A firm reminder I need to start training again

I have run the Moelwyn race in 2008 and 2009. I remember being wasted after it both times, but really enjoying the descents.

I have not run much since August, so today outing was a firm reminder that I need to get back into some more serious training, in particular steep hill reps.

The race is put on by the community of Blaenau Ffestiniog and it is by my measure by far the best community run race I have been to. Soup, tea and cakes and just the general enthusiasm and friendly nature of the people and the marshals makes it a special race for me.

I did not have a great race, but quite enjoyed most of it.  Usual pattern of loosing places on the flat and gentle up hills. Slowly gaining places on the steep up hill and making lots of places going downhill.
1st for me was having to stop for 3 or 4 minutes with cramp just on the descent of Moelwyn Fach. Every runner stopped to ask if I was OK, 2 marshals came across and then made a joke that I was not going to push a rock over (I was using it to stretch against - you had to be there). Cramp cleared on the descent, but came back when I really pushed it on the flat sections towards the end. Maybe a pack of sodium, potassium, etc, maybe a lack of fitness. By the end of the race, places did not matter, but the race severed its purpose, I enjoyed most of it except the cramp and proved to I need to train far more aggressively that I was.

1 thing that was very different for 2008 and 2009 was my speed of recovery. I could have run it again if I really had to today (would not have been happy about it and would have been slow, but I could have). I remember being wiped out after the race 2 and 3 years ago and today was not. Guess we are starting again from a much higher base of endurance, though I do find going hard on gentle hills wipes me out. Time for some serious hill training.

Captin Blacketts BGR

Andy's BGR story is Andy's to tell, so read it here. Very pleased for him and he put himself through it from Pillar to the end. Suffering and sacrifice on the last 2 legs is what makes a BGR memorable and Andy did his share of both to his credit. It is not meant to be easy.

I really enjoyed walking over to Moss Trod between Great Gable and Kirk Fell on leg 4 in the moon light, brewing up coffee and hot Jelly(I thought Jim Mann were joking when I 1st heard him suggest that Andy liked liquid jelly) seeing them for 30 seconds and then disappearing again.

Leg 5 required some effort as pacers and Patrick, who I meet for the 1st time, was great company to pace with and we shared the task of getting Andy over the last section. Andy was in his own private hell dimension for most of leg 5, though did crawl out for about 20 minutes around Robinson.
As Fiona (Andy's Wife) coached him along the road at 5.30 in the morning, Patrick and I sat on the bench at Portinscale and pondered if we had any sympathy for Andy as he shuffled down the road, less than a mile from the end. We concluded that while he was clearly suffering, we had no sympathy at all, as it was his choice to do it. Provided he did not do permanent damage to himself,  we were there to get him back to the green door with no excuses. The Bob Graham Round itself plays with your mind while you are a contender, pacers are there to feed and navigate, but also deliver some tough love (figuratively of course) when the self talk gets the better of the runner.

If you are going to do a BGR, there is a lot to learn from pacing leg 5 before your round.