Race Report - The High Peak 40

Well, the phrase "silk purse from a sows ear" fits this one nicely.  Whilst getting everything ready for the HP40, I discovered that I had left my pack, with all of my kit in it, at the previous weekends race, the Nine Edges.  Oops.

So Friday night was pretty much panicking, calling people to borrow maps, and packing a bumbag full of spare kit.  Instead of 1 map for the whole lot, I had 2 maps, and had to use both sides of the 2 maps.  This could get confusing.  Also, not being a great believer of not testing something new on raceday, I had a new t-shirt (long sleeve Rab Aeon tee) and nutrition (TORQ gels).Fun times ahead.

Up early doors Saturday to get up to Buxton for registration (sorry Mel), then spent from 7:30 to 7:48 (race starts at 8, 10 minutes walk away...) in a bit of a panic marking up the maps (all 4 sides) as I had overheard someone say something about it not being marked well. Oh dear.

Made it to the start line ok, quick hi to fellow TORQ team member Tracy Dean, brief briefing (ha) and then we were off.  There was the usual mad sprint, but I resisted, having figured that I was going to stick to a 7 min/mile on the flat strategy as it worked so well last weekend.  Over a couple of lanes, then up  slight incline and then stairs (walked - can't run 'em) then onto the old railway path.  Managed a brief headcount in front of me, figured I was about 14th.  By the time checkpoint 1 was reached, I was 13th, and had just downed my first gel.  Interesting flavour, forest fruits, but had a massive caffeine kick.  Great stuff. Off down the hill to follow the reservoirs, then up the Goyt River.  Still keeping it steady at around 7/7:15 a mile, managed to reel in another couple of people, then up to the main road and checkpoint 2.

Through CP2 in seconds - a well oiled machine that checkpoint.  Up a hill then down, then up Eccles Pike.  I had made a decision not to fight the hills, to my effort steady but try and run them as much as possible.  All the way up the hill, picked up another place, then down into the next CP.  Just taking on water at the CP's, as I was taking gels not far before them and didn't need anything extra.

Around the back of Chapel-en-le-Frith, then under a railway bridge, quick turn left then right, then a long slog up to South Head.  Managed to pick up another place, and set my eyes on a bloke in orange up ahead.  I had my eyes on his back for quite some time.  From South Head to Rushup Edge was a nice run, passing Charlie Sharpe on my way up Mam Tor.  Finally caught up to the guy in orange (I think it was Phil Hayes) on my way into Castleton, but that was shortlived as he put a push on and got a bit of a gap on me.  Closed up on him and Kevin Hoult, who was in 3rd (didn't know it at the time) by the top, but then Kevin had a good run down, and Phil was a little faster also across Bradwell Moor.  In through the next CP, then down into Tideswell.  Caught back up to Phil at the next CP, then passed him as we ran through the mud and he cramped up.

Down Monsall Dale, Phil was a steady 30 or so metres back, so once we were off the disused railway and down onto the river trail, I tried to gap him, and got a little ground on him over the undulations.  Next up was Deep Dale.  Not the most picturesque place in the world, but it was slightly uphill, and runnable.  I pushed up here, as I knew Phil was slower up the hills than me, and I wanted to drop him.  Happily, Kevin in 3rd was also having issues with his calves and running up hill, so by the time we reached the top I had caught him.  Quick hello, blasted through the CP and I was off in 3rd.  Briefly.  Kevin caught up fairly quickly, so the next few miles I was pushing, trying to pretend I wasn't pushing.  Managed to get a few metres by the end of the road section (it was the dreaded Flagg Lane section we were on, 3 miles of undulating road which, after 32 miles usually gives people a hard time.  Barely noticed it.), but then there is Deep Dale 2 - a short, steep down and up just before the last CP.

Kevin at this stage was descending better than me, so he was a little too close for my liking.  Nipped through the last CP fast as, then off through the field.  I had about 50m on Kevin.  Concerned.  Had a bit of an argument with a gate (they tend to confuse me in the later stages) and was concerned even more.  Saw the next few fields.  They were slightly uphill.  Now or never.  Pushed hard.  Dropped him.  Steady run in (looking over shoulder) to take 3rd place, in 5:51.  Duncan Harris won, in 5:26 (fast) and Stuart Walker in 2nd, 5:33 (Still fast).  Tracy Dean took out the ladys race in 6:21.

Cup of tea while I recovered, quick photoshoot, then off for a nice warm shower.  Actually, no.  It was cold.  I hate cold showers, with a passion.  I squealed like a little girl.  Dunno what Stu thinks of me now.  "Yeah, not a bad runner, bit of a pansy though".

Had my first cheese and onion pie.  Amazing.

Things that went well:

• TORQ gels. No flat spots, nice taste, no aftertaste.
• Fuelling - 1 gel, 30 minutes.  Works for me.
• General pacing - didn't slow down much over the race.  2:47 for the first 20, 3:04 for the second.
• Cheese and onion pies.

Things I could do better

• Start faster.  If I want to do better, I need to be closer to the front.  
• Don't lose kit and force a panic. Dur.
• Slightly more vaseline.

Strava link:

Thanks to TORQ for fuelling my race!

Highs, and lows.

Well, hell of a couple of weeks.  Massive low a couple of weeks back, when I got the news that my father was admitted to Greymouth hospital (it's pretty small).  Managed a brief chat with him, but he was in a bit much pain to be chatty - all of his joints hurt.  He was then flown over to Christchurch hospital (much bigger), put in ICU, hooked up to a ventilator and a shedload of pain relief and antibiotics.  Turns out he had a Strep A infection, which had gotten into his blood (septicemia).  He is still in a critical state, but slowly improving, but being literally the other side of the world has been hard.

Hot on the heels of this, was quite possibly the most exciting thing that has happened to me, in terms of running - an email asking me to join the Torq Performance Trail Team.  The very first post on this blog was about my efforts in trying to get into another Torq Trail Team, which was unsuccessful, but am absolutely over the moon to be a part of the team, especially considering the talent that I will be joining.

So the past couple of weeks has definitely been a rollercoaster.  Despite all of this, or maybe because of it, training has still gone on, and also the Nine Edges Endurance race, which I have started every year since 2009.  It's 20 miles long, and a cracking course starting at Ladybower Reservoir, and finishing at the Robin Hood pub, just out of Baslow.

So I'm not sure exactly what I did on Wednesday night whilst I was sleeping, but I went to bed feeling great, with no niggles, then woke up Thursday morning with a sore ankle.  How do you injure yourself in your sleep?  So I took Thursday and Friday off running, ankle was better but still a bit sore, but it didn't feel like muscle or ligament damage, so I thought I'd trot around anyway.

!0:00am Saturday morning, off we went (after 10 minutes standing around getting chewed on by midges.  I itch on every bit that was exposed.) with the usual amount of people charging off across the field, only to slow down massively on the first incline.  It's a fairly good grunt from Ladybower up to the top of the hill, and I made my way up to 3rd place by the time we reached the top, then in to 2nd pretty soon after that.  1st place was not too far away (I thought), so I pushed on.  The descent down into Moscar came fairly quickly, could still see 1st so I thought I'd time the gap - 3.5 minutes, after 5 and a bit miles.  Ouch.  I carried on, figuring he's come back further into the race.  Besides, 3rd-6th weren't far behind me.

On this race, somehow, I always manage to get to stiles, gates, marshals at exactly the wrong time.  It must have cost me a good 3 minutes or so waiting for them  I digress.  I carried on from Checkpoint 2, just after Moscar, doing my own thing, aiming to finish the race with under 8min/mile average, was running all of the hills and just generally feeling good.  Surely I must be pulling 1st in...

So I got to Burbage Bridge, about 11 miles in.  A mate from the club was there, and gave me the good news the bloke was now 7 minutes in front.  I gave up worrying about catching him then, and just carried on doing my own thing.

Nothing particularly eventful happened between then and the finish, pace remained consistent the whole way and I finished the race feeling good - which has given me a massive confidence boost for next Saturday's High Peak 40, where I'm going to try and keep the same pace.

Strava link here, ended up 2nd.  Free beer at the endwas amazing, think it was Sunbeam.

Win! And other things!

It's been a while, so there's a few things going into this one.  2 races, and a bit about a holiday.  Exciting stuff, but will start from the start...

Wednesday 14th August.  Race 5 of our Summer League.  Felt a bit rough going into this, and it showed.  Averaged 6:04 a mile on a flattish course, struggled to get under 6 for most of it, and just felt flat.  36th place in 35:53.  Moving on...

Went over to Lake Annecy in the French Alps for a Family Holiday, and met up with friends Mark and Debs Kerry. Had an absolutely fantastic time, did loads of things with family and kids without having to focus on working for my Maths Degree.  Happy days.  Discovered my eldest daughter has no fear whatsoever when it comes to climbing, or speed.  Loved the luge.  Didn't get to go to Chamonix, or the Raidlight HQ, but did get a morning pass out to go up a mountain, and handily, La Tournette was close by.

So, I departed from Verthier, at the Southern end of Lake Annecy, early Monday morning (about an hour later than planned as it was still dark!) on foot, starting altitude of  ~440m.  As I had left most of my kit behind, not really expecting to be doing anything like this I was wearing my 22l day pack, and only had 3 muesli bars and a banana for fuel (I did have a very nice baguette I made, but left it in the fridge at the campsite).  Started to run up the hill, but that didn't last very long as it was a) early and b)steep.  Still kept up a good pace, and started running when it flattened out again.Made it up to the Col de la Forclaz in 50 minutes, 700m climbed with another 1200m to go.

Next it was along past where the hordes of paragliders launch from, along through some forest to the Chateau de l'Aulp (or something similar).  Along here was also a viewpoint.  Said viewpoint was a rocky outcropping with a bit of a (massive) drop.  About here I realised that my head for heights wasn't as good as it used to be, and had to have a bit of a sit down.  The spinning gradually abated, I took some snaps, and retreated (carefully, 3 points of contact at all times) back to the path.  Some good running from here took me to the Chateau.  1:35 done, still feeling good, 1st bar eaten.

Gets steep from here.  Really steep.  Hands on knees, going up steady, passing loads of people all with poles.  I was the only person I saw the whole time without.  Made it up to the Refuge de la Tournette,and ran past a French couple, the bloke on the phone exclaimed something along the lines of seeing Kilian Jornet.  That made me run up the next bit until they couldn't see me.  Thankfully, that wasn't far.  Next up, after that brief, morale boosting respite, was more steep climb.  Steep, muddy climb as well, still running anything that looked flattish.  Finally approached the rocky top section, edging carefully past the massive drop to the left (head getting better with heights though) and finally getting to climb up bits with chains.  Randomly, there was also a small lily patch at about 2000m.  Crazy.

The top.  Reached it in just over 3 hours, was really happy with that, head just about back to ok with heights and drops, took loads of photos and waited a bit to see if the clouds on the Mont Blanc side would clear.  They did, a little, i took more photos but didn't spot it.  Ate my banana, then started on the descent.  It was fun.  Nice little scree bit, down a nice ridge, full of goats, then down through some forest to a nice stream.  Filled up my bottle, and myself, then spotted Mark and Debs coming up the other side.  Had a quick chat, then carried on.  About 200m later, had to stop as there was a large deer/goat thing in the middle of the path.  It was incredibly unconcerned, so I took  few photos and walked towards it.  It waited until I was about 1m away, then ambled just off the path.  I carried on.  Down through more forest, and into Montmin.  Then slightly up and along a road back to Col de la Forclaz, and a terrific descent back down to Verthier. Stopped the clock at just over 5 hours, with about 8100 ft of climb.  Fantastic, and I was back to the campsite on time also.

Strava link is here.

Today's race.  The Dark and White trail race, round 2 at Rowter Farm, Castleton.  Travelled up with Brett, which was entertaining in itself, fairly early doors, with Nick Lander and Andy Watson coming up later to do the 12km option.  Got there well within time, got ourselves sorted, and tried to warm up.  It was cold, with a bit of a wind blowing.  Jogged to the start point (you can start the 20k any time between 8:15 and 9:30) and set off at about 8:25, with a few people ahead.  I do prefer to have people ahead, targets to chase and all that.  Started off heading towards Mam Tor, but turning up to Rushup Edge.  ran all the way up to the road, then up to the edge, where I noticed that not only was the wind really, really cold, it was also a dirty headwind, and blowing quite hard.  Never mind, keep going, take it steady.  Reached the turn North to Chapel gate, then off the side, down the footpath to Dale Head.  Started to get into it, passing a few people.  Reached the first checkpoint, water and grabbed a gel for later, then on, heading towards the path up to Hollins Cross.  Took my gel just before the climb, and just kept plugging at it, passing Martin Stacey of DDMT, made myself run all the way to the top.  Was feeling quite good by now, heading towards Lose Hill, and thankfully missing the summit.  Down the side, following the old Moors and Tors route, into Hope, 2nd checkpoint, grabbed another gel for later, and along the start of the Moors and Tors route.  Into Castleton, but for once, I wasn't climbing up Cavedale, which I think would have been the easier option. Instead, we were directed around the back of Castleton, going up past the entrance to Peak Cavern, then straight up the side of the hill.  I had to walk.  It was steep.  after about 50m, it flattened out and I managed to start running again, but it kept going, and going...and then going back into the teeth of that headwind.  Only, it wasn't the same headwind, it had reinforcements.  It was a hell of a struggle to keep running, but I wasn't walking again. The last 2 miles took what felt like forever (in reality they weren't too bad, but took a load of effort), and dibbed in at the finish in 1:46:34, which turned out to be good enough for 1st place.  An entire 9 minutes clear of 2nd.

Strava link here.

Some photos from Annecy: