I have heard of successful 1st meetings arranged on the internet
before and also know there is scope for disaster. I had no agenda for
the day, so was happy to go along with Stu's suggestion of legs 1 & 2
of the BGR and meeting at Dummail Raise, leaving 1 car and taking the other to Keswick. No need to wear a carnation at Dummail Raise layby, it was quite obvious who was who.
Stu is mild mannered and unassuming. He is also very modest to the
point where is blog is rather misleading. He is a bloody good runner
and as the day wore on it became clear I was
outclassed. However, he is also very patient and I certainly had a
great day out. Stu knows the 1st 2 legs very well indeed, taking the
took the time to show me the lines on leg 1. It was the 1st time I had
been on any of leg 1 in the light, so it was well worthwhile to get a
sense of the layout and the spatial relationship (where things are
relative to each other [ tell I am reading John Humpreheys book on
plain speaking ] ).
I struggled somewhat on leg 2 to keep up (lagging behind on
each split), keeping going was no problem, just I was slow. Clive pace might get Clive round with luck and a following breeze at a 24 hour pace. Stu pace is somewhat faster and I hope he will do a 21 or 22 hour round in May, no doubt he is capable of it. Why? He is much fitter than I am, though I still claim having longer legs helps [ :-) ]. There was a lot of snow on leg 2 and some
bits of ice. 1 steep section on the ascent of Stybarrow was a struggle
to make any progess even with my new micro-spikes until I learned how
to use them on that type of terrain, steep ice with a couple of inches
of snow over it. You can't front point with micro spikes!
Stu is a far more ordered person than I am and plans things much
better. I was not sure I was even able to make it till after 8pm the
previous evening. My life of reacting to Sun -> Oracle customers
various computer crisis for the last 12 years plus has exacerbated my
natural tendency to live via just in time decision making and reacting
to circumstances as they occur (more than a little frustration for
Myra it has to be said). Beyond where I am on a particular day, I
gave up, after a few years at Sun, trying to plan in detail and found
that beyond specific fixed events, I end up having to undo the
planning because someone else has changed their plans or needs and I
must to accommodate. It works quite well on the whole, but can cause problems. The BGR clearly is an event which need meticulous planning and I also need to pay more attention to food and drink when doing longer training runs. The up side is that I do tend to make good use of opportunities as they arise and getting out for a day this week in the Lakes was an example where I sandwiched BGR training between some work in Edinburgh. I am pleased it included a bind date with Stu.
I have kept my blind date with Stu from my current running
partner. She is aware I do the odd race and is OK with it, but I can
picture it if she got to learn I had spent the day running with
someone else. It would be glum look and lying on the floor with her
back to me for days. Worse than putting her in kennels while we went
on a family holiday. Be obliged if you don't tell her. It would be a
shame to spoil a great day out, so our little secret dear reader, OK.
Great weather, company and objective. Without doubt the best day of
BGR training I have had. 23 miles and about 10,000 ft. We missed the
last 2 summits due to time (Clive was slow) and night was approaching
and did not bother visiting 2 others which we passed close by.
No comments:
Post a Comment