The Very Very Hot Leaden Boot Challenge. Marathon 14.

The Mighty Leaden Boot Challenge is here again. They came, they sweated, they ran, they walked, they cramped, they conquered, they ate a lot of pretzels, pie and cake.... However that was not all! What a cracking day. What a hard day. A few months ago Simon had expressed interest at running another marathon alongside me and had ear marked this weekend. He asked whether I thought that the White Peak Marathon or the Leaden Boot Challenge was the better one to enter. Better? How to compare these two races? This was the final text back that sealed this challenge. "From here to the starts they are about the same time. Leaden boot like other ldwa ones is friendly and informal. Scenery great and good cakes, but there will be walking as it is up, down, up, down etc. White peak is a coach journey to the start and on 2 long old railway tracks that go on and on. Easiness: white peak. Cost: leaden, scenery: leaden, finishing momento: white peak-cup, finishing food: leaden! Footware: whitepeak-road or stiff cross, leaden-trail/claw if wet. I have an idea... Man up and do both!"  Simon has kindly written a few paragraphs for the blog and feature lower down.

The LBC was my first marathon last year and one I did when I had just started running again and had this hairbrained idea. Last year was stunning weather. Hot, sunny with a nice breeze on the tops of the hills. I had recced the the course over 2 cooler days a few weeks before so roughly knew where I was going. But had not really appreciated how hard this run is. The profile above gives an indication of this however when you mix in the terrain and weather a 'saw tooth' profile could be forgiving or brutal.

I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the challenge from last year which can be read here. Despite me having recently got back into running, the profile of the course and the weather last year I perceived that 4 hours would be about right for a finish time, so thats the pace I set out. All went well, through halfway in a shade under 2 hours and still roughly oncourse at the 30k checkpoint then the wheels fell off. I could no longer cope with the styles due to cramp and had nothing left in the tank. I eventually finished in a shade under 4 hours 22 minutes spurred on mainly by the borrowed Forerunner 10 having a rubbish battery and due to cut out soon.

Since then I have always thought about the possibility of coming back fitter and trying to break 4 hours. It is possible on the course it just needs one of those whippets to rock up and incidentally crack it. The overwhelming charm of this run is that those same whippets go elsewhere to race. So decisions had to be made on how to approach this challenge.

Eventually I decided to do the double and do the White Peak Marathon the day before and therefore settle in to complete the LBC on tired legs as opposed to go for breaking 4 hours. And now having experienced the heat and dryness of yesterday and seen that it is the same forecast for today I am happy with the choice. 4 hours would have been tough today, really tough. Simon can take over from here.

Simons' Bit: What a day to run a marathon.  The drive to Alstonefield was fantastic.  Empty roads, glorious sunshine and amazing views that I had never come across before despite only living 40 minutes away from the start point. 

When deciding what marathons to assist with, I opted for one of the hilliest of them all!  Today was going to be a tough one.  The start was gentle and downhill which gave us all a false sense of speed.  Damians legs seemed to be moving well which was pretty impressive considering the baking hot marathon he did the day before. 

A steep climb out of the valley then a return to the ever increasingly humid forest valley soon had us arriving at Ilam Hall checkpoint.  The next checkpoint included the most amazing rocky road treats (see pics that do not do them justice).  Multiple rocky road slabs later we were back on the move and fairly high up in the rankings (for a slow coach like me anyway!). 

 The following miles seemed to fly by pretty quickly.  The terrain was fairly open to the radiant sunshine but we were keeping topped up on fluids and doing OK.  With 16 miles gone I hit a bad spell and the subtle signs of cramp began.  These only got worse and Damian would not accept my offers for him to plough ahead as I was clearly slowing him down.  Repeatedly declining my offers to go ahead Damian stuck by me and to be honest I was glad that I did not have to worry about route selection for the remaining 10 miles or so.  I consoled myself that I was helping out by looking so out of shape! 

The last 6 miles or so included running just below the threshold of cramping which downhill was pretty quick but uphill did involve plenty of walking.  Somehow we did not get overtaken and managed to run plenty of the final miles and crossed the line in a respectable 4^th and 5^th place.  Amazing pies, as much cake as a glutton could feast upon and some water was taken on board.  The effort of running the event was worth it just for the rocky road and post-race grub for sure.

Now to demonstrate just how hot the day had been my body decided to go into meltdown on the drive home.  A headache then dizziness when arriving home was shortly followed by drowsiness and the need for an overnight stay at the Northern General Hospital.  The cause: suddenly lowered Sodium levels due to drinking water with no electrolytes after the race which diluted my system.  Who would have thought drinking water would have caused such an issue.  This just goes to show just how well Damian has trained for these events.  It was a great day (apart from the Hospital trip!) and a great honour to help in such a great cause.  I’m looking forward to joining several of the forthcoming miles this summer (armed with post-race electrolytes).

Thanks Simon. The time of this year being 5 hours 11 mins shows indeed how tough it was but I don't think we lost that much time in the last half, maybe just that 11 minutes. Theres always next year Si?

I didn't feel too bad after the race and knew nothing of Simons adventure into Sheffield until the following morning. At work I was struggling and was having dizzy spells everytime I stood up. So at lunchtime, after talking to Simon, I trotted down to the hospital canteen and picked up 3 sachets of salt and spread them liberally on my left over baked potato and chilli. Within a couple of hours I felt brilliant. Was it just the chilli, was it a lack of salts, who knows? probably both however it has given more to think about not just during the running but also immediately following.

Si, as always it was a great pleasure to run with you and as you said above I am looking forward to doing it all(well most of it - I'll bring you flowers and grapes next time) again in the next few months. Thank goodness you didn't crash that posh new car on the way home! Thanks to Noel and his team for putting on an even better run than last year!

Shoe Choice: Nike Icarus Stealths - Stupid as I've now put holes in them. Why don't I learn.
Stats. Distance: 41.3 km  Elevation: 1.35 km  Total Dist: 602.1 km  Total Elevation: 9.98 km