Long Tour of Bradwell - NE Derbyshire at its best !

Yet again, met by warm sunshine. Not too hot and with nice cool breeze this was perfect running temperature for the hills. This time of year is stunning in the Peaks with the heather becoming a vivid purple colour that suddenly brings this moorland into spectacular colour. So this is a tough run, elevation from the start which doesn't let up bar a short stretch on the old construction railway from Ladybower and a brief follow of the river near Hathersage, until the end. The sting in the tail being the descent into Bradwell. I remember it well from last year.

So the running has not being going particularly well of late, so this was started very much with the idea that in all probability it wouldn't be finished, however as it weighs in at about 56k ish (with the deviation due to the closed Bamford Clough) as long as I completed the marathon distance I would be happy. Especially with this elevation!

The initial climb up through quarries is not the greatest running really and is just a dull drag but as soon as this tops out the fun begins and the fantastic views start with dropping straight into a great descent down into Castleton following Cave Dale. This descent is excellent whether you're on 2 wheels or 2 legs but its not for the hesitant and the faint hearted. Its steep in places, its wet in places, its loose in places and the bits that aren't loose are polished to a shine. To enjoy it: ya need to beast it. I've come off a bike twice down here, once smashing my helmet into a spike of limestone and once smashing my knee into a chunky of limestone, but I put these down to my errors! I like downhills, no effort just let yourself go and hope for the best! Strava has a link to the segment which shows it having been run about 140 times in total. I was pleased to get an overall 4th place on it and more importantly overtake a lot of the people who had overtaken me on the previous hill.

After pottering through Castleton its straight on up to Hollins Cross before another great descent down into Edale via the affectionately known descent (on Strava) called the Ankle Snapper. Here out of 160ish descents I managed a creditable 3rd overall place! I was enjoying this. Fell/Trail running is great apart from the uphills! Then its on up to classic Dark Peak Moor climbing under the might Ringing Roger up to the Druids Stone before dropping like a stone back to the road and heading back up to the ridge.

This climb up to Back Tor is a ball ache and just goes on and on, too steep to run and not enjoyable, but once there you're met by amazing views on the way up and down Lose Hill. Again straight over the road and up and round Win Hill. I came a cropper here on the right camber on the traverse into the Plantation. (The old ankle does not like rightward cambers!) Ouch. It then took a long time to get down to the old railway line at Ladybower and a meet up with the family, who had given up hope and we starting to head off along the Dam. I had a little sit down but after some stern words from the Wife, something like 'man up and stop messing around' and one of my sons saying 'daddy why are you sitting down when other people are running?' and the other one saying 'you need to tell the marshalls if you're going to stop running' I changed my top and did indeed 'man-up' and cracked on.

The next section was flat and pleasant and gave my ankle the rest it needed to then go up and down some more hills. I helped a few runners with navigation around the altered route out of Bamford and headed on up to Dennis Knoll and headed up the freshly laid Stanage's Long Causeway. Here I almost got run over by a fat aggressive quadbiker who was caning it down. After abusive angry shouts from him in keeping with this type of selfish b@astard and me gently pointing out that he was actually wrong and he was not in fact meant to be on this route due to the temporary TRO whilst repairs were carried out and then a permanent TRO would come into force, we parted company, him to destroy more of the Peak and me to enjoy the rest of the climb satisfied with my smugness.

It was a windy traverse of Stanage before dropping down to Fiddlers Elbow and the long descent down to Hathersage. Here after a long painful descent on my ankle and about 46k I decided to chuck the towel in and do the 1k home. Happy with my day out and looking forward to running a bit more frequently this week. What a great day, on a great route in a great part of the World. I feel privileged to live and run here. Without a shadow of a doubt this run was head and shoulder above any I have done this year. Quite simply stunning. I probably should have been running a bit harder than I was, but I was enjoying the views too much.

Shoe Choice: New Balance 101's
Stats. Distance: 47.2 km  Elevation: 1.58 km  Total Dist: ?? km  Total Elevation: ?? km

Dovedale Dipper Marathon 24 of 40. Hot sunny day again!! Raising money for Sheffield Childrens Hospital !!

Another hot sunny run. Struggled as not run for 2 weeks and tired from long journey home last night from dan safff.

Ran ok for first 10 miles but with increasing hip pain. Struggled on to 30k but pain not easing so walked the rest as it was a nice sunny day. This was a stunning run in great running conditions.

Walking gave me the opportunity to really appreciate where I was and stop and take lots of photos. In between the stops I tried to walk as quickly as possible and by the finish felt but in my legs and with the hip pain eased off.

It was the sort of pain that in heat of competition you could easily run through but that there would probably be considerable time off afterwards to get over it. I cant do that with this challenge and so the tactical walk was implemented.

Next weekend is the Long Tour of Bradwell and I really enjoyed it last year so hoping to go a little quicker, but last recovery is pretty good my general fitness has dropped and I'm not enjoying the joint pains.

So we'll see what happens. If I am planning on doing any long runs late on next season then this one is one that I need to come back and prove a point in. Unfinished business with this!!!

Shoe Choice: Brooks Cascadia
Stats. Distance: 42.6 km  Elevation: 1.06 km  Total Dist: ?? km  Total Elevation: ?? km

Hathersage to Renishaw Marathon 23/40

Awful day. Running to a wedding. Not a great idea, then add to that battling against fog, miserable rain, cold and a GPS that wouldn't work. Tough running from the start. Bring back the sun shine! Mind you a rubbish day was probably overdue. Luckily thanks to the bride arriving late, we got there in time. Phew. What a great wedding with perfect weather at all the right times. I'll make up the distance next week or in the LTB in August.

White Peak Walk - Well you can run it. Marathon 22

Another sunny day and great day out running. More details to follow.

Hathersage Gala Fell Race - The Day after Marathon 21

So I woke this morning and legs didn't feel too bad from yesterday, however after driving to work both hips were really uncomfortable all day. I was also tired, fatigued in the legs but also generally lacking energy. And so it was with trepidation that I went ahead with running the Hathersage Gala Fell Race.
Good numbers turned out for this race as it is becoming steadily more and more popular.

Nearly 300 signed up on the night and after a small shower just before the start it was a short race briefing in the bottom of the school field before the off. The start happened out on the road whilst people were still filing out of the school gate and immediately goes up.

With this race you don't have much time running before it funnels down to single file through the various gates and pinch points up through the woods to the south side of High Lees. From here the race generally spreads out enough to allow for easy passing after the slow start.

On crossing the road and starting the ascent to Over Owler Tor I felt alright and able to keep on running to the summit. The ridge gave good solid running before kicking up to Higger Tor.

Here the path narrowed again and I found this slowed up the running but once on the top it was nice to know it would be all downhill. This is the end of the ascent as it drops to cross the road and then turn down left under Callor Bank and joining the old Turn Pike from Sheffield. If you've got the descending skills it's easy to overtake and make up time on this section.

The final road section down into the village  through the lanes was greasy with the shower before the start and I had a few close calls on trying to keep up with the legs. Back down on the flat outside the Scotsman all you have to do is dig in for the final punishing rise up off the road into the school field and finish.

A great race and bizarrely one where a short blast can actually knock off the cobwebs and stiffness of a long run the previous day! Felt loads better after the race than before. Next year I must start nearer the front and give this course a good go. Thanks for the organisers and all the Marshalls who kindly held up the traffic and shouted encouragement to everyone.

Marathon 21 of 40. 16 mile run from Hathersage to Chesterfield to take on the Brampton Spire 10 miler

 As is customary now for Marathon day, it was hot day, starting off a little cloudy then blazing sunshine then back to cloudy and I am getting used to finishing soaking with sweat and caked in salt. The planned run in changed yesterday as I couldn't come up with a clear off road route that I would know, so last minute I opted for heading all the way along the edges, turn left at Wellingtons Monument up the road past Bamsley Reservoir and head straight down into Barlow.

I had added a 5k loop on to make up the distance once I reached Upper Newbold so if things were not working out I could go straight to the start of the Bramptons Spire 10 mile and then make up the distance later. For pretty much the entire run in I thought it was looking a little tight on time due to leaving about 10 minutes later so did push quite hard to make up the time but then arrived with about 5 minutes to spare before the start of the race proper. More details to follow, but here are a few photos in the meantime. I'm off to bed to sleep off the stiffness before tomorrows Gala Senior Fell Race!!

Tandem Triathlon 2014 - 20th Marathon and half way through this challenge !!

And so it was that I completed my 20th Marathon today. It was fitting that I completed this at one of my favourite races of all time. The Tandem Triathlon, or to be correct The Bishops Castle Tandem Triathlon. This is a seriously class event and one that I have attended almost every year since 2003. The event is done with a partner and one of you swims, you both bike on a tandem and then the other runs. I have generally done this with a mate or the wife and have usually ended up doing the run section. I therefore feel I know the run route well. Its 10 1/2k of running in Colstey Wood with the turnaround point at the summit in the middle of the Bury Ditches Hill Fort. It was with trepidation that I mentioned to one of the champions of the BCTT, Adrian, last year that I would be keen to do 4 laps at the end of the bike to complete one of my Marathons for this challenge. He listened intently to my request at the prize giving event in 2013, then promptly turned and made an announcement about the challenge to everyone present! Ah, no backing out now. This was never going to be an easy run on its own, let alone having been on the bike for an hour. It sounds distinctly veering towards one of those stupid long distance triathlon type races and even back in the day I was never any good with anything lasting beyond a couple of hours. Hmm. Then with the prospect of missing out on lunch as well, I was seriously out of my comfort zone.

So about 10 days before the event today I realised that I hadn't been on a racer for about 2 years so decided to nip out on a couple of evenings on a short route about Abney to stretch the legs, remember how to change gears and brake and generally get the body used to a cycle position. Bloody hell its hurts your ass. I had forgotten all about that.

Right prep done it was time to nail it off to Petes after work, stay at his and then head down early in the morning for the start of the race. We got there in good time having driven through some heavy rain showers but arriving in sunshine and after registering headed up to the woods to set up camp, drop off running and support gear, and let the marshalls know what was planned. We then headed down to the start to get ready and pack Pete off to start the swim. Now it is pretty standard to turn up to the Tandem Tri with your tandem in all number of pieces, as it may well have not been ridden since last year and you do have the entire swim to get it back into a vaguely rideable condition prior to the off proper.  Amazingly this year, all I had to do was take the wheels off and put on the rotors on, oil both chains, change the seat heights and adjust the gears, having done most of the major tinkering earlier on in the week! Unfortunately whilst I was doing this, Pete, a BCTT novice, was being directed all over the place whilst he was trying to find the swimming pool entrance. The icing on the cake was, at the eventual entrance to the pool, he was met by a lady that told him to go all the way round to a different entrance in the sports hall and walk through it all the way back to about 2 meters away from where he had been only to meet the same lady again who then explained to him that 'those were the rules' and then let him onto pool side. The net effect was that he ended up starting late and didn't get a chance to have a pre race wee. Well, it wasn't really going to be a race for us anyway this year!

 Pete was under explicit instructions to not let me race on the bike so that I could focus on the run later on. So I generally chatted around the bike course whilst intermittently yelling at him to give it beans over the top of each small rise. OK so we weren't racing, but there was no way we were going to be embarrassing ourselves either! Thanks to Pete the Power House, my saddle kept on being twisted by the copious Wattage laid down through his handlebars and finished the cycle ride with a large degree of back pain. Still I saved my legs and had a relatively easy cycle up the last hill as Pete buried himself and did himself proud to deliver me to the start of the run. I learnt a whole load of new words from Pete the Power House during the descent from the top of Colstey Bank down into and through Clun where we had to take some evasive action to a suddenly stationary car and deviated our route through a garage forecourt!

Now as I had discovered recently the art of Marathon running to consistent pacing, acceptance, breathing and mental gymnastics. I had therefore decided that I would look to average just under the hour for each of the 4 laps of the run course. So on the first to laps I would run steady but get a few minutes in hand for the tougher laps later on. My first lap was about a 56 mins followed up by a 55 mins. My legs were starting to feel shot and as this was likely to be the case Pete had stepped up to run lap three with me. Apart from the inane chatter, he pushed me to break up the sections and keep running at all the right bits to allow me to go on to complete the marathon including all the water stops and clothes changes in 3 hours 59 minutes and 20 seconds. Really really pleased to get under 4 hours on this course in a tired state and having biked for a hilly hour or so. All we then had to do was complete the cycle back down Colstey Bank and then the 5k back to the start.

I think Pete was quite concerned that I was going to struggle to control the bike on this high speed descent, with good reason as we hit 83.9 km/h completing the first kilometer in 54 seconds! However I don't think we wobbled too much, well not that I noticed anyway! Pete pretty much pedalled all the way back on his own and helped to spin some life back into my legs by the finish line. Our final finish time bringing us out unsurprisingly in last place. No-one else was quite stupid enough to tackle 4 laps of this course. When I work back the results taking into account my recorded run split for the first lap, knocking off the delayed start and my long change out of my cycling stuff and into my running stuff we finished in a very respectable 15th place! Brilliant. Pete the Power House, I salute you Sir, many many many thanks for helping me complete this marathon. It is always an honour and I completely understand that following 3 assists that you are now bowing out of future daft challenges in this context, although I remain pretty confident I can pencil you into something interesting 'a lot' later in the year!?!

So now 20 Marathons have been completed in 16 weeks. It has taken a good couple of hours to sink in and now I am really pleased to have remained fairly injury free and illness free to complete things thus far. Wow. I look back and it has been a long time since the 8th of March with ups and downs, mostly mental. Some of which have cocked up the day or the weekend for my family and obvious thanks and patients going out my wife for her continued unwavering support. There have also been many many highs as well and great experiences when out on my local hills getting cheered on by my boys. It is now simply a case of counting them down until hopefully completing this challenge on November the 1st.