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The Spine Race 2024
1. 08:00 Sun, 0km: Making the start line
Wow, I couldn’t quite believe I was even there, all the stress, rehab and strength exercises, kit sorting, lugging the drop bag around, funny tummy the last two days … I stuck to my plan, walked at the back, gave it a little 5 minute run on the easy downhill.
2. 09:50 Sun, 9km: Already unexpected weather
On the way up the very first hill (Kinder Scout) I got overly hot. My decision to wear the OMM Core+ red hoody (top kit tip from Jon) and a coat, was all wrong. I had to stop and sort it out, given I had sweat running down my forehead and my glasses were steaming up, not something I had anticipated happening!
3. 11:45 Sun, 18km: Meeting Ray
After overlapping with another event going the other way for a little while, I just about managed to stay on track as we went off in another direction. I could see someone up ahead and I was catching them up as we climbed. As I drew closer I could tell it was an older chap; I thought I would just go past then checked my thinking … he was in front of me right now for a reason, after all!! As I passed he gave a very cheery hello, then I wasn’t really getting ahead. I decided to chat for a bit. Descending down to the reservoir at Torside, it turned out he was going faster than me, but only marginally and still at a power hike, so it was actually good for me to latch on and use him as an incentive to keep the pace higher.
After a little bit of back and forth as we stopped at different times for the toilet or to fix layers, I ended up settling down into travelling with Ray for some time. We formed a small group with us on that first day, and it was fun to have company.
4. 19:30 Sun, 54km: Making the most of random food supplies (two vans)
In some adventure races we’ve had the fortune to come across places selling food. Others, not so much. In the Spine you have the advantage of knowing exactly where you’ll be going and what might be there. With both official ‘welfare checks’ offering snacks and drinks, plus several people or groups making special provision for athletes coming through, there was no shortage of supplies.
Ray knew this part of the route really well, so I was getting a running commentary on what was coming up next, including two roadside vans. I ignored any of my normal qualms about bacon-related cross-contamination and ate a double egg roll at van 1 (on the move) and a halloumi roll at the luxurious container that is Nicky’s van.
I also started my (uncounted) tally of what was probably the most tea and coke ever drunk in one week. I figured the caffeine and warmth would be good for me, though it wasn’t helping my bladder. I also added sugar to every cup of tea – why not?
Shortly after Nicky’s we crossed the M62 on a surprisingly long footbridge – one of the most surreal experiences of the event as we emerged from the moors in the night, the traffic thundered beneath us and we trotted over in our little group.
5. 23:00 Sun, 70km: Cementing a relationship
Somehow we split apart from the others in the final few kilometres to checkpoint 1. I stopped to remove some detached tape that was now causing a blister rather than preventing one, and Ray waited. On this section we were really getting into the sort of chat I’d normally have in a team event. Life, work, family, relationships.
This is also where I learnt an invaluable lesson. The last 5km or so before every checkpoint would feel interminably long. ‘It’s only a parkrun’ … yeah, but one that takes an hour and a half on feet that are at their limit!
6. 01:00 Mon, 75km: Checkpoint 1: Hebden Hey – bit of a faff
My first experience of a Spine checkpoint. This one was probably the least slick of all of them, just due to the layout. The organisation of my drop bag worked well and I knew where everything was. I had my checklist of things to do and marked them off methodically. However, I was also up and down the stairs several times to visit the toilet, go to the medic, come back for foot supplies, return, go for food, come back for a bed.
We agreed to sleep for 90 minutes. My ‘original’ plan, in the summer, had been to push on through here and sleep at checkpoint 2. However, at power hiking pace I knew that would just be too long. There were beds here, although we had to get our sleeping bags out for them. Unfortunately, all the doors in a place needed a massive squirt of WD40 because they were constantly squeaking, and we should have chosen spots further away from where people were leaving. It felt like I didn’t sleep, but neither did it feel like 90 mins, so I guess I did doze.
Sadly, I was also feeling quite nauseous and only managed some watery leak and potato soup pre sleep and a bowl of cornflakes post sleep. Ray was faffing a bit, so I set off and told him to catch up.
C goal achieved
7. 07:00 Mon, 84km: Finally getting clothes right, nausea in the dark
Ray very promptly did catch me up. I suffered from being too hot again. Took red top off. Got too cold. Eventually, after some unknown hours of tramping I had the bright idea of trying my other warm layer (a somewhat untested fancy Patagonia micropuff thing). Bingo! This was perfect. From this point on, my default layers were an ancient waffle type Haglofs baselayer (courtesy of event planning for Open Adventure in Nov 2012), this puffer jacket and my waterproof. When it got cold I added the OMM top which was my ‘additional warm layer’ part of the mandatory kit. I never wore the mandatory baselayers.
This was my worst stage of the race for feeling sick. I did nearly heave at one point, and was struggling to keep up. Not wanting to lose Ray and a couple of others we had grouped up with, I kept forcing myself to move on. It got light around about a famous Brontë house. People were stopping here, but I was keen to just eat some sweets and continue.
8. 12:00 Mon, 104km: Long slog, punctuated by ankle niggles, blister pain and a micro nap at the triathlon checkpoint
This whole day was long, although it was the last time I’d be out making the most of all the daylight until the final stage!! The mini moments I remember were:
- Heel blisters getting worse, to the point of a wee cry, followed by the exquisite pain and then relief when they burst. Ray got me through all this with gallant stories of cycling end to end, and went to get me co-codamol in Gargrave, though I decided it wasn’t worth risking taking it (yet) (having never tried it before).
- The frozen ground gave no relief, and wobbling over grass fields was aggravating my ankle slightly
- We stopped for more coke and snacks at an honesty box by the side of a road
- I ate a sandwich and had a power nap in a comfy chair with a cozy foil blanket at the mini checkpoint run by the triathlon club. This had a remarkable effect on my sleepiness and got me through again until dark
- An Open 5 friend popped up to say hello and encourage us along 😃 and I remembered her name about half an hour later – thanks Sue!
9. 19:00 Mon, 129km: Probably over-zealous reply to welfare check
As night fell, Ray and I were making good progress, although I’d more than had enough of the tight squeeze through stiles, with their backup gates on springs that would conspire to knock you over the other side. We hatched a plan of how to use our half hour (max allowed) at the indoor checkpoint at Malham Tarn. Ray to prioritise a power nap, me to prioritise making and eating my dried meal (coach’s instructions – I hadn’t planned to do this, but went along with it!).
Before the big climb up here, just as I reminisced passing yet another Open 5 spot, we were met by a couple of Spine officials doing a welfare check. They told us there were just 3 people behind us (i.e. we were almost last!) and asked what our plans were. I thought this was some sort of test, to make sure we were compos mentis and safe enough to continue. So I proceeded to proudly outline our exact plan in blow by blow detail. We had every one of our 30 minutes accounted for. They were kind enough to nod and smile and send us on our way, but on reflection, I suspect they only wanted to know if we were stopping to sleep anywhere ….
10. 23:00 Mon, 141km: Head torch worries
After executing our plan at Malham Tarn and successfully getting contact lenses in (no, Ray, I didn’t need you to put a finger in my eye, just guide me to where it was going in the absence of a mirror!!) we had a couple of hills to climb in the dark. At this point Ray started having headtorch battery issues i.e. they were all going flat quicker than expected and between us we didn’t have the right cable to charge them.
Generally speaking, batteries weren’t lasting as long as expected due to the cold. My own headtorch was far less tested than I would have liked (due to curtailed training with the ankle issues), so I had no idea if the claimed 24h on the mode I was using was true. What I was actually getting was about 12h per battery. We went into team work mode, with me lighting the way on the uphills and Ray saving his for the faster downhills.
11. 01:30 Tues, 148km: Touching moment top of Pen Y Ghent
The ascent of Pen y Ghent was more exciting than I expected, with some minor scrambling up over some big blocky bits. Ray was definitely fighting the sleep monsters over here and wanted a rest in the wind break at the top. We sat down, huddled together for warmth and I contemplated the night as he rested his head on me. It was quite a touching moment, and shows how you can build bonds quickly when you’re working together on an event like this. After just 2 minutes he leapt up – but later told me he thought he’d had a lot longer than that!
We were having trouble with all our water freezing in our bottles, as well as the tubes and nozzles. One of mine fell out of the back of my pack and shattered on the concrete floor of a toilet block … which was a right royal pain. For all but the final leg I could mostly only drink from the soft flask that fitted in the surprisingly large pockets of my puffer jacket (this kept it just about warm enough not to freeze). But I now only had 1.9 litres of capacity including the spare collected from my drop bag; the kit list demands 2 litres. So despite all other bottles being unusable I also had to carry a random empty plastic bottle the rest of the way as well.
12. 04:00 Tues, 154km: Will we / won’t we stay together?
At some point, I felt Ray was flagging. With Doug’s urging in my head <make sure you do your own race> I decided to suggest to Ray I might go ahead. It all felt a bit awkward, but amicable. I said goodbye, and carried on. At which point he sped up. He said I slowed down!!! Amusingly we were now going the same pace again, whatever had happened. More awkwardness ensued (in my head, at the very least) until I asked ‘are we on again to get to Hawes?’ ‘Yes’ came the answer.
13. 07:00 Tues, 165km: Cam high road
The whole night we had to keep micro napping; the Cam high road went on a long time when so weary and on sore feet. The only thing keeping us on our toes were the random icy patches, which conspired to keep us off our toes.
14. 09:00 Tues, 175km: Checkpoint 2: Hawes – mild panic attack?!
Shortly after light, we made it to the second checkpoint, though as for stage 1 the last 5km dragged. I nearly cried at the kindness of the people in the shop when we went in to get a bottle of water. The stage had taken the best part of 30h and all I could think about was sleeping. I did the bare minimum, showered (I won’t go into too many details, but felt this was essential!!), cleaned my teeth (even more essential) and fell into bed for 3h. Shortly before my alarm I woke up on my front with my heart racing. This did nothing to calm my state of mind, and when I came down and found Ray already up and half ready, he urged me to speak to the medic. It went something like this:
Me: my heart is racing and, and, and …
Medic: let me see, it is only 86, it’s not that bad.
Me: breathe slowly whilst she listens to my chest with the stethoscope
Medic: your heart rate is going down by breathing deeply
Me: oh
Medic: did you eat and drink before sleeping?
Me: no
Medic: well…
So after what was probably a minor panic attack, I managed to eat something and I got some drinks in. I think it was here that Neil, who had been running with us earlier but had dropped out and was now helping, gave me a tube of his leftover High 5 tabs. They made drinking a pint of water much more palatable and I shoved them in my pack.
15. 18:00 Tues, 184km: Scary / challenging / exciting blizzard
The surprise when I’d woken up was that the world had been transformed white whilst I slept. Blisters patched, taping done (Ray patiently waiting at my slightly frantic behest … I felt low in confidence and didn’t want to go out alone), we set off into the winter wonderland to ascend Great Shunner Fell.
This was one of the most memorable parts of the race. I was in turn;
- Frightened, thinking I would definitely not want to do this alone
- Alarmed as I was almost blown off my feet and my waterproofs wetted through
- Mentally challenged as I tried to keep us on the GPS line
- Intrigued to learn what snow patterns the hint of some slabbed path would make
- Excited to be out and succeeding in such conditions.
It was here I also got confidence that my layers were working underneath my coat despite being wet. I’d have been cold stopping, but was OK. The snowdrifts were thigh deep at points, and easily caught us out. I twisted my ‘good’ ankle on a rock hidden deep beneath the snow, but after a few deep breaths was good to go again. At the top there was a bit of faffing, another group caught us but then helpfully we could just follow their footsteps over the other side. I actually enjoyed this bit 😀
16. 21:00 Tues, 192km: Parting ways
After the descent, I could sense Ray was slowing a bit. He told me to go ahead on the downhill and not to worry and though he caught up in due course and we were still together, he was walking in a way that suggested an urgent need for more sleep (this was a good few hours after we left Hawes). He was also mentioning how much he disliked the contouring path, but I didn’t mind it, having imagined something much worse from his description! I don’t really know what happened – one minute he was right behind me as a hinged gate / stile whacked me over, and the next he just … wasn’t. I hesitated a bit, but there was no sight.
I reasoned we had previously had a good conversation about this and that I’d probably see him at the next café where I planned to eat and dry off a bit. Unfortunately, I had not realised the next café required a minor detour until I was up on the hill looking down at it … 😮 Never mind, I suppose I saved some time. It turned out Ray did stop and have some kip there, and all was well.
17. 00:00 Weds, 202km: The moors
Up onto the moors, the snow had stopped, the famously boggy and indistinct path was clear and easy to move on, and the stars were out. I rather enjoyed this section up to Tan Hill Inn, which appeared out of the dark covered in blue lights, like some kind of alien craft with underfloor heating.
I had more hot drinks and ate my savoury snacks which needed fingers out whilst I had a chance to do so in the warm, then set off again. I would have put an extra layer on here as my gloves, coat and walking pole straps were all freezing solid, but I’d had a meths leakage issue and my remaining baselayer was so pungent I couldn’t face it.
As I made my way in temperatures of minus 10oC I contemplated how eating a frozen Colin the Caterpillar chew was akin to cooking spaghetti, and that I must tell Izzy this when I got home.
18. 05:00 Weds, 214km: Changing batteries and the stars
I had been catching and passing a few people, and enjoying being out in the night. I did have to stop and change my headtorch battery and took the chance to sit down, be calm about it then just lie on my back and stare at the stars for a minute or two … they were quite something. I thought about how my mum would love to see this and had encouraged me to look up from time to time.
19. 06:00 Weds, 218km: Parma Violets and Love Hearts
After a cheery exchange with the team at the A66 underpass, I got to somewhere called Clove Lodge. Although I had been told in detail where all the possible stopping, food and water places were, I hadn’t memorised them or written them down. I think this was because I never quite believed I’d get here.
But here was a large open barn, with a trio of other racers, a kettle for more hot tea, and the opportunity to tuck into some Love Hearts and Parma Violets!
20. 10:30 Weds, 235km: The agony and the beauty
The sun rose as I got into Middleton-in-Teesdale and faced ‘just’ 8km to the checkpoint. Oh my, those 8km … My feet were in a mess, every step was agony, and despite having been great in the snow, I thoroughly regretted having put my not-very-cushioned Inov8 shoes on.
To counter this, I tried to focus on the scenery. We followed a river that started in a broad valley, but had some tumbling waterfalls and gradually got rockier as the aspect totally changed and the hills opened in front of us. I was helped by the fact I was joined by Geoff and admiration for our surroundings kept me moving.
21. 12:00 Weds, 242km: Checkpoint 3: Langdon Beck – actually hungry
I got my routine right here. After the checkpoint staff finally managed to defrost my laces enough to undo them, I ate, I drank, then I slept for a lovely 3h, managing to ignore the extremely loud snores of my roommate. Then I ate and drank some more before setting off into the night (again).
B goal achieved
22. 01:00 Thurs, 256km: Snow, moon, landscapes, alone time
This whole night must rate as the highlight of the race for me. There was not a cloud in the sky, the moon and the stars shone brightly and even on my lowest headtorch setting I could see where I was going as the moonlight reflected off the white canopy of the snow. I could even get a sense of my surroundings, picking out the shapes of the hills around, whilst the softness of the snow covering gave some relief to my feet.
Soon enough I got to High Cup Nick and had to just stop for a moment. I could see it all laid out beneath me, dramatic and brooding. No camera was going to capture this, and certainly not the one on my race phone! I tried to drink it in, to capture the image in my memory before setting off again.
Dropping into Dufton, I was anxiously looking for the checkpoint but nearly missed it. Yes, the lights were all on but there was no other indication! I also missed another café that should have been here, whether through it being shut or me not knowing where to look. After being hustled out 3 minutes early, I continued on.
23. 03:00 Thurs, 268km: Magic music
I was struggling to stay awake now and I had tried all the tricks to no avail. Suddenly it struck me. I couldn’t remember enough words of any songs to sing them all (’10 green bottles, hanging on the wall’ was getting rather wearing, even if I alternated with ’10 little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log’). But what if I could get some music on my phone?
I downloaded the BBC Sounds app, looked for something that promised upbeat music (Shiny Happy People, any one?) and downloaded a few half hour episodes. There wasn’t a soul in sight, so the music pumped out of my tinny speakers, either from my bottle pocket, or my coat pocket when I thought it was getting too cold up there for battery life. Later, Jo Whiley did an actual shout out for Spine racers … thanks to whoever put that request in!
The tunes had an instant effect, suddenly I was marching at a good speed, up and over the tops and catching up a couple of guys who I didn’t even know had been there and were the only other racers I saw on the whole leg.
24. 06:00 Thurs, 278km: Chilli Noodles and joy
As previously mentioned, I hadn’t got a mental map of where any of the food stops were. One of the other racers told me we were nearly at Gregg’s Hut. OK – I knew about this one, it’s synonymous with noodles. After my only fall on ice in the whole race (bruised knee), we were suddenly there – what a joyful delight when I hadn’t been expecting them!
It was 6am and I’m sure they’d been up half the night, but the ladies on duty cheerfully served us. I checked the ingredient packets of the chicken flavour on offer, but could see no sign of chicken, so ate them along with a dollop of the chilli sauce. Yum!
I had a fairly quick turnaround and left the other two in there as I set off down the track, running and filming a cheery video to send to my coach.
25. 09:00 Thurs, 290km: Knee pain and a sinking mood
As soon as a high follows a low, a low follows a high and suddenly a knee twinge I’d felt at High Cup Nick kicked in with a vengeance. The further I went, the more persistent it got until this particular ‘final 5km’ became one long drag of worry. I knew the actual pain wasn’t too bad, but I also knew it was a long way still to go and it wasn’t a great sign. Not helped by the path being muddy and rutted but frozen solid, so the soft snowy joy was a distant memory from the night before!
At least I was met by my friend from Cape Wrath Ultra, Shane, who couldn’t be more encouraging.
26. 10:30 Thurs, 294km: Checkpoint 4: Lachrymation over a lack of lasagne
This checkpoint is at a place called Alston – famous for serving lasagne. Paulo (who had run with us briefly before) was there and approvingly tucking into two helpings, so it must have been good.
I spent too long getting ready for bed, queuing to see a medic about my knee but not really getting anything beyond what I already knew; it’s just one of those things, nothing we can do, carry on.
I got tucked up for a deliciously long 5h sleep, interjected with several moments of snapping my eyes open to check I hadn’t missed my alarm.
Upon waking and getting dressed, I was ready for some of that incredible lasagne. Imagine my consternation when I was informed there was none left!! None of the vegetable one, anyway. I had to make do with some pasta and sauce instead. Oh dear. I really did seem to be only getting about a 50% hit rate on the legendary culinary highlights of The Spine race!
27. 19:30 Thurs, 299km: Frozen hobbling despondency
Leaving the checkpoint, my main memory of the next section was pretty miserable. The ground was horrendous, rutted, bumpy and frozen solid. It looked like some tractors had been having a disco and what was worse, I was clearly passing some exciting Roman remains and couldn’t see a single sign of them due to the dark and my lack of motivation to investigate. My knee was also definitely adding to my woes.
The only thing that kept me going was the fact I could see the group of four headlights bobbing behind me – I was trying to put space between us – the racing urge hadn’t quite left me.
28. 23:30 Thurs, 312km: Not a castle, what a shame
Izzy had sent a text today reminding me that this day 3 years ago we had been out castle hunting. I then came across what looked like a castle in the dark to commemorate it. I was looking forward to telling her all about it. However, an extensive map search, some googling and satellite image checking after the event revealed that this fine monument was, in fact …. just a barn.
29. 00:00 Fri, 314km: Rasta Ralph to lift the mood
The route goes right through the backyard of Rasta Ralph. This man seems quite the character – you can find his videos of racers on YouTube. He filmed me coming in and then said my light was blinding him. I said his was blinding me! We both switched off and I complimented his bushy beard. He stroked it and clearly looked pretty pleased about this. After enquiring after my wellbeing he offered to give me healing, which was slightly alarming, but he quickly clarified he could do some reiki. I decided to settle for just another cup of tea (why not?), even if it came with goat’s milk and tasted funny.
There wasn’t room to fit two of us in amongst everything else in the kitchen, including many, many empty beer cans. He carried on drinking, I sipped my tea and we chatted about his ducks, the feud with the neighbours, the cats and panning for gold.
My mood much improved (thanks Ralph!), I headed onwards.
30. 05:00 Fri, 329km: Hadrian’s Wall tourism excursion
OK, the next bit was pretty cool, because now I was at Hadrian’s Wall! For some unfathomable reasion, I haven’t been before, and I was impressed with the construction and the sheer scale of it. As I got to the start, I double-checked the OSMap on my phone to check it out, and as I progressed I stopped to scrape the ice off the information boards with my gloves and have a read. My advice – never walk by an info board! Anyone who ever goes anywhere with me will know this.
At the first toilet block I thought I’d get a quick 40 winks, but the welfare checker woke me up after 5 mins thinking he might have missed me. I tried again at the next one, which was actually much better as there was a corner to lean up into under the sinks. No need to even take your bag off. 10-15 minutes later I was ready to go again.
31. 08:00 Fri, 339km: A beautiful sunrise
As I left the wall, I was joined by Warwick, who wanted company. No problem. We chatted on and off as we laboured on, the sunrise being quite spectacular as we passed through the woods. I thought what a great mountain bike trail this would make, if it wasn’t a footpath in England and therefore not allowed.
Our hopes were raised then dashed thinking we could see Horneystead Farm, only to find after consulting the actual map that it was another sodding 3km away.
32. 10:00 Fri, 347km: The haven that is Horneystead Farm
OK, this place was the real deal. Doug advised sleeping here rather than the checkpoint, if I needed it. I did. So I took a big mug of the most amazing vegetable and barley broth, with a buttered roll, then curled up in an armchair with a fleecy blanket over me. Warwick took the bed; I decided he looked as if he needed it more. People came and went but I was out of it. My alarm went off 35 mins later and I awoke to more broth, a satsuma and the bleak reality of standing up again. I was glad of Warwick’s company for this particular ‘final 5km’ to the checkpoint (especially as it was 8km long).
33. 14:00 Fri, 355km: Checkpoint 5: Not the rapid turnaround I had planned
“Be kind to your future self” Doug had impressed upon me many times. Accordingly, at checkpoint 4, I had sorted just the things I needed for what I had planned as a quick pit stop and put them all in one bag at the top. I didn’t even originally intend to take my shoes off – just charge things up, eat, drink and set off on the final push.
Sadly, I decided I needed to at least inspect my feet, and the sight was something to behold. Some degree of maceration was setting in and the medics said I needed to wait and let them dry out so they could see what was going on.
Hm. “Be kind to your future self”. I thought about what I could do in this regard, and settled on two portions of veggie sausages and mash, and extra drinks.
My feet now being inspect-able, the medics agreed to help me by taping up all the blistering. This isn’t in their remit, but I was struggling to cope and couldn’t see what was going on. Mike, who had been fantastically friendly and supportive all race and seemed to appear everywhere, even sent me ‘officially’.
There was not a lot I could do but sit and wait while they cut and snipped bits of fleecy web (something I had never heard of before this event) and tape with which to artfully cover my feet. Jon (someone I had met at Clove Lodge, way back when, in some other time) gave me a pair of thin toe socks surplus to requirements.
I forced my feet back into my shoes, cursing that they weren’t a size or two larger. The speed of exit down the drive was … like a snail. A snail with blisters.
34. 16:30 Fri, 356km: A rescue phone call
At this point, and due to a possible misinterpretation of a text, Doug got a rather emotional voice message from me, which he responded to post-haste with a phone call.
That call could not have been better timed nor more welcome; he told me how well I was doing, how I had been overtaking people, about some of the messages I was getting sent on the tracking app and all in all a general pep talk. Somehow afterwards I felt better, and I knew I had some nice uphill to come (my knee was fine on the ups).
35. 22:00 Fri, 372km: Drug addled mistakes
It was after this I decided to give those co-codamol I’d been carrying from Gargrave a try. The foot pain was really something else. MISTAKE!!! I didn’t realise it straight away though.
As I went on, I struggled with drowsiness, putting it down to, well, having been out a long time without a lot of sleep. It wasn’t my usual drowsy o’clock though, and this was worse than I’d expect given what sleep I’d had (vs other experiences in adventure races).
I decided to try the music again, or some spoken word just to get myself out of my own head. On top of a windswept hill, my phone pinged ‘out of credit’ … whaaaaat?!! This had the positive effect of jolting me out of my stumbling stupor, but only added to the stress. Clearly all the app and programme downloading, sending a video and voice message had maxed out my £60 credit on expensive data charges. How had I been so careless?
Descending, I found someone called Allan coming towards me in a panic. There were three places we had to leave the obvious fire road, go on some little parallel track, and rejoin the main track further down. He was quite out of it, so I led him through and told him to stay with me. He kept asking if we shouldn’t go this way or that, when the route was quite obvious. He didn’t, or couldn’t keep up though – as I turned to encourage him along I realised he had stopped some way back and was seemingly not moving. I debated what to do because I needed to look after myself as well at this point, and decided to push on and alert the next welfare crew.
Some bushwhacking ensued on the final diversion where the path did not exist and eventually I got to the mini checkpoint.
36. 01:00 Sat, 382km: Sharon and crew to the rescue
The crew here sat me down, told me Shane (the Cape Wrath friend) was willing me on, gave me a kiss and handed me good tasting food that I wasn’t expecting! They said ‘if you’re stopping at the church, don’t forget to message HQ’ … oh no … I confessed in a panic to my phone credit predicament and they launched into action to save me.
Despite my tiredness and stress, they had me on the wifi in no time. I had never topped up before – I needed my own number and didn’t know it. HQ were called, my number procured. Next hurdle – paying. No, I didn’t have my card on me and yes, the card details Google Pay suggested were one that was expired. Sharon rescued me with a loan (duly repaid!) and I was on my way.
I couldn’t be more grateful for the kindness of this little group.
37. 02:00 Sat, 382km: Peaceful church pew interlude
I had got a message from Doug – if you arrive after midnight, sleep in the church. So I did. It was the only time I had to dig out the sleeping bag I was carrying, but it was quiet, I was on a long pew cushion and the sleep was great. 90 mins later shoes back on, out the door and another co-codamol dose.
I was fired up as we had to meet a minimum speed limit over the next three sections due to worsening weather. But as I went up I got all drowsy again. Someone passed me at quite some greater speed. What was going on?
As light broke I felt no better, which was weird. Then I tripped over something and was sick, out of nowhere. Suddenly the realisation dawned, the drugs were having a bad effect and the slightly out of body experiences were related. At midday it was like a switch was flicked – I still felt tired, my feet still hurt, but it was normal tired. Thank goodness that was over.
38. 12:00 Sat, 403km: Best bit of the cheviots: skating on the flagstones. Worst bits: cold, foot pain taking over all thoughts
The path over the cheviots has a lot of flagstones. These were often covered in a layer of ice, topped with a wet puddle. Going round them was too much effort, and I soon perfected a technique of a sideways skid across every one. It was quite fun, and I liked the feeling of the icy water on my sore feet.
What I didn’t like so much was being wet through and barely warm enough. I decided on the spur of the moment to eat my dried meal at Hut 1 in an attempt to close down the bad drugs and keep down the counter acting good drugs administered by the medic for the sickness.
Hut 2 I got much encouragement and more tea and sweets. In between I was filmed by the media team – about 3:45 – 5:10 in the video below + finish at 6:10 if you want to see how it ends!
39. 16:30 Sat, 416km: The final final 5km
I knew about the extra hill at the end, that was fine. But as I came over … the countryside seemed to roll on forever. WHERE WAS THE FINISH?
At some point someone came running towards me with a dog. Who was this? WOW it was one of my friends, Toni, who lived near-ish, had been tracking me and sending jokes all week. She gave me the best words of encouragement and I marvelled at the fact her dog wasn’t off chasing goodness knows what, Uisge could learn a thing or two.
After she left me to finish her long run, the final final 5km hit me full force. My feet were screaming at me and I was annoyed with myself for being late. I had told Izzy to expect me in the afternoon, and had hoped to break with tradition and be on time for once. This was probably the only point in the race where I thought “I’ve had enough, I could quit now!” But not seriously. I bit down on my buff to bear the pain and willed myself onwards, the kilometres counting down agonisingly slowly. Even when I attempted a walk/jog it didn’t help it to go any faster.
40. 18:30 Sat, 423km: The finish: Kirk Yetholm
Rounding the final bend, I could see the archway and the relief that waited … what a strange feeling not to be running euphoric with a second wind … this has never happened to me before! I couldn’t see Andy, Izzy and Uisge but there were so many people and they were ushering me to ‘the wall’.
This is what you do in this race, you kiss the wall of the hotel. I had frankly forgotten all about that! I got there, at which point the troops arrived and I collapsed on the bench, with Uisge giving me the sloppiest welcome. I had done it.
A goal achieved
Reflections
The run up to an event is rarely perfect and 3 months of uncertainties over my ankle didn’t help. I had to change my goals and do what I could, given where I was. On the whole I think I did that – I executed the plan just right, until the last stage when the painkillers and a lack of focus likely lost me a few hours. Going faster on stage 2 would help avoid the situation whereby I slept most of the daylight hours and walked all night!
Some people have asked if it was the hardest event I have done. I think it was the most painful, but not the most difficult. I’m sure you can tell, the state of my feet really affected my enjoyment of the event and are the thing that made it mentally tricky. If I could crack this, it would change my perspective on doing something like it again.
However, I got to the end, which is never guaranteed even if you’ve managed it before. There are other things to do and experience, so the answer to ‘Would you do it again?’ is ‘Maybe, but not right now!’.
Thanks
Massive thanks to everyone who helped get me to the start line and helped me along the way.
Coach Doug, invaluable and I’ve already told him what I think of him. It was partly his fault I chose this race in the first place.
Partner Andy, working with me to fit in training and doing his fair share of the cooking.
Physio Graham for his endless patience and honesty, plus everyone else who weighed in with help this time around interpreting MRI results and advising on the relative risks of taking it on.
Friends for listening to my woes, training with me, keeping me sane, sending me messages and telling me what Roman things to look out for – Izzy, Judyta, Scott, Vicky, Robert, my mum, my dad (for the latter, obviously).
People who I ran with, people at the checkpoints and sometimes people who did both! Ray, Neil, Ian, Grant, Paolo, Geoff, Warwick, Jon, Shane, Mike, Sharon and many others who I don’t know the names of.
Anyone who used the messaging system whether I knew you or not – it makes a difference!
Hokey Cokey Roseland Swimrun
We’ve had our eyes on the Mad Hatters races after hearing great reviews and meeting the organisers at other events, so when we saw a new long course being proposed we signed up! This was so many months / years ago though that it kind of crept up on us 😮 Luckily, we had actually done some fun swimrun adventures and a local event a few weeks before to get in the mood. We also combined it with a holiday in Cornwall exploring the coastal path and attractions at a more leisurely pace to make the trip definitely worthwhile.
The course was a linear one, starting at Portscatho and winding its way 35km along to Mevagissey.
By the time we got off the coach to the start, we were already late and were ushered to the line without ceremony and waved off! Izzy was straight out of the blocks as we dodged round a few people to get to the water and start swimming. Neither of us has done ‘enough’ swim training lately – though Izzy has done more than me and has even made it to a swimming pool! The effect of this is that we are even more closely matched than usual with Izzy definitely having a faster start, so she led off.
The race route took us in and out (and shook us all about) at some ‘interesting’ spots, including places where we had to scramble up the rocks, or use a rope to get safely down the steep slope! On one swim exit we got shouted at to go around even though we were aiming for a perfectly good looking lump of rock 😉 Another entry had a stunning little exit through a rock channel before we were out into open sea.
On the first runs, Izzy was off like a hare, showing the benefits of her interval training, so I concentrated on just keeping up and heavy breathing, no ability to chat at this stage! After the first couple of swims we started alternating, just to give the other a break, though the one behind was always getting cold as much as resting. We then kept whichever order we emerged from the water in on the run as we wound our way along the cliffs through the bracken, grass and wildflowers. It felt like a race where we really worked as a team to keep us moving through at a good speed.
As we had discovered on our mini recce trip of one small part of the course, the runs were best described as ‘undulating’ … which is to say they kept going up and down a lot: I recorded 1300m in 27km of running for the day. However, none were too long and only one had us so hot when the sun peeped out that we were grateful to get back into the water, my squealing at the shock causing some consternation 😀
My watch had a meltdown after the last event, so I had taken the opportunity to upgrade and was loving the mapping feature, helping us stay vaguely on course when there was any confusion, although it did bleep a lot to tell us to take obvious path turns.
Several of the swims involved swimming out and round a point. At the briefing we had been told that the sea was going to be very calm and perfect conditions. As it was, there was quite a swell pushing and pulling us around, which had me thinking this Cornwall lot were hard as nails describing this as ‘calm’ – they did admit later the predictions had been slightly out!
At one moment, I was leading and definitely aiming for the yellow flag. I couldn’t understand why the marshal had put it on the ground and wandered off, but was trying not to faff. Eventually realised after Izzy yelled at me that I was aiming for a lovely patch of yellow lichen on a rock instead! Likewise on another swim, I had to practically tug the cord to get Izzy to pause and agree to turn left 😀
The long 2km swim at the end had the following navigation instructions: ‘Swim out to the paddle boarder, turn left, don’t go too far out because of boats, and not too far in because of rocks. Follow the coastline until you see a beach with a flag’. We were chugging along, no beach in sight, no idea what we were aiming for but keeping the coast on our left and looking for a beach … after about 1500m we found a kayaker, who proceeded to try and educate us about currents and the tide, where to aim and the fact that he ‘didn’t think us two would make it’. This had the effect of me slightly tersely asking him to just tell us where we were supposed to be going, at which point we shot off noticeably faster 😀 . Apparently, if you’re local, you just know to aim for the colourful house on the cliff when you round the corner 🤨 !
I was still shivering after this epic when we got to run through tourist throngs in Mevagissey, swim to a small beach and ascend a very long flight of steps and up a steep road to the finish line.
Delighted to finish 5th overall and first female pair behind 4 male pairs. Even more delighted to find at the end that the sun came out, stone baked pizzas and amazing brownies from the Parent-Teacher Association were on offer and we could all lounge around outside meeting old friends and making new ones (including a large white dog that took a shine to Izzy for a while!). Many thanks to the race organisers, all the marshals and safety crew and everyone else including competitors who made it such a great day.
I really recommend this race if you want stunning scenery, a challenge and a taste of an Ötillö World Series type race in terms of length and difficulty. I also recommend that you do a proper amount of swim training in preparation else, like me, you will have difficulty putting a jumper on the next day 😀
Photo credits to James Street / Mad Hatter Sports Events – or me, if marked as such!
Scurry Events – Yellowcraigs Swimrun
This was my first actual, in person race since … March 2nd 2020! Izzy originally signed up to do this with Andy, it didn’t run last year due to sea conditions. And so this year it came round, and I was the substitute partner, and it was so much fun 🙂
I actually was quite nervous beforehand, being totally out of practice with the whole process of preparing for a race day. We have a bigger (longer, larger field) race coming up, so it was actually perfect timing. It was also so good to be doing a swimrun race on our local patch in East Lothian. We do a lot of training there and it has so much potential.
The route for this event was largely an out and back, with a long swim to start with and an ascent of North Berwick Law at the far end.
With an easterly wind, the sea was quite rough. Despite doing a number of swimrun training sessions already this year, we hadn’t done anywhere near 2km in one go and we were both cold enough for the bum shake by the time we eventually got out 😀 Was fun to do such a challenging loop out to Fidra and back though.
The run and short swim to North Berwick was uneventful. The next part was unmarked, but I had gone through the route on Google street view, so we made a beeline to the bottom of the Law. Here we got mixed up in some other ultra event, but we zoomed to the top, with me doing my very best to keep up with Izzy.
It came sooner than expected, we turned around and raced back down! The final swim before the finish line was only half the length of the initial one, but we were chasing down a male pair who had just overtaken us, and also trying to make it back before risking getting swamped by the line of amassed swimmers doing the aquathlon.
Checking out the second last swim – thanks to Tim Chad for this photo 
Approaching the final swim, bracing for the cold and the chase!
We stormed out and back and made the final sprint for the line, delighted to be back racing again 🙂
Whatever way you look at we were on the ‘podium’; 3rd overall, 2nd females, 1st pair!
Thanks to Peter for putting on our first local event, which all went smoothly, to Andy for taking some photographs to record the occasion and to Izzy for being my swimrun buddy! Next stop, Cornwall!
Winter 2018/2019
It has all been very quiet on my blog since September! I am still here and after an arduous winter am hopefully re-emerging!
After Bantham swimun, Izzy and I went off to Cannes for the inaugural Ötillö event there. My hamstring was still a concern and sitting in the airport, I felt a bug coming on. Not to worry I thought, it was warm and sunny! We cheered Andy on as a solo in the experience race, and he came back with tales of a terrible technical descent…
On our race day I was still not feeling the best as we got on the ferry, despite several trips to the bakery / almond croissant emporium since we had arrived. We were there to have fun though, and we set off at a steady pace which we kept up all race. The start was lovely – all around wooded trails on islands off the coast. We enjoyed the long swim back to the coast, benefiting from some spotting at the start of where to go. The route from there was varied – one minute we were along the promenade dodging tourists and running past the famous cinema. Then we were up into a park above town and winding back down the steps and alleys of the old part of the city before going straight up an old tramway and down the technical chute of death (as Andy would have it called). We found this OK, but got stuck behind a much slower team. There was a queue building behind and they showed no sign of letting us past. In a different race I would have shouted at them earlier, but this time we were in no rush and just persisted until a gap appeared. Later we ran past a group of proud nudists at a swim entry / feed stop (!) before winding our way back around the coast to the finish.
The hamstring was no worse, and we celebrated with ice-creams before we went off home for some deserved rest.
It had been a couple of months packed with racing, travelling and other life stressors. In the weeks and months that followed, I was plagued with a succession of worsening viruses and a general malaise that knocked me out of kilter and at one point landed me in bed and off work. I had a disaster of a trail race, couldn’t really train, wasn’t getting outside and doing the things I loved. I got scared to go out and do anything in case it tipped me into another illness and I didn’t know what was causing it. I resorted to reconnecting the x-box for amusement and am grateful to the friends who helped me out with messages, lifts and visits and generally tried to keep me grounded.
If all else fails, swim … this girl helped keep me sane x
In amongst all that we had the one and only 18/19 Open 5 event in the Lake District. I was determined not to miss it and headed down to go out with Lucy, with warnings about my maximum run ability / speed (thanks to hamstring) and general effort levels (thanks to illness). Things didn’t go quite to plan as we headed up the big hill on foot (“but that’s where all the high value controls were!”) and over-cooked the bike (“because it makes a ghost shape on the map!”). We ended up sprinting back late and I was quite emotional at the finish. Luckily, our total score was enough to get me to 10,001 series points – 1 second later and it would have taken another year! I got ill again after this race so was mightily annoyed, but took comfort from the fact that my legs had seemed to work on the bike (much-neglected of late) and my hamstring did not react to our hilly run. Really, it was also a race of true Rosemary-Lucy style…
Eventually, I went to see a specialist sports doctor / consultant, whose letter finally persuaded the GP practice to test my iron levels – ferritin (iron stores) and total iron were very low despite my haemoglobin being normal. This is a known issue for athletes and can affect performance, recovery and subsequently immune function. A bit frustrating, since I had asked for this back in November! Anyway, two weeks after starting to take iron supplements, I felt like a new person. Even when I got ill again I was over it quickly and maintained a positive mood. The Dr also gave me some great general advice (‘do all this and you will be on the same regime as Mo Farah’) – i.e. one total rest day a week (really?!), check vitamin D levels (seemed OK), sleep more than 7h a night more than 6 days a week (only 7?), eat lots of fruit and veg (have you seen our veg box?) and treat a cold with zinc lozenges.
I also went on two amazing holidays. One to the Maldives for a Swimtrek – where the sea was as warm as a pool and it was like swimming in a tropical aquarium with all the fish and other sealife. Andy loved the place and cried when he left – we also had a great group of folk to share the boat and adventure with. I had hoped the sunshine would see off the bugs, but it didn’t.
Later on I decided to cheer myself up by learning to XC ski in Norway. Some of the swimming holidays pals had egged me on to do it, and I have always fancied it (I have never done any kind of skiing before). Turns out it’s a bit harder to do then I expected, and involved a great deal of falling over! However, by the end of the week I was just getting the hang of it and wished I could stay on to consolidate … already planning my trip back next year 🙂
As spring wears on and the iron works its magic, my mood and general wellbeing is taking a sharp upwards turn. Sadly I had to withdraw from UTS50 😦 on the advice of my physio because my hamstring is still not right and I am not at all trained to do it. A tendinopathy is a real pain to sort out. ‘High maintenance’ we called it – needing to be put under strain, but not too much strain … I am now back up to my ‘normal’ weekly running distance but only just adding in any big hills. 80km / 5000m ascent is not the recipe for success at this point. There are other events I need to be in good shape for in the summer, namely an alpine trail running camp in July and Itera in August!
Instead of racing at Otillo Hvar (due to bugs, hamstring and Izzy also picking up what for her is a very rare injury), I headed to my dad’s for a sunny weekend. There I met up with Chloe (of LoveSwimRun), got some great climbing tips and actually made it up and down a mountain! I paid for it with sore legs later, but was so happy to be able to start considering such runs again, albeit still slow and with some twinges (strain, but not too much!). Really lovely to make a new friend with plenty of ideas for future adventures. Also managed to repeat the mountain thing in Italy on a mini break for one of the several 50th birthdays that seem to be happening this year, accompanied by much ice cream and pizza 😮
I’ve also been conscious I need to start biking again – swimrun training does nothing for your expedition / adventure racing pedalling legs, which are key. So I’m consciously heading to work on my mountain bike and taking the scenic route home. I no longer need lights and won’t be spooking myself in the dark or getting caught out in hailstorms!
Stay tuned for more Itera news as we head for an expedition adventure in Scotland!
Loveswimrun Holy Island 2018
Following some time off after Ötillö, the plan was to do some fun bits and pieces before launching into a winter of trail running. Unfortunately, a minor hamstring niggle I’ve had for over a year flared up – a parkrun was the last overload straw. But I had already entered this event and was booked to go and see my dad and for Andy to do his first ever swimrun, so off we went!
A week of rest and I lined up at the start slightly anxiously. The first run was straight down a hill, the sun was shining, the sea was blue and the views were great. My legs seemed fine too, which was a relief!
I have done a few coastal swimruns before and I do love them. This one is a great length for beginners as well as more experienced people, and some of the swims were a bit ‘exciting’ even for me! We swam out between towering cliffs, round rocky headlands and weaved our way through buoys and across bays. The running was mostly along the coastal paths.
Homemade flapjack at the feed station spurred me on as I tried to hold off the male and mixed pairs (I had a 5 minute head start) whilst catching as many male solos (who set off 5 mins early) as possible! I met Andy just before the second swim and even got a quick kiss! I was pleased to see he was looking cheerful.
On one of the long runs, my hamstring started telling me it wasn’t better after all, but I did my best and battered on. For so late in the year, it was actually quite warm and the final climb up the hill on the road to the finish line had me huffing and puffing. My dad cheered me in and then we did the same for Andy.
A perfect day then for lounging around, catching with people and eating the wood fired pizza that came out of the van 🙂
I was 1st female, 9th overall. Results here – but you have to filter out the people who just ran all the way – yes, it was official, as they were doing the ‘Holy Trail’ race on at the same time! Andy did well too, as he was almost inside the top third and I may have even heard him say ‘it was better than a triathlon’ !! 😉
Many thanks to Jonny and Chloe at Loveswimrun for putting on another super race. Highly recommended! And you can even extend your trip and enjoy some of the other delights that North wales has to offer. Also to photographers wildmanmitchell and SportpicturesCymru.
Sunny presentations!
Ötillö Swimrun World Championships 2018
(for a taste of the race here is the official video. We star, for maybe 1 or 2 seconds near the end!)
Our fourth, and possibly final, Ötillö world champs was preceded by a relaxed few days in Stockholm, enjoying the scenery, eating and sleeping. We needed it as due to new race logistics, on race day we had to get out of bed when the night had barely started. It didn’t make a lot of difference, 03:30 is as bad as 04:30.
Our goal was to go faster than last year. We had a plan, which suggested sub-11h was realistic. Part one of this plan was a strong first swim to get in a good position on the rocks in case there was crowding (more teams in the race than ever before). At the last minute on the start line, I wonder if we were too far back. In fact, we were right at the back! But it was too late, the gun went and we were off.
We followed the long line of paced runners to the beach and as we swam across strongly, passing teams, I kept thinking about how much further up we might have been! But there was plenty of time to go.
We had discussed the need to ‘claim our space’ on the rocks, to let teams work their own way past. However, we moved well and were actually holding our position. On review, we made up a lot of time here compared to last year, helped perhaps by the dry rocks, but I think also our mindset.
On the first longer run it was time to pick up the pace. At the feed station we were 10 mins up on the plan. We were going so fast, so well, but at end I felt the tow suddenly go tight. I willed Izzy to hang on in there, promising a ‘rest’ very soon … and then we were back swimming and short runs through the woods and over logs.
At the next long swim we paused and could see everyone bow to the left. I aimed off to the right and we held a lovely direct line (as revealed by checking our gps trace later). At the time we could only ponder if we had been genius or insane as we approached the shore a very different way to our fellow competitors.
In and out we went until the next longer run. I was going to consult on strategy but Izzy beat me to it and asked me to take it back half a percent. She was still positive though, and I was happy. We held a fair speed and at the next check we were still ahead of plan by 10 minutes.
I break the race into chunks I can remember and next up is ‘more in and out and two longer swims’.
Part of the plan was to do the swims a little bit faster. This was generally the case, but the pig swim was slower. Compared to some other years, it was like a mill pond and not pig-like in the slightest. I can only imagine we had a wind or current in our favour last year!
At the next long one there was lots of discussion with a marshal about where to aim. I didn’t understand as the flag seemed clear. We jumped in, I checked for something to aim for on land above the flag and we set off. The flag did not appear to be coming into view and we stopped to check. It had vanished. That would be because it was attached to a boat … Izzy said ‘there’s the landing flag, just to the right of the gap!’. Ah yes the gap, that is what I was aiming for … Lesson in this … We meant very different things by ‘gap’! Eventually I corrected but it was not our finest line. The team to our left did much worse though… Not sure flags on boats criss-crossing the line of sight to the landing flag are all that helpful!
Just before the short swim to Ornö we met Josefine at the feed station, who was giving out hugs of encouragement – much appreciated to help us brace for the final big test!
We landed and I knew we had been losing time but only our 10 minute ‘buffer’ – we were now on plan and I said so. Izzy is surprised. This is when we needed to push on. I set off like a rabbit, but the tow immediately went tight. It was so hard. I knew I couldn’t maintain anything like this and my head needed to calm down and be sensible. Maybe we were paying for our earlier pace. I had worried about this, but if you want to achieve a time you have to commit.
The track was intermittently stony and we had to ease off. Then we got onto easier roads. We had cabbed down our wetsuits but I was so, so hot. I was not happy at all and ‘may’ have said rude things about this particular leg of the race, but Izzy did a great job of encouraging me and motivating us. It was so good for lifting my mood.
At the feed station I checked progress. We were now down on our plan, but there had been some slack in it. I say I think if we can just match last year’s speed from here, we can still do 11h. Objectively we were still doing well, it was better than it felt, we were catching a few teams and not getting caught. Mentally I was boosted, but physically the heat was still a battle and I felt nauseous. I am a bad weather girl!
Later our stats tell us we were slower over Ornö, not faster as planned. My dreams of a sub 11 or even better had faded. But we jumped into the sea with friends Christophe and Emmanuel and we all four whooped with delight and were so happy to be in the cool water 🙂
Here last year, the short swims were hell but now they were so still and easy. We tried to focus, though the technical terrain was now testing both mind and body.
Eventually we got out for the final run. Izzy said to me ‘clear these rocks then you can pull as hard as you like and I will just get on with it and whimper behind’. I check my watch. 10h40 with about 3.5km to go including some rocks and at least one hill. I say ‘we cannot break 11h but we will beat last year’. Then I go for it. I always like a sprint finish regardless 😉
(check this out – from 11:09:21)
We passed a couple of teams but stuck to our own thing. Izzy asked me how far to go. 2km. She managed to scoff an emergency gel without breaking stride! We were filmed for the live webcast for our last 4 mins … up that hill, on and on, both giving it everything we had. We crossed the line. I stopped my watch. I glanced down and questioned myself, knowing I had accidentally paused it at some point in the race. I looked up at gantry but it was true – 10:58:54! We smashed the last run and we were both so happy. There were big hugs, then tears of emotion from me. I couldn’t even breathe!
We sat and drank coke and got a shower. Everyone was so fast this year, our position felt disappointing. But we cannot control the competition or the weather. So we enjoyed the vibe and catching up with friends. And then we were on the boat heading to the airport for an early flight the next day.
We met our target, but in a slightly different way from the plan. I’ve got mixed feelings about this, but in the end we got it done and it is so good to get a time to our names starting 10 something … in 4 years we have taken 2h off our time, and that is not to be sniffed at.
The dream team will still do some other races together though – maybe even another one this year!
Many thanks to our supporters and this year especially to Matt at Improve My Running … I was trying my best to maintain form!
I also want to dedicate this report to our dear friend Jim, who died a week after the race. He was an outdoorsy sort who loved wild swimming. He was always up for an adventure and pushing his boundaries and had come with me to some MTB / run races. He followed our progress avidly and helped us with various training sessions. We’ll all miss his companionship and unique take on life. X
Bowhill long duathlon 2018
This one was the race I should have done when The Beast came and dumped snow on us instead. Fortunately, I was still able to make the new date and Damien stepped in to get me there when it turned out my lift couldn’t! We even managed to safely negotiate the clock change and arrive in very good time, if still a little bleary-eyed.
For my warm up I went and investigated the tricky singletrack section at the end of the bike leg, which I remembered from last time I did this race. Hmm, I did not do a great job, though I did see which bits I was likely to have to jump off and run down!
The start of the race was a bit of a jostle and I felt like hoards of people just whizzed away from me up the hill, which affected my confidence. All I could do was keep working at it and keep Caroline (my series rival!) in sight. Sure enough, I eventually came past her as the hill went up and up.
A flattish, bumpy and wet puddly section followed, and I hesitated as a guy came through and cut me up. I was trying to keep pedalling hard when Caroline retook the lead! More hills followed – she pulled away as I had to walk, I caught up as she walked … We entered the top of the singletrack together, which I knew was not to my advantage 😀
As she disappeared I walked / ran / scooted and sometimes even pedalled, although I also fell sideways at one point. My best moment on this part was actually riding the final corner and tree roots after working out the best line in warm up. I nearly skidded on my cleat at the dismount line and transition seemed to take forever as I fumbled into my running shoes.
I thought Caroline would be long gone, and indeed she had gained over a minute on that tricky bike section. Skills pay off! However, we were wearing matching coloured tops and I caught fleeting glimpses of her through the trees up ahead. I was trying to go fast but my shins started screaming at me. I wanted to sort of relax my legs but it was impossible, going uphill and working hard over the terrain!
The run route on this race is an out and back. We turned into the twisting uphill section through the trees and I could see no one. But when we popped out, there she was again. I think I even started gaining just a little bit to the turn and back down …
But then returning to the trees she knew where her strengths lay (on foot, as on bike!) and when we emerged she was well out of sight. I think she must have hurdled the logs I clambered over! I only saw her once more, far in the distance, so instead I focused on beating the guy I’d been going back and forth with for a while!
2nd female and 2nd in the series to Caroline, who played it smart and was better on the technical terrain than I!
I had a jolly time and was pleased to have entered again this year. Now just an Open 5 to go before all focus turns to my first big race of the year – my second ultra – 80km up and down mountains in Snowdonia. Can’t wait!
Open 5 Coniston 2017
Race 4 of the winter was the first Open 5 of the season, based in Coniston. On Saturday, I took advantage of the location to recce the part of the Tour De Helvellyn I hadn’t visited recently (the race I’m doing next). It was snowy, icy and cold and progress was slow, even on my bike! I nearly ran out of time to get fed at the café, but luckily just made it.
A view of the run area – who wouldn’t want to play here?
Lucy had been properly ill with pneumonia and wasn’t sure if she would race. We arrived together on Sunday morning still undecided! I thought she would go with me … she asked ‘what if we had to finish after 3h?’ I admitted I was happy to go slow, but wanted to be out for most of the time. She decided to go solo and I last minute paired up with Jon instead. I joked that she had better not beat us …
So after planning, Jon and I set off on the run, hoping the ice would melt a bit ready for the bike whilst we were out. Straight up a hill towards the coppermines, catching a few teams and soon hitting the snow line. I thought I’d run quicker than Jon, but he was running easily as I breathed heavily. Just warming up, I told myself.
The rock face on the route to a control was totally covered in icicles!
We could see Phil and Jackie up in front and we were catching them. After a delightful snowy track traversing the hillside we got to a decision point: straight across and risk getting caught in a quarry, or round the paths? We went round and soon met them coming the other way – wrong choice for us – we were 4 minutes slower!
Running along I was opening my legs out when just in front Jon skidded and thumped onto the floor. That’ll be ice beneath us then. Bit of hopping across semi frozen bogs, reeds and long grass and it was my turn to fall forwards. It was a soft landing in heather and snow, but surprisingly cold!
My tummy was rumbling, which is quite unusual mid race and suggested I really should eat. A full flapjack went down the hatch. Now we were heading off the hill and I thought it was time to go fast. I pushed myself to keep speed on the techier bits, using the sound of Jon’s footsteps just behind to spur me on. I loved running through the woods. We got to the lake and dashed back along the shore, suddenly popping out in a campsite I recognised from a race where I had totally overheated! Very different now.
A winter scene
I sensed Jon was dropping a little, so I backed off the pace and started looking at the bike route. It was tricky to decide which way to go round. We spent some time in transition discussing. What with that and having to take my gloves off to undo shoelaces, my fingers were frozen by the time we left.
We headed off up a road which soon became a long hill. Jon was really pushing the pace and I was working hard to keep up. Just what I needed to get the blood back in my fingers! The first half of the bike went well, nipping in and out to controls and making good progress. I was trying hard not to look at the map and to let Jon get with it instead of getting left behind. We had a slight altercation with a lady who didn’t want us on her drive (turned out this was due to a hitch in communications). I felt sorry that someone would get so emotional all day just for a few riders coming past.
Beautiful view of the tarn on the bike course
We got to a control where the route to the next one was up a hill. It was a long push-up slog, through mud and ice and rocks and roots. We spent over 20 minutes getting to the control at the top of the hill and it somehow robbed our momentum. The sign on the gate saying ‘warning cattle grazing’ was true – as we came across the strange sight of some ‘panda’ cows grazing in the woods … The descent was very icy and we came down cautiously, though mostly on two wheels rather than two feet. Somehow that was another 30 minutes gone, though at least it made me ride some really rough bumpy stuff, just because I was so grateful whenever I saw an ice-free patch!
The road we had to descend in a hurry
I was worrying about time, Jon less so. But then we went wrong in the quarry, mistaking the path for a river, wasting about 5 minutes. We needed to smash it, but as soon as we got to the road there was yet more ice. Oh no… This was so different to what we’d found in the first half of the ride. We had to forfeit a 30 point control near the end and still came in just over 8 mins late / 18 point penalty.
A typical scene, but the wrong way round. Post-race we compare strategies!
Somehow I felt a bit flat. Just when I’d wanted to let rip, we’d had to ride cautiously and it seemed we could have done better. Looking at Lucy’s score, we only got 12 points more! This despite running much further, getting wet feet and riding almost the same route backwards half an hour faster! Ach well, it was all good training, and I had a lovely day out in good company 😀 And we still did enough to get 3rd in mixed pairs. Results here.
Joe – who organises Tour de Helvellyn. My next race!
Lucy won female solo with a score that would have won is female pairs as well. I felt sad that she didn’t feel she could have raced like that if we had been together. Though as she pointed out, a lot of the pressure comes from the self not wanting to let the other down, even if they say they’re happy to bimble. For Lucy not to race with me, I knew it must have been serious as we have got through a lot of events together ‘sub-par’!
And then we were off on the long drive home. I can recommend the services at Rheged for good food! Many thanks to all involved as always – Open Adventure (event), James Kirby (photos), Nav4 (food), Lucy, Jon and Andrea (assorted accommodation, lifts and racing with me!).
Mixed pairs podium
Open 5 – Ampleforth
Lucy was unavailable for the last race in the Open 5 series, something to do with a hen do. It was doubtful whether I would come either until quite late, meaning my original ‘new partner’ had made other plans by the time I could confirm. Luckily, Jon (Itera and sometimes SMBO teammate) was up for it instead.
Work was still high pressure and I had managed to catch a bug the week before. Luckily, it didn’t seem to make me feel bad, but on the other hand I was coughing up gunk and lost my voice on Saturday night. My mum dropped me off and as we sat down to plan, Jon had to interpret the squeaks and grunts. The map looked … tricky! The bike had a few options, the general loop looked straightforward, but we were unsure how long it might take to weave in and out. The run looked long and difficult to fit together.
This way to your first abbey of the day
We decided to bike first, to make sure we got lots of good points without running out of time. This is something Lucy and I had decided on last month, though in retrospect it might have been better the other way round for this race. Off we went, and the pace was higher than I’m used to …
This wasn’t a bad thing, as the mixed pairs is a much more competitive category than the female pairs, and Jon and I would need a good race to get on the podium at all. It’s nice to be pushed in different ways with different people. We were debating and debating as we rode up a road about which controls, if any, to drop out, and how bad a particular bridleway up at the top of the map might be.
Poring over the big maps …
We got tangled up with a male and a mixed pair, and were riding across the flat topped hills and fields with them, concertinaing at every gate. I don’t like doing this much, it puts me under the wrong kind of pressure! At the road junction we had to make a decision, which was partially influenced by going whatever way the other teams weren’t, and partly by wanting to go and see Rievaulx Abbey (it is quite spectacular).
Unfortunately, as soon as we turned right we picked up another mixed pair, and they were fast ones! I recognised them as usually jousting for top spot. We were quite matched for speed, even as we fought along the muddy bridleway. It was more rideable than some I’ve seen, so I wasn’t too disappointed. Pushing up a hill I saw Jon turn back and grin as he stuffed in some energy bar and took the hint! Banana down in one.
No bananas for birthday boy Mark – he knows how to transition!
At the ford we again took a decision to go ‘the other way’ and turned back up the hill on our own to go and get an ‘easy out and back’. My lungs were searing from the effort. And easy it was not, as some of the map marking obscured an important detail of the bridleway junctions. We headed down a (what turned out to be the wrong) bridleway looking for a turning that didn’t exist, found ourselves pushing up a steep little valley, back onto the track we should have been on .. grr …
Back over Sutton Bank, and we were screaming down a road hill, at least we would have been if we hadn’t been stuck behind a horse box! At least this meant we didn’t shoot past our turning and soon we were descending down some of the best riding of the day, through the woods. We now got held up behind some horses not in a box. The riders politely asked us to hang back until a wider spot as the horse was jumpy, and I wasn’t going to argue! Once we were past, we whooped and swooped all the way down.
Steve gave me a lift to the station, but luckily navigation to get there was a bit easier
Only a few out and backs up sharp hills to go. My legs were feeling it now and I kept getting left behind. I didn’t seem to have any energy left and was doubtful about how I would be able to run later.
On the way into transition, we passed a lady kneeling and doing her borders. As we left again on the run we laughed with her about the number of people passing her quiet house! She was lovely and shouted encouragement at us.
As we went we mused on when it was I had actually last ‘ran’ anywhere with Jon (not counting long treks in an expedition race). Maybe the 10k round Cardiff Bay, or a long ago Open 5 on Anglesey … Anyway, Lucy must have had an effect on me as after I had coughed some sludge out of my lungs, I was keeping it ‘steady’, but hearing some notes of concern from behind! Oops.
Byland Abbey – abbey number three of the day
The run was hot. I had just popped on my normal sports glasses to race because it wasn’t raining. However, sweat was running across the lenses making it hard to see, and also stinging my eyes. When I wiped them they were smeary, and when I washed them they were streaky! I never have these problems training, I wonder what that says about my usual pace 😉
We went up and down, up and down, lots of little short sharp climbs out and back. Sometimes we seemed to run for an age between controls. Then we were navigating across farmland, having difficulty locating a path which did not match the map on the ground, and coming out on a road back to another abbey. The run had been awkward, with high value points straddling the two obvious ‘loops’. We were calculating whether we could get our final long out and back for 20 points. As we firmed up that each ‘only a kilometre’ was actually ‘a kilometre and a bit’ we realised it was a no-go.
Doing a good job of talking even when I can’t talk
Straight back to the finish, I was trying to push the pace as I know how often the mixed pairs results come down to time. Jon was lagging and I was trying to be encouraging, but it turned out he was nearly getting cramp! Remarkably, in we rolled 4 minutes EARLY. Unheard of.
We were kept in suspense at prize giving as our category was last to be announced. We knew our score was quite low, but were crossing our fingers this was due to a difficult course rather than our lack of competitiveness. Finally, we got the results – 2nd 🙂 I was pleased as I was aiming for podium, though it would have been nice to be closer to the winners (we were 29 points adrift) – wouldn’t it always! Well done to Jackie and Phil who won today. Fullr esults here. The series prize was super close and came down to time only – it went to Molly and Peter (we split them in the results for this race).
Mixed pairs podium
In the post-race analysis I did spot an extra 10 points we could have got on the run in the time we had, but after that it was probably a combination of luck and ‘not blindingly obvious’ different strategies that were needed to do better. Jackie and Phil spent more time running first, which was probably key. I think it also takes a while to get used to a different person and play to each other’s strengths, and Jon and I have rarely raced this format together.
Off with a lift to the station in glorious sunshine for me, another Open 5 series done for the year. Many thanks to James Thurlow and everyone at Open Adventure for keeping me busy and motivated all winter, and to James Kirby for photos.
After coming and going during the race, my voice disappeared and didn’t come back until Tuesday, when the bug got worse and 3 weeks on from when it started I am still fighting … Less than a week to go now until the first swimrun race of the year for Izzy and I – Costa Brava, here we come!!
Lucy and I won the series, so I had to smile for both of us!
Ötillö swimrun Engadin
After our adventures in the Isles of Scilly, we were off on our travels again to the Engadin valley in Switzerland for another Ötillö world series event. We entered on the basis it would give us a second chance to qualify if we hadn’t already done so (which it turns out we had). We were also told it would be beautiful and that we should do it anyway!
Prologue
Preparation for this race was less than ideal, especially for Izzy. She managed to pick up big holes in her arm and leg and a cold beforehand. By the time we set off, things were looking better though.
It didn’t take long to start worrying again! In retrospect, it may have been the effects of altitude. I had headaches for a day or two after arriving, plus sniffles. Izzy felt her cold getting worse. As a result we didn’t have any little practice runs or swims as planned – possibly a mistake. We did not know how it might feel. Instead we contented ourselves with viewing the race course from various angles: up on the mountain from the cable car, in the valley from the bus, and a short walk round some of the first run.
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- Looking down on part of the course
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- Izzy contemplates the race start. Up over that ridge line somewhere.
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- Peeking down onto the far end of the course beyond St Moritz
I had a race plan and a target time. I wasn’t sure how altitude would affect us, but thought the times were realistic, possibly slightly conservative. It would be enough to get us to about 5th place. If we had a good day we should go faster and maybe even challenge for podium.
The morning of the race. An early start, crammed onto a bus like sardines. We left on time, like all Swiss public transport that we experienced! It was hot though, and as we waited to go into the small drop off area I was feeling claustrophobic. I headed straight for the toilet queue before it could get too long. Already too late. Blokes were going in fully zipped up in their wetsuits and coming out dressed the same, even as Michael, one of the race organisers shouted increasingly urgently to make sure we got our timing chips cleared. I was checking my watch, 4 minutes per person?! Eventually I escaped as Michael had resorted to yelling “quick sh*t, quick sh*t!”.
Never follow an arrow to anywhere with the word ‘forno’ in its name
The Start (08:00)
We had decided to run with our wetsuit up, but unzipped. It was only 6km to start with, after all. It was a much bigger race than the last one and the crowd bumped and jostled at the start. We took it slow and were soon winding up the hill in a line of competitors. Before long I could feel sweat pouring off my face. I checked my watch. We’d been going 13 minutes.
Mass crowds at the start. We’re in the clappers, somewhere …
I was also already towing Izzy hard. Hmm, I thought, not sure I could keep this up the whole way. I tried to be sensible, stay in line and not rush to close gaps on the flatter parts – they soon closed again as we hit the ups. We started to descend and I was still towing as we struggled to pass a mixed team who were definitely flagging more than us. After an arduous time where I felt we were silently battling each other, Izzy had a minor strop and unclipped herself. I was dubious, but in fact, without having to worry about the tow as well as her footing, she flew straight off down the hill. At the bottom she was full of fight and we leapt into the beautiful cool water of the lake.
Mass start
At the other side though, she got dizzy and fell backwards as we got out. We started the downhill run with her bumping into me. We were at a height of about 2600m.
I tried to encourage and said we’d keep the tow on a gentle tug. This was all too much and before long I was hearing the words “I just don’t think I can do this today”. “Yes you can”, I replied. Not long after, in a moment of stress as people overtook on a narrow path, I tripped and fell hard. Before I had time to think, a fellow competitor had lifted me bodily from the ground! Blood was streaming from my hand and knee. I did my best to wash the grit out with some of our water but my goggles were also full of blood and they had to wait for later. We set off again hobbling.
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- Long line of racers going up the hill
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- Long line of racers coming up the hill!
Izzy’s glutes then cramped up and we had to stop to stretch them out. This was followed by a forlorn “I’m sorry, I know you really wanted to do well today..” I said: “Shut up and don’t worry about that, it is now about survival and finishing this race”.
Our entire plan had to change, we had to set new goals. I have never had a DNF (‘did not finish’) and didn’t want one now. I didn’t say this at the time, but Izzy later admitted she hadn’t had one either and was thinking the same. I resisted panicking as we walked tiny rises so early in the race and carefully pondered what to say. “Izzy, you’re a Scot, right?” “Yes” “Well, you’ve paid a lot of money to enter this race, and a proud Scot would definitely make sure they got their money’s worth” … bingo! Turns out this was true 🙂 .
Izzy had felt like this race was a simple factual physical impossibility on this day. But I thought it was a mind game, and mind games you can always win. We carried on moving.
Scenery
The Middle, Part 1 (09:40)
We had been going for less than 2h and got to the second swim behind schedule and in difficulty. The results later showed we were in 120th position out of 157 starters. The water was lovely, though Izzy said later that her arms felt dead.
In all the noise and pre-race chatter about how cold the water would be, I had been oblivious to how hot the air temperature would be (despite a mention of it race briefing). 23 degrees C! OK, not hot by continental Europe standards. But hot by Scottish standards.
Even more scenery
I started to suffer a bit. I am not good in the heat, but am getting better at noticing the symptoms! I started drinking, drinking – both from my bottle and from the lakes when they were clear and fresh smelling. Despite the hassle, we agreed we had to ‘cab down’ (the term used to mean taking the wetsuit off to the waist) on every run. The wet race bib was bliss. It didn’t seem to dry very well, instead creating a constant cooling effect on our top half. Fortunately, the route dipped in and out of the woods and their delightful shade. I aimed for it at every opportunity, and doused my head from a pipe spilling out cold water on the hillside.
At one point we passed some horses. I am normally wary of them, but these ignored us. We discussed hijacking a couple to take us down the hill, with the string of switchbacks on a tight path. I promise we left them alone though …
Shall we borrow a horse?
I was keeping an eye on my watch. I had memorised the route and had it broken down into sections in my head. I knew we were losing 5-10 minutes per section against plan, which itself only gave us 40 minutes to spare at the first cut off – which was way off at 13:45. I was worried and mentioned this briefly near the start but it had only caused despair, so I kept quiet until the final short swim and long run before the cut off.
The Middle, Part 2 (12:08)
“OK Izzy, we have 97 minutes to do this section. And at current pace, it will likely take us 85-90 minutes. But the second cut off is also very tight, so any minutes to spare, we need”. I thought we could realistically do this now, we just had to keep moving in the same way.
Lovely shady path zig-zagging down the hill
We set off walking up a very steep hill. We knew it was coming, which made it easier. I was towing firmly, but trying to keep exertion below the level which had nearly killed us off earlier. It was as if at altitude, you could go so hard, but no harder without it tipping you over an edge. Little swarms of flies kept appearing round our heads and we batted them away with our hand paddles.
I knew we had to go up the valley alongside a river, then cross over and back down the other side for a flattish run in. Sooner than anticipated, I could see the course turning left. I promised we could walk to the river and that then I thought it was downhill and so maybe we could ‘jog-a-log’? Izzy had coined this phrase earlier and we now used it for any running part. Time to jog-a-log again?
We did manage to appreciate the views at least a little bit …
Thankfully I was right. Our mood was lifting and there was even some happy chitchat. The sound of cowbells drifted across a field and we imagined they were our rapturous supporters cheering us on.
The sight of kite surfers on the lake near the cut off were welcome. Suddenly we were on the valley floor again, running in the sun. I looked at my watch and couldn’t believe it. A shiver ran through me that normally only comes near the end of epic races. We were going to make it to the end. No doubt about that now. We got to transition with 35 minutes to spare. Not only had we made the cut off, but we had caught up on our schedule by a huge amount. What had happened?
Swimmers and kite surfers (in different lakes!)
So now we faced a section we were more than confident about. We were also at ‘only’ 1800m and I think the effect was noticeable. Michael said we had plenty of time, but we leapt straight in the water for the first of two long swims. Remarkably, we were overtaking a string of teams. I wasn’t entirely sure where to aim for, except ‘the end of the lake’. After I had passed everyone we were following, I headed for what looked like a female competitor taking ages to get out. It turned out to be a large orange buoy. Not an enormous lady.
Big orange buoy. Definitely not a girl.
As had been the case throughout the race, we passed a lot of teams at transition despite our occasional clumsiness managing the bibs and equipment as we cabbed up and down on the approach. We were also quick at feed stations as we stopped only to drink, refill bottles and grab bits of bananas or a gel to eat on the move.
Suddenly, it felt like we were ‘in the race’. Previously, it had felt like we were trailing at the back. Whether this was just mental, or also physical I am not sure. But the cheers seemed louder, the smiles of the marshals more confident, and there were more competitors around us. People yelled at us in various languages, some we understood and some we didn’t. Most yelled ‘bravo!’ or ‘super!’ or, even better, ‘super bravo!’ 😀
Who wouldn’t want to run around here?
We ran with a group of mixed pairs, then in for another long swim. They had vanished and we were now with some male pairs. A very short run, then we were at the final swim in a warm peaty lake, though I shivered getting in. Maybe my body was going into meltdown. It was short though and we were soon out the other side.
Spectator point with a view
The End (14:45)
Just 8.3km run, 400m swim, 2.7km run to go. We were on my race plan times, even under them! We adopted ‘ultra-running’ style. Walk every hill. Run the flats and downhills. In this way we passed a few more male teams. My legs ached. My left knee hurt from the fall and my right from the downhill impacts. But I switched off my brain and kept the same pace. Just jog-a-log. I was still towing on and off, but much more moderately now, something I could sustain.
We saw Michael again at the final cut off, we had loads of time to spare. “How are you doing?” He asked. “OK!”, we grinned. “In fact, so much better than we were before!” Kids on bikes kept riding past and shouting in French. A group of girls got to us twice and surrounded us on the path cheering more enthusiastically than anyone. Every encouragement gave us a little lift.
The only picture I found of us actually racing! Yes, it us, about to overtake that team, I believe …
We were confused seeing swimmers in the final lake, but only because I had got muddled up about where the last swim went. We suddenly saw a female pair in front. I reassured Izzy: “Do not stress, I will stick exactly to what we’ve been doing”. She did not want to get into a battle. But we overtook on the swim and out the other side I was true to my word. We ran along the lake and walked up the smallest of inclines.
At a bend I glanced over my shoulder but we were well clear. Final push to the finish.
Now I was pulling hard again. Every muscle was screaming at me but I blanked out my mind. It was not that far. Round the corner, up a small hill, we ran this one, and into the finish arena.
You can stop running now!
The Finish (16:12)
We crossed the line and we were 4 mins ahead of original plan! Mats came to give us a hug, but Izzy sort of fell over in his arms and he took her to the shade of the tent. She lay curled up whilst I worried and gave her a pat. Relief and smiles when she sat up!
We placed 4th females, 52nd overall. Results here. That meant we made up 68 positions from our lowest point in the race. We had been to a very difficult place and come back. Not only that, we found ourselves competing again. We had worked together and kept each other going. It is good to have these experiences, if only to know you can do it and come out the other side fighting. Never give up. The free cake and tea at the hotel stops at 17:00 and is not to be missed.
More than a marathon of trail running (47.5km), more than the height of Ben Nevis in ascent (1500m), at altitude, in the heat. 6km of swimming, all beautiful, we’d have loved more!
Finished, and both managing to sit up in the shade!
Thanks to everyone who has helped us – including Head / sportextreme for wetsuits, Gococo for socks and Icebug for shoes. To the organisers Michael and Mats for putting on such a crazy race. To the wonderful people at Conrad’s Mountain Lodge for feeding us early on race day and greeting us like long-lost friends every morning. Also special thanks to Helen, my massage therapist at Physis, who somehow put me back together after the last race and expertly avoids various scrapes, bruises and wetsuit rashes.
Planet Byde 