Winging it

So I tried to do a thing. I really should smile I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but needed to workout how to fit it into my calendar. Last Thursday the 16th July was the chosen slot, the weather wasn't ideal with the current heatwave, but it wasn't completely unreasonable with a slight dip in the daily temperature trend for a couple of days. A supported run of the Vanguard Way, 66 miles from Croydon to Newhaven, attempting to beat the current " Fastest Known Time ". The overview in Oxted Station   Since the Vanguard Way is a local trail I've used it many times for commuting runs, and love its varied route, terrain and scenery. Well "love" is perhaps too strong a term - it's a sort of "love/hate" relationship, The Vanguard Way is, and can be horrific through Winter (calf deep mud, thigh deep water), during which times I've previously attempted multiple races that include it. The backstory for the trail also pleases me... ini...

Spartathlon - a 153 mile, 246 km race from Athens to Sparta in Greece . Supposedly to be retracing the steps of the ancient runner/messenger Pheidippides running to ask for help from the Spartan army. Apparently he did it before the sun set on the second day, so our race cut off is 36 hours. 7am on Saturday to 7pm on Sunday. Makes sense. Of course, then he ran back with the bad news, they'll come, but "in a bit". Leonidas If that wasn't hard enough, in this race you have cut-off times at every checkpoint and they're set more aggressively towards the start. Then there's a mountain at 100 miles.and it's hot. and along Greek roads.  Course profile Every checkpoint has these markers showing distance and cut off times. Getting in I'd read Vassos' book ( Running up that hill ) and was intrigued, I had to try this race, this sounded so far outside my capabilities, but I knew people who *had* completed it.... and I had previously got a qualifying time but...

...(i.e. Tracking water for sport, obv.) With the data reporting I was getting with my latest tracker , I had a new idea in the week before my last race... What if it was possible to also monitor, track and report fluids drunk?  I like to run with a water bladder rather than soft bottles, but it's always awkward knowing exactly how much you've had or got left. You can get a reasonable idea from the weight, or patting your bag but obviously it's not as simple as having an empty bottle in your hand. In the past I had tried to use the little Camelbak fluid display gadget... but it was pretty useless on the whole , and impossible to read the tiny display, outside, running, with bifocals on. So I had about a week... and an idea... and already had the framework with the tracker how hard could it be. I ordered a load of random stuff.... and started tinkering. Standard random internet orders, nothing to see here... I picked an  ESP32 board  for this, my idea is to use it to broad...