Well we did so well as a team last year we are back for more! This year Catherine, Alex and I (Karen) may not complete all the series races for the team prize as a team (mainly because the other two have set their sights on re-doing my nemesis – the TMB. I on the other hand am being completely sensible and not doing it!). I (stupidly some might say!) have decided to try and complete the whole of the Vasque 2008 series on runfurther.com – I am attempting what only Julian Brown has done before in 2006 – all of the 12 races in the series. It is going to be a bit tough but hey I got round TMB on watery noodle soup so what can be harder than that?
So far the girls have joined me on most of the races individually, which is a great boost to help me round. But weirdly I have been doing quite well. This is something I did not expect! I thought I would just about struggle round each race, especially the ones that are one weekend after another, but my body seems to be enjoying this and is actually getting faster!
The Wuthering Hike did start off a bit slower than last year though, but it was a bit longer and had an extra hill in this year so Alex and I forgave ourselves for a slightly slower time.
The weekend after I was booked on a ferry to the Isle of Mann for the Manx Mountain Marathon. Well that was a complete nightmare – not the race, that was ace but the journey over was not! I got to the port via several buses and trains to be told that the weather was so bad that the ferry had been cancelled and I had been booked on the early morning ferry from somewhere else!!! I panicked a bit as I had no car, it was about 11am and I was stuck in a porta cabin and the race started at 7am, the new ferry would only dock at 6.15am and I had no transport to the race start – Great way to start my quest of all 12 races!!! After a few phone calls to the race organiser, who was brilliant, we had secured a bus to pick people up from the ferry and the start would be delayed until we were ready!! Wow – I was going to get there and I was going to start my second race and I would just have to struggle round on knackered legs from the week before and no sleep.
I then heard some rumours that the early morning ferry would not make it either – more panicking, some runners decided to go home at this point which left just a few stragglers (all the sensible people had taken flights!). There was also a rugby tour on the island the same weekend and they were having a minor panic that they would not get to the pub (sorry the match!) on time and looked into flights – to cut a long storey short I ended up getting on a group booking flight with them (half price!) and then getting a lift with a runners parents from the airport to Ramsey via all their childhood haunts on a really slow but very welcome tour of the island. I got to my bunkhouse at about 10pm; phew I could have a sleep and be at the start in the morning all fresh!
The weather was supposed to be snow and wind; we managed to do the whole day in lovely sunshine and wind with frozen ground so the bogs were much easier to get across! I started off following some lovely legs (4 guys running together!) and saw all the faster girls just fly off ahead as usual. I plodded on and the scenery was fantastic so was enjoying the fact that I was actually there and just needed to finish. I soon found myself running close to 3 other girls from Macc Harries that are usually much faster than me – this was a bit of a surprise so I just carried on with a bit of chatting and presumed they would all speed up and leave me again. This didn’t happen and I overtook them all and kept going. I felt good so pushed a little harder with my new found confidence and only got overtaken by one of the fast late start girls (Wendy Dodds) just before the last checkpoint. I had beaten loads of people I was so pleased and all the guys at the finish were a little surprised to see me so early and before all the others – wow what an ace way to finish a race.
I then stupidly decided to join Alex and Catherine again in 4 Inns (a 40 miler), which we got first novice team last year. We wanted to beat our time of 11 hours 40 something, so set off in freezing wind and then drizzle and then driving snow and finally some sunshine. We did it! We beat not only the boy’s team who were trying to run faster than us all the way round, but the entire girl’s contingent too. First girl’s team and we beat our time by a long way and came in at 10 hours 24 mins. (We even beat last year’s winners of the trophy by about an hour) – what a confidence boost!
Next race was in couple of weekends and it was Calderdale, which I did with Alex. We were subjected to more snow and we plodded round it and only just beat last years time by 1 minute! But my legs were good and I had now done four long races in about 5 weeks so I was getting there!
Trouble is I then had a few weeks off and started biking again – so when I went up to the Lakes the weekend before Fellsman to help Catherine’s husband (Ross) do his BG, we did a bit of running ourselves on the hills. My legs felt like lead, I felt dizzy and really tired. How was I going to get round Fellsman in about 18 hours (this years target). I did Fellsman as one of my first ever Ultras and love the event. First time I did it in just over 22 hours, last year me and the girls did it in 20 hours and 11 minutes so it seemed like 18 hours was a good figure to aim for.
After a week of chillin and not running as I can’t do too much before a big event the 9am start of Fellsman was here. It was baking hot and Catherine and I were caked in factor 50. Alex had hurt her ankle and decided not to run.
We ran/walked up Ingleborough in our usual state at the start of races – at the back! Another big boost was Catherine’s Dad turning up at two checkpoints to cheer us on. We both felt good and with our long legs it felt easy to stride out up the hills so we passed a few people on the long slogs. We both felt good for the next few hours and when we got to Gragareth we were told we were in 4th and 5th place, what a bonus! This picks you up a bit and keeps you plodding on! We went through Dent pretty quickly but thought the cut off for getting grouped over Fleet Moss was still out of our reach but that we still might get through it in day light.
Next road checkpoint was Stonehouse and we found Clare had dropped out, she cheered us on with the words “you’re in 3rd place now – keep going!”. Team Run Like Girl so high up the rankings is a little bit scary, maybe we had gone out too fast? Still we kept on going and only taking a couple of minutes at checkpoints to save time and not stiffen up. Half way up the out and back to Great Knoutberry we saw Alison – we were definitely going too fast now!
It did speed us up a bit though and we pushed on through the checkpoints even quicker now! At about 5ish we were travelling the same speed as two guys (Mark and John) we’d seen a bit earlier so asked them if they wanted to be “grouped” over night together as we all seemed to be moving the same speed and we were hoping not to get grouped with people who looked like they were flagging, well both of us run better the longer we are out so it is hard to get grouped with people who are on the wind down. They said yes so we then told them could change their minds if they felt the next couple of hours were enough of us two!!!
We all made it to Fleet Moss half an hour before the cut off and just behind Alison. The boys were great; they got us out of that check point before Alison so we were now in 2nd place! Half way to Middle Tongue Alison over took us again. The race was now on! We ended up just getting into Cray as they were leaving and again the boys rushed us (for our own good!) so that we would not get any more runners grouped with us and we could then continue at our good pace.
Buckden Pike was a hard slog but we caught the others again and stayed just behind them for quite a while until a long flat bit along to Top Mere checkpoint where we over took Alison’s group, another big boost! Ross (Catherine’s husband was manning the checkpoint and Catherine was definitely wanting a little longer with him than we let her have!) But we were being chased now so we pushed on. Next hill was Great Whernside and it was a little easier this year, no driving rain, no fog and we were not frozen! We navigated off this time perfectly and got to Capelstone Gate checkpoint quite a way ahead of the others now and then passed another team on the way to Yarnbury. At this point one of the boys said “do you two consider yourselves very competitive?” Both of us answered “today – yes!” and made them run some more!
Being chased by a girl we know is faster is scary and we were just trying our best to stay in 2nd. Poor john went over on his ankle so we walked for a bit but when we got to the road we all just ran for home and ended up running up the last hill too and into the finish in 17 and a half hours. All four of us were so happy, we probably woke up all the competitors already in as it was 2.30am but we didn’t care – we’d done it!
It felt very good to finally feel like a runner and even better to actually get a 2nd place – a real bonus to a great race.
I have just one week to recover and then it is Marlborough Hike (33 miles), maybe I will hike this one. I have spent most of the few days since Fellsman falling asleep and taking pain killers for my hip joints. My poor body will be a wreck by the end of this year!
