Marathon 38 Trionium's Greensands Marathon

Great to get another run completed. It is interesting doing a trail race in such a different part of the country. Running round here you out and about and pretty much have the hills for yourself. Down South and in the Surrey Hills its all Dog Walkers and Mountain Bikers with me almost getting taken out multiple times from both. Great trails on a good challenging course with mixture of cloud and sunny spells. Perfect running whether. More to come.

Marathon 37 Hathersage to Belper - Sunny but not a sunny disposition. Tough Day.

This was again a lovely sunny run through beautiful countryside. I am biased as I was able to run from my house. It was a great downhill marathon but on tired legs from a busy week, reduced sleep and having done a marathon in the evening 3 days before. Still good fun and great company. B, we should start writing these up as CPD time. More info to come but won't be for a while as very busy week this week. Thanks for looking. https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/40in40

Its all about da Race, da Race. Not about da Medal.

Just a few medals so far as examples of some of the Highs and Lows of a challenge like this. There is a story wrapped up in each one! Only 3 more to add to the collection now. Its been a bumpy road, not just the fell running and not just the challenge of balancing 40 marathons, a wife, kids, working full time and a Masters, but getting our heads round one of our children going into hospital and the long, long recovery afterwards. Luckily we live within a long stone's throw (OK very long as theres a rather large moor in the way) of one of the best hospitals on the planet! Sheffield Childrens Hospital and their dedicated, hard working and expert staff.

Massive, massive thank you to the dedicated team in the 999 call centre, that  day. We have no idea of your names but are truly grateful from the bottom of our heart. To the fantastic team of Paramedics who arrived and took him off to the Hospital, To the staff in A+E that Sunday morning and then especially to fantastic team on the Burns Ward including the Plastic Surgeons who did his operation. Then also to the team that cared for him in Outpatients over the next 18 months. Simply inspirational. If I had enough medals I would give you at least one each. This brief escapade into the world of Marathoning and Ultramarathoning has given me time to get my head around it and to see our beautiful baby grow into a handsome little man, full of life, full of beans and who likes nothing more than to bounce on the trampoline dressed in his skeleton fancy dress costume. This has all been made possible by the wonderful care from the Childrens Hospital. We simply thank you with all of our hearts.

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/40in40

Marathon number 36 was completed over at Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest.

So it was at the end of last week that I had the idea that instead of running on Wednesday, I would take the opportunity to run somewhere new. We had a Team day coming up at Centre Parcs so I that sounded alright as I had done a few mountain bike and orienteering races around Sherwood Pines. I looked up the details of the place and saw the intricate web of paths and roads linking all the different activities and accommodation and thought that a couple of laps of that would be good. As the days ticked through the week I then thought about the idea of trying to cover atleast all the tracks at least once. As it would be getting dark through the challenge this added a whole new dimension.

But I would need an accomplice. Someone who was crazy enough to give up their free time and potential flume time or spa time to help out with navigation and hold the food and water. The man who stepped up to the mark was Malik. So I decided to bring in a bike for him to help with the challenge. So on the day, he still agreed to help out and I gave him lots of opportunities to back out if he wanted, however he was happy to lend a hand. So Team day out of the way, we got changed and got the bike ready and then.. well started. No fanfare just started randomly in a car park. We opted to get a loop in of the place just to get some idea of the layout and distance and try to interpret the map. We found some extra paths that weren't on the map that disorientated us a little bit but apart from that started to crank through the mileage in the last of the sunshine. Back after our loop we set out tackling all of the wiggles through the carpark and towards the end of this that brought the mileage out to about 15k. This is when the puncture happened. Dammit!! no more bike assistance. But after a quick change Malik was up for a run. So back on the mileage we ran through the dusk and into the nighttime. It became tough around this time, not just because of the dark, but pretty much every hut, tree house and chalet we ran past was cooking so the air was thick with all sorts of mouth watering smells. There was also now a chill in the air.

So every marathoner knows that there are tough parts of each marathon, some people talk of hitting the wall, others talk of a switch over of fuels to the body. For me this happens pretty regularly somewhere between 25 and 30k. I know its coming and I expect it and with a fair wind behind I'm able to remain one step ahead of it. Image then my surprise and horror when Malik decided that after about 10k of running he had had enough and couldn't help anymore. He was therefore off to the flumes and then for food and a pint. Yup you've guessed it if you've done the sums, I was left in the dark at 25k with 17k left to run on my own knowing that everyone else I knew would be enjoying a nice sit down, food and drinks. Suddenly the full stupidity of this challenge was brought home.

Morale at an all time low and legs starting to ache, a little dark voice whispered something faintly audible into my ear. "Look, its dark, no one will know, nip back to the car and just drive round for the remainder with your GPS out of the window. Make sure you go slow enough so that Strava doesn't flag it up..."  What a stupid idea, no I was stronger than that. If I was going to stop, I would stop and go for food and then just come back and do another one some other time.  Thats stupid, to get this far and then just stop.. No I need to finish it... Well my GPS needs to finish it, it is dark, they're in the pub, no one will see.. OK but can I pull that off? What happens if that I get seen.. There will be sarky comments in the morning like "Did you enjoy your run last night did you?" Nah stupid idea!

So within a couple of kilometers this whisper had grown into a shout and by the time I got back to the car I decided to stop but still a little undecided as to whether to 'carry on' or go to the pub. It was only 30k by this point and back at the car some idiot had blocked me in! Out of a massive carpark with loads of spaces this idiot had blocked me in and there was no getting round it. After several minutes of shouting and cursing, I had worked out one loop at about 6k so came to the solution that I would trot off and then they had better be gone by the time I got back!!! So off I trotted muttering under my breath and working out whether there were enough lads going to still be around to help bounce the car out of the way. It was a tough lap but I was somewhat spurred on by seeing if that car had the cheek to still be there!

I got back and 36k clicked through on the watch. The car had gone! Ha, what a tosser... but actually that lap hadnt been too bad and actually I only needed to repeat that lap again and I would be there! A quick biscuit and a swig of water and off I went into the darkness and with the headtorch fading! Malik had also gone off with the spare batteries! Infact it was fading so much that I had to turn it off for all but the off road sections, but it gave be something else to grumble about. An then with even less of a fanfare than when we started, I finished. Number 36 completed and suddenly with only 4 left to go! Wow.

I finished at just after 9pm and then had a listen to the answer phone message and then hooked up with the girls after their spa and head us to meet the others in Huck Diner for one of their massive burgers and a pint of Guinness. What better way to recover? https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/40in40

Marathon 35 of 40. Now on serious countdown to the finish. This was the Isle of Wight Marathon

The legs didn't ease off that much after the Steeplechase last weekend. The terrain wasn't it as thats pretty much what I run on every time I go out running. I dont even think it was the man flu as the muscle soreness was confined to specific areas. I think it was solely due to that first climb direct up Mam Tor. I could literally feel the giders fraying in my calfs and although I was able to run on and complete the race without issue, I knew that I was in for a treat as soon as the inflammation set in.

And so it was that the days ticked through the week but the legs didn't ease. Oh dear. I did improve on my ability to climb the stairs, but anytime I was still the muscles just set. Add in a long journey down south and I was jiffling around and barely spent anytime in the car seat. A nice good pottering walk around Southsea helped on Saturday, but all too soon race day was upon us. It was going to be a long day.

My brother in running shoes was to be the legendary Matty H, whose general ability to rise to any challenge at anytime has seen us escape from many a hairy situation climbing in the mountains. I was therefore sure he could pull it out of the bag regardless of a lack of training and, not wanting to be left out of the sore legs front, deciding to throw himself under a car whilst cycling to work the previous weekend. Thankfully he and his bike got away quite lightly.

So we had a plan: To run about 3:15 pace but hopefully finish in under 3:30 if/when it all went a little pear shaped. We settled into a fairly comfy pace and indeed went through the halfway mark in about 1:37 but my legs, and more specifically my calfs, were starting to feel a little worse for wear, well actually pretty awful and lacking any power. Not good when you along way from home. ie. finishing and getting back to the ferry in time to actually get home!

Initially it was just the uphills that were a struggle, but then inevitably the downhills joined in leaving just the flats to plod through. I actually had a few ropey kilometers where I had to walk for 150m and run for 850m but luckily these were minimal. Then came the HILL.. Yes, that hill! Anyone who has done this course will know what I mean. Who in their right minds decides to put a whopping hill in at mile 24! It was a definite separator on the course.

Once at the top it was all flat to the finish, medal and then the rain started! What great timing.Just time for a quick shower to warm up and drive back to the ferry. In fact only just time as the ferry had an ambulance on it and it goes when thats the case. Just made it. Back to Romsey, eat and bundle the kids in the car and then head home for work the next day. If I thought that my legs were hurting during the race, this was recontextualised by the drive afterwards.....Derbyshire is a hell of a long way away when you can't sit still and are desperate to walk around.. Must keep moving, must keep moving....

So 35 marathons done! I have pretty much always decided that this challenge would end on the 1st November which would be 40 marathons in 34 weeks, but since I had 2 weeks where I couldn't actually run, I am left still with getting one more marathon mid week to catch up. This I have provisionally targeted for Thursday. Yes this Thursday, so I need to get things back on schedule with regards to recovery.. Anybody got any bright ideas..... If you fancy showing your support to this challenge or to the hospital which I am raising money for then this can be done HERE. It would be greatly appreciated. Many many thanks for taking the time to read this set of ramblings.

The Family and I are off to the Isle of Wight to Run in the Oldest continual marathon in the country. This is there 58th year!! I therefore have to pay homage.

I am raising money for the Burns Unit at Sheffield's Childrens Hospital where our son was 2 years ago. I need your help to reach my target and am running out of time. I am on course to complete my 40 marathon challenge in 34 weeks, 6 weeks ahead of schedule. The IOW marathon will be my 35th leaving me 5 marathons left to complete in 3 weeks!!  I have a donation website set up HERE where you can find a few more details on the challenge. In the meantime I am trying to maintain some sort of blog as to how I get on in each run. I would also be grateful for a tweet on twitter or a shout out on facebook if you're a keen user of such things. Thank you very much for any assistance!!

Marathon 34. The Red Bull Steeplechase. Short so even with a 5k warm-up its still a dent in my average!

As usual and as I am very much becoming accustomed to writing, another marathon day means, another sunny day, a warm day and luckily due to the amount of ridge running: a calm day. Today was a race I had been looking forward to all year. It is the day when Red Bull take over the Hope Valley! Ok so some of the locals are a little opposed to this and this is mirrored by some sectors of the Fell Running Community, however having been part of it today they certainly know how to put on a spectacular race. Its not just professionally run, but is a bargain price and is almost more of a festival than a running race.

They also use the best trails in the Country if not the World. OK so I'm slightly biased this is my backyard, my play ground even, and whilst I'm not a fan of Red Bull (Unless in the 90's and with a shot of Voddy) or these multinational companies invading our Valley, I felt that they were a very welcome guest. I will definitely be back next year, mainly to hopefully not have man flu so I can 'Smash It' (or whatever the current terminology is) and try and get through to the final stage. The only problem with the latter is that I believe, if recent rumours are indeed correct, that the Red Bull Steeplechase will not be back next year. Or if they are, then it probably won't be to the Hope Valley. Mind you they did push out a local race scheduled for the same day 2 years ago on very much the same trails, so I suppose it will be a good opportunity for this to reestablish itself.

So what is this Red Bull Steeplechase thingy all about then. Well let me answer, its certainly a unique format where you basically run as fast as you can between village steeples, as in Church Steeples. The route taken is marked and is all off road and takes in beautifully scenic trails some up high and some down low. If you're not sure how far it is to the next Steeple, then just open your ears and listen out as RB have kindly coordinated with each local village to have a peal of bells to guide you home. So the villages? From the start they are Bamford, Hope, Edale and Castleton.

At each Steeple the back portion of the race is eliminated! Thus leaving fewer and fewer people to actually complete the course. In fact out of 375 men who start only the best 30 are allowed to run on an complete the final stage. Just so that you are under no illusion as to what position and what number will be knocked out, halfway markers through the stage inform you and then again at the finish of each stage.

Its an odd set up as the slower runners don't run as far and as they don't run as far, they can run faster and as the are running faster they are more likely to get through, their treat being that they then might have to run on whilst then being absolutely goosed.

And so to my race. Well its probably best to start my story earlier in the week and I seemed to picked up a bug sometime which manifested itself as a sore throat through Tuesday and minimal energy and a temperature by Wednesday. In fact I went out with Luke in the evening to recce the course for this weekend and found out very early on that it wasn't going to happen. The evil Man Flu was taking grip. We sacked off the last part of the run and ended up running home. It was therefore with fingers crossed that I spent the last couple of days hoping that would be better...  More soon.