Anglesey Ultra - Endurance life

It's been such a long time since I went to the British coast for a run and even longer for an Endurance Life event. Shameful really. I did several EL events years ago and really loved them and the only thing that put me off was that they are all so far away from West London that it does not seem worth it to trek out there. However I have decided that they are really worth the effort getting there. Even the ones in Wales.

Holyhead has a chip shop for every five houses which made carb loading the night before quite simple. We stayed in a B&B just a short distance from the start at a sailing club where the huge Endurance Life tents and registration area was. These events have certainly grown in the past efw years, there will be over 600 people running in the half marathon/10k/marathon and ultra.

There were only 50 or so starting the 32 mile ultra which consisted of the marathon followed by the 10k loop at the end. We were told we were to climb the "mountain" of Anglesey. It didn't look that big though but then it was quite far away. It was nearly a disasterous start for Jen Bradley who managed to lock her Garmin and was unable to get it to start. It's hard to imagine how anyone can do a run without a big beeeping contraption telling them how slow they are moving. Anyway all was averted as someone knew the magic combination to get it working.

Kris Duffy was here too, he is taking part in all 7 EL coastal events because there is a special T-shirt for doing so. He likes dorky things like that. The 50 or so of us started down a road into a car park and then onto the lovely trail of Anglesey.

I was wearing three layers. I think this was a record. I don't think I have ever worn three layers. Within a few minutes I was roasting and had to faff around with my bag to get by coat back into it and the entire field overtook me. It was windy and overcast as we plodded through some fields and then onto the rocks of the coastal path. I was wearing the NB minimus again which had faired well for 43 miles last weekend but was a little worried that they might not be as comfortable on sharp rocks. Jen had opted for a pair of canoes which were great for sailing across puddles.

The rain switched on and off all say, there was loads of great trail, some road that my shoes also struggled on. I have this theory that if I smash my feet on hard surfaces in minimal shoes it might strengthen my calves and feet like hill training would, without the hills. I suspect I will actually have to do some hill training at some point as I am still really shit at going up and even worse at coming down. If there is anyone out there who can make me a black belt downhill runner in 8 weeks, preferably in the sytle ofMr Miagi then please get in touch.

I felt pretty good running on my own and was amazed at just how well the route was marked. I did not take a map but every twist and turn had an arrow saying exactly where to go, it was impossible to get lost. I did try once but that would have involved jumping off a cliff so I knew I was going wrong. I was overtaken by Richard Webster who was 2nd in the marathon (I thought he was 1st cos I didn't believe that the guy who overtook ages before was in the marathon) and then later by Ian Corless (who I said was in 3rd but he was in 4th). Ian has just launched an Ultra Podcast Talkultra with Ian Sharman which looks cool. I was also very pleased to hear that Richard has sent off his entry for the Spartathlon this year too. It's going to be an awesome race for the Brits. And the boys are going to win this time.

The "Mountain" was much harder than anticipated the second time. I had left Jen and ran on, feeling pretty good at halfway and suprised it was going so fast. She said "say hello to Kris when you catch him, he always sets out too fast". I thought I would but after about 20 miles I had a bit of a down but perked up a little when the route joined the half marathon course. They had 6 miles left and were all moving quicker than I was. Then there was the second climb of the mountain that coincided with the really heavy wind and rain. Going up was hard, coming down was harder again, the wind actually pushing us back up the hill and the rain hitting like bullets. There were lots of coastguards up there making sure none of us got into any trouble. After that is was a long hard descent to the marathon finish, which I had to ignore to going round and do the 10k loop in addition.

I did not have a finish time in mind as I had no idea how hard this would be but I would have liked to have finished in 6 hours so that I had time at the end to faff a bit and not have to rush to get into town for the talk about LANY I was giving later. I was following the arrows for the 10k which were the same as the Marathon and started to get paranoid that I was going to end up doing the marathon again. I was completely alone out there. Fortunately I hit the checkpoint which signalled 3 miles to go, via that nasty mountain again. Thanks Israel Archuletta for this great photo which realistically captures my average pace.

But this time it was easy though hours of pounding hard rocks with little on my feet felt like I'd been wandering around lots in barefoot treading on lego. I think it's cos my feet are not hard enough yet. Give them time. Feeling the ground beneath your feet is wonderful, apart from when there's lego on it.

I crawled in in a time of 6.33, not far from last and way behind Kris. I had to rush a bit to get back to the B&B and then on to talk about what I did last summer.

I have not really done public speaking before and I still can't really believe that people would be that interested in what I've done. I love banging on about it and can talk to death in the pub to my friends but it still suprised me that people who don't know me would sit down and listen to what I have to say. I was a bit nervous about it but think I have enough silly tales to at least raise a giggle in the audience. I think it went well (despite Ian and Gemma telling me I "ummed" all the time) It was great talking for Endurance Life and no doubt I will come back and tell them how I lost an eye or a limb in Barkley later this year.

It was really good to meet the other talkers too. Gary spoke about a brilliant event in Sweden called the OtillO which involves running and swimming from island to island. Billy Isherwood then gave a great talk about his battle with alcoholism and how he was written off by his doctors before taking up marathon running and eventually running the Atacama Crossing. Dave Cornthwaite came on last to talk about all the mad things he has done, skateboarding across Australia, paddle boarding down the Mississippi and dating 100 girls in 100 days. Gemma was less than impressed with me suggesting I might try to break one of those records.

Anyway, great weekend with great race organisation and friends and a wake up call to do some hill training.

And I wish my proper trail shoes would f****G arrive.

Country to Capital - 2012

It was hard trying to remember what to take with me on a 43 mile run through the countryside and canal. It's been more than 4 months now since I have run more than a marathon. What do I need? $10 dollars and a cuddly badger were my previous most important items. I decided to go with the bag that had been on my back across the entire LANY race. It's still in good condition though the strap across my belly seemed to be a lot shorter. I lengthened the strap, then had another bacon sandwich.

Claire, Drew and I got to the start pub early before the train from London arrived where more than 50 others would pile in and block up the toilets. One of the two toilers got blocked anyway and we still had to queue. Ahhh toilet queues I have missed you. The strained faces on those who are waiting, the relaxed strutting of those on their way out, the idiot who only needs a wee and queues with everyone else despite all the urinals being free. The strange moment when you hold the door open for the next person to go in, as if you are asking "do you approve of what I have done here? Smell that". UK Ultra running I have missed you.

It was freezing. -3C as we parked. The UK has escaped a proper winter so far but this was the coldest it's been for a while. It was great bumping into some guys I've not seen for ages again, like Steve Gorden and James Elson.The usual suspects were there, Oli, Tim, Dave Ross and loads of others who I didn't see because there were more than 200 people there. I saw Robin Harvie in the crowd too who looked nervous from doing his first long run since the double London Marathon last April and also a chap called George who said I gave him advice about the UTMB in a race last year. I remember it now, he said I told him not to use sticks cos it's cheating and he didn't use them and finished the race respite the horrific conditions. He spoke about wanting to run the Spartathlon this year which was great, using it to qualify for Badwater. I'd suggest doing them the other way round.

Thanks to Ian Berry for the photo. And thanks for getting at least one of me running. Kind of.

Anyhoo, the race started and the key here is to get ahead of everyone else in the first 400 meters so that you can get over the gates that lead into the narrow paths. Hold back and you risk having to queue for ages while everyone else lifts their creaky body parts over a stile. I ran ahead near Tim, James and Oli and managed to get into the fields before most of the others. I was then free to run at my own pace, after an asthma attack.

I ran behind James, Drew, Claire and Danny who all seemed to be going fast. Drew usually sets out fast in this, trying to impress some girl. I was trying to keep up as I had no intention of getting the maps out and these guys seemed to know the way. I was struggling though, I'd like to think it's because I was a bit poorly and had a cough, or that I was wearing the minimus shoes again and they were not quite working but the most likely explanation is that I am just a fat unfit bastard.

I slowed briefly to mourn a dead badger on the road and soon after I lost everyone and started walking along what I thought was the right way just to wait for someone to catch up. I got the map out but realised I had no idea where I was on the map. Fortunately Dave ROss and a group of others came bounding along (Dave had got lost and added a few miles). I followed these new guys.

Given how crap I was feeling in conparison to last year I thought my time would be much slower. The second half of this was on canal and last year as soon as I hit the canal I increased the pace and overtook quite a few people. Now as soon as I hit it I just stalled, knackered and groin really hurting as I mentally prepared myself for the 3+ hour slog to the finish.

The checkpoints on the canal had a lot more food which was great. Sausages, sausage rolls and pork pies were being scoffed and I drank a lot more water than usual, the sky was clear and the reflection on the water meant that we had two suns glaring at us. It still wasn't as bad as Okalhoma. I passed a guy running who said he was having trouble keeping his heart rate below 170. I didn't really know what to suggest other than "take the HRM off".

At the left turn on the canal, 13 miles to go I unexpectedly caught up with Claire and Drew. Obviously they had set out too fast too and the easy running of the canal was now difficult. I shuffled past, expecting them to come bounding along again later.

This was such a contrast to the last year where I just felt myself getting stronger over the last miles. I took a few walking breaks and had to sit down a few times to stretch but fortunatley the familiar last few miles of the canal came and it started to go quickly again. Trin caught up with me with a couple of miles to go and we chatted about future plans. She has a lot on this year including the amazing GUCR which I am really looking forward to running again. Even though I feel knackered now I will be a whole lot more knackered after 143 miles of canal come June. I said to Trin that the lead woman was just ahead of us, we could see here and whether she fancied a sprint for it. She didn't but still managed to pull ahead of me.

Completely unexpectedly I finished under 7 hours and only a few minutes slower than last year where I thought I'd run well. I then found out that James had run it in 6 hours flat and I was with him for the first 20 miles. Obviously we smashed it in the first half and most of us struggled for the second half. The pub at the end was good though. Nice steak and chips and several pints and chatted to James, Tim, Danny and others. It was a great day overall.

All in all not a horrific day. How on earth I did that every day for 70 is currently unthinkable.

100 Marathon Club AGM Handicap Marathon

For some reason I had the silly idea that I might be able to run this one fast. Dunno why. I am back up to my Los Angeles weight, which is a bit more than my usual London weight and a lot more than my New York weight. I did somehow manage to get a 5k PB a week ago though that's probably just because I've run more 5k races in the past month than in the rest of my life.

I did this race 3 years ago and it's quite good fun. It's a marathon that everyone is supposed to finish at 2.30 and your start time is determined by your average time from your last 7 road marathons (removing the fastest and slowest). I had to go back a long way to actually get to 7 road marathons, London 2008 in fact. I just don't do them anymore. My list was thus;

Oct 11 - Leicester - 4.09
Feb 11 - Enigma Quadzilla day 1 - 3.33
Dec 10 - Enigma Winter - 3.39
Dec 10 - Portsmouth Coastal - 3.17
Apr 10 - Brighton - 4.44
Apr 10 - Paris - 3.17
Apr 09 - London - 3.18

And this somehow got me a start time of 10.47, giving me 3.43 to finish. I thought this was a bit soft. Silly me. I had a healthier breakfast than usual, a McDonalds bacon bagel (instead of the usual double sausage McMuffin). Well actually I had two bagels. I was running a whole marathon.

I got there and saw Dave Ross for the first time in ages and chatted to him (he was due to start 40 minutes after me) about stuff. Pam Storey was her usual excitable self and Allan Rumbles was in charge of making tea. There were loads of runners already out on the course and as soon as I started the 5 lap race I was passing some of the early starters.

It was great bumping into some people I have not seen for a while. Anna Finn has been out injured for a while but she was back, Ruth was looking quite ill but still having a go anyway. Plus loads of the usual 100 marathon club people who I always bump into at any flat 26.2 mile race in the UK.

This was the first time I was going to run more than 10 miles in my New Balance Minimus that I have been wearing all the time since I got back from the states. They are the train version and I have the road version in the post which should arrive just in time for when I stop doing any more road running this year. It was a risk wearing them, my achilles feel like they are going to snap any day now. A few miles usually gets them sorted though.

The course is quite nice in a weird way, about a mile along a road then into a farm for a couple of miles then a park for a couple of miles then back to the running track for a jelly baby and then out again.

After the marathon they were holding the AGM where there has been a lot of debate about what "counts" as a marathon. Views vary, from "It should only count if it is officially certified, exactly 26.2 miles long, on a road, in a big city with at least 10 celebrities running and validated with overpriced photography" to "Just take the total horizontal distance you have travelled in your life and divide it by 25". All fun and games.

I've decided not to join the club proper till I have done 100 26.2 mile races (or at least those advertised as a "marathon", some might end up being long). It might take me a while, I do about 5 a year now. I think I am on around 70 and on about 50 ultras (Trans USA only counts as 1 ultra).

Anyhoo, stamp collecting aside the race felt much harder than it should. It's always good to know how fat and unfit you are at the start of the year and this was telling me plainly. My lap splits were something like 40, 41, 42, 44, 48. The last lap was a great relief and we all started to crowd together reaching the finish. Lots of "last lap", "Home straight" and "Nearly theres" were being expressed until one chap said "Nope, I've still got another lap to do".

I finished in around 3.35, got my medal from Pam and then noticed that everyone else seemed to be running around the track. "Do we have to run around the track?" I asked. "Yes, have you not run around the track". Doh. I handed back my medal and then did a lap of the track. I don't want to be accused of coming from Sunderland.

So, a nice painful slow one to start the year. Somehow I did this in 3.14 a few years ago?

Five laps of a park in Kent. I imagine Barkley will be similar.

The year in numbers

I know most of you like pointless stats. So here are some of mine this year.

Total Miles Run - 5110

Total time running - 1086 hours (6 weeks 3 days 6 hours)

Total Time Working - 480 hours approx

Running Related Hospitalisations - 2 (New Mexico and Bletchley)

PB's - 2 (45 miles and 5k)

States of the USA run through - 13

States of the USA defecated on - 14

Calories Burned Running - More than half a million

Which Equates to- 1000 Big Macs (USA), 1100 Big Macs (UK), 2750 pints of beer, 7.1 tonnes of Celery, John Prescott.

Shoes - 15 pairs

Hottest Temperature run in - 47C

Highest Humidity - 99%

Highest Weight - 86kg (Ealing January)

Lowest Weight - 71kg (New York August)

Weight Now - Closer to Ealing

Times visited an Ambulance - Once (to get some paracetemol for a headache I got while watching a triathlon)

Average Heart Rate - F**K Knows.

Words of book written so far - 90000 (Just landed in California)

#

Friends made - Too many to count but you know who you all are

Continents left - 6

Expected DNF's in 2012 - 1

Pointless Exercise

This week for the first time in my life I did an activity called "spinning". It's like that dream I sometimes get where I am trying to run to somewhere not too far infront of me but for some reason it's like I am running in water and I am not getting anywhere at all. This is probably some subconscious metaphor for something in my life. Anyway, it's just like  that except you are on a bike and to make it a challenge you have to listen to shit music while you do it.

I only found myself doing this because I was late turning up to the club and missed the runs. Dressed to brave the freezing outdoor weather I instead went into the cycling room and decided to try an embarass myself trying this spinning thing that all the cool people seem to be talking about.

To get you in the mood for furious pedalling some shite is pumped out of a speaker. I don't know whether it's called "Garage" or "House" or whatever but at this stage I thought the harder I work the more my ears fill with fluid and hence the more bearable the noise becomes.

The lady taking the session warned us that she had already taken 3 sessions today and was unlikely to be putting in the effort that we were. I was sweating quite a lot and looking at the clock. I like running, particularly from point to point because it feels like there is a point. Here I was sat looking at a clock with no finish point in mind, just watching a clock tick down while I slowly saturated myself in sweat.

Then somehow the music got worse. I believe this genre is called "R&B" which used to stand for "Rhythym and Blues" but now stands for "Stupid halfwit banging on about the tedious details of his tedius life". The pace slowed, I assumed to give us time to reflect on the profoundly thought-proving poetry that was now oozing out of the speakers, gold such as "I was driving down the street to find something to eat, then I saw a bee and it flew into a tree, the tree was green, you know what I mean, Yeah".

But luckily it was getting to the end of the session. I was warm and sweaty but not really tired. I imagined being outdoors running towards the end of the 7 mile run I'd normally be doing tonight and looking forward to a few pints and a burger that such activity would earn. I think in this instance I was due a lime soda and a rice cracker.

Then the music took a turn for the better. At it was near the end we had the smoochy romantic classic "Lady in Red". The Boys and Girls then got up and went to bikes at opposite end of the room while just looking across at each other.

45 minutes it was done. That's the least I have travelled in 45 minutes in my life. I was a bit gutted that I could not do something more fun that night like run and to commiserate I had more to drink than I usually do, proving that cycling makes you fat.

I don't think it will catch on.

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