Another DNF

Reports like this can always be a venting for despair, feelings of failure and the "Why oh whys?" 

Today I have no excuses apart from that I had a terrible event and I knew it from the beginning as  I traipsed out in 30 C degree heat on a 100km self-navigating trail run at noon having previously had a bout of stomach cramps.

Let me take you back 3 hours into the morning of Saturday; after dropping my daughter off at her workplace I ventured home, grabbed my backpack and dry kit to take a 45 minute drive to Tonbridge Wells but as the journey started I began to realise that the traffic was heavier than normal for a Saturday and then reports of 2 accidents on the motorway so I diverted off to go an alternative "country lane" drive to then get stuck in more traffic about 3 miles from the start. By now the temperature was in the high 20's and I was sweating profusely and slowly getting more and more fed up as I had now missed my 11.00am start time with a window of 60 minutes to get going.

Hot and flustered I finally found the start, signed my waiver and ran out. Due to my mood and now very hot body I decided that before I started that I would drop down to the lesser distance (now 42km) and just enjoy the day with little or no pressure. Along with my normal safety kit I added an extra 750ml of water and because of my decision to drop down the miles my MONKEY FEET.

The ground beneath me was great, the instructions intricate and therefore not really designed for runners and I have learnt the hard way never to follow the well trodden paths as a lot of people go wrong and you too get lost proved when a runner passed me 3 times in the first few miles and he started earlier than me!

Crossing open fields I was really suffering in the heat and was just generally unhappy as I was just not dealing with the weather at all so arriving at the first checkpoint announced that I was quitting knowing that I would become ill if I continued.

This later proved to be the right decisions with reports of people dropping down a distance, other runners DNF'ing after nearly blacking out...I believe thas was not a challenge for runners that day as their body temperatures would have become dangerously high. Fair play to anyone that got through this event with such minimal support...just not for me, no excuses.

Wealden Waters pre-Race

As usual before a race or event there is a flurry of activity, my kit laid out on the floor in the dining room the mandatory kit piled ready for packing. It is not for me to challenge event rules but this year we are required to take full body waterproofs and a fleece but with weather at its height of 31 C with no threat of rain I am really thinking of ditching the trousers, not that they weigh much but just are bulky in the backpack but I suppose rules are rules.

I maybe having one of my "mad moments" but I am seriously thinking of taking this event on in my Monkey Feet with my trusty Injinji socks as protection from dirt and blisters but 100km on trail could be a little risky but it would be a brilliant achievement

The Wealden Waters 2014

This one has come up a little quicker than I would have wanted but it will be a challenge of my resolve and a desperate need to accomplish something again this year.

The Wealden Waters is a Long Distance Walker's Association (LDWA) challenge in which runners are invited to join in but starting after the walkers, the challenge is thus:

OBJECT: To complete a distance of either 100 or 40km on foot, within a time limit of 26 or 10 hours respectively, in the High Weald area of Kent and Sussex, using only a route description and OS maps. 

 I will of course be taking on the 100km challenge (actually 100.8 km!)

I received a message from my newly found trail buddy Alzbeta whom I met on the Pony Express ultra in May 2014 who lives in Kent and from the sound of it a very experienced long distance eventer and one tough cookie. In the message she announced the route description for The Wealden Waters were up and I was excited to see the following famous Kent and Sussex footpaths:

• High Weald Landscape Trail
• Sussex Border Path
• Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk
• Vanguard Way
• Wealdway

Each of these trails, paths or walks are monsters with many downland "undulations" add to this stiles, kissing gates, bridleways and the Ashdown Forest and we have an absolute monster of an event to test ourselves.

I am actually beginning to look forward to this as there is a minimum kit list which requires a full backpack which I always enjoy.

Running distances put into perspective

I was described today as "Obsessed" by my good running friend Bhundu when we were discussing some of my sometimes perceived weird ideas and adventures. This was all taken in good heart as it was given, this while I mentioned that I had missed the all important "Running around half the Earth's equator since I started". 

His family laughed wholeheartedly when I mentioned that on Friday evening, whilst I was nursing a cold glass of cider, that I had calculated the number of times I had run around the Equator of all the planets in the Solar System in an Excel workbook and included data bars to visually show the different sizes of the planets justly proving how intricate I can be.

I was really pleased to note that I have in fact run around Mercury and was well onto reaching 1.5 equators very soon, next target is the Red Planet, Mars and now just over half way for Venus and Earth. As for the Gas Giants, I have no hope on Earth (see what I did there) to get around them.....but just a bit of fun that I am about to do my second circumnavigation of the Moon having run 1.90 times around it.

Those figures just how small we really are.

Ninja Monkey

Mad, hectic day on Thursday with an early start to the office armed only my trusty OMM backpack containing my laptop and a stuff sack containing a a running shirt, shorts with my Monkey Feet strapped to the outside.

A full on day at work, a visit to the hospital to visit my father and then a ssllloooowwwww train journey to my home station leaving me just 13 minutes to get to the track which would have been a 30 minute walk but at 27C I decided to take a rare ride in a taxi to the track. 

at the track I quickly changed and had planned to plod out about 4-5 miles at a gentle pace that I normally do on track nights, such that a few of the other runners see me as a "slow" runner and often comment on it.

Tonight the speedsters were going to do 8 x 200 metres but I was asked to "make the numbers up" to make 5 teams of 3 which I didn't really want to do and have a feeling that as I had plodded out a slow 8 minute mile was chosen as the  "Slow" guy in a team of three that had a Fast, medium and slow pace runner in each. 

I was the third runner in my relay team and when the baton was passed to me I zoomed off after the guy in front of me, one of the faster guys, and overtook him at pace and beating him by about 10 metres....his language quite ripe when he told me he was shocked at my turn of speed. This was mentioned a few times but my answer was "Yes, I can run fast, I just choose not to"

Nice feeling sometimes to turn someones perceptions on their head