Playing Catch Up...

I admit it, I've been rubbish at keeping up to date on here but the past few weeks have been so full of adventures I've managed to get through the working week then we've been off again. Mrs Um has been a busy camper! Started back in early April when we went along to one of the L100 organised recce weekends. Marc Laithwaite had asked me last year to be one of the guest speakers at the talk given the night before the recce run. Fine, no probs I declared, how hard can that be, and promptly ignored it until a couple of weeks beforehand when blind panic set in. I wanted to talk about my whole L100 experience, from the training to what I wore/ate, and after reading all the debates online about sizes of rucksacks/waistpacks and the mandatory kit I decided to take my 6l OMM waistpack and show that yes it is possible to get everything in it, if you want to go light and fast.

Off we went to the Lakes, with Dave, Fairy and Albert. I dropped Dave off at the start of Leg 2 of the Bob Graham at the crack of dawn on Saturday, with the tops looking ominously white. Then I drove Fairy round to Mardale Head, as she was running to Ambleside. Drove back to Ambleside, just had enough time to pick up some food from The Apple Pie cafe (good cake) and then headed off to Dunmail Raise to meet Dave. Tried to get Albert to jog up Seat Sandal but he was having none of it, so we pootled around the bottom till Dave appeared. Picked up the Fairy who'd had a great run out, then it was nearly time for The Talk!

Albert decided Dave needed a clean...

I'd spoken to Andy Mouncey beforehand as I was sooo nervous, but he said look everyone wants to be there and listen to what you say so enjoy! He was right.

Thankfully I decided at the (very) last minute to do a powerpoint presentation as the 2 speakers before me were really good - Marc did a great talk about nutrition and then Maxine Grimshaw gave a fabulous talk about training for the L50 from a 'Middle of the Pack' perspective, giving out chocolates! So, it was my turn, and thankfully I think it went ok and people seemed to enjoy/take something from it, which was the point I guess.

Running background, from my talk, I think I'm about 10 years old here!

I met Ian Corless from Talk Ultra who was recording the evening, nice chap and interesting to speak to, his podcasts are well worth a listen.

The next day we all ran from Pooley Bridge to Ambleside (with me planning on stopping at Mardale as I was just getting back into running after The Calf). What a great run! Fairy was flying and I had lots of mini 'interviews' from folk as we passed them! My 5 mins of fame...

Anyway we bumped into Paul Tierney (The Irish) and Barry Murray (who were 3rd and 9th in last year's L100) at the footbridge just as you approach Haweswater, bit random, but Fairy and I had just agreed to help Paul on his upcoming BG attempt, so it was great to actually meet up! Stopping at Mardale, with Dave and Albert waiting (Albert had decided that today he would be a fell running pup and had hurtled down Gatescarth Pass) we met Terry Conway, the L100 Record Holder and running royalty! Terry had been running with his girlfriend, the lovely Annie (now Mrs Conway!) and they'd decided to stop so we gave them a lift back to Ambleside.

So, weekend 1 of adventures done and dusted. Met some really lovely running fools and had a brilliant time. More to come...

Guts no Glory

Bit quiet on the blogging front but it's been busy busy, so a quick round up. I was talked into entering the Buff Lightning 12hr race by Bobberty, so I talked Ant and the Fairy into entering as a  mixed team. My calf has been playing up with recurring Compartment Syndrome so I hadn't done a lot of mileage, and had resorted to buying some 2XU calf guards (which seem to help with the swelling) and running along the Grantham canal, which is dull as dishwater but my calfs wouldn't do any incline without exploding. So, off we went to the Buff 12hr thingy with me just trying for a training run, not expecting my calf to play.

The race starts at 6am with the clocks going forward that morning. I felt a bit shaky and generally rubbish but put it down to not sleeping too well. The race is 10k laps with some nice hills and woods thrown in, normally I would have liked it. After 1 lap I still felt crap, on the 3rd lap I was sick and wanted to stop; Dave talked me into carrying on, although I did lie down for about 15 mins. 4th and 5th laps were like the dawn of the dead and by the 6th I'd decided to call it a day. Found out later that Dave felt the same, sick and shaky, so came to the conclusion that we'd given ourselves food poisoning the night before as we ate differently to everyone else. 


On the plus side, Bobberty ran a stormer! 1st Male Solo in a new course record, he was rocking! Ant and the Fairy also played a blinder finishing 1st Mixed Team! So not all bad...

The Beast

I currently organise 4 trail/adventure races throughout the year, with the 1st one, The Beast, fast approaching next Sunday 26th. You can tell it's nearly race time as the house is full of boxes. Boxes of prizes, boxes of t shirts, boxes of barrier tape, boxes of rosettes, boxes of goody bag stuff (which has to kept out of reach of Fat Fur aka Albert as he's particularly keen on 9Bars), boxes, boxes, aaargh.
Boxes and lists. Lists of entrants, lists of marshals, lists of stuff still be collected/delivered, lists, lists, aaargh.


In between the boxes and lists, my training's been getting steadily on track with some good long runs, increasing speed sessions, and bastard circuits, so all good. We're heading off to the Lakes the weekend following The Beast, with the Fairy, with Dave having a look at Leg 2 of the Babs Graham, Fairy looking at another section of the L50 and me and Fat Fur running around Blencathra valley one day and then popping up (yeah, really) Steel Fell on Sunday.


Right, must have another list to make...

Peaks Jogging and Coughing

Headed over to Edale on Sunday planning on running the 1st 12 or so miles of the HPM to Cutthroat Bridge and back. Frost and ice and beautiful skies. Hollins Cross, Lose Hill and Win Hill bagged then down to Parkin Clough.

With me coughing my guts up we decided to not head over to Cutthroat and ran about in the woods below Win Hill, finding new trails, surprising peeing mtb-ers...

We ended up by the reservoir, now what's this, a giant plug hole? 

Wasdale Water World

We spent New Year in Wasdale, with torrential rain and a dog that hates the rain. Albert refused to leave Mrs Um for 4 days. We arrived on Thursday after stopping off in Chorley on the way, to visit my Gran. As she does every year she happily presented us with a big bag of local cheese, oat cakes (cheese flavoured no less) and chocolates for xmas. She's 90 this year and we don't like to tell her that I really don't like cheese and Dave is allergic to the stuff. She spent ages chopping up celery to go with the cheesefest...

Only in Chorley

It poured down on Friday, we attempted to get Albert out of Mrs Um planning on a trip up Scafell Pike; he was having none of it. So we spent the afternoon mooching about, watching the storm, listening to tunes. In honour of mates Kate and Jane we had a cheese quiz - Q: Which cheese do you like Dave? A: None, Q: What's your favourite cheese Gaynor? A: None. Quite a short quiz. We then decided to whittle the celery into a chess set, yes we were getting bored.

Around 6pm we saw a truck with a trailer with blue flashing lights going up the lane towards the little car park below Scafell. Oh dear, that looks like Mountain Rescue. Saw them leave around 11pm.

New Years Eve, still raining, Albert still refusing to move, we headed up Scafell Pike in the morning, passing an ambulance parked in the little car park. It wasn't cold but god it was wet with snow patches on the higher ground, me moaning, Dave shouting go on screw your face up a bit more.

There was about 30m visibilty with me calling Dave back a couple of times as I was losing sight of him.

We reached the summit and headed off to have a look at Broad Stand passing a group of 4 stern looking blokes walking with full kit (Mountain Rescue?). Broad Stand was as horrible looking as I'd imagined. I was starting to breath really heavily and have blurry eyesight, feeling really cold if we stopped so we headed down as fast as possible dropping down the scree to the right of Broad Stand (which takes you round to Lords Rake I think). Down we went, my first go at scree running - what a laugh, loved it! Bombed down the hill, with Dave shouting heh you, wait, you've woken up!

Back to Mrs Um, the ambulance had gone, Albert was curled up fast asleep. Changed out of soaking wet stuff, shook for a while, started on my foot of jaffa cakes (5 packets in 1, result!) then cracked open the port. Spent the rest of the day/night in the Wasdale Head Inn then saw in the New Year watching a massive thunder and lightning storm over the valley, perfect.

Merlot, Port, Dog Beer - Dave, Me, Albert

Drove home with a horrendous hangover trying not to be sick on the M6 fuelled by Burger King, not the best start to 2012!

Got home and saw the news that a 19 year old lad had died on Scafell Pike on Friday after falling and getting lost from his friend. He was found on Saturday morning when we were up there. He was staying at the same campsite. Terrible.

Daily Mail Article

The 'Race the Ridgway' Recce

Due to slowly drowning in paperwork and then having a new laptop that befuddled me for a while (we are one, now) it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front. So, a quick round up...


The Fairy took herself off on a recce of the last 15 or so miles of The Lakeland 50 route a few weeks ago. Me, being jealous, forced her to go back the following weekend so we could have a run out in the hills. After spending a very drunken evening with Iain Ridgway and friends in Grasmere we set off, not so bright and early on the Sunday to run from Ambleside to Coniston and then catch the bus back. The Fairy was in charge of navigating. Obviously I know the route but really believe that you only 'learn' a route by working it out for yourself, and possibly learning from your mistakes. If you just follow someone you'll never 'lock' it in your head. The Fairy had gone wrong a few times the week before so we were going to nail it this time. 

Iain planned to start running an hour or so after we started and catch us up, so we were constantly on 'Iain Watch'. We took it steady, mainly cos I wanted The Fairy to read the roadbook slowly and work out where we were and I'm still nursing a dodgy achilles/calf which means I can only walk very slowly, flat footed up hills, which isn't the best in the Lakes.


The Fairy did brilliantly, working out where she went wrong and sorting it out. Just before Tilberthwaite (still no sign on Iain Watch) we spotted a chap in front peering at a familiar book and map. He was recceing the same section having entered the 100, so we joined forces. It turned out Dave (Bourne) had been a marshal at Dalemain this year and had handed me my drop bag and saw me finish! Thankfully I was polite to him apparently. Up the steps to the last 3 miles with The Fairy doing her best impression of me staggering up them during the race, yeah thanks for that and just you wait till next July missy.

Just before the lane into Coniston I watched as both Dave and The Fairy convinced themselves they were going the right way by making the view in front of them fit the roadbook, classic. I suggested that they might want to re read the last bit as they were happily heading off in completely the opposite direction. All sorted, we finished in Coniston and headed to a cafe before the bus. Iain found us in the cafe, finally, after going wrong a couple of times and ending up on the wrong side of a river!


Great day out and can't wait to get back to the hills after Crimble.


On the race front my mate Rob, or Bobberty as he likes to be known, has badgered me to enter the West Highland Way in June. I was meant to be part of his support crew but he pestered me to enter on Nov 30th, the last day you could enter, so there you go! I ran the WHW with Dave in 2008, it was the furthest I'd ever run and we were terrified! Looking at the entry list for 2012, I'm still terrified! Some serious runners in both the male and female entries. Should be good...um I think.

Me and Bobberty, can't miss him really...

Plans, Poorly Pup and Purple Pee

Had quite a stressful few weeks with a very poorly Albert. After our last trip to the Lakes he started randomly really yelping. It was obviously something to do with his head but neither we or the vet could figure out what it was. After 5 days of him still really crying with pain even on painkillers I took him to a friend of mine who's a vet specialising in orthopedics. A suspected disc problem was diagnosed and we were sent home with different pain killers and steroids for another 2 weeks, and orders not to let Albert run, jump up or go up or down stairs. Mmm, that'll be easy. Albert, doped up on Tramadol sat in the back garden looking at the lovely sky, the lovely birds, the lovely grass for hours. He normally sleeps upstairs on a sofa but wouldn't settle downstairs and spent ages headbutting the stair gate we'd set up, not good, so we decided to sleep downstairs. How long could it take? 5 weeks later and I'm still on the floor in the living room...Anyway, X ray and MRI confirmed that he'd got a fractured cervical vertebra (mainly congenital with a mis-shapen vertebra) and a ruptured disc with the disc material pushing on his spinal cord. Surgery planned with my friend Graeme, the vet, explaining that in extremely rare cases the disc material can stick to one of the arteries next to the spine, which can rupture when the disc material is removed causing an arterial bleed, giving 2 minutes before the dog dies. Yes, Albert had an arterial bleed which was quite spectacular by all accounts, but Graeme stopped it within a minute using a gauze he'd only used once before. That was 3 weeks ago, so far, so good, he has quite an impressive scar and my naughty Albert is slowly returning.

Not being able to leave him for very long I haven't been out for any real mileage, just a few 5 milers and some speed and hill sessions with clients. I have started doing daily circuits which include a lot of plyometrics and bodyweight exercises; there's been a lot of sweat and swearing in my kitchen, and Dave's away. I'm also back on the daily beetroot juice which I've been drinking for 2 years regularly and do think it helps my breathing, although what comes out the other end is probably visible from space...talk about purple.

Trying to make plans for 2012's races, but nothing's really grabbing me. I was so completely focussed on the L100 this year, don't seem to have the same obsession for anything so far. I'm really pleased to be running for Team 9Bar again next year. I'm addicted to 9Bars and they very kindly provide me with training/racing kit and great nutritional advice from Liz at 9Bar. I was thinking of the Fellsman but it's on the same day as my Gran's 90th Birthday party so better not, eh? I'll be at the L100 again but cheering and beering Ant, George and the Fairy who've entered the 50, and Dale who's coming back for seconds in the 100, yay!