SVN AIME Day 7 (50km, 25.08.2023) and Phoenix Prosecco Run (marathon, 27.08.2023)

Adventures in Middle Earth Day 7, SVN, 50km, 25.08.2023

50km Friday! Another adventure to the Cyclopark (Middle Earth) with Sarah, to join in the TiTs on their day 7/10. Lightening Bolt route today, so 9 and a bit laps to do 50km.

The weather was nice for running in. Bright and sunny but with some clouds (like in The Simpsons) and it was cooler than last weekend. This route has lots of different sections, and is super easy to break up into little bits, so I quite like it. Always new things to see on each lap when you look....even new sunflowers had grown by the end! 

The aid station was extra especially brilliant, and I think I must have eaten the equivalent of a whole fruit salad during the run!

Nice to catch up with many friends, and see our fabulous spirit runners. The theme of the day was barbie/princesses, so there were many tutus and tiaras, and much fabulousness, out on course. Thank you, James, for my amazing princess cake!!

Well done to the epic TiTs, as you complete your journey into Middle Earth! And to Rachel, on marathon #200!

Thank you Tills, Rachel and SVN Team for a great day.

The Prosecco Run, Phoenix Running, marathon, 27.08.2023

The trains put a bit of a spanner in the works....but via a bus to Waterloo, a walk over the bridge...

....a train to Surbiton, meeting Sarah, and catching a bus to Denbies, we made it to the start in time!

Had an absolute blast running 8 laps around the beautiful vineyard, chatting, laughing, and having a Moet lap on lap 5 (hic). I now will refuse to complete any marathon without it involving a glass of champagne. 

Another epic aid station, with prosecco and gin!

Denbies is so pretty, against any background; which today was bright blue sky, then fluffy Simpsons clouds, then thunder clouds. Good to see the grapes looking big and juicy, the elephant vines waving their trunks, and scissor-hands tree with a nice looking hair cut. I love the 3.2 mile loop - it's super hilly, has amazing views, and it's just lovely running all through the vines. 

Being immersed in beautiful scenery and with amazing friends, it was a brilliant Sunday indeed. Congratulations to Ingrid on marathon #200 and Ann who did marathon #75 to celebrate her 75th birthday! Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix!

Plus a journey back to Surbiton on the world's most random bus! Thanks Sarah for more chat-athon-ing! 

Triple Marathon Weekend 18 - 20.08.2023

Phoenix Fridays - Fabulous Fridays, marathon, 18.08.2023

5am....that Friday feeling! Up, coffee, shower etc. Walk to bus - the weather is so misty, you can't see the tops of the skyscrapers in the city. The bus sets off into the mist, towards Waterloo. Hop on the train, front carriage of course. Meet Sarah! Get off at Walton-on-Thames and bump into Vanessa and Eddie, thank you for the lift to the start! As we start running, the sky starts raining. Raining, raining, raining! Very wet and humid, like a rainforest. Love it! Totally soaked by lap two. Nice to run along, catching up, and decompressing from the week. Much to chat about! Geese and ducks are doing yoga (g-oga and d-oga) very well, great balance. Several geese have abandoned the river, to take up personal puddles, and float around in the middle of the towpath. The rain stops at about lap 7, and everything starts steaming. 

Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix for a fabulous Friday!

Off to the pub to the "tea and carbs table" afterwards, and to attempt to dry off. Walk back to station with Annabel and Sarah, and arrive 3 mins before a train...and the train is running!! Back to London, and I abandon my attempt to collect my last Morph on the Morph Art Trail due to feelings of hunger. So back to home, and address these feelings with pasta. I have also been craving peppermint slice since rediscovering it in Scotland, but you can't buy it here, so decide the only thing is to make it - so begin and complete steps 2 out of 3.

SVN Adventures in Middle Earth series - Hobbiton, marathon, 19.08.2023

An adventure to Gravesend! On the walk to King's Cross, the early morning along the canal is nice and peaceful, save for two moorhens who are having a big fight (in the canal, a chase down the towpath, and in the canal again). Arrive to King's Cross, where it is less peaceful. Meet Sarah and catch the high-speed train to Gravesend. Bump into Bushy at the station and walk (along the Road Of Doom) to the start together. Haven't been to SVN in a while - it was great to be back and to see so many people there! Today was Valérie's 100th marathon, so there were many people there to celebrate - congratulations Valérie! Also, it was the start of the Middle Earth 10 in 10 series today.

The day was spent catching up, laughing and smiling, and running, and was the best of fun all around the 8 laps of the lightening bolt route. 

Also did Park Run as part of the marathon (as the first lap). By some miracle I found my Park run barcode last night. I have not done a Park Run in a long time, and I was pleased to 1) find my barcode, 2) discover it still works, and 3) to learn this was my 17th ever Park Run.

Spent lots of miles with James, Sarah's second favourite Northerner. James, you may take the cotton wool out of your ears now, and don't forget to check your shoe laces. 

Fell over again, on the same knee that has, just about two days ago, completed healing up from the last time I fell over onto it. Plus sides, 1) discovering that being face down in the bushes doesn't interrupt chatting, 2) I didn't land in dog poo, and 3) I can now start on using all the first aid things I've just re-bought, to replace all the ones I've been using up over the last three weeks.  

I love The Hobbit. It was one of the books that I read at primary school. I went to see an evening open air performance of it, in the Williamson Park in Lancaster, with my Dad and my sister during the term that we were reading it at school. It was wonderful, and one of my favourite memories! Each scene was in a different part of the park, so you walked around following the story, as it got dark. My favourite scene was Smaug's lair - but instead of being fearsome and yellowy-brown with fangs and devil eyes, Smaug was made of lots of iridescent blue and green foil, which was lit up, and I remember him being magical rather than scary. 

 

Having twice attempted to read the Lord of the Rings, and having twice to abandon my quest, due to just getting too confused, my progress into the rest of Middle Earth is somewhat hindered, but I love all the medals for the series!

I felt better on the way home today, so detoured around Paddington to collect the missing Morph.

And later on competed stage 3 of 3 of the peppermint slice.

SVN Adventures in Middle Earth series - Rivendell, marathon, 20.08.2023

The first train out of London didn't leave until 8:20, and rather than spend about £100 a room in the Gravesend Travelodge the night before, Sarah and I decided it would just be better to be a few minutes late starting the race. We arrived at Gravesend station at 8:43 and ran the couple of miles over to the Cyclopark. 

The route was 5 laps of 5 and a bit miles each, up and down the 177 bike route. One way was up, the other way was down. There was no shade, and it was by all accounts, HOT!

In order to make the time in the baking sun more bearable, Sarah and I imagined that we were on the way to the beach (you know, that long road leading to the beach on holiday, where everyone is walking up and down with towels, and cool bags). We never actually found the beach, despite going up and down the road five times, but we could hear the waves in the sea (AKA, the sound of the traffic on the A2). We spotted two upturned trollies (us - trollied on the beach). Tiny patches of shade became extremely exciting (warranting a dive across the whole path to reach it), as did the odd cloud drifting over the sun. We also went over the "un-bridge" (AKA the Cyclopark version of the Blue Bridge). Which lead to other "un" words that could apply to this lap. For example, unforgiving, unrelenting, etc etc. Spent a lap comparing scars. As you can see, the heat was getting to us, and our random chat became even more random than usual. 

Another brilliant day catching up with so many people, and having so many hugs! Thanks Tills and Rachel and Team SVN for a brilliant couple of days. Good luck to all the TiTs, and see you Friday! Thank you Sarah for a brilliant running mini-break!

A Scottish Adventure Run

Based on a route we learnt 3 years ago during a trip with Alan (thanks Alan!), Andrew and I set off at 7 am from our lodge at Coylumbridge on an adventure into the mountains.

The first 5 miles were easy running along nice bike tracks to Loch Morlich, and we arrived there by 8 am. 

From here, we headed over well kept trails through Glenmore and past Loch Uaine (the green loch) so called due to it's green waters, which depending on which explanation you read, is caused by algae, the colour of the reflection of the trees on the banks, or from pixies washing their clothes in the waters.

From here, we headed towards the Strath Nethy valley, once reaching here, turning off the good trails onto more bog infested terrain. Then, it was a few miles uphill through the valley, bog hopping and rock jumping all the way to the top (via a fall and banging my face on a rock, oops). Last time we did this, it was misty the whole way up so we didn't see much, this time was much different! 

At the top, spectacular views over Loch Avon, a view always to lift the spirits! 

We dropped down to the loch, and ran the trail around the edge, stopping at some beaches along the way.

Then passing the Shelter Stone.

From here, we had a choice to make as to the next part of the route. Last time we had taken a steep and terrifying almost vertical route of scrambling, up on to Cairn Gorm mountain, which I still have not completely stopped shaking from. This time we followed a route up the side of a waterfall, which although very steep and scrambly for a few hundred meters, felt much less perilous, and I enjoyed it much more.

Once at the top, it was good trails up to the summit of Cairn Gorm.

Then down trails to the ski centre, before taking a tiny path down a valley into the Glenmore Nature Reserve, following a river through magical pine forests carpeted with purple heather and ferns. 

At the end of this trail, we veered off through the forest to the beach on Loch Morlich, before heading back along the 5 miles of bike trail back to Coylumbridge.

29 miles and 4100 feet of ascent. A fantastic adventure! 

Followed by refuelling with ice-cream sandwiches (thanks Donald and Freya!) and random dinosaur encounters 😆

The Bannister Series, Track Marathon, with Rasselbock Running, 05.08.2023

An adventure to Oxford! To run a marathon on the Iffley Road Athletics Track, where the legendary Sir Roger Bannister was the first person to run a sub 4 minute mile, on the 6th May 1954 (where he ran 3:59:40 minutes). It was such a privilege to run there, on the same track where history was made, following (albeit, at a slightly less record breaking pace) in the great man's footsteps. I was very excited to go there, and to be learning more about the history of this iconic time in sport!

I went up to Oxford on Friday afternoon with Andrew (on the National Express - £36 for two people, return, and no strikes!!). After a quick explore of the city, we fueled up with pizza at Mario's, and retired to the Travelodge, for an early night. 

 

The weather forecast was "slightly less than ideal", but things didn't look too bad first thing. We walked over to the track, as the gentle rain got heavier. And heavier. 

The event was organised by Rasselbock Running, and timed by Matt from Timing Monkey. It was my first event with Rasselbock, and it was well organised, friendly, and a very good atmosphere. It was great to see Richard there (and thank you for the idea in the first place!).

After sheltering out of the rain in the stands, and absorbing some history....

....it was time to brave the track and absorb some rain during the race briefing, and at 9am we were off. At approximately 09:01 the rain began to take itself very seriously, and for the rest of the morning weather was more like Armageddon (aka, Storm Antoni) than August.

This was my third different track to run around. It's funny, really, you'd think all athletics tracks, being as they are to be approved to be exactly the same as each other, would be pretty much the same to run around as the next one. But they have, so far, all felt very unique! Iffley Road has a lot to look at all around; the road above, St John the Evangelist Church ahead as you run down the back straight, tennis courts, several different sports buildings, outdoors gyms/ warm up areas, and all the giant photos and signs of records that have been broken there. Not that you could really see much of this through the torrential rain, which seemed to manage to become at points even more torrential, even though it had been already incessantly torrential for hours.....

Did I mention the weather already?? And that the rain was torrential?

I had my heart set on running under 4 hours, given the history of "4" at this location. I was going well and enjoying it, but mentally when my watch distance and my laps were getting less aligned, and I was getting further behind on my counted laps but my pace was still seeming OK, I got frustrated with it all, and annoyed with myself for not being able to do what I had set out to do. I was disappointed not to run under 4 hours (did 4.01) but sometimes, things just don't work out as you hope them too. Hey ho. It was still good fun!

Congratulations to all runners, especially Andrew and Richard - what an awesome event! Thank you Rasselbock Running and Timing Monkey....I should definitely like to try more Rasselbock events in the future!