Phoenix Running double marathon weekend

My next installment of southern sojourns!

Friday: 

A few miles walking around the Penguin Parade (much harder than it looked to find them all, and the map was most definitely not to scale....) Followed by fuelling up with Eastern European tapas with Rebecca and Adrian (including hot potatoes, similar to 100 mile potatoes, Rebecca!) And wine, which from numerous experiments, I conclude probably isn't the best hydration preparation for a marathon, but when in Rome (or the pub).....

Stayed overnight at the blue bunkhouse (Travelodge) in Walton-on-Thames, which I would like to say was relaxing, but wasn't.

Saturday 

After a night of listenting to the tranquil sounds of Wetherspoons at 1am, interspersed with the heating coming on and off, which sounded like the roof was collapsing each time, it was time to leave my luxurious accommodation and do some running.

Starting at 7am, I joined Sarah, who was already blasting through her laps - and did the first two laps in the dark, which was great! I love running in the dark, and in Scotland at the moment it's dark essentially all of the time, so I felt right at home. Another 4 laps of chatathon-ing in the light, then I completed my last two laps on my own, marvelling at how mild it was, how hot it felt, and how light it was. Two people this week already have commented that I seem to have a tan, so either it really was sunburn weather, or I am just so pale since moving to the far north, that any sort of natural light perks me up now. 

Afterwards, there was time for the Dave Purbecks band to reunite, and to spot my favourite robin. He has been hopping around the aid station for at least couple of years. I looked up the lifespan of a Robin, and the average is only 13 months! But this is due to high mortality in the first year, so if a robin gets to its first birthday, it can live for many years, the record is 19! So, I think it's the same one. I also leant that up to 10% of fatalities in the first year can be due to aggression between robins over territories, and so robins aren't born with their red breast, because that is a key tool in defending their territory, they get their red feathers later.

The blue bunkhouse was altogether a more relaxing place to be on Saturday night. I love a good sleep, especially when really tired from a bad sleep and a big run.

Sunday

Another 7am start, this time with the added bonus of glitter (aka rain in the headtorches) and a Christmas tree on the aid station. Hohoho! 

A Christmasy day, not even dampened by the heavy rain that started at about mile 20 and soaked everyone's fine Christmas outfits. I thought the weather was meant to be better down here. Got an advent calendar though, so it was worth it (I'd run anywhere for chocolate).

Lovely catch ups afterwards, and warming up with chips and coffee. 

Followed by refuelling with Turkish food with Sandeep in Wood Green (near my next blue bunkhouse, for work) and more refuelling the next day with Danielle at the Christmas Markets in Leicester Square. I think it's safe to say, refuelling is complete.

Double weekend with Saturn Running

After two weeks of being in Scotland, it was time to head south to a) warm up, b) go to work, and c) disperse the stress created by work with some running.

So Friday and Saturday, I spent two days at Saturn Running, on days 1 and 2 of their Ten in Ten Series - it was fabulous to be back and catch up with many friends.

On Friday, I ran with Sarah, and as it had been three weeks since our last chat-athon, and an eventful three weeks at that, there was a lot of material to cover. So we did an chat-tra (an ultra spent chatting) to make a good indent in the agenda (to be continued; there's always more to chat about). It wasn't too cold, but was quite grey and cloudy, and it was nice running weather. We were powered mostly by giant flumps - making it Flump Friday. The medals for the Ten in Ten are butterfly themed, which was very appropriate, and they are very pretty. Mini ultra completed (27.2 miles).

On Saturday morning, I realised I had brought two left feet of my toe socks rather than a pair, which made getting ready to run an interesting, but not impossible, feet. I ran with Sarah, Gavin and James, which was good fun. Highlights included a good dose of northern abuse/ banter/ motivation from James, being pooed on by a bird 1.5 miles from the end (good luck?), more flumps (is it possible to turn into one?), orange and blackcurant mocktails (sadly, lacking vodka) at the aid station, a dog dressed as dinosaur, and it still being warm enough to run in a vest (albeit with arm warmers, now with bird poo on). Another mini ultra completed. All followed by nice coffee with Gavin and Sean afterwards, and thank you Gavin for the lift to the airport.

Thank you Saturn Running and Team for a really fun couple of days! Well done to all runners, and good luck to those continuing with some/all of the ten! 

The Dava Way 50km, 09.11.2024 with Moray Way Ultras

My first Scottish event as a Scottish resident 😊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The event was run by Moray Way Ultras, and started at Grantown-on-Spey, to then follow along the Dava Way (the route of the old Highland Railway line) to Forres. The railway line is about 24 miles long, so the route had an extra about 10km around Anagach Woods and along the River Spey by Grantown-on-Spey at the start, then another couple of miles around Forres at the end, to make it up to being 32 miles.

It was a leisurely Saturday morning 03.15 am start to drive over to Forres, where there were buses waiting to take everyone over to the start at Grantown-on-Spey. It was still dark, and got colder as we headed along the winding roads towards the Cairngorms and away from the coast.

There was plenty of time once we got to the start and registered, to warm up and wake up with a coffee from the Grumpy Mule coffee van, and have plenty of safety wees, and meet Liz!

At 7.30, everyone went out to the car park, and it was off!

The first few miles were freezing and foggy, and it was beautiful by the River Spey.

It soon started to warm up when the sun came out, and it was the most beautiful day. 

The route was lovely. I've done parts of it before on some runs with Andrew, and also on the LDWA Laich o'Moray 50 miles last year, and on the Speyside 100 miles this year. Speyside is a beautiful part of Scotland, somewhere I'd never been until about a year ago, and I am it's new biggest fan!

The Highland Railway was opened in 1863, to link Inverness to Perth, and closed in 1965. From Grantown-on-Spey it crosses the Dava Moor, passing the Summit at 1052 feet, the "halfway hut", then dropping down to the coast at Forres, crossing the River Divie on the old railway viaduct. Lovely views crossing the moors on a sunny day like this, and plenty of miles through magical forests. 

The event was excellent. Really well organised and friendly, and the marshals and volunteers were amazing.  A great medal and goody bag, too! Thank you to Moray Way Ultras and team - looking forward to trying out some more of their events next year! 

A marathon in Glen Affric, 03.11.2024

First big run in Scotland since the big move! 

A marathon distance run, starting and finishing at the Affric River car park. Driving there, it felt like the middle of nowhere, so it was quite unexpected to find ourselves in the middle of a massive film set - The Woman in Cabin 10 !

It was my first time in Glen Affric, and I absolutely loved it. We'd just missed the peak of the autumn colours, but it was still outrageously stunning, to the point it was difficult to know what to look at, in the kaleidoscope of yellow and orange leaves, mountains, water and skies. Especially striking, were the rowan trees with a pop of red from their berries to be found by each river.  

We found a route around Loch Affric on the Walk Highlands website and combined this with 16 miles along the Affric Kintail Way.

The route included some excellent bogs and river crossings (with several new contenders for my Bog Calendar 2025) along the trails, plus about 3000 feet of ascent. A good workout, but surrounded by amazing scenery, the miles flew by.

It was my 85th "non-official" marathon/ultra distance run, and it was wonderful! 

Photo Albumn.....