Brew 2 Brew, 44 mile, 1 April 2012

Record-breaking heat.  Jet-lag. 44 mile run. Ouch. 

The 44 mile Brew To Brew race runs from the Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, Missouri to the Free State Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas.   Over 4000 runners participate in what is mostly a relay race, where teams of 10 or fewer run legs of about 4 miles each.

A few hardy souls sign up each year to run the whole distance.  I was one of those, wondering why arriving on an international flight less than 12 hours before the start of the race had EVER seemed like a good idea.  Plus the weather forecast was calling for brilliant sunshine with the highest temps ever recorded on April 1, namely 31 C or almost 90 F. 

At 6 a.m., team cars were arriving by the busload as the solos lined up for the start.  It was already warm enough that just a shirt and shorts felt warm enough, and only the thought of the possible sunburn later in the day made me keep my shirt on for the race.  Chariots of Fire was motivationally playing on the loudspeakers as we set off with a police motorcycle escort into the darkness.
It must be said that the course was somewhat monotonous, following a flat straight course along the river for miles and miles on end.  Runners ahead didn't disappear around a corner...they disappeared in the haze miles in front of me.  However, the second half was a lot more rolling, with gentle hills that gave a break to tired legs (and was a good excuse for walking in the heat). 
The miles were ticking off very slowly at about mile 15, when I suddenly tripped over a metal grate in the gutter and then slid into it.  Various race personnel saw me and there was soon a small crowd hovering, with a voice calling "I'm a nurse, are you ok?"  Honestly, I was mostly concerned about my bag of gummy bears, which had flown out of my hand and was in danger of disappearing into the holes of the grate.  After saving those, I did a systems check and discovered that aside from small cuts and scrapes, I appeared to have sustain no major damage.  With gummy bears safely in hand, I was soon on my way again.  (As an aside, the heat made the gummy bears, which are usually yummy race fuel for me, taste disgusting.   I should have let them fall into the gutter!)

For a couple of hours the occasional breeze still felt cool, but as the sun hit our backs, the temp soon crept past what is comfortable for running.  And then it kept on creeping up, to the point where it was hot just walking in the sun.  Or hot just standing in the sun, for the poor volunteers.

I started imagining I was running in Death Valley.   I carried two bottles of water and constantly used one of them to dump water on my head to keep myself cool.  (The downside to this was my shoes squishing loudly on each step after the water ran down my legs.)   At the aid stations, I got as much ice water as possible into me, with more going over my head and neck.   Ice chips down my bra melting in my mouth helped for a few minutes, but a mile or two later I was hot and uncomfortable again and hoping the next checkpoint would appear over the horizen. 

A nice break in the late stages of the race was the river crossing.   As runners, we had a choice of running an extra mile, or getting a boat ride across a tributary of the Kansas River where a bridge had once existed.  It was not a hard choice to take the boat, and there was a short, needed rest before I took my turn crossing the water.  It was an easy choice to soak my shirt in the river again, even if I did smell vaguely fishy the rest of the race.
I kept a very steady pace, running 6 mph for a few hours, then 5.5 mph the rest of the race.  In my mind I was thinking I could possibly win this, but realistically beating 8 hours sounded like a pretty good goal.  At the last checkpoint I had an hour left to cover just over 4 miles, so I knew I could do it.  However I was so hot that I could only run 30 seconds at a time.   Team runners were passing me left and right as we curved around the final huge river levy, but I walked and ran as fast as I could in the heat. 

Although I was drinking a lot of water, I had taken a small dose of ibuprofen earlier in the race, so I was a little worried about my kidneys.   My legs were feeling ok still (yay drugs!), but I knew that in the heat I was sweating out much more than the liquid I was drinking.  It was a very happy minute when the finish line came in sight, and I knew I would make my goal, and then be able to stop moving, finally.

Final time was 7:59:11, and I later found out I finished 3rd out of 13 women and only 24 minutes behind the leader. Also 22nd out of all 75 solo runners.  Very happy with that. 

Results are found on the Enter2Run website.
Tons of race photos here
It was so hot I never felt like eating much, but I was careful to take in small amounts of carbs frequently, and I got the balance just right because I always felt full of energy without being sick to my stomach.   I took in about 400 calories right before the start, and another 1000 calories during the 8 hours.  That number is pretty low, but since it worked, I have to consider that about 100 cal/hr is probably ok, at least for a "short" race like this rather than a multi-day affair.   Well, and if I'm honest, I ate plenty the day before on my 20 hour journey to the States and some of that food was probably still fueling me.

Calories:
(immediately before the start) 
Mars bar 300 cal (only because I knew it would melt in the car)
Coke 100 cal
(during race)
Gummy bears, 200 cal
1 Gel 90 cal
Perpetuem 250 cal
6 Pringles 50 cal
Shot bloks, 200 cal
Coke, 90 cal
1 salty potato 100 cal

Druid's Temple and Ilton Moor

We couldn't help but get outside to enjoy the nice weather of the past week, and decided to explore an area north of us that we had never visited. The idea came courtesy of Jim and Gill's Blog, so many thanks!

Our first stop was the druid's temple, which looks something like an ancient stone circle but was build much more recently by an eccentric local. Bizzare.

Then Rob and I headed out for a circular hike over the moors and past a couple of small reservoirs.   The trail followed a couple of fields and pastures steeply down to a small groves of trees.  It was such a warm nice spring day, that we could actually hear the buds popping out on the trees.  We hadn't felt such wonderful warmth for months and really enjoyed it.  

A short section on the road had us climbing steeply up to the tiny village of Ilton, then finally out onto the open moor.   That's when the navigator (ok, me) had a few map reading screwups all in a row.   Oops.   It all started with a new Grouse Butts path which wasn't on my map (but I thought it was even after walking to the end of it and realizing that we may not be where we wanted to be).   For those of you with confused looks on your faces, a Grouse Butt is a small shooting barrier for hunters of ....Grouse.  I should have realized we weren't in the right spot when the path took us close to the Grouse Butts, as usually those aren't built near established paths. 

To compound a wrong decision, I didn't realize how far we were from the desired path, and and so we took off on a "short-cut" across the heather covered moor.   Double oops. Bushwacking across the open moors through knee-high heather while trying to avoid the mushy spots is hard work.    Rob was a good sport about it all, and since it was such a nice sunny day it was just an adventure rather than a hardship...especially as we were able to avoid boggy sections and keep our feet dry.  We leapfrogged across strips of newly burned heather, which made for easier walking, and after about a mile finally spotted our path again.  Yay. 

I guess you could call our route over Shortlick Hill a "shortcut" but I'm sure it took far longer than the path would have.  Oddly enough, we ended up walking a semi-circle (as I kept changing my mind about where we were) around a tower, which appeared to have no trail actually leading to it.  We were too tired from heather-bashing to do any more to actually walk up to it.  

Once on the path again, we passed a boulderfield of large rocks, which made for a nice lunch stop (we were definitely ready for a break).  Then we dropped down to walk past Roundhill and Leighton Reservoirs.   It was definitely a good day for birdwatching, as we saw countless numbers of geese, ducks, grouse, pheasants and songbirds.  

From the village of Leighton, the path finally climbed back up to the Druid's forest and the parking lot.  We were very grateful to see our car again, feeling quite tired from our off-trail escapades.  With no watch out on the trail, we were guessing the time and were more than an hour off...it had taken us 4 hours to walk a trail which I had estimated at 2-3 hours.  No wonder we were exhausted! 

But even the drive home was nice, going over Pott Moor to Lofthouse, with new baby lambs in every pasture.   In fact the road over the high moor was recently tarmaced, and looked so inviting that I roade my bike back the next day just to see it again   But I'll think twice before heading out into moorland without a trail in front of me! 

Blubberhouses 25 Marshall's Walk, 25 Miles

    

The Nidderdale LDWA holds two annual Challenge walks each year.  To make sure each route is still accessible and all of the checkpoint are still available, the club does a Marshall's Walk a few weeks before the actual events.

The Blubberhouses 25 route has a lot of memories for me, as this was the VERY FIRST EVENT I ever did in the UK.  Actually, I had only been here a week!   So this walk introduced me to route finding, map reading, high winds, fells, moors, bogs, dales, more bogs, and mud.    Oh, and the joys of required kit....
 

Rocking Hall checkpoint

I must have enjoyed the route, though, because two years later I am still getting out for muddy runs as often as I can.   But I hadn't returned to the trails of this Challenge, and I wanted to see if the route was as tough as it had seemed that first time.   In particular, I remember helplessly standing on a tussock of grass, with water all around me, wondering how I was going to keep my shoes dry!

The conditions this time around were much nicer, with sunshine and nice temps helping us doff several sets of outer layers by the middle of the route (only to put them back on again later in the afternoon when the sun got lower).  Our walk around took the five of us exactly 8 hours, but a slower pace gave me a chance to really take in the scenery.  We even found a sheltered grassy slope that was perfect for a lunch stop and a short nap in the sunshine.

So it was as nice as I had remembered...probably nicer because the weather cooperated.  We passed by rocks and forests, rivers, reservoirs, open moors with wonderful views, a few memorable bogs, and even an Abbey! 

I love these trails (I do say that about every trail I've been on) especially as they bring me out into the hills that are so close to home.   Welcome to my backyard!

  

 



Bolton Abbey

 



An old waymarker for the mule trail between Skipton and Harrogate

Night Biking, Yorkshire Dales

As Gavin, Tony and I met up at 8 PM on a Friday night for a long session of night biking, we all looked at each other and pointed fingers.  "This was your crazy idea!"   "No way, it was yours".   Tony was lamenting all the pubs he had passed on the way up to Settle, Gavin was missing another night with his new baby, and I was hoping it wouldn't rain and totally ruin what could only be classified as one long night. 

We fortified ourselves with supper at the local fish and chippie shop, under the assumption that we would work all those calories off climbing the first hill.  These are the hilly Dales after all.  We started off with half of a famous MTB trail called the Settle Loop, then diverted off  of it to add some more miles.  Our goal was 50 miles but we knew that the night might have other plans for us.   Malham Cove came and went, unnoticed in the night except for the steep hills we sweated up.  Yup, at that point it was warm and muggy and we were down to minimal layers.  

I had planned the route and had been wanting to ride the trail from Weet's Top down to Airton, as I had run the trail and thought it would be really nice.  Sure enough, it was gently curving downhill singletrack, elevated to keep us out of the surrounding bogs.   Even better than I had hoped.  Well, there WERE still a few bogs near the end.

After a short snack stop and a stretch of road, we were back on bridleways with the air turning wet.  So much for dodging the rain showers.  On went a few layers and we warmed up on the long climb to Malham Moor.  More rain and fog descended, along with Tony's derailleur getting stuck into his spokes. No idea how that happened.   His gears never worked quite right after that.   My brightest bike light suddenly stopped working at about the same time.  I was afraid it was the rain and hence put it into a dry pocket, but actually it may have overheated during one of our stops (in the rain, no less) as superbright lights have a tendency to do.  

So after another lengthy stop to get my headlamp batteries swapped to compensate for the dead light, we packed it in and headed home.  By that time we were wearing almost every stitch of clothing we had brought, the wind had picked up, and we still had 8 miles of headwind on the high moors to get back to our cars.   A few miles of muddy sheep pasture tracks were included there, and mentally I had almost clicked out of the game.  The cold and wet made eating, thinking, stopping, changing batteries, map reading, and navigation much harder than usual.   Taking off my soaked gloves to open a ziploc with wet fingers to eat something seemed like unnessary trouble, and we all just suffered until we were finished. Luckily the tarmac road appeared with easy riding back to Settle, and a final few miles of downhill. 

I think I have run faster than 30 miles in 6 hours, but darkness and fog can drastically slow down progress and the trails were pretty tough riding in the best of conditions.  It was a good test of my equipment, I'll make a few adjustments to my kit before I head out again at night.    Starting with riding on a night when no rain is expected!  

Wuthering Hike, 32 Miles, 10 Mar 2012

a.k.a. Howarth Hobble, with 4400 feet of elevation change, this Hike is not a race to take lightly. 

Photos courtesy of Runfurther

This is one of the few events that I have done before, so I had last year's time of 7:12 to aim to beat.  How hard could it be, that was only 4.5 miles an hour, well under the 5 mph average I kept up for 50 miles on the Round Rotherham?

The start of the race route was a blank spot in my mind...guess I had repressed those 4 miles of mostly uphill singletrack, battling against the wind and mist!   There was also a big clog-up at a couple of stiles...I had let too much of the field get ahead of me.  Oops. 




Low visibility in the first half of the race meant following the crowd around without having much idea where I was....too lazy to get the map out.   That came back to bite me later on, as a guy "who said he knew the route" went wrong in a key moment on the descent from Stoodley Pike.  Plenty of people followed us too, unfortunately, and I finally dug my map out. We had about a mile of forest bashing on minor trails to get back down to the proper road.   I carried map in hand the rest of the race...but the damage had been done.
 

Singletrack a few miles from the start


The day got really nice about after the first few hours, sunshine and warmer temps meant that the wind didn't bite as much as usual.  I was making good time though the halfway point, but after getting lost and losing 15 minutes or so, beating my previous time was getting harder to do.    The hills just kept getting longer and harder, too...nothing about the course is easy.   Three big climbs in the last 10 miles was a hard pill to swallow...luckily I had jelly donuts at the checkpoints to fuel me...or perhaps slow me down?

Still running at the finish although I looked like a gimpy pensioner by then. I finished in 7:03 so perhaps an improvement of 20 minutes or more on last year's time (if I hadn't gotten lost).   I won't even blame the previous night's bike race as possibly slowing me down :)

Had a nice chat with Mike before the race, and Nick afterward.  The steaming veggie stew picked me up enough for the drive home and inevitable crash on the sofa!

Results for 2012 Wuthering Hike are HERE

And if you "Like" the Runfurther Facebook page then there are tons of photos.

Dark/White Night MTB O, 9 Mar 2012

My first night mountain bike orienteering experience was part of the Dark/White Challenge Event series.   This one was held in Biggin near Hartington, in the White Peak area of the Peak District.  Luckily, I had been in that area once before, for the LDWA Six Dales Circuit, and loved the trails winding in and through the narrow dales.  Of course I wouldn't be able to see any of that at night, but hoped the trails would be ridable in the glow of my bike lights.

It rained on me all the way down to the start but the skies mysteriously cleared for the 2 hours we were out racing (it rained on the drive home, too, so how lucky can we be?!?).   Gavin and his teammate Onion showed up soon after I did, as a little friendly competition was in the cards.  The excuses started flying immediately, though, with the boys blaming a possible loss to me on Onion's lack of fitness! 

I set off with lights blazing, immediately hating how much my map board was rattling agains the lights but nothing I could do about it.   Nice to find out now on a short race...guess a new map board will be needed, bleh. 

The controls were all over the map (duh!) but I soon discovered a route that would pick up most of them, time permitting.  I noticed that I was riding slower than normal, as the reach of my lights limited my visibility and I didn't want to crash on a remote trail in the dark!   Happily, I was still able to see the map while riding, and with the descriptions tied to my forearm I could read those as well, so I could ride without stopping TOO often.   Navigation was much more crucial at night, as the normal vistas, sun angle, and visibility were removed.   Most of the route was on smooth bridleways and roads so it was fast and furious all around.

Most of the race went well, and then on the home stretch I found myself passing some trees that weren't on the map.   Why did I suddenly conclude that said trees must have grown rather quickly into a forest?!?   You got it, I was on the wrong trail.  No time to go back as time was fading away.  Luckily my mishap pointed me toward a different control, unluckily it was worth half the points of the original one. 

I finished ahead of the time limit (for once) and Gav and Onion were just a minute behind me.   We were quite happy to tie with 210 points each...although it must be said that I was faster overall so that must count for something!   I was happy to win my category as well (no need to mention that I was the only one in it!)

AR Team Training, Peak District

Got some long adventure races planned this summer, including the 2-day Adidas TERREX Swift and Expedition-length Sting.   These 4-person team races require a lot of teamwork, so it's good to get to know the guys and gals you'll be racing with.   Our team (Jon, Gavin, Tony, Sarah, and I) has a few geographical challenges, so it rare for all of us to get together at once, nevertheless, we managed it this weekend for some (big surprise) biking, running, and canoeing, the staples of AR. 


Photos courtesy of Sarah Keast

 Saturday started early with a long MTB in the Peaks.  We hit all the weather groups, including rain, fog, hail, rainbows, wind, cold, and sunshine.   Starting and ending in Glossop, our route included the infamous Jacob's Ladder descent, which I had no intention of riding.  I got down a little of it, then managed to upclip both of my feet from the pedals, resulting in saddle and handlebar contact points suddenly seeming quite tenuous with my feet dangling in midair!   Walking commenced shortly after I screeched to a halt.  Whereupon I noticed that my back wheel had almost come off, probably due to a rock hitting the quick release.   Narrowly escaped damage on that one, but the bottom of the hill was in view.  Whew!


Bumped into Clair Maxted in Edale, (who snapped this photo before sinking into the bog on Edale Skyline)

Gavin's route planning was excellent, lots of hills but mostly rideable bridleways (except for Jacob's Ladder of course).   We happened to come upon a checkpoint for the High Peak Marathon, which is a 42 mile night navigation challenge for teams of 4 through the notorious bogs of the Peak District.  With the fog of the previous night I was doubly glad that my team hadn't gotten selected to compete this year! 


I'm helping, really!

 Somewhere in the middle of the ride one of us (who shall remain nameless) lost a front brake, which ensured a few lectures on proper bike maintenance, and a quick stop at the bike shop in Hope.  I was very helpful and laid down in the sunshine, while the bike mechanic called the remains of the brake pads "the worst he'd ever seen".  In fact the brake fluid had drained out from the extreme wearing, so we were down for the count.  Our remaining route (of necessity) took on a flatter profile (we were all grateful) and we spent not a few miles along a canal towpath.  Where, I'm not sure, as I had no map.  One last steep hill, with great views of sun on the Peak District hills was still on order.  We finished off with a final "wheee" down the tarmac from Snake Pass into Glossop, managing to break the speed limit coming into town (on a bike, which must be legal). 

But the day wasn't done yet, first a quick change into running clothes for a fell run, which I was dreading.  I advertised my reluctance by not carrying a pack and hoping that would be a hint to get back quickly!   A couple of miles into the hills, Jon and Tony started talking about rounding out our 51 mile bike with enough distance to make 100 kilometers on the day.  I quickly added that up in my head and it sounded too long.   We took a vote, the team split up, with Sarah, Gavin and I sticking to the shorter route.  In fact, as soon as Tony and Jon were out of side, Gavin said "Right you lot, let's head back for early showers and a beer".  We didn't argue as the darkness and rain arrived simultaneously. 

After crashing in Jon's living room for the night, we had one last session planned, a canoe training day on Torside Reservoir.  Unfortunately for us, it was just above freezing and raining.  Wetsuit, full waterproofs, 3 pairs of socks, etc....didn't begin to keep me warm.  And that included the prior decision that falling into the water might be a bad idea.  Gavin and I paired up in a boat, I took the power position at the front, with less steering responsibilities.  Unfortunately Gavin's shouted directions of "power, power! Power!!" did nothing but make me hysterical with laughter, and my paddling suffered greatly with me rolling on the seat instead.  We did get down to business eventually (mostly in an ineffectual attempt to stay warm), and we managed several lengths of the lake in a more or less straight line. 

One by one we wilted in the cold, with first Sarah, then me, then Gavin calling it quits.  Jon was still gung-ho and managed 5 hours out on the water...I learned a few more pieces of kit that would have been handy to keep me warm.  Yet again (and probably many more times to come), I regretted the switch to canoes from kayaks in this summer's adventure races.  They are much harder to steer, much colder than covered kayaks, and a darn sight clunkier to carry around. 

But a good weekend together as a team for sure.  With a few more sessions planned before the Swift AR in June, we should be ready to go!