January ultra-marathons

Snowy Caledonian Canal Run, 27.2 miles, solo run, 09.01.2025

I was wanting to do a long run, but there was deep snow, so, still not being confident up on the trails on my own in such Scottishly winter weather, I thought the Caledonian Canal would be my best bet. It was a beautiful run, but much harder work than I expected. Looking back, I'm not sure what I did expect, but anyway, I found it hard - one step forward, sink, slip backwards, tense up etc. Very good workout though. Started in the dark (it's always dark here at the moment), and had a few miles crunching through the snow with my headtorch beam bouncing off the whiteness and sparkling off the ice crystals.

Then, the sunrise and a perfect winter scene was revealed all around! Lovely. A man even skiied past on the towpath! Exciting. 

No sightings of Nessie, but then it was probably a bit chilly and she found it un-nessie-sary to be out in such weather. I think it was -8oC, but actually it didn't feel too cold wrapped up and moving. My shoelaces froze!

Ninja Run, 29.5 miles, with Phoenix Running 18.01.2024

Reunited with Sarah! I think we did 5 laps together, but I'm not sure as there was so much to talk about and catch up on, I wasn't paying much attention to the running. Then Sarah completed her marathon and started marshaling, and I carried on for some more chatathon laps with Gavin.

Brilliant to see lots of friends, as it always is, but it is especially so when you haven't seen them in a while.

It started off quite chilly (the pink shrimps, my gauge of temperature, were hard), and then seemed to get colder as the time went on, but how can you feel cold surrounded by so much love and wonderful people! It was also a good excuse to go to the pub afterwards, just in case any cold had crept in, and warm up.

Celebrated Nigel's birthday and Alan's 100th marathon.

Thanks Rik and Team Phoenix for a most excellent event....and to Gavin for the lift to Leatherhead after!

Winter Tanners, 30 miles, with Surrey LDWA, 19.01.2024
After continuing in the chatathon-ing vein over a three course Travelodge picnic with Alan in Leatherhead the previous evening, it was a quite leisurely start, as the Leatherhead Travelodge is just a 5 minute walk to the Mole Buiness Park which is where the Winter Tanners starts.

The Surrey LDWA put on this event each year, with 20 and 30 mile options, and the route is new each time. It was my 5th time, and I always look forward to it.

This year, the route went over to Tanners Hatch YHA, past Denbies, then east over towards Reigate, before looping back.

Alan and I ran the 30 mile route. It was a lovely route, great fun, saw many many friends, enjoyed some first class checkpoints, and was altogether a very enjoyable day. The only thing that was under par were the bogs. The Winter Tanners, in my experience, can be relied upon to deliver an exceptional mud fest. This year, the mud was very tame indeed! We found this one,  which were able to admire from the edge:

Going up a particularly unpleasant flight of steps, which meandered off upwards in a never ending chain, to the sky and beyond, Alan and I began the "A-Z of steps".  As we'd started at U (unpleasant), we continued with V (viscous), W (woeful), X (x-tra bad), Y (Y !?!?), Z (zillion)..... we went back to A, and started again, incorporating some other popular LDWA route descriptors, and summarised with  "continue unrelentingly diagonally uphill, eventually reaching an indiscriminate track from the left, where turn left, and continue doggedly up steep steps for 7 more paragraphs, until reaching self-clip at top. Return down the steps, and continue with route."

A brilliant day - thank you Surrey LDWA for an, as ever, exceptional event!