Kielder Water marathon 2011

This was a no fee marathon for members of the North East Marathon Club. As it only costs £8 to join the club, this was an amazing bargain !

I could argue that my other club, Elvet Striders, had a big participation in this event. They formed 10% of the finishers and 20% of the helpers, but maybe I should also say there were 31 starters (one DNF) and 10 helpers 

I drove up with fats and dizzie1981 who were using the event for their training for a bigger challenge in April. It would be the second marathon for both of them. The first one for both of them was London, in different years, and they were aware this event would be just a little different....

The biggest difference is the hills. Somebody told us the ascent was 3000ft and I measured it as 2828, but whatever it was, there were lots and lots of climbs, not big ones but just unrelenting. Its the fourth time I have run round Kielder, but its the first time I have done it clockwise and of course I found hills which I never realised existed running in the other direction ! We started in Kielder village at the head of the reservoir, so we would have the more difficult north side first.

The aim was to walk the hills and run everything else, but we didn't start to walk the hills until about 9m. This was after we had passed Flip who had cycled out along the route with a backpack full of water to set up the first drinks station. Considering he didn't get to bed until 3.30 that morning because of his duties as race day director at the Hardmoors 55, this was an amazing achievement ! The other Strider who was helping was acting as a cycling first aider and we kept seeing him as he kept an eye on us.

We reached the dam in good time, but all three of us felt a bit tired. We had picked up a few other runners at various points in the race and four of us were together as we ran into the drinks station to be greeted by members of fats's family who gave us all a mental boost 

It drizzled for most of the day, dizzie said it had always rained when she comes here (so we are not allowing her to enter again ) and there were times when we were getting a bit chilly. Onwards on to the Bull Crag peninsula which never seems to end, to Leaplish which was the final drinks station. There was more mental boosting here as the fats family had driven round.

I started to tire soon after we left Leaplish. This was probably due to four very long runs in just over two weeks. On Bull Crag we had picked up another runner, who turned out to be toonstroller and he ran with us to the end. The other three were in a better condition than me and I tried to get them to go on, but they wouldn't.

We all finished together in 4hr49min, which was a 50min !! pb for dizzie 

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/105792896882008304219/KielderWaterMarathon2011

A lovely event. The club is hosting three other marathons this year, Druridge Bay in May, Northumberland Coast in August (my favourite marathon) and the Newcastle Town in October. Not too be missed 

Bedford Clanger 2011

I wanted to do this one last year, but for some reason I couldn't make it. I made sure I could do it this year and I am very pleased I did. There were lots of people from fetcheveryone.com and folk from the Quadzilla there and it was good to catch up

The course was unmarked and there were no marshalls except at checkpoints. I had the route instructions with me, but I had also downloaded the route to my Garmin. I had never done this before and wasn't sure how it would work. It was pretty good, I didn't have to faff around putting reading glasses on and off, I could just glance at my watch and see the turns approaching. The only place I struggled was when there was a path on one side of hedge and a path or road on the other side - it was difficult to decide which side of the hedge I should be.

There were lots and lots of turns. After most races I can rerun the route in my head, but I don't think I could do it with this one, there so many turns and different terrain and scenery - roads, enclosed paths in woods, enclosed paths in housing estates, fields, it was just lovely Especially for me, having run along a canal last weekend, this was like a lovely breath of fresh air

What would also make it more difficult to rerun the route in my mind is that I spent the first 16m chatting to two Fetchies and that was great They sent me on at 16m and I felt reasonably strong. Towards the end I could see I was close to getting under 5hr so I speeded up in the last half mile and I was pleased I was able to do that. 4hr 56min 31sec

This was a lovely event and the organisers did a great job.

UltraRACE Grantham Day 2 2011

Day 2

Today was Grantham to Cotgrave, exactly the same route in reverse. As breakfast was not being served until 7 and the race started at 9, I decided not to have a proper breakfast this morning and had cereal bars and energy drink. This may have been a mistake.

As I went outside of the hotel I switched on my garmin - nothing I tried various combinations of buttons and suggestions from other runners, but nothing. I had a stopwatch on my normal watch so that had to suffice. I also had a memory of roughly how far the checkpoints were into the race, so that would have to do. Of course when I got home and charged the garmin again (it had been charged overnight) it worked fine ...

My legs felt pretty good and I started slowly, but then started to speed up. After the first checkpoint which was reached in under 10 min/mile pace, I lost it. This was the start of the 'downhill' stretch that I felt was uphill on Day 1, so I decide to just go for it. I wish my garmin had been working, I would love to have seen my pace, but I felt comfortable, shot blocks seem to be boosting me and I was passing lots of people. Got to roughly halfway in about 2h 25min and a Day 2 which was faster than Day 1 looked very feasible. After halfway the path changed from grass and mud to more hard packed trail and I didn't enjoy it as much. Also my speedy first half was starting to have an effect and I was slowing.... The shot blocks didn't seem to be as effective, but at least the Scaps seemed to work fine.

I also realised just before the final checkpoint that I hadn't been drinking enough, so I drank what I had left and picked up a new full bottle (this was probably all too late, once dehydrated it's difficult to recover). But then the sun came out, the weather had been a much better day than Day 1, we could see for miles and we could easily see Belvoir Castle which has been lost in the drizzle and cloud yesterday. But the sun coming out in the final quarter made it worse for me, I was running out of steam and walking much more. Some of those runners who I had passed in the first half who had made a much better job of the pacing started to come by. At this point I just wanted to reach the point on the canal where we were diverted off the canal to avoid improvements to the A46. It seemed to take for ever.

I was drinking all my water and luckily there were two young women who were car supporting somebody behind me so they seemed to be at every road crossing and I got some water off them.

I finally made it back in 5h 14min, so only 7min slower than yesterday, but as a run, it felt much worse. I drank two bottles of water straight away and went to the local supermarket to get some food down me.

Lessons learnt:

1. Before you leave home check that you have your favourite glasses in your glasses case;
2. When changing your mind at the last minute about which pair of shoes to wear on Day 1, remember to put the the new pair for Day 2; pair in your overnight bag and not leave them in the car which was at the start of Day 1 and the finish of Day 2;
3. Eat a better breakfast;
4. Be cautious about the pacing;
5. Think about how much you are drinking.

Still overall, I have come out of it okay, everybody was very friendly and I enjoyed myself, you can't ask for much more than that

UltraRACE Grantham Day 1 2011

Day 1

Today it was Cotgrave to Grantham. The route was mainly on the Grantham canal so it was pretty flat. There were some road works on the A46 so the towpath was closed and we were diverted onto a road for about a mile and there were further small stretches of tarmac at the beginning and end.The canal is not navigable for most of its length and there are stretches with no water at all. For the first 12m I was wondering whether I should have chosen road shoes as the surface was hard packed with no mud.

After Harby, 12m, it became grass and some mud for a while. I may have been losing it, but I had the impression that the canal was going uphill but the water in the canal didn't appear to be moving!

I was very pleased to get to the end of the canal which stops when you get to the A1. 5hr 7min and I am very happy with that. We stayed the night in a hotel in Grantham and there was a talk on the Marathon des Sables. There is no way I would do anything like that!