Winging it

Run Another Day 3rd of July, mid morning and I'm heading down the the K2 running track in Crawley for a second attempt at a 24 track run after the first unsuccessful try in 2019 . The failure in 2019 wasn't a complete surprise since (as I've mentioned in other posts) I hadn't started with the intention on completing I was just pleased to be able to get to the start line and simply intended to 'go as far as I could' on the day. However, I had multiple different goals to target this time - A, B and C. Goal A was to achieve a Spartathlon auto-qualifying time (~140 miles) goal B was to get a Spartathlon ballot eligibility time (~112 miles) and goal C was to complete the 24 hours. I had it all worked out on a spreadsheet and had a plan. The race start is at mid-day so this is a relatively relaxed and leisurely start compared to most races, with time to setup a track-side gazebo with supplies and settle in. Tent town Base station Pre-race briefing and lots of familia...

How I discovered I was supposed to be running 86 miles at the weekend... ( The Ridgeway Challenge ) Shit Why had I signed up? What was I thinking? Well, I ran the Country to Capital in January, it had gone well considering my ongoing head injury recovery , so I'd decided to see what I could aim for towards the middle of the year - this would give me plenty of time to build up, plan train, judge my ability and so on, etc etc. Then I completely forgot about it. In my defence my short term memory is still a bit of a mess, and it's possible I did just completely forget as soon as I'd entered. Also, there were no follow up update or reminder emails that you usually get for these sort of events. So it was a bit of a surprise to learn from twitter that I had four days to prepare. Right. So what to do? Do I DNS? Do I try to finish? or something else? I'd been OK for a few days at the start of the week, but then it all went wrong towards the end with ni...

One year anniversary! 12 months on from  that accident . Wow. That flew by, it really only feels like a few months. Although with my shaky short term memory, that's probably actually my elapsed time. First off admin. I have a race report to include that I've been meaning to write up for ages, but just couldn't think of how to cover it or what to say. It didn't go so well, but then there was no real drama or events to mention like normal ultra races. On the 13th April I attempted my first "track ultra", this was the Crawley 24 hour track ultra. 6, 12 and 24 hour run events all happening at the same time. The venue was the running track behind the K2 sports centre in Crawley. K2 with the camping I had two "big" races lined up for the year, this one and the GUCR retry. The plan was, see how the track ultra goes then decide if the GUCR was realistic. Recovery had been going well, although I (obviously) had some massive holes ...

so how's it going? Seven months on. Seven months on from the event . I've been trying to work out how to communicate this all week (and a bit), mulling over different ideas. going for a run, thinking it over, but never actually getting around to writing it down. Similarly, I'm supposed to be writing a short bio for an upcoming race, but I have absolutely no idea what to say about me. "Started late in life, runs a bit, doesn't take it too seriously"? Reckon I'm going to have to find someone else's to copy. 😀 After finally summoning up the courage to finish reading Anne's ' one year update ' - that spurred me on, I think it's good for me to get this down on paper and out of my head, hopefully someone will find it useful or helpful and I think it will be good to be able to look back on my thoughts in the future. I try to keep getting back to a normal (for me) routine, so it can be deceptive looking at what I've been up ...

Some running blogging! For a change. Well a little bit. Last Sunday was the Mince Pi run - up to 10 laps of 3.14 miles, with piles of mince pies for everyone. We took part last year in torrential conditions so looking forward to a return visit given the forecast is for a lovely clear, and not too cold, day. This year again a full contingent of team Hewitt were out for this one. Not only that but Oliver would be allowed to run *two* laps this year rather than just one last year. No idea at all of Hugo's plan, he'd had a bad run the week before and suffered with a cold, any attempt to ask his plan just received a shrug, but I'm getting used to that sort of communication system now. Cara wasn't happy, still trying to shake off the tail end of Hugo's plague, and wasn't confident. Cara: So what's your plan? I: Er, no idea. Will see how it goes. (I: internal dialog) well obviously, it says 10 laps. I'm going to do 10 laps. okay? I: I'll do a f...