Fingers crossed

 Fingers crossed for the Summer event this year....a bit of merch for training inspiration....

Happy Christmas and New Year !!!!

 Its Christmas Day, I have absolutely no idea how it happened so quickly again !

A huge Happy Christmas and New Year, here's to all the people we love and have around us, and all the people we might not get to see at this time.

Good luck for the New Year , and keep going!

Cheviot trundling

 Had an awesome day running / stomping about 40 ish k  (not quite sure the distance) in the Cheviot hills, part of the race route on the Cheviot goat race. Quite an adventurous day, beautiful clear sun gradually deteriorating to a snow storm. Made it up the Cheviot itself, a beast of a place. Lots of falling around on heathery, tussocky terrain. Hit the Pennine way for a small section at the top, the now familiar granite slabs felt good underfoot. Fab running day.

Cheviot hills

 Well, tomorrow I was hoping to participate in the Cheviot ultra, a 54 m trail event in the Northeast. Unfortunately for us, despite the best efforts of the organisers, it has been cancelled due to issues surrounding the ongoing storm damage in the area.

I think the organisers are truly gutted to have to cancel : after two years of postponing and changing events due to the pandemic, this feels a pretty harsh blow for them. It reminds me again how we have to be prepared for absolutely anything in this field. 

We are still hoping to run a bit tomorrow , to use the time as a training day for future events . Will take pics : it is gorgeous and wild here, very very beautiful . Roll on the Cheviots, hopefully.

Highland Ultra- last bits

 Luckily, a later start for us on the final day. Woke up with a better mood than last night, partially due to finishing all my hot chocolate drinks in one sitting  . Last stage, only 25k. Maybe today I'll hit the jackpot and actually finish in the daylight. 

After another sort out of food, then rucksack, then food, then socks, finally tent...we set off at the gorgeous time of ten o clock. Once again, I found Sarah and the poor girl had no hope of shaking me off. Back along the Loch path - was it really this muddy and hilly the other day ? Not sure. A beautiful flat gravelly

path for 2k, which to be honest I felt like kissing. The final checkpoint, then trudge up the final mountain. At this point the Scottish weather had taken over with a vengence, even to the point of being blown over by the wind. All was well though, I didnt fall far. Reached the top, slid through the mud and mountain streams down the other side. Accepted gratefully some assistance across a fast  flowing mountain stream from a member of the Spine safety team - thank goodness they were there. 

Sarah turned into ultra-and-slightly-competitive Sarah at the bottom of the mountain, and decided we were changing gear into ultra march to cover the final flatish three miles. I gratefully followed, still sticking to her like that irritating bit of chewing gum on your shoe that you cant get rid of. 

One slightly scarey moment involving some Highland cows with very sharp horns wondering why we were marching across their ground. No fights though, phew.

We saw camp and cheered up. We even saw a few marker flags, which made us cheer even more. And....the end. Six hours and about a half. Alot better. Followed by lager and pizza. 

Marvellous stuff. Adventure indeed.

Highland Ultra 2021- a bit more

 After a pretty dubious nights sleep, day two started with the thought of 42 km mountainous terrain ahead. Aha, I thought- shorter than yesterday so maybe I'll get through the finish in daylight and with a chance of listening to some of the talks. How wrong can one person be in life.

I had the luck of starting behind two other women, Sarah and Megan. We stuck to each other like glue. We stomped, fell, swore, got lost, together. Three became four at the top of a boulder-strewn mountain. It took us over six hours to get through the first 15 k- things were not looking too sparkly for us.

The four of us became the fab four for a while : a few running stories told, a fair few more falls in the peat. We decided we had no chance of completing the day, so planned to pull out at checkpoint two .Bizaarely, some of this was caught on video, our girlie bad moments- so might not look too good on the BTU promo video .  However, after being promised a nice track to follow to the end, only 12k which any fool could manage, we stayed in the game and took our tantrums to the finish.

All our fears were probably realised. It got dark, the promised track was a peat bog leading up a mountain, we were exhausted, we couldnt see the markers, it was hideous. At this point four became six and we decided our best policy was to stick together across this challenging terrain. After taking yet another wrong turn, we got a message on our trackers to turn around and backtrack. Also to keep following the pylons : er,, hard to do this in the pitch black on a cold mountainside . Swearwords were uttered, medicines shared, somehow we continued. We ended up splitting up into smaller groups to move quicker down the mountainside. Move quickly, try and stay warm. 

At last vague lights in the distance. A stroppy end to the day. I couldnt even find it in me to hug my favourite medic, when she had done nothing but be really nice to me in this event and the ice ultra.  Thats what fourteen hours of getting lost can do to you.

Guess what....already, I look back on this with fondness. Ah, ultra adventures.

Highland Ultra 2021

A pretty special event all round. Excellent organisation by BTU,in spectacular, dramatic surroundings. 

Race registration and kit check was reached by ferry. A pretty unusual way to get to a race start, maybe . We camped for the duration of the event over two base camps. With a backdrop of Highland hills, Lochs, howling winds, hammering rain, deers calling. Wild .

Day one, approx 50k.....started off road, undulating, amazing sunshiney views . Changing into trails, then rapidly deteriorating to peat bogs ( I still have the evidence of this ingrained under my nails, yuk). Checkpoint at 25k, then the real off grid route began....trails, spectacular hills, long mountain climb, further checkpoint, then the longest ever undulating slippy muddy path along the Loch to camp. Did I fall over .....at least a hundred times. Did I worry about falling in the Loch....oh yes. Did I wonder what on earth I was doing when I couldnt see anyone else on the course in front or behind in the dark ? Oh yes. But I did buzz as I got to the finish , got hot water for my food, and tucked myself smugly in my tent to listen to the rain and wind again. It took me approx 11 hours. One set of soggy running kit down.