Top 50

It is this time of year when runners who are also bloggers review their year, good or bad. However, this blog entry is a little celebration for the mighty few, Andrea, Chris, Bhundu and myself who together pulled off a brilliant result this year.

I was approached by Andrea at the tail end of 2013 asking whether I knew any good trail runs up to 10km that a race could be organised. I drew a blank as the main requirement was "No Roads", which makes the list much shorter, that, along with car parking, toilets, mud (another top of the list requirement) and beautiful views, the search was on.

One day, after a training run with Andrea and Kay, we drove past a woodland area that I know well having run it on numerous occasions and I shouted "Toilets, car park, hills, lots of hills, views...this is it." The rest is history.

Andrea got to work and after a few months she told me that permission had been given to hold a race and I was given the job of working out the course which was a real conundrum as the trails were in a crisscross pattern and only covered about 4 miles. Here is the bit I am good at, planning, adapting and creating. So with my good running pal Duncan we went out on numerous runs around the woodlands overlooking Shoreham, Kent, cut corners, added switch backs, dived through a bush, threw the plans away and started again. We even set up a measuring wheel and calculated that the event was exactly 10,017 metres long!

Andrea and her husband are amazing organisers, arrows were created, maps written, posters made and much, much more. There was a team of about 20 people who gave up their time to help and marshal the runners which is amazing when you think that some club races have hundreds of helpers, we pulled it off.

I have now been informed that the Shoreham 10km Trail Race has been voted to be one of the top 50 10km races in Great Britain for 2014.(Runners World)

I am chuffed to bits.

New Web Address

To My Dear Readers,

 Firstly, can I thank all of you that have visited and supported this blog over the years and hopefully enjoyed my ramblings, 2015 will be a great year for all of us and I have many adventures planned for you to enjoy.

For many moons my blog has had the cumbersome web address of:

www.ultramagicforest.blogspot.com

which, for some of you, has been a bit of a pain to type in, so from now onwards you will be able to type in:

www.magicforest.co.uk

 The new link used to be my old website that was originally set up for fun in the early days of the internet but I found it was not easy to update on a timely basis due to my busy personal and sport life. It slowly morphed into a running site over a number of years but I have found you, the reader, came to my blog as a preference.

Nothing will change on my blog, just that it now has two links which will take you to here, so if you have save the link in your bookmarks or favourites you have nothing to do.

Monkeys and Meteors

Actual picture of a meteor
using my cam

Saturday once again saw Duncan and his son Ché, our honorary member  for the Night Run go out in search meteors in the sky. The meteors were to appear from the constellation of Gemini and are aptly called the Geminids  and were to appear in the night sky between 7.00pm and throughout the night peaking at 2.00am.

Turning up at Duncan's at 7.40 pm I was met by two very excited faces and as usual a vague plan to run "Somewhere dark"

Let's put the clock back 2 hours which saw me at my kitchen table converting my daughter's discarded iPhone 4 into a tripod mounted camera and with the addition of a 69 pence App called Slow Shutter Cam to allow long exposure shots.

 Back to the run with the three of us chatting and planning the best place to go and chose to go to the local nature reserve which had enough trees around to block the city lights. Finding a spot in the now frozen grass, my feet now filling the chill, Ché and I set up the iPhone using the compass for direction and looking to the sky at about 23 degrees ( I had written on a bit of paper) stood back to watch the night sky.

Ever so often one of us would point at the sky and scream "Woooah there's one" then in unison when a large one went over...magical stuff.

Soon Duncan and I were heard to grumble that our feet were actually hurting which is not unbelievable when there is about 2 mm of rubber between you and a -2 C frosted ground to run a different route via the main paths. I felt as though I wanted to stay longer but I think we had seen enough returning via a path next to the local cemetery and the bent fence of a once disputed boundary line and the gushing of an underground river yet to be explored.

Not a long run but a really fun run with geekiness, laughing and fun...good times/   

Mojitos or Monkey Feet

"Ice is for Mojitos not Monkey Feet" the Delightful Mrs S was heard to say almost apoplectic with rage when I simply asked for her to pass 5 cubes to me so I could ice my heel.

Tonight I went to the track to test out my heel wearing my faithful Monkey Feet, possibly counter-intuitive my thinking was that if I wore them I was less likely to heel strike, but also on the other hand stretch the Achilles tendon a bit. With these two thoughts in my head I had all the intention of running very slowly in Recovery Mode and just see how it went and to drop out if necessary.

I was even seen joining in with the speed trainers for a warm up session to stretch myself and warm for my run.

Very pleased to report that it went well, no pain to report around the heel area so I have put on my trusty stretch bandage and placed a bag containing the above 5 cubes in it around the heel and Achilles to stop any swelling.

Feeling very pleased as I will now be able to join in a few Christmas related runs over the coming weeks.

Back to the track

image c/o Trailscape

Posts have been minimal in recent weeks with me suffering from a heel injury which I cannot pinpoint but it is around the side below the ankle one moment and then the Achilles so I have been resting it.

My training plans have been adapted a little to accommodate the lack of running and hope to get a run in at the track this Thursday evening to see how it is. Plans are afoot and I am pleased to announce that I will be doing some more volunteering in January 2015 for a new (to me?) race team called Trailscape who have a great tag line "Run it, Love it, live it". There RD, Hannah, put out a call for helpers on the Trail Running Association Facebook page last evening looking for them to check the 10km, half and full marathon routes 2 hours before the races started and I was quick to volunteer for the marathon check which was accepted by Hannah. I love to see so many people wanting to volunteer their services and I hope to run route with my ultrarunning buddy Fiona who is always a good laugh.

So already I have a marathon to run within the first 10 days of 2015, just what the doctor ordered. All I need now is my heel to get better.