JogBlog - "Why walk when you can run!"

2009 High Peak 40

2009-09-19T15:38:00.001+01:00

Hi Folks,

Well I couldn't do the Bullkock Smithy this year due to having a friends wedding to go to, but the second biggest race in the local calendar is the High Peak 40. Starting in the centre of Buxton it is a 40 mile course taking in the Goyt valley, Rushup Edge, Mam Tor, Cavedale, Tideswell, Monsal Trail and Deepdale. There's a fair amount of climb on it at 2000 metres in total. Results:

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Position Time
79 out of 160 8:25:32
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Well my build up to this had not been ideal. A good training month in July gave way to a patchy training month in August when I had two holidays, and then September was even more of a struggle with weddings and stag do's every weekend.

Turning up at the start there was a welcome surprise of loads of faces I knew with Nick Ham and quite a few other Stockport Harriers lining up plus the support driver for one of the female runners I'd met at last years Bullock Smithy. The whistle was blown without much of a do and caught many of us by surprise and we were off!

Start to Bonsal Incline - 023751 - 3.1 miles in
Leaving Buxton I took it easy as there was a long way and I was trying to conserve my energy as much as possible. I was probably a little dehydrated to start with which wasn't a clever move, but overall feeling fine. There was a short climb and then onto a dismantled railway section through to the checkpoint

Checkpoint 1 to Taxal Layby - 009799 - 6.5 miles in
Having stocked up on water we hit a dream stretch for me... a long downhill on road! I got a little carried away and flew down this. At the bottom I ran along Fernilee Reservoir and then into a rougher offroad section along the River Goyt. Reaching the checkpoint I felt OK and adopted the Jeff Lapham checkpoint etiquette of just push on through as quickly as possible!

Checkpoint 2 to Digleach Farm - 044810 - 9.2 miles in
A difficult to navigate section followed with plenty of tight twists and turns and thankfully it was well signposted but there were one or two points I thought I'd lost contact with people. After crossing the railway bridge I had a long climb and at this point caught up with Paul and Jonah from Stockport Harriers. These chaps are great long distance runners so I was worried I was going to quick but if I had the damage was already done so I thought I'd stick with them for a bit for a bit of company.

Checkpoint 3 to Beet Farm - 059835 - 11.5 miles in
Stocking up at the checkpoint with some flapjack I continued down the road onto Charley Lane. A long climb began as we left New Smithy and I was beginning to feel my back starting to ache a little which was a little disappointing so early into the race. The heart rate was knocking around the 160 bpm which was a little high at this stage in the race really as the adrenaline effect should have worn off.

Checkpoint 4 to Rushup Edge - 092825 - 14.4 miles in
As we left CP4 (with some more flapjack in my mouth!) there was a more gradual climb until we hit a footpath section along Rushup Edge. This section lasted a long time with plenty of ups and downs, and I started to feel my legs fading slightly and so I decided to let the rest of the Harriers go. I was pretty glad to see the checkpoint when it eventually arrived, as my back was still aching and the legs were starting to feel a little more sluggish, but the heart and lungs were still fine so I was happy. At Checkpoint 5 I overheard a funny conversation from a group of hikers hanging around watching the race...

Hiker 1: "So they've run nearly 15 miles up to this point."
Hiker 2: "Yeah, that's a long way!"
Hiker 3: "Its the marathon they've still got left to run that I'm more impressed with!"

It made me laugh!

Checkpoint 5 to Castleton - 148835 - 18.6 miles in
Leaving CP5 I knew I had one tough section ahead of me. Luckily we were already high up and even with having to descend to get to the path to go up Mam Tor, the worst part of the climb was bypassed. Climbing up Mam Tor was still tiring though with the back ache still there and the legs now quite tired. Fellow runners were starting to over take me now which was a little disappointing as it meant I had set off too quickly. Descending from Hollins Cross was a tricky descent and on training runs I've stacked it once or twice on this path so I kept it calm. However part the way down the Irish chap from the Lincoln Spires & Steeples marathon came past me! I had a quick chat with him but it was clear he was still strong and he quickly pulled away.

Checkpoint 6 to Bushy Heath Farm - 148786 - 23.1 miles in
Castleton, situated in the bottom of a valley, so that would mean more climbing! Cavedale is a beautiful climb, but it is tough. I was very tired by the time I got to the top of Cavedale and I was breathing heavily, so my heart sank as the footpath in the direction of Bushy Heath farm went up another hill. A small group of chaps kept leap frogging me due to me dropping to fast walking, but after a few minutes ahead I'd catch them up as one of them was suffering from cramps and had to keep stopping, his mates were clearly too eager and in his troubled state this chap couldn't keep up. It was good to get to Bushy Heath farm but I'll admit to feeling in a bad state with some concern about completion at this point. Looking back, it was probably the near 4.5 miles of constant climbing, but at the time I didn't put two and two together.

Checkpoint 7 to Tideswell Dale - 153743 - 26.2 miles in
What goes up, must come down as a wallpaper advert from long ago said, and so this stage was a long downhill! It would have been a real shame to waste a long downhill on the road walking, so I started jogging. Amazingly I started to feel better the longer this stage went on. I'd never been to Tideswell before and it turns out that it is a really beautiful village, definitely somewhere I'd like to go for a pub lunch sometime. Reaching Tideswell Dale picnic area checkpoint was great, but I quickly pushed on.

Checkpoint 8 to Upper Dale - 178719 - 29.2 miles in
This stage was mostly flat and followed a valley. I had a brief chat with a chap who turned out to be a triathlete on his first ultra who was doing really well, so well in fact that it was obvious he was feeling stronger then me and so I told him to push on. The scenery was very special along the Monsal Trail and as we entered Miller Dale I stopped to ask for directions off some friendly hikers, and back on the correct trail I headed up some stairs onto the disused railway and then the next checkpoint.

Checkpoint 9 to High Low - 158685 - 32.2 miles in
With approximately 10 miles to go I was feeling positive. My back was hurting less my legs felt tired but alright. A marshall directed me down a steep set of stairs by the by the railway viaduct and onto a grassy plain that ran by the river eventually crossing the road that led to a long climb up Deep Dale (or Deep Dale 1 as a lady who was running with me at this point called it). I was tiring by this point and and the long climb on uneven terrain made it worse. During this most unwelcome climb, I was talking to a chap who had completed the Lakeland 100 (that's 100 miles in the Lake District folks!) and it was fascinating to hear his experience. I was glad to eventually reach the top and the next checkpoint

Checkpoint 10 to King Sterndale - 093717 - 37.2 miles in
A long flat road made up most of the route to the next checkpoint. This became very hard on my knees and I was reduced to walking for a half of it. With the next checkpoint in sight the ground suddenly fell away to reveal a really steep valley in the form of Deep Dale 2 (a different Deep Dale) that I had to cross. The really sharp climb even had a race photographer on, and the cheeky chappy started laughing as he caught me up on down hill carrying his big camera... his smile disappeared on the sharp uphill though :)

Checkpoint 11 to Finish - 053726 - 40 miles
This was a short stretch, and a lonely one. I didn't see a single competitor on this section as I jogged / walked along. I decided to keep what pace I could up as I didn't want any more people overtaking me this close to the finish. Running up the final straight at Buxton Community School I was cheered on by the Stockport Harriers from the early points in the race. It was a huge relief to cross the finish line as by this point everything was hurting! My watch said I crossed the finish line in 8:21:28 rather then the official time.

I really enjoyed this race overall, and was over the moon with my performance. My training had been less than was needed really for a race of this distance, and I think the main reason I got away with it has been my prolonged period of high mileage over the last year and a half. The race organisation was superb so a huge thank you to them. The food I ate provided by them on my way round probably cost the race entry fee! :)

Cheers

Andy

2009 - Cracken Edge FR

2009-08-05T18:15:00.005+01:00

Hi Folks,

Well continuing my summer mythical themed races I entered the Cracken Edge Fell Race set near Hayfield over the Cracken Edge/Chinly Churn cliffs. At 7 miles long and 1450 feet of climbing its a class BM fell race so no walk in the park. Conditions were reasonably hot and sunny, but wet underfoot in places from recent rain. Quick results below:

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Position Time

63 out of 229 55:59

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This races follows a figure of 8 round Cracken Edge with a fair amount of climb. I set near the front tried to keep it easy to begin with as Chinley Churn is on the Bullock Smithy and I know the climb is a long one. I hadn't expected this first climb though as it was a real steep one and I was very glad when it eventually flattened out.

There was a bit of queue at a really tall stile which was a bit of a shame, but the nature of the beast I guess. The running was fairly tough underfoot, with uneven trails with puddles, mud patches and rocks. Fell running takes it toll on you far quicker then running on the road and it still surprises me how tough the downhills are due the uneven terrain. I'd like to think my balance is pretty good from a childhood spent playing down the valley and climbing trees, but to see one of the top fell runners come flying past you on the downhill, their feet barely touching the ground, with the balance of something akin to a gymnast is a sight to behold.

As I past the bottom of the figure of 8 with half way to go the body was not in the best of states. The warning lights were flashing and as we started the climb to Chinley Churn I was slowing. A friendly fell runner from behind offered me some words of encouragement and I adopted the Fell Running climbing walk technique using the hands on the knees to get additional distance whilst using the arms to ease some of the work on the legs and this served me well as I caught up with a couple of people who were jogging by the top of the climb.

Going down the hill was great! This slope was a gentle wide open soft grassed one and the speed I got up to was phenominal, with very little to worry about, and the slope in my favour I was flying. I was hoping to lose the fell runner behind me as this was road runner territory really, but he never slipped to far behind me, then came a difficult path strewn with rocks, puddles and tufts of grass. My ankles were tired and my speed was slowing because of this, and then came the descent from hell! This was a really steep slope, with rocks and tree ruts jutting out all over the place with very narrow footholds. I was reduced to a slightly hurried cautious walking speed, and it was here I was taught how much fell running skill I'm yet to learn as the chap behind me flew past me somehow, shortly followed by another. There sense of balance was incredible.

A wide path followed and then I could see the finish line, with a super steep, but wide open moorland finish. I through caution to the wind and flew down it and just pipped one of the other fell runners to the finish.

This was a tough race, and I was really pleased with my performance, and best of all it was a fundraising race for the Kinder Mountain Rescue. Thanks very much to the organisers, they did a great job. Maybe next year I should enter the Hayfield championships and see how I do in the league!

Cheers

Andy

2009 - The Wizard 5

2009-07-29T19:30:00.008+01:00

Hi folks,

Well I've had complaints about the lack of updates so hopefully this race report will help :) The Wizard 5 is a 5 mile multi terrain event (road, trail, and off road) set near the village of Alderley Edge. Brief results below:

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Position Time
14th out of 107 33:22
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So a few weeks back Rob of Bramhall parkrun race director fame thrust a flyer in my hand for a race, and as I read it the name captured my attention! I'm a bit of a sucker for the King Arthur and Lord of the Rings wizard stories and so I wondered why this race was called "The Wizard", well Rob answered, "It starts at The Wizard restaurant in Alderley Edge"... an answer, but it didn't really help me! Anyway, a little digging reveals that legend has it that Merlin has been spotted in the wood that this race is now set in. So with the small chance of meeting Merlin, I eagerly turned up at the start line ready to go.

It turned out that Wednesday was a shocking day for weather with really unusual heavy downpours for this time of year... very unusual, almost as if there was some other power at work in nature ;) This left me in the unusual position of having to ponder a concern that troubles many women every weekend... what shoes do I wear? On one hand I had my Asics Trabuco's which would normally be perfect (fast, medium grip) for a course like this, but perhaps the extra mud in some sections may be to much for even their trail grip, or I had my 4x4 style shoes, the Innovate Roclites (slow, but great grip), but that extra grip would be wasted on the road section and maybe slow me down slightly... decisions, decisions, I chose the Trabuco, as the Dr Pepper slogan goes, "What's the worst that could happen?"

At the start line there were plenty of club runners, including a few friendly faces from Wilmslow Running club and Bramhall parkrun. It had stopped raining for the couple of hours leading up to this and I was good to go, the whistle sounded and off we went! The first part was a small loop round mainly very good paths. I was trying not to set off to quick, but with it being a 5 mile course speed was the name of the game and I was pleased to say I was towards the front! As we left the small loop we encountered the first of what would be many stiles. Now stiles are tricky enough to get over in races (a few brave souls do a kind of hurdle!), but these stiles where all went and slippery, and so not wanting to give any bored local wizards any entertainment I was a little cautious on them. Around the 2km mark it became obvious the rain had left its mark on the course as the farmers field was a mud bath! Running certainly became hard and there was a fair amount sliding!

The 5km mark came and I found myself in a little forest with Nathan from the Bramhall parkrun behind me. Running down a short steep muddy slope I saw a small old wooden bridge and as I put my first foot onto the bridge it suddenly felt like I was walking on ice and my foot flew out from under me and I landed with a bang on my knees. I got up feeling a bit of a prat and ploughed on, but I got four steps before I realised I had taken a bit of damage from that fall and couldn't really run that well. I hobbled over to the edge of the path so that other runners could pass me. Over the next kilometre I started to recover and slowly caught back up with Nathan again not daring to look at my knees to see what state they were in. The graph though shows the impact the fall had on my pace.

By the time the finish line came into view I didn't really have anything left in the tank to give. The knees were in pain, and the lungs where already taking in as much air as they could, and so I had to let Nathan go as he passed me on the sprint finish. On crossing the finish line though a pack of three Cadbury's Cream Eggs where thrust into my hands and the spirit quickly lifted again! I was really pleased to have finished despite the fall, and a kind man from the St John Ambulance came over and sorted my knees out which was thankfully just bad cuts and grazes. Here's a photo of what they looked like after they'd been treated!

Anyway, a big thanks to the Malcolm Fowler and the volunteers for organising the race which raised over £400 for 'The Together Trust' and especially to the St John's Ambulance for looking after my knee... now where did I leave that final cream egg? :)

Cheers

Andy

parkrun 5k Time Trial Results

2009-07-25T17:54:00.000+01:00

As the parkrun 5Ks TT are so frequent, this post will list all future results. Unless otherwise stated the results are for Bramhall parkrun.

Date Time Position Age Grade%
25/07/09 19:16 12th out of 213 66.96%
11/07/09 18:52 17th out of 260 68.37%
04/07/09 18:40 9th out of 238 69.11% - PB time
27/06/09 18:47 4th out of 54 68.68% - Heaton
20/06/09 18:54 2nd out of 32 68.25% - Heaton
30/05/09 19:37 17th out of 229 65.76%
09/05/09 19:47 7th out of 308 65.12%
25/04/09 18:56 9th out of 276 68.13%
18/04/09 18:48 10th out of 292 68.62%
11/04/09 19:28 11th out of 204 66.27&
21/03/09 18:48 11th out of 265 68.62%
07/02/09 19:13 2nd out of 109 67.13% - PB position
31/01/09 20:59 27th out of 164 61.48%
03/01/09 18:56 9th out of 133 68.13%
27/12/08 19:00 4th out of 82 67.89%
20/12/08 18:56 7th out of 170 68.13%
13/12/08 19:43 8th out of 83 65.43%
29/11/08 19:15 7th out of 105 67.01%
22/11/08 18:55 10th out of 134 68.19%
04/10/08 19:23 6th out of 159 66.55%
09/08/08 19:48 14th out of 104 65.15%
28/06/08 19:48 10th out of 104 65.15%
07/06/08 19:16 10th out of 116 66.95%
10/05/08 19:58 6th out of 112 64.61%
26/04/08 20:02 9th out of 87 64.39%
19/04/08 20:27 8th out of 89 63.08%

Cheers

Andy

2009 Great Manchester Run Special

2009-05-17T14:35:00.015+01:00

Hi,

Well the annual Great Manchester Run has come round again quickly! It's amazing to think how quickly a year flies by and I couldn't help but think of the Andy of 2008 who'd run a marathon the day before and then got up super early for a visit to the airport where transport troubles made it look a little dodgy as to if I'd even make it! Well this years build up was much more suitable and I'd set myself the target of a sub-40 10K whilst also agreeing to then sneak into the final pink wave and run round in the Stockport County Fide the bear mascot suit! Anyway, quick results below, and Great Run pics here

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As me, as Fide the bear

Overall Position Age Group position Time Age Grade% 5K time

140 out of 26936 108 out of 14610 38:06 70.5% 18:04

20426 out of 26936 ------- 1:07:41 39.7% 36:10

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Fresh from my Marathon des Sables endurance challenge I fancied going back to the beginning of my running career... a 10K. The Great Manchester run was the first race I signed up for and this would be my 5th time (and due to ever increasing cost of this event, probably my last). I got there in plenty of time and a quick change into race gear at the Red Cross charity stand I donned for the first time my Stockport Harriers running vest! I got to the start line and finally found out what the mysterious 'A' was for on my race number, as I was allowed to enter a special 'A' pen right behind the elite runners and with space to warm up in, it was brilliant!

By the time we were ready to go it turned out that probably the greatest distance runner of all time, Haile Gebreselassie, was just 6 rows in front of me, touching distance of a living legend! How could I not feel inspired in the circumstances?

The gun went and off I shot. Each kilometer had to be under 4 minutes for me to meet my target and this would be a tough order for me. I finished the first K in a time of 3:06 and realised I was going way to quick, and tried to take my foot off the pedal before I did to much damage.

As I approached Old Trafford I felt strong, but I knew I'd be in trouble as my splits had been incredible up to this point and I was ahead of a fellow Stockport Harrier I knew to be stronger then me. The atmosphere was just to intoxicating though and so even though I tried to ease off, I didn't really. The crowd were great, and with my running vest on I was getting the odd shout of "COME ON STOCKPORT!" from spectators!

By the 5K mark it was now obvious I was going too quick as I'd set a new 5K PB of 18:04 and I still had 5K to go! Now the difficult patch started and by 7K my split was over the 4 minute barrier. The winds were strong in this part of the course and really slowed me down and it wasn't until the final K I managed to pick the pace up the pace.

Coming onto Deansgate I was running on empty but a shout of "Go Andy" just made itself heard (which I later found out was Tim from work). There wasn't much of a sprint in my legs which felt as if they were on fire by now, but I kept it together long enough until I crossed the finish line in a new PB of 38:06, but there was no time to rest, and off the Charity Village I went.

A quick pit stop which would have made the McClaren F1 team proud meant that i was refuelled and back out making my way to the start in double quick time. I got into the Pink wave just as they were brought to the start line, the gun went and now the hard work began. I was keeping it easy to begin with as Fide dur to the fur suit really being an oven. Fellow pink wave runners went past me in there droves and I really felt like I was only walking, but I kept the faith with my pace knowing that consistency is key, not a fast section. Again there was the odd shout of "Stockport!" from the crowd, only this time I couldn't see the person due to Fide's head.

I did manage to scare Ali at the Red Cross cheering point by running up to him and hugging him. I'm still not sure if he realised it was me in the suit, which made it all the funnier! As I approached Old Trafford I bumped into a cousin of mine as I saw Christie Bear cheering from the side lines and another hug ensued! By the 5K mark my time was 36:10 and I felt a little sad that I wouldn't be able to do John and Mini proud and get Fide round quicker then Sharky (there's a bit of rivalry between Sale Sharks and Stockport County who share the same ground). Still there was 5K to go, and I'd overcome tougher challenges and so I decided to give it everything I had.

The windy section near Salford Quays was a nightmare with the giant head of Fide which acting as a sail, it was like having some annoying person constantly pulling your head back! My neck was weary by the end of this section but the long straight into Manchester was all that was left, and so off I went. By now many of my fellow pink wavers who'd given it there all were exhausted, and I felt a little bad overtaking them in Fide knowing how much of a blow that can be from my London Marathon exploits where the same happened to me. At 9K however the time was 1:01:56 and there was a chance of a new mascot PB so I threw caution to the wind and went for it, hoping that I'd reach the finish line before I overheated!

The final sprint must have been hillarious to see with Fide's head bouncing around all over the place. I was exstatic to cross the line with a new Mascot PB of 1:07:41! Looking back at the graph below though I have to say there is no way I'd have carried on at this speed if I'd known my heart rate was over 200 bpm... not advisable in the slightest!

A huge thanks to Laura and Jo of the Red Cross and of course Stockport County for lending me the suit. Stockport County had even been so kind as to dry clean the suit first! It goes without saying another big thanks to all the spectators and the organisers who put on a great event as usual. I'll try and get some pics up in due course.

Cheers

Andy

Marathon des Sables 2009

2009-04-05T22:12:00.001+01:00

Hi Folks,

This page has been a while coming, its primarily to link all the MdS blogs together so here goes.

Overall results
Position Time Average speed
632 out of 770 46H29:38 4.35

And now... well its a while since I finished the Marathon des Sables and I miss the great time and new friends I made out there. The atmosphere was incredible, and no problem seemed to big. Everyone of all nations seemed to get along, and it really was an incredible bonding experience. Another adventure is needed, another desert race, or perhaps an ironman? Who knows, for now I'll stay content with the High Peak 40 and the 3 Peaks challenge.

Cheers

Andy

MdS - Day 6 - A marathon to remember

2009-04-03T18:18:00.003+01:00

Hi,

Stage 4 - Aferdou Nsooualhine to Mekta Sfa: 42.2km

Quick results
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Position Time
659 out of 771 08:16:17
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Well after a little rest on Day 5 after finishing the long day at 09:30 there was now just 26.2 miles seperating Dave and I from the finish line. We all lined up battered, blistered, patched to high heaven and body condition wise we must have been one of the worst looking fields assembled on a marathon start line, and for the first time in my running career I realised I had no fear of the marathon distance, repect yes, but not fear.

Dave's condition had taken a turn for the worse and whilst his spirits were high his bowels had decided that it would be a hard fight for him to the finish line. Dave and I started as usual with a consistent stroll at the back. As the race continued his emergency stops got ,ore frequent and unpredictable, but nothing could dampen his spirits.

This years Marathon stage route ironically seemed to sum up the whole event. There was a tall rocky hill to clinb, lots of sand dunes, and the special signaturue of the MdS 2009, a river ford to cross. The river really distroyed all those carefully placed plasters and so I sat down and tore mine off.

As we approached the finish line we desecended a rocky slope and Dave descided there should be a full on sprint finish as is his usual signature finish, and so with some final words to one another Dave and I went full pelt, and in a blur we legged it over the finish line to the surprise of the spectators as our pqrt of the field was the walking wounded section!

We have our finishers medals now and are quite happily stuffing our faces with lovely desserts in the hotel. Dave is on the mend, and I'm left with a feeling of what next? :)

Thanks for all the messages, they really meant a lot.

Cheers

Andy

MdS - Day 4 - The Long Day

2009-04-01T09:00:00.004+01:00

Hi,

Stage 3 - Erg Znaïgui/Aferdou Nsooualhine : 91 km

Quick results
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Position Time
583 out of 773 24:26:16
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The long day is traditionally 40 to 50 miles long, because of the cancellation of Day 1 the race organiser made it the longest ever in MdS history at 56 miles. Throw in appalling rocky climbs, countless dunes, hot temperatures, sand storms, pushing on through the night and its fair to say I've never been through anything so horrific in my entire life.

It took me 24 hours ish to complete and the memory is to raw to recount now. My feet are trashed, my shoulders muscles destroyed, and I've ended up eating what must be about 1kg of dust. Dave and I went through the most extreme highs and lows many times and managed to get each other through somehow.

On the bright side I have this afternoon to recover before a marathon tomorrow. There's rumours it will be super hard again to make up for the shorter distance this year. The last stage (a 10 mile run) has been cancelled for reasons unknown (their translator has the worst accent ever).

Thanks for the messages, they're great to receive.

Below is a picture of the camels finishing late in the day!

MdS - Day 3 - A walk in the park? :)

2009-03-31T09:33:00.006+01:00

Hi,

Stage 2 - Znaigui circular: 35km

Quick results
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Position Time
779 out of 798 08:43:26
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Today started very cold, and with the sad news that Dave was still feeling ill. I think he's picked up a bug from somewhere and it is not plesant. So a quick change of tactic was necessary as both Dave and I had agreed there was no way Jack Osborne (who'd managed 1 stage of the MdS) was beating either of us!

To start with the camels where worryingly close, and but slowly but surely Dave pulled himself through, little by little, step by step. Soon the camels couldn't even be seen as we kept up our consistent walking pace.

The back of the field is definitely where the heroics are, and I was privilaged to see some incredible examples of human spirit.

As we left checkpoint 2 we had a long slog across a featureless landscape, and then some steep dunes. We could see the finish line and ran across together to much relief.

I hope when I face my dark hour I can face it with as much deterimination as Dave. More emails please, they're great to receive :)

MdS - Day 2 - The start... finally

2009-03-30T09:00:00.005+01:00

Hi

Stage 1 - ERG CHEBBI / ERG ZNAÏGUI: 33 Km

Quick results
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Position Time
438 out of 805 05:03:39
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Today the race finally got underway. Staright into 12K of sand dunes and boy are they tough. The recent rain means that they are more stable underfoot then usual which is good. Already using my trekking poles though, but they are excellent at helping me through. Pack is very heavy sadly, around 11kg with water which takes its toll, my shoulder ache lots currently.

Thankfully CP1 (2:20 ish) to CP2 (3:40) was flat (about 9km), and I found the strength to motor on through this section. After CP 2 there were more dune sections. Really tall, like climbing a huge hill. After another 9km or so I reached the end in a little over 5 hours.

Heat manageable today, and feet OK. Gaiters took some minor damage, but have fixed via the miracles of Gaffer tape. Some very impressive landscapes out there, strangely beautiful considering the lack of green, give me the countryside of England any day though

MdS - Well would you believe it!

2009-03-28T18:18:00.007Z

The journey out to Morocco was fairly uneventful. I'd been joking with many of the competitors that I was bringing the Manchester weather with me and it would rain. Our journey to the first bivovac took an age and it started to rain! As the journey went on the rain increased. by the time we got to the bivovac the french organisers didn't know what to do. One group where sent the final leg across the sands via army trucks. My coach eventually gave up waiting and in the now torrential downpour that even even the British weather would be proud of took us to a nearby town.

The reports from the front line were bad. The campsite was flooded, coaches were stuck by flooded roads, and there was no plan B! 11 hours after we originall boarded the coaches the organisers managed to find a hotel to put us in. The first stage has now been cancelled and a new plan is being looked at. To top it off my mobile is now out of action due to SIM card issues! They apparently last had rain during the MdS 11 years ago... for 30 minutes! The course is now a mess as parts where along dried up river beds as usual.

Spirits around the camp are hard to describe. Immense disappointment is obviously there. This has been a 2 year build up. There is also a lot of laughter though at the ridculouseness of the situation. There is hope the race will continue from stage two, but in what format I don't know.

Not sure when I'll get to post again as who knows if the organisers email equipment is working. The main thing is everyone is safe, which set against pictures on the local news of locals less fortunate then us means we have a lot to be thankful of, plus I won my pint bet with Sharky about the rain, so it's not all bad!

Cheers

Andy

Final pre Marathon des Sables post!

2009-03-22T14:56:00.003Z

Hello all,

A quick update before I head out to the desert! First off I’d like to thank everyone who's sponsored me. Recently the total sponsorship passed the £2000 mark for the British Red Cross which I’m over the moon with! In many ways for me the fundraising target was almost as daunting as the race itself as my previous fundraising efforts raised around the £400 mark and so £2000 seemed equally extreme as the race, but its been amazing how the event really seems to have captured peoples attention. I know from my now regular chats with Laura (Regional Fundraising Manager) at the British Red Cross that they are incredibly grateful.

I’m now less then a week away from the start line (29th March) and I’ve had an incredible adventure even just to get to this point with newspaper and radio interviews, treadmill marathon fundraising and some unusual races. I'd never have thought all these things were possible when I signed up 2 years ago so I guess I've learnt a lot about life on the way too! I can’t wait for the start now and I’m hoping to be able to post the odd update to my JogBlog when I’m out there.

Whilst the race is on I’m told that it is possible to follow my progress and send messages to me via the race organiser’s website. My race number is 732 and for sending messages I’ve been given the instructions, "friends/family will need to go to the organisers' website - www.darbaroud.com - and look for 'Ecrire au concurrents/write to competitors'. In previous years, this hasn't gone live until the Sunday that the race starts", so if you fancy sending me a message then please do.

Thanks for your support and I’ll write to you all again when I’m back in the UK.

Cheers

Andy

Bramhall Centre Marathon Special

2009-03-07T19:38:00.005Z

Hi all,

As a charity fund raising event I thought I'd run a marathon on a treadmill. As the Beetles sang, "I got by with a little help from my friends!", and thanks to the help from lots of people on 7th March 2009 the first ever Bramhall Centre Marathon took place with a grand total of one entrant... me!

Quick results below
-------------------
Position Time Money Collected
1st! 4:10:00 £332.80
-------------------

Its amazing how ideas become reality, and having tried and failed to get permission elsewhere to run a marathon treadmill fundraiser, and having the problem of not owning a treadmill myself, I was a little doubtful if this idea would come off. However things took a turn for the better when my Campaign Manager, Chris Wood, suggested Bramhall Centre and asked his sister Gemma if I could borrow her treadmill, and she kindly said yes! A quick email to Bramhall Centre and I was put in touch with Carole who managed to get permission, and not only that, got some of the local shops on board, and arranged for transport of the treadmill from Karl of Unique Property Services! In the end I had Loved kindly letting me run outside their Beauty Salon and offering me a massage at the end (which I can recommend!), Ryan Jake offering me a Haircut, The Bubble Room offering me a post race recovery drink of Champagne, and Jim Hall Sports offering £50 worth of vouchers for a raffle to raise money and giving me some running shirts!

So at about 10:45 the treadmill was switched on and the long 26.2 mile run started. Anton and my Mum were on the first shift and straight away people were kindly donating. At a couple of points they were even a little swamped and struggling to keep up with the raffle ticket writing and sticker giving! The event really seemed to capture the interest of people out and about in Bramhall as some cars driving by honked their horns, or even wound their window down and donated money! We were shortly joined by Big Pete and Mrs Forrest who got into the spirit of things helping to raise donations. I had been worried if enough of my friends would be able to help out, but these fears disappeared quickly when yet another volunteer arrived in the form of Matt! There was a great light hearted atmosphere to the event and after a couple of hours reinforcements arrived with Mark, Ann-Marie, paparatzi Russ, and Chris!

I also had plenty of visits from work and running mates. Mike and Helen brought some lovely rosettes with a picture of me in the middle, as well as some badges! Lee from Stockport Harriers took a detour on his long run via Bramhall Village and brought me some energy gels to keep me going. Fiona and Stil popped along to make sure the event was properly audited, and Sandy got into the fitness theme by cycling down after successfully completing the Bramhall 5K!

At 23 miles the Stockport Express came along and took some photo's (fingers crossed they pick a better one then last time)! As the final few miles ticked by I knocked the pace up on the treadmill, but perhaps a little too much as about 100 metres before the finish it overheated and cut out! Thankfully it re-started and we made it to the full marathon distance and I got to celebrate like a true athlete by eating a wonderful cookie!

A huge thank you to everyone involved and already mentioned in this post, we raised a massive £332.80 and the owners of Bramhall Centre have been incredibly generous and said they will match what we raised bringing the grand total to £665.60!!!!!! Clearly I should consider a career change :) It wouldn't have been possible without everyone's help, and it was great to see how positive and encouraging people were! Clearly this was an example of the great community spirit in Bramhall!

Cheers

Andy

P.S. A quick note to say that the Podmore's and the Heath's won the raffle for £25 worth of Jim Hall vouchers!

2009 Marrakech Marathon Special

2009-01-25T22:47:00.003Z

Hi all,

Well another special race for me as this was my first international Marathon and the first time I’ve been to Africa. The Marrakech Marathon has been running for 20 years now, and has an average temperature of 20 Celsius at the end of January when it’s held. Sadly for me though it was overcast and probably about 17 Celsius. I entered this race with Dave and so it was yet another MdS training event for us! The brief results are below

-------------------------------
Men’s results only (only because this is how the organisers published the results)

Position Gun Time Chip time
372 out of 547 4:06:51 4:04:01

Gross result Net result
10 km 1:04:01 1:01:11
21 km 2:08:10 2:05:20
-------------------------------

I’d had a bad case of Man Flu in the week leading up to this marathon and so nearly had to pull out of running, but fortunately the old white blood cells managed to rally and shake most of the illness off by race day and I felt about 90% or so. Given the less than ideal build up I had to play this one cautiously and so I dumped the plan to run with my backpack, but this worked out OK as Dave was weighed down with his MdS backpack so I’d have company at the back :) Given the circumstances we thought we’d get a time of around 4:30:00 to 4:45:00.

We had to pick up our race numbers on the Saturday and this proved to be entertaining as many fellow Europeans from France and Spain displayed a complete inability to queue and pushed past us and a fellow Brit on several occasions. Maybe they had decided they were more important then us, and so shouldn’t have to wait like us? It didn’t help with the organisers being so slow when handing out the numbers.

Anyway at the start line it became obvious that this was a “serious” marathon. There was a reported 5 hour cut off, and rather sadly, no outlandish fancy dress or mascots in sight! I was wearing much of my Sahara gear to protect me from the Sun in case it came out whilst we were running, so I looked a bit of a prat - Oi, I heard that :)

The gun went and Dave and I were slightly confused as to where the exact start line was due to there being several inflatable archways all looking like the start! We took the first 10km easy and were surprised by how intimidating the Atlas Mountains looked as at one point we were running towards them. There was one humorous point in this stage where a team of “Save the Children” runners all decided to do a group toilet stop in a little forested area, it looked very odd like some “modern” art stunt! Afterwards Team “Save the Children” shot past us and I remember thinking it would be nice to overtake a few of them later in the race if I got the opportunity :)

As the race wore on we slowly increased the pace. At one point we saw a chap carrying several wooden chairs on his back in some clever interlocking structure that looked very heavy and I was glad it wasn’t me carrying them! At the halfway point point we passed a Brazilian woman who had run 41 marathons in different countries round the world and had lots of little signs pinned to her listing the places. She was a great sport full of energy and good vibes and lifted the crowd who seemed a little bored in this section of the race. We passed the halfway point in a time of 2:05:20 which was excellent going considering Dave’s backpack and my recent illness.

Some of the second half of the race was through the small settlements containing rich mansions and farms on the outskirts of Marrakech. The gap between rich and poor was quiet obvious though when we hit the poorer settlements as some of the kids seemed excited by the empty plastic bottles from the water stations, as well as asking us for our shades, watches, and Dave’s proper water bottles from his bag. We also saw some camels in this section which was really odd as there seemed to be no point to them being in this area as it was sparsely populated and they were just tethered to the ground.

Eventually we hit the main highway and started heading back into Marrakech. My legs, heart and lungs still seemed OK, so with 10km to go (my favourite race distance) I thought I’d up the pace. I checked with Dave and at that point he didn’t feel he could go any faster (though I’d later find out he pretty much kept up with me). My main targets were members of a running club called AirSac running and Team “Save the Children”. There were plenty of them scattered around and I kept targeting the next one in front and slowly pulled myself past them. I could see one lone “Save the Children” in the far distance and eventually I caught him up. However this chap proved to be a tough cookie to shake off and it was only with 2km to go to the finish line that I finally managed it. The legs were tired by this point, and I could feel the pace slowing a little and that overwhelming urge for the finish line to appear so I could end it was there.

Dave ended up crossing the finish in 4:08:43 which was an incredible performance with his backpack weighing him down for the whole 26 miles. We also both ended up doing negative splits which is tough to do in a marathon. I was really glad to have just been able to take part as it would have been miserable to have travelled out there and then been forced to watch from the sidelines. A big thank you must go out to all the police, army and other officials who controlled the traffic (they didn’t shut the roads down for this Marathon) as I never felt in the slightest bit in danger from the usually crazy drivers of Marrakech due to the numbers they had manning the junctions. Another mention must go out to the cleaners as there was loads of them every 600 metres or so throughout the course picking up any discarded bottles! Overall I enjoyed this race and Marrakech, but it is certainly not the place for a post race beer as we found it difficult to find places selling alcohol due to obvious reasons. It was great to see Ben too who came along to cheer us on, offend the market owners with certain comments, and get a dodgy tattoo!

Cheers

Andy

The Underround

2009-01-10T23:31:00.001Z

Hi all,

The Underround is a race around the Streets and tube stations of London. Roughly a marathon in length it, takes in 42 tube stations with the aim to get to a platform (runners choice) within each station using stairs or escalators (but no lifts). It's an anytime event due to practical reasons and its fun based nature. Brief results below:
------------
Position - Joint 1st
Time - 5:17:59
------------
Well this was great fun and a great excuse to get to London to see some friends :) The day started with a wake up call from Dave at 05:45 so that we could eat and let it digest in time for an early start. It was -3 degrees Celsius outside and so we were eager to start, so after a quick photo at the start we were off!

The exact route is a closely guarded secret, though all the stops are in zone 1 thankfully! On the date we did it only two others had attempted it, and so the time to beat was 5 hours, 24 minutes and 20 second (which Dave nick named RCT - Rory Coleman Time in honour of the organiser). Given Rory's pedigree as an adventure racer (check his site out) I knew the time would be a challenge even if he had been taking it easy. Dave and I were a little to enthusiastic early on as we rattled off the first several tube stations in double quick time, and we were on for 3:30 marathon time, which was clearly to fast and we knew it so slowed down before any damage was done.

Dave's knowledge of central London and tube stations was excellent, and it meant that there was only about a third of the course that we needed to use the map to navigate. Along the way we encountered one or two minor bits of trouble with certain tube entrances being shut, but that only made it more fun (the urban version of a stream flooding forcing a small course change).
As we approached the half way mark we had the 193 steps of Covent Garden to negotiate. A real tough one, and it took its toll on the legs that stayed with us for a while. We were ahead of RCT at this stage and things looked great for a new course record. There were some enthusiastic members of the public who twigged what we were doing when they saw us run back past them on the underground, and we got a shout of "118" from one :)

Whilst out on the course there where a few times we didn't manage to take the shortest route either due to construction work blocking things, or getting slightly lost, but that was all part of the fun. By the time we'd got through 35 stations things were looking really bad on the RCT front. At the time we hadn't factored in, but from station 26 to 35 they all have large gaps and we'd obviously been working off a simplistic evenly distanced estimation for RCT. Spirits started to sag, but right on queue a quick combo of three stations close together helped restore a fighting chance of setting a new record!

As we started our 1.1 mile run to the last tube station of Russell Square we knew it would be close for beating RCT. The problem is that after the gruelling climb of the 177 steps, we still had to run over half a mile back to Kings Cross to finish. The legs were shot, but there wasn't the time for Dave and I to sit and chat, so we threw what was left into a final sprint to Kings Cross. With a bit of luck from the traffic signals we got across Euston Road and managed to finish in a new course record of 5:17:59! You can check out the video below.

A big thanks Dave for being my partner on this event, without his knowledge of London I wouldn't have got round in anywhere near as quick a time. Another big thanks to Pippa to for cooking a wonderful meal for us all afterwards, the perfect end to the day! Obviously thanks to Rory and George who together thought up this unusual route and put the effort in to open it up to others.

Cheers

Andy

What a difference a year makes!

2009-01-09T11:38:00.005Z

Hello,

I thought I should do an end of year review for all I've accomplished running wise in 2008 in my training for the 24th Marathon des Sables in 2009.

So here are the facts (records only began on my birthday in February thanks to a great present from my parents!):

Total distance run: 2,313.52 km (1,437.5 miles)
Total time out running: 225:19:19 (9 days, 9 hours, 19 minutes and 19 seconds)
Total calories burnt: 168,641
Total races entered (excluding Park Runs): 12
Total Park runs (5k): 12
New PB's at Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K
Favourite race: Beacon Ultra
Race I struggled with the most: London Marathon

An interesting graph for the more statistically minded...

Total mileage run would have got me this far as the crow flies on the world map (not as far I thought... the world is a big place!).

Overall I'm left with the nagging feeling of I should have done more training. I am not quiet at the stage I wanted to be at when I made my plan when I signed up for the MdS, but as John Lennon said, "Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans". In reality, I've been relatively injury free compared with many of my MdS compatriots, and so I am really pleased with what I've managed to achieve. I've completed 3 marathons this year, and my recovery time from each attempt has got shorter. Over the Christmas period I completed my first back to back 20 miler and my legs were OK after it so it looks promising on the crucial aspect of post race recovery. I entered two Ultra Marathons, and although I didn't reach the end on my first one, I learn't a tremendous amount about what I need to do to keep my body going over such a long distance, and I've gained a lot of confidence for knowing that I can complete some Ultra marathons. I've struggled with doing any training in comparable conditions to the MdS temperature though which is a shame, but I hope to correct that in March with an acclimitsation holiday.

Whilst I still need to do some more prep for the MdS (and buy some more kit), I'm feeling like I've given myself at least a fighting chance in the MdS, and that I've taken the training seriously whilst still maintaining a life outside of running (which can be a difficult balance). I'll be keeping everything crossed that I stay injury free over the next couple of months!

Happy New Year all, I hope any running challenge you've signed yourself up for go well.

Cheers

Andy

P.S. Over New Year I had two excellent runs in the Whitby area, I can highly recommend the coastal walks both North and South of Whitby. If you're in the area check them out!

2008 Beacons Ultra Special

2008-12-06T19:36:00.001Z

Hi folks,

This was the inaugral Beacons Ultra! Billed as "a challenging 45 mile course, designed to be navigational friendly, yet providing the opportunity to experience, safely some of the fantastic mountain terrain the National Park has to offer". We had to be self sufficient in this race for everything but water (food, emergency clothes, first aid kit, head torch), and so my OMM Classic Marathon backpack had its third race outing. The route was a scenic two laps round part of the Brecon Beacons.

Quick results below

--------------

Time Position

11:03:05 26 out of 49

Loop 1 Start Loop 2 Start Loop 2 Finish Overall time

46 mins 4 hrs 49 mins 10hrs 04 mins 11 hrs 03 mins 05 secs

--------------

This was a fantastic event! It was the first time that all of "Team Cold Running" (Dave, Mike, Rich and me - 2009 MdS unofficial MdS team) were together in a race. What's more loads of people from themds.co.uk forum were also there, so I knew roughly half the field one way or another!

Mike had been carrying an injury leading up to this event so was considering only attempting one lap. Dave's training had been patchy since the Budapest Marathon in October, and Rich had returned from a long injury. :S I guess I'd been lucky!

I was grateful that on Friday night when we arrived Perks had organised a Chilli feast with rice, taco's and fajitas! Yum yum, far better then trialing out freeze dry Expedition Food! We had a sweepstake on predicted times and as a pot luck guess I went for 11:03:33.

We lined up at the start line for 08:00 on a cold Saturday morning when most of Britain was still tucked up warm in bed. The race started with Matt from Likeys (the race organiser) signalling the off and we followed the canal slowly heading towards the looming mountains. Rich and I paired up and the field slowly began to thin out. At Checkpoint Charlie (the start of the loop) I quickly filled up and we continued along the canal. We took a right turn and began a long slow climb alongside the Talybont reservoir. This sections seem to last for ages, and Rich and I fast hiked parts due to me being a little cautious from my Bullock Smithy escapades (my aim was to keep the heart rate in the low 150's). There were some great views along this section and its well worth a trip if you're ever in the area.

Eventually we broke out of the Tallybony forrest and finally started to feel what little warmth the Sun was sending our way. Another checkpoint passed by we saw some young army soldiers in full gear on some sort of exercise. We slowly climbed the steeper path along Tor Glas up to "The Gap" (or in Welsh, Fan y Big!!!). Some more great scenes with some snow topped mountains, but there was little time to admire them, as Rich and I made the decent from "The Gap". This side of the mountain was in the shade, and so was still icy and rocky and it made the desent tough, and certainly not one I could run.

Reaching the next checkpoint (Wozza - 19 miles - 3:49) we entered a thin path that was rock strewn, overgrown and a general all round shocker to run through! All part of the fun, and I welcomed the opportunity to walk with honour. After the shocker pathway we emerged onto nice smooth road, my natural home! Rich looked stronger at this stage and was slightly ahead with another chap who we'd caught up. After one or two field crossings we were back on the path and got back to the start of lap at Checkpoint Charlie (23 miles - 4:54). I joked with Rich that I might not be far off my predicted time, though of course there was a lot left to happen. My legs were aching a little, but overall still had reserves in them and I was feeling positive about the situation.

At this point Rich and I caught up with another Mike (wreckferret) and ran with him for a short while. As we started the long slight climb I was feeling a little empty and so fast hiked the entire length this time and Mike and two others passed and went off into the distance. At the Taf Water station (33 miles - 7:15) Rich and I separated as he still looked strong and I didn't want to hold him back. I saw the army troops we'd passed on the first lap again and by now they knew what we were attempting and encouraged me along. I enjoyed hiking up Tor Glas as my running legs had deserted me by this point. The Sun was setting and it had just gone 16:00 as I passed "The Gap" the second time.

Descending from "The Gap" a second time however was tricky. With the temperature plumetting, in the dusk light, there was now even more ice on the ground. Predictably I lost my footing at one point and landed on my arse. Luckily no damage except to my pride! I met Mike (wreckferret) who'd suffered an injury to his legs and was now struggling on the uneven terrain, a real shame, but his dettermined face left me in no doubt he'd continue. Further down I passed Kobus who was hiking one lap of the route, and I felt inspired to see him in the very last of the daylight as he was a big chap and to have got this far was incredible, the sheer strength of will on display made me forget about the aches and pains and I began to run again!

At Checkpoint Wozza (38.5 miles - 8:44) it was now pitch black and I donned my head torch and moved the food I'd need to complete the race to my front pouches. I used my energy drink powder in the water in the hope that it would revive my legs. The shocker pathway was even more difficult in the dark, but by the time I hit the roads I was able to run and felt some strength returning. I overtook a chap at this point who was looking for something in his backpack, but before long he caught up with me again and managed to get ahead. I was really glad to get to Checkpoint Charlie (43.5 miles - 10:04) where an enthusiastic Gilly from the forum had volunteered to man the checkpoint due to being injured (she'd be out in the cold longer than me making sure everyone got back safe).

It was the home stretch all the way now along the canal, the legs were empty and I swigged more of my drink. The watch was ticking away the mileage and I thought I'd come in around 10:50 based on the rumored actual distance of 46 miles. At 45.5 miles I threw what energy I had left into getting a sub 11 hour finish and for the 47th mile even managed a 12:19 pace. I felt bad overtaking a couple at what I thought was the final corner before the finish line... but no... the course continued! The mileage kept on pushing past the 47 mile barrier, and I realised that I wasn't going to get a sub 11, and so now the race was on to beat my sweepstake time. I eventually saw the finish line, and finished at 10:12 a mile pace, with my Garmin bleeping "low battery save now" (my legs felt the same!) with the total distance at 47.79 miles and a time of 11:03:05 (almost exactly what I'd guessed in the sweepstake)!

Martin from Likeys gave me a huge congratulations, a fantastic goody bag, and directions to some hot food! By the time I staggered the short distance into the Rugby club the tolls from the day started catching up with me and I felt really cold. Luckily for me a lovely lady called Sue manning the Chilli wrapped me in a sleeping bag and kept an eye on me for 10 minutes or so... thanks Sue! I saw Rich and heard about his fantastic race. He left me at the 33 mile marker, and managed to finish in 10:24:13 finishing 19th overall, he really must have been going at some pace for the last section!

As time went on we heard news that Mike had gone for a second lap and that him and Dave were at the back of the field helping Sharky get round. They really did have the elements against them as the temperature was plumetting and later Dave told me how the water in his bottle was begining to freeze! Rich and I made our way to the finish line for their finish and it was great to see them both come in over the line with a time of 15:34:35 (Dave with his usual sprint finish screaming!!!).

Back at the Bunkhouse the atmosphere was a lively one with Craig and Perks having cracked open the Veuve Clicquot and having a great time cheering us all up (I was a bit out of it for a while).

Overall this was a great race, and a huge thanks goes out to Matt and Martin (who's wedding was scheduled for the weekend after this race... talk about commitment and an understanding wife), and all the many volunteers who made this race possible. It was great to meet so many people from the forum, and it was a very memorable weekend.

Cheers

Andy

Marathon des Sables

2008-10-22T23:17:00.002+01:00

Hi,

A short blog post regarding my Marathon des Sables attempt. In March 2009 I will be entering the 24th Marathon des Sables, which is a foot race covering 151 miles (equivalent to 5 1/2 regular marathons) through the Sahara desert in South Eastern Morocco run over 6 stages (7 days). In addition to that, I'll have to carry everything I will need for the duration (apart from a tent and water) in my rucksack (food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag etc). Water is rationed and handed out at each checkpoint. The longest stage is approximately 40 miles long and the temperature can get up to the high 40 degree Celsius!

It's a little different and I've been asked several times why I'm doing it. Well there's not one single reason, more of a collection of smaller reasons including:

I've been into my running for several years now and enjoy the challenge each new difficulty of event brings.
I saw a TV programme on it (Jack Osbourne Adrenaline Junkie) and the MdS looked an incredible challenge with a fantastic comaradarie amongst the other competitors.
Two work friends, and one uni mate were interested in entering also, and this was to much of a coincidence for me to let it slip by.
I'm hoping to raise some money for the Red Cross by attempting this challenge and so hopefully benefit some people in need

If you're able to help with a donation then that would be much appreciated. All money goes to the Red Cross as this event is completely self funded.

Cheers

Andy

2008 Lincoln Spires and Steeples Challenge

2008-10-10T22:06:00.010+01:00

Hi folks,

The Lincoln Spires and Steeples challenge is a race along the Spires and Steeples heritage trail from Lincoln Castle to Sleaford. It's mostly a flat off road, and roughly marathon distance (26 miles). This was the inaugural event, so I was part of history!

Quick results below
------------
Time
3:51:53
------------

This was a great weekend. I'd never been to Lincoln before and so Lauren and I got up early on the Saturday and travelled down to Lincoln to see some of the sights. It was a quick tour sadly though due to having to leave the car at the finish in Sleaford (so I could get back from the end of the marathon the next day!). Lincoln Cathedral looked very impress, and for some reason Lincoln seems to be associated with Tea as there are many bizarre tea shops and retailers near it in the cathedral quarter. There's even an old windmill in a housing estate! Well worth a visit.

On the Sunday I got up early, drank most of the orange juice in the B&B before other guests got up, and headed out to the start. At the start the atmosphere was good, and as the announcements got underway it became apparent that navigation on the route may be needed as it wouldn't be clearly marked, the problem being that for runners they simply had a sheet of paper with abbreviated directions on... well they didn't exactly make much sense to me! So I looked for local running clubs with the thinking that they would know the route and I was surprised to see that the small town of Sleaford had two running clubs, Sleaford Town Runners and Sleaford Striders! I was keen to get the inside gossip on the rivalry between the clubs, and decided that the less serious and more family oriented Sleaford Striders would be my honorary running club for the day.

As the whistle went we had an easy start running down from Steep Hill to the canal to follow that for a while. I chatted with an Irish chap who was running with a backpack because he had no support crew / system, and so needed clothes to change into at the end! He was a marathon veteran of over a 100 and so I knew he'd be OK. Irish Chap wasn't a local resident however, and my new club of the Sleaford Striders were nowhere to be seen. Up ahead I could see some Town Runners (TRs), but they were going at a fair pace, and I suspected they were only doing the half marathon route, and so it would be a very bad idea for me to keep up with them, so I just plodded along keeping some unmarked runners in my sights.

Thankfully with it still being reasonably early in the race there were generally people in sight and so at one really tricky point I was able to follow someone (just) who knew the way to the first checkpoint in Branston. Leaving Branston I managed to catch up with two TRs (members of my arch rival running club for the day). It turned out that the chap was a rather mean guy (Idiot Runner) who took pleasure in non-locals getting lost and had been trying to lose me between checkpoints. His attitude was one of "do your homework, know the course and print a map out, I'm a canoeist not a runner so I need all the help I can get", mine was more of, "It's billed as a run, not a navigational challenge, and you've joined a running club, are at marathon standard, and have been controlling your pace with your partner based on heart rate so that makes you a runner as well as a canoeist". I'd say in my years of running, he managed to claim the prize as the first runner during a race I've met who was a prat, luckily there's not many like him. His partner in crime turned out to be a nice lady (TA Runner) who was a teaching assistant.

As the next couple of miles wore on Idiot Runner slowed down dragging TA Runner with him, and I took the opportunity to tag along with Irish Chap and realised my route instructions had fallen out of my pocket! Now I really was in trouble if I lost sight of people! Luckily Irish Chap was rather good at running, reading and navigating and managed to get us to the halfway point in Metheringham.

After the halfway point Irish Chap had to stop for a short while and so I looked round in desperation to join another group, and the only one in sight was Idiot Runner and TA Runner, so reluctantly I joined them again. As the miles wore on there were some interesting sights to be seen. Naturally there's loads of churches on the route, but we also passed an RAF airbase and the Dorrington Demons caught my eyes as being the best thing on the route with an interesting history also!

Idiot Runner tired after Dorrington and TA Runner, another runner and I were left. Thankfully TA Runner had recc'd the final 10 miles of the route, so my plan was to stay with her. As we crossed yet more farmers fields though the toll of running on dried uneven ploughed fields and a strong headwind took its toll and I could feel my strength begin to fail. This was frustrating to say the least as I'd been putting in a fair bit of tough training involving hills in the Peak district, so I'd hoped the flats of Lincoln would be "easy" in comparison. At the 23 mile marker I had to let TA Runner and the other chap go, and by 24 miles I was reduced to run walking.

Psychologically it was very hard having to walk sections, as obviously I started beating myself up thinking if you can't even run the whole of a flat marathon in Lincoln, you've got no hope in the MdS. Looking back now I wonder if I had needed to eat more during the race?

Anyway, I eventually got over myself and managed to start running again for the final mile and cross the finish line. A lady in full mayoral chains congratulated me and seemed very impressed that I'd travelled from Stockport. Rather bizarrely the results have not been published online for the events, and in my daze I forgot what position I got, so all I know is the time from my Garmin!

Anyway, a big thanks to the race organisers, and to Lauren for coming along and keeping me company before and after the race. Overall I think the last 6 miles gets a little boring, but the rest of the route is excellent, well worth a try.

Cheers

Andy

Hope Moors & Tors Challenge Fell Race Special

2008-10-05T21:49:00.010+01:00

Hello,

The Hope Moors & Tors Challenge is a 20 Mile fell race starting in the village of Hope and taking in Cave Dale, Mam Tor, Hollins Cross, Edale, Grindsbrook Clough, Jaggers Clough and Lose Hill. All in all, tough terrain!

Quick results below

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Position Time

45 out of 95 4:16:03

Split times (Course route)

1 - 39:41 2 - 50:45 3 - 1:04:03 4 - 1:15:12 5 - 1:51:12 6 - 2:41:34 7 - 3:07:30 8 - 3:34:33 9 - 3:51:03 10 - 4:16:03

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On the morning of this race I nearly had to pull out of it due to the horrendous rain that was lashing down as I set off from Stockport. The road under the bridge near Furness Vale was flooded quite deeply and I had to turn back. Before taking an alternative route to the start I rang the organiser, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, I'm struggling to reach you due to the flooded roads from the heavy rain, I'm just wondering if the race is even still on?

Yorkshire man: *said with confusion* err, yes of course its still on.

Me: What are the road conditions like where you are?

Yorkshire man: I've had reports that its a little wet on the roads, but nothing major.

Me: OK thanks, I'll try and get through (privately thinking Yorkshire man must think I'm a right wimp now)

Thankfully when I got there it turned out that whilst it was raining in Hope, it was nowhere near as bad as I had experienced getting there. The course is a figure of 8 shape centred on Hollins Cross and starting and finishing in the South East corner (Hope)

For this event we used dibbers to check in at each checkpoint. After checking in at the start we all lined up. The course had a cut off of getting to Edale in 1.5 hours, which I thought was particularly tough time limit and was a little concerned about breaking, so there'd be no daudling in the first section! The whistle went and we were off. The first couple of miles were a little bunched up, and stiles don't work to well in grouped race conditions, thankfully they were also quiet flat. I knew the climb up Cave Dale would be an early test from my experience on the Bullock Smithy, what I didn't expect was to meet my fellow Bullock Smithy Cave Dale companion Bernard on it! What a coincidence! We had a quick laugh as we climbed and then I pushed on.

After the tough climb I came across the first checkpoint and dibbed in. After a flat section which provided a welcome respite, I came to the next checkpoint at the foot of Mam Tor. The climb up Mam Tor was tough, and I pushed a little to hard I think looking back. The field was starting to thin out now, and I ran down to Hollins Cross making use of the downhill to up the pace. After dibbing in at the centre of the figure 8, I headed North West. The path was a little confusing, and I pushed harder to keep up with two guys in the distance as to lose them would mean wasting time reading the map. I reached Edale and dibbed in. It had taken me 1 hour 15 minute, but the cut off had cost my energy levels dearly. I gobbled some biscuits down and jogged off in a more casual fashion feeling more relaxed now that there were no more cutoffs.

My happy feelings quickly evaporated though as I came upon Grindsbrook Clough for the first time in my life. On the map its marked as a main footpath... the reality is that it starts of as a nice easy trail, then starts to climb and gets more uneven, then starts to go over large rocks and climb fairly sharply, and finally the foot path disappears and is replaced by a slope of boulders and rocks that you have to climb up on all fours! Throw in a swollen stream from the rain and you get the idea of how tough this section was! I was glad to get to the top and dib in at the checkpoint!

The course then turned East along the Kinder plateau as we ran along the cliff face. This was tough going to with the odd smooth large boulder. It looked a little like Mordor from Lord of the Rings due to the peat soil and the rocks which where a dark colour. This was the longest section, and it felt like it lasted forever. My body was definitely on a downward spiral by now due to the terrain, and I slowed down to preserve what reserves I had, as there was still a tough climb to come!

Dibbing in near Jaggers Clough I was glad that the route continued downhill. The stream in Jaggers Clough was a mess with the stepping stones under a couple of inches of water from the stream. I was running really low on water by this point though as the Sun was now out and there'd been no water at the last two checkpoints due to their remoteness. I made the cardinal mistake of following another runner towards the turn off near Clough farm, but the chap in front picked the wrong route, and I like a lemming followed and so added about a mile onto the course! Running up the driveway to the Youth Hostel whilst everyone else was running down was pretty embarressing I tell you! Thankfully there was loads of water and biscuits at the checkpoint so I stocked up for the last big push.

Leaving the Youth Hostel we headed towards Hollins Cross and began the difficult climb. It was pretty sheer, definitely no running up the hill! After getting to the top and dibbing in, I noticed Mike from the Bullock Smithy was with me and I had a brief conversation between the big gasps for air! It didn't get any easier as we headed towards Lose Hill. Another tough climb and disappointing to see Mike and his companion blatently cheat on this section as the checkpoint has one stile before the top of Lose Hill, and they took a shortcut after it instead of following the directions to the very top of Lose Hill.

Finally though I was on the home straight, though by now I was running on fumes, and struggling to get a pace faster then a zomie ambling in some 1950's B movie. I was glad when I eventually found myself on the main road going through Hope with the finish line in sight. Dibbing in at the finish was a huge relief, as it had been a tough 20 miles, and my pace to begin with had been too quick and I doubt I could have carried on much longer.

Overall this is an excellent race taking in some spectactular scenary. I really enjoyed it and was pleased with my performance. The tomato soup at the end was particularly refreshing! :) A big thanks to the organisers!

Cheers

Andy

2008 Stanage Struggle FR Special

2008-09-21T08:45:00.005+01:00

Hello folks,

The Stanage Struggle is approximately a 10K Fell Race classed as BM from Hathersage up a steep climb to Stannage Edge, along it and then back. Its organised by the Fat Boys running club.

Quick results below

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Time Position

53:03 98 out of 282

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I was invited to this race by Marple Phil who promised an excellent race followed by a pub lunch!!!! How could I refuse? I even managed to drag Lauren and her friend Brian along, though they wisely chose to do a nice walk from Ladybower Reservoir instead of competing in this race :)

Parking the car at this event was one of the hardest things as the race officials directed me into a field that was more a a hill to be honest. I only have a little Corsa, and after seeing a four by four need a push because of wheel spin from the muddy ground I thought I'd be in trouble. Sure enough, I needed a push from the parking attendents which was much appreciated. I think the lesson learned by all hear was just because the person driving the car can run off road, doesn't mean the car can!

I met up with Marple Phil and his friends and became a honourary Wootton Road Runner for the day. The weather was sunny and warm, and I'd even borrowed a bit of sun cream from another Fell Runner as it was that good! The whistle went and we were off! It was a congested start going over undulating footpaths. I kept it a little calm to begin with as these Fell Running is a very different beast to road running. The first proper climb was tough, and with it being early in the race I kept on running, however when I reached what I thought was the end of the climb I realised that there was a huge amount more, you just couldn't see it all in one go! As the climb went on my legs began to burn more and more with the exertion. I was contantly hoping for it to be the end, and as I hit some of the steeper sections I decided to fast hike instead. Many of the people continued to "run", but weren't going much faster then me at all.

Reaching the top of the Stannage Edge was a huge relief, I wish I'd had time to stop and appreciate what was an outstanding view, but I didn't, and so I trudged onwards. I was about a third of the way through the course at this point, and my legs were in a terrible state. I reckon I'd clearly pushed to hard on the climb for the ability my legs were at and was now paying the price. Even though Stannage Edge is pretty flat at the top, the uneven surface means you have to watch where you put your foot. For the first few minutes my rubber legs must have made me look like I was a drunkard taking part in a bar crawl rather than a fell runner. I realised at this point I'd put to much effort into the early part of the race and I was now going to be running on fumes until the end. The heart rate graph tells the story finishing with a dangerously high average!

Coming down of Stannage Edge was real tough due to hugely uneven ground and thick undergrowth lining the trail. Once the downhill flattened out a bit I used increased the pace and overtook a few who had got passed me earlier. Sadly there was a couple of stiles to cross, and by this point I was exhausted, and the inevitable happened as I stacked it coming down from one and ended up on the floor though thankfully with no damage except to my pride. On entering a field I noticed several runners take a looping route. I decided for the direct route and realised to late they'd been avoiding the bog! I emerged cleaner than I should have somehow with one leg thick with mud up to my shins, but it could have been worse.

I really was on my last legs by now and the route back just seemed to go on forever! Finally the last downhill appeared by the Primary School. I threw what little I had left and sprinted down the hill overtaking two runners only to find in my absolute horror that there was a short but steep up hill to the finish in the school playing field... my pace collapsed and I was barely going faster then a walk when the two runners overtook me climbing up the hill. I crossed the finish line with emense relief and pleased with my time of 53:03. Marple Phil wasn't far behind 57:01. After a quick catch up I managed to clean myself up a bit, and then Lauren turned up and bought some ice cream which turned out to be the best I've had in years!!!!

Overall this was a tough but really enjoyable race, and the Sunday lunch we all had aferwards was fantastic too! Thanks very much to the Fat Boys running club for organising it!

Cheers

Andy

2008 Bullock Smithy Special

2008-09-06T13:00:00.004+01:00

Hello,

Quick results below

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Position Time
Retired (12 of 14 checkpoints) 13:29:00

BS – 12:58 CC – 14:15 EX – 15:12 ED – 15:57 CA – 16:44
PF – 17:49 MD – 18:59 CM – 20:00 ES – 20:52 BT – 22:14
CC – 23:55 WB – 01:29

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Well the Bullock Smithy really is a unique event! 56 miles round the Peak District, some 8000 feet of climbing, starting off at mid day so even the fastest have to do at least some of the route in the dark and throw in navigating between checkpoints and you quickly get a feel for how tough this race is and will quiet probably be the toughest race I do before the Marathon des Sables! I can’t possibly do this race report justice as over 13 hours a lot happens, so I’ll have to just mention the highlights.

The build up to this race was a mixture of good and bad. The good was that I’d reccyed what I hoped would be the night time section of the course, I’d managed to get 204km in training the month before, and my new fell shoes seemed good in training. The bad, my back injury had meant I’d only managed one decent months worth of training in the last three and this was several leagues above anything I’d done before.

At the start I met up with Ivan, Rose and Steph from themds.co.uk forum and started to suspect I had over packed as my back pack was the heaviest. This was quickly confirmed when I met a couple of the Stockport Harriers who had big bum bags on only! Not a good start!

My plan was to walk the up hills, jog/walk the flats, and jog the down hills till nightfall, after which I suspected I’d be reduced to walking due to the conditions

Stage 1 – to Bowstones (total distance 5 miles)
The anvil was struck to signal the start of the race and we were off. Being a runner, I followed the other runners (and there were loads of them!) down the road towards Poynton rather than the recommended route (a slightly indirect road route is quicker for a runner than a direct off road footpath). There was a great moment when in the thick of a herd of runners, a sheep got confused and tried to join us, only to realise when it got really close that we weren’t sheep and panicked. The climb to the top of Bowstones in Lyme Park was tough, but I was pleased to see I was making good time. I grabbed a drink and kept moving

Stage 2 – to Chinley Churn (total distance 10 miles)
The start was easy, all downhill, but this didn’t last long as we had to climb up the hill on the other side of the valley. Still going strong I approached Furness Vale and was joined by two experienced Fell Runners who’d done the course before (though the last time Bernard had done it was 20 years ago!). The climb out of Furness Vale was another long one, made difficult by the fact that the narrow path was flooded and very boggy in parts. As we got to the top, I checked in and headed straight off on the next stage

Stage 3 – to Edale Cross (total distance 14 miles)
I had to make a quick loo stop, and that meant I lost Bernard and Mike, but carried on down hill undeterred. The field had really started to thin out by now and I could only see 3 or 4 people within sight. Just before completing a short climb I'd past Bernard who looked liked he too needed the loo! I caught up with Mike and a woman joined us who was a keen mountain who usually biked this part of the course. After making a really steep decent, she stopped and got her trekking poles out. I foolishly thought she was tired already, but as we turned the corner I saw why... Edale Cross is one hell of a climb approaching from the West. It was absolutely gruelling, first I lost contact with the woman as the poles really came into there own, then I lost contact with seasoned veteran Mike as he powered his way up. Finally I reached the top with pulled up socks man (PUSM), though I must have looked a state as the checkpoint team asked me if I was OK!

Stage 4 – to Edale (total distance 18 miles)
Thankfully PUSM was a seasoned veteran too and knew the route down to Edale so I tried to stay close to him on the decent. The East side of Edale Cross is known as Jacob's Ladder, and is like a huge stair case made out of massive rocks, some weighing half a tonne which were winched up from the river below (which let me tell you is a long way down). Very impressive, but hard to run on, so this downhill was mainly wasted for me! I managed to just keep PUSM in sight till we were almost at Edale, but I had to stop to remove a stone from my shoe and sort my socks out and Bernard also appeared from nowhere and overtook me. It was a great relief to get to Edale as they were serving rice pudding with fruit salad! I wasted a little time refilling my water and so I missed Bernard departing sadly.

Stage 5 – to Castleton (total distance 20 miles)
Edale to Castleton is only 2 miles... easy... or not as proved to be the case. This short distance between the two towns has a tall ridge (including the hill Mam Tor) in the way with the lowest practical point known as Hollins Cross at 411 metres. This is a tough climb on its own, but couples with the previous ones it was tough. The view from the summit was fantastic though, and well worth the 30 second break I took to appreciated it. The decent was tricky though due to wet rocks which constantly made me feel like I was going to slip, so half of this downhill was wasted also. The history behind this route though is fascinating as the people living in Edale use to have to bring their dead over Hollins Cross to bury them in the church in Castleton until Edale got its own church! Entering the Castleton I registered at the checkpoint and caught up with Bernard. Two good Fell runners had retired through injury here… a warning that on any given day it doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re at the mercy of the course

Stage 6 – to Peak Forrest (total distance 24 miles)
Leaving Castleton there was a comedy moment when I popped into a hiking shop to ask for directions to the footpath for the Pennine way only to be told by the assistant “sorry mate, don’t know it”! Bernard directed us via the Cavedale route, and this turned out to be like hiking up a waterfall! Small and medium sized rocks make up the steep climb, but plenty of water was rushing downhill from the previous few days of heavy rain. It made climbing very difficult and soaked our feet. Bernard and I had some great chats as we progressed along this stage. My body was beginning to feel the effects of the run by this point and my pace had slowed a little and coming to Peak Forrest provided a welcome rest with the lovely oranges they had prepared for us all

Stage 7 – to Millers Dale (total distance 28 miles)
Bernard and myself left Peak Forrest together on what looked on the map a simply and fast stage with a small climb to begin with and then a downhill farm track and bridle way all the way to the end. Sadly the previous day’s rain had turned the track into a mud bath, and a farmer was moving his cows along it as we passed. We tried not to think what we were stepping in! :) As the stage progressed I knew my stamina was fading but it was great to pass the 26 miles marathon mark (6.5 hours!) and know that every step from now on was a new record for me. I began to feel like I was holding Bernard back a little and offered him the chance to scoot on ahead, but he was happy to accompany me to the end of the stage and take it from there. Eventually, feet covered in mud and soaking, we hauled ourselves into the checkpoint and had some soup. Bernard was happy to stay a little and he looked strong, whereas I wasn’t by this stage, so I set off before him to force the break as I didn’t want to hold him back, and knew I needed to get moving before I stiffened up.

Stage 8 – to Chelmorton (total distance 32 miles)
Millers Dale is a beautiful area, and I’d been on a walk previously round the footpaths here with Lauren, this time however I chose to stick to the road climbing out of Millers Dale as the conditions underfoot had been so bad I really couldn’t afford to waste energy slugging through mud unnecessarily. It was another tough climb and it was the last time I saw the Dad and his 13 year old daughter (on a “father daughter bonding day” as he told me… what a family!). Bernard and his new travelling companion also caught me up and overtook me on the climb. His new companion was fascinating as the chap was a hiker and hadn’t run at all! Just goes to show you what a consistent fast and strong walking pace can do. By the end of the climb I was in a group of 4 with Mike again from the Chinley Churn stage again! As we approached the checkpoint it started getting dark and I unveiled my sexy leopard skin pattern head torch! I also put on my running jumper as my pace wasn’t fast enough to stay warm in the cooling night time air!

Stage 9 – to Earl Sterndale (total distance 35 miles)
It was now pitch black, and whilst this stage was relatively simple, I didn’t know the way, and this worried me. I dug deep and threw the last of my running reserves into keeping up with Mike and the crew on the running sections, but it was clear I was the weakest in this group. I trudged on through the dark with the guys and we eventually approached Earl Sterndale much to my relief. I spent probably close to 10 minutes at this checkpoint trying to recover, and the man with his dog (MWHD) came in, the dog looking like it wasn’t even tired!

Stage 10 – to Brand Top (total distance 39 miles)
This was a tough stage and I knew it! From here on in I knew the way at least, and it was a good job as Mike were too strong for me on the vicious up hill (that’s a great downhill on the Buxton half). I slipped back into the group behind which was 6 or so strong including MWHD and had a bit of a laugh with him about his super fit dog (which apparently doesn’t like him donning his running kit without taking him out too!). As we approached the climb to Brand Top we encountered the ridiculous climb to the farm. It was one of the smallest climbs all day, but it was liquid mud all the way up, absolutely disgusting, and the only way you could escape it dry would have been with waders! MWHD joked that he must write a letter of thanks to the farmer for keeping that path in such excellent condition! At the top it was a short run to the checkpoint where they were serving hot dogs!

Stage 11 – to Cumberland Cottage (total distance 43 miles)
I left Brand Top by after changing my socks but knowing there was a group only a minute in front. I caught up with them on the downhill and was surprised to see it included PUSM. It was raining a medium amount by this point and I had my waterproof jacket on. The legs were struggling and I felt my body continuing its downward spiral. I was fairly amazed I was still in the game as I’d been on the ropes since the Chelmorton checkpoint. We stayed mainly walking on the roads (even flats and downhill) as it seemed the most sensible option. The public footpaths may have been shorter, but would have cost more energy dealing with boggy off road conditions, with the risk of getting lost. We passed Three Shires Head which is beautiful during the day, but there’s nothing to see at night, and my legs felt drained... though not as drained as my Garmin gizmo which ran out of battery at this point! I wasn’t talking much by this point as all my focus was needed to continue. Eventually I saw Walker Barn and was relieved as it gave me the chance to put my water proof trousers on.

Stage 12 – to Walker Barn (total distance 47 miles)
I was the weakest in the group and knew I’d be holding them back and being pulled along faster then I could cope with so I told them not to wait for me whilst I was putting my waterproof trousers on. There didn’t seem to be any other groups around for the first time in the entire race, and so I left the checkpoint on my own, feeling bad, but knowing I could make it to the next checkpoint. The first third of the stage is fairly flat, but the rest is all up hill (albeit road uphill so not as tough as Edale Cross). On my own, in the dark, rain drenched, legs drained, the spirit was taking a battering, but I firmly believed if I could get to Walker Barn then I was likely to finish. As I came to Macclesfield Forrest I stayed on Chancery Lane as I thought it would be easier then the off road sections the Forrest route covered… maybe I was right, but it wasn’t an easy option. Chancery Lane is a cycle path, but is made from fist sized stones, and so is very uneven. For the best part of a mile I trudged on with mist rolling in and growing pain in my left knee from the constant jarring it was taking on the uneven road now that half my muscles had packed in. My walking speed had been reduced to about 2 miles an hour by the time I got back to smooth roads, my left knee was in pain, and my spirits were at an all time low. Hobbling up to the Walker Barn checkpoint the lady manning it said “Are you by yourself? You’re not supposed to be on your own during the night stages”, I just trudged off inside and sat down… I knew deep down that to continue would have meant serious damage to my knee, but I was so close! I think the lady realised I wasn’t in a good state and came in after me and asked if I was OK… the realisation dawned on me, and the only sensible option for me was to say “No, I think I need to retire”… probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever said. I was completely gutted. Eventually I managed to get a lift back to the start and I trudged off home to bed. The graph below charts my downward spiral before my gizmo packed in.

Summing up, this was one tough race. The organisers were swamped with retirees this year with a grand total of 77 pulling out and just 64% of starters finishing due to the horrible conditions underfoot. However don't let the bad conditions put you off, this is an excellent event, with incredible organisation and fantastic camaraderie amongst the competitors. I can't thank the Scouting movement enough for holding it, their many volunteers were excellent, and it wouldn't have been possible without them. I very much feel like there is unfinished business between me and the Bullock Smithy, but with a friends wedding taking place on the date next year, I will have to wait until 2010 before I next get a chance to enter!

Cheers

Andy

2008 Goyt Valley 5 Special

2008-08-20T22:49:00.000+01:00

Hello folks,

The Goyt Valley 5 is a 5 mile Fell race, with about a third of the course on road, and two thirds on tough off road terrain around the scenic Errwood Reservoir in the Peak District. The reservoir has the honour of providing my home town with water! It is held each year as a fund raiser for Buxton Mountain rescue. Quick results below...

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Time Position

34.16 20 out of 60

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After having to drastically cut my running back due to my back injury it was good to get going again and compete in a race. 5 miles wouldn't be the most challenging race distance wise, but as I've already learnt, its the terrain and conditions that are the biggest factor. There was a few other Stockport Harriers there as well as many Wilmslow Running Club members. I decided my aim was to let as few of the Wilmslow runners as possible finish ahead of me for a bit of local rivalry.

The race started at Errwood Reservoir Sailing club and went across the dam and down a road running next to it. I was feeling very strong at this stage and had a good placing. I was a reasonable distance ahead of Brian (a Stockport Harrier) who I'd recently finished ahead of in the Bramhall Park 5K which was an milestone result for me as I wouldn't have had a chance a year ago.

As I hit the off road section the old flash backs of Shepherds Skyline came back as the difficulty increased. The first part was in a forrest and the ground was very uneven with some short steep climbs and some boggy patches. As I descended into a small valley I slipped and somehow managed to surf down the final section before using the momentum to throw me upright at the bottom. It looked like an excellent recovery, but was completely on instinct and I have no idea if I could pull it off again. The climb out of the valley though was a killer, and at the top there was no relief as we hit the open moor with boggy uneven exposed ground.

The moor section was really tough with my stride length constantly having to change and my rhythm being constantly disrupted. I began to tire quickly and slow and a couple of people overtook me, and then my marker of Brian overtook me! He looked fairly fresh and it was obvious that even with 2 miles to go I'd never catch him. It just goes to show how different these Fell races are and how you need to specifically train for them.

I clung on to my position as hard as I could but a couple more people overtook me, but when a Wilmslow RC chap overtook me I though "It ends now". I knew I had no chance of overtaking him on the rough off road section, but I knew the approach to the finish line was on a downhill road, home turf for me. I kept the Wilmslow running chap just in sight and as I hit the downhill road I hit the turbo and managed to catch him up and overtook him on the last bend before the line. To be honest I felt a little bit of a cheat overtaking someone that close to the line, as he had deserved to finish ahead, and if it wasn't for a downhill road I would never have caught him up, but I consoled myself with the fact that you can only race the course put in front of you.

Overall this was a tough race but very enjoyable. I'd like to thank Wilmslow Running club for organising it and Buxton Mountain Rescue for manning the course and watching over us whilst we ran around the area.

Cheers

Andy

Iceland

2008-06-16T23:24:00.005+01:00

Hello,

I recently went on a holiday to Iceland and what a great holiday it turned out to be! If you’re able to get over the price of things over there it really is a great place to visit. We were lucky though as it was summer and so the Sun never really set and the darkest it got was dusk for half an hour or so. I saw some fantastic sites like the waterfalls of Gulfoss and Godafoss and some geysers including the original Geysir!

However this is a jogblog, so what about my jogging? Well it was a record setting holiday for me on the running front.

The first run I managed was along the harbour front with the mighty Esja mountain dominating the view. It was a lovely run, with the sun shinning and a slight breeze. The map is below with a photo of Esja too. My two travelling companions know me well enough not to bat an eye lid now when it comes to me and running, but it caused some surprise to our Canadian room mate in our hostel who was far to sensible to bring running gear on holiday with him!

The second run I managed was up a hill I do not know the name of. This hill was behind the hostel we were staying in near Akureyri. Anton, a seasoned hiker, reliably informed me it would take about 20 minutes to walk up, I was a little suspicious but bowed to his superior experience in this field. I set off up the hill and for the first 6 minutes or so I managed something akin to running given the conditions, after which I looked up and was no where near the top! After this I was reduced to a fast hike and made good progress, but after 20 minutes there was still a fair bit left. I turned round and saw Anton half way down the slope after having set off 5 minutes before me and it was at this point I realised the size of this challenge had been underestimated. Make no mistake, this was one steep slope, and in parts got about as steep as slope could go whilst still being able to walk it. It was about 2.2 kilometres to the top, and it took me 34 minutes, a real thigh burner! At the top was a cairn and having conquered this peak I felt it was only right to contribute and added a stone, did a Rocky pose (from Rocky IV at the top of the mountain in Russia) and then came down which was thankfully quicker, though still hard. This constituted the most Northerly run I’ve ever done with the highest latitude of 65°49'2.33"N

The next record I set was my most Northerly lap of a 400 metre athletic track (I’m sad I know!) at a town called Sauðárkrókur at roughly 65°44'43.24"N. I managed an OK 1 minute and 11 seconds, but I wasn’t in running gear, and hadn’t done any warming up so that would add a few seconds on.

My last run was along the harbour front again back in Reykjavik and helped round off a brilliant holiday.

In short, Iceland is a great to place to visit during the summer if you like outdoor type holidays and I recommend it if you get the chance, but don't expect to drink to many beers!

Cheers

Andy

2008 Buxton Half Marathon Special

2008-05-25T22:53:00.000+01:00

Hello folks

Quick results below…
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Time Position Age Grade %
1:36:47 60 out of 220 61.2%
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Well the Buxton Half is something very special. Last year I was fairly scared by the course profile, as road races go, it has to be one of the toughest course profiles for the distance. This year the same team that took on the challenge last time entered it again. A year into my training for the Marathon des Sables and feeling fit, I needed to see a big improvement over last years time, so the strategy for the day was to take it calm on the up hill and “Smash it… 150%” apprentice style on the downhill.

Ben, Dave and I lined up at the start line. Dave was carrying an injury and so was purely going for completion, Ben wanted a new personal best, and more importantly, under 1:55:00. The whistle went and off we went! I tried not to set off to fast to start with as the climb to Axe edge is a long one and I needed energy for the downhills. It was very windy and exposed on the climb to Axe Edge and for the next couple of miles and really took a lot of me. I passed a hiker at one point who was cheering us runners on as we ran down the hill, but I was slightly concerned about his navigation ability as he was deadly serious when he said “It’s all downhill from now”, clearly he hadn’t encountered the killer climb after Glutton Bridge!

I was feeling strong and I passed the 10K point at 46:05 which was a good time regardless of the terrain. Round the corner from the 10K mark was Glutton Bridge and the start of the killer climb. This climb really destroyed me last year, this year it was tough, but manageable. A few people overtook me on the climb, but on the downhill I stormed past more.

There was one tough hill left… Harpur hill, a short (by Buxton standards) sharp hill around the 11 mile mark. Again, on the downhill I managed to overtake more, and this was a real surprise this late in the race, at this point last year I was in a world of pain being constantly overtaken.

By the time I was on the final downhill I was starting to run on empty, I was trying to keep up with a girl in front of me, who was still strong and overtaking people. She was to strong for me to catch, but keeping her in sight kept me going strong. As I turned the final corner, upped the speed one final and crossed the finish line in 1:36:47, an improvement of nearly 9 minutes over last time.

The race was not over though and I kept my eyes peeled for Dave and Ben. Dave was the next to come in and even though he looked in a bad way he managed his customary screaming finish with a time of 1:53:12. Ben and his yellow colour scheme running clothes finished like a ray of sunshine with a time of 1:54:59 on his watch and achieved his target of under 1:55:00.

A final big thank you to all the marshals who helped make the race possible.

Cheers

Andy

2008 Great Manchester Run 2008 Special

2008-05-18T22:16:00.003+01:00

Hi folks,

Quick results below... full race report to follow
-------------------------
Time Category Position Age grade %
47:33 2853 56.5%

3K - 14:55
5k - 24:21
5mile - 39:07
-------------------------

Full race report to follow

Cheers

Andy

White Peak Marathon 2008 Special

2008-05-17T21:51:00.007+01:00

Hello folks,

A rather special marathon for me, the quick results below.
----------------------------------
Time Position Age Grade %
3:36:33 61 out of 197 57.7%
----------------------------------

The meeting point for this race was near Matlock and this was 25 minutes drive from my good friends Justin and El, and so the night before I went and stayed with them and had a wonderful pasta bake for tea, so a big thanks to both of them for a wonderful pre-race build up!

The organisation for this race was something quite special for a club organised run. They bussed us from the finish where people left there cars to the start which was near Thorpe in the middle of nowhere! The weather was close to perfect for running, overcast, only a light wind, and occasionally a very fine light rain. After my experience at London I had gone dressed more in my winter running gear with three layers and joggers on. We started off following the Tissington Trail and there are some spectacular views from this, the English countryside at its best with beautiful greens and stone walls dividing farmers fields over an undulating landscape. After a few miles I was warm enough to take my running jacket off and wrap it round my waist which also had my bum bag full of goodies, making me look like I had a massive layer of flab! In my hand I had an old bottle of Orangina with some fresh orange juice and water mix in it.

As the race progressed I got chatting to some great people. One chap was running this as his first marathon to raise money for the specialist cancer hospital treating his brother, he had a strong support crew out to hand him bottles of lucozade and seemed to have a level head and looked great for a 4 hours finish. With his reason for running I knew there would be nothing that could prevent him from finishing. Another chap had a running vest of the “100 marathon club”… an achievement I’m in awe of. It turns out he’d had one rest before running this after running 6 marathons in 6 days around the 6 counties of Northern Ireland! As I moved up the field I had a bit of banter with a lady from Buxton Harriers and it turns out she to had talked to the 100 marathon man… and that this was actually his 475th!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time flew by and I was quickly at the 11 mile mark which is where we did a quick 180 round the marker and ran back, but on the High Peak trail and past some more beautiful scenery.

I still felt strong at this point and was slowly overtaking some of the people who had overtaken me earlier on. From my time I knew I was going fast, but this counts for nothing in a marathon unless you’re strong enough to maintain that pace and I had a habit of crashing after the 20 mile mark, and as this marker approached I grew increasingly nervous. I was still overtaking people, and some club runners too, and this made me think again I was going too fast, but I kept checking my running gizmo and my heart rate was still around the 167 mark consistently and so I persevered. It was during this stretch between the 11 and 20 mile marker that I grew unhealthily attached to my Orangina bottle and I suppose you could say I started to view it as a friend!

Sadly the 20 mile marker meant that the Orangina bottle was empty, and so there was an emotional parting at the next drink station. The next 6 miles were a blur. There were 3 huge downhill sections (1:8 slopes) where my legs still having energy in them were really able to capitalise on them. All the time though I was waiting for the energy levels and legs to collapse but it didn’t happen! As I passed the 25 mile marker I knew I was on for a great time. The legs didn’t have the energy for a sprint finish, but I didn’t need one, and crossed the line and smashed my PB by over 22 minutes!

(the last bar is off because in my post marathon state I didn't knock my gizmo off properly)

Overall the White Peak Marathon is a great course and it was kind enough to allow me a fantastic time, but make no mistake, on a different day with bad weather or slightly less fitness at the downhill stages, this course could really have chewed me up. A huge thanks must be given Matlock Athletic Club for excellent organisation. With the wilderness factor, the opening of the Rugby club to allow us to shower after the race, and the start and finish being in different places meaning they had to lay on buses for us I couldn’t give them enough praise. Truly excellent organisation. I'm still not entirely sure why my time was so much better than London which was only one month previous. I suspect lots of little things all combining together which over 26.2 miles makes a big difference. I did pop two ibuprofem over the course when I felt the old left knee starting to swell, and this seemed to do the job.

At the end there was one last surprise as I also randomly bumped into Marple Phil who I hadn’t seen in a few years and had a quick chat with him. I can’t remember his exact time, but he’d done brilliantly and got round in the middle to high 3:20s mark,

Cheers

Andy

Bramhall Park 5K Time Trial Special

2008-04-19T13:08:00.009+01:00

Hello

A rather special race report here, the first ever Bramhall Park 5K time trial! Quick results below
---------------------------------
Time Position Age Grade %
20:27 8 / 89 63.08%
---------------------------------

A great first Bramhall Park TT. The sun was shining and there was a good turn out of about 90 people. This would be my first 5K and so I was unsure what speed to set off at. Half my Salford 10K time would put me at around 21:18, which I’d hope I would at least get that, but Bramhall Park has a few hills, so not exactly a fair comparison with the flat Salford 10K.

We started at the lodge entrance near Bridge Lane roundabout and went up the slope towards Bramhall Hall. Lee from Stockport Harriers was already several metres in front of me by the top despite him having had a big curry and beer session the night before, however he is about two leagues above me so that was to be expected. As we got to the duck pond, we crossed over to the other side of the park, and started the steep climb up. Along the straight at the top, Lee was still in sight… just!

As the second lap started though Lee was out of sight, and I knew I had perhaps set off a little too quick as Andy from Stockport Harriers overtook me, followed by another chap. I could hear a runner bearing down on me from behind and knew that they’d probably overtake me at some point.

As we started the climb on the other side of the park, the girl behind finally passed me (and went on to set the female course record!). Andy had pulled up to tie his shoe laces and I overtook him for all of about 10 seconds until he powered back in front again. The order stayed like this for the rest of the race and I crossed the line in 8th. I was really surprised how high up the rankings I’d come. I’d love to say it was down to my running ability, but I suspect as word spreads to the club runners I’ll slip into double digits, but for the moment I’ll enjoy my only ever single digit finish!

The organisation was great, and I’m eagerly awaiting the official results going up on the site. I thoroughly recommend people take part in future events (every Saturday @ 09:00), as 5K should be achievable for most able bodied people. If you’re tempted, sign up here, you only need to do it once, then can turn up whenever you want.

Given the frequency of Bramhall Park 5K TT I’ll just be recording the results of future ones, as otherwise it will take over this blog.

Cheers

Andy

London Marathon 2008 Special

2008-04-13T12:15:00.006+01:00

Hello

------------------------------
Quick Results
position pl.age Race no. time Avg Pace
12537/23612 1372 22968 4:03:42 9:17 per mile

Splits
5 km 0:29:18
10 km 0:58:08
15 km 1:26:47
20 km 1:52:40
half 1:58:06
25 km 2:18:57
30 km 2:46:50
35 km 3:16:09
40 km 3:51:00
finish 4:03:42
------------------------------

The London Marathon was to be my first marathon of 2008, and what a memorable one it would turn out to be. I was able to stay just a 20 minute walk from the start line thanks to a good friend of mine from Uni, so thanks Vicky & Damien for the hospitality. In the starting area for the blue zone the atmosphere was great. I had some quick banter with a bunch of people from Iceland who had marathon tour t-shirts on of every one they’ve completed and they were trying to convince me to take part in the Reyjavik Marathon but sadly my summer holiday to Iceland isn’t at the same time.

My plan had been to run the first 10 miles slow (9:25 per mile), the second 10 miles at a medium pace (9:00), and then pick it up on the last 10k (8:35). I expected the course to be flat, and whilst the route did take in a few tourist attractions, there looked to be a big sparse patch of anything interesting round Canary Wharf though.

I managed to sneak into the back of wave 6 (out of 8) but this still put me towards the back of the masses. As I crossed the start line at Blackheath I was glad I was taking the first section easy as it was impossible to run at any speed, so I just tried to relax and enjoy the costumes and told myself I’d worry about the time later. After a few miles, the different colour starts merged and its traditional to boo the other colours which I did with vigour! Its little things like this that makes London a great Marathon for atmosphere.

As I approached Greenwich I passed a sight that will stay with me for a while. A fireman was running in full gear including breathing apparatus. I’ve no idea how heavy all of it was, but the feat was awe inspiring, a true hero! As we went round the burnt out Cutty Sark the course narrowed and we ended up stood still for a bit which was a shame so early in the race! As I turned the corner to start leaving Greenwich I managed to catch sight of Vicky & Damien, and even better, they saw me and snapped this great photo!

Outside of Greenwich I checked my time and I was only marginally down on where I was supposed to be, and felt great, though obviously it was still early days. Around the 8 mile mark I came across the Massai Warriors! An incredible sight, as they sang away and apparently planned to dance every now and then. The scene was made even more touching with some of our own armed forces who’d entered the marathon giving them an honour guard and running with them.

Sadly though the Massai marked a turning point for me in the race as the heavens opened and a fairly torrential downpour started. Brendan Foster bragged from his warm, dry commentary booth how he ran for a mile in bad rain the day before and it can help… well I’m not a fan of running freezing cold and soaking for 3 hours so I’ll respectfully disagree with the modern day father of British road running. All I could do to stave off the cold was pick my pace up to generate a bit more heat and I slowly dropped my pace to the 8 minute mile mark which I maintained from mile 11 to 14 as I entered the Canary Wharf district. I had not planned to be running at this pace, but it was the only thing keeping off the cold and wet but the cost from this would be felt later. It was during this peak running zone that I managed to see Dave and Pippa and the shout from Dave was something that may have made even the Massai Warriors flinch! My running gizmo produced the below graph, and for the sharp eyed, you may notice that total distance it claims I ran is 27.26 miles! I suspect this is a combination of normal fudge factor for GPS, the odd area of poor reception, and me not being able to take the racing line on many bends (also I’m pretty convinced mile 20 is wrong… there is no way on this planet I ran that fast).

By the 20 mile marker, my body was in a fair bit of pain and my core muscles were completely shot. I realised I had no hope of running at 8:35 pace for the remaining 10k but tried to keep close as long as I could. The game was up by mile 23 though and I broke, no longer able to keep up the pace that kept me warm, my decline accelerated and I was reduced to run/walking and by the time I reached the underpasses of Victoria Embankment I was down to walking for a minute or two at a time. This was a very black time for me and one that I was saved from by some phenomenal athlete dressed as Paddington bear as we kept leapfrogging each other. I have no idea how the chap had got so far at such a consistently good pace in a mascot suit. As the houses of parliament came into site, I thought to myself “I can’t let Paddington beat me” and I somehow found the energy to start running at a good pace again.

As I crossed the line I was utterly destroyed. This experience had been far more brutal on me then Nottingham (Nottingham is a more difficult course though) and by the time I’d got my bag I was not in the best state. Staggering fairly aimlessly around Ben somehow saw me, shouted and came to get me. I was on a different planet at this point and was hoping to try and get to the meet and greet tent to try and find Tony, but with the legs shutting down, my head in a bit of a mess, I was convinced by Ben to find warmth and somewhere to sit and so off we went. Thankfully once I'd warmed up and rested for 10 mins I felt a lot better.

Overall it was a fantastic experience, and I recommend anyone signing up to the ballot entry for next year which is open now. The atmosphere is electric and something to experience. A final thank you to Mike for his support in the build up and the friends who looked out for me on the course, it was a shame I didn’t see all of you, but the thought kept me going and looking out for people gave me something to take my mind off the pain!

Wilmslow Half Marathon 2008 Special

2008-03-30T21:11:00.012+01:00

Hello,
------------------------------
Quick results for this race below

Pos / out of Official time Personal time
868 / 3449 1:43:29 1:42:14 - PB
------------------------------

What a weekend! Two of my uni mates came up, we had Bakewell tarts in Bakewell, another good friend of mine proposed to his girlfriend… and she said yes, and the weather was glorious for the Wilmslow half marathon on the Sunday. Could life get any better? Well yes as it turned out!

The Wilmslow half is a big half marathon, and had the usual big race atmosphere. My race plan was based on an article I’d read online about heart rate zones, and essentially was to keep my heart rate reasonably low (i.e. run slower), and gradually increase the speed in the second half of the race. My mate Dave from uni was also running but would be taking it easy as he had the Paris Marathon the next weekend. The race route is below.

As the race started I was running with a fellow Stockport Harrier, but he was too quick for the heart rate zone I was trying to stay in so I let him go and listened to my MP3 player. The course took us round the country roads of Wilmslow and past some very well to do houses with some kind locals cheering us on.

I saw Ben who’d come to cheer us on somewhere around the 8K mark and I was still keeping my running slow. I’d been following a chap who looked a bit Rasta with “Don Juan” on his back and he was proving to be a good pace setter. It was a slow-ish pace, and as I approached the 10K mark the time was 50:39. It had been a fairly consistent 5 minutes per kilometre for me at this point.

As I past the 12K mark I was over halfway and feeling very fresh. There was no horrible pain like at Buxton the year before, and I decided now was the moment to “put the smack down” as they say on WWE. Between now and the finish line, I ran every kilometre quicker than the one before, with the final kilometre being run in 4:06. I even managed to catch and then overtake my Stockport Harrier mate up who’d left me for dead at the beginning.

I crossed the line still with the feeling I had a bit left in the tank, with a new PB (1:42:14), but most importantly, a far better understanding of what works better for me on long distance races. My mate Dave who had been taking it easy put a turn of pace in at the end and crossed in 1:52:22 and is looking great for his Paris marathon attempt next weekend… good luck Dave.

The marshalling was excellent, and the race organisation was really good. The Wilmslow half is a very impressive event and fairly flat so definitely a good half for getting a PB on.

Cheers

Andy

Salford 10K 2008 Special

2008-03-21T14:58:00.011Z

Hello,

Quick results for this race below.

Pos Num M Cat CatPos Pace per Km/Mile Time
203 238 181 M (097/182) 04.16/06.51 42:36

Well I was looking forward to this race as the Salford 10k is a fast course ready made for a PB. I ran it in 2005 (my first ever 10K) and recorded a time of 48:14. I was expecting to beat this time, but I didn't think that I'd set a new PB as my training had been more geared toward the London Marathon.

On turning up at the venue, I was impressed at how much it had changed since 2005. Now there is a wonderful purpose built sports venue with footy and hockey astro turf pitches and a great little sports centre. Salford has obviously been investing a bit of money in the area. The other thing of note was that there was a really strong headwind down the long straight. Having met up with a few of the Stockport Harriers, they were pessimistic about setting a PB with this wind as it was strong!

The course route is shown below and is two laps of the road network.

The start was on time and there was about 500 so it was reasonsably busy for the first 3kms or so. The headwind really made itself felt as we crossed the river leading to the long straight section, and it was so strong that it reduced my speed to just above walking! I've never experienced anything like it in a city, up on a mountain yes, but in the city!?!?! Thankfully the bridge was a short section, and after that the houses just took the edge off wind so it was just a long strength sapping straight with the wind in your face. Another reminder of why headwind can be worse than hills!

As I passed the halfway mark my time was 20:26, which was a little faster than I'd been hoping for. At this point though it became a lot harder to maintain the speed and I noticed my bodies composure slipping which makes your running style suffer and become less efficient. I managed to pull it together during the back straight but by then my core muscles were spent and as I rounded the corner to face the windy bridge I knew I was in trouble.

During the last long straight a large group of people overtook me and I then threw everything I had to overtake them. Just as the finish line was in sight, I started feeling really bad inside and checked my heart rate which was dangerously high at 199bpm (for men, the simple maximum heart rate formula is 220bpm minus your age). I had to slow down, and the last 10 metres were slightly off pace. A graph of it all is below.

The blue line is pace (minutes per kilometer i.e. the lower the better) and you can see the difference the long straight made (3.5K to 6K) after which I wasn't able to recover the consistency.

Overall, it was a great race, and I'm happy with the time. Many of the Stockport Harriers managed PB's despite the wind, so some great performances out there. Gareth Raven from Sale Harriers won the race with an incredible time of 31:07, and the fastest Stockport Harrier time was recorded by Mike Shaw with 34:45. I hope to be back at this race next year, to try and set a new PB.

Cheers

Andy

Stockport 10 Special

2007-12-09T23:10:00.003Z

Hi folks,

Well I’ve been a bit slow writing this report, but here goes. The official results are here, and my quick results below:

Position Name Time
238 / 624 Andy Shirres 1:16:11

The Stockport 10 is a 10 mile road race round Stockport taking in Offerton, the outskirts of Romiley and Bredbury. With it being held during the run up to Christmas, I wasn’t expecting a good time as my training had been very intermittent and a few more beers than normal had been drunk!

The race started at Woodbank Athletics track (which is a superb facility by the way and the top public sports facility in Stockport in my opinion) and headed out into Offerton. The start is relatively flat and more downhill than uphill.

The first half of the race was relatively uneventful for me as I knew the roads pretty well, however the climb to Romiley after passing the Chadkirk was tough. It was a long fairly steep climb. I was glad to get to the top… or so I thought! On reaching the top, the course took a sharp left to reveal a shorter, but far steeper climb. This really took it out of me.

Bredbury was mainly downhill though and so I managed to pick up on a fair few places after the ordeal of the previous climbs. One last challenge remained however… New Zealand road! This too is a long fairly steep climb and really takes it out of you and makes the last mile a hard slog.

The final stretch was back in Woodbank Park with the finish on the Athletics track. I managed to pick up a bit of speed for the last kilometre or so, and even managed to do a bit of a sprint finish.

After the race was great; I don’t know how Stockport Harriers managed it, but they had loads of “For Goodness Shakes” available for free to the runners (and this is a top recovery drink, that’s not cheap), as well as a fantastic goody bag with a hat for running in cold weather. The club house was even serving some top notch Hot Pot too. A better end to a race I could not imagine :)

Looking back, I may well have held a little too much back in reserve for this race, but I was happy with the result, and it leaves plenty of scope for a better time in 2008. I’d like to try and shave 10 minutes off my time for next year, so I better get some hill training in!

A special mention should go to the race marshals as they did a fantastic job as the busy Offerton road wasn’t closed for this event. The race wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Cheers

Andy

Shepherds Skyline Fell Race Special!

2007-11-03T20:27:00.000Z

Hello,

Results

Pos No Name CAT CAT Pos Time

206/235 171 Andrew Shirres M 59/64 67.30

I've been very lazy posting the report up, but a while ago I was invited to take part in my first Fell race (The Sheperds Skyline FR) by Kevin from work! Fell running for those not in the know is mainly off road running, particularly up rugged hills. There are many categories of fell races made up of two letters, this one was a BM. Whilst on paper the distance of 6.25 miles shouldn't have worried me, I was all the same very cautious of how I'd perform as I'm a big believe that conditions affect you more than distance, and hills are a bit of a weakness for me.

Unlike other races I've taken part in, Fell races seem to be very relaxed affairs, just turn up on the day, register (only £4, what excellent value!), stick the race number on your shirt, and off you go.

The start was quiet a challenge as the "path" (more of a deep worn out groove in the earth) was very narrow, was rammed with the 200 or so other runners. It was quiet a steep climb, and of course the off road nature ment that it wasn't smooth and stopped me getting into any comfortable pattern. It was good to get to the top of the hill and hit a "flat" stretch, but even this was uneven which slowed me down as will as sap my strength.

Getting round the top of Stoodley Pike marked the half way point, and I'd held my own for a mid packer at this point but a small trickle of people had been overtaking me. What was now revealed in front of me though was a really sharp decent. Some people just flew down it seemingly throwing caution to the wind, I just struggled desperately trying to stop myself from falling over from going too fast. I lost a fair few places and started to notice that a few times I was coming close to going over on my ankle.

At the bottom was a longish flat stretch which I tried to recover on, but what followed was hellish! We now had one really steep slopes, everyone I could see was reduced to walking and by the end of it my back was really hurting from being stooped over for so long.

By now my ankles were well and truely knackered, and whilst my heart and lungs were OK (after a brief recovery section), the muscles that supported my ankles and stopped them from going over on the rough and uneven terrain were worn out, meaning my speed dropped dramatically.

The rest of the course was downhill and towards the end I could hear the footsteps of a person trying to overtake me, and given that the race had flattened I used my road legs to great effect to stop them from overtaking. In the grand scheme of things though my placing was well down the rankings, but my aim had been just to complete this, and the weather had been brilliant, and I'd really enjoyed the experience. Clearly more training in this extreme off road environment was needed though!

What was really impressive though was the chap who finished first who got round in 39:25 which is quicker then I've managed to do the exceedingly flat Manchester 10K, no idea how he did it!

Nottingham Marathon Special

2007-09-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

Hello

Apologies for the delay in putting up the Nottingham Marathon race report. I left to go on holiday the next day and have been struggling to find time since.

Anyway back to the report. Quick results for those short on time are below:
ChipPos ChipTime RaceNo Name GunPos GunTime
463 out of 1059 03:58:26 10187 Andrew Shirres 457 04:00:02

My training had been very broken leading up to this race and whilst the confidence had taken a little dint from this, the recent passing away of Jane Tomlinson reminded me people with far more troubles had overcome the Marathon distance and I drew strength from that. I had originally targeted less than 4 hours but with the training I thought at best I’d only have a 50/50 chance to get that, but I reminded myself this was more about the distance than the time.

I arrived in Nottingham on the Saturday and stayed with a mate (thanks Jim). I woke up Saturday morning a little nervous, but very excited. My mate Ben was particularly hard core and drove up from London on the morning to see my first Marathon, though I think he gets a quick out of seeing me in pain! After wolfing down 3 Wheetabix and headed off to the start.

As we arrived at the start the atmosphere was well and truly building up with thousands of people milling around. I ate my banana, did a few stretches and handed my post race bag to Jim. I moved closer to the front, watched the clock tick down, and then we were off! Almost straight away I realised I’d drunk too much water and I needed the loo! Thankfully, after 500 metres there was a public loo so there was no need for a Paula.

As the race unfolded we ran through the streets of Nottingham city centre and headed out towards Wollaton Park. I was being cautious with my running and making sure I was holding something back, but despite this I started to slowly edge ahead of my Runners World pace band which was set for a 3 hours 50 minute finish as well as ever so slowly begin to overtake runners.

Wollaton Park turned out to be a beautiful place to go for a run, and as I started nearing the end I noticed the crowd cheering a little louder as I ran by them. Not having become famous for my Marathon running yet I began to wonder why this was, and a quick look round my shoulder revealed that the cheers were for Spiderman who was right behind me and going from strength to strength!!!!

As I left Wollaton Park I passed through the most memorable water stop of the course. Not only did two bottles of water slip from my hands onto the poor volunteers handing them out, but the volunteers were the local American Football team for Nottingham University fully kitted out! Not wanting to hang around to see if these chaps would take offence I shouted a “Sorry!” and notched the pace up.

As I ran along Castle Boulevard, I managed to catch up with Spiderman and as we ran round the corner we entered the home straight for the half marathon runners. Both my uni friends, and a friend from work managed to see me running along this stretch and it gave me a boost. At the half Marathon mark, my time was 1:50:00 which put me 5 minutes ahead of the pace band which meant I had 15 minutes spare for under 4 hours. I started to feel I could do it!

However the half Marathon had taken its toll, and quiet quickly by mile 14 the odd person started overtaking me and by the 15 mile marker I noticed I had lost a minute on my pace band and now only had 4 minutes in hand. A dull ache in some of my leg muscles had started and it was at this point with over 10 miles to go I realised that the race was really only just starting!

Around the 16 mile mark a middle aged chap slowly overtook me wearing an Isle of Man shirt. Its funny how little things like this stand out during a long run, but for the next 3 miles I overtook him at every water station (when he tended to stop for a drink) and he then promptly overtook me on the straights once he’d got his speed back up!

Just after the 18 mile marker, I overtook the Isle of Man runner for the final time, with only 1 minute up on my pace band and approached a part of the course that will forever send a shiver down my spine… Nottingham boating lake! For the four miles I had to run round the rowing lake of the National Water Sports Centre. This place looks beautiful, but it’s one pig of a place to run round! The site is probably perfect for rowers, but for runners it is very exposed, and unfortunately a strong headwind was present for around three of the four miles of this part. It was soul destroying, the legs where pleading for me to stop, the headwind making an already painful stage more painful, the scenery gave the illusion that you weren’t making any progress, and to make matters worse, as we emerged from this section, I found myself on the banks of the Trent with only slightly more shelter than the boating lake, for another mile and a half stretch.

I checked my watch at the 24 miles marker and it was roughly 3 hours 41 minutes. I’d haemorrhaged roughly 11 minutes of my in hand time on the 4 hour mark and I was now one minute over the mark and that was if I could regain my pre-boating lake pace. Luckily as I rounded the bend at 24.5 miles, I was finally out of the head wind, sheltered, and now very angry, and threw absolutely everything I had into what distance was left!

I’ve no idea where I found the energy from, but I really motored through the remaining distance and it felt as though my fastest mile was probably done in this section! As I crossed over the bridge, I continued to make the most of my momentum and push onwards overtaking people fairly rapidly by now.

As I passed the 26 mile marker I heard the announcer start the countdown for getting under four hours on the gun time (chip time is my personal time, gun time is from the official start, but on big races it can take several minutes to cross the start line). I decided I wanted under 4 on the gun time to and went screaming down the final straight, but it wasn’t meant to be and I missed the gun time by 3 seconds!

Post race was a bit of a daze and I managed a couple of post race interviews with my mates who fancy themselves as future Ray Stubbs I feel! My legs felt destroyed but relieved to have finished. For me personally, I was really pleased with my time, and felt a great sense of achievement. Looking back, it’s been a steep climb since I started running first in 2005, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m already starting to look for other races so keep checking back every now and then!

I’d like to thank all the race marshals, volunteers and organisers at the Nottingham Marathon as the event was excellently run. I’d also like to thank all those people who’ve sponsored me as this has made the event so much more worthwhile doing, and for those who have been meaning to sponsors me but haven’t yet, there’s still time for you at my Justgiving website.

Cheers

Andy

July - Rain but no Spain!

2007-08-01T22:32:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Well July was eventful, but I'm short on time so I'll be brief. I managed my longest run today which was approximately 20 miles. This was a painful experience which left me in a fair amount of agony at the time, and dinted my confidence as I really couldn't have gone a step further. After a lot of readining into it and a trip to the physio, I was diagnosed with Patella Tendonitis, and I began investigating a way to get through my marathon attempt with it

01/07 - Round Etherow and back - 3:01:00
03/07 - Dowhill training with the Harriers
06/07 - 6km - 25:53 (wrist weights)
10/07 - 1 hour Fartlek training (Pyramid 1 to 3 to 1)
14/07 - 8 Mile Eminem - 59:27
15/07 - Round Etherow and back - 2:50:01
18/07 - Harrier run - Romily & back - 1:30:00
22/07 - Sale waterpark Bridge and back - 3:38:45
27/07 - Jackson Lane 10K - 50:30 (wrist weights)
29/07 - Round Etherow and back - 2:52:55

Cheers

Andy

June - Trial by Harrier!

2007-07-02T21:22:00.000+01:00

Hello,

First off, been very slow updating the blog, very lazy of me. Thankfully though I've not been as lazy with my running. This month was a busy one. Two main things happened in it. The first was my niggling injury to my right knee. I went to a physio and got it checked out. Thankfully it was nothing too serious and I was diagnosed with suspect patellar tendonitis. The exact cause was not found, but I do have a tight ITB, have been increasing mileage, and was told by the physio my knee caps are pretty loose compared to the average person!

The second main thing was that after having a chat with one of the engineers at work, it turned out he was a member of Stockport Harriers and he invited me along to there training sessions. I'd been thinking of joining for a while, and this was the final kick I needed. So off I went to a few Stockport Harrier training sessions! I was worried if I'd end up embarrassing myself at these sessions, but they were really friendly and offered encouragement and I was able to hold my own on the mid week session. The weekend distance training session though showed me the difference in class though!

Round Woodbank Park
03/06 - 29:40 - My right knee hurt on this run and got worse as the run went on and was what convinced me to see the Physio
12/06 - 24:34
16/06 - 2 laps - 38:19

6 Climbs up steep path @ Woodbank - 1st Harrier training sessions
20/06 - Forgot to record the time

Round Marple and back
22/06 - 30:00 - Failed to complete this run due to falling over and grazing myself to badly to carry on. This run convinced me of the value of trail running shoes

Round Lyme Park and back (15 mile XC - very hilly)
24/06 - 2:51:00 - 1st long distance run with the Harrier. I kept up with them on the hill sections, but as soon as we hit the flat after 7 miles I was spent and they had energy to burn. A kind chap called Brian kept me company whilst the rest sped off over the horizon. It was hard to see them so strong whilst I was spent, but it gives me something to aim for.

5 x Tempo laps of Woodbank (Interval training)
26/06 - 3:20 ish (each lap of woodbank equivalent to roughly 1km

600 sprint / 200 recovery - Speed training
28/06 - 2:14 per 600 on average

All in all it was a fascinating month. It was a real jump in the technical level of training for me. I'd been use to just going out running, whilst this was a lot more focused. The Harriers were great at sharing advice which I'm sure will pay dividends.

Cheers

Andy

Are you local?

2007-07-01T18:15:00.000+01:00

Hello,
Just a short post, but I was out running today and on entering Marple I was detained by the local militia and marched away to be tried for being an "Outsider". Thankfully I was able to convince them that because I knew the ex-fellow local Mark Taylor, I should be allowed to pass unharmed. As the ruling was ratified by the Elders of Marple, they performed a special dance and luckily I had my camera to hand to catch the bizarre goings on!

I left quickly as the chant of "Harvester" started being cried out by the lead dancer as I wasn't sure he meant harvesting vegetables or human organs and had no intention of finding out. I suppose this is yet more reason to keep your wits about you if you pass through the place! I know we live in a tolerant society, but when will Stockport Council do something about this breakaway community/cult! :)

Investment Advice

2007-06-30T14:23:00.000+01:00

I was surfing the web when I came across the web site for what I remember as my favourite tasting beer from my travels and there was this classic bit of advice.

If you had purchased $1,000 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00
With Enron,you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00
With WorldCom,you would have had less than $5.00 left.
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of Beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.00
Based on the above, current investment advice is to drink Hansa heavily and recycle. It's called the Hansa 401 Keg Plan

Makes you think :) The Hansa theme song is also worth a listen to!

http://www.hansabeer.com/

May - It's race time!

2007-05-31T18:32:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Been very lazy on the publishing of training, but I didn't do a huge amount of training in May, but I did have two races over two consecutive weeks so I was resting (or tapering in running jargon). I did however do my first Round Etherow & back run. This was a brilliant run though very long and is probably the longest run I've done to date. Etherow Country park was one of Britain's first Country parks and is a beautiful area. It use to be part of the estate of George Andrew, who built Compstall mill in the 1820's and the waterways and lakes were built to carry water to the mill to power the waterwheel. Nowadays the lakes are used for various watersports (including radio controled sail boats)! However right next to Etherow is the even more spectacular (IMO) Erncroft Wood. Within 10 metres you can go from English countryside to what appears to be a Scottish Pine Forrest where William Wallace could be lurking round the next turn! It also has an ancient silver mine within it rumoured to have been first established in the middle ages! Erncroft Wood is also home to the number 1 most difficult climb on my training routes. It goes on and on, and was too tough for me to run all the way up. Hopefully one day I'll conquer it though :) When you emerge from this climb you are on one of the highest points surrounding Stockport and you actually have to descend to get to the highest pubs in Marple Bridge!

There was also a free GAIT analysis session on at Running Bear towards the end of the month so I went along to find out my natural running style. After a quick run on a tread mill and some slow motion replay it turned out I was a mild to moderate over pronator. So I got some road running shoes designed for over pronator's and marathon type distance, some Asics 2120's.

02/05 - 10km - 47:44
05/05 - Round Etherow and back - 2:59:32
07/05 - Marple & Back - 1:37:35
Great Manchester Run
Buxton Half Marathon

At the end of this month, I was pleased with my achievements in the races, but painfully aware that my training wasn't good enough to get me through a Marathon. So as June started I was left with the bar needing to be raised several notches. I needed to get more enthusiasm into going out running whatever the weather, and a way to make the longer runs more enjoyable.

Cheers

Andy

Buxton Half Marathon 2007 Special

2007-05-29T22:00:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Quick results for those short on time are below
Position Name Time Category Position
96 out of 201 Andrew Shirres 01:45:43 42 out of 68

This was to be the third time in my life I’d run this sort of distance. The first being the Great North Run in 2005 where I’d posted a time of 1:49:49 in what was a hot summer’s day, and the second time was in a training run. Neither of these runs had the course profile of Buxton though and so I was uncertain what to expect.

Thankfully I was joined on this run by Dave and Ben from my Uni days as well as a support crew made up of Jack, Jim & Alison. This really helped to keep the spirits high as weather wise it was a miserable day and turning it into a mini re-union event really helped.

I knew before the race that this would be very different to the more popular runs I had undertook as this was organised by Buxton’s local athletic association. As such I expected most participants to be of a very high standard. We started the race at Buxton Pavilion in some fine rain and a little wind and headed out of the town towards Ladmanlow. This was a steady climb but not too steep. I was surprised to find that whilst I was taking it easy, I was overtaking a lot of people. Given the quality of the participants I was worried that I was starting out too fast, but I’ve always thought that when you have energy you should cautiously use it so I happily overtook people before the climb got too steep.

After the long 3 mile climb I found myself at the top of Axe Edge junction (photo left) and started a welcome, though all too short downhill section! The rain had got heavier by this point, and the exposed nature of being at the highest point on the course meant the wind was strong. At this point I overtook someone on the downhill, and whilst I can’t be certain he didn’t overtake me again, I believe he was the last person I managed to overtake permanently. The significance behind this is that in the Great Run series I’d become use to slowly but surely overtaking the people in front of me all race long, but this was not to be in this race.

After a short but steep climb to the Raceway junction, the weather was still awful and I began to notice the craziness of how the race marshals and hikers had multiple layers and waterproofs on, and the runners were in T-Shirts and shorts. Thankfully I wasn’t feeling the cold, but I’m certain this was because of the heat being generated by running, and if I’d been walking I’d have very quickly been in a bad way. The view was also very good at Raceway Junction despite the best efforts of the weather to ruin it.

As I descended towards Glutton Bridge, the rain became lighter and then had periods where it stopped. Just after passing Glutton Bridge at 7 miles in I was surprised to bump into Jim, Jack & Alison who had managed to drive to a point on the course to cheer us on! They couldn’t have chosen a better position to offer encouragement as this was on a slight flat on the second major climb of the day. This was a vicious climb that really sapped all strength from my legs, and even though it was shorter than the first climb, it felt like it lasted longer. More and more runners overtook me as I slowly climbed this hill, and it was an immense relief to see the top of it and pick up some pace on the downhill as I ran towards Bierlow and the 9 mile marker.

Just as I rounded the corner at Bierlow and started the third and final major climb, Jack, Jim & Alison came passed in the car. Jim was leaning out the window and getting huge enjoyment filming me on his mobile whilst shouting words of encouragement. As they started pulling away I couldn’t help but try and replicate Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky montage sprint which I managed to keep up for several long seconds and was a personal highlight for me!

The third climb despite being the least challenging caused me the most pain and yet another steady stream of fellow runners overtook me. It felt like all my reserves were spent by the 10 mile marker and popping Jelly Babies wasn’t helping and my stomach was sending loud “I’m hungry” signals to me.

Somehow I reached the top of Harpur Hill and then the long descent started towards the finish. As we entered Buxton the course got a little confusing as we weaved through the streets and finally we entered the Pavilion Gardens where I knew the finish line would be!

As I came to within about 100 metres of the finish (photo left) I could here the footsteps of a runner approaching behind me. Having had to put up with being overtaken for the last 10 miles by a stream of people I was blown if this cheeky chappy was going to get past me just before the line and so I threw every last bit of energy I had into a sprint finish and crossed the line to the cheers of Jack, Jim & Alison ahead of the chap to finish in 01:45:43 and set a new PB at the half marathon distance.

I was in a complete daze and had only just pumped a Lucozade down me when Dave came screaming down the final few metres like he was in a 100 metre sprint! It was a sight to be seen as Dave crossed the line in 01:46:35. Dave, the support crew and I waited nervously for a sight of Ben. By any right he shouldn’t have been competing as he had done only one 10km run in training and I started to become a little worried that the hills of Buxton would teach him a lesson, but then Ben turned the final corner and ran home to loud cheers in 01:59:52 which he was rightly pleased and a testament to what you can accomplish with will power!

Overall I was very impressed with the Buxton Half marathon. The weather was terrible, and a huge thank you has to go to the marshals who manned checkpoints waving us on and offering us encouragement whilst controlling the traffic (this wasn’t a traffic free event) on what was a fairly depressing day to be standing around outside. The average standard of the participants was very high in this event and highlighted how much I have to improve to get to average club runner standard, and this high standard was probably highlighted best by this chap who looks around 70 and finished in less than 2 hours! If I’m half as fit as him at his age I’ll be a happy man… an inspiration to all I’m sure you’ll agree.

Cheers

Andy

Great Manchester Run 2007 Special

2007-05-20T22:19:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Quick results for those that don’t want to read the full report was:
Forename(s) Surname Race No Time Race Position
Andrew Shirres 9206 01:08:49 16266

Well 364 days ago I ran the Great Manchester Run, and today I did it again. However these two runs couldn’t have been more different. This time, thanks to the ever persuasive Kate Thomas of the Manchester British Red Cross, I got to run it as Sharky, the mascot of the Sale Sharks!

I knew it would be hard, but I did think that I’d still be able to do it in a reasonable time and had high hopes of trying to set a Red Cross Mascot record at the distance. After picking the mascot suit up though, my high hopes took a bit of a dent as the head weighed a bit, and the visibility was terrible! It was going to be harder then I expected!

As I got to the Charity village in the G-Mex and put the mascot outfit my hopes took another dent as with the head on it got quiet hot very quickly inside the thing… and that was when I was stood still, but it was too late to back out now! To the left is a photo of me in the Charity village before the start.

A special mention should go to two of my friends who were also running the Great Manchester run for the first time this year. Belch had come back from a long term annoying knee injury that had required surgery, and Justin who was running for Diabetes UK after being diagnosed with the condition a while ago.

After being guided to the start (the head meant I couldn’t see the curbs and bollards) all the mascots were gathered together. Our group consisted of Ronnie the Rhino, Wolfie, Red Ed the Roughyed (who’d told me he’d recovered from a heart attack after wearing the outfit during a match!), Rocky the Robin, Roary the Lion and the Cheshire Cat. The beginning of the race was quiet difficult due to the restricted vision and thankfully I had Kate guiding me during the congested beginning sections.

Running as Sharky was quiet an experience as he’s very popular and there were lots of shouts coming out from the side and so lots of arm waving from me. Very quickly it got hot in the suit so I had to tone the pace down. I’d picked up a pace band for a target time of 55 mins, but it was so hard to see anything I didn’t bother trying to track my progress and just plodded forward in a herd mentality with the rest of the crowd. The head got particularly humid due to the heat and not enough fresh air getting inside. Thankfully I’d worn my hydration pack under my mascot suit so had a ready supply of water to take on via my straw as I needed it.

Quite a keen race was developing between Wolfie and myself as we kept overtaking each other on the dual carriageway. I bumped into a great many people on my way round and as I was approaching Old Trafford I felt brave enough to leave my minder for a while and try my luck at a faster pace. This year’s run went in the tunnels underneath the stands of Old Trafford and so was a welcome diversion to the usual route, and as I emerged from the last tunnel, a BBC reporter grabbed me and interviewed Sharky! My moment of fame wasn’t to be sadly as it did not appear on TV, why this was I don’t know, maybe because by this point I was so dazed I couldn’t come up with a witty reply to any of his questions, or maybe it was the head stopping his microphone getting close enough to pick up my replies. After finishing the interview I saw Wolfie a good 50 metres in front and knew that it was time to start running again. Thankfully there was an empty lane at this point so I sprinted and caught up with him just as we got to the water stations. Drinking bottled water in Sharky is quiet a skill I tell you! As we went into Salford, I’m afraid I couldn’t see any of the sights, and as we crossed the bridge Wolfie announced to me he had to walk for a while. I felt good enough to carry on, but Wolfie’s outfit was even woollier than mine and I had my hydration pack and given the temperature I’m sure it was for the best that he toned it down a bit, it’s only a run after all.

The last 4 km seemed to take an age to get round. I’d realised by this point from a quick glance at my watch I had no hope of getting under an hour, and was really beginning to suffer with the heat. The humidity inside the suit must have been the highest rating in the UK, and I was surprised that it didn’t start raining inside the Shark head! I really have no idea how anyone could attempt a half marathon in a full mascot suit, let alone a full marathon. I have a new found level of respect for people who’ve managed that feat… incredible!

Around 8 km I was really suffering and my stride length had reduced dramatically. I had to walk for 30 seconds whilst I drank some water as I no longer had the energy to drink from my straw and run at the same time. As I walked I got lots of encouragement from other runners who were patting me on my shoulder and telling there wasn’t far to go, and which gave me enough energy to start running again. I quickly ran out of energy though and if it hadn't been for Kate and another Red Cross runner catching me up and offering further words of encouragement for the remainder of the race, I'm certain I'd have dropped back to a walk.

As the finish line approached, I used what little energy I had to stumble across the finish line in what was an attempted sprint finish, but probably looked more like the drunken end to a Saturday night pub crawl. I managed to finish in 1:08:49, and if I find out the other mascot times I’ll post them up.

It was a great experience, but very tiring and easily the hardest race of my life to date. I’ve not yet decided if I’ll run it again as a mascot though. After talking to the lad who ran as Wolfie at the end of the race, he said he’d run in a few of the other mascot suits and believed Rocky Robin was the best mascot suit to run in for getting a fast time as there are no legs or arms on it so you’re a little cooler.

My friends who also ran it had great races. Belch with his ex-dodgy knee got round in 1:04:08 and was rightly pleased with his time. Justin completed it 1:06:41 and seemed to relish the experience and I’m sure he’ll be back next year when hopefully we can get a few more involved.

I’d like to thank the British Red Cross and Sale Sharks for making it possible for me to run as Sharky. Sale Sharks were particularly hospitable and made me a guest of honour at the England Saxons V USA Eagles Rugby game which was a great surprise and hopefully I did them proud as Sharky

Cheers

Andy

April - A new perspective?

2007-05-02T21:43:00.000+01:00

Hello,

April was a funny month for me training wise. On the downside I didn't get as many training runs in as I would like, but on the plus side I developed a more relaxed attitude towards the stats element of my training. As I became more relaxed, it allowed me to be much more adventurous in the runs I tried, as it didn't bother me if I couldn't get an accurate estimate of the distance covered on every run. This change of attitude and the excellent weather we experienced in April allowed me plenty of opportunity to run across the public footpaths of Stockport and I found it much more enjoyable than my standard runs and I discovered places I'd never been to in my local area! I also went on a holiday to the Czech Republic and thought it was a wonderful place. Cesky Krumlov (pictured left) was a particularly striking town which somehow has survived the conflicts over the centruies remarkebly well. When I'm travelling round Europe, I always compare the UK to whatever country I'm visiting, and it goes without saying that my thoughts are based on personal preference, but I do feel that the UK is overpopulated. A train ride in all of the European countries I've been to tends to have endless fields and contryside, with the odd town. The UK is not really the same, and it's only certain area's of the UK (less so in Scotland) that there is not normally a town in sight at some point over a 5 minute window on a train journey.

Hydration pack
The link above takes you to the hydration pack I bought this month. After my first off road run I quickly realised that I'd need to find someway of drinking water on my longer runs. Being somewhat independent minded, I preferred the option of carrying my own rather than buying it at shops on route. The more fashionable (in running circles) camel pak ones come recommended, but these are vastly more then what I paid for my unknown brand which so far has served me very well.

12km Home 2 Home detour
01/04 - 58:57 - Not the best of runs really, the bit cutting through from Poynton to Jacksons lane is actually quiet dangerous as the visibility is obstructed by numerous turns and there are sections without footpaths putting you at risk of being run over

Exploring Woodbank and Vernon Parks
14/04 - 44:36 - Couldn't even begin to map this, just got a feel for the two parks and running on trails. I suppose this was the day that really inspired me into trail running. I reckon if I was to have a guesstimate it was probably around 8km I ran, but it is hard to tell off road as your pace varies much more

Offerton and back
15/04 - 1:00:10 - This was basically following the Fred Perry way from Woodbank to Offerton Marple crossroads in the big dip. This run ended up with me getting slightly lost off road and running through some couples garden! After much apologising, I was put on the correct route. In my defence, the sign for the public footpath was only pointing in the minutest of angle different to where I was running, and the garden was overgrown. Thankfully the chap wasn't to angry and more bemused then anything else!

10km
17/04 - 46:33 - NP (No Prisoners!) - I was determined that this run would be the fastest for this year, and I took just over 3 minutes off my time. It did hurt though, and it wasn't as good as last years time at this stage, but then last year all I had was a 10k run to train for, whilst this year I've had to get myself up to half marathon standard.

16km Round Marple and Back (1)
21/04 - 1:48:26 - A cracking run down the FPW (Fred Perry Way), up through Kirk Wood (worst climb I've experienced to date, very steep and brought me to a crawl, makes Jacksons Lane look like a flat!), onto the towpaths through to Marple and then roughly following the road till Oferton Community farm where I pick up the FPW again. Getting back onto the FPW at Offerton Community farm proved a bit difficult this first time as the public foot path is a bit hidden, but once you've cracked it, it's a clear trail through to Woodbank.

6.2km
25/04 - 28:50

16km Round Marple and Back (1)
28/04 - 1:43:25 - The quicker time doesn't mean a lot here as the first time you run a new trail route, a fair bit of time can be wasted working out which direction to run.

March - Action packed!

2007-04-17T20:07:00.000+01:00

Hello

Sorry for the slow post on this one. This month was always going to be a hard one as so many of the weekends I had things on, and weekends are prime training days for the longer runs. Much to my surprise though I managed to get a grand total of 12 runs in. However first the more exciting things. My friend Alice from Uni who now lives in Mexico popped over to the UK to have a blessing ceremony for her recent marriage to Hiro. This took place on St Patrick's day hence the great picture of Alice at the party afterwards. It was great to catch up with people and thoroughly enjoyable!

The following weekend I went up to Bonny Scotland to see both my Scottish cousins (Stephen & Judith) as it was Stephen's 21st birthday and another friend from Uni (Jemma). Aberdeen was great and Glasgow was full of surprises as I found out it had an underground especially designed for small people (or wee people in Scottish)

For the final weekend Stephen came down to visit me as he wanted to see a Bolton match and it was his Uni Holidays. We managed to see the mighty mighty Bolton wanderers make a bit of a meal of the game, but eventually win 1-0 against Sheffield United! Lot's of excitement as we were sat near the away fans so lots of "friendly" words flowed between the empty 8 seats separating us!

Back to the training though, a good month and I managed to get three Eminem (8 mile) runs in
6.2km
03/03 - 31:20
10/03 - 27:57
15/03 - 28:59

10km
02/03 - 53:26
05/03 - 51:21
06/03 - 52:20
09/09 - 53:34
25/03 - 49:39
28/03 - 50:32

13km (8 miles)
11/03 - 1:03:05
13/03 - 1:03:10
19/03 - 1:00:19

Anyway, next month I'm hoping to get a few cross country runs in to try and reduce the pressure on my knees. There's no trouble with them currently but I don't want to wait till there is so it would be great to run on some soft turf :) I've bought an OS map centred on South Stockport so in theory I should know where all the public footpaths are!

Cheers

Andy

Fun in the Sun on the menu for 2009

2007-03-11T19:31:00.000Z

Hello,

Just a short blog entry, but last week I got my confirmation through that I currently have a place on the 2009 Marathon des Sables. It's fairly daunting at the moment as there's an awful lot of training I've got to do, and its a long way off so I'm trying to keep calm about and focus on the events I've got before it. Briefly though, the MdS covers 243km/151 miles (in sections similar to 25, 34, 38, 82, 42, 22 km) run over 6 days (7 for some) - equivalent to 5 1/2 regular marathons. This takes place in the Sahara dessert where sadly you have to carry all the stuff you need on your back but water and a tent.

A fair bit of preparation will be needed by me for this even forgetting the running bit, but it should be an experience and a half.

Cheers

Andy

February - A good month to be born in!

2007-02-28T21:26:00.000Z

Hello,

Well this month has been eventful. At the start of the month I had a dull ache on my left hip, after a series of runs it hadn't gone away and as it had been hanging around for a while I started talking to some of the veteran runners at work. The advice was to get it checked out straight away by a professional. So I did. Off to a local sports physio in Stockport I went!. A first for me so I didn't know what to expect. After a thorough examination I was diagnosed with Trochanteric Bursitis and I also had a really tight Iliotibial band on my left leg... none of which I understood at the time! To cut to the chase though, the prime suspects for this are that it turns out I have one leg longer than the other, and low arches. After some sports massages, anti inflammatory gel, heel raise and low arch support in my running shoes, things seemed to get better. I think only the long run will tell though.

My training for this month was good, especially considering the injury. I upped the distance to 10km although I did reduce it after my injury was diagnosed temporarily.

6.2km
03/02 - 26:50
07/02 - 27:12
14/02 - 27:20

10km
04/02 - 50:29
06/02 - 50:13
17/02 - 50:04
18/02 - 50:46
20/02 - 50:16
27/02 - 48:18

The last run I did push a little on, but I still had a little left. For March, I think I'll just consolidate this months work and if I'm still feeling well, maybe try an 8 miler in the last week of March.

Andy

An Inconvenient Graph

2007-02-14T11:06:00.000Z

Just following on from a post on Pie's blog about global warming. Here is the clip from "An Inconvenient Truth" with the graph in that I mentioned in a reply. Says it far better than any words of mine could...

I have the DVD of "An Inconvenient Truth" if anyone who hasn't seen it wishes to borrow it.

January - The start of the hill climb!

2007-02-04T14:06:00.000Z

Hi,

At the end of December I set myself the target of doing 8 training runs this month. I didn't manage that sadly. I was on course to achieve this and then a combination of not taking the opportunity early enough in the day to go for a run, and then getting rained off, and a bizarre short term injury (I think I slept on my back funny) stopped me.

Its not all doom and gloom though as it was still a good overall month

6.2km
03/01 - 27:41
07/01 - 27:11
10/01 - 27:06
13/01 - 26:21
14/01 - 26:26
16/01 - 27:13
28/01 - 25:50 - New all time PB

I probably pushed a little too hard on the last run, as its not a good thing to come back from time out and push so hard you get a PB as the odds of injury are high. I think I was lucky this time as it does not appear to have had any ill effect.

My left hip is still aching sadly. I think I'll invest in a new pair of running shoes as I've read that this should be one of the first things you consider when niggly injuries start happening and I've had my current pair for a year now. It's a shame as they still look in good condition, but that doesn't mean the shock absorbent properties are still good.

For February my aim is to complete a few 10km runs as well as some 6.2km ones. I'll set the target of 8 runs again as I've got quiet a few busy weekend and I don't know if I'll get as much time as I'd like.

Cheers

Andy

And so it begins (again)

2007-01-07T19:13:00.000Z

Hello!

Well hello to 2007! In between the 2006 Great Manchester run and December 2006, I'd done very little jogging. My exercise ended up being limited to football once a week and several swimming sessions. I eventually stopped the swimming sessions as the water seemed to wreck my throat and nose for a couple of days after each sessions, which was not the most fun (I guess its something they put in the water).

As December 2006 started I felt the need to get back out there jogging. At this point I'd manage to hit an all time high of 12 stone in weight, and put this down to the lack of daily walking now that I only have a 3 minute walk to work. This isn't too great running wise, as it's at least half a stone more than last year, and carrying half an extra stone around doesn't help you when you're jogging!

So with a little reluctance, I started my running up again. The point of this first month's training is to purely get my body use to running again. I kept track of the time, but that wasn't the focus, just the number of times I got out. This months training times are below:

6.2km
09/12 - 29:22
12/12 - 29:33
23/12 - 28:22
26/12 - 28:03
29/12 - 28:56
30/12 - 27:16

Overall I was pleased with this months training. I didn't start at the beginning of the month, and with Christmas and New Year I could easily have found excuses to not do many runs. By the end of this, the old ache had just started to come back in my left hip. I'm not worried about it at this stage but will keep tabs on it and start searching the running sites for info if it persists.

For January's runs I'd like to set myself the target of getting 8 in total done. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll try and get a 10km in by the end, but distance and speed are not my targets at this stage in the training, just the number of runs.

All the best for the New Year to all, and for those of you starting any New Year exercise regime up, good luck.

Cheers

Andy

Stack 'em high, Sell 'em cheap, and be dammed with the consequences

2006-10-29T20:33:00.000Z

Hello

Well October is almost over, and an interesting (or lucky) month it's been in the world of Nuclear power. Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems even more intent then our own Mr Blair at ramming Nuclear Power down the throat of the voters. Not content with just that, but Australia has recently signed a £100 million a year deal to sell Uranium to China.

It was a particularly bad month (well I'm hoping this isn't normal at least!) for the mighty US of A on the Nuclear Power front. In just October alone, it had to shut down 3 reactors scattered round the country in Phoneix, Dallas and Surry (Virginia).

St Peterburgs reputation as a tourist destination could have been somewhat tarnished if one plant in Russia hadn't been shut down also.

Thankfully, whatever those foreginers can do, we can do right here in the UK too. We managed two fairly serious incidents in the UK. Perhaps the most worrying line from the report being "The company said at the time that it was unlikely to carry out inspections and repairs at all the units simultaneously because of a lack of manpower."!!!!! Perfetic. Strangely I heard nothing through the UK media I watch/read about this.

And my point? Just that Nuclear power plants will malfunction, and that we're totally reliant on the safety systems to work(or in the case of Forsmark-Sweden shut down on my last post about Nuclear power, a rather quick thinking engineer who overrided a safety system!) or massive consequences will happen. A bit different to if a coal plant burns down or a wind turbine breaks.

Cheers

Andy

(Not so) Great Britain

2006-10-23T19:02:00.000+01:00

There's been an unusual amount of press coverage on how Brtiain compares with our European neighbours recently. I thought I'd sum it up below:

Britain is now the fattest nation in Europe
Britain is now the most debt ridden nation in Europe (and by a long way at double the European average)
Britain is the most wasteful nation in Europe

Now to get one of these could just be one of those things, but to get all three... well it has to speak about some core fundamental problems that the average (though not every) British person has?

So I wondered what it was? My first thought was "Laziness", that explains fat and wasteful easily, but debt ridden? I wasn't convinced it explain that. My next thought was "Selfish", that explained wasteful and debt ridden (I deserve a new sports car), but not fatness so well.

Then I struck upon "Impatient"

Most bad foods are quick foods whether they be chocolate bars or microwave meals. Your average Brit can't "spare" the time to cook a proper meal regularly as there's so much on TV to watch!
Waiting 6 months till you can actually afford your next major purchase, rather than simply adding it to your credit card and getting it now, is simply to long for your average Brit.
Your average Brit doesn't think twice about the wasted energy used simply to save them spending 3 seconds to turn the TV on and off or driving to work 3 miles away when there is a bus every 15 mintues.

Which leads me to my last question. Are you an "average" Brit?

Nuclear Power – The wrong answer to the right question

2006-08-27T13:55:00.000+01:00

So it seems in the wonderful democracy that is the UK, that Tony Blair has single-handedly reversed the Labour parties original policy on Nuclear power, and now wants to introduce a fresh phase of Nuclear power plant building. No need for consultation with the voters, the usual tried and tested tactic of release Tony’s officially opinion before the report is finished and effectively spike it will do. Mind you the report was written with the help of some not so unconnected third parties, so it looks like Tony had all bases covered on this one!

I feel there is a lot of rubbish talked about nuclear power. The biggest problem the Green argument has is the apparent logic behind the “Nuclear power doesn’t release CO2 so is therefore a green energy source and needed to meet our Kyoto target”. So I’ve put together my thoughts on the matter to share with the world.

So does Nuclear power release Greenhouse gasses?
Not an easy one to answer. However one thing that should certainly be taken into account is total cost throughout its lifecycle. I read in the Ecologist that during construction each Nuclear reactor releases 20 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Nuclear reactors are obviously specialist pieces of equipment, with Japan being one of the few producers, and shipping a Nuclear reactor from Japan obviously uses a lot of fuel up! Also, because of the risk of the plant having a Nuclear meltdown, they tend to be built in remote places, like in the highlands of Scotland, which generally means loads of infrastructure needs to be specifically created.

CO2 is also released during the mining and refining of Nuclear power. Nuclear fuel rods are made by smashing up rocks which contain trace amounts of Uranium. Anything greater than 0.02% of Uranium per ton is considered good. This expends CO2 obviously, and has the minor side effect of some of the radioactive Uranium being released into the air in dust particles… so that’s all right then.

Most Greenhouse gases however are released during the conversion & enrichment process. Here, dangerous chemicals are used to purify the yellow cake ore to produce the high concentration of Uranium-235. Half a tonne of fluorine is used to turn one tonne of Uranium into it’s gas form which is part of the process. The global warming potential for Flourinated compunds is a not so insignificant 10,000 greater than CO2! Oh dear!

So does a Nuclear power plant release less than more traditional power stations? It’s hard to sum up really. The general consensus seems to be they release less, but the ways in which Nuclear power contribute towards global warming are much more hidden and complicated that I certainly don’t believe when combined with the other downsides that it is a better option than traditional forms of energy generation which you know where you are with.

Energy Security of Nuclear Power
“Ah, but Nuclear power is a more secure energy resource!”. Is it though? I read in the Ecologist that the spot price of Uranium has risen by 600% in the last four years! It makes sense, with Japan, Canada, US, China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa all increasing their nuclear capacity, demand has increased, which leads to price rises. So what about future supply of Uranium then? Australia has the worlds biggest reserves (40%). However, Australia has shown a lack of will to turn there country into a giant Uranium mine, and presumably worried about radioactive pollution have banned any new mines from opening. So what about the rest? They are divided handily into two camps. We have countries like Canada(3rd), South Africa(4th), Brazil(6th), Russia(7th) and the US(8th) of stable countries which are all increasing their own number of nuclear power stations, so presumably will be using their own Uranium rather than buying it from other countries, and so may have less to export in the future. The second group, is full of unstable countries such as Kazakhstan(2nd), Namibia(5th) & Uzbekistan (9th). All personal opinion of course, but it’s not a recipe for stable prices in my book, and it's important to note that the extreme start up costs of Nuclear commit you to using it for 60 plus years to get your return on investment, and who can predict what shape the political and world situation will be in 60 years?

What about the waste?
Well the UK government is big on irony, and it doesn’t come much bigger than two recent announcements in what can only be described as “joined up government” at its best. The first is that Tony wants his legacy to be new Nuclear power plants. The second being that according to our own government department responsible for dealing with radioactive waste, it will take 40 years to find a geologically stable place to bury our current waste, some of which has been sitting around in leaky tanks for 50 years or more! All for the bargain price of £70 billion (equivalent to cost of building 140 new super hospitals). And who pays for this clean up, well of course, it's the tax payers! Brilliant, not only have they already paid once for Nuclear power on their electricity bill, but they now get to pay twice for it! How very efficient we are! Just imagine what a £70 billion investment into renewables would bring? There'd be no need for the next generation of Nuclear power plants to be built as we'd have so much being generated from renewables that would easily make up the lack of future Nuclear power contribution to our energy mix. So Emperor Blair is proposing to continue this vicious cycle of Nuclear power sapping investment away from truely Green methods of producing electricity; he's such a forward thinking Prime Minister after all.

Recent Problems in the Nuclear Industry
Surely all the bad press about Nuclear accidents is all in the past now right? I mean, they been running them for so long that they’ve sorted out all the “little” problems by now? Well the answer is of course no. Sadly there’s no such thing as a fool proof design. Combined with the fact that humans don’t always do what they are told. Throw in the pressures of shareholders wanting large dividends and private Nuclear Power plants are under pressure. Some recent examples of problems are:

4 nuclear plants in Sweden shut down due to a defective part being installed in 1993 and not being picked up in over a decade of “maintenance checks”. Strangely I found very little main stream media in Europe reporting this! Particularly the route cause! Of course, Sweden took the bold step in a referendum in 1980 to phase out Nuclear power… yet another field where their bold and decisive vision has put them ahead of the UK with it's stradle every fence possible and leave the decission till it's an emergency policy.
That other high-tec, style conscious country in the world known as Japan also seems to have had recent troubles with nuclear power.

So there's two major incidents in just August 2006 described above, and those are just what I know! So with our Government record on major infrastructure projects do I have any confidence that we can do better than other leading countries... do I b#llocks!

So what can you do?
If you object to New Nuclear power stations being built, there are a few easy things you can do?

The first is to sign the online petition for Europeans against Nuclear Power.
Probably the most important thing you can do though is to email your MP expressing your concerns about the issue and that you are against it. So who is your MP? You can find out here, and it includes a handy bit where you can send them a message over the net.
You can switch your electricity supplier to a green one like Good-Energy or Ecotricity that do not buy wholesale electricity from Nuclear power stations thereby reducing the economic demand for it, whilst also increasing the demand for renewables
Finally, you can reduce your use of electricity by having energy saving lightbulbs, switching off Hi-Fi’s/TV’s when you leave the room, and generally not wasting it.

Anyway, I hope this post has given people something to thing about.

Cheers

Andy

Great Manchester Run 2006 Special

2006-05-21T16:24:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Well I can't believe how quickly the jog blog has come full circle. Its hard to believe that it is now a year since the last time I ran this event. Time does seem to fly!

For those short on time my results for the race are below:

Forename(s) Surname Race Number Time Overall Position
Andrew Shirres 1347 41:01 446 out of 19771 who finished

This year the overall position also includes the Elite athletes (Male & Female), as well as Elite Athletes with a Disability. Needless to say I'm incredibly pleased with this time and position and whilst I was expecting to beat last years time of 45:20, I was not expecting to beat it by so much as this was an improvement of 9.5%!

Anyway, back to the start for those who have a bit more time to read....

The signs looked good. There were four waves in this years race, so that should space people out more and avoid traffic jams. I was in the first wave which should put me ahead of some of the traffic also. To top it off, Manchester's weather was behaving as it usually does with a light drizzle which would hopefully keep me cool on the way round to. The build up was the usual exciting affair with a good banter present among the fellow runners. Mark, Big Pete and Marple Phil were the runners I knew starting with me. I'd worked out the interval times I needed at each kilometer for 43 and 42 minutes finish times. I thought I'd aim for the 42 mins on the basis that if I failed I'd still have a chance of getting under 43.

The gun went, as we finally came to the start line, the adrenaline kicked in and the excitement of the event lifted me. For the first 100 metres it was more of a speed walk than a run, but it quickly cleared and I started threading my way through the crowd. I remember getting to the 1km marker around 3:40... whilst this was great on one hand, as it was quicker then what it should have been of 4:12, it did mean there was a risk of me burning out. I wasn't to concerned though as I thought I always slow down in the second half so building up a bit of slack would help.

As the race progressed, we headed onto the A56. The traffic was heavier than I had expected given the four wave system, but it did seem a little less than last year. Around the three kilometer mark I had a bit of an accident whilst overtaking fellow runners. I saw a stretch of clear road on the grass verge on the left of the A56, heading towards I had to weave around a few runners, and just as I hopped onto the verge it was at that point I saw an advertising board facing sideways with the pointy end looking right at me!!!! I managed to react just in time to avoid a full on collision, which at the speed I was running at would have probably taken me out of the race. I did end up smacking the side of the boards though but came away thinking that only my pride was bruised by it as I powered on.

Just as I got to around Man United's Old Trafford, I looked down at my rights hand which was starting to tingle. To my horror, I noticed that it was actually taking the colour of the Man U home strip... with a blood red tinge all over it. A quick check and I noticed there was a small chunk of flesh missing from my thumb, sucking it didn't help to much (except later I found out I had then smeared bits blood onto my face!). Anyway, thankfully it started to heal a little and stop bleeding shortly after this, which was reassuring as I couldn't afford to lose any as I needed every drop to carry oxygen to my legs to keep them going!

Around the Old Trafford/ Salford Quays area I didn't spot any kilometre markers so I lost track of how I was progressing. I could see Marple Phil ahead so I knew I must be doing well as he had joined a Harrier club down South and got some very good times. I'd totally lost track of Mark and Big Pete though. The water station was a great relief to see as I was able to wash my right hand of all the dried on blood that was caked on it, and I took a couple of mouthfuls for good measure.

As I got back onto the A56 for the return stretch I was in a fair bit of pain. My breathing was heavy, my left hip was playing up again and my right thigh felt sore. It reminded me a little of one of the Herbie movies where Herbie (the car) was literally falling to pieces on the last lap of a race and the passengers had the welding iron out trying to mend the car on the go!

Somewhere between the 7 and 8 km mark John and then Charlotte ran past me on the opposite side of the A56 heading toward Old Trafford (about the point where I'd so skillfully run into an advertising board). They'd started in the second wave which is why I was this far ahead of them. My breathing was becoming more laboured and I was also starting to scare fellow runners with my unintentional deep groaning... I heard angry shouts of "So your the g#t who keeps ringing me late at night!" from behind but luckily my legs were in better shape than his :)

As I passed the 8km mark I thought I'd up the tempo. I didn't have anything left in the reserves though so I'm not sure how much faster I actually went. As the 800 metres to go sign passed I threw caution to the wind and really started upping the tempo. About 100 metres to go I kind of ran out of energy but there was some other chap with me who managed to keep me going till I crossed the line.

I was exhausted after crossing and staggered to the goody back point and picked mine up. Bumped into Mark who'd finished with an incredible time of 41:07. There was no sign of Big Pete, though I'd no idea if that was because he'd finished ahead or behind. Mark helped me hunt down the St John Ambulance van to get the cut cleaned with some antiseptic and a plaster put on it. After sitting down for a while and getting cleaned up, I found out why my right thigh had been hurting as this had a graze right across it. This, along with a bump that has developed on my left arm now that I'm back home has reminded me that unlike Arnie Schwarzenegger, I can't punch through metal or walls! Anyway, after sitting in the ambulance getting cleaned up (it wasn't that bad) I felt much better and went outside and into heavy rain and bumped into Mark, Dawn and Big Pete (who'd smashed his time from last year and managed 42:30). Not wanting to stand in the rain we went into a nearby pub and Dawn being the only one with any money on them, shouted us all to a drink... thanks Dawn.

Anyway, the event seems to have got bigger this year, so who knows how big it will be next year. The rest of the Rangers and supporters also finished with great times to, and when we all met up it turned out that Charlotte's brother at the young age (compared to old farts like me!) of 17 managed a time of 52:39 (a very promising future for running giving his late entry and so less then ideal build up). Mini also managed a good time of 56:51, but more importantly had been the running partner for a new runner this year and helped Charlotte out with her training which contributed to her getting a great time of 1:10:02, so well done to both of them, the very definition of teamwork! Russ has my vote for Run of the Day with an incredible time of 59:38, which when you consider that in January, if he'd run 2 km he would have been close to needing life support, is an out of this world achievement. John managed 1:09:35 and so achieved his goal of beating last years time. This is despite spraining his foot during the event, and so he showed incredible guts to carry on going. The surprise entrant, Ann-Marie, was also running for her first time and started her training from scratch also. She did herself proud also and managed 1:24:55, and along with Russ, they both raised over £500 each for charity! Last but by no means least was Marple Phil, who we later found out had an incredible time of 40:01 and rightfully deserved the crown of fastest runner out of our group... those Harrier training sessions really paying dividends!

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and we topped off the event with an all you can eat Chinese which was lovely. I'm hoping to be back at next years event, though I think I'd struggle to knock much off this time unless I started taking it really seriously and joined a running club or something!

Over and out

Andy

May - The calm before the storm?

2006-05-20T16:21:00.000+01:00

Well Aprils training had been great, and the date of the Great Manchester Run was getting closer. I was aiming for some fast training runs this month... but events would conspire against me.

10km
02/05 - 46:25
05/05 - 47:54
10/05 - 44:45 - MU - new course PB - new 10km PB
13/05 - 45:03 - MU

After my training run on 5th, my left hip felt worse than usual. It had not felt "normal" for a few weeks but I'd been able to run on it OK. So I gave it a few days rest and by the time the 10th came around it felt much better. With hindsight, doing a MU run straight after a rest for a minor injury wasn't the most sensible, but I got round in a new PB so didn't think too much about it. However following up a few days later with another MU was probably the nail in the coffin. I should point out my hip felt OK when I attempted my run on the 13th, but half way round it started to cause me a bit of pain.

The pain went away the next day but it didn't quiet feel 100%. I sacked off any idea of trying to get another training run in and instead looked for exercise which was gentler. Swimming was what I chose. I quickly found swimming to be an entirely different beast, and my honed running muscles, and healthy heart and lung proved to be of very little use to me in the water :( In all fairness, the last time I'd been "swimming" was during Euro 2004, and that was more of a laugh around the pool sort of affair. Ignoring Euro 2004, it could well have been the first year of Uni... that was over 6 years ago! Anyway, it certainly got me tired, and didn't shock my joints and hips too bad so it was good fun... maybe I'll look to turn to swimming after the Great Manchester Run as I've certainly got a lot to improve on in this area.

So now it is the day before the run, my left hip does not feel "normal", but it is good enough to get me round in a good time. I doubt it will affect the time much at all. It might add 20 seconds on looking at the last MU I did, so I'm not worried. The time I will be aiming for is 43:30. This is based on the fact that my training course is harder than the Manchester Run. Last year my Manchester Run time was over 2 mins quicker. I doubt it will be the same margin this year due to diminishing returns, so I've knocked 1 and a bit minutes off my best training time. I do think though that after I've finished the run, my hip will be giving me a large amount of jip... so if you see me hobbling for a few days you'll know why. It also means the odds of me missing the first match of the new footy season have increased... but there's still hope it won't .

Last but not least, a special good luck has to go to three runners also taking part tomorrow. Russ, Ann-Marie & Charlotte! It will be there first time running this distance under race conditions, and they started from scratch at the beginning of the year, so have had a big hill to climb to get to the 10km standard. Good luck also to the rest of the Rangers taking part also... May the Braeburn's keep you from eating a nasty Golden Delicious.

Andy

April - It's now or never!

2006-05-01T00:30:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

At the end of March I'd finished at a level where I'd completed a number of 10km runs, got my body use to the distance again, but not necessarily got my body the best foundation for it. I had however got the distance sorted so what was left to focus on was the time!

I'm no expert runner, but in my experience I've found decreasing your time harder than increasing your distance. With this in my mind, I knew I had to increase the number of runs from the previous month, whilst also looking at reducing the time. I've noticed two important things with my running

1) From my experience, I've not found it possible to treat every run as a potential PB (Personal Best). Achieving a PB puts a lot of strain on your body, and causes a certain amount of damage, which is not always healed by the time you go for your next run.

2) Performing a none PB doesn't leave me exhausted or really challenge my heart, and so whilst the general health benefits are undeniable, the effect on reducing my time significantly is!

What I needed was a balance between the two, so I came up with what I termed "Managed Uncomfortableness" runs (MU). These are runs that I'd only attempt when I was feeling good, where I'd push myself much harder either by sprinting certain sections, or just raisng the pace throughout. In reality, I'd be in pain for about 3/4 of the course... needless to say I didn't look forward to them :(

My aim for this month was to achieve ten 10km runs... and here are the results:

10km
01/04 - 50:56
02/04 - 53:17 - At this point I'd done three back to back 10km runs including the previous month!
05/04 - 46:39 - MU - new course PB
08/04 - 47:48

6.2km
09/04 - 27:32 - This was supposed to be a 10km run. However, just as I was getting near the 3 km mark, my left leg did not feel right. I decided to abandon the 10km and do a gentle 6.2km instead.

10km
14/04 - 48:41 - I left it a little to make sure my leg had healed properly... as the month went on I'd come to suspect that I'd not left it quiet long enough though!
18/04 - 46:06 - MU - new course PB
23/04 - 48:56
25/04 - 48:01
28/05 - 44:50 - MU - new course PB - new 10km PB

After the last run, I woke up on Saturday with an ever so slight strain to my left calf. Nothing major, but to be safe I layed off the running on the Saturday and Sunday. Looking back it had been a really good month. I'd failed to meet my target of ten 10km runs, but I had done ten runs, and it was only a worry of injury that had prevented me from making the final run, and it’s a choice I'd make again. I'd achieved three new PB's in this month, including a new 10km PB for any course. This was great as my training course was harder than the Manchester 10km due to the gradients of some of the hills (Old Jackson lane being my arch enemy!). The total distance run just this month was 96.2km, which is equivalent to running from Stockport to Nottingham... though it took me a month, and I didn't do it all at once!!!

As May got underway, I was left thinking that maybe I was just one month to slow to getting a truly great time for me. I’d already achieved my aim of beating last years time (albeit in a training run), and I'd certainly hope I could get under 44 mins on the Manchester 10km now, but could I get under 43? That would be a tough challenge when you take traffic into account on the Manchester run, but it was something to aim for... though I'd not achieved any of my monthly aims so far!

Andy

March - To re-start or to stall?

2006-04-16T22:07:00.000+01:00

Hello hello!

Well after last months awful training programme, I started feeling the heat a little... if only due to the growing hypocrisy of trying to encourage my friends to train, whilst I sat with my feet up :)

I decided I had to raise the bar with my training as time was ticking and I'd done enough 6k runs to build my general fitness up, so I knocked the distance up to 10k and decided that this was the distance I needed to focus on. However, as I was just starting at this distance, the focus would be on the number of runs rather than the time at this point.

10km
05/03 - 56:37
12/03 - 51:52
25/03 - 49:56
31/03 - 57:50

The last run was a particularly bad one sadly. This was due to having the day off work, and slobbing about and not making any food. This meant when I started on my run in the late afternoon I was running off my pre-run booster of a few mini-eggs and a banana. This worked very well for two thirds of the course, but after I'd burnt them off, there was no food at all left inside me to burn, which led to a chronic collapse in performance for the last third. The legs really did refuse to obey, and they felt more tired then what they had during the Great North Run. I think this showed me just how important diet is for these longer runs.

Anyway, looking back at the month, I felt I'd managed to recover it a bit... but could have done more runs. If I'm going to get a better time than last year, I'd need to step things up as there wasn't enough runs this month to get much of an improvement... but it was a start at least and would stand me in good stead for Aprils. Next month would be make or break time I felt, and as I entered May, I felt the mental resolve was finally there again to get out and hit the streets.

Andy

February - Lent or gluttony?

2006-04-04T17:17:00.000+01:00

Hello avid Jog Blog readers... or just bored souls

Apologies for not updating the blog in a while. I'd love to tell you that it is because of a lack of spare time due to training so hard, but as you'll find out, that would be a lie!

At the end of January, with only days to go, I left you with the "Cliffhanger" of whether I would last the reaming few days of my non-alcohol stint. Well sadly things didn't go according to plan, and I failed to make it :( I lasted till January 28th when I went to my cousin's 18th Birthday party. I had intended in not drinking at this, but when I'd seen how they'd gone to such a great effort to make me feel welcome by buying in some Guinness (I'm the only one in the family who drinks it), I decided the date was a bit academic and wasn't worth appearing ungrateful for the effort they had put in... never mind, there's always next time!

Anyway, onto the training runs in February... well... there weren't any! That's right, for Lent I decided to give up jogging, and descend into a party lifestyle. In the end, it just turned out to be a busy month for me. One weekend was taken up with my birthday (I'm now a quarter of a century old!). This was a weekend well spent in my books... action packed, with all you can eat Chinese, trip to Manchester, a couple of games of bowling, and an expedition to Staly Vegas with both Rangers and Uni mates. Another weekend was taken up round at Justin's new place which was fun. There was also a weekend spent on holiday in Bratislava. This was a fantastic trip. There was only three out of the usual four (Anton, Paul and myself.... Marcus Trescothick was absent due to high government workloads, well somebody's got to make sure that the next generation of kids understand the stats on Football Manager 2006!). Bratislava is a fantastic city, with some great looking areas, as well as some not so great ones, which by Western standards could look quiet intimidating. However, even in the not so great ones, we were made to feel welcome and I saw no trouble all the time we were over there. It just goes to show how true that old saying, "You shouldn't judge a book by its front cover!" can be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating throwing caution to the wind in unfamiliar countries, just that sometimes it's worth taking a step back and asking if there really is any evidence to be worried, and not going off appearances alone.

Anyway, to recap, February's training had been none existent, and so heading into March the thought did cross my mind as to whether I was putting enough effort in to deserve a place in the Great Manchester Run? After all, it didn't seem like it based on this month's performance. Would I be able to snap out of this casualness I had adopted towards my training, or would I be following the path of George Best into career retirement before my time due to a heavy party lifestyle? Only time will tell...

Cheers

Andy

New Year, New Training regime

2006-01-25T21:08:00.000Z

Hello!

Well it's been a while, and a lot happened since the last blog. Halloween... Christmas... and New Year in Cork. December was a particular bad month for health, with lots of drinking on an epic scale. New Year was a particularly big session, and it meant that starting January, I wasn't in the best of states.

So, first things first, I thought I'd lay off the alcohol till early Feb and give my body time to recover. Second, was to start my training runs back up. Third was to sign up to the Great Manchester Run on Sunday 21st May 2006.

So how am I doing?

Well, I've still not had a drink, though with the speed dating and my cousins 18th this week, it will be the toughest test I've had.

I've signed up for the Manchester run, and am aiming to do it (injury, weather and traffic permitting) between 40 and 45 minutes

Finally, the training. Well for January, I didn't want to push to hard to soon, so I just did my medium 6km course, and focused on getting my body use to running it a couple of times a week.

6.2km
03/01 - 29:28
08/01 - 29:25
14/01 - 28:36
21/01 - 27:30
22/01 - 28:08
24/01 - 29:24 - late, very cold and after food!

Well, it's a start, and I'm happy with it. In February, I'll be looking to start including some training advice from various souces into my training plan, and we'll see what happens. For the moment though, the big question is if I can make it through to February without a drink!!!

Cheers

Andy

Great North Run Special - 18/09/2005

2005-09-18T21:35:00.002+01:00

Hello, and welcome to the Great North special. Well this is what the whole nine months of training has been building up to.

Forename(s) Surname Race Number Time Race Position
Andrew Shirres 16015 01:49:49 4461 out of 38011

We stayed at Newcastle Uni - Castle Leazes. It was excellent value, we got a pasta party in the evening and a breakfast in the morning thrown in. There was even a quiz. All in all they made us feel really welcome.

In the morning, I had a light English breakfast, got my banana, and headed off to the start. There was a really good atmosphere at the start line, with the red falcons doing a formation parachute jump, the Ashes being displayed by Paul Collingwood and lots of people in fantastic fancy dress.

The starting gun went, and we were off! It was good to get underway after all the standing around! As we ran along I was dreading the image of Gateshead Stadium as this was the marker for the tallest and longest hill on the course. After about four miles I started going through a bit of a rough patch for a while. It was very hard to run at the pace that I was use to as there was just a sea of people as far as the I could see. There was also lots of short, steep, inclines round here. after a while I recovered and felt ready to step it up a gear, but still hadn't seen Gateshead stadium. I must have missed it as I ran across the Black Bull junction at the top of the course.

Somewhere around here someone was in an unfortunate state and an ambulance had to be called for them. Whilst obviously unfortunate for the person who needed it, it did clear a corridor through the crowds and I got in it's slip stream and got a half mile of uncrowded running.

I remember seeing the 10km marker and thinking back to the manchester run. I looked at my watch and it was something like 56 minutes at the time. Not the best really!!! But given how slow the start was it wasn't surprising. Somewhere round here, I passed the first army guy. Like Manchester, he was wearing a full pack so it wasn't much of an achievement.

Around the seven mile mark I saw an old chap who was doing remarkeably well. He had an England shirt on so I had a bit of a laugh with him that at least someone was doing the shirt proud! Ended up having a chat with him for a few minutes about Englands problems, then wished him luck, and then carried on.

Around the nine mile mark we were entering the housing estates of South Shields, and the locals were being really friendly. They had sliced oranges, ice lollies, biscuits... it turned into more of a food crawl!!!!!!!!!!

When I finally turned the corner onto South Shields sea front with one mile to go, I began to get quite excited. The end felt near, but the last stretch did seem to be the longest mile! I heard our support team near the pub at the finish line, but sadly didn't see them!

Anyway, I crossed the line in a time of 1 h and 49 mins and 49 seconds finishing 4461st out of about 50,000. It was a fantastic day and I've raised over £500 for the Biritsh Red Cross, so a big thank you to all the people who have sponsored me, as they managed to turn an event that would have only benefitted me, into one that will benefit many both in the UK and abroad.

Thanks very much all, I hope you've enjoyed reading the jog blog, I may restart it next year for the Manchester 10K, but I expect this to be the last post for a while!

Over and out!

Andy

Training for week commencing 04/09/2005

2005-09-11T20:34:00.000+01:00

The first run of the week was actually the second leg of a back 2 back 8 milers (having done one the day before). Needless to say this was quite challenging and my time wasn't great because of the previous one. It was also the week that I increased the furthest I'd ever ran to 11.2 miles. All in all a successfull week!

13km (8 miles)
04/09 - 67:01

18km (11.2 miles)
10/09 - 89:46

After I'd run the 18km run though I felt I slight pull of my right calf muscle. This was a bit annoying as it meant I had to play it safe and have the rest of the next week off which was the final few days before the Great North Run.

Andy

Training for week commencing 28/08/2005

2005-09-03T11:10:00.000+01:00

Well it's starting to get closer to the Great North Run now. The training needed to be up'd, but I did not have the time to go for a longer run, so just stuck to the usual 8 mile runs...

13km (8 miles)
30/08 - 64:25
03/09 - 64:20

The total distance I've run so far is 393.8 km.

Andy

Training for week commencing 21/08/2005

2005-08-28T11:05:00.000+01:00

Joy of joys, the bank holiday weekend was at the end of this week! And this meant a trip to Madrid for me for a friends 40th Birthday. This meant that despite a promising start to the weeks training, I wasn't able to turn it into a hardcore running week with 3 runs. On the plus side it was a really great holiday and plenty of fun with far to much Tapas!!!

In other news, my exercise on the football pitch was getting better as Bramhall Rangers had won 3 in a row after this weeks game!

Anyway, back to the running! After not having made much of a breakthrough in my running times due to a general lack of energy in the last third of the 8 mile runs, a friend from work sugegsted something so odd that it just might work... Jelly Babies! Sure enough, no energy loss meant I was able to keep up my speed and get my best time yet over the distance! Obviously I would only use the best type of Jelly Babies which as everyone should know is Bassett's!

10km
21/08 - 55:34

13km (8 miles)
23/08 - 59:45 - New Personal Best!

The total distance now run in training is up to 367.8km

Andy

Training for week commencing 14/08/2005

2005-08-21T10:48:00.000+01:00

Well after recovering from my mates wedding, I needed to push ahead with this weeks training as time was ticking away and the start of the Great North Run was getting closer! After my first run of this week at 8 miles I noticed my time was getting worse every time I attempted it. This was a bit worrying, as whilst I'm not that focused on the time, after three attempts, I wasn't expecting the times to make a nice graph showing me going slower! Thankfully the second run of the week changed that form thanks to a lot of grited teeth! Also the weather may well have played its part, as the second run of the week was in the not uncommon "Manchester Grey" type weather, whereas, the others had been in weather more at home on the Costa Del Sol! So I'm definitely hoping for a dry but cloudy day for the Great North!

13km (8 miles)
17/08 - 66:26
20/08 - 63:37

This brought the total distance I have now run in training is up to 344.8km. This is equivalent to running all the way from Stockport to Newcastle, and then back to Northallerton!

Andy

Training for week commencing 07/08/2005

2005-08-14T18:59:00.000+01:00

Well, another week, another set of training runs. With the increasing distance, the time it takes to do them goes up too. I beginning to find it really hard to fit these distances in with a hectic work and social life... something had to give, but what. Well in true male fashion it was the house work. My flat is now a bit of a tip, with the usual hygiene standard going down hill. However, given that we never once properly cleaned the kitchen and bathroom at uni, I reckon my immune system can cope with the less than perfect cleanliness! Anyway back to the runs...

10km
07/08 - 53:38

The total distance I have now run in training is up to 318.8km

Andy

Training for week commencing 31/07/2005

2005-08-07T21:29:00.000+01:00

Well only two training runs this week due to lazyness on my part mid week. Still it was an important week as I did manage my first Eminem run... 8 miles geddit! It also happens to be 13km, and then topped it off with another on Saturday! Finally managed a distance which is over the half the Great North Run distance which is reassuring. Still, on this longer distances I have noticed that I am feeling a distinct lack of energy towards the end. I've tried things like bannan's an hour or so before but still get this feeling of a hole in my stomach. I'll start looking into this but don't have time today!

13km (8 miles)
31/07 - 61:07
06/08 - 63:51

This means the total distance I have now run in training is up to 308.8, and breaking the 300 barrier is another milestone.

Andy

Training for week commencing 24/07/2005

2005-08-07T21:12:00.000+01:00

Well another week and another set of runs! I went for two 10K runs this week as I held off on the Saturday as I planned to do a 8 mile run for the Sunday of the next week.

10km
24/07 - 51:09
27/07 - 49:20 - Yay another 10K run under 50 minutes, this use to be a standard thing before the Manchester run, but now it's a rare one!

Total distance that I've run in training is now 282.8 km

Training for week commencing 17/07/2005

2005-07-24T11:28:00.000+01:00

Well this was my most interesting training week since I started. I set myself the challenge of three 10Km runs, and managed it... just! I got my best 10km time since the Great Manchester run, and followed it up with my worst time ever!

10km
19/07 - 49:24
20/07 - 56:53
23/07 - 50:26

Now you'll notice that the run on 20/07 has an appalling time compared with the usual time area I aim for. This happenend due to me hitting "the wall" which worryingly is known in the running world as "bonking". Needless to say I wasn't expecting it, and it was a surreal experience as my heart & lungs were OK, my legs weren't in any more pain then they usually were, and then all of a sudden I stopped! I had no control over it and the legs simply wouldn't respond to start with. I only had about 2 km left so had to do a mixture of walking and running which really damaged my time. I think this was caused by diet, as I had only had two cookies since lunch and the training run was later than usual. Also I hadn't had any Banana's as the supermarket had sold out of them... typical

Anyway, after getting another education, it spawned my 5th lesson in running:
Lesson 5: Cookies might taste great, but Banana's stop you bonking!

Anyway, the total distance run so far is 262.8 km. This is further than running from Stockport to Newcastle Upon Tyne! I wonder if I can make it back by the start of the Great North.

Andy

Training for week commencing 10/07/2005

2005-07-24T11:19:00.000+01:00

Well a great start to my second attempt at getting training in for the Great North. The Sunday (i.e. 10th) had been the day after the stag do where I had finished drinking at 04:00 am. By the evening though I felt that I was OK to do a run, and given the time left before the Great North also decided that I needed to raise the bar to a minimum of 10K training runs now!

10km
10/07 - 53:18
13/07 - 53:02

Sadly I didn't get a run in on the Saturday as it was another friends wedding. However it was well worth missing out on a training run as it was a great day and a fantastic laugh.

This meant for the first time in roughly a month I could update my total distance run count which now stands at 232.8 km

Andy

Training for week commencing 03/07/2005

2005-07-24T11:14:00.000+01:00

Well, back from holiday, but catching up at work and home and a friends Stag do ate most of my time up so again no training. Things aren't looking good for the Great North given my appaling training over the last month! However after a bit of friendly banter off some work colleagues of it turning into my "Summer of sitting on my arse" I vowed to get some serious training in the following week.

Andy

Training for week commencing 19/06/2005 & 26/06/2005

2005-07-24T10:55:00.000+01:00

Well both of these weeks I was on holiday, so naturally did no training runs, dranks lots beer (though the price did limit it to not being the usual holiday amount!), and had lots of food. All in all I guess I did some serious damage to my overall fitness! However lugging my heavy backpack around must have given me some exercise... at least thats the story I'm sticking to.

Anyway here's me in the arctic circle towards the top of Finland...

And here's another of me dressing up as a local...

It was a great holiday with the only drawback being the price of beer, throughly recommend it though and I would love to get to Nord Kapp at the top of Norway!

Andy

Training for week commencing 12/06/2005

2005-07-24T10:29:00.000+01:00

Well, no training runs this week as I had the U2 concert, REM concert and packing my bags for a two week holiday and catching the flight to Helsinki on the Saturday meaning I didn't have much time spare.

Here's a photo of me on the Saturday passing through Copenhagen.

Training for week commencing 05/06/2005

2005-07-24T10:12:00.000+01:00

Well not updated the blog in a while so appologies for my lazyness! Thankfully my running hasn't been as lazy. This was a good week for training times, but the distance could have been a bit longer ideally...

6.2km
05/06 - 26:55
07/06 - 25:56

The total distance I've now run in training is up to 212.8 km

Andy

Training for week commencing 29/05/2005

2005-06-04T20:57:00.000+01:00

After last weeks poor show I struggled to break out of my new found sloth like attitude. However, by Saturday, I realised I needed to break this attitude, so got a 6.2km run in... but had I spent to much time sitting on the couch?

6.2km
04/06 - 28:46

Now I've had stitches before, but the one I had on this run really felt as if someone had stabbed me just under the ribs on my right hand side with a knife! I ended upp bent double at one point whilst people drove past in there cars (most probably laughing)! I ended up having to walk for a bit, and once I remembered the breathing technique I'd read about on the web, it soon went away and I carried on running again. The time wasn't great, but interestingly, it was still better than some of my earlier ones even with walking!

The total distance I've now run in training is 200.4km, which is equivalent to running from Stockport to Durham as the car drives!

Andy

(lack of) Training for week commencing 22/05/2005

2005-05-28T20:51:00.000+01:00

Well after the high of the Great Manchester Run I decided I'd spend the week sitting on sette instead of running! A bit of a poor show but in my defence I did use the week to donate a pint of blood which probably would have meant training would only have ended in disaster!

Speaking of disasters, Bramhall Rangers lost again...

Andy

Great Manchester Run Special!

2005-05-22T22:15:00.000+01:00

Well hello. A special report for the day of the Great Manchester Run 2005. For those short on time, the end result is below...

Final Result
Name Time Pos. (Race)
Andrew Shirres 00:45:20 1158

Overall Results (excluding elite and disabled althletes)
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 825 out of 12881

Results for Male ages 20-29
Name Pos. (Search)
Andrew Shirres 275 out of 2133

For those with a bit more time, the full story started on Saturday! Waking up early for the excitement of FA Cup final day I decided to pack my back. It was at this point I realised that I'd lost my number and microchip for recording the time! After tearing the flat to bits, I came to the conclusion that in one of my rare tidying up spree's, I must have thrown it in the bin!!!!!!! Disaster!!!!!!!!

With only two hours to kick off, I had to get into Manchester, confess to my stupidity to the Great Run officials and hope they took a sympathetic view. Thankfully it seems that they expect a certain number of people like me every year, so I got a replacement number and managed to get back with half hour to spare in time to watch the FA Cup final.

The big race day arrived and the atmosphere was fantastic! The excitement and camaraderie was something else, and as the wave I was in approached the start line the crowd reached fever pitch. A quick song from the Halle orchestra and we were away!

The first 400m were at walking pace, some people pretended to jog, but me and Mark, just walked. An overtaking lane somehow developed and we quickly got in that. However with all the crowd progress was slower than I would have liked.

As I passed the Museum of Science and Industry, I overtook two army recruits. My pride in out running two of Britain's finest, was short lived when I realised that they were carrying fully loaded backpacks! As Mark and me were heading towards Old Trafford on Bridgewater Way, we caught up with one of my friends known as Pie. He'd started off in the wave in front, so I knew we were going at a good pace!

There were a few pinch points around the course where track narrowed and people bunched and overtaking was impossible. As we were leaving Old Trafford on the return leg, Mark and I managed to get in the wake of wheel chair athlete as he carved his way through the crowd! A great idea if you can manage it but as this part of the course was mainly down hill, keeping up with him became too much of a challenge and we were left to battle it out with the masses. Somewhere around here we overtook another friend of mine called Mini though I didn't see him sadly.

Next was the home straight on Deansgate and any thought of a sprint finish quickly evaporated with the huge crush developing ahead. I crossed the line in a bit of a daze from the run as it turned out I'd managed to put in a personal best!. A big credit has to go to my running partner Mark for much of the race, who in the last kilometre, despite getting a broken rib on Easter week and having to miss 7 weeks worth of training, managed to come back and finish first out of our group in an incredible time of 44:33

A big group picture of those of us who managed to meet at the end is below...

Big Pete, Me, Mini, Pie!

Andy

Training for week commencing 15/05/2005

2005-05-22T22:02:00.000+01:00

Well it is the last week of training before the Great Manchester Run, so took it easy to save myself for the big race day! I got one 10k in and one 6.2k. Bramhall Rangers managed another loss, and a disappointing one which we could have won. Anyway the Saturday before the race I felt great!

10km
15/05 - 48:35

6.2km
18/05 - 26:18

The total distance I've now run in training is up to 184.2km.

Training for week commencing 08/05/2005

2005-05-14T20:33:00.000+01:00

A good weeks worth of training, involving two 10K runs (both personal bests!), one 6.2K and.... yet another loss for Bramhall Rangers :( It seems that the better I get at running the worse the team performs. Well it's either that or we were always rubbish. I was trying to get a full three 10K runs in but I just didn't have enough time on Saturday, but still it was about the best weeks training I've had, so can't complain.

10km
08/05 - 48:16
11/05 - 47:52 - New Personal Best!!!!!

6.2km
14/05 - 26:12

I got a stitch on all of these runs which is worring... did a bit of research and came across the following web site. A few good suggestions for how to deal with this which I'll try out and see what happens.

The total distance I've now run in training is up to 168km, which is roughly equivalent of the distance between Stockport and Thirsk! Now that's a long way.

Andy

Training for week commencing 01/05/2005

2005-05-07T20:16:00.000+01:00

What a fantastic week of training. Two runs, two personal bests over two different distances, nearly good enough to write a film about eh... OK then, maybe not... The good thing was that the personal bests were smashed. It's as if I've somehow come back from injury fitter. Don't understand the science but I'm not complaining. The only thing I could put it down to would be the vast quantities of performance enhancining Guinness that I've drunk over the past month!

6.2km
03/05 - 25:53 - New Personal Best!!!!

10km
07/05 - 48:52 - New Personal Best!!!!
This run was the first wet weather run I've done so far (I've been very lucky I know). The trainers held up really well and let very little water in, and thankfully with it stopping after 15 minutes (it was really belting it down for the 15 though) it meant that I wasn't sweating like crazy by the end.

After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 141.8km.

Andy

Training for week commencing 24/04/2005

2005-05-02T18:25:00.000+01:00

Well a solid week of training thanks to a full recovery on the calf front. It was good to finally get a full weeks training in and it felt great to be back in the swing of it again. This weeks training included three runs and a footy match. The footy match was an incredibly physical affair with the ref putting in a very weak performance. It got so bad both teams were just blatantly hacking each other down towards the end! Anyway, below is this weeks results

6.2km
25/04 - 28:10
27/04 - 27:14

10km
02/04 - 54:37

The time wasn't the greatest, but the main thing was to get the distance in. It also provided me with my fourth lesson:
Lesson 4: Don't wear a sweatshirt with an embroided logo on the front. If you do, and run a long distance like 10km, your likely to end up with a bad case of joggers nipple... and it hurts!

After this weeks training, the total distance I've now run in training is up to 125.6km.

Andy

Training for week commencing 17/04/2005

2005-04-23T11:21:00.000+01:00

I missed footy this week just to make sure the injury healed properly, and then on the last day of the training week, I got a 6.2km run in. I took it easy just in case it wasn't properly healed (though it did feel OK). Anyway, this ment that after weeks of being stalled just below the 100km mark, I finally passed it!!!! The time was quite a bit slower, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to get back to my old standard.

6.2km
23/04 - 28:41

So the total distance now run in training is up to 103.2km. Thats and equivalent distance of Stockport to Harrogate.

Andy

Training for week commencing 10/04/2005

2005-04-16T08:14:00.000+01:00

Continuing the downward spiral, this weeks training was worse than last weeks. Now you may be saying "you only managed one run last week, how could it be worse?", easy, I didn't manage any! My calf injury continued to thwart all exercise activities. There is no real pain as such, but it just does not feel "right". After a friend of mine caused a serious injury to himself after training on a slightly injured leg, I've had to fight hard to resist the urge to do exercise. I wasn't expecting to find it this hard to stop myself doing exercise, but the main thought going through my mind now is how far I'll have slipped back...

I naively thought after I'd injured it that it would just be sore for a few days then be OK. After a week had gone by and it still wasn't 100% I decided to do a bit of research. I'm glad I did. I found a web site about pulled calf muscles which was really interesting. In brief there are three severities:

a first degree strain is damage to a few muscle fibres
a second degree strain is damage to a more extensive number of muscle fibres
a third degree strain is a complete rupture of the muscle itself.

It turns out that mine is a first degree sprain, which from a macho perspective is a bit disappointing! However, 3 weeks rest is recommended even for damage to a few muscle fibres! Oh well, this Thursday will be 2 weeks so I'll see how I feel.

Andy

Training for week commencing 03/04/2005

2005-04-09T20:00:00.000+01:00

This week went even worse than last week! A busy work and social life combined to make me miss the mid-week run. This proved distastorus, as I picked up an injury in Thursdays footy match. A sprained calf which I thought was only minor... but it was still with me on Saturday meaning I only got 1 run in during the whole week. However, it was a great run...

6.2km
03/04 - 27:13 - New personal best!

This meant that I failed to break the 100km barrier this week, so close yet so far I guess as the actual total was 97km!

Other running related news was that I got my final confirmation that I am now in the Great North Run. I've set up a fundraising page now @ www.justgiving.com/andyshirres. I've got to raise a minimum of £300 but am hoping to raise a bit more, we'll see how I get on.

Andy

Training for week commencing 27/03/2005

2005-04-02T12:57:00.000+01:00

After last weeks fitness binge, I had to tone it down this week. Sunday and Monday I took off to make sure my body recovered fully, though I did get a game of footy in on the Monday! Tuesday's run got canned as we had a meeting of the "Bramhall Rangers On Tour - World Cup 06" committee. We now have our applications in with the 4 million other applications... I'm not getting my hopes up! Wednesday was the England Vs Azerbaijan football match so again no Training run. Thursday was the Manchester Album launch for a local band from my time at Uni called Scout. They're a good band and if you get the chance I'd recommend seeing them. Friday was Justin's birthday so again no chance for a run. This meant that I was left having done no training runs with just one day left of the training week! So I thought I'd better step it up a little, and did another 10km run

10km
02/04 - 53:09
Not the greatest time, but I was being a little bit cautious here with it being the first time I'd run this local route. For those of you interested in where the halfway point is, it's the end of a lay-by after Norbury farm, the house number 60 is opposite. Still, it was good to get another 10km run in. However it was a good learning experiance as I learnt my third lesson on running... Lesson 3: Don't tie you trainers on to tight otherwise your feet will feel like they are about to explode halfway round!

This brings the total culminative distance I have run in training so far up to 90.8km.

Training for week commencing 20/03/2005

2005-03-26T20:01:00.000Z

Well an even better week for training! Started off with the usual 6.2km runs, a victory for the mighty Bramhall Rangers, then half way through the week, some mates from work mentioned the Salford 10km on the bank holiday Friday. I was a bit resistant to this at first as it's a reasonable jump from 6.2km to 10km, but after a quick think about it I thought why not! Then to top it off, there was a leisurely 12 mile bike ride on the Saturday to Macclesfield and back. For a more detailed view, see below...

6.2km
20/03 - 27:35
23/03 - 27:45

10km
25/03 - 48:14
This was the highlight of the week. It is the furthest distance I have ever run in my life! With it being a professional event, there was a lot of running clubs there. Members from Sale and Altrincham Harriers were liberally scattered amongst the entrants. From work, there was Tim, his Dad, Paul and myself all flying the BT banner :) Unluckily for me, Tim's Dad was up to half marathon standard, Tim had been training in work lunch breaks for months, and Paul had done 10km runs before and said he felt much fitter this time.... something told me I'd be coming last out of our group!

The start was very exciting and I set out with the aim of taking it reasonably easy and just trying to complete the course as it would be the first time I'd run a distance of this length. Just under an hour is what I was after. The more professional runners there had proper skin tight bottoms on, GPS and heart monitoring gizmos, and funny shaped water bottles. I had my Bermuda shorts and slightly hole-y Addidas top that was about 8 years old! There were distance markers set up, and I'm sure that whilst the professionals find these invaluable, I found them rather depressing! 1km feels like an age at the beginning and the end of the race!

Anyway, I finished 359th out of 505 wearing the glorious race number 678. If you want a further look, try this web link... http://www.ukresults.net/2005/salf10k.html Needless to say, everyone had a great time.

Anyway, the total cumulative distance run in training now is up to 80.8km. That's equivalent to running from Stockport to Leeds!

Andy

Training for week commencing 13/03/2005

2005-03-19T20:30:00.000Z

Well this week was a good week for training! I got three runs, and a 5-a-side footy match in, including a personal best at the 6.2km run! However, it was not without its low points! Anyway, here's this weeks results...

6.2km
13/03 - 28:52
16/03 - 29:49
19/03 - 27:54 - New personal best!

You may notice that the training run on 16/03 has a poor time in comparison to the other two runs and there's a reason for this. Knowing that running after you've just eaten is bad and likely to give you a stitch, I usually run before I eat. Sadly, on the 16/03 I got back from work later than planned and was hungry, so I cooked something up and was finished eating by 18:45. I left it till 21:30 to do my run, thinking this would be a big enough gap.... unfortunately it wasn't! Two thirds of the way through the run I developed a really agonising stitch that I think would give child birth a run for its money! I was really lucky that after 5 mins it disappeared as I doubt I could have continued much longer. This taught me my second lesson... Lesson 2: Leave at least a three hour gap between eating a full meal and running, and more if you can! This sadly means that I will not be able to have a full English breakfast on the morning of the Great North Run, which is most disappointing as I was starting to look forward to it...

The total distance I have now run in training is up to 58.4km.

Andy

Training up to Week Commencing 13/03/2005

2005-03-16T20:28:00.000Z

I've done quite a bit of training to date, so this blog is a catch up to the start of this blog pretty much. After this I'll do an update every week or so. After following the advice for the Great North Run training regime, I built up my training runs from a small distance. So far I've got two training runs, a 3km run and a 6.2km run. When time is tight, and I want a good workout, I use some ankle weights to help (though the fitness world is divided about the benefits of these), so times with a "w" after this signify when I've used them. The results from training have been the following...

3km
22/01 - 16:02 w
25/01 - 13:38
29/01 - 14:40 w
30/01 - 12:30
01/02 - 14:23 w

6.2km
05/02 - 29:16
06/02 - 28:08
In between these two training runs, it was my birthday! So I had some well deserved time off, and stupidly did a weekend of hard drinking which kicked off with a pint, a shot, and a large wine in five minutes. Here's a picture of my mates and my empty glasses after finishing...

The effect this had on my running time was quite noticeable, and I learnt my first lesson... Lesson 1: Drinking to excess severely increases your running time! In my case it increased my running time by 16%!!!!!

16/02 - 32:44
20/02 - 28:08

So far then I've run a total of 39.8km in training which is further than running from Stockport to Rochdale! Amazing how quickly these training runs add up!

Andy

Background Info and Welcome note

2005-03-16T20:04:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to my blog for my "Summer of Runs". No, this isn't a diary of food poisoning over the summer; it is in fact a record of my training experience for some long distance running I intend to do this summer. This year, as part of my New Years resolutions, I decided to change my rather relaxed attitude to exercise and enter the Great Manchester run which is 10km, and the Great North Run which is half a marathon!!!!!!! My last experience of long distance running was when I was about 15 and did the Bramhall Fun Run which is around 5 miles long; so as you can see, I really am starting from scratch!

Half a marathon is a serious distance in my books (roughly 22km). Thankfully though I've got till Septmeber 18th to get to this standard. In the meantime though I've got the Great Manchester Run on May 22nd. This works out well as it means I have to start my training now!!! I've decided to run these races for charity and will be running for the British Red Cross which provides many great services both in the UK and abroad.

To help me keep the focus on the training, I decided to publish it to the world courtesy of the internet. Hopefully it'll provide people with a little bit of a laugh, or failing that an incentive for me to keep the training up. I hope you enjoy reading this blog.

Andy