Saturday 10 December 2011

Deep and crisp and uneven

The snow has arrived in Sheffield, making for slightly treacherous, though very beatiful running conditions. 
Lady Canning's Plantation, just up t'road from home
Since returning from the Brecons, the focus has shifted to getting used to running on consecutive days. And loading up the pack - standard weight is now around 7kg. It's going to be a long winter.

We've also been busy planning some fund raising for the Bluebell Wood Hopsice in Sheffield which supports families and children with life shortening ilnnesses, and Macmillan Cancer Support. We've set up a charity donation page at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ianandrichmds2012 which we'll be promoting more widely in the near future, as well as hosting and organising a range of fund raising events between now and April 2012.

As a result of conversations with a local Moroccan restaurant, we're now also officially sponsored athletes - courtesy of Otto and Theresa at Otto's Restaurant and The Mediterranean on Sharrow Vale Road in Sheffield. They'll be featuring on our race kit as our main (and only) sponsor of equipment. I'm very excited that someone has agreed to back us in this way.

Our next objective on that front is to get some media coverage and we've been talking to the Sheffield Star newspaper about running an article on us after we completed the Percy Pud, a popular local 10k race, in full MdS kit - there was even a camel running, but in a potentially bad omen, we failed to beat it!
We didn't beat the camel but still got the Christmas Pudding

Brecons Ultra

This post is a little out of date now, but a quick update on our performance at the Brecons Ultra back in November.  It was a long drive down to Brecon on Friday night but rewarded with a pre-race pint in a village pub, before settling down for a night in the campervan.

The race day was grey, but promised to be dry which was a bonus.  Around 120 or so people gathered together in the early morning, and then set off along the canal path for the first of two 23 mile laps - the race organisers weren't really sure how long each one was. What was certain was the massive hill that we had to climb early on the loop, made harder knowing that we'd have to do it again with another 23 miles in our legs.

Our aim for the day was to practice for the long day in the MdS, which meant a lot of walking with our new poles, and much to the amusement of a number of competitors who passed us, a stop for a hot meal to see if that strategy would pay dividends in the desert. Not overly helpful, as I found it worked really well, but Rich didn't seem to get on with the food 2/3rds of the way into the event.

Rich "enjoying" a de-hydrated chilli con carne at mile 29
The event overall was good - I felt pretty strong all the way round, although my right knee was pretty sore towards the end. Going through the day and into the darkness of a November evening was good practice and rather odd, as it felt a lot later than it was due to the dark which seemed to add to our tiredness. I was pleased with my performance though, and despite a mild dose of trenchfoot my feet held up with no blisters.
I'll definitely be taking poles to the desert, and have at last discovered some shorts which don't rub in all the wrong places so another piece of desert kit can be ticked off and packed ready for the race. Alright, so 12 hours+ isn't going to win any prizes (it didn't!), with the winner finishing in 6 hours 20 or thereabouts, but happy with the day out.