Great Lakes 3 Day 1st - 4th May

The GL3D is an annual event in the Lakes covering around 25 miles a day for the 3 days.

We set off from Thornthwaite and were soon climbing GrizedalePike. I'd set off quite late in the start window and soon had the faster runners passing me. As we headed off Whitlass Pike I stayed right on the direct route down which was a very steep and technical descent. I found the new insoles had raised my foot too much and I was really struggling to stabilise my ankle on the difficult terrain at the speed we were going. As we hit the road at the bottom I was struggling already a with painful ankle. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur until which finished at a beautiful spot on the shores of Wast Water.

The next day I switched shoes and headed off over Yewbarrow at a good pace. There were 3 of us running close together when we got hit by a squall of horizontal hail, it was so painful we all stopped and put leggings on! I picked a better route than the others into the valley and got to the campsite at Thirlmere in good spirits.

Monday dawned cold and wet, so I stayed in my sleeping bag. Eventually there was a lull in the weather so I packed up and headed up Helvelyn. The weather was miserable and my ankle was sore, so it was a long day working my way back to Thornthwaite. Clearly the shoes weren't right but more importantly my ankle had swelled dramatically and made using the clutch interesting on the way home.

The Bob - Leg 5 and Leg 4 26th April

The following weekend was back to the lakes for another recce. I was tired and hungover as I set off for Leg 5 so just did the hills skipping the road and headed back to the car as Sunday would be a long day on Leg 4 (16km, 3.5hours).

Jeff joined me again for a recce from Seathwaite to Honistor. We set in good weather and had some fun scrambling round the side of Scafell Pike rather than joining the hordes on the summit. It was a fine day so we went and had another go at Broad Stand Jeff sussed the technique after I baled and then I managed to get up unaided. We decided to go round Foxes Tarn and try again to ensure we could do it fluidly which I managed no problem. So it was then down to Wasdale and onto Yewbarrow. We skipped Steeple as it was late and headed round the rest of the leg and back to the car (32km 10 hours).

Unfortunately my new shoes, although the same size as the last pair and supposed off the same last, seemed a bit loose. With hindsight my feet has swollen after 11 hours racing and so fitted the larger shoe. Once my feet had shrunk again, I was slopping around in them. After speaking with Inov-8 I purchased some different insoles which made the shoes much snugger.

iROC - 18th April

The iROC race was new in the calender and promised to be a mental as well as physical challenge with 6 races over 2 days.

As we set off for the first fell race the pace was much faster than the plod I'd been used to and my legs were heavy by the end.

The next event was a set orienteering course which I was too slow on, I'd misunderstood the instructions and didn't realise everyone's map was correctly printed for the course they had to cover so everyone had left the start area before I got my head round it. I don't think I'd refuelled properly since the first race and was dehydrated by the finish.

Making amends for the next stage by eating and drinking lots, I placed well in the score event and was soon on my bike for the night time trial this was a blast and the downhill we'd run a few times during the day flashed by at night, the last minute change to the running order meant the fastest went off first so there was no traffic to contend with which was a relief on the narrow sections.

Part of the changes I hadn't appreciated was an extension to the last event of the day, I night fell race. It was supposed to be about 40 minutes which ordinarily I would cope with easily without food and water, I hadn't counted on it being lengthened an hour and the build up of fatigue during the day caught me out so I bonked on the second lap and struggled in completely wrecked.

Sunday was 4 timetrial on the bike which was good for me in comparison to the running events although I had a slight problem when my handlebars came loose - retightened them while riding up a fireroad was interesting (note to self, racing a bike you only picked up the previous weekend and significantly rebuilt the day before isn't recommended!). In the later stages I missed the line into a gully after overtaking someone and was slam dunked into a rock garden, thankfully the bike wasn't damaged and I was remarkably unscathed so finished the stage 6th.

Inov-8 were sponsoring the event and by popular demand brought there current range of shoes up from the warehouse on the Sunday after selling off older models on the Friday and Saturday I picked up a new pair of RocLite 315 to replace the 2 pairs I'd trashed over the previous year.

The Bob - Easter Recce

Good Friday Leg 3
Easter proved to be a challenging 3 day unsupported round, carrying camping kit and food.
I started from Dunmail Raise on Friday morning in fell shoes and a 12kg pack. The weather was cold and misty which was no problem to start with but by Bow Fell I was moving into unknown territory following advice on the best route up. I got slightly lost and cooled down rapidly as well as slipping constantly in shoes too light for the load I was carrying and not good enough for the wet rock. It stayed grim for the next 3 hours across the Central Fells but I was caught by Rick and Julie from Dark Peak who were also out reccing and were randomly starting the same time as me for their attempt. We chatted till Broad Stand which livened me up. I'd read how to do it and ditched my pack before climbing round the first step. I then pulled my pack up an set to work getting up the second - of course I now know not to attempt Broad Stand in the wet but with much slipping a dubious use of the 10 year old rope I got up. I decided it was too dangerous to haul up my pack though so had to descend Foxes Tarn and retrieve it from the first step before heading down to Wasdale for the night (27km 9:36 hours).

Saturday
Next day was better weather as I heading up Yarrowbarrow. Rick and Julie caught me up on Kirk Fell and said they'd had problems finding their way out of Lord's Rake so had been late off as well and also explained why I hadn't seen them on the summit of Scafell. They soon left me to a continue my trek to Braithwaite Campsite. It was now hot and I got to the campsite about 8pm this would have been fine if the showers weren't the best I've ever seen in a campsite and the cafe had shut when I came out! It was a long walk into Keswick to find some food so I succombed to a taxi to get me back (31km 11 hours).

Easter Sunday
I decided to leave the tent pitched and do the last day fast and light, this was good in theory but meant I didn't have the option of camping again and doing it over 4 days. For various reasons such as walking back into Keswick I didn't start till 10:30am so it was 3pm before I got to Threlkeld. I stopped for a pint and lunch as it was hot, I'd made a bad choice of socks, so my feet hurt and Clough Head wasn't appealing. Thankfully it was a still night and by 8:30pm I was heading towards Helvellyn where some hardy campers were surprised to see me. Fairfield at night was lonely although there were campers at Grisedale Tarn so I knew I wasn't totally out of range of other humans. I staggered back to the car around midnight and drove back to the chippy which was closing and gave me everything they had left in the display cabinet - grease overload :-)

Monday
I headed South and finally picked up my new bike (a Whyte 19) from Wheelbase and cycled about 17km in 2:20 which was plenty, my legs were heavy to say the least!

The Bob

So on 16th Jan I decided this might be the year to attempt the Bob Graham Round as there were no expedition races in the offing and I needed a reason to start getting fit.

I then did nothing until joining Sleepmonsters/Inov 8 hours before the start of the High Peak Marathon. After being dragged off the start I found I settled well and was still strong by the end so announced my intentions later that week with a vague plan:

28th and 29th March, Leg 2 and Leg 3 Logistics unclear!
April 10th - 13th Full BGR Recce, backpacking wild camp/ Wasdale,convenient campsites
25th April and 26th Leg 4 and Leg 5
17th May Leg 1
23rd / 24th any unclear sections / local training
June 6/7th The Big Day!

Additional training
5th March Open5 (speed work;-))
18th-19th April iROC nav practice
1st -4th May GL3D
9th May Fellsman

This remained relatively unchanged and I had a fantastic few months in the hills.
Recce 1 Legs 3 & 2
Jeff PD joined me on the first recce on a snowy weekend covering legs 3 on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday. We'd done on route studying and enjoyed a couple of days approaching hills from new angles.

The Open 5 was fast as anticipated on a warm Sunday in the Peak around all my favorite trails

Race Schedule for 2009

So I've been busy sending off cheques again...

GL3D
Open endurance series
iROC
Heb Challenge
Open C2C
Isle of Man End to End MTB race

Oh and did a I mention my Bob Graham round attempt?

I'd best start getting fit!

North Pennines Open 5

As I drove into Blanchland on Sunday morning the sun was peaking through and the roads weren’t too icy. The race venue looked very professional with the new Open Adventure flags and hoardings on display. James had said the area could be a bit muddy if there wasn’t a sharp frost so it was looking like we might be in for a mud fest.

Registration was a hubbub of chatter as people caught up with friends and discussed route choices, and the OMM over tea and bacon butties prepared by the local Village Hall Committee. I planned a rough route and decided to run first and bike second. Rarely for an Open 5, I thought some people might clear the course, so the dummy checkpoints would be key in deciding what to miss rather than what to go for. Having dibbed out and picked up the checkpoint values I was immediately given the dilemma of how long to spend on foot. There were more points available on the bike leg but some significant road sections, so I decided to go for a 2 hour run and 3 hour bike split. I had planned to start to the West of the course and was someway in before I realised this was where the obvious points to drop were. That meant I was committed to my route choice right from the start, though looking at the race analysis there appears many different routes taken, so there probably wasn’t an optimal choice.

The run went well over a mixture of road, laid path and then up onto the moor. I was a little too busy enjoying the views and forgot to turn left to the fairly obvious chimney (with its 3 snowmen), which meant I was one of the slowest on this leg (note to self read the control description and remember you cover ground much faster on a 1:25000 map!). I headed out over the moor getting a bit chilly as there was a slight breeze but it was still very clear. Next CP was a 5 pointer that was slightly off route, but seemed silly to miss, I crossed a fence and didn’t spot any tape so carried on looking for a boundary stone. I soon realised I’d gone too far (not sure why I didn’t twig a boundary stone would be under a fence!) and turned back to see Chris Morgan dibbing. I picked up the CP and ran with him over the moor before dropping towards the finish on a fast bridleway and road. A quick detour to the waterfall, where James’s ‘slippery’ note proved accurate as I slid rather uncomfortably onto a rock, saw me into transition at 1:58 - so right on time.

The bike course was equally difficult to choose a route, particularly as the run had been in a different area so I’d got no insight to the conditions on the moor. As I went onto Birkside Fell, I mistakenly followed a bridleway sign which had fallen over and was pointing the wrong way, so I had to backtrack to pick up The Carriers Way. The track was continuous mud between one inch and 8 inches deep, which played havoc with my bike. My brand new front brake pads were destroyed just on this flat section and I soon had chain suck. It was all cycleable (just!) though, except when someone was coming the other way, which of course a lot were as there were only a couple of routes off the track. There seems to have been as many route choices as there were competitors so this didn’t seem to limit options.

Towards the forest there were more trails on the ground than on the map and more boggy ground. As I descended I had one of those comedy moments when I inadvertently cut across some apparently pristine bog, of course within seconds the bike was vertical and I was up to my elbows in mud while still sitting on the saddle! I managed to swim out of the fetid mud soup and continue on my way, but the grinding paste concoction not only finished my rear brakes but coated the cassette so thoroughly I couldn’t get the chain to bite in the top two gears. More mud in the forest had teams sliding all over the place and I saw a couple of near misses with the trees. I was then out on the road for a while but the bike was now grinding and squeaking alarmingly. I had one hour left, so decided to pick up the Northerly checkpoint before heading back through the forest. I was surprised to see so many riders still so far out, as I thought I’d left it quite late in the start window and was tight on time for my home run. This was the moment I dread when racing solo as my legs suddenly started to tie up and a bonk was imminent. Shovelling in gel and some fluid I started walking up a forest track taking a final look at the map. This was the point I realised I’d mismarked the scores and hadn’t noted a 35 pointer on the return leg. I got back on the bike and worked hard through the forest checkpoints disheartened by some deep muddy paths but made it out onto the road quicker than I expected. I was now on the brink of running out of time, so the calculations of whether it was worth going for 35 points and forfeiting some of them by being late back, or heading straight in was playing on my mind as I careered down the hill with some other riders. Those in front opened the gate so in a squealing, screeching cacophony of metal on metal and mud I turned up the track only to realise my legs were dead and I would lose more points than I could get, so it was back to the road for a sprint finish. I made my way as swiftly as possible through the locals and other racers, only to dib in the wrong control box and finish a few seconds late (apologies to the team who had timed it better and were walking down the finish shoot as I veered past!).

It had stayed clear all day but as the sun was setting it started getting cold so it was time for some warm clothes before a baked potato and slice of cake from the hard working village committee while James and Lisa worked out the final placings.

I was 7th which reflected the number of mistakes I made, next time a clean, fast run and bike is needed!