The advantages of spectating
I had a cracking day out on Saturday with Elvis. Katie dropped us off at Ribblehead to watch the Three Peaks race which I wasn’t competing in again this year, and the build-up to the leaders of the 740 racers coming through led to an electric atmosphere. When the first few leaders had come through, we ran on to the Hill Inn, then followed the course up to the summit of Ingleborough (Google Earth track here).
My main reason for being there was to give moral and fuel support to Rob Jebb who cycles with me in Team Wheelbase. Rob had won the race for the last three years, but this year’s ‘international’ status of the race (the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge for 2008) meant a larger field, more prize money, and more nervy runners! In the end, after a super-fast start to the 24 mile race, Rob finished fourth.
When I helped him on Ingleborough, with a long descent to the finish, I offered him encouragement, knowing that on a long race like that, there was potential to close the time gap:
Dave: “Still lots of time to catch them yet Rob. How are you feeling?”
Rob: “Fucked.”
I ran down to Ingleton after that, dropping my camera twice on the way, but I somehow got away with it. Elvis didn’t like standing about watching runners much, although he did take the opportunity to beg sarnies from spectators whenever the chance arose.
Full results here: http://siera.sportident.co.uk/threepeaks/results.php?course=Long
Kinder Downfall fell race 2008
My first fell race for ages today was a load of fun in many ways, but also a bit of a release. I haven’t had any competitive outings in any form for three months almost to the day, so whilst I had a lot of mind-rest, I also focused a bit more on today’s Kinder Downfall race a lot more than I’d have liked to. Call it being over competitive, but each time I went out running, I generally thought about being in good shape and giving myself the best shot at the race today.
In the end, it was more a case of ‘business as usual’, with a respectable finish and a slight improvement on my time of last year. In many ways, I just feel relieved that I didn’t let myself down in any way. With a sleet-and-snow induced reduction in the number of starters, my top ten result was nothing to get really excited about, although I’ll openly say I felt great and ran a pretty intelligent pace. Unlike in
last year’s race, whew I ran out of steam (big time) in the last mile or so on the flat, I actually made inroads on the run-in this year, dropping a competitor and making big gains on the one in front. However, after all was done, I just finished in a respectable 12th position and unharmed. If I’ve reached my running peak at 38, I’ll be happy with my lot, to be honest.
Hat’s off to friend Steve Riley on his first fell race of manly distance – his fitness proved a great foundation for a remarkably good first outing and we’ll be seeing more of him in the good end of the results I reckon.
Google Earth track of the course in stunning detail here.
Camping trip with Lily to Malham
The school holidays are a bit to cock this year, meaning that Katie’s and Lily’s Easter holidays don’t match up. It’s led to some creative childcare activity this holiday for Lily which in many ways will be much more fun for her than the prospect of getting on her mum’s heavily pregnant nerves.
Lily and I took advantage of the situation by going camping for a night in Malham. Aside from the predictably good bonding opportunity it afforded, it was actually a really good laugh, start to finish. We had a great bike ride with the trailer bike [View in Google Earth] taking in some bleak but very ridable bridleways and byways, and had a couple of really ace short walks.
We capped off by a quick visit to Settle to see Lily’s great grandparents’ grave on Friday as the weather curtailed the walking, which was also worthwhile and led to lots of good chances to chat about relatives, mortality and all that!
Some fine photos here.
The last weekend in South Zeal
As my brother and his family prepare to move up north, it was with mixed emotions that we spent our last stay there over at their house in South Zeal. Mixed, because we’ve had some great times there, as this one was, and we’ll miss it on that score, but the journey back was a killer (getting on for six hours) and the weather wasn’t its usual vintage. Probably not a bad thing – would have been harder to say goodbye to the place in gorgeous spring weather (though I’d love to have given it a try!)
A lovely bonus was a few hours drop-in visit from cousin Adrian with Dee and Isabel – had a great manic meal with plenty of good banter and it was really nice to see Adrian away from the mountains for a change.
We made the most of the freezing northerlies to get to an indoor play area on Saturday, which was obviously great fun for the children and one grown-up in particular who loves these places. Katie took plenty of opportunities for some good rest, and Phil and I managed to get out on the moor a couple of times for short runs, including a straight-up-and-down-Cawsand run which was very rewarding (see here in Google Earth).
89 photographs are here – a mixture of some from my camera and some taken with Phil’s utterly stunning Nikon D200.
Seven Days On – not addiction, but obsession.
Inspired by out-of-season, what-the-heckery, I decided to keep on runnin’ for a week and ditch the rest days. Steve did the same thing a while ago and it got me thinking about whether I’m a bit too precious with rest days. A much improved toe joint (thanks, Glucosomine & Chondroitin) finally meant that I wasn’t getting foot ache after runs, so i thought I’d go and see what kind of ache I could give myself.
So a week’s running, minimum of five miles every day was prescribed by my closest doctor and coach.
Looking back, I don’t think it’s done me any harm at all. I was a bit low on morale when I set off on days 4 and 5 but I think that’s because I’ve always run when I fancied it – this became a mission so I ‘had to’. The injuries stayed away (No injuries? Call myself a runner?) and I feel pretty good. The weather’s been utter cack so I’ve not missed my cycling.
The stats
38 miles, about 30 of them off road – 8,000 feet of ascent and descent, 5,500 calories. I thought it was worth commemorating the occasion with a Google Earth file of all the tracks from the trusty Garmin 305.