Jurassic Day 3 - More hills

So there we were at the start of the third and final day of this year's Jurassic Challenge. It's called a Challenge because it's not a race. (Yeah right! Try telling that to the guys - and girls - at the front). We were back at Lulworth Cove for this start, and here I am raring to go. The start took us down to the beach for about 200m, then up this little hill as a warm up. You can see the path running down the centre of the picture. This was the first set of steps for the day. I hate running down steps!

After Lulworth Cove was a series of big hills. Now I have been known to run a flat Half Marathon in 1Hr 40mins, but after some punishing hills for 13 miles, my watch showed over 3 hours.

However during this stretch, we passed some of the Oners. The Oners were a group of 61 starters who were taking on the Jurassic Challenge as a single day race. So they started at 18.00 on Saturday and hoped to finish by 18.00 on Sunday. I have to say that when we passed these runners, they were hanging, having covered 60 or so miles in 18 hours. How they made it through that first day mud overnight, I don't know.

Here's another hill...beautiful scenery, but after 50 plus miles, one likes a bit less undulation.

We were running through military ranges now. So you can see a group of tanks just to the right of the road in the centre of the picture. Guess what? We'd just come down that hill and were going up the other side.

We again had our fair share of mud. This shot shows the ridge up the centre of a muddy path that I referred to yesterday. There was just no way of avoiding it.

Somewhere after the halfway point, a kind walker agreed to take a picture of me. I'm really not sure about this picture. While it shows that I was sort of enjoying the run, I think my arms look longer than my legs! The waist strap from the rucksack also makes it look like I have a paunch. I'm certain I got rid of that. However, you can clearly see my support for St Peter's on the shirt.

I should add that we have so far raised close to £7,000 for St Peter's, a great total, but still a long way to go. (Please click on the Just Giving link at the side of this blog to donate!)

Swanage provided a change of scenery. No hills, although the concrete was very slippery on the seashore. We had just passed the last checkpoint meaning about 10km to go. A nice easy one hour run normally. But normally I wouldn't have run 72 miles getting there, and we still had one big climb to go. I had been running the last few miles with Carole, Samantha and Liam. Carole was the leading Female Vet (but it's not a race!).

We made it over the last hill and down the other side to Studland Bay, a beautiful sandy beach. Sam and Liam had pulled ahead of Carole and me on the descent through some woods, but when we got onto the beach Sam and Liam were nowhere in sight. We could however see the finish about two miles away. We couldn't figure out where they could have gone.

Here's Carole leaving me standing on the final 'sprint' to the finish.

The last 500m was up through the soft sand. Not good on weary legs, which were screaming for the finish to come into sight. Note no sign of Carole now!

Then some massive puddles across the path, which meant we could wash our muddy shoes!

..and into the final finishing stretch.

Mike finished with a great smile at the finish and ran with his walking poles that definitely helped in the mud.

We all received a finish medal of a glass trophy that we will savour for many years. My time on the final day was 5Hr 50mins, which I was delighted to achieve on such a gruelling course.

And what of Sam and Liam? They appeared about 10 minutes later, crossing the finish line in the wrong direction and having run an extra couple of miles. They got lost on the last descent. These races can be cruel!

Overall, a fantastic training event for the TransAlp. Superb scenery along a beautiful coastline to keep the mind off the pain of the hills and the mud. I should also add that I thought the event was logistically very well organised by the VO2 team. Carting everyone around to the starts and back from the finish each day and providing loads of food and drink at the checkpoints takes some organisation and they did it with a smile and good cheer, even if the runners were too knackered to say thanks.

Roll on the next marathon.

Jurassic Day 2 - Flat and Hilly!

52 miles gone, 26 miles to go!

A beatiful day today, much sunnier than yesterday making for a much nicer day all in all, even if the organisers organised a sting in the day of today's run.

We started running along the side of Chesil Beach from Weymouth to Portland. The picture on the left shows the first climb of the day out of Portland about 3 miles into the run.

We then ran down to the tip of Portalnd Bill to the first checkpoint at about 6 miles by the lighthouse. I'm afraid my picture was taken while running, so a bit of camera shake!

The weather stayed kind, with little wind as we then ran past the Young Offenders Institute. Yes, yes, saying hello to a few mates!

It was easy to miss the Caost Path along this stretch and a few people went down a deadend path for a mile, only having to make their way back up. they weren't happy.

Then it was through Weymouth. Mike and I were running separately today. Mike enjoyed coming into Weymouth to see the swing bridge that we had to run over swung up, so he was able to catch all the runners in front waiting for the bridge. It opened as soon as Mike arrived. Joy!

There was then a long stretch along beside the beach. All along tarmac (painful on the joints), before getting to a muddy stretch. Hadn't seen much of the mud today to that point. I got my walking poles out that definitely helped. I would have used them yesterday had I not successfully left them in the bus, which I found locked when I ran back to get them.

The mud looked like you see in the Winter Olympics. When you see the cross country skiing, they often have two grooves cut into the snow. It was the same for us where you could only slide your left or right foot through the mud, leaving a high ridge of mud in the middle of the path. And when you get out of the muddy section, your feet weigh about 2 pounds heavier each. More Joy!

This photo shows the great view looking back at Weymouth and Portland Bill after about 18 miles and about 3 Hours 15 minutes. Only 8 to go. 4 and a half hours should be possible? Little did I know.

After the mud came the hills. The morning briefing described the hills here as 'legendary'. They were right.

The two photos below show the hill looking back after we had come down, then turning around to show the hill we then had to climb. These were two of the gentle hills too.

Then on to Durdle Door.

A beatiful piece of geology, even though we didn;t have long to look. We only had a mile to go to the finish, but it was still two more hills. A couple of miles after a marking stone that said 3.5 miles to Lulworth Cove (our finish line), I came across two walkers, who gave me encouragement, saying there was only 3.5 miles to Lulworth Cove! If you read about two tourists who were unexpectedly found at the bottom of the cliffs, you'll understand the true story. They may have been right, but it's not what I wanted to hear! The finish finally came into sight. Here's the finishing straight:

And me looking very happy getting to the finish.

I promise I didn't actually crash into the van below, but it was close. A long tough day, but beatiful scenery, as you can see from the pictures. But no, I didn't get close to 4.5 hours. I finished 52nd in 5 Hours 15 mins. The winning time was 3 Hours 46 mins. Hmmm.

Tomorrow is almost all steep hills, apart from the last three miles along a sandy beach. We'll look forward to that...

If you really want to be impressed, I sat down beside Adam Holland at dinner. He's 23 years old and wants to be the youngest person to run 100 marathons. He's up to 75 or so and plans to run the 100th on 10/10/10. Very apt. Good luck Adam. He doesn't run slowly either. He finished fourth today in 4 Hr 11 mins. He also doesn't eat anything during a marathon and rarely drinks anythinng. And he doesn't stretch. In other words he breaks all the rules, but it works for him.

I'm now off for a massage, then bed.

Jurassic Day 1 - mud glorious mud!

That was a tough one!

We started with scrutineering to make sure we had all the kit we should have, including map, compass, waterproof top, energy bar, long trousers etc. Here's me being checked. We both passed.

We then had a delayed minibus ride to the start. Some problem with a wide load earlier.

Start therefore delayed to close to 12.00. We then had a very rare downhill start, but that just gave us a bit of a false sense of what was to come!

After the gentle start, we made our way along the coast (the coast seems to be a feature of the race, but that might have something to do with the race being 78 miles along the coast path). Our first landmark of the day was Golden Cap, the highest point on the Dorset coast, so the highest on this run too. We even looked happy!

Then we found the mud. And boy was it muddy. Miles and miles of it. Energy sapping, cloying, sticky mud. There was one particular patch around mile 23, where its gloopy consistency was like grease to stand on, but hung onto your shoes, making standing, let alone running, almost impossible.

Here's some more of the stuff, along with the other painful running surface, pebbles...

But we made it to the end at about 18.30, so 6.5 hours on our feet for 26 miles. But looking on the bright side, only 52.4 miles to go!

We made it:

...and so did we...but boy did those men (or they call themselves men) complain. Winging about the mud all day. It was lovely scenery. I don't know what they were complaining about. We bears love mud!

St Peter's Hospice - Meet the running bears

So here they are. Our companions for the next 6 months will be these two tough bears:

They look lean and mean and ready to take on the challenges of the Jurassic next week and the TransAlp in September. They have been togged up by David's highly talented PA Ann Readman. She's done a great job for them, so they are kitted out in the latest high-tec breathable running kit and headbands.

I am sure they will keep everyone updated with their exploits during the Jurassic and the TransAlp, and let you know what their running partners, David and Mike are up to.

The Jurassic - One week to go

We now have the race instructions for the Jurassic. That's 3 marathons in 3 days. A total of 78.6 miles on two feet. As the poster for the event says: 'The cowardly wont start and the weak wont finish!'

There are about 170 people entered for some or all of the event along the Jurassic Coast footpath. It runs along the Dorset coast from Lyme Regis to Poole, including one lap of Portland Bill (as you do!). I have copied three pictures from last year's event onto this blog. As you can see, it's very much off road along the coast path. It can be very scenic, but it can also be very wet.

This is when we hope that all the winter training has prepared us for the strain that we are about to subject our bodies to. We will soon find out! We will also get to know what the TransAlp will feel like, even if there aren't too many mountains along the Dorset coast.

One of the more depressing statements in the race instructions says that 'Skinners brewery have supplied the evnet with free ale. This will be available at each evening meal.' Now, I love my pint, but I do think it's a form of torture from the race director to put on free pints of a great ale when you can't (or at least shouldn't) be drinkingg it. It really isn't the best was to prepare for running a marathon. It will test our willpower to not just try a pint (or two).