Author Archives: danielstinton
All change…
How this site (and me) have changed since its inception in 2012. Loads of music has been uploaded, culminating in three short “releases”; Bucket of Tentacles (2013), Analogue (2014) and The Illicium Lure (2015). I’m very proud of what I managed to pull together as a “solo artist” since starting to learn the piano and its more than I ever really expected, but I developed a new passion, running, which I’ve gradually started sneaking into this blog. Like many things I’ve tried in life its become an all-consuming activity to the extent that there is no time for music and I unfortunately seem to have currently lost the desire. I go running, in the mud, instead and haven’t touched my piano since around April 2016.
I’ve really enjoyed blogging to this site, so I’ve been contemplating how to continue with a running theme, and have now set up an alternative blog at www.allhailthetrail.co.uk
For anyone interested in my running exploits then please have a visit and follow. Otherwise, thanks for following this blog and any comments along the way. I expect to continue uploading Bucket of Tentacles style photographs now and again and who knows, maybe some more squelchy synth noises and horror beats will re-appear.
Bucket of Tentacles is descending to the depths from where it emerged. For the moment…..
Race Report: Wendover Woods 50 Mile
“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
You could be accused of being over dramatic if you replaced the word “space” above with “Wendover Woods 50” but for those who did it, at times it felt like it. But anyway, I’m jumping ahead of myself…..
The wait was over, the training was done, the miles were in the bank and there was no more time for worrying. The Wendover woods 50 mile race was here and I started brilliantly by stepping out of my car, in a cold field in Tring at 7am, into a giant poo. Undeterred, I squelched my way to the start line and looked around for the other Project Trail guys. Soon meeting up with Nic and Jon, we were a mixture of excitement, compression gear and fear. Glancing around the field I could tell this was for the big boys, with the Centurion Running Grand Slam title at stake some people were going to be flying round this.
Project Trail 2016: Daniel Stinton, Nic Porter, Jon Gurney
The Wendover Woods 50 is, as the name suggests, “a 50 mile foot race consisting of 5 x 10 mile loops on forest trails, entirely within Wendover Woods”. Just for fun though, nestled within those beautiful sounding woodland trail laps was 2,900m of climbing. Which, I can now tell you from experience, is a lot. The race organisers, Centurion Running, had tactfully named some of the sections; “Hell’s Road”, “The Snake” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” presumably to somehow keep the spirits up!
Since winning a place in this race from Men’s Running and their Project Trail feature, the pressure was on. We’d been featured in the last five issues of the magazine to report on our progress and had training plans devised by Robbie Britton (Team GB Ultrarunner) to get us all ready for the day ahead. I’d trained hard, and had some great races and running experiences along the way, but nevertheless earlier in the week did have quite a flap about my ability to actually run 50 miles. By the time race day arrived, I’d decided to put those worries behind me and thought the best tactic was to just get on with it. I had a proper “plan” for this one; eat as much as I possibly can, drink as much as I possibly can, take it easy at the start and finish strong.
I knew that the first couple of laps just needed ticking off, and the Project Trail guys and I had suggested we start together. This was great to take it reasonable easy, have a chat, keep the spirits up and get used to the course. During the start of the third lap I slowly peeled away and realised it was time to go this alone. The laps consisted of magnificent forest trails, some mud and numerous short(ish) sharp climbs.
All very happy because we’re going downhill
I took the opportunity to have 30 seconds rest by pretending I needed to take some photos
Somewhere around the third lap I saw Gary Dalton, an ultrarunner I’d met the previous year at the Adidas Thunder Run. He was doing a couple of laps in reverse as moral support for the runners and our exchange went something along the lines of……
“Hi Dan, how you feeling?” said the self-confessed moany trail runner. I gave an honest reply saying that I was feeling pretty good.
“Well why are you walking then!?” came the response. I processed this for a few moments and came to the conclusion it was a very good question, so run I did.
… and so the day went on, taking each section as it came. At one point during the “Power Line” segment I emerged into a large open field. This is a brief pleasant change to the woodland trails and due to the time of day, the sun was coming down bathing the woodland surroundings in a beautiful light. I actually outstretched my arms and leant my head back, either praying to the Great Running God, or to take in as much vitamin D as I possibly could. As I crossed the field I bumped into my number-neighbour (284), a young lady who I can see from the results was Rachel Dench. We had a quick chat and I started wittering on about what a fantastic moment this was and hopefully sharing some of my current positivity. A short while later, re-entering the woods, we shared some jelly beans and and I was on my way.
In a bizzare mind-game I was actually looking forward to lap four. Well past the halfway point I’d already decided this was going to be a self-indulgent lap so I put my headphones on some to blast out some of my favourite songs and really started gritting my teeth to get round. I had a couple of moments of euphoria during this lap as I knew I was well on my way to complete it, and nothing was going to stop me. I was doing my two favourite things, running in the woods and listening to some crushing metal and hip hop, I had a few moments of dancing and punching the air – sorry to anyone who saw that and thought I’d gone barking mad but in some ways I think I probably had.
Ten miles to go. Feeling the burn.
Finally I was at the business end of the race and strapping on a headtorch for the final lap. This one needed a bit of focus as tiredness was setting in and you really had to concentrate to stay on track through the winding woodland paths, but it has to be said the course markings by Centurion Running were excellent. I started the lap with a nice chap called Mick and we had a good chat but I soon pushed along and ended up running most of this lap alone. The field had really spread out by now so other humans were few and far between. After a final push during the viciously steep last 2km, suddenly (well, more accurately, 11 hours, 2 minutes and 15 seconds later) I was over the finish line. My friend, and top-running buddy Michelle, had come along to the end for moral support and was probably twice as cold as I was, so massive thanks for making an appearance! Immediately people were thrusting medals, t-shirts and minestrone soup at me, which was a great way to finish. The whole Project Trail experience has been fantastic, its magnificent to have completed it, but of course I’m slightly sad its over. Not one to mope, I can now enjoy a little relax and look forward to the ultras I already have booked for next year. Game on!
Cold and needing a beer…… I was a bit chilly as well.
A few of the details and stats below for the true running geeks:
I finished in 43rd place with the laps times below:
I think the main thing I’m pleased with (other than finishing!) is that my laps were reasonably consistent. OK, I slowed down a bit for the fourth lap but then somehow negative split the last one in the dark with a head torch. Despite the inevitable tiredness I just wanted to get this lap done.
Not that I’m an expert at these things but I definitely learnt a few things during this race and got great advice from Robbie Britton. Here’s some summary thoughts, a mixture of my own experience and advice given:
- De-hydration will shut you down. Drink, drink and drink some more. I added electrolytes to my pack at every lap when I filled up.
- Lack of nutrition will shut you down. Eat, eat and eat some more. Right from the start. I really followed points one and two even when I didn’t feel like it, and have to say I felt as energised as could be expected.
- Stay positive. People had talked to me about “dark times” on these long ultra runs but I decided I was having none of that. I tried to stay happy, be positive, talk to people, have a laugh at the aid stations (which were great)and just keeping moving and enjoy each lap. Its what we’ve been working towards and looking forward to for so long, so why not enjoy it!?
- Get everything right during training. I had a definite plan on the type of foods that agree with me and had a load of it with me on this run. However, I caved in to a ham sandwich on white bread at one of the aid stations that sat uncomfortably somewhere in my digestive system for at least an hour. Know what you can eat. And eat it.
- A more personal one, but I discovered one of the best things about my running is my walking. I realised I can get a really good march on, even on the steep sections which probably helped me climb from 84th place on lap 1 to 43rd at the end.
- I’m going to go all Matrix on you, but you have to believe Neo!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Finally, a quick shout-out to all the people and gear that have helped me along this; Men’s Running Magazine, Rick Pearson, Isaac Williams, Robbie Britton, TrainAsONE, Centurion Running (the organisation, marshals, aid stations and route markings were brilliant), Michelle Edye for the solid running training and chat, Johnny Fuller (Sporting Therapy), Columbia Montrail, TomTom, Adidas Eyewear, Petzl head torches and High5 nutrition.
And to the other project trail guys, Nic Porter and Jon Gurney (and support and photographs from Chris) – fantastic effort all round and achievement for us all! And of course Vicky Stinton for putting up with my continuous training and talking about running!
Last few days…..
The Wendover Woods 50 miler is mere days away and, for the first time since winning the place in Project Trail, I’ve actually started to think about what a massive challenge this is going to be both physically and mentally. Its not that I haven’t thought this before, but its always been about focussing on the training or the other races I had planned, but right now there is no training left and the race is looming menacingly right there in front of me. Training has gone really well, I’ve done some great confidence boosting races and training runs and its all really gone without a hitch. I’ve had great training advice from Robbie Britton especially during the last 6-7 weeks when the big mileage and hard training was in full effect.
To give myself a boost, I’m going to contemplate the last year. I stepped into 2016 having never run a marathon. The furthest I’d ran was 30km. Since then I’ve taken on 12 races ranging from 6km to 50km including running a marathon distance 3 times and slightly longer a further 3 times. I’m not sad enough to count up the vital statistics myself but Strava has done it all for me. To date in 2016, I’ve done 195 runs for a total of 236 hours covering 2,445km with 30,728m of elevation.
I know this is a self-indulgent post to pump me up, but I need to convince myself I’m ready to do this. Baring any serious injuries, I am going to do it.
Project Trail – Blog Posts
I’ve written a few blog posts during Project Trail that have ended up being published to the Men’s Running site. I thought I’d re-create them here to them as a record. Time has flown and the race is a mere 9 days away…..
16th November 2016 – The Tale of the Taper
On the right track: Dan’s training has gone well. Pic credit: James Carnegie
The taper. The final few weeks of preparation and contemplating the challenge lying ahead. Some runners seem to love it as a chance to fill their faces with carbs; others are bouncing off the walls, desperate to get to the race. Here’s a few of my tapering observations…
Where has all the time gone: You’ve had this race booked for months. Training plans were meticulously created with mileage building up until race day. Suddenly, you’re mere weeks away and the taper is here. You begin asking yourself, “Have I done enough?”; “I don’t think I got enough long runs in!”, “Why on earth did I skip so many sessions from my training plan?” It’s not the time to play catch-up, though; the work is done and suddenly doing back-to-back runs to “catch-up” is only going to end in disaster.
All sorts of things start hurting: You’ve worked far too hard for anything to scupper your race now. But every run is a potential disaster, and the phantom injuries start to appear. Twinges appear in the knee/ankle/hamstring without warning, but are you imagining it? Is it the paranoia of a potential injury? Why does everyone on the bus/in the lift start stepping dangerously close to your toes? Why have they organised a BMX night at work? (This actually happened).
Embracing the carb load: Everything contains carbs, right? At least that’s what you tell yourself. The fourth biscuit from the office cupboard is just taking advantage of a carb-loading opportunity, and no-one can tell you to stop eating because you quite simply need the energy. Best to try not to end up stuffed full of white pasta and a dodgy stomach the day before though, eh?
Giving up the beer: Months and months ago when you booked on that race, you promised yourself to go tea-total for at least the final two months, well maybe one month. As time creeps along, you suddenly realise there is your cousins wedding, the works outing, and at least four Fridays during your dry period, so you decide two weeks will be enough, maybe one week. Roll on the night before and you’re convincing yourself that surely one glass of red wine will be OK? It’s mainly fruit, right?
You’re about to stop boring everyone to death: Everyone will be glad this is over. The missus has heard so much about your current kilometre pace and which socks you’re going to wear that she only has to look at you and starts glazing over. People dive for cover in the office in case you start to talk about your upcoming race. Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon and you can bask in the glory of all the hard work you’ve done. At least for five minutes until you start scouring the internet for the next one!
http://mensrunninguk.co.uk/uncategorized/the-tale-of-the-taper-2/
25th August 2016 – Peaks and Barges
Fast friends: Dan Stinton and Michelle Edye take part in the Peak District Challenge
We’re now into the full swing of Project Trail training and any thoughts of easing into the latter half of the year with a couple of brisk country walks, rosy cheeks and warming cups of tea have rapidly vanished. It’s all about getting the hilly miles in, bleeping TomTom watches, and bleeping out my expletives when the going gets tough. I’m loving it, but three years ago if you have told me I’d be doing this I’d have blown the froth off my pint with laughter.
Last month I completed the Peak District Challenge (PDC) as part of a duo with Michelle Edye. We met at our local running club and soon found a combined passion for getting out there on the trails. When I found out that you could enter the PDC as a team, I instantly started crafting a cunning plan to persuade her to enter. As it turns out all I had to do was ask, and then spend some time convincing her that the 100K might be too far! It was a great run and ended up being 55K – the last 10K being in torrential rain, which definitely added to the drama. I think my brain stopped functioning properly towards the end – I tried to high-five Michelle to get the spirits up. We missed. Twice. Then we considered wading through a river to get back to the end quicker. Truly not thinking straight!
My furthest ever run and a great learning experience for long trail running. I’m also really loving the Columbia Montrail trail shoes as I got through the whole thing without a blister in sight!
In other news, completely un-planned, I won a race! I randomly entered Man v Barge, a quick jaunt over a hill (Marsden to Diggle) while a canal barge chugs through Standedge tunnel, the longest canal tunnel in the UK. Not only did I beat the barge but I beat everyone else in the five-mile race – even the barge looked surprised! This, followed by a beer on the canal path before noon and a chip butty, made for a brilliant day.
http://mensrunninguk.co.uk/trail-zone/project-trail/peaks-and-barges/
25th July 2016 – Reality Sinking In
Dan knows the Wendover 50 is going to be a different beast to a hungover parkrun
The reality has now sunk in that I’m part of Project Trail and fully committed to running 50 miles. No matter which way I Iook at that number, it’s far. Converting to kilometres made it look worse, so instead I looked for some other measurements. I’m now considering it as a mere 16.67 leagues, or 16 leagues and a bit. No problem.
I ran my first marathon this year, two weeks after completing the 50K Canalathon, kind of in the “wrong” order, but I’ve tried to see each race as a stepping stone to the next. I already had a couple of long races planned in 2016: the Peak District Challenge (50K) and Man versus Mountain (Snowdon), but my brain is one step ahead of my physical ability so I already knew I wanted to go for a 50-miler in spring 2017. Then I saw the Project Trail competition and knew I wanted in – especially after seeing a picture of an ultramarathon aid station!
I can’t deny that I’m somewhat apprehensive about the distance of this run, as I know it’s an entirely different strategy to me turning up to a parkrun with a minor hangover and stumbling round the course. I’ll be on my feet for a long time so need to have both the physical and mental preparation in hand, this is why it’s so great to get a training plan devised by Robbie.
Previously I’ve prepared my own training routines based on things I’ve read in magazines or the internet, but to have a tailored plan to take into account my running experience and the races I have planned will be a huge benefit and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it. The Wendover race looks a real challenge so I have no particular aims of finishing times – solid consistent laps without injury would be fantastic.
I’ve been asked the question, “Why do you run?” a lot and for me, while I did quite a bit of martial arts in my teens, most of my 20s and early 30s has been spent working, playing in bands and not being particularly active, other than various country walks or swimming now and again.
Since running, I’ve really noticed my fitness increased and I really enjoy the physical feeling of running (most of the time!). Especially when everything is working well, I feel strong and like I could keep going, although this feeling has been known to rapidly disappear!
Of course, the going will get tough but I’ll just repeat the mantra which has kept me going through quite a few tough moments – “the finish line doesn’t move, you do.”
http://mensrunninguk.co.uk/trail-zone/project-trail/blogs-project-trail/reality-sinking-in/
The Grand Hotel, and running from Croatia into Bosnia.
I’ve been posting lots about running recently, and whilst this will descend into my tale of taking a steep run from Mlini into Bosnia, I’m going to start off with some very “Bucket of Tentacles” style pictures of the Kupari resort in Croatia. Not your typical holiday photos, Kupari is a derelict hotel complex located to the south of Dubrovnik.
Back in the early 90’s, when I was mainly trying to step into teenagedom, there was a war going on to which I paid very little attention. It was the break up of Yugoslavia and during the early part, the luxury Kupari resort was captured by the Serbs and ended up being mostly ruined. Now, standing awkwardly against a beautiful mountain/sea backdrop it is an urban-explorers dream. Its completely open to the public and unlike the UK, not a warning sign or barricade in sight leaving you free to roam. So roam I did, camera in hand and visions of a post apocalyptic world in mind. Here are a few of the pictures.
Derelict building? Lets go through on our mopeds!
Another holiday-snap taken from the Dubrovnik City Walls
Not your typical holiday picture, but I liked the collection of people, particularly the gent on the left clearly worried about calf-sunburn.
Post-apocalyptic world out of the way, earlier that day I’d had another rather larger dose of adrenaline after planning to run up Malastica, a local summit rising steeply from the hotel we were staying in.
I made my way out of the quiet tourist areas and into “real” Croatia. Receiving occasional odd glances as an Adidas-clad runner pranced through the usually quiet roads, I carried on up the steep ascent as a thunderstorm blew it’s way in from the Adriatic. It wasn’t long before I was sodden, t-shirt clinging to me and looking up at what seemed like an endless stream of zig-zag paths leading to the summit.
This soon changed though as the cloud curtain opened up revealing the magnificent views ahead.
A further trudge along the path and I arrived at the following sign:
It didn’t look like too much of a warning sign (and I later translated this as “State Border”), so I stepped past it into another country.
Only a few metres in and everything felt more Bosnian. Embarrassingly not knowing much about the country other than there had been a war I wondered what life was like for people on the outskirts of this remote landscape. I reached some kind of peak and took in the view. The glistening Adriatic Sea on one side, the coast populated with hotels and bars but circling round to a rolling mountain range. I sensed a wilderness I’ve never felt before. An unknown landscape staring at me menacingly/beautifully and me staring back:
The path abruptly ended. Looking ahead I saw a distant road and some buildings nestled in amongst the hills. I wanted to get there, but could see it would be a tough jaunt, no signs of any paths or trails, just natural grass, clumps of trees/brambles and sharp rock formations. Without my own full consent I clambered off the path anyway and headed towards the distant road. This was tough terrain and very slow-going, and the reality dawned that I had only just dried out, I hadn’t seen any humans since the start of my ascent sometime ago and I was clambering over sharp rocks somewhere in Bosnia. Common sense was restored and I decided to turn back. The kilometre I travelled off-track took me about 25 minutes and that was moving as fast as I could, such was the terrain.
I carried on along another ridge which must have been the border between Croatia and Bosnia, regular abandoned outposts and walls reduced to rubble lined the edges of the paths high up in the hills.
It was around about then that I introduced myself to a snake. Midnight black and about a metre long dryly slithering across the trail. Realising we were both completely terrified of each other we parted company as quickly as we could going our respective ways with a nod of encouragement. Now running low on water and energy I reluctantly knew I needed to head back so weaved my way back down the rocky paths. What a fantastic descent it was.
Finally reaching a road I stumbled into a bakery selling chocolate milk and very large slices of pizza which truly was a dream come true!!
Later, I found out about the land mines….. warnings on wiki travel to not venture off any roads or investigate any derelict buildings. Ignorance is bliss as clearly this would have added a new element of fear to the whole journey. As if I needed to worry about a little snake! Its hard to know how “real” the danger was and if there were any land mines in the vicinity – wouldn’t a country’s border be the “perfect” spot? In any case, I made it back alive, with a wonderful life experience tucked under my belt!
All hail the trail!
Blinded by Technology (Peak District Challenge)
5am alarms are usually reserved for going on holiday, but as I leap (stumble) out of bed it’s for an entirely different reason. It’s to get a train out to Hathersage for the 50km Peak District Challenge which I’m running as a duo with Michelle Edye. We’ve both been putting the miles and pork pies in over the last few months, with lots of training sessions out in the Peaks, so are hoping we’ll be ready for the challenge ahead. This is a running/walking event, so when we arrive at the registration hall I use my powers of perception to weigh up the competition and I decided they were running if they were wearing shorts…… scientific I know. Given the lack of legs on show it looked like most of the entrants were going for the walking option.
We’d all received our checkpoint info about a week before and we’d had a busy route planning session linking up the checkpoints, plotting onto paper maps and studying every inch of the route, however it will soon become clear that this wasn’t true at all. Once we’d planned it I transferred the route onto Strava and uploaded to my GPS. Whilst I think we’re both pretty comfortable with navigation, the plan was to leave the maps in the bag and use my GPS watch the whole way which meant far less stopping and more time running.
“This is all very well and good, but where do we get to eat the sausage rolls?”
Team “Lost in the North” pretended that this was a reasonable time to be up in the morning
Suddenly, we were off around 8:30am and trotted down the lane merrily. The weather was pleasant, conversation was flowing, birds were singing (probably) so everything was going amazingly to plan. I think we had a few minor thoughts that this didn’t seem to be the route we planned, but being slaves to technology, completely ignored it. It was when a gentlemen told us we were heading towards Froggatt edge that faint alarm sleigh bells started jingling in the back of my mind. Froggatt edge was at the end of the route wasn’t it? We stopped and consulted the map, which I’m sure had an “I told you so” look all over it. Sure enough we’d started going clockwise round the route instead of anti-clockwise!
Having already done 7km and some not-insignificant uphill the best thing we could think of doing was sit down on a rock. Michelle phoned the race organisers who offered to pick us up, but the damage was done and there was no way we wanted any ferrying around, so we decided just to carry on. 50km is 50km whichever way round you do it!
Froggatt Edge – some five hours before we were meant to be there
The people manning the first checkpoint seemed vaguely surprised to see us, which was an entirely understandable reaction considering they were actually the last checkpoint. Nevertheless we explained our situation, ate their lovely flapjacks and continued along the route. With the initial disappointment out of the way we started enjoying the fantastic views and ticking off the miles. It actually turned out to be a good experience as sometime around halfway we started seeing other entrants coming towards us who we recognised from registration and who looked slightly surprised to see us! Clearly we were anti-establishment, the renegades, flouting the rules of the race!
Somewhere in the Peaks.
Yoga…. I think.
Team Badges
The deeper we got into the route, the more people we came across coming the other way, all trying to give each other encouragement that “lunch checkpoints weren’t far away” which really depends on your definition of far. Or lunch. We met various runners on other (much-longer) ultra-races and most seemed happy to pause for a quick chat to see how far we were all through our challenges. By the time we got to the last (first) checkpoint everyone had already gone home so we text them as “proof” that we made it and continued on for the last 10km stretch to the end.
Right about now, the heavens opened. I’m not talking about a little shower – this was the kind of rain you should be looking at out of your window, shaking your head back-and-forth, whilst clutching a cup of tea. After a while we probably couldn’t get any wetter so decided to try and get some kind of pace going, which we probably should have named “Slow+1”. We soon came across a wiry long haired fellow also inevitably drenched. We started chatting and he casually tells us he’s running to Sheffield and is around 40-50 miles in to a 60 mile race like this is the most normal thing in the world to be doing on a Saturday lunchtime. It was round about then I realised we are all probably insane.
I tried to high-five Michelle to get the spirits up. We missed. Twice. We considered wading through a river to get back to the end quicker. Brain function was clearly becoming difficult.
A mere 7 hours 28 minutes, 55.6km and 1,300m of elevation after starting, we arrived back at the race HQ and were instantly presented with a curry which was gratefully received. Michelle started eating everything (note how she’s attempting to conceal a large tomato in her hand in the pic below), and that was the challenge over!
Loads of thanks to the organisers who put on a great event, and to the checkpoint marshals who give up their time to stand on there in the cold for hours on end! I think we had the second quickest time for the 50km, but doubt it will stand with such a large deviation from the suggested route.
Done. Ultrarunning badge in the post.
And so the long-running journey continues…… Man vs Mountain (Snowdon) on 3rd September and the Project Trail 50 miler in November!
Man vs Barge
The weekend before the big Peak District Challenge, randomly, Michelle and I entered a race called (Wo)Man vs Barge. At the risk of spoiling the whole story, Michelle won and I sort of won.
The race was a random Facebook find which looked like a bit of fun during the last bit of tapering. It was a five mile jaunt over a hill racing against a canal barge travelling through Standedge tunnel, which I now know is the longest canal tunnel in the country. Whilst its great to know these things, coming from the Black Country I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for the Netherton tunnel which is legendary in its own right!
The barge in all its glory
I’m not delusional about my running ability, I’ve worked hard over the last couple of years and can just about get a parkrun under 20 mins, but generally in races there are loads of quick people zipping off way ahead of me so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself running with the top five and being able to keep up! We were soon doing some serious incline when someone behind shouted we were all going the wrong way! I turned around to see a stream of runners going along a separate path! No!!!! This had seemed to be a chance to actually do well in a race! I bounded down the hill and soon met up with Michelle who’d also made the same mistake. By that point we were single file and walking with the main group and queuing to get over stiles, disaster!
As soon as I could, I made a break for it, knowing it was going to take some serious effort to get anywhere near the new front of the pack. Things started thinning out and I could see a couple of guys far up ahead and it took a big grit of the teeth to eventually catch up with them around about the highest point on the race. Like life, it was all downhill from here 🙂 Being in a team race next weekend any injury would be an absolute disaster, so I completely disregarded this and I flew down the hill as fast as I could knowing there were a couple of guys hot on my heels.
Suddenly I was at the end and was told I had come first. This was slightly confusing as there was a bloke in front of me! It turns out he was doing two laps so I’d “won” the one lap race! Given my mess up at the start I was grateful to accept and got presented with a Standage tunnel plaque! Mere minutes after I crossed the line Michelle came bounding over the line first female by loads and received her plaque! It was Cheshire cat grins all round – the Peak-District-Pork-Pie-Eating had clearly been working and what a way to taper before our 50km run next weekend with a team win!! A beer on the canal path followed by chip butty at the local pub made for a great morning!
Winners!
Its longer than the Netherton tunnel 😦
Peak District Challenge next weekend!!
A bit of final gear chat, I really am liking my Columbia Montrail trail shoes. So much so I’m going to use them for the Peak District Challenge to give them a proper long run out!
Lost in the North
I have now officially received the training plans for Project Trail. Gone are my original visions of spending the first week gently looking up intervals on the internet over a cup of tea. Oh no, this is straight into it…. the Project Trail training programme is via. TrainAsONE which generates a plan and updates as you upload your runs via. Strava or similar. The software is currently beta so its great to be involved at this stage and see how this is developing.
Whilst clearly the aim of Project Trail is to canter around 50 miles of Wendover Woods, I currently have more pressing issues ahead of me – namely the 50km Peak District Challenge, or the PDC as us trendies now refer to it. There are some options of distance, from 10km to 100km, and I’ve gone for the 50km. This time I’m part of a duo and I’m fortunate enough to know someone else silly enough to want to do it (Michelle) and, for the record, the entire thing is her fault.
Here’s how it happened……
I just can’t seem to stop entering races. I used to get drunk and buy stuff off Amazon, but now I get drunk and enter races. Whilst on our usual Tuesday night chatting/running session I was moaning about not being sure what to enter next and later I got a text about the PDC! When I saw you could enter as a team I instantly started crafting a cunning plan to persuade Michelle to enter. As it turns out all I had to do was ask, and then spend some time convincing her that the 100km might be too far!
We’ve been busy training at various locations over the Peaks planned on Strava route-builder – I’ve put some links at the bottom of this post to several of the routes we’ve ran. Running as a team will be interesting as races are usually such solitary events and of course there is the added pressure of not wanting to let her down after all the hard works thats gone into this. Its not just been running training, we’ve been practicing our pork pie eating, our “how-soggy-can-you-get-your-trainers” sessions and most importantly perfecting the “missing-a-train-so-you-get-to-go-to-the-pub” strategy. Here’s a few pics from training….
Mainly worrying about missing essential Facebook updates whilst up here
17 miles in and a crinkly sweet potato becomes the best thing ever!
Paths? Where we’re going you don’t need paths!
I’ve never been so pleased to see Lyme Park
Team “Lost in the North”
The race is 20th August, so I’ll post about how we got on!
PEAK DISTRICT ROUTES
Macclesfield 27km (this was done incredibly hungover) https://www.strava.com/routes/4180229
Glossop 14km https://www.strava.com/routes/4313977
Staley Bridge to Greenfield 30km https://www.strava.com/routes/4994797
Hathersage 34km (route from Trail Runner mag) https://www.strava.com/routes/4994924
Lyme Park to Macclesfield 19km https://www.strava.com/routes/5179009
Macclesfield to Lyme Park 38km https://www.strava.com/routes/5947541
Chinley 16km https://www.strava.com/routes/6003656
Manchester Circular (Canal, Heaton Park, River Irwell) 32km https://www.strava.com/routes/4180083
Project Trail: Meeting the team
After the fantastic news that I’d been selected for Project Trail I headed to our nation’s Capital for the photoshoot last week. To avoid ridiculously priced peak time trains, instead of my usual Tuesday Sweatshop run from the Manchester Arndale, I ended up going down the night before. I phoned Murray, arranged a quick warm down game and headed off for Wimbledon. I arrived at Euston, had a disciplined pint to relax (£4.90 and served by an Aussie – clearly I had arrived in London) and then got the tube out to Wimbledon.
Quite an uneventful night followed in the smallest hotel room ever, but I survived and headed on to Wimbledon Common to meet the Men’s Running team…… I soon met up with Rick (the editor) and the rest of the team, along with a friendly familiar face, Anne-Marie who i’d completed the Thunder Run with the previous year! It was about now that I started eyeing up the piles of boxes on the car park which was our gear hoard – full kit from Columbia Montrail, a TomTom Runner Cardio watch, some Adidas sunglasses and enough High5 nutrition to make me seriously concerned about making it back to Manchester carrying this lot on public transport!
After meeting the other entrants (Jon and Nic) and also the competition winners from Women’s Running, we all eagerly changed into our new fancy trail running gear and headed further into the Common to find some suitable spots for photographs which will be used for the forthcoming Project Trail articles. I’m much more used to being on the other side of a camera, but managed to pull out a few tough-runner poses even though I’m not a fan of being in “the limelight”. We were asked a few interview questions to be used for the mag and did a quick video interview (links below), I definitely get very self-conscious in front of a video camera! A quick run round the common later to try out our new gear and it was time to head off home!
A really great part of this whole experience is getting a training plan devised by Robbie Britton. We have a call scheduled this week to discuss the plan so proper training will be starting very soon and apparently, I’m going to have to get very very used to hill reps!
Here’s the three of us just before heading off home, and some links to the YouTube videos below.
Jon, Dan (me) and Nic
Project Trail: The Photoshoot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFSQPic-GU
The Interviews:
Dan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr_N29marhw
Jon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbJkK9pcZ_Y
Nic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDbOizg5m1o
Bucket of Tentacles 