out of clay from the footpath near Blea Tarn.

Drawing done with out-of-date make-up (not mine!)

And finally…

My least shaky video yet!
An early morning trot in Great Langdale, with a bonus cloud inversion 🙂

Hasta la proxima amigos
Johnny & the girls

**All my radioactive socks were kept in an airtight bag, which was then encased in concrete and should be safe by 2253.**

p.s. Big THANK YOU to Doni Clarke for lending me the charging lead, lifesaver 🙂

p.p.s Next blog: Jimbo is back in town…

Wasdale revisited.

Good morning folks

I trust you are in fine fettle.
A quick blog turnaround, if I don’t get it down on paper quick, I’ll forget it.
A bit fellrunningcentric again. Middle of the racing season.
Big race of the year last weekend (for me), the start of the summer holidays (for youngsters, but sadly not the weather, yet!)
Plus a very special day paying respect to and celebrating the life of Joss Naylor.

Wasdale Horsehoe fell race

The Big One!

The Wasdale Horseshoe is a tough old race.
If you stand at the start, near the Wasdale Head NT Campsite and spin round 360 degrees, you get a sense of what is to come!

This year it was chosen as an English Championship race, so instead of the usual 100-ish runners, there were 350 places, which sold out in a few hours.
All the big guns were on the start line, but would Billy Bland’s 1982 record (3:25:21) be under threat?

I first ran this race in 2000, there were 47 runners, it was claggy from start to finish and I had to map-&-compass it all the way round. A tough day out.

This year the race was poignant in that it was only recently that we lost Joss Naylor, one of the greatest fellrunners of all time, and Wasdale was his kingdom, where he farmed. A few thoughtful words from the starter and “Three Cheers for Joss” were part of the start, Joss wouldn’t have wanted us all to be miserable.

It is a “horseshoe”, but in effect a full loop (otherwise the start and finish would be separate, not ideal if you’ve run 21 miles and climbed up and down 9000ft, and can barely walk to your car as it is, even when you are parked at the finish!)

From Brackenclose, you go straight up The Screes, a good path that does eventually top out and then it is good running all the way to Whin Rigg (checkpoint 1-cut off: 60mins), then a steep downhill into a gully and then across the valley bottom, through muddy fields, woods and tracks, popping out briefly on the road at Greendale Bridge (checkpoint 2), up the side of the beck, digging in for an endless, soggy climb to Seatallan (checkpoint 3-cut off: 2hrs25mins), and then a good run downhill, aquaplaning through the bottomless bog of the Pots of Ashness, following a hint of a trod around Haycock, and then up to Pillar (checkpoint 4-cut-off: 3hrs25mins) from here it is a fast path round the back of Kirk Fell, and then you get a sight of Great Gable, the steep side! Not many people run up this bit, and any chit-chat dies off, to the summit at least (checkpoint 5-cut off: 4hrs30mins), and then a rocky plunge down to Styhead Mountain Rescue stretcher box and then starts “The Death March”.
A long haul up past Sprinkling Tarn, (the wettest place in England) to Esk Hause (checkpoint 6) and then turning homewards over the Scafell Massif (a group of mountains, not a gang of Homeboys), dodging the crowds all the way to the rooftop of England, Scafell Pike (checkpoint 7), from here it is all downhill to the col at Lingmell, rocky at first, and then a brilliant grassy run off down Lingmell Nose, sloping steeper and steeper to the last checkpoint (checkpoint 8) at the wall crossing and the world’s steepest stile, and the world’s best race run-in to the end, dodging the masses, hidden boulders and tree roots and then, the finish, stop, and look back at the skyline and smile 🙂

(Races have cut-off times, to prevent marshals, who are volunteers, from being out on the tops in stinking conditions all day, so you can’t dawdle too much, for fear of being timed out. Wasdale has quite tight cut-offs, as some of the tops are remote and exposed!)

I won’t go in to a blow-by-blow-step-by-step account.

The ladies (U23 up to V70)and V55 men (and above, so that’s V60, V65 & V70) all set off at 10:30, the rest set off at 11am, (I am V50 nowadays so agewise I’m towards the back of that bunch).
The winner, the inimitable Flying Scotsman, Finlay Wild, (Lochaber AC), set off like a jet powered steam train and despite running against the very best of the best of current British fellrunners, disappeared into the distance, never to be seen again, until the finish. Time: 3:37:42, the fastest time since 1990, but nobody has ever come within 5mins of Billy Bland’s record.

**Men’s winner – Finlay Wild.**
**Photo courtesy of Steven Wilson**

**Ladies’ winner, Nichola Jackson**
**Photo courtesy of Steven Wilson**

The ladies race was won by Nichola Jackson (Keswick AC) in 4:29:23 and an impressive LV70 winner was Wendy Dodds. Keith Holmes was first MV70.

**Ladies’ V70 winner, Wendy Dodds**
**Photo courtesy of Stephen Wilson**

For myself, I started steadily, and had a grand plan!

As the girls were up to support me, I hatched a plan for them to have some food and drink for me at Greendale Bridge; 2 sarnies, a chewy bar and a pint of sports juice, leaving me to carry just a fistful of gels, a dozen jelly babies and an emergency slab of Kendal Mint Cake, plus a tiny 20ml bottle. So running across the valley, I was daydreaming about a Charlie Baker sarnie (banana and syrup) and a Joe Quail sandwich (cheese, ham and BOMBA sauce)…

I arrived at the rendezvous point, to meet, nobody!
My support crew were nowhere to be seen.

A mix-up with times left me dithering, what to do, what to do, I had to go, cut-offs were pressing down on me.

I remember watching a video about an American lass doing the Ramsay Round (24hr mountain challenge in Scotland) who said that “Everything can be either positive or negative, but if you want to finish, it has to be positive!”

I mulled over my missing lunch and figured I could get round with what I had on me, so I cracked on.

Daydreaming about my sarnies, somewhere near Greendale Bridge.
Photo courtesy of Peter Trainor

The clag came in a bit, as did the rain across the boggy bit to Pillar, my rations were a gel on the hour and a solitary jelly baby on every half hour, plus stopping at every beck en-route to slake my thirst. I was under the cut-offs and feeling good. Pillar done, Great Gable climbed, final cut-off ticked off, then I caught my mate John, at the start of the Death March, and then it was just a case of digging in and getting to Scafell Pike and hopefully finding a good line off the top to the Lingmell col. which is ALWAYS claggy.
Glancing at my watch all along the Scafell Pike ridge I figured I might just get under 6 hours, (I ran this last year and back in 2000, but had never got under 6hrs), I think my Guardian Angel was watching down on me as I took a few more risks than usual, lots of slips and trips and had a few near heart stopping stumbles, but no KOs!

Descending Lingmell Nose
Both photos thanks to Pete Trainor.

On to the grassy bit, I opened it up and tried to coordinate my tired legs dowhill, coming over the brow of the steep bit to see a bloke with the biggest, most ferocious looking hound from hell, that I have ever seen, which luckily didn’t maul me. I had to slam on the brakes to stop for the stile, not falling on my ar$e on the steep side and legged it down to the finish.

Time: 5:56:39

Fellrunning is not about the times, but I was chuffed to bits to do my fastest ever time. (Finlay Wild had got back 2hrs earlier, got changed, had a nap, had his tea and was halfway home to Fort William, but he is another level!)

Had a late lunch, eating my non-rendezvous sarnies and then went back to our digs, feeling a bit weird after necking way too many gels!

A good day was had by all 🙂

Special mentions to Tim from ARCC, who cycled up from Glossop on Friday, raced Saturday and then cycled back (over Hardknott & Wrynose Passes) to Glossop on Sunday, and, to the bloke parked next to me, for whom it was his first ever fell race!
Hardcore you know the score.

If my legs don’t drop off, next on the summer circus tour it’s Ambleside Sports (Rydal Round) on Thursday and then Borrowdale the week after, on my birthday 🙂

Life on the ocean wave

The Nipper and I have an annual summer tradition/treat to go sea fishing off Whitby, to hopefully catch enough for tea and then have a bit in the freezer.

After obsessing about the forecast and booking the best 2 days off work, I didn’t account for:
a) Monday: Perfect weather, but the Captain having a hangover after the England match and rebooking us for Tuesday.
b) Tuesday: The perfect weather predicted last week for Tuesday doing a complete turnaround and becoming foggy, raining and choppy.
c) The crap weather on Wednesday becoming the best day of the week, when I had originally booked the day off but then canceled it and was at work!

British summer, don’t ya just love it!
There’s only Captain Bird’s Eye fish fingers in our freezer for now then.

Raiders round-up

Good and not so good.
Cracking win for the ladies Vs. Huddersfield 🙂

An uphill and sadly non-victorious battle Vs. Batley Bulldogs for the men. 😦

Sunday sees a double header at home, with the ladies up again Leeds Rhinos at noon and the men up against Sheffield Eagles at 3pm.
COYR.
Onwards and upwards!

RIP Joss

Friday the 19th of July 2024 was an emotional day.
A funeral.
Family? No.
A close friend? No.
A person who you really want to pay your respects to? Absolutely yes.

(I wrote about Joss’s history and legacy in the last blog).

In December 2021 Joss had suffered a stroke. He passed away on 28/06/24.
His wish to his family was for fellrunners to run over the hills and Lakeland passes, and to lead in his funeral cortege, to St. Olaf’s Church, the smallest church in England, in arguably the most beautiful corner of the country, Wasdale.

Groups of fellrunners and walkers of all ages and abilities, streamed down into the valley, estimates of 500 strong, coming over from Ennerdale, Eskdale, Honister Pass, Langdale and Seathwaite. Clubs from all over the country.

I ran over with a group of friendly runners from Ambleside AC, from Langdale.
Up at 4am, away at 5am and running by 9am. (Managed to leave all my water bottles in the fridge and the becks were dry, so it was a thirsty day out, but a small price to be pay to be present at such an occasion).

A colourful procession of club vests led Joss on his last run out to the church, followed by a touching service and then burial in his final resting place, looking out over the beautiful valley he had lived in all of his life.

Joss was a pioneer in fellrunning, his limits knew no boundaries and he set countless unthinkable records, he raised a lot of money for people less fortunate than himself and always had a word, or a tale, for everyone he met.

I met him twice, once before my first Wasdale race (2000) when I really was going into the unknown and he gave me some tips and hints for getting round, then again in 2016 at a talk with Nicky Spinks. He was the utimate storyteller!

It was a privelege to be involved and a fitting send off.
The sun shone and the fells were clear.

Ken Ledward gave a touching eulogy.
There is a “Joss Naylor Challenge” for runners over the age of 50.
The route leaves Pooley Bridge to traverse 30 summits over a distance of 48 miles and climbs 16,000 feet (77km, 4877m) finishing in Wasdale, where Joss used to meet all finishers, with a handshake.

A runner was doing the challenge on the 28th of June and Joss was being updated by phone, in his bed with progress.
At 17:58, Joss was told that the runner had successfully completed his run.
At 18:00, Joss passed away.

RIP Joss Naylor – 1936-2024

And finally

Not that I watch the news these days, nor can I say that BBC coverage is impartial, but here is a very good article with a great video about Joss’s last run on Friday. (Link below picture).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e80e8l2yo

That is all for now folks.
Until the next time.

Cheers
Johnny

p.s. If you have made it this far, I highly recommend listening to ON THE BACK FOOT Podcast, right here: https://shows.acast.com/otbfpod

Wasdale.

Good morning folks

I trust you are well.
A swiftly produced blog this time, seizing the opportunity whilst waiting in for a plumber.
A quick round-up of the events happening in the maelstrom of chaos and nonsense that is called life.
(Including a new government and Three Lions into the Euro 2024 finals, but both of those events have been covered in the press elsewhere!)

Wasdale.

Wasdale (/ˈwɒzdeɪl/; traditionally /ˈwɒsəl, ˈwɒʃdəl/)

The one word that has been going round and round my head (and doubtlessly other fellrunner’s heads too) for quite a few months now.

Wasdale, the wildest of Lakeland valleys, boasting England’s highest mountain (Scafell Pike), deepest lake (Wastwater), Biggest Liar (competition held every year in November at the Bridge Inn, Santon Bridge, Lawyers and Politicians are barred from entering), and one of England’s most challenging fell races: The Wasdale Horseshoe fell race, 21 miles with 9022ft of hands on thighs climbing, or 34km/2750m in new money.
Not an easy place to get to, but more than worth the effort.

I have run it 3 times, first in 2000, which was a proper on-your-own clagfest adventure, then last year where I got sunburnt and borderline hypothermic on the same day and this year, when it is (using the present tense, as this is the day before and I haven’t run it yet) a British Championship race, which means instead of the usual 100-ish runners, there will be 300 people all trying to be first to get to the stile on the first climb!

What will become of those brave/foolhardy enough to set off from Brackenclose on Saturday morning. Watch this space…

From Gaffer back to Minion.

Well, I dipped my toes in the murky waters of management (again) and decided to abseil back down to the job I enjoyed, could do and didn’t involve spinning 15 different plates at the same time.
Good to be back 🙂

In the Summertime…

What a glorious summer we are having, both days of which were gorgeous.

Not a summer of (positive) note, yet, I am still hanging on to the hope that it will turn itself around into an Indian Summer that people will talk about for decades to come.
Although I am missing the BBQ of the year (sorry Pete) for Wasdale this weekend, we did squeeze in one sunny evening of outdoor eating at Langdale and fit in a couple of short walks, between and during the showers.

A life on the ocean wave.

The young ‘un and I have our annual summer pilgrimage to Whitby for a boat fishing outing, round about my birthday.
The first year was brilliantly productive, last year provided leaner pickings.

2024 trip planned for next week, will we be filling our freezer, or will we be having tea at Kirkgate Fisheries?

Watch this space…

Raider’s round-up.

After being positively mugged by Wakefield Trinity and more recently, shown up by York, confidence is not sky high for an away trip to Mount Pleasant on Sunday (wasn’t that nice last time I went) against Batley Bulldogs.
COME ON YOU SHIPBUILDERS!!!

Joss’s last run…

Set amidst yew trees in the Viking fields at the head of Wasdale, near the deepest lake and the highest mountain in England, is the possibly the smallest church in England, St. Olaf’s Church. The church is roofed with massive slate tiles over beams that are claimed to come from wrecked Viking ships.

This will be Joss Naylor’s final resting place, with a perfect view across the valley to the fells that were his kingdom.

The funeral is next Friday and a final wish was for fellrunners to “Lead Joss home” in front of the hearse, wearing club vests, after having run over the fells to Wasdale Head.
I have booked the day off work and (providing I can still walk after the Wasdale race) hope to be their to pay my respects to a great man.

And finally…

In my quest to force out one-video-per-month, here is my latest offering.
Rambings in Langdale.

I have been (and still am) in two minds about making videos when racing, and the shaky ones I have made have had little talking/chit-chat.
Think I overcompensated with this one

Until next time amigos 🙂

Johnny

RIP Joss

Good morning folks

I trust you are well.
Here is the latest ladfromtad.com blog

Bits and bobs.

Summer finally came (and went as quick as it came).

The Nipper had her first ever ballet show 🙂
(All a bit lost and very new to me, but she loves it).

Had our first ever family trip to the Flicks!

The Nipper had her first experience on a climbing wall.
(Auto belay device, I wasn’t holding the rope whilst taking photos!)

One Sunday I got chatting to the owners (two elderly twins) of this amazing campervan, as they passed through Taddy, what a beauty!

I read this awesome book (thanks to Baz for the lend).

and creakily started my fellrunning season proper…

All of which leads on to a fairly fellrunningcentric blog, with a snippet of Rugby League, if you are pushed for time, just skip to the Joss Naylor part.

Ennerdale Horseshoe (36.8km/22.9miles with 2290m/7513ft of ascent).

Ennerdale was my curtain opener last year, after the long, dark days of Long Covid. Last year was a “Hotter then Ibiza” heatwave. This year threatened minus 4 degrees of wind chill!

The Friday night drive over to Wasdale was a joy, but Saturday dawned a mixed bag. I have run Ennerdale 4 times and know the route, so I was calm, (although never totally confident!)

Got there early, almost off to a very bad start, with this inches-off bit of parking!

E.S.P or pure luck, prevented me from stoving in the back of Lina’s car, just before the start. I was under pressure from a parking warden and didn’t see the post at all

(With a pair of binoculars) the race goes from the low bit in the centre of the pic (Ennerdale Scout Camp), then crawls up Great Borne (big lump on left) and along the Red Pike ridge as far as Green Gable, then swings over Kirk Fell, Pillar and back along Haycock, Iron Crag and Crag Fell (last hump centre left) before a joyous plunge to the finish (which luckily is the same place as the start!)

The race organiser says “This race route is not for the faint hearted but after completing you’ll proudly display it on your runners’ CV. It is a horseshoe but in many respects it is an out and back race. If you retire at or near the midway point (green gable ish!) you have a 10 mile jog, walk, stumble back to
registration along the valley floor.”

It is a race of one-third and two-thirds, the first 18 miles rough and rocky, then the last 6 miles grassy, runnable fells, but with a sting in the tail, (there is always a sting in the tail, Race Organisers are sadistic like that!)

My “Munching on the Moors” pack-up included a “Charlie Baker” sandwich, some malt loaf and a fistful of gels, (although I gave my malt loaf to a lad from Horsforth, as he was struggling as he had forgotten most of his food. Who would make an error such as that I ask you?!)

A friend at work had given me a Kendal Mint Cake caffeinated gel, this was my final emergency battery. I don’t drink coffee these days, so the combination of mint, sugar and caffeine was a potent one!
Managed to overtake 6 people on the last climb (they had blown a gasket) and finished feeling fairly fresh, (although driving home immediately afterwards, I did require a crane to get me out of my car when I got home at 10pm!)

I made a short, shaky race video here:

Two weeks later, inexorably was the day of the…

Buttermere Horseshoe (35.5km/22 miles with 2515m/8251ft ascent)

The RO has this to say “The Darren Holloway Memorial Race is one of the toughest Lakeland races in the calendar and makes a fantastic day out over the quiet Buttermere fells. In memory of Pennine Fell Runner Darren Holloway, this race is based on the original Buttermere Horseshoe.”

This only tells half the story…

Now, this was a new race for me, although I had run most of the race/tops separately, but over the space of 20 years. I had no time/opportunity for a recce, so spent my tea breaks watching the “Fly-by” of the route on the OS Maps app, thinking this would suffice!

I decided on smash-&-grab tactics; a 4am alarm and driving straight home afterwards.

In my giddiness I arrived 2 hours before kick-off, this was my first error.
Give me an hour, I have my 1 hour race routine down to a tee:
Toilet-kit check-get number-check everything-warm up-toilet-run.

However, give me 2 hours and it becomes:
Toilet-kit check-get number-chat for 1 and a half hours – realise time – panic – no time for proper warm up – no time to check everything – no time for toilet – rush to start – forget something important (such as half of my food, keeping nicely cool in my cool bag) – run – have a shocker of a race!

Weatherwise, it was a perfect day for it. Warm, sunny, bit of cloud and a bit of a breeze. The route is a big loop of everything one can see from Loweswater: Up Whiteside -Grasmoor – Whiteless Pike – Down and up to – Newlands Pass – Follow trod (if you can find it to) Dale Head – down to – Honister Pass – to the resting place of Alfred Wainwright at Inominate Tarn (the tarn without a name)- reverse Ennerdale route to – High Crag – High Stile – bypass Red Pike – down to a dip before a stream/ravine crossing up to – Mellbreak – down to the finish.

With visibility of 100 miles+ there was no excuses for navigational errors then.

In my defence your honour, there were 2 races going on at the same time and it was forgiveable to follow the wrong race route off Whiteless Pike (big THANK YOU to Richard from Marsden for shouting me back).

I realised my food shortages right about 5 minutes before this photo was taken .

Photo courtesy of Lakes legend, George Foster

Taking stock, I had a Charlie Baker sandwich, half a bag of jelly babies and 3 gels (and no Kendal Mint Cake rocket fuel). This was around 1/3 of the way round. My stomach was rumbling!

Around halfway round both my knees started playing up, it was like someone had removed the hinges. Uphills were fine, downhills weren’t.

I could see a small group ahead all taking good lines (route choice, not cocaine) including a distinctive CFR vest (Cumberland Fell Runners, local club with most likely local knowledge!) I made it my mission to catch them, which I did on the climbs, only to be dropped on the descents. I was on my Jack Jones for the last hour, when things were getting a bit desperate in the energy levels front, but finished (immediately and officially retiring my trusty but old) Walsh shoes, I went to the legendary CFR buffet. Chilli and rice and nachos and a cake stall which would outface Billy Bunter, all served by an amazing group of ladies who just could not do enough, fussing over everyone. Fed and watered, I made my way home, late and stiffening up by the minute. A grand day out 🙂

I made a short and shaky race video here:

Shoes!

Now this has become a bit of a fellrunnning blog, for which I apologise.
Fellrunners talk about all sorts of stuff, most of it not running related, (there is also a tale of which I am not sure is suitable for this blog, but maybe next time!)

One topic of conversation you can start up with any fellrunner is that of shoes! As a sport it is fairly simple and kit has only been overcomplicated by kit manufacturers in recent years. It is all about the grip!

Back in the day (where I generally live my life, unable to move on) there were only Walsh shoes. Hand made by Norman Walsh in a lock-up in Bolton.
Simple, bombproof, grippy as brown stuff on a blanket and minimal. Apart from a bit of lame competition by Ron Hill (Rivington Pike), Reebok (Fjellrunner) and the death trap that was the infamous Adidas Swoop. That was all there was, so things were simple. You wore Walshes, you could even resole them, eco-friendly before their time!

Walsh PB, available in narrow or narrower fit.

Then along came Inov8 at the turn of the century, who turned things (& prices) on their head. (Although not as crazy, nor pricey as carbon road shoes so I gather!)

Nowadays, other shoe manufacturers have realised there is a fellrunning market to be cornered and money, money, money to be made.

Back in the day.

1986 – When a bottle of milk cost 2 shillings and a house cost less than £100, Walshes cost around £30.

Now.

2024 – When a bottle of milk costs £5, a house costs half a million pounds and all top end shoes cost £130. Walshes have risen to £60.

So, after too many races where my legs and feet were absolutely trashed, I decided to bite the bullet, sell most of my internal organs and try the 3 best shoes currently on offer:

VJ Irock 4 – Amazing grip. In between sizes. 12 too small, 13 like wellies.
Ron Hll Reverence – Very well made, the Harry Bolton Electric Sex Shoe. Sadly too wide
Inov8 Mudtalon Speed – Would fit Daisy Duck well, but my canoe feet are too narrow.
So they all went back and my bank account became 500 sheets better off!

Then I tried Salomons, I’d worn them before and got on with them, but they have completely changed the last since the previous-but-one model (don’t you just hate that!)

So that is why I wore Walshes at Buttermere and paid the price (for having size 13 feet like narrowboats and not being able to find any clown’s shoes to fit me).

There is just one hope, watch this space…

Wasdale Horseshoe (34km/21.1miles with 2750m/9022ft of ascent)

The Race Organiser starts with this “Deepest lake, highest mountain, biggest liar and hardest fell race – that’s Wasdale. Wordsworth once said that
every fellrunner should do Wasdale at least once, or something like that!”

Wasdale is a beast! The sting in the tail is an ascent of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain, as its final climb, but there is plenty of drama before that!

I have run Wasdale 3 times, but there are so, so, so many places to come unstuck if the clag is down. (Last year a big incoming storm threatened to cancel the race, but the RO took a calculated guess and estimated that it would hit the fells late on. So we started in a sweaty sauna sunny kind of day and the tail-enders (me) got walloped on Scafell Pike. Sunburnt and borderline hypothermic in the same race).
The finish off Lingmell Nose is one of my favourite finishes in any race.
The first time I ran Wasdale there were 45 runners, the weather was pure choss, so I was on my own for most of the race. This year it is a British Championship race and the 300 capacity sold out in a few hours, things have changed.

I am carrying a rucksack full of niggles from Buttermere, but really, really, REALLY hoping I make the start line in 2 weeks time!

Raider’s round-up

A much needed away win at Swinton for the mighty Raiders.
Wakefield Trinity at home will be a trickier proposition.

Barrow ladies will be looking to bounce back against York Valkyrie next weekend!

RIP Joss Naylor

Fellrunning is quite a small, dare I say, niche, sport.
I have done it since I was a lad, I once won a race (with only 2 runners), I got on the podium another time (midweek Lakes race, small field), and I once got in the top 50 of a British Championship race, so looking at me, I haven’t even got any matches to set the world alight!

But, I absolutely love the sport with my whole (knackered) body and soul. For me, it is almost a way of life (if only I lived a tad closer to some hills!)

It is not a sport for primadonnas, people take it seriously, but not themselves. It is (generally) low key, low tech and even if you were the very best, it would not be possible to make a living out of it.
Races start in a field, go up a hill, or several hills, and then come back to the finish, where the winner might get a sports shop voucher, and everyone gets a cuppa and some cake. It is a simple, uncomplicated sport.

There are way more people doing it nowadays, compared to when I first started (Kentmere Pike race, 1986) and the sport has seen some phenomenal runners in its time: Billy Bland, Kenny Stuart, Ian Holmes, Gary Devine, John Wild, Colin Donnelly, Rob Jebb, Rob Hope, George Foster, Finlay Wild and more…

One name that is a household name, is that of Joss Naylor MBE.

Previous record holder for running the Pennine Way (which most walkers do over 2 weeks, Joss ran it in 3-&-a-bit days) and the Wainwrights (Most folk take a lifetime to walk all 214 tops, Joss did it in a week!)

To list but a few of his achievements:

1971: 61 peaks in 23h37m

1972: 63 peaks in 23h35m

1975: 72 peaks, claimed to involve over 100 miles and about 38,000 feet of ascent in 23h20m (record stood until 1988)

1971: The National Three Peaks Challengehe (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon): 11 hours 54 minutes including driving time

1973: The Welsh 3000s – the 14 peaks of Snowdonia in 4 hours 46 minutes (record stood until 1988)

1974: The Pennine Way: 3 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes (record stood until 1989)

1976: Robin Hood Bay to St Bees: 41 hours

1979: TheLyke Wake Walk: 4 hours 53 minutes (set during the annual race)(record stood until 1981)

1983: The Lakes, Meres and Waters circuit of 105 miles: 19 hours 20 minutes

1986: (age 50) completed the Wainwrights in 7 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes (record stood until 2014)

1997: (age 60) ran 60 Lakeland fell tops in 36 hours

2006: (age 70) ran 70 Lakeland fell tops, covering more than 50 miles and ascending more than 25,000 feet, in under 21 hours.

(Bearing in mind the advances in everything over the years; footwear, clothing, nutrition, communication, paths/trods becoming more defined…
These all make the records above even more impressive!)

But Joss Naylor was more than just a phenomenal fellrunner.

All the above are mere results in the life of an extraordinary man.
As a youth he had his cartilage removed from one knee, then later 2 discs removed from his spine. Doctors said he might never walk again, but he proved them wrong! People say that the pain he endured every day with his back, was what made him such an incredible force of nature on the fells.
Everyone can dig in, but he could dig deeper, and for longer…

I had the honour of meeting Joss (twice).
First at the 2000 Wasdale Race, where he happily chatted with runners at the start and then he gave out drinks at Greendale Bridge, part way round.
The second time was at a talk at Keswick. Joss was talking about modern sports food (gels, etc..) and said that if a run was less than 50 miles, he would take nothing, if it was over 50 miles, he might “tek a Mars Bar and drink out of becks”.

Joss gave so much back to the sport, and to charity, in particular the Brathay Trust.

He was a proper Cumbrian character, a first class storyteller and a fellrunning legend.
King of the fells, Iron Joss.
Joss sadly passed away on Friday. The world has lost a great man.

RIP Joss Naylor (1936-2024)

And finally

Until next time,
Johnny

Jura

Good morning folks

I trust you are in fine fettle.
This blog will (hopefully) be shorter than the usual ramble-on-a-thon.
Primarily because it is mainly about one thing, JURA.
(Secondly, my back is shot to pieces and if I sit down for too long, I might not be able to ever get up again!)

Round-up

Other things have been happening, alongsidethe focus on this race/trip.

1) I passed my Advanced Motoring Test, which wasn’t easy (for me).

2) We all went out for the first time in yonks!

3) We marshalled at the Old County Tops fell race and Lina had her first ever fell run (not the OCT, just up to Stickle Tarn), on a weekend when the Lakes was at its absolutely glorious sunny best 🙂

4) It stopped raining at times!

5) Barrow men and ladies teams both won .
Beating the Flat Cappers is never easy, so it felt good 🙂

6) I got promoted at work, (for a job nobody else wanted or applied for), I was kind of pushed into it, so watch this space!

JURA.

Jura Fell Race 25/05/24
Distance: 28 km / 17.4 miles
Climb: 2370 m / 7776 ft

“The Paps are not the sort of place people should run. But they do, every year. The Isle of Jura Fell Race is a frankly ridiculous phenomenon, with 250 runners saying their prayers before bashing off from sea level up not just the trio of Paps, but four other peaks, with a scarcely believable 2730m of ascent over nigh 30km.” (Source: The National Scot website)

(IF YOU LIKE, SKIP THIS WAFFLE STRAIGHT TO THE VIDEO IN THE FINAL BIT AT THE BOTTOM!)

The Isle of Jura. 4th largest island of the Inner Hebrides, home to 200 people and 5000 red deer over its 142 squre miles. Famous for George Orwell (he wrote 1984 at Barnhill Cottage), Corryvreckan whirlpool (where Orwell nearly drowned) and a Distillery.

For me the main event and focus on this race, “The Isle of Jura Fell Race” came along at a bit of a mad time.
I like my job, it is generally fairly steady, but it hasn’t been recently, plus the driving test, plus the promotion application/interview, plus other stuff outside work, plus a slow puncture that became a fast puncture the week of the race, plus other stuff (i,e. life).

Which all meant that everything was very last minute.
I had set my kit aside, but the rucksack I had did not have Tardis qualities, so my skimped down kit got even more skimped.

Jura is quite different to other races. There are several options:

1) Drive over from Kennacraig on the Calmac Macbrayne ferry to Islay (2hrs), then the shuttle (10mins) to Jura, carry all that you like and either camp, or sell all your internal organs for some digs, (the hotel was full but there was one place offering accommodation for £1000 per night).

2) Take the fast ferry (£30 each way) from Tayvallich, landing on the pier right next to the campsite. 40 minutes each way.

3) Leave your car at Kennacraig, take your pushbike across on the CalMac ferry, then the diddy ferry, then ride 8 miles to the campsite.

Traditionalists go for option 3, so we did too.

My mate John had offered to drive from Kendal, so I was up at 4am on the Thursday morning, away at 5am and Kendal by 7:30am, not exactly feeling the love for the race and thinking of other options (weekend in the Lakes, new shoes in Kendal, turning around and going home!)
I don’t know why, but the lead up had been poor with training too and I had hurt my back, so my excuse book was wide open.

Luckily John was up for it, so northwards we went!

The weather was wet, wet, wet on the way up. We made the ferry on time and then got straight on the shuttle ferry.

Feolin ferry port (!) feels like a very lonely place after a long day. The handful of other runners sped off as I tried to work out how to attach a second rucksack to my bike. (Riding a singlespeed bike with SPD pedals and studded fell shoes, with a massive rucksack on my back). John kindly offered to take it on his rack, otherwise I might still have been there now.

8 miles of “undulating” road got us to Craighouse and a blustery campsite.

After the first in a row of army rations pack meals (cheap Wayfayrer’s style boil in a pouch meal), things felt better and I slept like a log.

Friday morning dawned with midges, sunny and dry, but oh for some breeze.

It suddenly felt very relaxing to have no pressure to do anything at all, we were at the race start, a day early, knowing that you could start up a fellrunning conversation (fell shoes grip, nav errors, “Have you races this before?”) with anyone nearby. Happy days 🙂
We decided to go off for a pedal.

The “Three Arch Bridge” is the last checkpoint on the course, leading to 3 miles of road, BUT, for extra spiciness, a mile of that was covered in metal sheeting, to protect the road from heavy plant machinery, used to buld a jetty, to land a boat, to bring a new boiler to the Jura Distillery on the Friday night, to then be taken up 3 days after the race. (Please do not rain on race day was the thought of all, as this would up the stakes even more!)

After a ride down the coast, I headed back to a filling campsite and the arrival of the rest of the P&B crowd. Midges forced an early retreat and quiet descended early over the campsite on the eve of the race.

Saturday dawned early (it stays light late and gets light early in Bonny Scotland this time of year). The midges were out in force, so after kit check and registration, I sorted my kit inside my tent. My jelly babies had all congealed into a massive mutated lump, like some kind of chewy dog toy.

Start time always comes round in no time and at 10:30am, to the sound of a trio of Bagpipers and a decent sized crowd, and OFF.

The race consists of 3 “Pips”, 3 “Paps” and one final “Pip”.
The Pips are smaller than the Paps, but they aren’t that small.

An absolute bogfest up to the first Pip, I can feel myself going backwards, with that all too familiar “my legs are not working” feeling I have had in my last 7 races.
People steaming past me left and right, then into the clag and on my own.
Nobody in sight, in front or behind.
Hoping not to get lost so early on, I check my map just as the mists lift enough to get a sighting. Pip 2 follows, then some friendly P&B support on Pip 3 and then the race proper begins.

A long descent to the valley precedes a LONG climb up the first Pap.
The clag lifts, the sun shines bright and a tailwind gusts, making pirouettes an additional bonus when lifting one leg on some of the scrambling bits. The view from Pap 1 shows the work left to do…
Scree slopes are usually runnable, but this scree is different.
Bigger and looser boulders, potential to snap something!

Paps 2 and 3 are in the bag, but Pip 4 has the potential camel to break one’s back, and it does.
I had started getting pain early on. It is normal for me (with me being lanky tall, with crap posture) to feel it on climbs, but on the final Pip, I just can’t straighten up, welcome cowbells and enthusiastic marshalls at the summit and the last Pip run off would be a joy if only I could run properly, but that is not a problem for long, as 2 miles of bottomless slop bog follows the bottom of the last Pip reducing me to a ploughing slog, then a river crossing and finally the Three Arch Bridge. All that is left is 3 miles of road.
(Some runners change into road shoes here, but my size 13 road shoes didn’t make the cut and are sat in my lounge in Tadcaster, along with a heap of other stuff left behind!)

I dig in and run the best I can, doubled over, trying not to trip (almost going a cropper) on the metal bit. Helped on by a P&B clubmate on a bike, despite busting a gut, I cross the line 24 seconds over the 6 hour mark. (Finlay Wild would have showered, got changed, had his tea and rowed home by this point. His record is a very impressive 2:58:09)
A tough old race with a bit of everything (climbs, bog, scree, cliffs, more bog, road, metal road…)
Not my best every performance, but I am well chuffed to finish.

Prizegiving waa followed by a Ceilidh, but we were on the early ferry, so I hit the hay and slept the best I could with a jeffed back.

Sunday dawned wet and midgey. By 8am were were off, and with less than 10 seconds to spare, we made the shuttle ferry, then blagged our way onto the early CalMac (we were booked on the 6pm crossing, 9:30am would get us home slightly earlier), back to Kennacraig, back to Kendal and back to Taddy by 9pm.

An awesome weekend. a cracking race route with a bunch of brilliant people.

(For the record, Scotland is my favourite place in the wholem wide world, but I am not keen on midges!)

And finally…

If you can put up with some brief shaky camera footage of the race, this is the before, during and after of my Jura Fell race weekend 🙂

That’s all for now folks.

Cheers
Johnny

Of fools and showers…

Good morning folks

Here is the latest collection of loose ramblings that I call a blog.
Spring doesn’t seem to have sprung, unless the future is just a cold and rainy mess. I am hopeful for warmer days ahead!

St. George’s

The youngster was chosen as flag carrier for her Brownies group at the York St. George’s day parade.

Being the hopeless tourist I am (having lived in Peru for almost 10yrs, I never made it to Macchu Pichu), until last weekend I had never been to York Minster!

I have rectified that now, having been twice in 2 days.

A rehearsal on Saturday night, where the Nipper got her first glimpse of what adults do on a night out. (York was on full Hen Do form with a lot of revellers worse for wear by 7pm!)

On the big day (Sunday), the weather was glorious and the crowds turned out in force. I have never been involved in a parade before, it felt a bit like a really slow race, with nobody trying to win.

All went well, nobody got lost and everyone went home happy 🙂

Time for a decent race?

Ever the optimist, after 4 stinkers, I must surely be due a half decent race.
(Not including Borrowdale last year when I bashed my ribs in 10mins after the start, which would make it 5-in-a-row).

Half Trog – November – Half of “The Beast”. Took a flying fall and almost knocked myself out. Got lost twice but finished.

Tour of Pendle – November – End of season classic. Just had one of those days when my legs didn’t want to move, took about 3hrs to get going, by which time it was almost over.

Blakey Blitz – April – First race of the year, rusty as anything, never got going until final uphill mile.

Eskdale Elevation – April – Hmmm…

After all heading up to Wasdale on the Friday, the shocking forecast proved to be shockingly true. Cold, clag with visibility of 50yds-ish. Wet rain (very wet rain) and strong winds on the tops.

In the club hut where we stayed, we were joined by 2 fellrunners (father and son) who were out to recce part of the Bob Graham Round and Old County Tops route. We were a little sceptical of the weather, but you do just have to get on with things 🙂
We had a good chat about all things mountain related.

A small field of runners (enter on the day maybe swayed a few folk?)

The girls would see me off, jump on “Laal Ratty” and we would all arrive back at the car, around the same time, that was the plan.
The Eskdale Elevation is a relatively new classic AL Lakes race, 4 checkpoints with free route choice, starting at the lovely little hamlet of Boot, heading to CP1 (a gate), up the back of the Screes to Whin Rigg (CP2), a long haul over to and up Scafell (CP3), then a tumbling descent to Eel Tarn (CP4) and home.

I knew the course as far as Scafell pretty well but was worried about the last bit, as that part of Eskdale looks very samey-samey and finding a tarn in the mist could be tricky.

Uphill start, into the gloom, legs slashed to ribbons through the gorse, over the back of the Screes, found a good “trod” to the dip near Burnmoor Tarn and then came across 2 other groups of runners all coming from very different directions!

Upped the pace up Scafell with a bloke from Ambleside AC, with the weather getting wetter, wilder and colder. I really pitied the 2 marshalls on top, as it was GRIM.

I had written some compass bearings down on my map, but in the dash to get off high ground, I misread them. Running into a bitterly cold headwind and with icy horizontal rain in your eyes, it was definitely teetering on the very edge of Type 2 and Type 3 fun.

I also had the added challenge (excuse) of wearing a new-ish pair of shoes which were as grippy on wet rock as roller skates covered in vaseline!
If you don’t have 100% trust in your footwear, you are going backwards.

The few other runners around me had disappeared into the mist and I desperately tried to loose as much height as quickly as possible to get out of the weather. I had most of my kit on by this point and the thought of turning an ankle and having to walk down was simply unthinkable. I laid down behind a rock at one point to take another bearing and then got the hell out of dodge!

One problem with being lost is that you do start to convince yourself that where you are is where you want to be, or you look at features on the map (knolls and streams, of which there were plenty) and mould them into the features you want them to be. I wasn’t exactly lost, but I wasn’t where I thought I was and hoped to be!

So, after 45 minutes of running round in circles, (I wasn’t even close to Eel Tarn) I decided to bail.

(After the race start, the girls had taken the “Laal Ratty” steam train from Boot to the coast at Ravenglass, by this point they would have been back and waiting for me).

I took a bearing due south to hit the road and ended up about 2.5miles away from the finish, necessitating a tarmac path of shame, to report to the finish and declare myself disqualified.

(Apparently a lot of people had issues finding CP4, and either went back to the last checkpoint, or declared themselves DNF).

The Nipper hadn’t seen me at a race since she was a tiddler (Lima Marathon 2017?) She was even more gutted than I was to witness this shambolic run!

My legs felt pretty shot afterwards, so I thought an easier drive (than the A65) would be A590-M6-A66-A1. Which is MILES further, but easier driving, on paper. I had promised Fish & Chips from our outstanding local chippy, which shuts at 8pm. Loads of time…

By this time the afternoon had turned glorious, all the Lakeland fells were basked in sunshine, the Howgills and the Pennines looking equally as enticing. Had I dreamt my bordeline hpothermic race?

After stopping (a bit too long) at Tebay services, where the food smelled amazing, we were on the backfoot for a chippy tea
Then the A66 was at a standstill as it was closed. The whole world and his wife were trying to find an alternative route, which proved to be rather contrived. A forced stop at Scotch Corner services where a high pressure handwash dispenser almost blinded me and then, after paying £1.80 a litre for petrol, it sank in that even with Concorde and a tailwind, the Chippy would be long shut, so we trundled back down the A1 south, where luckily a frozen pizza saved our bacon!

Then I bought a new compass on Monday morning…

Next stop, Jura (hopefully, if my knee doesn’t implode beforehand)

(& just in case you think I am some kind of minority sport madhead, the entries for the Wasdale fell race, in July, sold out in 4 hours, bonkers!)

Raiders round-up.

After impressive wins against Dewsbury Knights and a nail-biting-one-point-win against York Knights, we got trounced against Doncaster.

Missing this guy

Barrow Ladies meanwhile had a one way traffic cricket score win against Salford, then were brought back down to earth with a bump against Wigan.

So in essence, both teams are consistently inconsistent right now!
(We won’t talk about the latest result, a blip, I hope!)

Onwards and upwards!

And finally

Another video!

Time was tight, so a quick out and back (home by noon) was on the cards.

Rishworth Moor, the big TV mast on the side of the M62, near the Yorkshire/Lancashire border is about my nearest stomping ground. Not especially hilly, but always good to get out on.

The forecast gave a good morning, but when I rocked up at 7am, it was down to the ground clag and blowing a hooly. The hooly remained, but the clag eventually lifted so I made another ladfromtad.com vlog.
Still got a lot to learn, (shooting and editing), please bear with me 🙂

That’s all for now, more next time.

Cheers
Johnny & the girls