You know your a runner when...

Runners definitely share special bonds and sometimes have habits, or idiosyncrasies that only other runners can understand. If you're a runner i’m sure you will be able to relate to or appreciate some of these descriptions.

You know you're a runner when...

You've lost a toenail and you tell people, "It's not that bad."

You smirk when non-runners ask you, "So how long is this marathon?"

Your trainers have more miles on them than your car.

You're not embarrassed to wear Lycra.

Your phisio knows you by the sound of your voice on the phone.

You know how to correctly spell and pronounce plantar fasciitis.

You own more pairs of running shoes than normal shoes.

You know what a danger dump is.

One of the first things people ask you when they haven't seen you in a while is, "What race are you training for now?"

Your only recent photos of you alone are race photos.

Your running partners know more about your bodily functions than your significant other.

You want to either cry or punch your doctor in the face when he tells you that you can't run for two weeks

You spend more money on running clothes than work or casual clothes.

The only time major household projects get done is during tapering or race recovery.

You always wear running shoes, your old running shoes are now walking shoes, you have a pair of running shoes just for racing, a pair of trail running shoes, two pairs of trainers to alternate every other day, and you know the exact mileage of them all.

Urban decay and the Moors

Wednesday 25th July 2012

Its Wednesday and work is getting on my nerves, to be fair everything and everyone is getting on my nerves, as i know all too well this means that it’s me that’s getting on my nerves. If i don’t escape soon I’m going to self destruct.The boss owes me a half day so it’s a perfect time to use my “get out of jail free” card, by 1pm I’m changed and out the door for a run, although i don’t usually road run i do occasionally run through town to get to the moors. 


Today i decided to run through some of Rochdale’s Urban Decay and on to the West Pennine Moors and eventually home. Its only 2 miles to open moorland from my place of work but Rochdale manages to squeeze a lot of decay into such a small area. However i had a sweet 7 mile run through the town and over the moors to home. I have been very lucky this year and enjoyed most of my running, this is probably because i have spent a lot of time running with friends. Today i ran alone but enjoyed the run all the same.

St Chads Church

Seven Sister Flats

Post Office Building (not my image)

Urban Decay

Reflection of Urban Decay (not my image)

Spotland - Urban Decay

Wide Cobbled Road

Suburbia

The Road to Heaven

Top Of Pike

Cottom Famine Road (not my image)

Bad parking

Cowm Resovoir

Cows

Horses

Over Looking Whitworth 

Sheep

Suburban Bliss - Crown Green Bowling

Whitworth

The paddy Buckley Round & Failure

Fell running or mountain running is considered to be one of the great sporting traditions of the Lake District, its finest club is the Bob Graham club. Becoming a member is not easy; it involves climbing 42 peaks, with 27,000 feet of ascent covering 66 miles and all within 24 hours.

In 2012 i completed the Bob Graham Round in good time, so naturally my thoughts moved to other similar challenges. The Paddy Bucley Round is considered to be an hour harder, in that most people take an hour longer over the BGR, and the Charlie Ramsey Round is probably the harder of the three major rounds.

The Paddy Buckley Round is known as the Welsh Classical Round and is apparently the Snowdonia equivalent of the BGR, It is a circular route of 61 miles with 28,000 of ascent taking in 47 tops.

The PBR was to be the next challenge for me so in the spring of 2011 my partner Debbie and i spent alternate weekends in Snowdonia, while i reccied the various leg involved my partner took on the essential role of road side support. Anyone who has completed such challenges will no doubt agree that knowing someone is there for you when you have finished a hard days training is comforting.

Many of the days spent in the mountains of Snowdonia were less than successful and the almost constant covering of fog certainly made the job of navigating the mountainous terrain a significant challenge. I trained hard for many months and finally set a date for the end of July to take on the whole route nonstop. Support runners and navigators were press ganged into place; somehow i had managed to acquire the support of some true fell running legends.

Debbie had done a great job of looking after me but the job of looking after some dozen or so support runners and navigators required a support team, Debbie had taken care of this and the ball was rolling.

Come the big day i was super fit and ready to go, my running partner Ronnie and i set off from Llanberis at 6am and headed off through the quarries to the first summit, Elidir Fach, with a little persuasion i had managed to talk Ronnie into running the whole route with me. This was to be my undoing. Ronnie was so much stronger than me on the climbs that eventually i had to acknowledge defeat and persuaded him to continue without me. Ronnie went on to complete the round and i had managed to acquire my first running failure.

I was truly devastated and had to admit to myself that i had underestimated the size of the mental challenge, i was definitely physically fit enough but not physiologically. A month later i made my second attempt, after 15 hours the heavy rain and strong winds were too much and it became unsafe to continue. At least this is what i told myself; certainly conditions were not conducive to a 24 hour completion. Failure number 2 and this time i could blame the weather.

2012 and another season in the mountains, i have spent many weekend in the English Lake District, Snowdonia in Wales and the Scottish Highlands, trained harder than ever before and indeed feel physically fitter than i can ever remember.

The weekend of July 21^st and 22^nd arrived and i made my third and final attempt of the PBR, Ronnie and i set off from Capel Curig at 12 noon with a 7 hour leg ahead and another 17 hours of mountains to follow. The weather was ideal and i felt very confident, so i have to ask myself why i managed only 3 hours of running before the doubts started creeping in?

A head ache and a dark mood took over, i began to feel as if i had taken a beating and my head was banging. I felt disorientated and distant, couldn’t focus on the mountains around me and the prospect of running another step left me feeling sick. I told Ronnie how i felt and he assured me that i would be ok, it was just a bad patch. We pushed on and eventually finished the leg arriving in Nantmor at 7pm bang on schedule, i was not in good shape and had already decided it was not to be.

Chris did his job well and persuaded me to continue for just one more leg, 5 more hours. I agreed on the proviso that he joined us. This agreed we set off towards Bryn Banog, a horrible boggy climb through waist high bracken and crusty heather. I was still feeling ill but pushed on, my support runners, Chris and Ronnie had come a long way and i felt like i was letting them down. The mood on this leg was fantastic and i felt in good spirits but new the dizziness and sickness had defeated me.

We arrived in Pont Caer Gors a little down on schedule but in good spirits, i had missed several summits along the way so any thoughts of continuing were gone. This time the feeling of failure is very real, i am doing my best to put on a good front but inside the pain is tearing me apart. The more i think about it the darker the fog becomes, my head is hurting and i really need to sleep.


I think about the fog rolling over the hills as the light was fading last night, a truly epic cloud inversion, the feeling of being alive. I Have tears rolling down my face and i want to cry – again. I’m not sure if i can keep doing this, hell I’m damn sure i shouldn’t be doing this, if i don’t fall off a mountain or trip on a rock and bang my head the stress of failure is sure to get me. 

So what do i do next?

It is perhaps time to stop putting myself in a position where i can fail quite so dramatically and reduce my goals to a more realistic level. However, knowing myself as i do, i can't stay away from the mountains, so i will probably continue to push until something breaks or until i fall off.

Tapering

The Devils Staircase

Tuesday 26th June 2012


The rather ominously named Devils Staircase follows the West Highland Way from Glencoe to Kinlockleven. We were having an easy day and running the 9 mile round in reverse.


Setting of from Kinlochleven in good weather i could see an enjoyable run ahead of us with some good quality trails and spectacular views. 

Looking Back

Water Pipes

A bridge

Highest point of the West Highland Way

Ronnie and a Stob Dearg

Kinghouse Hotel - Glencoe

Charlie Ramsey Round Reccie - Leg 1

Monday 25th June 2012


Ronnie, Debbie and i had decided to stay on in Fort William for 2 extra days, the Achintee Lodge Bunkhouse was comfortable and reasonably priced so we were making the most of it.


Ronnie and i were going to reccie leg 1 in the much improved weather conditions, although Ben Nevis was shrouded in clag the forecast was for a gradual improvement.

Achintee Lodge Bunkhouse

Ronnie on Ben Nevis

The ridge from Ben Nevis to Carn Mor Dearg

Looking back across the ridge to Ben Nevis

Carn Mor Dearg

A Glen

Ronnie and i on Aonach Mor

Grey Coire

Grey Coire again

Stob Choire Claurigh

Spean Bridge Hotel

We were out 9 hours in total and finished at the Spean Bridge Hotel for a well deserved pint of lemonade.

Charlie Ramsey Round Support Run

23rd June 2012

The Charlie Ramsey Round is the Scottish equivalent of the Bob Graham Round with a circuit of 24 peaks in 24 hours involving some 60 miles and 28000' ascent. Starting from Glen Nevis Youth Hostel it takes in the Mamores, the Loch Treig munros, the Grey Corries, the Aanochs, Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis.

Charlie Ramsay first completed it in 1978, although the shortest of the UK Big 3 it is widely regarded as the toughest due to the limited support points, its high remote terrain and its more testing navigation. I was in Fort william, Scotland to support leg 3 of Chris's attempt at this round.

Saturday 12 noon.

Chris and support crew - Picture courtesy Charlie Ramsey

Setting off

The first change in plan was Jules, Ronnie and i supporting the first 3 tops of leg 1, fighting our way up Ben Nevis through the crowds of "3 peakers" was a crazy way to start the day, the summit was very busy dispite the poor weather.

Ben Nevis Summit

The traverse over the ridge to Carn Mor Dearg was not for those with a fear of heights. The rocks were treacherous but the clag (fog) was thick enough to block the view of the massive drops on either side of the ridge.

By the time we reached Aonach Mor the low cloud had changed to heavy rain and high winds. This is where Jules, Ronnie and i split off and descended to the chair lift. My lips had turned blue with the cold and i was happy to be off the tops and heading to a warm bed. We arrived at the ski centre by 4 pm, where Debbie met us and took us back to the bunkhouse for pasta and a couple of hours sleep before we were due to set off and meet Chris for leg 3.

Nevis Range Cable Car

We had only just arrived at the bunkhouse when we received a phone call from the Ski centre advising us that Digby, one of Chris's support crew, had become separated from the team and made his way down to the safety of the Ski centre. Digby was not a happy man when we collected him but soon cheered up back at the bunkhouse where he was warm and dry with a hot cup of tea.

Having rested we packed our kit for our next task, supporting Chris on the 3rd and final leg, which starts at Loch Elide Mor and finishes back at the Glen Nevis youth hostel. Taking 9 hours, its the longest of the 3 legs.

It was 9.30pm when the road support team returned from the change over at Fersit with further bad news, one of Chris's navigators had become separated from the group on the final ascent up Stob A'Coire Easin, thick clag and driving rain were making condition tough. Chris and support runner Jeff finally arrived 20 minutes down on schedule at the first change over point.

It was 11pm when we set off from Mamore lodge hotel in Kinlockleven, this was our departure place for the walk out to meet Chris for the change over from leg 2 to leg 3. It was a little before 1am when we arrived at Loch Elide Mor and pitched the one man tent for Chris to shelter in when he arrived, he was due at 2.47am. This left us plenty of time to explore the surrounding area, it was a bright night so no real need to use our head torches.

Chris arrived at 3.15am, nearly 30 minutes down on schedule but in good spirits and moving well. After some hot soup and a change of shoes he was up and off again with Ronnie, Jules and i supporting and Wendy Dodds providing navigation.

Chris went reasonably well up the first climb, Sgur Elide Mor, but lost a further 5 minutes from his schedule, he descended well down in to the valley bottom but lost further time ascending Binnein Beag, it was about this time that Chris made the tough decision to call it off. He was to far behind on his schedule to make the 24hr dead line. A tough choice to make but, in the circumstances i'm sure it was the right one.

It was now 5.20 am and we had a further 2hrs and 40 minutes walk before reaching the safety of the Mamore Lodge hotel where a support vehicle was parked.


Finally it was the poor weather that beat Chris this time out, i'm sure he will try again and given good weather...........