Ploughing on, with a slight limp

I knew things had been going far too well recently. My foot issue, which has almost gone incidentally, was my first injury worry since April. Well, things didn't go well yesterday.

I got back from holiday on Tuesday night and didn't run again until Sunday. Despite an almost overpowering urge to take part in the 'In Pendles Shadow' event that I was going to do on Saturday, I resisted. A 20 mile fell run may just have upset my foot whilst it is still healing. I hate missing training runs, let alone events, but it was for the best.

On Sunday I drove up to my parent’s house, and ran from there whilst my parents looked after my son. I didn't plan any route, but had a rough idea of where I would run in my head. I guessed it would be around 15 miles. There was plenty of undulation, but no more than 1200ft of ascent in total. I packed a 6kg pack but only took water, and almost as an afterthought grabbed a 100g pack of salted cashew nuts on the way out. I had only eaten three round of bread and marmalade all day, which it would become clear later on, was woefully inadequate.

The first 10k was straightforward enough but I was concerned about discomfort in my knee and hip. I ran up into and around Swynnerton Old Forest.





I'd been running at around 5.5mph, so a fair pace for the terrain and weight I was carrying. At this point I was feeling hungry, so slowed to a walk for a couple of minutes at ate half the pack of nuts before running on. This picked me up for a while, but a couple of miles later I ate the rest. The route then climbs gradually for 3 miles crossing a marked path clear through the middle of farmland. I'd heard what I thought were motorbikes half an hour earlier, but then I saw a large marquee a few fields ahead and freshly ploughed fields dotted around it. Gathered around the marquee were a lot of vehicles, pickups and tractors on trailers. As I ran towards the gathering, I noticed than the public footpath had been ploughed through in sections in two separate fields. As I drew near about 100 pairs of farmers eyes turned towards me. So I now had a decision:

1. Divert off the public footpath, around the ploughed areas and rejoin it later. I was unsure if this would be preferable to the farmers, or anger them? (Imagine a bunch of fist-shaking men shouting 'Oi, get oorf my land!')
2. Run through the ploughed area and possibly fall flat on my face. This is what I suspect most of the 100 farmers had their fingers crossed for.
3. Run straight through it and face the consequences!

Naturally I picked option 3. This was a public footpath after all. I was still some distance away from the farmers when my first footfall entered the ploughed area. I'm sure I heard a cheer from the farmers, but wasn't sure. This was only a short section and I managed to run through ok. I then entered the next field where the whole field was ploughed across, not any more than a couple of hundred metres from those gathered. As soon as my first foot went in, up went a louder cheer from the farmers. I knew it was for me, but I still have no idea why. They were either glad I was going through, and hoping I would fall over, or they were just thinking 'yeah there he goes, knew he would, typical hiker/runner sticks to the path no matter what'. I raised my hand to wave as they cheered, which will have either pacified or angered them further, I still don't know which. I felt 100 pairs of eyes burning holes in me as I increased my pace and leapt through the ploughed field at pace. You could almost hear the groans as I danced through and made it safely to the other side, with my honour intact!

I ran through the collection of cars and tractors next to the marquee and out back onto the path and into Swynnerton village. I took these photo's of the event as I ran past on the loop back. You can make out the marquee and freshly ploughed fields I ran through.





I'd already guessed what the event was, but here was the confirmation.




Talk about obscure sports eh? So farmers plough the fields all week and then at the weekend for fun, they plough fields. Talk about busman's holiday! That would be like a runner going on holiday somewhere hot, for a week away, and then running all week. Err hang on...?!?! erm, moving swiftly on...

This was around the 10 mile mark, and I was beginning to tire badly, but managed to maintain my pace for the next mile or so.
I had stopped a couple of times already to stretch out my right ITB too.
At 11.5 miles I really hit the wall. I just had not taken on enough calories that day to see me through the effort. I only had water and no electrolyte, so I only had myself to blame. It was about 4pm at this point, and 3 rounds of toast at 9am were not going to ever be enough. I ran on , but only in bursts, managing a half mile here, and a quarter mile there, before slowing to a walk. My knee and hip were hurting, and fears of a full on ITB problem haunted my thoughts and made me feel generally miserable and sorry for myself.

You know you are truly out of energy when you can't even run downhill. I was really beaten, with still a mile and a half before I got back. I walked (probably weaving from side to side) for 3/4 mile and then reached the bottom of the hill which was the last section before my parent’s house. At this point I was welcoming the misery. I had reasoned no matter how bad I feel now, I will feel 1000 times worse in the desert, so I had better get used to this. I gritted my teeth and started running up the hill, determined to make it without stopping. It's only a reasonable hill, and not even steep but it felt like a mountain as I dragged my tired legs up it. If I could not make it to the house without stopping, how was I going to make it through the desert? It's all a mental battle really. Your mind is convincing you that you are on the verge of collapse and must stop, but really your body is much stronger. You just have to fight those urges and keep plodding on, which is ultimately what I did and got home without stopping; a minor victory, given my poor performance that day.

I literally dropped my pack and lay flat on my back on my parent’s front lawn for 5 minutes. I got up, stretched out painfully and raided the cupboard for sugar. I was pleased to be at my parent’s house because I would have no luck at finding a quick-fix sugar hit at my house. Everything in my house is 'low' something; low fat, low sugar, no-sugar usually! As it was, I claimed a Mars Bar and went for a shower. Another sure sign I am totally exhausted is the smell of ammonia. This hardly ever happens to me, even on long runs, so I knew I was truly exhausted. I showered then went downstairs and immediately fell asleep on the floor for an hour, again very unusual for me.

I went home and got a call from my Uncle. I suspect my mother had called him and told him of my hip and knee problems. I wasn't too keen on phoning him and asking for more help so soon. Despite me offering many times, he won't let me pay for any treatment, and I feel guilty that I am taking up his paying-patient appointment slots. However, he's insisted and did tell me that we would need to see me again to sort out my back/pelvis when he treated my foot two weeks ago. We've come to an agreement so I'm going to trade some of my professional skills for his, so it's all worked out well.

My pelvis is twisted again, and my right foot is turned out when I stand/walk/run. This is stretching all those muscles and causing the hip and knee pain. Left untreated this turns into a full on debilitating ITB problem. I had this at the same time last year and lost about 6 weeks of training. I could not run further than 2 or 3 miles, which subsequently ruined my chances of a fast New York marathon time. I did complete the marathon (4:10), but amazingly without ever running more than 3 miles in the last 7 weeks before the event. I know I'm capable of a 3:30 or better. I'll revisit that one day, you'll see!

I can't let that happen now. I can't drop my distances down and lose 2 months of training, so I'm going to go and see him possibly this week or next week. He's also said he wants to see me as often as I need until the MDS, ideally once a month to keep me in good shape. If you don't know my medical history from my blog, basically I have a slightly curved spine (a scoliosis) as a result of my left leg being 8-9mm shorter than the right leg. My body compensates in various ways, all of which mean that various back and leg muscles get tightened, and nerves get pinched. I'm not really doing a suitable sport I guess!

Unless you are medically trained, you'd be hard pressed to say there is anything wrong with me from looking at me, but you'd see my pelvis tilted when viewed from behind. I didn't even know I had this problem until I took up running, so it just shows how my body has adapted over the years.

Anyway, the important thing is that I'm going to get fixed before it gets too bad this time. I still hope to be able to do the next major even in 2 weeks ' Grin and Bear It'; a 23 mile fell run near Huddersfield.

One last thing before I go: Autumn has definitely arrived.



Have a good week.

Ibiza: climate training

Ok, it's not the Sahara, it's not 40C, and it’s the clubbing capital of the world not the hiking capital. However, since I had been invited along with some friends for a long weekend, it would certainly do.

My foot problem put pay to my plans for some serious training. When it happened I almost cancelled the holiday. However, it was well enough by the weekend and everyone was relying on me to drive whilst on the Island. At the last minute I decided to pack my trail shoes and my rucksack, just in case it felt any better.

We arrived on Friday night and had a nice meal as Kasbah then bed. Saturday was warm (29c) but cloudy. We had a nice meal at Savannah at lunch, then a spectacular meal at Bambudha Grove, and another early night to bed. My foot still wasn't good enough to risk on Sunday morning. We had lunch at Ses Eufabies in Cala Tarida. THis is one of my favourite restuarants. It's perched on a small on the beach. It's not expensive and I always eat the same thing. The Advacado prawns starter, and the sizzling garlic shrimp main meal. It's always excellent! I think i've had it eveyr time I have visited for about 7 years! We went to Space on Sunday afternoon, but left at 10:30pm and headed back to the hotel.

On Monday we went to Cala Vedella and ate another fantastic meal at Can Sofia. Cala Vedella is well known for excellent seafood and it certainly did not disappoint.

I decided that I would at least try and run, so I gave my lunch an hour to digest (not long enough really) and got dressed to run whilst everyone else lay on the beach. It was around, or just over 30C. I only packed a 2kg rucksack and 800ml of water in my shoulder holster bottle. I ran up the twisting road out of Cala Vedella. This is a typical Ibiza panorama, the whole island looks like this (Well, that's not strictly true, but the hilly bits do!)


It's a steep climb for a full mile, then a gradual climb for the next 2 with only very short descents to mix it up. I ran along the road towards a neighbouring cove; Cala D'hort. This is actually my favourite beach on the island because of the spectacular view of the Island Es Vedra (Dragon) a couple of k off the coast.

I took this one of it, from further away from the coast.



The climbs were steep, but I didn't consider stopping. I just took short strides and kept a manageable pace. It was hot with no shade for much of the route, and where there was shade I tried my best to avoid it.

I had decided to run only 10k so turned around when I reached the hill at the top of Cala D'Hort. These photo's taken from that point.





I ran the return a little quicker as you would expect, being mostly downhill. My foot did ache at times, and played up a little on the descent.




I was certainly wise not to have pushed my luck and run further. I'm not sure how many hundred feet of ascent were included in the route, but I would guess at about 700-1000. After 40 minutes I had run out of water. I had roughly estimated that 800ml might last me about that length of time, so that was a useful exercise. I decided to run the last 2.5 miles 'dry', not that I was really dehydrated. I just decided it might be useful practice in case that happens in Morocco. I averaged 5.5mph for the session. I was hot afterwards and enjoyed tipping a couple of hundred mil of water over my head afterwards. I read this lowers your core temperature, but I assume this is only advisable if you have water to spare, otherwise I guess you should drink it!

This is me hot and bothered en-route.



In the evening we ate at Sa Punta, a restaurant owned by the club Pacha and afterwards we went to Pacha itself for the night to see Roger Sanchez. This was our only late night. As you can tell, we are more into our nice meals than the clubbing!

On Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel, did a little shopping and went to a beach called Cala Salada. I only had the opportunity to run for 45 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, so I put on my rucksack and headed up yet another twisty road out of Cala Salada.



This climb was shorter, but steeper, but I didn't stop at all. At the top I turned right and headed steeply downhill to the next beach Cala Gracio. Great views on the way down.





At the bottom of the hill, about 2 miles in, I turned around climb up and out of Cala Gracio, then back down the twisty road and into Cala Salda again.



This was only a short run, but I was pleased just to do a little running. My foot still played up on the descent so I don't think I can take part in the 20 mile even in Pendle that I was going to do this weekend. It needs more time to heal properly.
I found out a lot of things I already knew.

Running in the heat isn't pleasurable, but it's manageable

My heart rate was 20bpm higher than usual

You get through a lot more water

You sweat more, and so lose more salt

Acclimatising in the week before the big event would be invaluable

As I said, these are all common knowledge, but at least I have had a taste of heat, even if it is 10 degrees short of Sahara temperatures.

Finally, I couldn't leave Ibiza without catching a sunset from the famous Sunset strip in San Antonio, so here it is for you to enjoy too.

Good News

The doctor in A&E thought it might be a fracture. To be honest, given the pain, I was inclined to believe him. My uncle (Chiropractor) thought otherwise, and was right!

He x-rayed me again (a bigger x-ray) and went over the film with a magnifying glass to see if there was ant suggestion of a hairline fracture; none whatsoever.

As soon as he was happy he set to work on my foot. I did have a metatarsal head problem as he suspected, and he snapped it back into place. The x-ray did show up a blurry area on the ankle joint with my 4th metatarsal. The joint was also locked (I had restricted movement in my ankle). He mobilized the ankle again, and said the blurry area was inflamed. There was also some kind of wound on my foot which just looked like a scratch, but was lumpy underneath. This was also inflammation, maybe from something puncturing the foot and infecting it. My uncle basically rubbed on this area very hard, as well as doing the same and mobilizing the rest of the foot. He also took the opportunity to loosen my plantar fascia on both feet.

He repeated this treatment the following day. I can tell you now, it hurt like hell. I was squealing at times! It was very uncomfortable, but he told me he had to be rough on it to get it right.

I regained the ability to claw my toes after me mobilized by back which released with a cascade of cracks. So, I guess the nerve impulses were fixed.

I've had my back mobilized done many times, but never so many cracks at once!

One of his sports therapists there loosened up a very tight right Peraformis muscle, which has been the culprit of my recent hip pain. That was a pretty painful experience too.

Following all that I spent 20 minutes in his interferential machine, which passes waves of current through 4 suction pads. I've been on this before too. If you've ever had an electric shock then that is what this feels like as waves of electricity cause your muscles to contract. It's turned up to a level of which you can stand and then left to work.

The outcome is that although I’m very sore, I can walk again, albeit a little slowly at the moment!

I won't be climate training in Ibiza this weekend (just lounging on the beach I guess!). I am disappointed about this to be honest, but it's for the best. I won't be doing any training for probably a week to 10 days. This is a long time, but it's a lot shorter than 6-8 weeks if it would have been a fracture.

Many thanks to my Uncle for his expert knowledge and treatment. If you ever have a sports injury then he is the man you need to consult. He has treated premiership footballers, and Olympic athletes, so you would be in expert hands.

Dr K P Burns - Sheffield Clinic of Complimentary Medicine

He also has practices in York and Hull, as well as Sheffield.

So, I'm back on my feet and will be mended soon. I'll update in a week or so with my progress.

Hills & Dales and Accident & Emergency

My Apex laptops review (www.apexlaptops.co.uk) (PDA - bodged repair story) is a few paragraphs down. Worth reading if you are thinking of using them.

I've had a good weeks training, at least until yesterday (more of that later).

On Tuesday and Friday I did core stability and strength work in the gym as usual. On Wednesday I did a tough session of almost 6.5 miles. What made it tough was that I combined intervals and hill rep intervals into the same session. I ran the first mile, and then stopped for a full stretching routine as usual. Then I ran the remainder of the session at 3 mins pace, 2 mins jog. However, about 2.5 miles into the route I stopped at the base of a hill in Apedale country park and did 4 reps. The hill takes abour 1 minute and 45 seconds to climb at pace. You can see the heart rate and pace profile below.

Following the hill reps I made my way back doing the standard interval pattern of 3/2.

On Thursday I did an 8 mile endurance session. I typically run these trail routes around 9 minute mile pace, so it's fairly easy, but given the terrain and hills usually involved can still be demanding.

After Thursday session I experienced hip pain, the likes of which I get a few weeks before an ITB problem. It almost acts as a warning sign. So on Friday, I booked in to see a sports massage therapist as I suspected that my back was the cause of my problems (it usually is). He massaged my back for half an hour and mobilized it with a few satisfying clicks and crunches. It certainly felt better afterwards, but I still had an odd sensation in my legs. Almost like a numbness running through the bone? As I say, hard to explain!

I made a decision (probably not my best) to run the LDWA 21 mile Hills and Dales the following day, despite the problems. Every runner hates to miss training sessions, let alone an event. I decided to only pack a 5kg pack, instead of 8kg (a better decision) so as not to load up my back too much. I travelled the half hour journey into the Peak District, through Leek to Ash Field Study Centre near Longnor. The walkers had left at 8am, which left about 20 runners for the 9am start. The route should have been 21 miles.

I started at the back of the runners (my customary position) and set off. All the runners seemed pretty capable and rapidly left me plodding along at my typical pack bearing pace, which is about 5.5mph on the flat, and obviously much less on steep climbs. About 2 miles into the route, half way up the second serious ascent, I glanced left and 2 runners were climbing the hill on the opposite side of the valley. They had made a pretty severe navigational error. They then stopped, looked over and started their descent from almost the top of the that hill. Poor guys I thought. I only saw one of them again later when he passed me just before checkpoint(CP) 1, just before I took these photo's.






I'd made a decision to not stop at checkpoints and not to eat any of the supplied food either. I will probably continue with this strategy from now on too. I do this because they are not going to have trays of sandwiches, cakes and biscuits laid out in the desert at each CP.

Because I did not stop at CP1 and CP2 I did manage to catch up half a dozen runners, as they had 'cake-stopped'. However, they soon passed me again. I should say the route between CP1 and CP2 (Black Dale) was treacherous underfoot. If it would have been raining, it would have been dangerous. I slipped badly just once, but got away with just a grazed hand and bruised ego. This photo was just entering Black Dale, where the footing was still good, but you start to see the rock piles than littered the path later on.



This photo is blurry, sorry, but you can just about see the rocks in the grass. There were also sections of larger slippy boulders where I went over.



After CP2 we joined the Monsall Trail, an old railway line as seen below.



We went along this trail through various tunnels, some a hundred yards or more in length. Then the trail was blocked by a huge door across what used to be a tunnel. I assume it was unsafe and so closed. We had to descent some stone stairs down to the river below, and then follow its path through into Millers Dale. At the foot of these stairs, if I would have read the route description, or looked at my GPS I would have turned right. However, I didn't. I turned left, I assume beguiled by the pretty surroundings!


So, I ran on trotting over these too.



I ran on for more than a mile. Then recalled I was expecting the river to double back on itself, but it hadn't. I looked down at my new PDA.

A word about that. I damaged two of my PDA's and sent them off for repair ro a company called Apex Laptops, based in Rochester. I did search for a review of Apex Laptops but could not find one. They promised me a 5 day turn around of any repair. Let me state here and now that I have never dealt with such a thoroughly dishonest company who have told me lie after lie and do business in a fraudulent manner. I would never recommend this company to my worst enemy. I heard nothing for over 2 weeks. They ignored phone calls, and ignored emails. They then said they had been 'moving offices'. This also appears to have been a lie since 2 months later their adress is still the same as the one I originally sent the PDA's too.
They phoned up one day asking to be paid, and had not even quoted me for the work. This is fraudulent. They returned a PDA which had not been tested and was still faulty. Three weeks later (I write this edit mid October now) and once more they have ignored emails and calls. They tried to get more money for a repair, which of course I refused as they had never fixed the PDA correctly in the first place. I demanded a refund, and the return of my PDA in it's original broken state. That was two weeks ago, and I have threatened them with the local trading standards. They promised to refund and return the PDA, another week has passed. I would advise never ever deal with this cowboy firm of liars who operate their business in a such a shoddy and dishonest manner. They have no redeeming features. I will happily pass on all mine and their correspondance and evidence to any potential customers who wish to see the depth of their deceipt. Just email me for the information, assuming trading standards haven't already shut them down! Now, rant over, back to the story.

It showed I had doubled back on myself?? I assumed that because I was in a ravine the GPS was getting a reflection and giving a bad position. I was so convinced this was the case that I ran on. I approached some walkers and said "Have a bunch of runners come past?" They said "No, are you on the Hills and Dales route? Haven't you already passed us?" Yes, I had, I recognised them now. They had decided to take the low river path, whereas I and most others had taken the Monsall Trail railway path a hundred yards straight up. If they had not been coming this way and stopped me, I would have carried on for another mile before realising. As it was I had gone 1.5 miles in the wrong direction. I thanked them and ran back, soon correcting 2 other walkers who had done exactly the same as me!

I reached the stairs and realised my mistake and ran on. Notice below the river is now on my right and not my left!



In my haste to catch up I missed the next turn and added yet more onto the route! Eventually I back-tracked and reached CP3. I paused for a few minutes whilst I mixed up my one and only electrolyte and got some cashew nuts and banana chips down me. The next section crossed a long railway bridge above the river, as seen below.


Next was that very steep climb shown around the 14 mile marker on the elevation profile. This was quite a climb, partially up earth and stone steps, before emerging onto a plateau and fields and great views.



Between 16 and 21 miles was excellent running on gravel paths or green lane. Despite losing time earlier, I felt good and knew I was running well, enjoying the descent which I ran far too fast and with a little too much abandon, considering the terrain. I think reading the exploits of champion fell runners in 'Feet in the Clouds' book that I have been loaned was to blame for this!
Still I descended in one piece and then ascended the next very steep climb before the village Longnor with ease, at a fast march. I barely paused at the final checkpoint, just topping up some water (then later discarding most) to finish the final 2.5 miles. The last section had a few short sharp ascents, some on road, before the last mile over marshland. I could not really run at pace through this section because of the terrain and had plenty left in the tank when I finished.

I finished in 5 hours 18. I had covered 24.6 miles and 4200ft of ascent. That is an average of 4.7mph. That is probably the fastest I have ever covered that distance with a pack in that kind of terrain. I am very pleased with that performance. There was a great meal supplied at the end and lots of friendly people to chat to.

Hills and Dales is a superbly organised event. All the checkpoints were well stocked, each with a different selection of food. The meals and drinks at the end were excellent, served by some of the most cheerful volunteers you are likely to encounter. I cannot speak highly enough of the event. It is run for the Chernobyl Children’s Charity. I highly recommend this event to everyone.

I finished my meal, said my goodbyes and went back to the car. I took off my trail shoes and put in my everyday 'comfy shoes, a pair of Nike Free trainers. They are like slippers, for those who have not had the pleasure. Whilst driving home I got a sudden onset of pain in my right foot. It got so bad that I took off my shoe and had to accelerate with my big toe. Not the safest of things to do in my car.
I made it home, but could bear no weight on my foot. I unloaded the car by hopping!
I ran a bath and had to get in 'bum-first' because I could not take the weight at all. The water didn't soothe the pain, which got so bad I felt sick. It was tender to touch on the top towards the outside end of my foot too. I iced it, but nothing would take the pain away. Yet, there was no obvious swelling. I also lost the ability to claw my three outside toes. After an hour I decided to get it checked out at A&E. After the inevitable 4 hour wait and eventual x-ray, the doctor could not see a clean break but said he suspected a stress fracture of the 4th metatarsal. He said that stress fractures are hard to see on an x-ray until they begin to heal, weeks later. He said not to drive (no way I could have anyway) and gave me crutches. He advised to rest, raise and ice it, and come back in 2 weeks if it was still the same.

My parents picked me up from A&E and took me back to their house where they had been looking after my son. We both stayed there. I slept badly, woken every time I turned and disturbed my foot.

I did a bit of research and discovered that a stress fracture would mean 6-8 weeks of inactivity. The only sure way to confirm it would be an MRI. I phoned up my Uncle, a well respected chiropractor for his advice. He did some over-the-phone tests, getting me to perform various manoeuvres and explain the symptoms. He doubts the diagnosis of a stress fracture and suspects either a dropped metatarsal head, or a sciatic nerve problem. I am getting pins and needles in my foot and leg whilst doing these manoeuvres, which he concludes is related to my back and various nerves.
He advised ibuprofen and to ice my back, not just my foot.

I have done so this evening and regained some of the feeling in my foot, and am able to claw my outside toes a little more than before. My foot has however swelled slightly this evening despite feeling better than it did. I am going to see my uncle tomorrow night and Tuesday for a diagnosis. If he suspects a fracture he will send me for an MRI on Tuesday morning to confirm. If not then he will be able to manipulate my foot and back with a view to me being able to run again in 2 weeks.

I am inclined to believe and hope my Uncle is right, and that it's not a stress fracture. 8 weeks out would be devastating at this stage. My back is always at the root of many of my niggling injuries, so I just hope it is this time. 2 weeks is bad enough!

Fingers crossed for me, and I'll post up more information when I know it; probably on Tuesday night.

A (mostly) Coventry Way Challenge

Apart from Saturday and a family commitment I had a full weeks training. I did gym sessions on Tuesday and Friday. A 6.5 mile intervals session (3 mins fast / 2 mins slow repeated) on Tuesday. On Wednesday I did 8.5 miles steady (9 min miles). All trail routes of course.

I packed a 5kg rucksack on Saturday night and set off for Coventry at 6:15am on Sunday. Despite motorway closures and problems I managed to arrive at 7:30, registered and was on my way for 7:40am. You were allowed to start anytime after 6am. The route map is above, along with the elevation (very little, only 2000ft for the whole distance), and my speed profile there at the bottom.  You can find out more details about this event here.  http://beyondmarathon.com/ultramarathon_event.php?eventID=1437

I set off at around a 5mph pace. The course was fairly flat, with no serious hills to speak of whatsoever; gentle inclines mostly. I carried the route description which was the best I have ever seen. There were 18 x 25k scale maps in the 37 page booklet, complete with a detailed route description. I had used the maps to carefully transcribe the route into Memory Map and was navigating with GPS as usual. One runner, who started at the same time as me, passed me again a few miles later. Not sure how he managed to get so far off course but I was thankful of GPS (that would come back and bite me later).

There was a really enjoyable 5 mile section on an abandoned railway line, perfectly flat and straight, as seen below.





The first and second checkpoints (8 and 13 miles) passed without incident. At 15 miles I was still averaging 5mph which I was happy with, because that included all the stile-hopping and pausing to refill drinks at the checkpoints. I used my first electrolyte at the 13 mile checkpoint. At around 16.5 miles although still feeling fine, I decided that I should start a run/walk strategy to convserve energy. I would run for 25 minutes, and then walk for 5. I tried to stay with that as much as possible, but sometimes terrain would dictate otherwise. After checkpoint 4 around 22 miles the route joined the Oxford canal. I was hoping to have a good towpath but the path was very narrow and very uneven in places, and we were warned by the member of staff at the previous checkpoint to take care.

The route briefly left the Canal and rejoined later around 27 miles. However, I was not reading the route description, just navigating form GPS. I joined the canal on the wrong side of the water, and didn't realise my mistake until I saw some walkers on the other side. I thought, no problem, I will cross at the next bridge. However the next bridge didn't come before the actual route headed North West, and the canal I was following turned South West. I was forced to recalculate an alternate route which added a mile and a half onto the overall route! I have marked the map with the words "OOPS", and highlighted in green the route I actually took. You can see from the speed profile that my pace becomes erratic here, as I race to try and catch up time, but then crash and walk more frequently. The speed profile peaks are higher and I did run that section at a better mph pace, but by the time I rejoined the actual route and made it to CP5 I was a little tired. People I had already passed were already there, and I had to explain what had happened.

In my haste I had also lost my route booklet, so I was now forced to use GPS anyway. You can see on the speed profile at about 32 miles where I sat down at CP5 and recovered for 5 minutes.

After CP5 there was a short section through an urban area until CP6. You can see after 33/34 miles my overall pace drops as I do more walking. Ignore the flat-lined spots where I simply lost GPS and had to play around and sort it out (I probably lost 10-15 minutes through this, all day). The only other photo I took all day was the one below. The countryside was fairly regular, so I didn't just take photos of fields for you all day!

There were two or three sections like this;


It's hard to see the scale, but they were taller than me!
I had used a second electrolyte at 20 miles, but had not used my final one at 30 miles because I was getting sick of the taste. That really does happen, so it will be important to take several flavours on the MDS. The day had been quite hot, with sunny skies until the early afternoon. I even got a little sunburned without realising. My kidneys were aching from the backpack 'bounce' and heat build-up. Imagine being massaged in the same spot for 8 hours as the pack rubs against it. I really need to see what I can do about that, as this has caused me problems before. It got so painful I had to loosen my pack straps and very quickly the pack began to rub me as a result. I have never had the pack rub me before, so it just shows how important it is to secure it well. I was lucky this happened so late into the event, as I only have faint marks to show for it now.

I did feel quite tired in the last 10 miles, as you might expect, but still managed to run sections. I even knew that if it was required I could have gone on further, albeit a little reluctantly! My PDA ran out of batteries 9 hours and 15 minutes into the route. I had brought a spare PDA for just this occurance, but just used the battery to power the original again (this period is that flat-lined section on the speed profile near the end of the route). I had made a couple of other small navigation errors towards the end, but none as serious as that canal error, but still I almost covered 42 miles in total. I managed a good last mile sprint finish because I passed a load of people in Coventry-Way T-shirts at a pub and they made me do it! They were cheering and clapping which was nice too! I finished in 9 hours 50 mins, average for the distance I did was 4.3mph. I was certainly happy with that.
Anne and Vaughan who I met at La Trans Aq were helping out with the organisation and they welcomed me at the finish and made me a cup of tea. A nice healthy meal was laid on too, which I enjoyed. I chatted to Vaughan and other competitors for a good 40 minutes whilst I recovered. I was impressed with the organisation of the event and also the checkpoints were well stocked, and staffed by very friendly folk all day. A big thanks to everyone involved.
I drove home and went to bed at 9:15pm. I can't remember the last time I was in bed that early. I obviously needed it. Sorry I didn't post my update up on Sunday night as usual, but i'm sure you understand!
I woke up this morning, initially a little achy in my lower legs, but after a few minutes I was fine and have been all day. I am surprised at how quickly I seem to recover. I half expect not to be able to walk for a week after some of these events. It's lucky I do, because the 22 mile Hills and Dales event in this Saturday!! I'd better get some rest (Well ok, and some more training too) before then.
Speak to you soon.