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Well I’m back from this year’s Mountain Marathon and still in one piece albeit, with sore legs and an aching back. Probably due to running/walking for almost 11 hours and covering a distance of 50-55k over the 2 days!

Saturday morning – 9:58am start from Oakhampton Camp. Nearly missed the start due to a mix up over where the start line was but got there with a few minutes to spare. Set off in good spirits and quickly formulated a planned route that would take us up to Yes Tor and pick up some good points without going too far out. All was going pretty well but as we got more tired we realised that our fitness was going to mean a lot more ‘speed walking’ than running which meant our route was dangerously close to being too far for the 6 hours.

Still, we persevered and kept to our original plan which was still looking ‘doable’ even at the half way point which happened to be at our furthest distance from the finish. Unfortunately what we hadn’t allowed for was a particularly bad slog of about 4k across some pretty boggy moor with very few paths. This took us twice as long as we’d hoped and ultimately cost us 20 minutes which we never made up. All continued to plan but the going was quite slow in places and some of the ‘slopes’ were quite hard on our aching limbs.

We eventually got in sight of the finish and managed to jog in quite strongly but still came in at 6:21 which meant 42 penalty points – This was to cost us about 45 places as it turned out by the end of day 2. We still thought we stood a good chance of getting inside the top 100 but were horrified to discover we were 194th after day 1 – our moral took a bit of a hit!

So we decided to go out on Sunday and enjoy the day without putting too much pressure on ourselves. This proved to be a good tactic as we stayed within our limits and managed to pick up 240 points and even finish with 35 minutes to spare! Probably just as well as Mike was in quite a bit of pain due to pulling a muscle on the outside of his thigh after about 30 minutes of running on day 2. For once I was feeling really good and apart from having generally sore leg muscles I had no real injuries to complain about – yes I know it seems hard to believe!

So we jogged in cold and wet as the weather had been pretty bad in some parts during the previous 5 hours (luckily Mike had lent me his waterproof as I had somehow managed to leave mine out of the rucksack even though we went through the kit list the day before!) but even this didn’t dent our spirit. We later found out that we had came in 64th on day 2 which is pretty amazing considering our day 1 position. Final position was 128th but would have been 85 if we hadn’t been late on he Saturday. Still, we were really satisfied with the weekend and happy that we couldn’t have done any better.

I should mention our overnight accommodation – The Drew Arms in Drewstaignton, what a lovely little pub/guest house and the food was absolutely superb. I would recommend it to anyone in that area.

Best tip for anyone reading this thinking of doing a Mountain Marathon – take a Pot Noodle. It’s light, tasty and doubles up as a great mug afterwards. Thanks to the person that gave me the idea – whoever you are.

Oh well, time to relax now for a while – now, where’s those golf clubs…

I knew it was only a matter of time…different ankle, same pain. Things started well today but disaster struck after about 15 mins – usual story, me not looking where I’m putting my feet. Too busy taking in the fantastic scenery that I could see from the clay tips above Roche – over towards Bodmin Moor – you have to see it to believe it.

So I sat there clutching my ankle and it reminded me of that family guy moment (Wasted Talent – Series 2). Luckily it was my stronger ankle so I decided to carry on and run it off which was just as well as it seemed to get better until after about 2 hrs when it really started to ache.

So got home, put on ice and hoped for the best. Feeling better now 15hrs later. See how it feels over the next few days. Should be fine but could have been a lot worse if it was my weak left ankle. Still it made me smile when I remembered the clip.

PS: Uploading my runs on Garmin website now who have really improved their tracking software and I can now upload direct from the Mac – woohoo! Have a look at this it’s brilliant.

Well it’s been about a month since my last post and how quickly time is passing. I expected to be posting updates every few days or so and it just hasn’t happened. The training has been going quite well although not nearly as much as I’d hoped and I haven’t suffered with any injuries – yes quite unusual for me!

There’s something missing this year and I just can’t quite put my finger on it. I think Mike is feeling the same, it’s almost as if because we know the training area and terrain so well (Dartmoor), there’s nothing to fear. That might sound weird but I think the fear factor is missing. Mountain marathons should be scary, there should be an element of entering into the unknown but we’re just not feeling it. This should make us super confident and strong but this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Maybe it’s just that this is not our first mountain marathon anymore and this happens to everyone. Maybe a week before the event the excitement will kick in and I’ll feel the same thrill as I did last year. I hope so.

PS: Mike couldn’t get a car with a tow bar so the caravan idea is out. Fortunately he managed to find a B&B above a pub on the other side of Oakhampton so at least we have somewhere to stay. Still liked the idea of the caravan, maybe another time.

Longest run to date was last weekend with a 4hr run across Bodmin Moor. I think it was around 28k which is more than we ran over the whole of the first day last year! Conditions were great for running and the terrain was better than we have found in the past. My legs started to feel quite tired towards the end and I was thankful that Mike had brought along some of his special energy gels. He said he’ll let me have some more of his stash for the big day, that’ll be good.

Off on my own for a 2hr jaunt tomorrow with full kit. Hoping to manage about 20k if I stick to the trails. This will probably be my last long run as next Sunday will only be a week to go and we should have started to taper off the distances. Probably 10-15k next week and then no more runs until the following Saturday. Well that’s the plan anyway. Hope it goes well tomorrow as I’ve only run once this week as I had to get a rowing session in to post a time on the Concept Challenge Series before the end of the month – but hey, that’s another story!

Definitely going to be doing much more (indoor) rowing after this month and have even thought seriously about taking up golf again. Steve (brother in law) has taken it up and has joined my club (Carlyon Bay) and is asking for a playing partner. I actually quite like the idea – I kind of miss it and always promised myself I’d take it up seriously again after the long lay off due to the shoulder injury and Ed (my previous playing partner,) moving away.

Wow, 6 weeks until the big day. Good to report all is well and the training is back on track. Went out with Mike yesterday afternoon for a 18k run around Brown Willy (the highest point on Bodmin Moor! – see pic)

We were out for about 2.5 hours and apart from a few close shaves with my weak ankle, everything went well. Reminded me how rough moor running really is and that next time (next week) I will be taping up my ankles just in case. I was still feeling pretty strong at the end and could easily of carried on for a while afterwards – although I was in definitely need of a long cool drink and some energy bars – it was quite hot out there.

We started to discuss accommodation arrangements for the OMM weekend and came to the conclusion that we were not going to find a B&B easily that was close, affordable and available! So Mike came up with the idea of borrowing his dad’s caravan and parking it on the hard standing that they will be providing on site. This will mean we are really close to the action and can relax without having to worry about getting to the venue on time. Should give us a chance to socialise with like minded individuals who also bring caper vans or caravans.

Having a night off tonight.