Month: December 2018

Next years running events & plans

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FB4C417E-F055-4ABB-9A0E-6B381C395CE2I finished the last race of the year with the South Yorkshire Cross Country. It was a good race, and with plenty of mud! which is always a plus on a cross country. I really enjoyed these races and will defiantly be doing them next year.

 

 

 

I have managed to book the races i want to do next year, i will probably add on a few more but these will be little club runs for fun.

My first event is the Hardmoors 50 in March. This is a 50 mile race through the North Yorkshire moors, and one i’m looking forward to.

The second race is the Great Lakeland 3 day event, this is in May. A mountain marathon in the Lake District. The rules are more relaxed than a normal mountain marathon and it makes for a good bank holiday weekend. You camp over each night, wake up and start running. Your camping equipment is transported for you, so all you need is your running gear and race vest.

I then have a 55km Ultra in the Lake District, this starts at Ambleside and is in June. It looks like an awesome route, but then again where isn’t there a good route in the Lake District?

So my plan with these two races, and a few other training runs and hikes is to complete all the Wainwrights next year (for people who don’t know, check this out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wainwrights ). The 3 day event should bag me quit a few, and the 55km should get me some too. I plan to start ‘collecting these’ in February, with another trip up in March & April. So i’m hoping to have got the rest of them done by the end of 2019. There is 214 in total and i have already bagged about 20 so far.

81CQw79NJBL._SY606_I have already bought myself a poster for completion of these!!

So… if i can get through the 50miler and can do the 3-day event, doing the elite category. And i survive. My aim is to enter the Cape Wrath for 2020, which is a 400km, 8 day supported race. The Cape Wrath is a trail around the top of Scotland, and looks amazing. The attractive part of doing this race is that it is fully supported.

I also have an 83mile trail event in August, this takes in the whole of the Dales Way, and goes from Windermere in the Lakes to Ickley in Yorkshire. This has a very generous cut off of 36 hours. So in effect, it is walkable in that time frame, or run and have some naps 😉

Thats pretty much it for events i have got booked in, i have entered Stafford half Ironman. But i’m not classing this as one of my main races.

So after August, i’m race free! but i’m seriously considering the Montane Cheviot Goat in December. This is in the Cheviots on the border of England and Scotland, and is pretty much the most remote place in England. Pretty harsh landscape and hills/mountains plus the cold! Sounds good!!

Image result for cheviots
Image result for cheviots

But first, before any of this, its Christmas and New Year! Which i’m spending in Sydney, Australia. The last time i was there i was 22! Looking forward to going back.

Image result for christmas in sydney

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year!

Ramblings on running.

adamslifejourneyLeave a comment

Yesterday i did the Dark Peaks Trail Marathon. This is a marathon in the Peak District, has around 4,000ft of elevation, and some tough terrain. I enjoyed the race, i did the same race last year so i was kind of using it as a benchmark. I managed to knock an hour off from last year, which i’m happy about. I reckon i could have knocked a little more off too. There were some downhill parts that my trainers didn’t cope well with, due to the slippy mud. Which pissed me of a little, but getting the right trainers for every terrain is pretty hard, so i’ll let slide 🙂

So i don’t know how anyone else is feeling when running trail marathons/ultras over long periods of time. Some strange shit happens, there are a few times when quitting goes through my head, when i feel like i have a ‘second wind’, when my feet hurt, quads hurt, glutes hurt, hips hurt and pretty much everything hurts! I also think about why i’m doing it, that i like the adventure, i like to explore places only running would take me, i like the fact that i want to quit, but i don’t! and i like the fact that when i finish, it’s something i have accomplished and worked hard to do.

It’s hard to know what everyone else is going through while doing the race. My assumption 99% of the time is that it’s only me suffering! and why isn’t everyone else in pain! Now i pretty much know this can’t be true, surely everyone is hurting? I going to start asking people on races 🙂 But i’m not sure if more training is actually pushing the pain further down the line. I mean nothing really hurts now for maybe the first 20 miles on a normal flat-ish run, a run up the hills & mountains is different again though!

Anyway, its been a while since i updated this blog. I have booked the races i’m doing next year and a few other things.

I am volunteering on the Spine Race, which should be epic https://thespinerace.com/

I have a trip planned to the Lakes in Feb to Helvellyn, in March i have the hardmoors 50, May is the Great Lakeland 3 day event, June the Lakeland Trails 55km and then in August i have an 83mile Ultra which encompasses all the Dales Way. So far thats it!!

These are a few snaps from the last few months, twice did the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, South Yorkshire Cross Country League, Round Rotherham Relays, training runs etc.