Fellsman 2008

Every now and then you just have one of those races when it all comes together. After a two week taper I felt alright, but I constantly worried that a cold or some unforeseen injury would strike. In other words I was getting to be a bit of a hypochondric. Every 2 minute jog to the corner shop was analysed minutely afterwards for signs of a lack of form. Doubts lingered about the fact that my long runs were only about 20-25 miles and if that was really enough.

After a fairly chaotic morning in Threshfield we got bussed to the start in Ingleton. I was advised that my trail shoes would not be allowed (wrongly as it turned out as a couple of people got away with what seemed like road shoes) so I wore my Mudclaw 330s. Finally under blue skies and steadily creeping temperatures around about 300 'hikers' were set off at 9am. My rough gameplan involved getting up Ingleborough in about 45mins and taking it steady from there. It was easy to settle into a comfortable pace in the middle of the pack, but the sun was giving a taster of what was to come. The drop down from Ingleborough was steady but as soon as we hit the paving slabs, my thighs turned to jelly. The further into the valley the route went, the less wind there was and it was oppressive. I staggered along the road from Hill Inn and although only about 26C I wilted fast. Periodic streams allowed me to pour water on my head and I guzzled water, desperately trying to stay hydrated whilst struggling up Whernside. To add insult to injury a stream of runners steadily passed by. I was having a bad time and my ambition withered to just to getting to Dent before calling it a day. The misery continued into Kingdale as even on the flat bits I had no energy and pace. Still I was roughly on a 13-14h schedule and on the next climb I resolved to at least get to 40 miles before quitting.

After another refreshment stop, where I took on another litre of fluid, I decided enough was enough and I switched on my MP3 player. I was too miserable to enjoy the views anyway so I wasn't missing much. A bit of Bruce Springsteen and Die Toten Hosen and the hills didn't seem so bad. Where before I was struggling now I was even gaining on the runners in front. After Gragareth I began to enjoy the steady grassy running and after a horrible steep descent on a cobbled track I reached Dent in relatively good shape. The skies clouded over to provide some respite. Other runners about me looked as though they were struggling which gave me extra impertus to push on. Perhaps everyone was struggling?

Maybe it was the lukewam milky tea or the ibuprofen, but I felt so much better and enjoyed the next short section of road. In fact all the way to Fleet Moss past Stonehouses was steady and even enjoyable although the very hazy weather spoilt the views. The climbs felt never too bad and the music kept me jogging on. I was still keeping on a 14 -15h target and was happy that I could still drop some time and still finish before midnight.

I had heard much about Fleet Moss and the various ways around it. It looked grim from the roadside checkpoint, but I just took a direct line and plugged through. I hadn't banked on there being so much bog, but fairly easy navigation lead over Middle Tongue at last to Hell Gap and the track to Cray. The steadily dropping distance left to cover after every checkpoint was tagged was a superb motivator. Twenty miles to go sounds so much better than forty miles run.

Leaving Cray I had caught up with a couple of guys and I was keen to push a bit on the hills before the grouping up time, which is a safety requirement when it gets dark. I managed to pull away on the climb to Buckden Pike and opened up a gap so I had some 'waiting time' to recover. It also meant that I had some more experienced runners to help navigate the last bit to Yarnbury from Park Rash! Yarnbury took ages to reach and was a painful experience, staggering in the dark (in both meanings of the word) along hard tracks following an endless succesion of beacons. Once at the road we de-grouped and legged it down, through Grassington, past hordes of drunks in the local pubs and finally up the last cruel hill to the finish at the school. At last there was nowhere else to run to and I could stop!

Due to my mental state I can't recollect what time I got, but it was around 14hs and I placed in the top 10. An absolutely superb result for me and quite unexpected. So it looks as though my training and the length of taper did help. As soon as I stopped my legs locked up and I realised how sore my feet were. I was hot all over and my big toes were black and I was naseaus (in fact I couldn't eat until late the next day). Although my technique of training by running shorter runs at a harder pace got me the fitness, longer runs may help toughen up my legs and feet. I have no idea yet if I would do The Fellsman again, but I would recommend it whole-heartedly. Just don't expect an easy run.

Brin bouldering

The 'Mecca' of Scottish bouldering according to some is located in Strathnairn near the village of Farr. Following the easy to use topo available on the web, myself and Kenny headed out on another glorious evening after work. Due to me being a wuss I didn't climb above V0, but still had a great time and still worth going to (especially the Bog Jungle area) even if you don't climb that hard. Some of the routes were a bit dirty (mostly the easier ones) and there seemed to be loads more problems lurking under the moss and lichen.

Taper time - The Fellsman

It has taken me ages to recover from the 3 Peaks, physically and mentally. My training has been exceptionaly light for the past 7 days with only about 1h running in total and only easy cycling on the other days. After finding the 3 Peaks so hard I just hope The Fellsman won't be a complete disaster. The route is plotted out on my 1:25 000 and it looks like it should suit me with plenty of navigation and rough bits. I really haven't done enough mileage at all (my longest run being about 7hs), probably due to the great climbing conditions we had up here. However, my MP3 player is stuffed full of Die Toten Hosen (a sad hangover from my impressionable days as a teenager living in Munich) for the flat bits just to keep my motivation up. Also hopefully I will get teamed up (as it is in the rules of the 'race' that you have to group together at dusk) with some people who know the route when it gets dark! I hope to get a time of under 16hours so I just have to keep my head down and remember that good bits always follow the bad bits sooner or later.

Anyway to keep me away from running and worrying I found some old climbing clips on BBC Scotland (go to the 'watch' icon on the right hand side and then look in the 'Outdoors' and 'Sports' tabs). There are about 8 clips worth watching, just the thing for avoiding training and the washing up. Very entertaining.

3 Peaks Hill Race

My first proper race of the season and a reccy for the Fellsman rolled into one. 24 miles and 5000ft going over the three biggest hills in the Yorkshire Dales sounded like fun. It wasn't. Having spent much of the winter up here either hill running or climbing I haven't had much oportunity for running on the hard and stoney tracks that make up much of the race route.

The race was certainly well organised with route flags every 10 or so meters and water stations. Crowds of spectators on all the ascents and 750 runners did make the event stand out from what I usually associate with fell running. However, sections of the route were really quite tedious and I quickly discovered that I lack pace on the flat. As soon as we hit hills I began to drop people whilst not even going too hard. Every level section was in contrast torture and I could barely hang on.

I dropped 3min from my intended 3h50 schedule on the first hill (Pen-Y-Ghent) due to the sheer number of people. A further 6 minutes driffted away of the long track section to Ribblehead and another 3 minutes on the last flat 'descent' of Ingleborough. So all in I came in after 4h1.27 in about 245 place. Cramp was a serious problem which came on about the 20km mark. Bad eating and drinking?

At I learnt a few things for the Fellsman. An MP3 player will be invaluable for maintaining motivation and pace on the flat bits, I am feeling strong on the hills, I need to eat and drink more regularly and I now have 24 miles of hard track in my legs. Looking at my heart rate with an average of 166 and a max of 188 I think I may need to train at a higher level to be able to cope with the stress of racing.

My recovery is going alright (I couldn't walk that well on Sunday) and a two week taper should just about see me right. Fingers crossed for the 10th May.

Kishorn Bouldering

With only about four weeks until my first, and only, big race of the season I am seriously over-trained. During the speed sessions this past week my heart rate has stayed persistantly low and any attempt at increase in pace is impossible due to tired legs. It got so bad this weekend that all motivation to go running went out of the window. Instead I went over to Applecross for a pub lunch, followed by tea and cake before I finally got motivation to check out the bouldering in Kishorn. Well actually the boulders are just down off the Bealach na Ba. The largest, the Kishorn Stone, is obvious on the drive up from the loch, sitting as it does on a grassy ridge about 5-10 minutes easy walk south of the road. There is space for one car at NG811 408 which is about 500m up from the large car-park by the bend. Other than that parking is fairly limited, unless of course you want to park in a passing space. The rock is a hard, smooth sandstone and the boulders generally seem to have a reasonable clean side on the west and a steeper and dirtier east side with mostly flat (and dry) landings. Someone seems to have drilled a steel spike into the top of the boulder closest to the road. All boulders are accessed by a network of deer tracks and it wasn't even that wet underfoot. Lower down the hill, about 5mins further from the Kishorn Stone, there is a cluster of further boulders with varied problems ranging from very straight forward slab scrambling to overhanging desperates. Enough here to keep someone of my medicore talents happy for a couple of hours.

Sunday was worse as I felt so tired and ill on Saturday evening that I called off the planned climbing trip to the Ben and did some gardening instead. Perhaps a couple of days complete rest will sort me out. I certainly hope it does anyway.

Life isn't all bad though. On an evening run (about 28km in 4.5hs) over in Kishorn on Tuesday I chanced upon a great little crag up high on Beinn a'chait. Torridon's answer to Burbage North so watch this space for a photo-topo soon ; 0)

Loch Sheildaig - kayaking

An Austrian sea kayaking? What ever next!

Too much climbing and running had depleted my Brownie Point cache to such an extent that a sea kayaking trip with Emily was the order of the day. We put in at Sheildaig and paddled round Loch Sheildaig on, mostly, calm waters surrounded by sea cliffs and snow-capped mountains. Apart from nearly capsizing after hitting some fish farming junk it was a great trip. Only two seals were spotted, but a skirmish between some sea gulls and some sort of eagle made up for the poor seal quota.

My shoulders and core muscles really felt it and I will have to get out more if I want to paddle around Raasay in the Summer!

Highlander Mountain Marathon

A mountain marathon in the Highlands in April could either mean two things; completely crystal blue skies or shed loads of precipitation. We got both this weekend as high winds blew through snow squalls (although blizzards may be a better description) between brighter spells.



Friday night at the event centre in Torridon village was pretty grim and an anxious night was spent in the tent listening to the rain lashing against the fly sheet and being battered by sudden gusts of wind rolling down the flanks of Ben Alligin. Saturday was much better and at 7.30am we set off on a magical mystery bus tour to the other side of the hills by Loch Carron. Very unexpected. 'A' class had a slight twist where you could leave out one of the checkpoints of your choice. This had the effect of splitting everyone up and we saw hardly anyone all day. The checkpoints were in superb locations and the running was suprisingly good on stalkers paths and deer tracks. I have run and walked a fair bit round the area before, but the course took me to parts where I would have never had the inclination to go. After 30km of running we reached the overnight camp near Coulin after 7hs and unexpectedly in 5th place.


The overnight camp was much more pleasant compared to all other mountain marathons I have done due to the suply of cooked food, hot drinks, beer and a band. Still, I felt the need to heat up some extra food in the tent. It was less windy than the previous night, but there had been a dusting of snow. All in all a very cosy night, although the thought of another day trogging through snow was not that inspiring.


Day 2 was awful. My feet, having just spent the last 12 hours thawing them out, were agony after just 10min of running. This sensation ebbed and flowed throughout the day in direct proportion the the depth of snow and water on the ground. I was carrying most of the kit, but my partner had bad blisters and was struggling to raise the speed above walking pace. It took 2hs to get the first 2 checkpoints and even the spells of sunshine could do little to improve my mood. Deep snow and tricky terrain kept our pace to a minimum throughout the day. The combination of the pain in my feet and a frustration at the lack of running terrain made it all very demotivating. If Jonathan hadn't been so keen to finish I am sure I would have joined the dnfs. Eventually, we reached the 3 last rather cruelly placed checkpoints, having mastered a lethal near-vertical heather gully and a waist-deep river crossing, and finished having surprisingly only dropping one place.

I suppose I must have had some enjoyable moments out of the 7.5hs (25km in distance) we were 'running' for. Previously I have read somewhere that 'there are no bad days, just learning days', so it was without a doubt a day to learn something. Would I do it again? Most definetly!