In the middle of July I spent 4 days in Alps on the UTMB training camp with Lizzy Hawker. It was a fantastic experience and I learnt loads from Lizzy who is such an inspiration. I am hoping to do the UTMB next year so it was a good chance to run on the terrain. We ran the whole route in 4 days, but got to sleep in between days. I am sure it really toughened me up and made my legs stronger. A week after I came back I did an off road marathon on Dartmoor and felt like the hills were easy after the mountains of the Alps! I was first lady home so I was so pleased, but more importantly for me I felt that I had more left at the end which I was hoping was encouraging for the Long Tour of Bradwell.
The weekend of Bradwell, I was staying with friends in Edale so Saturday morning I went out with them and walked over the Win hill section of the route. And then in the afternoon I met up with the RunFurther team and did a recce of the Kinder section. Karen and Mark took photo’s of us in our gear. I also got to try some clif shot blocks which I think I am now addicted to, and which are great as an alternative to Gels. It was a lovely afternoon and good fun, but also proved really useful for the race the next day.
The morning of the race, and the weather looked perfect. I was looking forward to the race ahead but I was also worried about the navigation on the bits I did not know. The first section felt quite straight forward and the recce the day before meant the Kinder section went well. I joined up with a bunch of guys to go up over Lose hill, and saw Andy taking photo’s and offering words of support. On the way down we missed the turn and ended up being shouted at by an irate farmer who nearly ran us over in his tractor. We quickly turned around and made backtracks up the field.
The next section up around Win Hill and down to Ladybower was so enjoyable, and felt easy as I was confident I knew where I was going. However, after Bamford and ‘the escalator’ , it was all unknown territory. I was hesitant going over Stanage edge, and made a couple of silly errors. However, fortunately a couple of local guys behind me put me right so ‘thanks’ to them. The last section, and through Abney and almost home. At this point there were three of us running together, and none of us knew the route. We could see Bradwell in the distance, and in our excitement, we did not consult the map and therefore missed the turn off, sailing on along the stoney track. After a bit of running back & forth, and some choice words on my part, we managed to find a way back to connect to the route and it was a sprint into Bradwell . I was delighted to find myself 2nd lady which was a perfect end to a lovely race, and a wonderful weekend.
Waiting for friends to pick me up later, I saw a man in a bikini being chased by ‘police’ and a camera crew filming it. It was all quite amusing but I never did find out what it was all about.
Jayne
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