Founders Challenge 34 miles, 29.06.2020

This run was in memory of Jon Ward, an incredible runner and fantastic guy, who passed away last week. He was unbelievably good at all distances from 5km to over 200 miles, but no matter how fast he was going, he always had smiles and thumbs up for everyone on the way around, no matter your speed. He was so encouraging to others, whilst always chasing down a new challenge himself, and raising vast sums for charities along the way. Such an inspiration, and such a genuine heart. I can't believe he's gone. Fly high with the stars Jon, you are already sorely missed 💙💙💙

The run was 34 miles with Andrew and Tara, from Denbies up to Ranmore, then the route of the LDWA Founders 30, back to Ranmore and then Denbies. Longest run of lockdown 👍 To celebrate 6 weeks of weekend 30s, we had agreed to mark the occasion by making an effort for the day with manicures, pedicures and cake baking for afterwards. Ta da!

The run was very lovely, hilly and quite hard and included two more fallings over (a new PB - 4 face plants in a month). But it was mostly just very lovely...

To while away some miles, and to work our mental muscles as well as our legs, we played an A-Z of Andrew's List of Snacks, and "In my luxury kit bag for the Scottish 100 I would have...." both turned out to be extensive lists, and although were perfectly logical at the time, make absolutely no sense now. Running 34 miles genuinely passes by in a blur when with your pals and cracking each other up. It seemed ever more poignant today, how lucky we all are to have each other.

And another thing we are lucky to have? Cake x 2. I realise, now, looking at this picture, that it might appear to be slightly offensive to Tara that I have placed a photo of her Guinness cake next to a cow pat, for comparison. I would like, in my defence, to point out that the whole way around the run Tara herself had been pointing to cow pats and promising that this is what we were in for later, and, that if you want to see what a Guinness cake really looks like, you should look at a cow pat in winter with ice on it, and you'll get the picture. Anyway, the Guinness cake was delicious, and tasted so much better than a cow pat. I can confirm this, as aged about 2 or 3 I fell over and landed face first in a cow pat. Anyway, mooving on, herd enough of this, what a load of bull, etc, etc, and that's enough of the cow jokes for another week.....

Adventures!

Life is certainly different right now, but on the plus side, Saturdays are now better than ever before, because for the last five weeks, Saturday has become "escape from London and run an ultra day". Which isn't too dissimilar from normal, but is much more appreciated than it used to be, for sure. Some photos from the last two weekends...

20.06.2020 - 31.5 miles, Milton Keynes

First trip north of London since lockdown! Great to see Alan and Tom after months and months! No Krav, obviously, but a long run results in a similar effect on the body as getting beaten up in Krav, so easy to imagine. Thanks Alan for planning the route, which looped north from MK through the countryside up to Salcey Forest, tantalisingly close to the tea shop, but then took a big loop around, before finally coming back to the tea shop, and then winding it's way back to MK.

Luckily, everyone got the memo about wearing blue....

 So we were all set for running off through the meadows,

It was reassuring to see that even the sheep seem to be struggling to manage to keep their hair looking decent during lockdown...

Flowers don't have such problems,

Spot the footpath?

Ta da!

Hanslope church spire can be seen from most points of this run, so essentially it had felt like we'd been running around it all day, so what better place to pause for for an ice cream stop, than in the shadow of it's spire?

In Castlethorpe we lost our way, but were saved....

And made it back to MK, where we were joined by a delivery robot (they have them in MK, and they deliver takeaways!)

 We didn't need no takeaway though, we had picnic!

13.06.2020 - 30 miles, Surrey Hills
Time for another round of the Winter Tanners with Tara. This run was fab.

Quite long and hilly. So played the "In my bag on the Wales 100 I would have..." game to while away a few miles. Made more sense at the time, and no sense at all now, but for the record, we chose to take (in order) a defibrillator, a marble, a bottle of whiskey, a snorkel, a tea bag, a leak, a body bag, one alcohol hand wipe, and Tom Jones. 

Then we made it to a golf course, which called for another game to get us through. Of course it did. Even with the best of drives, and nerves of iron, golf courses are tedious. Wait. I think I saw a birdie, is it an eagle? Or a turkey? Better keep our eyes open, or we'll end up in the bunker. Feeling a bit green, a bit below par? Join the club! Could do with a nice cup of tee, that would swing things back around, and feel like a pro again. That was a tedious link, better put this game to bed.

Ahem.

Back to Denbies to dry our socks and eat cake.

Lockdown running - weeks 10 & 11

Week 10: included 71 miles, falling over and getting an injured knee, and a loop of the LDWA Winter Tanners 30 mile route in Surrey. All that was really worth a photo (or a few) was the Winter Tanners day, a beautiful sunny day in the countryside.

It is so beautiful there, that it's easy to loose your head over....

...as even the rubbish dumps have flowers...

...a luxury checkpoint at the top of St Martha's hill, had views, a water tap AND a bench long enough to have a socially distanced checkpoint...

...then it was on along the North Downs Way for a while....

.....and then some beautiful running on sandy paths through pine trees...

....the flowers were in fine bloom all along the route....

...and a checkpoint in the Field of Dreams had great views both up and along...

...as it was such a nice day, there was opportunity for plenty of sunny spots to have a break (really, we did do some running), and the final rest was by a babbling brook in Leatherhead, where we were joined by a small dog named Stanley...

...then it was back to the finish at Denbies, to have a picnic....

Following a graceful fall over a tree root in Victoria Park earlier in the week, 6 miles the next day, then 30 miles the day after, and 5 miles the day after that, didn't seem to do my knee much good. It swelled up and turned a fetching dark purple colour. It was kneerly a disaster, but following a week of gentle running and walking, the swelling and pain is going down. 

Week 11: involved 55.5 miles, including the Founders Challenge 30 mile route, in Surrey, with Tara and Andrew. What a difference a week makes! This week was balls, so when life gives you balls, make chocolate orange ones, as the saying goes, or something like that.

I'm not sure why, but I've felt all out of sorts the last couple of days. At the risk of sounding loopy, I feel as though I have shifted into a parallel universe. Yes. On Friday, doing my knee rehab walk, I felt suddenly a bit vague, and then when I refocused, things looked a bit different and I felt like I was somewhere else. It's probably the weather, like the atmospheric pressure has changed or some such thing. Or maybe it's the new normal. Anyway, everyone I know is also in the parallel universe, and so is Covid, so it's not that different. 

It was very good to escape away to Surrey again (which is also in the parallel universe), for the third 30 miler in three weeks. Trying to get my endurance back up. For this weeks route we did the LDWA 26 mile Founders Challenge, plus 2 miles there and back to the start at Denbies (thank you Tara for figuring out the directions and planning!). It had a lot more climbing than the other route (4200 ft) and was a tough workout - there was no way I could have done that the first week, so I guess that shows some progress!

The weather wasn't a patch compared to last week, and it rained and was grey for most of it, but at least we escaped the torrential rain and thunderstorms that happened on the way home!

Another very beautiful route, along peaceful tracks and pretty villages, taking in such LDWA landmarks as the Old Post Office at Peaslake, Blatchford Down and Tanners Hatch YHA, and plenty of other delights....

...even a Roman Temple..

...check points weren't taken in quite such a leisurely manner as last week, what with the rain and all. "It's a lovely day for ducks" I think the saying goes...

...I thought we were saved at the sight of this, but devastatingly, the route only went past it, not into...

...still, it was extra incentive to make it back to the end, at Denbies...

...and time for a picnic in the pouring rain, watched over by the cows. I was going to ask them about my knee injury, but they said they only specialise in calves.