Tiaras and Tutus with Phoenix Running, 29.5 miles, 25.03.2023, Sarah's 300th Marathon!

Events are always fun, but the Tiaras and Tutus event was the very best of fun! It was the celebration of Sarah's 300th Marathon, and Rik had designed especially the medal and theme. Spot the shrimp and pretzel!

The event was at Walton on Thames, and in order to do an ultra, I stayed over last night in the Travelodge, so we could start early and be finished in time for celebratory chips and chats in the Weir pub (thank you Sarah for starting early on your big day!) I had a small disaster in the morning, when I realised there were no mugs in the room, and no one around on reception. Running that early without a coffee is not an option that I was willing to consider. McDonalds (round the corner) also wasn't an option, as it didn't open until 06:00. After a little panic, I was struck by a stroke of genius (well, not genius, but at least quite impressive for me at that time of day), and used my hot/cold proof water bottle, to mix it all up, and voila! Morning coffee!

Lifted by my little caffeine boost, I was able to focus on getting my outfit together, and met Sarah. We started off at about 07:30, and did 9 laps on the eastbound route, the one that goes through Sunbury Lock. I like this one, but the towpath was muddy in the extreme - some might even say it was TUTU muddy! And others might say that we may have looked a mess (vest), with tiaras and tutus, but dirty (muddy) legs and feet. 

There were some fabulous outfits out indeed, and the whole day was filled with laughs and chats. Even the incessant rain cleared off after a downpour at the start! The daffodils were in full bloom, the blossom was out, and the pom-pom cherry tree at the lock was a picture. 

In keeping with the medal theme, we fully embraced the Shrimp Strategy (and pretzels) each lap, with a (just over) half way Freddo. Thank you Dom for our extra bonus boxes of shrimps!

Afterwards, it was chips time with friends in the Weir, and also celebratory chocolate torte time (thank you, Sarah!)

Congratulations Sarah! You are so very amazing indeed! 💯💯💯

Well done to all, and thank you Rik and Team Phoenix for a brilliant day! 💜💗💙 (and thank you Rik and Chris - I stole some photos!)

Question: is it acceptable to wear a tiara in day-to-day life? 

10 Ultramarathons in 10 Days, starting on 01.04.2023, for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and in memory of Hannah

My beautiful, brave, and dear friend Hannah, passed away on 09.12.2022 after a long and courageous battle with a rare type of bowel cancer. 

Hannah had lots of her treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, so I am raising money for their charity, in Hannah's memory. I hope it will help in some small way other patients like Hannah, and contribute to research that will one day mean there will be a cure.

10 ultramarathons in 10 days will be my biggest running challenge yet! Each day will be 29.5 miles, over a 5km lap by the River Thames with race company Phoenix Running (so, 9 x 5 km laps each day). I miss Hannah every day, and will keep her in my heart each step on the way.

Day 10 of the challenge will also be my 100th lifetime ultramarathon.

The link to my Justgiving fundraising page is HERE and any donations you can spare are received with so much love and thanks 💕

And here is some information about The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity: 

"The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. We ensure our nurses, doctors and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments, which are used across the UK and around the world. From funding state-of-the-art equipment and groundbreaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, we will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer."

Thank you! Amy xxx

Track Wars Inspire 24 Hours with Phoenix Running, 10.03.2023

A completely bonkers 24 hours, running around and around a 400 m running track with Sarah, at the Track Wars Inspire event, organised by Phoenix Running!

"The Track" is at the Xcel Sports Hub Stadium in Walton on Thames. 

It's quite new, and very nice, and has an even nicer indoor changing area, which is lovely and warm, especially if the temperature outside is freezing.

Did I mention it was freezing? No? Well. It was freezing. 

The weather for the 24 hours included a dizzying range of seasons, which shifted between each other at a sometimes alarming rate. Started off not too cold but rainy. Then it sleeted. Back to rain. The wind picked up, and a giant gust picked the aid station gazebos clean off the floor (even despite them being weighted down with huge weights) and landed them several feet away from where they were meant to be, toppling all the tables over, and the drinks and sweets suddenly found themselves all over the track. Exciting! Fortunately, the pink shrimp sweets and pretzels remained unharmed (integral for the Shrimp Strategy to be employed later). A few hours later, the wind finally died down. The afternoon was OK weather (especially considering the snow other parts of the country have!) and was just cloudy, dull, and chilly, but as night fell, the temperature did a nose dive - down to -4oC it said on the Met Office! A layer of frost covered everything, and the air was bitter!

We started off at 08:00 on Saturday, and started in the anti-clockwise direction. The direction changed every 3 hours, when if you were lucky, Rik would wear a traffic cone on his head and mark the place of turning. Sarah and I also have the "Freddo Rule" whereby we got a chocolate Freddo at each turn around point. There were other 6 hour events starting at 08:00, 14:00 and midnight, so new faces would join every so often, which was really nice (although it is a bit difficult to have fresh legs bounce past you, when your own legs have been going for ages and are screaming at you that you are an absolute idiot to be doing this). Andrew came along at midnight for a marathon (as you do!), which was a great boost. Also fab to see the 2 Richards at midnight too! 

It was my second 24 hour track event, and although they are a little bit mad, and if you think about it too deeply I do find it a bit intimidating, I do really enjoy them. It's like being in a little bubble for 24 hours, surrounded by lots of other people doing the same thing, all in it together. The atmosphere, support, and banter between the participants and organisers is really special, and that's what I like the most about the events. Thank you everyone for being so friendly and fun - I love the running community and my friends here! 

Sarah and I ran together, and I think it was definitely one of the toughest long events we have done. It was just so cold! Did I mention it was freezing? 

But, having not seen each other since Seville, there was a lot to catch up on! So the hours passed really quickly - and luckily we had 24 whole hours, so we managed to get up to date on chat. Also remembered some random topics of conversation from last year - the hurdles family, and cone chat. Less cones on the track this year - and most would come under the "party cone" category (aka, fallen over) following the windy episode. 

We did our annual wildlife audit of the track, which is quite quick to do, as there really isn't much. Other than a lot of squashed worms early in the first morning, which turned into frozen squashed worms in the night time. Two swans flew over early the second morning, which is always a majestic sight. There were a few seagulls, and a blackbird (eating worms). And shrimps. We think we might have seen a UFO. Or it may have been a plane, or stars. It being so cold overnight (did I mention it was freezing?), the sky was beautiful and clear and the moon and stars were twinkling above. Just in time for sunrise, it got cloudy, which obscured the view somewhat, but the colours of the rising sun on the clouds and the shadows was just magical. I think that we both found the night time section "challenging" - it was so cold (freezing even!) and dark and long. I has my usual pre-dawn wobble, where I think that night will never end, I feel sick and dizzy, and so tired, and become overwhelmingly convinced I can't finish (these thoughts happen every time, and so far haven't come true, but I still 100% believe my thoughts in that moment). Then the sun rises, and it all gets better!

The Shrimp Strategy was employed. Pizza arrived at 7pm! Our own snacks got a bit frozen, sitting in our bags on the frozen track. It was quite exciting to think that everything was covered in a layer of sparkling glitter - until you touched it, and realised it was frost. The water in our cups froze, so we converted to having hot squash/water in the night - thanks Gavin! 

Sarah and I ran the joint furthest distance at the event, and covered 112.3 miles (or 452 laps). Girl Power! This is my new PB for distance. Congratulations to Sarah, hereby nicknamed "Princess Consistency" for equalling EXACTLY your previous PB! That is really totally incredible, I bet that no one else has ever done this - the same event, twice, each in totally different conditions, always so many variables in a run of this length - and you hit the same distance right on the head each time! You are amazing, as always, and thank you for being such an incredible and kind friend, and also for putting up with me for an entire 24 hours. I owe you a lot of cocktails. 

Thank you so much Rik and Team Phoenix for a fabulous track event (shout out to Gavin who ran his 150th marathon in the morning, then staying out all night to look after everyone), and Karen and Matt at Timing Monkey. Huge well done to everyone who took part. Everyone is awesome!

I have now defrosted my kit bag, snacks and ginger beer, washed my 5 thousand layers, and am already starting to forget how cold it was. Did I mention though, it was was freezing?

The LDWA Chiltern Kanter, 26 miles (or, 28.3 if I'm navigating) in 6:49, 05.03.2023

The Chiltern Kanter, organised by the Beds, Bucks and Northants group of the LDWA, is map reading event - so instead of a route, you have a list of grid references, to plot on a map to make your own route around them. At each of the grid references (32 on the 26 mile route) there is a question to answer, about something at that location, to show that you have been there. So it's a bit like a giant treasure hunt, but with no treasure (but the treasure is the experience).  

My favourite questions were:

Grid ref 9685 1687 "who donated the gate in 2011?" - The Dunstable Bogtrotters

Grid ref 9411 0756 "sign on wooden fence, what do you have to do?" - Smile!

Grid ref 9232 0958 "what grows on trees?" - Happiness! 

I have done this event before, in 2017, and I really enjoyed it, so was looking forward to going back. My preparation was perhaps a bit substandard - only getting back from holidays last night, I didn't start plotting the route until 8pm, which in hindsight, was a bit last minute. At this point, I realised I had marked up the 2017 route on the map in bright pink highlighter pen, and had left post it notes of all the old grid references all over it as well. I marked up the new route in purple highlighter, but the bright pink was a bit distracting when trying to concentrate on today's route today! If I was technical, or even organised, I would have worked out how to plot the route on the GPS as well, but that is still beyond me.

Drove up with Andrew, to Pitstone Memorial Hall, the start. Due to some logistical misalignments, we didn't quite manage to run with Alan as planned, but it was great to catch up afterwards! 

The route was really nice, through some lovely scenery. Actually, through even more lovely scenery than planned, as I really wasn't on top form today and made some stupid navigational mistakes, but on the plus side, we got an extra 2.3 miles of nice running for free! 

It was really sociable, and saw so many people on the way round. Met my Mum, Dad and Auntie Nicky at CP 1 for a nice catch up! Lovely as well to catch up with Jan and Rob, Rachel, Bryan, Dave and Merrian, Sharky, Jean, and Alan. 

Thanks Andrew for putting up with me for the whole time, and providing emergency jelly beans when I had a wobble, and not being mad when I was looking for the wrong railway bridge on the map and not thinking we were where we actually were for quite some time.

We went past the place of "Cow Roast", which was a name I thought was a bit insensitive to cows, especially with it being around about Sunday lunch time. I looked it up, and it's nothing to do with roast dinners, but is a corruption of "Cow Rest", as it is a hamlet on the route of an old drovers route in to London, with pens and grazing for the cattle to rest. 

I didn't actually see any cows, so they were either all resting or all roasting, but there were llamas and alpacas, which is always a plus. 

Another great event by Beds, Bucks and Northants LDWA! Lovely route, 3 excellent checkpoints, hot meal at the finish, a beautiful certificate, and a warm welcome! 

Chasing Numbers Four Seasons Run, 50km with Saturn Running, 24.02.23

A nice Friday run, by the Thames in Staines, although it wasn't quite Seville, I have to say. 

It was quite sunny to start (which was like Seville), but from about half way, it drizzled and then started raining hard (which was not like Seville at all). And I was missing the Seville crew, Sarah and Andrew.

I was privileged to have a Lovelock Lap for lap 1. Then ran with Dom for a couple more laps, and it was fab to have some catch ups with Kasia, Ellen, and Annabel, and see lots of familiar faces out. 

Apart from the rain, it was decidedly spring like. I spotted yellow and purple crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, and lots of cherry blossoms. So lovely. 

As is traditional on the Staines route, a swan tried to intimidate me, but I was having none of it.

On the subject of birds, I like to find out about the places I run, and whilst reading, I found that Staines was home to All Alone. All Alone was a war pigeon, who was parachuted into France with a spy in 1943. She then flew back to her home in Staines, 400 miles away, in under 24 hours, with the information the spy collected. And for this, All Alone was awarded the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. 

The pigeons on the river today were much less focused, were flapping around all over the place, and two were even having a flight.

I ran 50km in 4.57, finishing just as it stopped raining and went back to being a nice day.

Nice to catch up in the brewery afterwards with hot drinks in proper big mugs (as my lips had gone Smurf Blue).

Well done runners! And thank you Saturn for a fun day! 

The Seville Marathon, 19.02.2023

It was my first time to run this race, and indeed my first time in Seville, and I absolutely loved the place, and the run!

I hadn't realised how short the flight was to get there, only two and a quarter hours. Yet it feels so different to London - the buildings, the plants, the bright colours and patterns, the warm breeze, and the smell of oranges wafting in the air. 

Andrew, Sarah and I hopped over on the early morning flight from Gatwick on Saturday. Once we arrived, we caught the EA bus into town, and found our hotel, the Hotel Don Paco, and checked in. I loved this hotel. I think, in the 60s it would have been state of the art, from the 70s to 80s maybe not quite so, from the 90s to 00s definitely not cool, but now, again, it is bang on the money!  Plus, it had a roof top pool! Thank you Vanessa for the recommendation.

After topping up our energy levels with ice creams from Cafe Square, we headed over to the Expo to collect our numbers, and soak up the pre-race atmosphere, and bumped into Bushy, Caroline and Paul. 

After getting our numbers, we headed back to the hotel, changed, and went on a short recce run to the start of the marathon, by the Parque de la Maria Luisa, to suss it out. The whole run was absolutely beautiful. The gardens and parks were like the very best botanical gardens here in the UK, but in Seville they were all just free to wander around! Seeing oranges growing on trees was magic!

 

 

We had an early dinner at La Mala Brunch underneath the Seta de Sevilla, followed by ice cream #2 and an early night. 

My early night was disturbed by 1) the football, 2) everyone in the rooms around having showers at very strange times of night, 3) a generator, 4) being about 20oC hotter than the UK has been for at least 5 months, 5) feeling nervous!  

Up before the crack of dawn to get ready, and head to the start. There were around 12,000 people running the marathon so, after London, I think it is the biggest marathon I have ever taken part in. I like marathons, and enjoy doing them regularly, but I was so nervous this time, and felt like I had never done one before!

The start and finish were in the same place, so it was straightforward to drop off our bags, and queue for the very scary port-a-loos. If anything can persuade anyone to run a marathon, I would have thought that just one look at a start line port-a-loo would encourage anyone to run as far away from it, and as quickly as possible, as they were able to. That experience thankfully out of the way, we all headed to the start line, which was a bit chaotic, and being on the short side, I found it a bit stressful getting stuck between all the tall blokes shouting and pushing forwards, but soon enough we were off. 

Sarah and I ran around together, and had the best time, "Vamos!"-ing and "Chicas!"-ing! It was such a good atmosphere with great support. There were DJs around the whole route, playing classic tunes, and the crowds were really amazing. We high fived a giant cockerel. The route went up the river, over it to do a loop (by the Isla Magica and Agua Magica, which reminded me of Blackpool, and then past the Centro Comercial) and back to cross the river near the start at around 12.5 km in. Then the second loop went up the river again, but this time headed east, and did some loopy bits around more residential areas. The last part was all around the old town, and absolutely stunning! I loved running around the Plaza de Espana - wow!

Sarah and I finished in 3:56 which I am super happy about, although who cares about time, when it was the best of days! 

Andrew, after saying he was dropping out as soon as the pubs opened (due to his injury hampering training) smashed out a 4:35, and crossed the finish line like a rocket on steroids. 

100 Club shouts outs - loved seeing Peter, Bushy, Sam, Gina, Paul and Caroline, and meeting Dave from Wolverhampton. 

Watching the finish line was magical. 

Afterwards, refuelling and sightseeing was in order, and we stayed an extra day to see some more of Seville, seeing the Seta de Sevilla, cathedral, Plaza de Espana, and having a good walk around the parks. I really loved the city, and would love to go back. 

I know that in Spain, Seville and oranges aren't really a thing, but I loved the oranges so much! Just seeing them growing on the trees all along the roads, and in the parks, just casually (like you do if you are an orange tree), was such an unusual thing for me to see, and so magical. Each time I saw a rouge orange laying in the road, even squashed by a car (orange juice?), it felt like a little discovery. Not only had I said "I would really like to see an orange fall from a tree" whilst wandering along with Sarah and Andrew, than we turned a corner, and they were actually harvesting the oranges! An army of men in hi-viz, with special ladders, aprons and buckets, working methodically along the orange trees lining the road, shaking them so the oranges fell to the ground, and collecting them up. 

 

 

 

 

I like very much travelling to do marathons. You get a nice run in, which in itself is a very nice way to see a lot of a place, and then having a couple of days extra to explore is really nice. Plus, being surrounded by your friends, makes it a very lucky thing to be able to do indeed. 

Now to think about what next.....