Catch up post after a period of neglect of my Blog

Well  after a long period away from this Blog I have finally got around to updating it. It is a daunting task as I have been running quite a bit and have a few adventures worthy of documenting. I felt that the best way to tackle it was to describe it in the pictures I took, along with some pre prepared reports. Some I will go into in a little detail others are just to fill the gaps a bit  between now and the Manx Mountain race last year. Here goes.......deep breath.

October 2012 :  Another go at the Cumbrian traverse, this time we went the opposite way from the Moot  Hall in Keswick and got as far as Kirkstone Pass. It was a tough day in the snow and it slowed us down too much to avoid needing head torches for most of the last section, so we called it a day with the section from Kirkstone to Broughton Mills left to do. On the plus side it was a good day for photos.











































December 2012 : A nice snowy run around the Kentmere horseshoe at the end of last year.

January : A run out of Langdale over the Crinkles, Bow Fell, Sca Fell Pike and back via Angel Tarn.

February : An incredibly cold run over Clougha, Grit Fell, and Ward stone and back via the shooters track. It must have been a 50 mph wind and about -20 when exposed. On the way there I nearly got stuck turning around the car at the crossroads. You can see them near the top of the photo having thawed a bit in the slightly higher temperatures. 

I met a guy on the way up to Clougha but after 10 minutes of bitter exposure to a serious wind he retired back to the shelter of the lower slopes. I persevered in full winter gear directly into the wind all the way to Ward stone. It was my coldest trip up Clougha ever, no question!

March : A trip to Fort William with Mark

Had a fun trip to Scotland. Mark took some great photos of the scenery and An Steall waterfalls. I decided to try a Winter Tranters round. As it turned out Marks efforts were much more successful than mine.

 I set off from the Ben Nevis Inn bunkhouse in the dark at 04:50 hrs. At 05.30, just below Red Burn crossing,  my head torch batteries began to fail. I ended up on the lowest setting, and with no spare batteries, I decided I had no real option but to go back down. On the way down it cut out all together so I sat down on my gloves annoyed at my mistake. I waited a while in the very mild conditions until my night vision, along with a little first light, allowed me to slowly pick my way back down to the bunkhouse.

 So overly ambitious plan in the bin, I decided to have 2 reccie days. At first light I set off again. I ridded my pack of some food and bits and set off up Ben Nevis in the unusually warm conditions. The top was still very cold and snow covered most of the top from just above half way. The summit snow was very hard and the descent to CMD arête on Kahtoola micro spikes was a bit skittery and slightly out of control. But further down the thaw had taken hold and the snow from there and over the arête was soft. The descent off the arête was a snowy, alpine looking ridge which had a deep soft snow covering. Lower down it steepened and hardened forcing me out of control and into my first try at a self arrest with my axe. Thankfully it was a success, it is a surprisingly efficient way of stopping on hard snow. After this I decided to call it a day and ran out via An Steall and Glen Nevis meeting Mark on the way.

 On the Sunday I drove up to the top car park and ran up Glen Nevis and then over An Gearanach, Stob Coire a Chairn, Am Bodach, Sgurr A Mhaim, Stob Ban and Mullach nan Coirean. It was another warm (for the time of year) day, and I seated my way up An Gearanach and into a snowy wonderland of ridges. It was good to revisit the same route that Will and I had; ill equipped; tried and failed a couple of years ago. This time I was armed with an ice axe and footed with Kahtoola micro spikes. The route was very pleasing, care was needed on some of the ridges and steep drops, and the descents a joy. My only real trouble was on the Devils ridge. At one point I stopped in my tracks to contemplate a very skinny snowy downhill ridge. It was a scary prospect as there was no margin for error and very steep long drops off both sides. I decided to just go for it and shuffled along on the very middle of the top as balanced as I could be, my feet sank into the top enough to keep me nervous for the entire 50 meter stretch. I then down climbed the craggy bit and made my final push for the summit.

 On my return from the summit; on this out and back ridge, I decided to go for the steep drop off the side, this is normally no problem in summer, in winter it is trickier. However seeing a narrow band of grass leading down, and not wanting to do the dodgy ridge again, I went for it. I shouldn’t have as it was far too steep and nudging a large rock down showed me what would happen if I slipped here. So with extreme care I front pointed as best I could with micro spikes and whacked the Ice axe in hard now and again. It felt like a very precarious situation for a while until the slope eased. Still it was a good learning curve on what is doable with the kit I had.

 The rest of the run consisted of meeting the first person of the day on the ascent of Stob Ban then the long run to Mullach Nan coirean, made longer by my error of not making the necessary right turn. The descent off the Mullach was good and made me realize how good the previous weeks conditions must have been for John Gay on his record sub 24 hour Ramsay round. I ended the run with a run / walk up to the car, from the bottom to the top car park. Where I met Mark to exchange our stories of the day.

All the photos are form my day 2 run.

May : I didn't compete, due to illness, but enjoyed watching the Coniston Fell race. Although Lloyd was winning at the top of the Old Man, Darren Kay in 2nd managed to pass him for the win.

June : Bills Ramsay round : 3 years and 361 days after me, Will and Bill set off to do the Ramsay round (Will and I succeeded) and after several attempts thwarted by bad weather, Bill finally completed the Ramsay round. Well done sir. I supported Leg 1, A particularly tough leg to support on your own and it was to prove just that, at times I had to, having filled up water bottles, sramble to catch Bill back up. On Stob Coire Easain I finally cracked and it took me to the decent of Stob a Choire Mheadhion to catch up. But it wasnt about me and i got myself to the change over point at Loch Treig with him. The rest of the day brought him a few squalls on the Mamores, but nothing too bad. and he finished in 22 hours and 54 mins. "I don't know what all the fuss was about" nice one Bill.

June : I had a nice few reccies of the Joss Naylor challenge with Ian Cookson and at times Will. This was one when I had my camera. We managed to include Red Pike on Leg 4 , going wrong in the mist. It wasnt until we came out of the mist below Red Pike and on the to Dore head, that we saw Yewbarrow up close, and realised our error. So we backtracked and completed the leg with Haycock, Seatallan and Middle Fell. That just left a long road run back to the Narional Trust car park at Brackenclose.

June 26th  : Dockray - Great Dodd Fell race : 15th in 1 hour 20 mins was a good result for me, especially as I beat fellow Bowland runner Chris Reade for the first time. Carl Bell won in 1 hour 8 mins.

                      

June 28th / 29th : Ali's Ramsay Round attempt : Ali, Craig and I set off form Glen Nevis Youth Hostel at midnight after a heavy downpour, and knowing of a slightly discouraging forecast. It was clear for the ascent of the Ben, until the mist formed on the snow capped summit. The traverse over to CMD was slow on slippery rocks and there was a severe wind chill. The heavy wind made progress difficult and my hands were dangerously numb. As I was concentrating on sorting myself out, rather than helping Ali, Ali slipped on the start of the descent from Carn Mor Dearg. He hurt his hip badly, and by the col before Aonoch Mor he knew he couldn't continue. So we walked out through Glen Nevis. Reaching the camp-site at 06:45, in time to inform a disappointed support crew. Prior to them leaving to go to Loch Treig. Tough luck Ali. He is going to have another go in August. We attended a fell race (eagles crag) to support Lou instead.

July 3rd - July 10th : A week long Bob Graham Round....... as it turned out  : The week long BG wasn't planned at all. I helped 2 guys( Duncan and Craig ) from London at short notice on Legs 1 and 2 (Keswick -Threlkeld : Threlkeld - Dunmail). Unfortunately due to very difficult weather (fog and rain in the dark) on leg 2 which carried on, on leg 3, they had to retire part way into leg 3, already being down on schedule.

Leg 3 Dunmail - Wasdale :  I helped a fellow Bowland FR runner, Paul Nield to eventualy coplete his BG round in a great time of 19:34. He was very strong all the way, and had prefect weather, not too hot but not too many clouds either. A great day.

Leg 4 and Leg 5 : Wasdale - Honister : Honister - Keswick : Mark and I had already planned a trip to Wasdale camping. So I realised that I could complete the round within the week, and thought it rude not to. So the first day (all photos bar the last 1) I had an easy-ish run going up to Sty head and doing a round of Mosedale, taking in Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Pillar, Scoat Fell, Red Pike, then going around the back of Yewbarrow and back down the road to the camp site. It was hot but a nice day.
The next day I set off in very humid sweaty weather to do leg 4 and 5. It was difficult getting enough water in the very weak streams. I struggled in the sweaty heat, my t-shirt and shorts sodden and flapping around me for the entire way. It was a plod by the time I reached Robinson, but I still rallied down the road as I wanted to catch the earlier faster bus back to Honister. I made it in 7 hours had a bite to eat then caught the bus. I then got off the bus and wearily made my up Moses trod over Beck head, then down to Wasdale. Knackered and badly dehydrated summed me up after that!

14th July : Wyresdale Circuit : I decided to revisit this as a training run for the Lakeland 100. Unfortunately I think this was the start of a stomach bug grabbing hold of me. I have not run right since and have now decided to withdraw from running the Lakeland 100 race. 

Although I chose a longer line onto Harrisend Fell through heather, and I got lost a little in the woods just after the church, I still felt I had a lack of power from halfway around to the end. I finished in 5 hours 10 feeling utterly wiped out.

The Manx Mountain Marathon 29th Sept

Nearing the top of the first climb

The Manx Mountain Marathon has been on my to do race list for about as long as the Lake District Mountain Trial.  So after finally getting around to doing the LDMT, I looked for another race and thought why not. The race appealed to me as it’s a nice line roughly  going from the North to the South West of the Isle Of Man. Starting in Ramsey and taking a line across the mountains to finish on the cliffs in Port Erin. It is 30 miles and 9,000 feet so it is a tough race. Helping me to commit to doing the race was the day I found a good rate for a foot passenger crossing on the local Heysham Ferry service combined with a 2 night Hotel stay. This was a deal set up with the race organisers, in a vain attempt to encourage more over from mainland UK. It was a small field this year but, a change of date from the April to late September may have, hopefully,  accounted for this, and next year more will make the sea crossing.
 
The crossing over on the Friday was a little rough and made me feel a touch queasy. I dreaded the return crossing  due to a forecast suggesting good weather if a little windy  for the race, followed by gales on my return day on Sunday. although I needn't have worried. I soon recovered after the rough crossing though and by the evening was o.k. Race day was a 5am start. I forgot to organise a breakfast, and as the Hotel didn’t start serving until 7.30 am  I had to improvise. Therefore my breakfast was a cup of Horlicks and a Cliff energy bar.  Never knew I liked Horlicks! Maybe this drink is eventually discovered with age?  The older you get the more likely you are to have tried it. I digress. anyway... a walk down the promenade followed by a lift from one of the organisers and a chat about the race and its lack of attendance whilst traversing over the mountain road, saw me at the start venue in Ramsey  just as it became light.
 
After a quick chat with Murphy (met on the FRA forum) we were off down the small Promenade and then the streets then heading in land to the first climb of North Barrule I started off at a steady push and kept this going all the way up the first climb. At the top it was obvious that this was going to be a tough race,  the heavy ground combined with a very strong head wind made forward progress really difficult at times. The ridge was long and connected a nice series of small summits. But now and again the wind even made it difficult to descend steep ground, my glasses nearly blew off my face at one point. The severe wind was still in preference to fog, as I could see the route and the stunning scenery. The lack of a recce opportunity meant that the big challenge of the route for me was navigation. At the start it was a case of follow the leader, but 2 hours into the race it was quite spread out, so it was more difficult to do this. But I was managing to keep, hopefully more initiated runners, in sight.
 
After about 3 hours of running a speedy Jackie Lee Overtook me and it was obvious she knew the way. I could fairly comfortably keep up with her so decided it would be a good strategy to do so. Whilst on a mildly steep descent across long grass I fell and hurt my shoulder and leg enough to slow me down. I then, on the next climb lost her and after she took some clever lines I reached the summit clip with no idea which way she had gone. This lead to me descending the wrong way, and without a map handy, I faffed about zig zagging across the steep hillside of Carraghan, I think I lost about 10 minutes messing about before finally getting back on track. It was then a quick run through the CP and on up a really awkward climb through the heather strewn hillside of Colden. I got this a bit wrong and ended up being corrected by a runner shouting as he ascended to me. I climbed with him so as not to panic at my errors, I decided it would calm me down, to then pick up the pace again after the ascent.
 
After a steady climb and a chat with my “guide” I pushed on buoyed by the confidence of seeing a lead train of 4 yellow vested Manx fell runners stretching out over at least a mile ahead. So I pushed on along the undulating ridge overtaking 1 or 2 as I trudged through the muddy trails. The drop down off the ridge was painful as it was a tight trod that weaved through very tall prickly Gorse bushes. After accruing a few leg cuts I followed Mark, who I had now caught up after my errors. We then missed the flagged area through a farm and had to hop a few fences. It was then a flat run along a trail for about 2 miles. I ran through the CP, as I did at most, and ascended start of the next ridge. This was the halfway point and the start of the 2nd leg for the relay runners. I was overtaken by a speedy runner before remembering that they were fresh second leg runners. I then decided to use their  pace to help keep me going strong.
 
I kept running strong all the way along this boggy ridge, yes they were all boggy, until the route started to feel more like a trail race twisting and turning on tracks then eventually a road section. Here I realised that I was closing in on Simon Halliday and caught him quite quickly. I ran with him chatting and enjoying the scenery as we crested the next hill top to reveal the welcome sight of the coastal cliffs. They looked beautiful in the afternoon sunshine. We ran together for a while before he took off to leave me chasing him up the last two cliff top climbs. We then swung around on off the last top to descend on a nice firm trail, at last, into the finish on a ledge just above Port Erin. The finishing banners were propped against a wall due to the strong onshore wind, so I didn’t even realised that I had finished. I saved a sprint finish but never got to use, never mind I didn’t feel like trying to out sprint Simon anyway, as it never felt like a serious full on race anyway.
 
I finished in 6 hours 20 minutes and in 12 place. I loved this race, and the whole weekend on the Isle of Man, and will definitely be going back next year.

The scenery and typical heavy ground conditions

Mark Murphy met on the FRA Forum

Me Just past Half-way

9th Sept The Lake District Mountain Trial

This was my first try at the Lake district mountain trial. It is different to any other race I have done as it is a totally undisclosed course  and it is in a time trial format. You set off at intervals then run about 750 meters before picking up a map. It is then a case of navigating your way around the 8 or so checkpoints across the lakes mountains. Th headquarters for the race, and thus the start point, are disclosed about a week prior to the start. This year it was Stair in the newlands valley.

So slightly daunted I stood on the start line ready to  dib and set off. I ran off fairly conservative 800m up the road, picked up the map then headed off for the first CP near High spy. I made reasonable lines and did not make any errors as we traversed from High spy to a point just above Honister pass. Then we made a strange traverse across to the flat boggy top of High Scawdel before having the first big decision to make. Which way to go to get to a point just below High Snab Bank . I decided on a traverse around Dale head then onto Hindscarth edge then drop over Hindscarth into the valley and along to the CP. Then it was an aggressively steep climb up and over the edge and on to skirt around Robinson on a severely off camber traverse. This seemed to go on forever before a climb then a flat crossing of Buttermere moss. It was energy sapping and my next choice after the CP above Buttermere moss proved just as sapping. If only I had taken the steeper but less taxing climb of Knott Rig. As  i descended from Buttermere moss I could see a few runners on the traverse around Knott rig into the Sail beck valley I decided to follow. At first it was a good track but this just petered out and became heavy going through tussocks and heather. Until finally reaching the track that leads to Sail pass, a familiar track to me as it is the Lakeland 100 route.  Even though going over Knot Rig would be a tough climb it was on better ground and required little decent on the far side, I wish I had gone that way as the valley seemed to sap my energy to a level that I didn’t quite recover from. On the tracked climb to Sail Pass I got chatting to a guy that had run the Lakeland 50. As we topped the pass to skirt around Sail, he carried straight on as if on the Lakeland 100 route, in my tired state I thought that he must have been doing the medium course and let him go. I had followed him for a few hundred yards whilst checking the map, to make sure i was right and he was wrong, and decided to cut down the steep grass to start the traverse. Unfortunately I was now too low and made it a tiring contour to the CP. I struggled on the out and back to the CP then trudged up to the CP on the small knoll AKA Stile End. I thought that the next CP was on top of Causey Pike, so I was glad to find on closer inspection of the map, it was actually about 400 feet below the summit. Cramp was starting to tighten my legs up as I descended then ascended to the next CP on the side  Causey Pike. I had to stop a few times to stretch the cramp out of my legs. Eventually after dibbing I made my way down the last descent. I was slightly rejuvenated, to know all the hard effort was done, so made good progress off Causey Pike. But my decision to put the map away bit me, as I missed the last CP just above the road. I descended to the road and had to run along it and was warned by marshals (thanks) to. re-ascend about 6o feet; which felt like 600 feet; up to the CP. then it really was all downhill to the finish. I was pleased to finish my first time trial style race.

I finished in the top half of the field, just, and it took me 4 hours 48 mins.  But I enjoyed it and will be back for another go. Hopefully next time I won't get the cramp which probably cost me about 20 minutes or more.