Endurancelife

Endurancelife Weekend – Flete

Imagine a weekend on the southern coast at the Flete estate near Plymouth. Open fields, a bunch of endurance addicts, evening lectures, a camp fire, plenty of food, some sun, yes, some sun!

Endurancelife for the second year once again arranged a superb weekend. They even managed to secure some dry weather amidst a very wet April and early May. Ironic that parts of the UK are in a drought.

Based on the Flete estate, the surroundings are superb. Stunning coastline, sandy beaches, quiet inlets and of course the opportunity to camp on site. The weekend is a mix of events all geared at fulfilling new desires, testing new boundaries or fulfilling the needs of the dedicated.

I arrived on Friday via train with Niandi. Lacking a car at the moment made logistics a little awkward, so we managed to find some cheap accommodation in Plymouth and along with ELA ambassador James Adams we shared a hire car for the weekend. The plus side for us was that we had a warm bed for the evenings but I can’t help but think we missed out on some of the fun.

We arrived on Saturday at event HQ just in time to see the ‘Raid’ get underway. A multi discipline event that involves mountain biking, running and kayaking. Being the dedicated endurance athletes that we are, Niandi, James and myself got a Laver bread sandwich and coffee and relaxed on the grass. Laver bread was a new one on me, made from seaweed you wouldn’t expect it to be too tasty but it sure was. Especially when you add a fried egg, some mushrooms and spinach. Oh I do love sport as it does allow you to indulge in endurance eating too.

Neil Bryant arrived and asked if we had planned to take part in the Aquatrail. A swim, run, swim run and so on event. James did go through the comical process of trying a wet suit on but thought better of it and with the exception of Neil we decided that spectating would be the best option. Not before we had another Laver bread though first…

Late afternoon, what looked like a bunch of tall seals lined up on the beach ready to do battle with cold water and trail running. As they entered the water you could hear a few screams as the cold took the breath away. Out to a buoy and back to the beach they then ran off around the coastline taking in two more swims and run sections to eventually return back to the start point and repeat the process a couple more times. For nearly everyone this was an introduction to Aquatrail and although they had been told that it would involve 2k of swimming and 10k of running I don’t think many had anticipated how hard the event would be. Certainly as they came out of the water at the end of lap one the cold water was having an effect but many battled on with cold hands and feet to a successful completion of the first Aquatrail.

Back at camp we sat around the fire and listened to stories and music. A wonderfully chilled hour as the sun started to disappear on the horizon.

With darkness the first evening of Live More Lectures started. Stories of crossing Oceans rowing, climbing to the summit of Mt Everest and running the Bob Graham Round in the English Lakes. Stories to inspire and motivate. The three of us left the camp close to midnight not leaving much opportunity for sleep before the early Sunday start to take part in the Coastal Trail Series.

Niandi and myself ran the marathon and teammates Oliver Sinclair, Neil Bryant and James Adams ran the ultra. Having run nearly all the Coastal Series, Flete is the one race I hadn’t run so I was interested to see what lay in store. From the off, the eventual winner flew off at break neck pace and never eased up. We only saw him again at about 5k into the race when all the front runners missed a left turn due to a misplaced course marker (very unusual). The early miles had a couple of tough climbs but then the middle section had some great single track. At checkpoint 2 I dibbed in with my Sportident and ran straight off leaving my two running partners. Slowly opening up a gap I remained in 2nd place right to the end to take a very satisfying 2nd place. However, the top 3 place was not that easy to come by! the final 6-8 miles of the Flete course are pretty darn tough. The climbs are vertical and seriously hurt the calf muscles and hamstrings. Over the final climb and on the run in to the finish we had a river crossing which was just what the legs needed. All that cold water on tired muscles. Perfect. In the Ultra, Oli was second and Neil 3rd making a good haul of the top places for the Endurancelife Team.

The sun was out and recovery for the next few hours was paramount. Of course that meant some chill time by the fire, another laver bread and plenty of fluid… no, I was good, no alcohol. Well, not until later when I treated myself to a glass of red!

The evening lectures soon came around and we kicked off with tales of going to the North Pole. Our final talk of the evening was by Deborah Searle who had achieved stunning feats by rowing solo some 10 years ago. In the middle was me! Yes, me!

When I had been asked to talk I was left with a dilemma. I felt that in comparison to rowing the Atlanic, climbing Everest or going to the North Pole my achievements were insignificant. But I have one strength, I feel that I am an ordinary person who could inspire other ordinary people to also achieve and push boundaries in a simple way. Since the passing of my Dad in 2009 I had never spoken in public about my 8 marathons in 8 days that had become such a test at a very trying time. So, putting myself under the pressure of literally breaking down in tears in front of a packed room I put some demons to rest in my talk. I managed not to break down (just about) and I hope that I got across a simple story of running that anyone could undertake.

It was a brilliant weekend. Both Niandi and myself had a great time and it was such a pleasure to mix with some great friends, make new friends and soak up the south coast.

As per usual, the Endurancelife crew but on another super slick event with the whole team being so helpful. I would like to give some special thanks to Kate for all the help prior to the weekend and on the weekend.

See you all next year

Endurancelife Stage 1 – Northumberland

Sunrise on the Northumberland Coastline

The long awaited Stage 1 of the 2011/2012 Endurancelife Coastal Series finally arrived with a new course and a new venue on the Northumberland Coastline. This is a coastline that I have very little knowledge of and so once again, Endurancelife enabled me to fulfill a couple of things that I always like to do when I do a race, see a new place and run somewhere different and challenging.

I hadn’t actually realised how close to Scotland our race venue was. Bamburgh Castle was literally not much more than an hours drive from Edinburgh. Unlike the other races in the Coastal Series, this coastline was more gentle. What it lacked in up and down coastal paths it made up for with Castles, beaches and stunning views.

It was an early start to the day, but then again, this is nothing unusual when racing. Niandi and myself arrived at Bamburgh just in time to see the sun break the skyline and provide us with an orange glow in the early morning chill. It was quite a start to the day. Andrew Barker from Endurancelife was running around taking photos and capturing video while other EL staff prepared registration and all the last min prep that goes into a race, or should I say races of this size and nature. What has always been a great feature of EL races is the provision to provide distances of varying nature, 10k, half marathon, marathon and now ultra. Of course, if you have raced any EL race before, you know the 10k is 12k, the half is 14 miles, the marathon is 28 miles and the ultra, well, the ultra could be anything…. you always get value for money! And I mean this in a very positive way. Trail racing is never an exact distance and we never want to be cheated.

The Northumberland race in many ways was a unique event. This is the one and only ‘point to point’ race in the CTS and therefore at 0800am the marathon and ultra runners were transported by coach some 30 min away to the race start at Alnwick. Our obective was to run from Alnwick, back to the coast and then run north up the coastline back to Bamburgh Castle.

Endurancelife, Northumberland Marathon route

As you will see from the above map, Alnwick was inland and it provided us with quite a beautiful start. It became apparent early on that our day was going to be a ‘good day’. The sun was out, skies were blue and the early morning chill was going to soon disappear and provide us with a warm and clear day for a great run. We grouped together in a field while Gary from EL provided us with our usual pre race briefing. The route was pretty simple; run to the coast, turn left and run north until you reach Bamburgh Castle. Of course, no route is that simple but EL always do a great jog of marking the route with red/white tape or white chevrons painted on the floor (eco friendly paint) or objects to help navigate the runners in the right direction. Of course you need to pay attention and keep your eyes peeled, after all, following the route is actually part of the event.

Alnwick Castle - race start

At 0900 we were off and an early group soon formed with  guys up front, myself and Oliver Sinclair in 4th and 5th and then a couple of other guys close behind in 5th and 6th. The early trail was mostly through fields, farmland and woods. We had the early joy of wading through a river up to our knees. Perfect! completely wet feet in the first few miles of a marathon. I actually didn’t mind. To be honest I found the chill from the water nice on the muscles. Today I was running a little cautious as the previous weekend I had raced a 50k. The five days after that race had been devoted just to easy runs of 4 miles twice a day with the emphasis on loosening my legs rather than training.

The six of us pushed to the coastline, as I looked around at the race numbers I was surrounded by 5 ultra runners and I was the only marathon runner. A nice position to be in. In principal the ultra runners should be running a little slower than the marathon runners but considering I had no competition around I had no reason to run any harder.

After about 45 min we moved from a road section, crossed a bridge and we were then on the coast. Oliver Sinclair lifted the pace slightly, Andrew Bass followed and I basically maintained 3rd place maybe some 100m back.

As we hit the coast we had a mixture of terrain; sand, road and grassy trails. Because of the mixed nature of the terrain I had decided to use a new pair of Hoka One One shoes called ‘Stinson B Evo’. These shoes are actually only going to be available in 2012 but it was important for me to start testing them so that I could provide feedback. Unlike other shoes in the Hoka range these shoes offer increased grip, a race fit and obviously the supreme cushioning that Hoka offer. EL races always offer challenging terrain, not only for the lungs but for your feet, so, a good pair of shoes is a must. I have to say, that the Stinson B Evo is going to be a great addition to the Hoka range.

Hoka One One - Stinson B Evo

As we moved up the coastline Andrew Bass had taken the lead followed by Oliver Sinclair and then myself. The 4th and 5th placed runners had run with me for a short while but as we hit the dunes and mixed terrain we had all found our natural place. I could still see Oliver and Andrew but behind me was nobody, so I settled and concentrated on keeping an even pace. I went through the 2nd checkpoint at around 1040 am, this would mean that I was about 10 min behind the Half Marthon runners who started at 1030am.

Ian at Northumberland

The sun was out and it was getting pretty warm. As we ran past our second Castle of the day, Andrew was waiting with his camera at the ready. This section was tough underfoot. You needed to look at your foot placing. Ok, excuses over. Question? Is the above photo concentration or do I really look wrecked?

Wrecked or not I was leading the marathon and in 3rd place overall behind the two ‘ultra’ guys up ahead. As we moved on we now had sections of coastline, long stretches of beach and back markers from the half marathon race ahead. At the 20 mile mark I went through a bad patch…. I could feel some fatigue from the previous weekend and had to dig deep to put the ‘walk demons’ away and keep the tempo going. On the beach sections I cut the lines as best as I could looking for the shortest line. Happy to get my feet wet if meant I saved on distance.

At the final checkpoint Bamburgh Castle was in view and as I shouted ‘about a mile to go?’ the marshall said ‘erm no!’ Aaaagh, this is when the EL value for money kicks in. On those days that you want the marathon to be 26.2 you just know it is not going to be. Endurance running is as much about the mind as the body and when you think your finish is less than 10 min way but then soon realise that actually it is probably going to be more like 30 min away, you need to recoup, dig in and push on.

The final beach section was a long one. The terrain was good though, yes it was softer tan trail but it wasn’t deep sand. Finally the foot of the castle came and we had some nice twisty dunes to navigate our way through.

A mile to go in the dunes

Out of the dunes we had a climb up to the castle a right turn and then a couple of hundred meters to the finish. A great finish awaited with the castle making the perfect setting. I made the total distance covered just short of 28 miles and my time was 3:46.

In summary this is a beautiful course and it is extremely runnable. It is a great first event for those moving to trail racing or those tempted by the EL series of Coastal Races. My buddy and team mate, Oliver Sinclair won the Ultra so it was a great day out for the Endurancelife Team.

The finish - Bamburgh Castle