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Archive for the ‘Running’ Category

Tis the season to get lost

Monday, October 6th, 2008

Tis the season to get lost again and again and again……(well for me anyway) which is a little harsh on everyone else. Yes, it’s o-ing time again and so Simon C, myself and Rob headed down to the Peak for a South Yorkshire Orienteers event held at Treeton. The clouds increased the further south we got, but it stayed dry (the puddles on the roads suggested it had only recently finished pouring though).

Rob and I opted for the blue course, while Simon as ever went for brown (the longest). For those not aware of the orienteering scale it goes white, yellow, orange, red, light green, green, blue, brown with increasing length of courses and technical difficulty – although the latter has already reached maximum at green. Anyway Simon had a good run and was pleased to finish well within brown standard. Rob had been going relatively well (compared with me) with just a couple of time consuming controls and was somewhat surprised to find himself disqualified – having inadvertently missed out two of the controls altogether.

No surprise that they were both sunning themselves at the car when I finished. I had got myself lost far too many times and the only positive points I could muster were that I completed the course and always managed to locate myself again – it is so much easier finding the controls when you know where you are. (And also did better than Rob – ed). I was amazed to find that I hadn’t come last given the numerous errors.

By the time I had finished the clouds had dispersed and left a clear blue sky so naturally we wasted a good hour or so debating where to go. Eventually, Baslow was the chosen crag as none of us was feeling that energetic after the run. It was well worth the bit of a drive over, as we were rewarded with glorious warm sunshine and lovely views of Curbar and surrounding fields in the autumnal light, followed by an even better sunset. An array of easy routes were soloed mainly by Rob and Simon. Rob led Niched Wall (S) which Simon had abandoned (ie wimped out of – ed), opting for Death to Khomeini (VS 4b) instead. Which were pleasant little routes. We also threw a rope down an unprotected 5b to finish off on. A good day out and a nice surprise end to the day given the cloudy and damp start.

More photos, by Simon and Rob

Tags: Baslow, blue sky, lost, sun
Posted in Crags, Orienteering | 5 Comments »

Back o' Skiddaw

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Newly returned from a trip to California, Carmen and I thought we'd try out the Simon Fox Patent method of jet lag recovery, and so off we went to the Lake District for the RAB Mountain Marathon. In its second year, this new event has no 'line' courses, but consists of a single 'score' course, where you get a fixed amount of time to visit as many controls as possible – 6 hours on day 1 and 5 on day 2 (or 7 and 6 for the Elite course). You can enter it solo, or in teams of two. This year was in the far north of the Lakes, taking in Skiddaw, Blencathra, and the Coledale Fells beyond.

We'd entered the Elite class – for the simple reason that the only difference from the standard classes was an extra hour per day, and we don't stand a hope of ever entering a real Elite class, hence this was our one chance of pretending to be part of the elite. Alan K made up the rest of the YAC contingent, running the sensible class as a solo competitor.

A civilised start on Saturday, we set off at 9.30, and made good progress in perfect sunny weather. So good indeed, that after 5 of our allotted 7 hours, we were getting close to the finish, and it became clear that we'd finish early. After some detouring to pick off all the available controls within a reasonable distance, we ambled home with half an hour to spare. Carmen let slip as we set off towards the last control, "you do realise the map is 1:30000 rather than the standard 1:40000 don't you?". D'oh! No wonder we were so 'fast'. Still, 315 points and an overnight 19th position (out of 32) was better than expected. Alan also did well, lying 34/66 in the men's veterans class ('veteran' in fell running means over 40!).

The campsite was in an idyllic valley, hidden among ancient trees, out of sight from above. The only downside was the clouds of midges that soon swarmed around our end of the field, meaning an early night to escape. It soon clouded over, with a bit of drizzle – followed by clear skies and a very cold night.

A leisurely 9.30 start wasn't an option on Saturday, the last possible start time being 8.00 – so we duly set off at 8.01. Having got the map scale right, my wilder ambitions were reigned in by Carmen's sense, and it was straight up the first hill to start, still freezing cold, with soaked feet from the overnight rain and a heavy dew. But the skies were clear, and it wasn't long before the sun came out and it warmed up.

We met Alan at our 3rd control, then again at the 4th, and the 5th. At this point, we were making excellent progress, so decided on a slight detour for an extra control (Alan was more realistic and we didn't see him again until the finish). A few hours later, we came to regret this decision, as we were fast running out of time and had to miss out on 2 controls near the end – a new loss of a valuable 10 points. Even so, it was touch and go whether we'd get back in time, and after somehow running all of the last mile (including the uphill bits), we made it with 74 seconds spare! 245 points and 17th on the day, we finished 17th overall with a total of 560 – a whole 30 points more than the winner had managed on day 1 alone! Alan pulled out all the stops, finishing 22nd on the day with 26 seconds to spare, and climbing to 29th overall.

A really nice area, we hardly saw anyone other than fellow runners – highly recommended for a tramp off the beaten track , just try not to go there when there's a fell race on! A well organised event, which deserves continued success in the future. This was easily the hardest event I've done, probably because we had to run so hard in the last couple of hours to get back without incurring penalties. I'll be back for more of the same next year – though I'm definitely retiring from the Elite!

Vital statistics:
Day 1 – 36km, 1350m ascent, 6hr 35min
Day 2 – 30km, 1250m ascent, 5hr 59min

More information about the RAB Mountain Marathon can be found here.

More photos here.

Tags: jet lag, map scale
Posted in Mountain Marathons | 2 Comments »

Bowland Challenge

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Historians of YAC will know of our excellent pedigree in this event, culminating in the glorious victory of last year, so the pressure was on to live up to the high standards set by our forebears. Unfortunately training for this, my first such event, had not gone well (I hadn’t done any) and my Challenge partner Chris (who I had never done any walking with before) was recovering from two broken wrists so was in no better shape. In short, we were not well prepared and I knew I would need to draw on every ounce of my experience, fitness and supply of Breakaway biscuits if we were to even threaten the leaderboard.

Having pitched our tent on the Friday evening we decided to lay down our first psychological marker at the route planning stage. This was a tortuous process with each team given a list of around 80 grid references that had to be plotted onto a map before an appropriate route could be designed and submitted to Challenge Control that night. It was during this exercise that I made a valuable discovery: consumption of real ale allows you to plot grid references much more quickly, confidently and accurately than would normally be possible. I made a careful note of my findings and felt sure my hypothesis would be proved correct the following day.

Awaking to blue skies on Saturday morning we left the start line at 7.30 am, just a few minutes after Team YAC (Simon, Carmen and Alan). The first few hours went beautifully as, fuelled by bacon butties, Fig Rolls and Breakaway bars, we romped among the peaceful grassy valleys, farms and low hills that surround the campsite. For the uninitiated the concept of the Challenge is straightforward: teams have 10 hours to walk a route that takes in as many grid references as possible and each location yields the answer to a clue. Some references are worth more points than others depending on location and remoteness. Good ground, easy navigation and fairly straightforward clues meant we were well on schedule when we finally broke out onto the open fells at around 10.30.

From here things got a little harder as we cut across empty swathes of bog to the summit of Wolfhole Crag, the remotest (and one of the smallest) gritstone crags in the country. As a devotee of esoterica I half expected to see Simon here, thrutching up some VDiff chimney in his trainers but bar two spindly fellrunners it was deserted. Moving on from the summit, where we picked up a massive 20 points, we made our way along the broad ridgeline, where several members of Bowland MRT were keeping an eye on competitors from a tent, as well as salivating over a copy of ‘Nuts’ magazine.

By now it was around noon; teams had to nominate a time by which they would arrive for lunch at one of two points and a late arrival meant losing points. We had a big decision to make: we could play it safe or bomb down into the valley to pick up some additional clues before tearing back up a steep hillside to the lunch huts. We opted for the latter. After an ankle-shredding descent to the valley (meeting Simon et al who were coming from the other direction) it was here that my hypothesis of the previous night went badly wrong. We couldn’t seem to locate the information board in the village that we were looking for. Short of time I re-checked the grid reference from the original sheet. I had mis-plotted the reference by a whole kilometre. We were in the wrong place. Already short of time we set off up the hillside, me swearing and apologising in the knowledge we had lost a good 30 minutes and were up against it to get to lunch on time. Chris took this all pretty well and after setting a fierce pace we arrived with a few minutes to spare, sweating freely, legs feeling like they were encased in concrete.

After a weary start to the afternoon’s efforts, morale picked up on the summit of Ward Stone thanks to a useful combination of cheese, more Breakaway bars and some easy points. From here we headed off to Clougha Pike, grateful for the combination of boggy footpath and landrover track. A quick visit to a beautiful Andy Goldsworthy sculpture on the summit slopes saw us gain more valuable points and we began to think about the homeward stretch. Coming off Clougha we opted to try and hoover up several references in the last 90 minutes. Unfortunately this was also the toughest terrain of the day: tall reeds and marsh on the flat with tussock and hidden rocks on steep ground meant slow going. Somehow, Chris had maintained dry feet until this point but it was not long before he sunk into a knee-high bog which evened things up a bit. It was here that the fatigue really set in and I was grateful for Chris’ excellent navigation in a tricky area that saw us pick up all the points we were looking for. By 5 we had hit the road which gave us a full 30 minutes to cover the last kilometre to the campsite. With no time to pick up clues away from the road we ambled gently back to the start.

After some excellent buns and hot chocolate provided by our support team (my girlfriend Jill) it was time for the highlight of the day: dinner. It was here that the YAC members were in their element and we laid waste to the enormous spread put on by the Bowland MRT. I decided to forgive the real ale for the manner in which it had led me astray the night before and had a few beers whilst waiting for the results. It looked as if Team YAC were set for another victory as their impossibly long route had taken in most of the county and, unlike us, they had probably not made any hideous navigational cock-ups. Chris and I would have been happy to finish mid-table so were delighted when we learnt we were third, only 10 points off second with Team YAC a long way ahead in 1^st. Simon collected the trophy and posed for a few snaps from likes of ‘Hello!’ and ‘OK’. Not content with this he also managed to win the Cotswold Outdoor prize draw too: snaffling up a snazzy dry bag whilst I picked up an oversized fleece from the raffle.

Once the euphoria of the results had ebbed away it was time to take to the tents and give our aching muscles a chance to contract and seize-up completely overnight. Morning came with the recollection that I had promised to do the event next year as well as a mountain marathon in 2009 too and, to tell you the truth, I can’t wait.

A big thanks to the Bowland MRT for making it happen and to Chris for putting up with me for the weekend. Alas, I didn’t take any pictures but Simon grabbed a few which you can see here: http://climbing.me.uk/Bowland2008/index.html

More information about the event can be found at http://www.bowlandchallenge.co.uk/

Tags: Bowland, Goldsworthy
Posted in Fell running, Walking | 1 Comment »

Wet Wet Wet

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

I feel it on my fingers, I feel it on my toes, Rain is all around me, And all my feeling goes…

Yes, it's the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon 2008, based around Helvellyn. YAC are represented by Carmen and me doing the "Bowfell" course and Simeon and Alan on "Carrock Fell".

Despite the forecast of rain from the start, it actually stayed dry (but windy) with cloud clear of the fells until about 11.30 on Saturday, at which point the heavens opened. Torrential rain alternated with short relatively dry spells for the rest of the day, as we took a long anti-clockwise loop around Helvellyn. Simeon and Alan, though supposedly on an easier course, took a remarkably similar route – I think the planner got it slightly wrong, as there was a 30% dropout rate on that course!

The overnight camp was near Dockray, only about 5km as the crow flies from where we started. Luckily we had some evening sunshine in between the rain, so our soaked clothes had a chance to dry out. But on Sunday, it was raining from the word go, so the dry clothes soon became soaked again. The rain was lighter, but constant, and low cloud made for some interesting navigation, but the course was shorter and it wasn't long before we were on the final knee-wrecking descent, avoiding falling bodies slipping on the wet grass as we went.

A really enjoyable weekend, in a thoroughly miserable sort of way, and both YAC teams managed to finish roughly half way down the field in their respective classes.

No photos from me, I didn't bother taking a camera due to the weather, but further details (and some pictures soon) are on the Saunders website at http://www.slmm.org.uk/

Tags: Helvellyn, masochism, rain, SLMM
Posted in Mountain Marathons, Running | No Comments »

The things we do for fun…

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

A gazillion hungry midges, hundreds of bloodthirsty ticks, blisters on top of blisters, aching legs, sore feet, and a night spent with 2 people squeezed into a 1 person tent, woken at 5am by a bagpiper wearing a midge net.

Yes, it's the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon, and great fun it was too, in a retrospective sort of way. YAC was represented by Carmen and me doing the B class, and Simon F & Debra (on her first mountain marathon) doing D.

This year it was based at Glenfinnan, to the west of Fort William, and headed northwards towards Knoydart, with the mid-camp in Glen Dessarry.

Saturday started with an attack of the midges, followed by a coach ride about 10 miles west to the far end of Loch Eilt. Here we unwisely removed midge nets, only for the wretched things to descend again as we were marking up the maps; luckily they disappeared as we set off, probably due to the unbroken blue skies and associated hot sunshine.

The first 4 controls were quite straightforward, with easy navigation (given the good visibility) and no major route choice. The next leg was a long one though (took us just over 3 hours), going round and/or over a couple fo substantial hills. There were three main route choices – the planner's recommended one, the one taken by the winners, and the one we took! Hard work but worth it, with beautiful scenery round Loch Morar (and a fine looking bothy, now on the list for a future visit).

After that, the route choice was again limited, and the controls easy to find, before a final fight through a forestry commission plantation brought us to the mid-camp.

Our target for a good time was 8 hours, we took 8 hours 5 minutes and 10 seconds, which we were very pleased with. Still only managed 45th out of 74 though – the course very much favoured the runners rather than the navigators (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

The overnight camp was on the only flat land for miles around – a microlight landing strip! Luckily there was a slight breeze which kept the worst of the midges away, so we were able to lie around soaking up the sun for a few hours before bed.

It rained a little overnight, and when woken by the piper at stupid o'clock the hills were still hidden by clag, and there were occasional spells of drizzle to remind us we were still in Scotland. We set off shortly before 8, this time heading further east, towards Gulvain. I managed to find a good quick line up the first hill, and then proceeded to throw away any advantage this might have given us by looking for the control in the wrong place and wasting 10 minutes finding it. After that though, everything went quite smoothly, and better still, the sun came out and the midges went to bed.

After control 3, everyone else went up and over the NE ridge of Gulvain. This would have involved an extra 250m ascent, so we decided to traverse round the ridge instead – quite risky as there were crags marked, which could have involved lots of faffing to avoid. As it turned out, a series of terraces meant we made quite fast progress, and we arrived at the next control at about the same time as a couple of faster teams who'd taken the short-but-steep route. Result!

From there onwards it was fairly straightforward, with a bit of traversing, a bit of ascending, and a lot of descent, before lashings of stew and cake at Wilf's rounded off the weekend nicely. 34th on the day, and 39th overall, about the same as usual – even though we're not improving, at least we're not getting much worse!

Having had a week to recover (and forget the worst bits), I'm now at the stage when I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave us a chance to re-visit some places we've been before, but also to see areas that most people never go – not only were most of the hills not Munros, some of them weren't even Corbetts!

You can find our photos here, and more details of the event here – where you can sign up on their mailing list to be informed when entries open for next years event. Go on, you know you want to…

Tags: Glenfinnan, LAMM
Posted in Mountain Marathons, Running | 1 Comment »