Here we go again then, in more ways than one, as I've just written this once and then accidentally deleted it, one more big run to wrap up the year. The last few years I've run the The Gut Buster 10 mile in the gap between Christmas and the new year, but this year I decided to set my sights a bit higher and signed up for the Winter Cross Ultra on the 28th December.
Because, contrary to popular belief I'm not completely bonkers, I thought it sensible to only do the shorter of the two distances on offer, signing up for the 50 Km run (that's 31 and a bit miles for all the old folk). Working on the premise that as it hasn't stopped raining for the past 3 months it was unlikely to be dry, it's one of the shortest days of the year, and traditionally its pretty grim on the South Downs in December, the 45 mile option just seemed a step too far. In order to make the most of the short daylight hours it's an 07:30 start and whilst being an early riser it's 45 minutes from home to the start, 45 minutes that could be better spent sleeping. So I took the van down the night before and made good use of my extra 45 minutes, squeezing in a bit of extra shut eye and an extra brew in bed, before wandering across to the start and registration. So, race number collected and pinned on, safety pin pulled back out of my finger, shoes tightened, pre-race briefing noted, socks pulled up, nervous wee, watch started and at the stroke of 07:30 we were off, straight into a puddle of sufficient size and depth to qualify as a lake! Despite a break in the seemingly never ending rain and a dry start to the morning, wet feet were obviously still going to be the order of the day. The route consists of 3 out and back loops (4 for the 45 mile lunatics), all of which center on the start location, ideal for this time of year, when access to dry kit and an option to bail out if things turn nasty is sensible. The first leg (North) follows a disused railway line, which now forms the Meon Valley Trail. Like all old railway lines, it's flat and well drained, so despite the wet feet from the initial lake crossing, the first leg was dry underfoot and easy running, an ideal warm up for whats to come. With the first leg quickly dispatched it was on to the main course and a turn to East. The second leg picks up the South Downs Way for the climb up to Old Winchester Hill and onward along the South Downs Way towards the turn around point just before the The Sustainability Centre. The last couple of miles before the turn proved to be the muddiest of the whole run, with some deep muddy puddles and very slippery underfoot in places, all part of the fun and to be expected at this time of year. Back at the start with 19 miles done, there was just the West leg to go. Still feeling good and managing to hold a fairly steady pace, despite the ups and downs, I grabbed 1/2 a banana and a couple of biscuits from the well stocked table at the start line, had a quick chat with the lovely marshals manning the start and pushed on. The West leg has the longest road section at a couple of miles, the majority of which is uphill, climbing steadily back up to the South Downs Way at Beacon Hill, there are some pretty impressive views from here if the weathers good, looking towards Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, no time for admiring the view today though, onward, following the trail towards the turn around point at Holden Farm. A brief stop at the turn to thank the marshals and grab a Jaffa cake and away for the final few miles. Helpfully my watch, which records time and distance, decided to pick the 28 mile mark to run out of power, not to worry though, the last couple of miles are all down hill, so just a case of plodding on. And plod on to the finish I did, getting back in under 5 hours (results here once finalised), a time I'm really happy with. It was a great morning out, well organised, plenty of mud, lots of hills, a great route with some lovely views and the weather managed to not rain for the first time in forever. Only 363 days to go to the next one!
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It's been a couple of weeks since I had anything of interest to say, the weathers been pretty dire, it's been the run up to Christmas (although I've been trying to ignore it in he hope it would go away), the "Old Cheese" hasn't been well and did I mention the fact it's not stopped raining since September. But, on the plus side, Christmas is now behind us, with just the traditional "shall we put the Christmas tree away today" discussion to have on the 27th, and far more importantly, the shortest day is now behind us, so it's all getting better from here on in! I just need a short break in the weather and normal service will be resumed, which as far as I'm concerned can't come fast enough. With the rain putting play to most of my fun I've not even managed to get out on my bike for a couple of weeks, if it carries on much longer I'm going to have to take up swimming and that's just not going to happen. I've not even managed any running to speak of, a couple of mid week efforts in the dark and a very muddy 10 mile off road plod Christmas eve has been about it. Even the Christmas eve effort didn't result in anything worthy of writing about, other than falling over in a muddy puddle when my foot slipped down a big tractor tyre rut that I was trying to run along the edge of avoiding the puddle. Apart from being piss wet through and covered in mud I thought I'd escaped my fall injury free until I got back home and pulled off my leggings, by which time to blood had congealed into my leggings, resulting in them being firmly stuck to my knee. A bit of ice and a day off on Christmas day with a gentle run today shows that yet again I seem to have escaped any lasting damage, which is lucky. Whilst the weathers been dire I did manage to find the time to ice my Christmas cake, I'll happily admit it's not my finest work, but as long as it tastes OK that's fine by me. I also managed to find time one evening to make some home made Christmas crackers, making good use of a load of novelty bit's and bob's I had left over from another idea. The only other thing of interest is part 254585 in a long running series of "How to annoy your boy". For as long as I can remember I've made it my mission to find various ways to brighten up "The Boy's" Christmas day. This mainly consists of me wrapping up various things I know he doesn't want alongside his real presents (Sprouts, lemons, bricks etc) or disguising the things he does want as something else (Flat screen TV into a CRT TV box anyone). I've no idea if "The Boy" enjoys my childish behavior, but either way it amuses me, so it's a tradition I'm going to carry on with until I either run out of ideas or get bored.
As per tradition "The Boy" wanted money for Christmas (boring), so, one large box, one E bay shopping trip for novelty stuff, one large quantity of loose change, some money bags, a few sweets and a large bag of 1970's style bean bag filling and the Christmas lucky dip is born. Not only did "The Boy" have something to open that he wasn't expecting on Christmas day, but he had a couple of hours of trying to clear up loads of static loaded polystyrene balls, counting stacks of loose change back into bank bags and all with a hangover. That will learn him for going out on Christmas eve! I've struggled for motivation this past week, the endless rain, dark mornings and nights have finally got the better of me, to the point where I even cut Wednesday nights run short because I just couldn't face slogging along in the dark. I had planned on getting out on the bike Saturday morning, but, when I woke up to yet another gale blowing and the rain lashing against the bedroom windows I just couldn't face it. So instead I sat in bed and had a cup of tea, and then, I had another one. Missing a days cycling isn't going to kill me and maybe the break will do me good, doing something else for a change might help restore the old motivation. So instead of heading out I had a leisurely breakfast and then headed up to the allotment for the morning. Obviously it couldn't stay dry for more than 10 minutes at a time, but between hiding in the greenhouse and shed to miss the hail and downpours I had a productive morning. I scraped of all the old rotten wood chippings from one of the paths, adding the rotten stuff to the compost heap, re-positioned the retaining boards and barrowed in about 30 loads of new chippings to level out the path. So that's the hedge cut back as hard as I can and the first path replaced as part of operation "no birds on my veg next year". Just the other paths to do and a big old bonfire to enjoy once it all dries out a bit and then we can get onto the next stage. I also managed a bit of general tidying up, cleared the final bit's out of the greenhouse ready to give it a wash before the growing season starts again (that horrible job can wait for another rainy day though), had a chat with my plot neighbors and generally pottered around, which I think you'll find is the whole point of having an allotment in the first place. Saturday afternoon I hid myself away in the workshop for a bit of tinker time and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. I really need to have some project or another on the go. I think it's when I feel like I'm not producing anything useful or making anything that I get most frustrated. So I've solved that problem by starting on a couple of little "keep me occupied and busy" projects that will hopefully give me something to think about and occupy my fingers over the long night's that are still to come. I'll keep you updated and stick some pictures up when I've got something to show, but for now it's all in my head, so you'll just have to wait and see. I'd signed up for the Muddy Welly 10K on Sunday, this is a nice little run around the grounds of Wellington Collage and is the second race in the my sporting times organised Winter Run series. The other two being the Mapledurham 10 and the Gut Buster, both of which are great events in their own right. After another night of heavy rain the morning was clear with a cold wind blowing, not the best running conditions as the wind can make for hard going, but it's a pretty sheltered course and well drained, so, whilst there were some wet parts the majority of the course was pretty dry. 10Km isn't my favorite distance and is pretty short by my current standards, it's a pretty fast pace from the off with no respite. Unlike a marathon where you can afford to have a slow mile and catch it back up on the next one there's no such opportunity over 10Km. If you lose a few seconds that's you moving backwards down the field, so it's really 40 odd minutes of full on effort. As predicted we started fast and the pace stayed pretty quick for the duration, I made up a few places in the first couple of Km and settled into a steady pace, holding the gap to the person in front but slowly opening a gap to the one behind. By the half way point a significant gap had opened out to the people behind, but I'd lost a couple of seconds on the one in front. Not to be put off though I pushed on, never letting the person in front out of my sight and managing to hold on, not losing any more time but unable to gain until the end. A final finishing position of 16th from the 379 finishers in 41:18 (5th in my age group category) isn't a bad result and is pretty consistent when viewed against 2017 and 18 where I managed 30th and 18th respectively. I don't think I could have gone much faster, but likewise felt fully in control at all times, paced the run well and finished strongly, so all in all a good result for me and as I mentioned, pretty consistent. Whilst we are discussing running, I seem to be going through socks like no ones business at the moment. I suspect it's just a coincidence and I must have just bought a load of socks that have all given up the ghost at the some time but I seem to be wearing out the toes on a weekly basis. So if anyone's got a use for a load of socks with holes in the toes give me a shout, I've got more than enough to go around.
It was a bit of a busy week last week, made worse up by a trip to Barnsley for a work seminar on Friday. You wouldn't think that a night away would cause such grief, but traveling up on the Thursday night and getting back late on the Friday makes a mess of things and pretty well ruins 3 evenings. I had an Audax planned for Saturday, so had loaded the bike and all the other clobber into the van Wednesday night, ready for a quick in and out when I got back from Barnsley on Friday night, throwing the running gear in as well, planning on staying out Saturday night for an early morning run on Sunday, weather permitting. And the plan worked fairly well, I got back from the slog down the M1 just after 20:00 on Friday night to be greeted by "The Emma" with a brew on the go. Whilst I necked my brew, got changed into something more sensible and we had a quick catch up from the last couple of days "The Emma", being the superstar that she is, stuck another brew in my flask and I was back out the door and on my way to Beaconsfield for Saturday mornings Audax by 21:00 and tucked up in a quiet spot by just after 22:00 for a great nights sleep. Who says a bit of prior planning never pays off? Saturday dawned dry and I would guess that there were 50 or so lunatics lined up for the start of the South of Bucks Winter Warmer 200Km. Despite going pretty much past the end of our road, coming from Beaconsfield to loop around Basingstoke via Alton, before heading up to Wheatley near Oxford and back to the start, this was a new ride to me. It seems a bit silly travelling an hour away just to ride back home again, but, it was a nice route and picked up on plenty of new roads to keep things interesting. Utilizing some of the quieter A roads that I'd normally steer clear of provides a ride-able route in all weather conditions, resulting in some fairly flat, fast miles and was far better than slogging along mud soaked country lanes at this time of year. Helpfully that rain that seems so persistent at the moment stayed away and whilst overcast and damp, it was a fairly warm day for the time of year. Taking the opportunity to get in a few fast miles I was back at the van not long after it got dark, having had another great day out. Not the most interesting route or necessarily the nicest roads, but ideal for the time of year and one I'll defiantly be going back to do again. With the plan being to get out for an early morning run on Sunday, I moved the van down to one of my favorite little night stops at Kingsclere after a brew and bite to eat on Saturday night and was tucked up early in bed. What a contrast the night was to the day though, by 23:00 the van was being absolutely battered by the wind and rain and I was beginning to wonder if I was going to still be there in the morning or chatting to the Tin man, lion and Scarecrow!
There were a couple of points in the night where I even considered getting up to move the van round so it was pointing into the wind instead of being hit side on and I was woken numerous times by the rain beating down. By the morning though things had quietened down a bit and both the van and I had survived the onslaught, dry, warm and happy in the knowledge that no matter how bad the weather the van was up to the job. The nights rain had refilled all the puddles and ensured that the mornings run was a muddy, slippery affair and I didn't push too far or too hard. To be totally honest my legs felt pretty heavy after Saturdays efforts and I just bimbled along enjoying the early morning fresh air for 12 or so miles before heading back to the van and onward to home. As ever it had been a good weekend, wrapped up perfectly by Bacon Sandwiches for lunch with "The Emma" when I got home. It doesn't get much better than that, an Audax, a storm, a cheeky wee run and Sunday lunch with the lovely Emma, I'll take that any day thank you! It's been a pretty quiet weekend here at the madhouse. Saturday morning dawned cold, with a hard frost and low hanging mist, often a sign of better things to come once the mist burns off and the sun starts to work it's magic. So, grasping the seemingly rare opportunity of a dry day, I wrapped up warm and headed out early for a few miles on the bike, planning on heading down to Whitchurch followed by a wide loop around Andover and back home the way I'd gone. Unfortunately the sunny day never materialized and by the time I'd got to Whitchurch the mist had moved off, only to be replaced with low laying cloud and a chilly breeze, which, unhappily, stopped the day from ever really warming up. Cold fingers and toes aside, it was still good to be out and coming home to a hot brew and cheese on toast Emma style for lunch was, as always, the icing on the cake. Sunday saw me lined up bright and early on another chilly day, for the start of the Mapledurham 10. This is always a good run, with a nice mixture of muddy off road fun and farm tracks, with more than enough climbing to make it a hard day out, yet still retaining enough downhill to make it enjoyable. With 10 Km and 10 Mile options and both distances starting together it's always as fast start, mainly due to the 10KM runners setting off at a sprint and everyone else being drawn along at the same pace. I'd made that starting too fast mistake before though, so aimed to set off at what I knew to be a fast but manageable pace. Telling myself not to worry about losing a few positions in the early stages as a lot of the fast guys would turn off when the courses split after a mile or so and at that point we would get a proper idea of what was happening and who was racing who. I managed to pick up a few places in the first couple of miles, settling quickly into a sustainable pace and by the time we reached the top of the first big climb I'd worked my way up to about 20th place. By the 5 mile mark and the point that things started to get seriously muddy for a couple of miles, I was locked into a race within the race with the runner in front for 17th position. We traded places a few times over the next couple of miles, him faster on the downhill, me faster uphill and pretty well evenly matched on the flat, pushing each other, neither willing to concede, both fully focused on the job in hand. And that's pretty much how it was for the final few miles, pushing each other onward, locked in our own personal battle, until we both caught and passed the man in front towards the end, moving us both up a place, finally finishing in 16th place in 1:11:24. Not quite as fast as last year, but defiantly a better run. Pacing well from the start, despite the fast start, and working well through the mud and uphill sections, I felt that this was one of my better runs. Made even better by a bit of competition from a well matched fellow runner, one that just managed to get the better of me at the end. I'll get the excuses in now though and say it was all downhill for that last mile and I'm rubbish at going downhill, not that I'm much better at going uphill, or on the flat for that matter! About the only other thing I've managed to achieve this weekend was sorting out the gardens. I've been waiting for week's for it to be dry enough to get the shrubs cut back, the orchard and rose's pruned and the other left overs of summer sorted out. With everything tidied up Saturday afternoon and a run to the tip to get rid off all the rubbish Sunday afternoon that's the gardens ready for the winter, another job ticked off the list and another job less to worry about.
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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