I actually forgot this but before Endure 24 I had entered the Spine race and work was busy so thought I would make the most of the running downtime by working a lot of hours to be able to buy the kit for the spine and T184 which was my next race.
Well it sort of backfired on me and I ended up in hospital for a day .Had really bad chest pains after getting home from work at gone midnight, the mrs thought I was having a heart attack but I just thought had pulled some muscles so said I would see how I was in the morning. Well I just paced the bloody house all night in agony then woke her to tell her I thought I should go to hospital. Once in A&E I was rushed straight in to a ward where I was hooked up to everything , by now the pain was really bad so it was morphine time and more tests then more morphine. After being there all day the doc told me I had Pericarditus (inflammation of the heart lining) which I think is no big thing , just had to take tablets for a month. So gets home pain returns after morphine has worn off another night with no sleep. 8am in the morning the hospital calls and tells me to come straight back down, something to do with my chest x-ray. Turns out I had a massive chest infection which must have caused the pericarditis, so that was that 2 friggin weeks off work .That is why I wasn,t supposed to be running the endure race .
A few weeks after Kate suggested a training run along the 87 mile Ridgeway in preparation for the T184 and as I felt ok said yes. So I picked her and Avo (her collie) up and headed up to Nichola Newton,s house at Calne where she kindly offered to let me park and drop us off at the start. So Friday night we headed off along the Ridgeway and after having done the race a couple of times although in the opposite direction was quite confident with the navigation (oh how wrong was I).
Within minutes of running up the first hill I knew I was not fully recovered from the chest infection and was feeling tight chested and dizzy, we stopped at the top and Kate asked if I was ok just to walk , I said yes so she suggested we turn it into a walking adventure as we had our bags kitted out for the T184 race . We walked until about 2am and were a little lost so decided to pitch up for the night before the rain got heavier and were lucky we did as it poured down for the rest of the night. We set off again in the morning and the weather was so much better. We found the trail again and soon found a garage where we could stock up with food and drink Avo decided to go behind the counter where they were cooking food ,the staff were not amused but me and Kate thought it was so funny.
we crossed a main road and I thought we should go straight on but I let Kate talk me into turning right , and yes we went the wrong way. We walked for ages before we spotted some people coming the other way and asked if we were still on the Ridgeway ,which we were, but we were going the wrong way as in heading back to the start !!!!!!!! So back on track and walking the right way we eventually got to streatly where we were just to shattered to pitch up again so got a B&B for the night ha ha . In the morning we caught the wrong train to some bloody where and had to go back to some bloody where to get to some bloody where else . But we made it and the lovely Nichola Newton picked us up and returned us safe and sound back to her house and a lovely coffee and a laugh at just how inept we are at navigation. Although it wasn't the run we planned it was a good fun weekend on my part ,I think and hope Kate enjoyed it .
Thursday 23 October 2014
Monday 20 October 2014
Got to blog more !!
Right it is 13/10/14. I need to blog more.
Have been off running since the end of August due to the Achilles problem but more about that later.
Race wise this year has been difficult to say the least .
First run of the year was a 50k social run in the Cotwolds with some good friends from the ultra running community which was the first ever social run and bloody good fun to, me and Rich Cranswick were dressed as Musketeers , although there was only two of us we were joined at the turn a round by Nici Griffin who had set up an aid station for us all . And so The 3 Musketeers returned, well nearly, we quit a few miles short of the finish at a garage witch sold Costa Coffee (lovely Jubbly).
The Green Man Ultra was supposed to be 45miles around the outskirts Bristol but for me it ended up 49 and a half miles, as usual I took the scenic route (well that's my bloody excuse and I am sticking to it). will definitely do this again.
Next up was a training run with Rich Cranswick along the Kennet & Avon Canal , it was going to be a 100 mile run but turned out to be about 87 miles . Really good fun as ever with Rich.
Centurion Running Thames Path 100 in May was the next race and although my Achilles was ok I kept getting strange spasms in the muscle by the knee, which forced me to keep stopping to massage it away . This seemed to go on throughout the race. When I arrived at the 85 mile aid station I was in quite a dark place and really didn't think I could carry on . Luckily Phil , my bro-in law and trusty crewman was there as was Rich Cranswick .After a quick chat about how far was left Phil and Rich persuaded me to carry on . The following checkpoint I was so sick but with only 7 miles or so to go I had no choice but to carry on . Finished in about 25 hours I think . That was a tough race for me compared to last years quagmire. Still another finish though. James Elsons Centurion events are absolutely fantastic from the organisation to the marshalls to all the aid station volunteers. Centurion races I will do again and again.
The week after I was booked into Hope 24 which was a 24 hour race in a 5 mile loop through the grounds of a lovely park. I was doing this race with a good friend and of course fellow stringer Kate Hayden. I really didn't know how the bloody hell my legs were going to be after the TP 100, but surprisingly they felt great. The route itself was great a few short sharp hills and all off road . We were going along quite nicely but I couldn't resist bombing down the hills each lap and at about 40 miles my shin was so painful and just could not carry on so the race was over for me . Kate carried on with Avo her collie but was feeling quite ill so came back and had a sleep for a couple of hours then got up and carried on to about 80 miles I think which was amazing after the way she was feeling earlier. She slept all the way back and was still throwing up in her front garden when I left. She was ok though later. Another race for the diary loved this one.
Endure 24 was next , another race similar to Hope 24 but with many more runners involved and loads and loads of mud . I was still suffering with Achilles issues and shin splints so was not going to run..... much. I decided to run the first lap and then stop , but met up with Zoe Thornburgh who I did a few laps with and also paced Nici Griffin for a few laps at night to. So I ended up doing 35 miles, which I was not supposed to do any but hey ho didn't make it any worse . Great event but not one I would do again as I don't think there was much consideration for the solo runners from many of the relay runners barging past and I wasn't alone in thinking this.
Ultra 12 was another new race and very good to although I had to pull out early after slipping on a sharp left turn off a bridge and tearing my groin (ouch) that bloody hurt. Would do this again to and its a good race for the newbie to ultra running.
Have been off running since the end of August due to the Achilles problem but more about that later.
Race wise this year has been difficult to say the least .
First run of the year was a 50k social run in the Cotwolds with some good friends from the ultra running community which was the first ever social run and bloody good fun to, me and Rich Cranswick were dressed as Musketeers , although there was only two of us we were joined at the turn a round by Nici Griffin who had set up an aid station for us all . And so The 3 Musketeers returned, well nearly, we quit a few miles short of the finish at a garage witch sold Costa Coffee (lovely Jubbly).
The Green Man Ultra was supposed to be 45miles around the outskirts Bristol but for me it ended up 49 and a half miles, as usual I took the scenic route (well that's my bloody excuse and I am sticking to it). will definitely do this again.
Next up was a training run with Rich Cranswick along the Kennet & Avon Canal , it was going to be a 100 mile run but turned out to be about 87 miles . Really good fun as ever with Rich.
Centurion Running Thames Path 100 in May was the next race and although my Achilles was ok I kept getting strange spasms in the muscle by the knee, which forced me to keep stopping to massage it away . This seemed to go on throughout the race. When I arrived at the 85 mile aid station I was in quite a dark place and really didn't think I could carry on . Luckily Phil , my bro-in law and trusty crewman was there as was Rich Cranswick .After a quick chat about how far was left Phil and Rich persuaded me to carry on . The following checkpoint I was so sick but with only 7 miles or so to go I had no choice but to carry on . Finished in about 25 hours I think . That was a tough race for me compared to last years quagmire. Still another finish though. James Elsons Centurion events are absolutely fantastic from the organisation to the marshalls to all the aid station volunteers. Centurion races I will do again and again.
The week after I was booked into Hope 24 which was a 24 hour race in a 5 mile loop through the grounds of a lovely park. I was doing this race with a good friend and of course fellow stringer Kate Hayden. I really didn't know how the bloody hell my legs were going to be after the TP 100, but surprisingly they felt great. The route itself was great a few short sharp hills and all off road . We were going along quite nicely but I couldn't resist bombing down the hills each lap and at about 40 miles my shin was so painful and just could not carry on so the race was over for me . Kate carried on with Avo her collie but was feeling quite ill so came back and had a sleep for a couple of hours then got up and carried on to about 80 miles I think which was amazing after the way she was feeling earlier. She slept all the way back and was still throwing up in her front garden when I left. She was ok though later. Another race for the diary loved this one.
Endure 24 was next , another race similar to Hope 24 but with many more runners involved and loads and loads of mud . I was still suffering with Achilles issues and shin splints so was not going to run..... much. I decided to run the first lap and then stop , but met up with Zoe Thornburgh who I did a few laps with and also paced Nici Griffin for a few laps at night to. So I ended up doing 35 miles, which I was not supposed to do any but hey ho didn't make it any worse . Great event but not one I would do again as I don't think there was much consideration for the solo runners from many of the relay runners barging past and I wasn't alone in thinking this.
Ultra 12 was another new race and very good to although I had to pull out early after slipping on a sharp left turn off a bridge and tearing my groin (ouch) that bloody hurt. Would do this again to and its a good race for the newbie to ultra running.
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