Neither. We fell into the usual trap of the mediocre and quietly poodled along during the Pandemic. Thankfully we were safe and well, but I view the approaching end of lockdown with a spate of mild anxiety and trepidation.
To help, we thought it would be a good idea to come up with a list of events and things that represent unfinished business from the last couple of years. Either through life getting in the way, that darned virus stopping our social plans or pure laziness.
Admittedly most of that list involves imbibing or eating something. All is as it should be.
Separately, a few things happened over lockdown that I took personally. Some could say I’m holding a grudge…?????
5k training programmes. 5k training sucks.
Just training and no racing. Training is the worst.
Coronavirus in general.
5G.
Costa coffee owes me a coffee (this was actually a while ago, but it still hurts).
Of all the distances, I find 5k the most unpleasant and the hardest to crack. Maybe the second half of 2021 will be different? The other items are too personal to provide more detail or are rampantly self-explanatory (stupid Costa).
It’s good to have a list of things to do. It helps you motivate yourself, plan, focus and breakdown seemingly difficult problems into digestible actions. Or, as per usual, we’ll turn up like always with no training and without a hope. I might be getting a little old for this approach though!
No idea what’s going on? Might be worth reading our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
After four weeks of intense, or maybe not so intense, training, the moment is nigh. How did we do? If you want to listen to the answer, I suggest clicking here to access our latest podcast where we discuss everything in detail.
Jamie’s Results
Jamie KMs
1st Jan
31st Jan
Seconds Difference
1
00:04:37
00:04:58
+21
2
00:04:56
00:04:49
-7
3
00:04:52
00:04:57
+5
4
00:05:16
00:04:42
-34
5
00:05:32
00:04:43
-49
Total
00:25:13
00:24:09
64 seconds quicker
Average per km
00:05:03
00:04:50
13 seconds quicker
Almost….
Alas, my target of a sub-24 minute 5k was not to be, but it was close. Not bad for a month. I ran a total of 131km in January, ignoring the time trials, more than half of which was easy running. For each kilometer run, I took 0.5 of a second off my total time. Was this an efficient use of the four weeks? Wait till you see what Alex came up with.
Jamie’s Training Programme
One tempo run a week
One speed session a week
2-3 additional easy runs a week
One recovery indoor bike session
One HIIT style bike workout or hill workout
One core strength/ stretch session a week.
Alex’s Results
Alex KMs
1st Jan
31st Jan
Seconds Difference
1
00:04:40
00:04:21
-19
2
00:04:56
00:04:40
-16
3
00:05:05
00:04:41
-24
4
00:05:17
00:04:51
-27
5
00:05:05
00:04:43
-22
Total
00:25:03
00:23:16
107 seconds quicker
Average per km
00:05:01
00:04:39
21 seconds quicker
That’ll do!
I wasn’t aiming for much, but surprised myself in making such an improvement! Basically back-to-back interval sessions (around 114km total running in the month) seemed to pay off. Efficiency wise I guess you could say this was just under 1 second saved for each km in training I did! Not bad eh?
Alex’s Training Programme
1 tempo run a week (3x 1-mile tempo runs, 2min break in between)
2 interval running sessions a week
6x 2-minute intervals, with 3min break in between
3x 1-minute, 2-minute, 3-minute, 2min break in-between intervals and 3-minute break between the set of intervals.
2 bike sessions a week (mostly intervals, based on indoor cycle programmes)
This is the fourth and final update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Four weeks is not much for a normal training plan, but actually reflects the time we usually allow for race-specific training. To be honest, our race-specific training used to be other races before lockdown! We’re curious to find out how this will go.
Jamie:
I had a pretty good week with 15km of easy running, a tempo run and a final speed session. On the bike I had a recovery spin and then a bit more of a hilly ride. All on Zwift of course! It is getting a little bit tough on the treadmill; anything more than 5k is dull. The bike is much more entertaining, but I guess it’s a bit more interactive and you have more of a stimulus.
I’m sure Alex will mention something about tapering, but for me this was composed of two rest days. It doesn’t really feel like we should be tapering too much, even with our next challenge starting soon after. It’s a matter of doing the training block, getting the time trial done and moving on. Perhaps we can rest in March?!?
I’m starting to enjoy my core and stretch work a bit more. It is surprising how sore you get after the first go, but your body soon gets used to it. As with all things running, consistency is the key.
My ambition at the start of all this was obviously to boost my speed over the 5k distance, hopefully hitting a PB (all-time or even best time from the last few years). However, I believe general speed and stamina over the longer distances can benefit from the 5k workouts that we’ve been doing. It will interesting seeing how this can all roll upwards.
I don’t have any particular routines that I go through the day before a race. Usually a glass of wine is involved, but I’m giving that a pause for the moment. Maybe a celebratory one afterwards! Once it hits the afternoon perhaps.
Alex:
We’re finally here – the last week of training. Time to start tapering! Actually… there’s probably not really much point for what we’re doing. Well anyway I did end up tapering. So, let’s say it was all part of the plan eh?
Monday was very snowy and icy around where I run – to the point where attempting to do a tempo run was out of the question. Rather than do a slip-and-slide run that probably wouldn’t give me any benefit I opted to do an indoor bike session instead. Back on Apple Fitness+! I kept my cycle session on Tuesday (Les Mills this time as I’m keeping it interesting with a regular blend of fitness providers).
Owing to my inability to wake up on time, I stopped extending into the 10k distance… oh, erm, what I mean to say is that I thought that it was important to taper in the last week of training!
I don’t think this is particularly impactful as I’m generally at around 6-7km by the end of the ‘workout’ session of my run… so like 6/7km over the 2 runs I did do? These were my normal 6x2min interval session and the tempo run I missed on Monday by the way. I felt that after the sub-par tempo session of week 3, it was worth trying to get 1 decent tempo run in rather than my 1-2-3 intervals.
So, do I feel ready? No, not at all. I don’t think I’m any faster than at the start of the month. Running even the 1-mile (1.6k) tempo sections at a pace that would equate to the 25minute 5k I ran on 1st January seemed challenging if I’m honest.
However, today is Saturday – the penultimate day before our timed 5-k – and I’m going to do my tried-and-tested, best-practice, race prep: wine and chocolate muffins!
This is the third update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Just one week left for the less-than-dynamic duo. Will our battered bodies be able to soak up more punishment and repair in time for our time trial? Probably not, but there’s certainly still time to self-sabotage before the start line!
Jamie: This week was all virtual via Zwift. None of that running in the rain and snow nonsense! I much prefer staring blankly at the wall while ruminating on the travails of the day. However, something disastrous happened during my weekly speed session: a random glitch chucked me out of the Zwift running track just as I was near concluding one of the sprint legs. To say I was confused was an understatement. If my running wasn’t being recorded for everyone (well, my six followers) to see, then was I really running? I also wasn’t quite sure when I needed to stop as I was relying on the distance monitor within Zwift.
This reminded me of how far my attitude has changed. Around 10 years ago when I first started running more than the odd few miles, I used to be amused by people who ran their life by a watch. It seemed to me to be the opposite point of what running was supposed to be; embracing the feeling of your body functioning near its physical limit, striving against the elements, or even enjoying a bit of nature here and there. Waiting a few minutes to get a GPS link, then setting off at a potentially inaccurate set speed while you check your wrist every few seconds was mildly irritating. The again, maybe I was a poor training partner!
That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed all the various bits of data. Not that I’m totally aware of what to do with it sometimes. Maybe that’s a challenge for another day: data-driven running vs. running with feelings? Regarding the glitch, apparently this can happen if your computer loses touch with the Internet (I reckon Zwift crashed). This is the first time it’s happened to me though after a few months of heavy use.
In general, week 3 has been much better for me. I managed four runs with a total distance of around 33km. This included a tempo, speed session and two easy runs (one after a bike session). My bike distance was around 36km including a recovery 20km and then a more intense workout called “2 by 2“, which I seriously underestimated. According to the marketing material, the workout aims to improve your ability to make repeated hard efforts with minimal recovery. That sounded pretty good to me, but I hadn’t appreciated that I would be expected to turn my legs round at 85-100rpm! My legs definitely weren’t happy after that. Oh well.
Alex: Monday’s tempo run didn’t really go to plan. I’m not sure if for better or worse, but rather than do another run fully on tarmac I opted to head over to a local park, which is more of a field. The first tempo felt pretty good and comfortable on the road leading to the park, however the recent rains had meant that the trails and field edges that make up a running route were basically moosh and bog-land. Owing to the terrain I was struggling to get anywhere near my tempo pace – and the ‘recovery’ sections between were still pretty challenging. I mean, I didn’t hit my times but the extra leg work out still got me out of breath so perhaps this is a net positive?
I specifically attempted to make up for this on Tuesday by selecting an interval session on the Apple Fitness+ (having now actually bothered to charge the damned Watch). The session went well, although perhaps there was a bit too much work-to-recovery ratio. One main hiccup was hitting the Watch with a wet towel. Doesn’t sound like too much of an issue – however, as I’ve noted a few times on the podcast, moistness and touchscreens are… challenging. The towel paused the workout on my watch, which would have been fine except with Apple Fitness+ if you pause the workout and then attempt to resume it struggles if you are also air-playing the audio to speakers. After a minute or so trying to get the workout to resume I gave up and did the remaining 20mins on my iPhone speakers – meh!
Wednesday and Friday’s session were pretty standard fare now – minor dread and all. Thursday was a rather good Fitness+ bike session that had some good tunes and interval work. I actually am going to retain my trial subscription for another month and maybe try some other workouts for our February challenge (more on that soon).
Going into the final week I am not sure if I am actually bringing my times down any. I still feel as slow as always. I’m not actually reviewing my split times as that feels a bit too serious, I may have a look after our final times are in as a bit of a (hopefully not literal) postmortem.
This is the second update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Jamie: This week has been strange for me, with life getting in the way of my training once again. I thought that was finished with 2020. Either way, I mostly only managed quality sessions this week, so my training plan looked more like Alex’s than my proposed high volume method.
My running included an easy 10k, a decent speed session on a treadmill and a tempo run. The speed session saw reps of x2 1ks, x2 800metres and x2 400 metres with an easy warm up and warm down. As an aside, mentally it’s much nicer to have a descending distance to target. 400 metre sprints seem almost easy after the 1kms! I did increase the speed as I went down this particular ladder though. You can be very specific about the speeds you target in your training plans if you have a target time, but I played this very much by feel. Sometimes it’s nice not to look at data! The tempo run was a decent session outside, wrapped into a 10k run. I’ve been doing a lot of treadmill running recently and it’s nice to get out and about. Our local trail running routes have been trashed a little by the weather, so isn’t easy going, but fun nonetheless.
I also had two sessions on the bike (Zwift): one recovery ride and then a hill session up a virtual Box Hill. Not sure I want to try it in reality, with Zwift reducing the difficulty relative to real life by 50%. I’m sure I’ll get better.
I feel like my core and stretch workouts were more accomplished. I tried some specific kettle bell exercises, which will hopefully contribute to a more healthy core if I’m continue with them. Specifically: sumo squats, deadlifts, some side leans and some snatches. Taken in isolation, that sentence reads a little weird? The drills I mentioned last week also felt helpful. They weren’t particularly lengthy, but I think consistency will be key.
The next week is key and will be my last chance to get some speed in the legs and then an extreme taper of 2-3 days rest. Oh joy.
Alex: I must say I’ve been finding it a bit hard to motivate myself this week. Not so much with the training – I’m actually always up for doing my planned sessions. No, my issue has been mostly with just getting up in time. Sign of the times probably.
Anyway, my 3 running sessions went well – in so far as I did them and felt relatively smug about having done so afterwards. I do still feel exceedingly slow – especially in the tempo sessions. All 3 of my training sessions are very approachable, but still leave me with a soupçon of dread when approaching the final couple of intervals – which I think is about the right level of tuning.
For the indoor bike sessions this week I went with a couple of different sessions – owing to forgetting to charge the Apple Watch (not actually used outside of these Fitness + sessions). For my first session I went with a Les Mills RPM session. Back when we were allowed in physical proximity of others when exercising I did a couple of these sessions a week. They are heavily choreographed and favour lots of short, sharp bursts of activity. In a gym environment this worked well as you kind of feed off the other riders in the session. At home RPM is still a good workout – but I don’t hit the same level of exertion for some reason. I think perhaps the focus becomes more on being ‘in time’ with the music, rather than the pseudo-competitive workout against your compatriots alongside you.
For the second session I tried a wholly new app to me – WithU. I was surprised to find that there was no video. What would I look at for 40+ minutes?! I almost flaked out and ran back to the comfort of the Les Mills app – however, I thought some change would be good for me. The workout was a lot more of a ‘standard’ indoor cycle session – some interval speed-work mixed with some drawn-out hill climbs. Once I got past the fact that I had no visual stimulus I got into the workout pretty easily. The instructions were clear – if requiring a bit more attention that normal – as you can’t just look to see if you’re supposed to be in a ‘standing’ or ‘seated’ position. I don’t think I had a high level of exertion on that workout – but I think adjusting to the audio-only instruction and get in the zone would be easier after a couple of more times.
One thing in the Apple Fitness+ camps favour is the heart-rate linkup that does give you an easy focus to try and keep up in the rankings. Being compared to others does seem to get past the ‘so what is this about?’ to ‘ok, I’m gonna go 100%!’.
Hopefully this is actually proving useful training, as I’m actually not doing any of the core training I said I would… maybe next week. Perhaps.
This is the first update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first!
Jamie: My high volume & high risk strategy appears to be going well, although I’ve missed one training session (long bike) and the distance is a little short. But on the upside, I’ve hit 40km of running in the first week and fit in three quality sessions: tempo, speed and a bike HIIT. These sessions are essential this month. Normal training blocks are 10-12 weeks, so three weeks of training and a week of tapering isn’t likely going to be enough to beat my PBs without pushing it a bit on the speed front.
First learn: know what core work and appropriate stretching is before writing it in your training plan. Sounds like a great idea and advised by many, but I wasn’t exactly sure what composed a good stretch workout. A few youtube videos later gave me a few ideas, but definitely something to work on. Second: I’ll be looking to incorporate some drills a couple of times a week before my easy runs. Good for stretching and warming up apparently. I almost feel like I know what I’m doing?
A lot of my running this week has been on Zwift, which definitely isn’t because of the weather and perhaps waking up a bit late. It’s made pounding the treadmill running a bit more interesting and we even popped on for a brief moment to “assist” Eddie Izzard on her way to completing her ninth marathon in nine days. Fair play to her! It was mildly amusing to see her Zwift avatar with a big huddle of other runners following along. The odd cyclist stopped by for a gawp as well. With another 22 marathons to go in January, it really puts our 5k shenanigans in perspective. Perhaps we need to be more daft??
Alex: Intervals. So many intervals.
I stuck somewhat to my plan – doing a tempo run and 2 interval sessions. It struck me whilst running one of the tempos that, at these paces, they’re actually just an interval training session in disguise. So, essentially I’m just doing 3 interval sessions a week – who knows, perhaps that’ll work?
After an initial tempo run on Monday I was looking forward to a bit more of a varied workout before my straight-up 6x2min interval session on Wednesday. Loading up the first 45min indoor cycle workout on Apple Fitness+ I was welcomed with ‘Hi Team, today we’re going to be doing 20 intervals’. Oh well… suck it up and focus on getting through them I suppose!
For Thursday’s bike session I purposefully selected a hill session. Again this turned out to be an interval session (just on a higher resistance). Ok, so 5 interval sessions a week must be the secret to success, eh?
Friday was my first frosty run in a while! The 3×1-2-3 intervals weren’t too bad – mostly avoiding slipping was the main concern. One deviation from my thoroughly researched workout plan was the progressive… something… distance? (the training where you just run basically). Rather than adding on an additional 5k to each run session I have just been rounding the session up to 10k – because that’s probably enough, eh?
As per my summer exploits I’m taking the weekends off. Woohoo!
As per the chat on the podcast, here’s a link to the North Pole challenge. You have until the 15th December to sign-up! Which is…tomorrow… :-S It also has a neat graphic where you can track your progress. Love a bit of marketing.
We went with the Norway route: “Set off from Orca Camp on Nordaustlandet, part of the stunning Norwegian Svalbard archipelago – famous for its Polar Bears and an array of Arctic wildlife. We don the snow shoes and head due North for a short, sharp, hop across the frozen ocean.”
This is around 100km, but we didn’t realise that your mileage for the month is already accounted for if you link your Strava account. Otherwise we would have been a bit more ambitious.
We started June with an Ultra Challenge and I only just scraped the 100km, with a cheeky injury. Let’s see if we can double it in December.
How far should one travel for a good race? Depends on the race I guess. Being a bit daft, we’ve travelled all the way to Cornwall for a coastal trail marathon, all the way to Liege for a beer marathon and all the way to Scotland for a nighttime adventure…10k?!
To be fair, this is a fun race and you do have the option to double up the distance via a second lap if you’re keen, which we weren’t! In particular I was feeling a little bit worse for wear with the memory of our misadventure in the South Downs still fresh.
This was also another race we’d been to before, running in the 2017 edition (the race in 2018 was cancelled due to severe snow and wind conditions). In fact, the 2017 edition was my first race on the running wagon after a few years out of action. I remember a chastening experience, finding the bogs, long dips in icy water, steep hills and scrambling extremely difficult. In the end I think I took so long that the bar at the end had nearly run out of beer! I always think these kinds of experiences make you stronger in the end though. So the 2019 race felt like my chance for redemption. I needed to get to the finish before the raucous Rat Race runners drank it dry again.
But first, the epic journey to the start line: a village called Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. For us, this encompassed around five hours on the train, a quick stop for food in Edinburgh, and then a 90 minute bus journey into the wilderness. The weather was not looking amenable at this point. Wrapped in all my layers and standing shivering on the exposed North Bridge waiting for the bus, I have rarely felt as cold and nervous. The wind was building, the rain had turned to sleet and running was the last thing on my mind. The bus journey was initially even more ominous. As we travelled away from Edinburgh the surrounding countryside looked increasingly petrified with a wintry touch of snow. Looking at the weather reports, it also suddenly became apparent that the area had been hit with a surplus of inclemency. Our penchant for not checking weather before we travelled suddenly looked ready to strike again!
As luck would have it, the closer we got to Innerleithen, the more the weather brightened. As we walked to the event registration area, we even saw some thin strands of light peak through the grey clouds.
A couple of unlikely friends we met on the way to registration.
Quite the turnaround. We also got to see some of the initial waves pass through the course. While this is a night time race, by the time the runners got into the hills the sun will have dipped below the horizon. Once we arrived, it became apparent that the course had been tweaked to avoid some of the more watery obstacles. In particular I recall one particular segment in 2017 when we had to traverse a few hundred metre stretch up a river. Having already tackled one ascent and descent, the shocking cold and difficult footing was not a tonic for further hill running. I was again a little relieved, but it was disappointing, if understandable once we saw how strong the current was. To underline the bogginess, I even lost one of my shoes in the mud before we even started!
The first wave gets underway. With the altered route, this was one of the – thankfully – few times we had to endure a dip in icy water.
But all this is side commentary. What about the race itself? The first section is a warm up for what comes: a brief soujourn over some rocky paths (won’t see sure footing like this for a while) that transitions into flat out sticky bog and then straight into hills nearly 2km from the start. At this point I was already pretty tired and the sun had finally set. The first climb was around 300 metres and I actually managed to run bits of it (unlike in 2017). It was mostly through well worn trail routes, but now and then we’d dive into the undergrowth up less travelled sections. These were very entertaining as my favourite trail running is along woodland paths. We came to a bit of a contrived false summit (essentially going up, turning around and coming back down again), which required walking rather than running and then finally a bit of descent. We then had another climb of around 100 metres to reach the highest point of the race. It was here we could finally enjoy one of the perks of the Mighty Deerstalker: seeing the scattered head torches of various runners across the nighttime landscape. A trail of glistening light showed where we had come and what we still had to do. This is something I’d only seen at events like the three peaks challenge before.
The next descent essentially took us back to ground level and was extremely treacherous. Another reason for my slow time in 2017 was likely due to wearing road running trainers… This time round I had some decent trail shoes, but even with these it was fairly difficult going. More confident racers breezed past me and some of the more reckless ones tended to strike their fellow runners and various trees and rocks as they went past! I saw a few collisions that made we wince. Some bits were great fun though, with just enough stable footing to leap and jump over the undulating course.
With that now completed, we were treated to a run over the River Tweed and through Innerleithen to take on another of the local hills. We had some very kind people along the course cheering us over these sections. Always nice to hear. The climb was easier than before, but I had my first serious tumble of the year; almost cartoonesque! While descending I had been putting weight on areas with foliage and grass as this indicated safe purchase in my mind. I unfortunately did so on a piece of ground that was completely inundated with water and promptly slipped up, got some serious air time and landed on my backside. Thankfully it was on soft, and wet, ground, so I wasn’t hurt (pride aside). Picking myself up, I then confronted the scramble, which was nearly 200 metres high. I must confess to needing a few stops to catch my breath! I’m not a fan of heights at the best of times, so I was grateful for the night time views. One last descent and then there was just four more kms of boggy, river-side running to defeat. I recognised here and there signs of our earlier walk to registration and was relieved to see the finish line. In 2017 they set-up a water slide to celebrate the last section, but for obvious reasons that had been removed. Probably a good thing as I recall nearly football tackling someone’s midriff by accident at the bottom.
First time running in 2017, we completed the course in around three hours and twenty minutes. In 2019, we got round in around two and a half hours. Not a bad improvement, but we did have two years of running these races as training and some of the water sections were curtailed; so perhaps we should have done a bit better. Most importantly though, I made it back in time to properly enjoy the party afterwards!
Ok. It’s been a while since the 3rd March 2019! I must admit to being a little tardy with my reports. But with this race looming again on our schedule, I thought it would be a good idea to cover what happened previously in more detail. So to cover my lateness, I thought I’d title this update with “race retrospective”.
The first time I ran this race was in 2014 and, as my first trail marathon, has stuck in the mind ever since. I distinctly recall the pleasant surprise of the first food stops, laden down with various sweets and biscuits (you don’t really get those in road marathons!). The crazy hills, or “stings”, which at that point I hadn’t really encountered with such frequency, being from Essex. A relaxed and staggered start at your convenience and a cooked breakfast at the finish. It also had one of the quirkier medals I’ve seen, featuring a scorpion, a hill and some trees. I can’t forget the characters we met either, including one runner who decided to deal with some of the muddiest terrain I’ve encountered by running the whole thing in sandles!
So all in all, I remembered the Steyning Stinger as a great race and it was now time to return. There was just one potential problem…Storm Gareth! We’d heard some mutterings in the news about a potential storm coming, but paid it no mind. Then when it came to actually getting there – it’s an early start – the weather was pretty dire and we gradually became aware of how tough this was going to be.
It initially started out ok, with much of the initial race gradually ascending to the top of the South Downs over three steep climbs.
One of the stings….although it was relatively sheltered from the wind thankfully
However, as soon as we crested the top of the hills, it became clear how strong the winds were. Despite being pretty well insulated against the weather, the rain still stabbed like needles and it was hard to stay on the trail as we were buffeted around so much. You could barely see more than a few metres in front of you and the brave Marshalls had to take cover in vehicles at the more exposed parts of the course. At some points it was difficult to keep running, although a steep turn on the course sometimes resulted in a welcome boost from the wind.
Looking at some of the race photos, I decided to add the only one where I’m actually smiling. While I definitely wasn’t smiling inside, I was still glad to get out of the wind! Check out the hazy background and the mud. It was around this point we decided that the weather was a bit too extreme considering our fitness levels. We’ve done more than our fair share of tortuously long races over tough terrain, but it seemed silly to continue and hats off to those that finished the whole marathon. The wind wasn’t the only hazard with the final long descent having morphed into one long mud slide during which I had very little control. I’m very surprised I didn’t stack it! I probably did, but have likely blocked it from my memory.
Finally we finished and I staggered over the finish line to gratefully take cover in a solid stone building and enjoy a well earned breakfast. We’d covered a half-marathon and 457 metres of ascent in ridiculous conditions. However, I’ve retained a nagging feeling since then that we had some unfinished business.
So now we’re returning on the 1st March 2020, hopefully sans storm or anyone called Gareth, and fingers crossed this time we can succeed where we previously failed. You’ll probably find out next year though!
Warming ourselves up after a (kind of) Cold Christmas?
This was a fun race! It was our first attempt at self-navigation and running at the same time, which could have ended very badly… Thankfully we only got a bit lost now and then, but this generally happens when races are clearly marked!
It was an early wake-up call for Sunday morning with registration opening at 6.15am at High Easter in Essex. A point-to-point race, the start line was actually in Hertfordshire at a lovely little village called Cold Christmas, which we were bussed to en mass at 7am. Our metaphorical journey over the course of the day, from winter to spring, would also mark our quick progression from 5k runners to elite ultra-marathon runners! Not bad for January. The race title itself had initially stood out as a bit of an oddity when we booked and we only realised what it meant when we overheard a conversation on the bus! It’s actually a neat idea.
This race was a great example of a local running club putting on something really interesting. The route was mostly off-road, using bridleways and various parks, with three checkpoints staffed by some very helpful volunteers. We were lucky with the weather in the end and it didn’t rain until we finished, but warm cups of tea at the checkpoints definitely helped keep morale up as it was still cold.
The narrative instructions made for an interesting challenge; especially when the brain stopped working later on. In general they were very good and appropriately descriptive, but there were some moments where the acronyms blurred and brain fade occurred. I’ll be honest and admit I had to re-read certain sections multiple times! Thankfully my running buddy was better able to run and read and I was generally only called upon when in dire straits.
It also provided a great challenge in terms of elevation. Nearly 450 metres is certainly not to be sniffed at. Especially with the race mostly occurring in Essex of all places! I’ve generally struggled to find some good hills to train on so it does come as a surprise to find a race profile like this. Although over 50km the regular ups and downs do add up, so there wasn’t necessarily a small number of massive hills out there. The terrain itself was extremely muddy, which matches anecdotal tales I’ve heard from other runners competing in similar trail runs in the area. Pack your grippy trail shoes! You have been warned.
Often after races like this, certain things stick in the mind. A picture or image of a moment that stays long after any muscular pain or weariness has disappeared. A derelict and haunted church just outside Cold Christmas, a wheezing pug barking at interlopers, amused golfers pointing dazed runners to the right path and curious Henry Moore sculptures littering the landscape. I definitely have some happy memories and a good training race under the belt to take into the rest of 2020.
Daft Runners 