Hemerodromoi Marathon with Saturn Running, 29.10.2022

The Hemerodromoi Marathon with Saturn Running - to celebrate Richard's 300th Marathon! Huge congratulations Richard!

A beautiful sunny and warm day (even by summer's standards, never mind for October) running down by the River Thames from Runnymead. I may be a bit sunburnt. Imagine that! There are still so many leaves on the trees, and so many are still green. But the autumn colours were looking vibrant in the sunshine. Beautiful!

Bit of an adventure to get there - a bus, a train from Waterloo to Virginia Water (picking up Sarah on the way!) and a rail replacement bus. A very posh bus it was.

We got coffee on the walk to the start, and saw the sun rise.

There is a new path at Runnymead, and the course was changed to make the most of it, so it went further west than before, and less east. I was excited to do a new bit of Thames Path, until I remembered on lap 5 that I had actually done a race on that bit before, and must also have run along it when I did the Thames Path with Andrew in 2014. But things look different in the opposite direction (is my excuse).

A great day for catching up with friends, and lots of chats on the way round. I think I managed to condense moaning about work to about 1/2 a lap (sorry, Sarah), so this left time for more interesting topics (such as Beyoncé and TikTok dances, lampshades, custard and cakes, and beginning our wish list of international marathons), which was important, as our last chat-a-thon was two weeks ago. On lap 6 we both learnt that the other one had felt secretly under prepared for today, due to variously perhaps having a bit too much rum or too much wine in the preceding night or two, and were surprised with ourselves to have made it to the end. Hurrah!

Aid station highlights today included vegan beer bottles, watermelon, the discovery of a giant bottle of pretzels hidden away, and of course, Richard's cake. 

Travel adventure in reverse on the way back, with the addition of a Waitrose picnic on the bench by the bus stop by the road waiting for the rail replacement bus (also a posh bus).

Hemerodromoi means, I think, "daily runners" from Ancient Greece, who were running messengers - taking important messages from one place to the next by covering incredible distances by running. 

Congratulations Richard! Thank you Team Saturn! Well done to everyone 😊

The Day Before George's Birthday Run Marathon with Saturn (14.10.22) and Steampunk Run 2 Marathon with Phoenix (15.10.22)

 

The Day Before George's Birthday Run, Marathon with Saturn Running, Friday 14.10.2022, 04:18

Flump Friday! Sarah and I tested out our legs after the 100 miler 4 days ago, and happily found they were still working. A lovely Friday morning running along the Thames, starting from The Thames Side Brewery in Staines. Beautiful weather, especially for October! 6 laps for a marathon, fuelled mostly by a snack of a giant flump, a pretzel, and a peach heart each lap. Seemed to do the job! Navigated our way around the many swan obstacles (swan-stacles), and saw the polar bear and the unicorn (really, we did). Flag of the day in the "Flag House" was Thailand. The skeletons on the balcony above the Slug and Lettuce now have scarves on, and are joined by a little dog skeleton. Nice cup of mint tea in the Brewery cafe afterwards. Super day, and I love the medal, which is a magnet and a bottle opener! Thank you George and Team Saturn for a great event!

 

Steampunk Run 2, Marathon with Phoenix Running, Saturday 15.10.2022, 04:45

Another run a little further up the Thames. Nice views from the #26 bus to Waterloo. Sarah and I met on the train (front carriage, of course) to Walton on Thames. Surprisingly, I suppose, given that we only caught up yesterday, there was still lots to catch up on!

Starting at the Weir Pub, it was the eastbound 5km route, so 8 laps for a marathon. Quite nippy to begin with, but soon warmed up! Nice and sunny (actually quite dazzling) until the start of the last lap, when it got a bit miserable and started raining. 

Legs were a bit more tired today, but still working, and it was another fun day. Some good Steampunk fancy dress! Today's animal facts: I learnt that rabbits and guinea pigs speak different languages (or do they? and what about accents?), and bees have two stomachs (they must be so tiny!).

Fun catching up in the pub afterwards for the Chip Buffett! Here I learnt many more animal facts, mostly dog related, including getting some idea (actually, more of a vivid idea than I might ideally have wanted) about what happens when a dog eats tights, or knickers. 

Thanks Andreas for the lift to start, Sophie for the lift to the station, Annabel for the Chip Buffett and Sarah for drinks! Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix for a fabulous day!

Vampire 100 miles, with Phoenix Running, 08.10.2022

A brilliant weekend with Phoenix Running at Denbies Wine Estate. Lots of different events going on over the weekend, including the Vampire 100 miles, which I completed with my princess twin, Sarah.

100 x 1 mile loops around the vineyard.

"How can you run the same loop 100 times?? That must be boring!" some people ask. Not at all! Had the best weekend catching up with so many people, it was such good fun. I love this event and it's festival atmosphere! Including all the random 100 mile chat, such as with Dave from Purbeck and Gloria, and a new idea for a new line of nail polish colours "Post Marathon Pedicure" which will include fetching shades called Day 1 (dark red), Days 5-7 (varying shades of purple), and Day 10 (yellow bruise). 

Plus, Denbies is beautiful, and I would be quite happy to live there, ideally in the turret of the main building, which will require me to win the lottery, and therefore require me to start buying lottery tickets. 

The loop is nice to run on, and has lots of nice different sections. We have named them as follows. Princess Avenue (moved up by two vines to usual, due to the grape harvesting happening!), puddles!, slippy stones, grass carpet walking hill, dark and hot downhill, freezing steep downhill, left turn (don't forget), Positivity Pen, and Jeremy Vine vine and the elephants.

Started at 08.00 on Saturday, and it was such a beautiful sunny day, and Sarah and I got to wear our new vests (thanks Kerry for the photos!)

Watched the sun rise over Box Hill, move over the whole sky, and set, and then the moon rise and shine brightly all night. It was a bright, clear, and freezing night.

At midnight we decided to ask what lap we were up to, and found out it was 74, so were down to our last marathon, so we celebrated with a mocktail and a wee stop.

Following our tent envy at the last Denbies event, we made more effort with our tent this time....

Thanks Tara for coming by and bringing baked delights! Thank you Max and Genevieve for being excellent pacers. 

Well done Andrew on your marathon. Loads of epically brilliant dig-deep performances at the event, and huge well done to everyone! Congratulations to Jan on your 100th marathon! 

Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix, and Karen and Mat from Timing Monkey, for a brilliant event and for looking after us wll.

We finished about 06.30 just as the sun was starting to rise.

We ran it in 22:33:12, for 100 miler #18 for Sarah, and #13 for me, and I was happy to get through #13 without anything unlucky happening 😆Thank you Sarah for my fabulous card!

 

Samphire 100 miles, with SVN Running, 24.09.2022

A weekend adventure at Samphire Hoe with Sarah, also with Andrew for the first marathon part, and with lots of friends along the way.

Starting off at 08.00 on Saturday, Sarah and I ran 27 laps of the Hoe, to do 100 miles, in 21 hours and 51 minutes, finishing at dawn on Sunday.

The night before, we stayed in the Folkstone Purple Palace, and Andrew, Sarah, Jon and I fuelled up with dinner (aka the one lentil hot pot/ potato pot with chips). 

The morning dawned quite nicely, and the weather was mostly OK on Saturday, just some squally showers, but they passed over quickly. The Hoe was looking lovely, and the cows and sheep were out in force. We had both a cow and a sheep incident during the run, but our cow herding skills were on top form. Another animal moment of note was meeting Roxy, a 10 week old French bulldog, who was out for her first walk, and looking a little bemused by all the runners, but seemed to enjoy all the extra attention!

The sea wall was very calm, and the waters in channel were only gently sloshing about (or, lapping, which I forgot the word for).

On Andrew's last lap, we did a quiz about King Charles, so as to learn some key facts about our new monarch. 

After Andrew left, we missed his cheesy jokes, and felt like the lonely cheese. Halloumi.

Thank you Jon for letting us use your van as a checkpoint! Very kind. Our nutrition strategy went well, which was to have something every lap, including mini salty baked potatoes, spinach and pine nut falafels, rocky road, cheese and grapes, jaffa cakes and jammy dodgers, pretzels, shrimps, ginger, and Kendal mint cake. We also nailed our hydration, and many pee stops were scheduled (luxury loos in the day, portaloos at night - which were also pretty luxury for portaloos).

The sunset was absolutely mesmerising!

Overnight there were a few hours of nasty windy rain. We decided this came from France, on Cloud Thierry, who we had seen approaching during the evening. Having worked our way through a few different combinations of layers and gloves, we were glad when Cloud Thierry finally departed, and we were left with the most magical clear night of stars overhead (thanks Jon for the photo!). We got our layers right, and it felt nice and cosy overnight. 

On the horizon, the clouds and lights danced around in ever moving shapes, but a constant was the orange glow, which we couldn't quite work out what it was, and so it became known as the Discotheque. And in the darkness in front of the Discotheque, the lights of the ships twinkled away in the channel. 

I enjoyed the route, I've never done 100 miles all in Samphire Hoe before (as the Halloween 100s go up on the cliffs). I've said it before and I'll say it again, Samphire Hoe is so magical....driving down the tunnel, out into the secret world, a great place to escape for a weekend! 

As always, it was the best fun to spend a whole 100 miles with Sarah! Thank you to my princess twin for a fabulous adventure. 

It was beyond brilliant to catch up with so many people over the weekend, and have lots of long overdue catch ups on the way round and afterwards. I'm so proud of everyone who was there, everyone was awesome.

Loved spending time in the hut afterwards, catching up, and with hot sugary mint tea.

Thank you so much to Rachel, Traviss and the SVN Marshal Team especially Karen, Kirsty, Kim and Sophie for a most excellent event! 

This week's running: Ricky Races Marathon (Running Miles, 15.09.22) and Moulin Run (Saturn, 17.09.22)

Ricky Races Marathon (Running Miles, 15.09.22, marathon, 03:55) 

A scheduling mishap, meant for a slightly anxious run with bit of a tight a deadline 😆 My first time running the Running Miles course at Rickmansworth Aquadrome, and I really enjoyed the route, which was 8 laps all around the lakes and through woods. It was a nice smooth surface to run on as well. About half way, there was an incident of being chased by a goose. This was followed by an incident of almost being mown down by a greyhound, who sounded like a herd of elephants bearing down from behind me, such was his speed and drive. He was headed for some geese (hopefully the one who chased me earlier). I commented to his owner that I wished I could run that fast, and she replied "if you could, you'd win all the races!" Well! If only we could all be greyhounds, hey! I spent a few strides seeing if it was possible to match the greyhound's speed. It wasn't. But I imagined myself looking as elegant and composed, and striding out, and was quite getting in to it, but I will admit it was hard work. In a few more strides I came across a small fluffy cockapoo, who was pottering along quite happily, and stopping to look at things every 2 seconds, and I thought, in reality, this is more like my approach. In another few strides, there was a small French bulldog, running around a tree in circles and trying to eat it's ball, and I thought, OK no, let's be honest, THIS is my spirit animal. This little French bulldog and me have really got much more in common than the greyhound and me do.

Anyway, all that thinking took up quite a lot of time, and despite my stress levels and time pressure, I felt pretty good, the time went by really quickly, and finished in a good time for me. I loved the event, the course, and loved seeing everyone (even if my enforced "trial separation" from Sarah wasn't going well 😆), had plenty of Shrimp Technique moments, and it was a great morning. Well done to all runners! Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix (Beryl and Theresa) for a great event!

Moulin Run (Saturn, 17.09.22, marathon, 4:19)

Today was a day to celebrate, as the enforced trial separation with Sarah ended!! We had missed out on three weeks of chat, so there was a great amount to catch up on. 

The run was from the Wokingham Waterside Centre, just outside Reading. Met Sarah at the station and we walked to the start. It was a mass start at 10:00 which was nice, seeing everyone together is really nice, and we had a minute silence for Her Majesty The Queen before setting off.

It was 6 laps for a marathon, of a lovely route along the river and nature reserve, and it was the best fun. Thank you Sarah for a brilliant run! I think we did a good run as well, especially considering Sarah's preparation the day before had included standing up all day and eating 1/3 of a brownie and a bacon sandwich, and mine had included prosecco. 

It was very lovely to see so many people. The weather felt really cold this morning, but turned into really lovely running weather in the sunshine. Some more geese incidents occurred (so many geese have got real attitude problems, I find). 

Thank you George, Charlotte and Team Saturn for a fabulous event! And thank you for my princess cup, I love it so much, and it is so much nicer than the original!

Well done to everyone!

 

The Tiree Ultramarathon, 35 miles, 04.09.2022

A brilliant adventure running around the whole of the island of Tiree!

I've spent lots of time in Scotland, but have never visited a Scottish island, so I was looking forward very much to this event and trip. For a long time actually! Stephen, a friend of Andrew's (and now I am lucky to have as a friend too!), had had the idea, and got the ball rolling almost a year ago.

Friday after work, Andrew and I got a flight from London up to Glasgow, where Stephen kindly put us up for the night, and cooked a delicious homemade seafood paella to get carb loading underway. Thank you Stephen for everything this weekend!

Saturday morning, the three of us headed back to Glasgow airport, to catch a flight with Logan Air over to Tiree. It's about a 50 minute flight, on a very tiny plane (only 14 seats on board!). 

Sat at the gate, there was an announcement that the plane was overweight, and so the airline had to take off two passengers who were booked on the flight. They were two guys who were meant to be running, so altogether it was all a pretty rubbish situation, and I felt so sad for them.

The weather was not great for Saturday or Sunday morning....

So the flight out was pretty bumpy, and I have never been so happy to be back on solid ground, even if the solid ground was mostly covered in water. It was pretty exciting though, and there were some great views.

We caught Angus's Dial-a-bus to the Tiree Lodge Hotel, which is in Gott Bay, and where registration, and the start and finish of the event was, so it was a pretty handy place to stay!

After checking in, we went for rainy run along the beach and in to Scarinish, where the Co-Op was, to get some supplies. On the way back, after visiting Gott Bay Pier, it started to rain even more, and one of the other runners driving past in his campervan with his partner and dog stopped and gave us all a lift the last couple of miles back, which was super kind, thank you!

Picked up our numbers, goody bags and maps at registration. 

Then for an early dinner at the hotel, to complete our carb loading with some Cullen Skink and lasagne. 

The race started at 08.00, on the beach outside the hotel, so it was definitely the shortest journey to race I have ever done! The weather was looking somewhat mixed for the run....

...but our spirits weren't dampened! There was a piper at the start, which always makes for a stiring atmosphere. Met up with Stephen, who has been injured, so was part of the event team and marshaling at Checkpoint 2, and who was about to head off over there.

The route was a whole lap of the island, anticlockwise this year.

It was a run of two halves weather wise! The first half was rainy and windy. I didn't take many photos, as my phone was wrapped up and waterproofed. Then, about half way there was a magical moment where the wind finally blew the rain away, and the sky changed to a bright blue with the sun high above, so I got some new tan lines to add to my summer running look.

It was the most beautiful run, and I absolutely loved it. We ran along 14 beaches, along trails, through bogs, over some hills, and along small roads. It was varied, and a lot of fun! 

The different terrains made for quite a hard run, but it was brilliant. I only had one moment in "Happy Valley" near Hynish, where I had a small tantrum as my GPX route failed me and I for some reason kept missing the marker signs, so kept heading off up extra hills and bogs. I was very frustrated with myself, and kicked a tuft of bog in my mini tantrum, which turned out not to be a bog tuft, but actually quite solid. Now with a sore foot to distract me from my woes, it occurred occurred me that I might be hungry, so I had some crystallised ginger and a salt tablet, and perked up a bit, and got back on track.

Soon I got to checkpoint 3 where the lovely marshals gave me some jaffa cakes and I filled up my water. The last 9 miles were all along beaches or roads, so were easier to run on. Big thanks to the lady on the beach about 7 miles from the end who gave us orange segments and told us "there are no more of those stupid bogs and hills!", which was exactly what I was hoping to hear!

The last part along Gott Bay to the finish, seeing the finish line get closer and hearing the piper (who was piping everyone over the line) get louder was just magic!

I'd been really nervous beforehand, that I wouldn't be able to do it, so I was so happy to finish in 6.08 and come 7th in the ladies. It was a tough course, and big well done to everyone who gave it a go! And thanks to Will and Tiree Fitness and all the amazing marshals (especially Stephen!!) 

Veggie haggis pizza at the Tiree Lodge bar afterwards followed by the Cèilidh (and stargazing) at the Scarinish Hotel was a great way to spend the rest of the day!

I loved the whole weekend, which had a real festival atmosphere to it, and everyone was so friendly.  I would 110% recommend it, and hope to be back soon!