Worcester marathon for me this weekend. Was targeting under 3:45 but the course was super hilly so ended up at 3:50 which was really not bad at all.

First smaller marathon I’ve done as opposed to the big city runs and it was a very different experience. Odd being out on your own at 17 miles with your own thoughts!

The only problem with that time is it means I’ve now got to find a flatter autumn run to do!

Nice one lunge!

I think Borrowdale require that you have finished an A-long race before you can enter.

Makes sense. Ive done that length but marked trails. Will have a look at Kentmere.

Reccied the 2nd half of my upcoming 43k trail. Slightly more climbing in the second half, 1400m Vs 1200, two main climbs. Hasn’t stopped raining for two days here, flooding everywhere so wasn’t expecting an easy run but it was total crap, slithered up the first climb and struggled to run down, the trails were rivers. Second climb, last on the day and smallest at 600m just beat me up, nauseous cold and dizzy, questioning the wisdom of being up there on my own having seen one solitary soul all day. 4h for the 25k – time limit on the day is 10h so I shouldn’t get cut but will definitely be a contender for lanterne rouge!

Right then, in the wake yesterdays marathon I think I fancy another on in autumn. Requirements are:
Big, city based event – I missed the noise and the volume of people at the much smaller event yesterday
Flat-ish – Frankly, I’ve had enough of hills for the moment!
Late September/early October ideally – plenty of time to recover from Ride London and the temperature shouldn’t be at summer levels.

Any ideas? Yorkshire and Chester are the 2 I’ve found so far.

First Parkrun for me on Saturday – was pushing the littleun in the buggy and did a nice but quite hilly 10k on Friday afternoon so wasn’t ever going to be a quick one and bumbled round in about 28 mins. I actually quite enjoyed it – very friendly and laid back atmosphere and will probably do a few more in future.

Would you venture abroad Lunge? I really fancy Reykjavik, we just couldn’t make the timings work this year.

I think Hull’s at the end of September, it’ll be very flat but I’m not sure how big it is.

I’ve got friends who have done both York and Chester – they’re very complimentary about both. I’m doing Abingdon about the same time to (hopefully) get my London GFA (I was less than 4 minutes off at MK)…

Spud, out of interest what cadence do you tend to run at? If you have a low cadence, then the longer strides and higher vertical oscillation mean more impact which will tend towards more likelihood of injury.

Requirements are:
Big, city based event – I missed the noise and the volume of people at the much smaller event yesterday
Flat-ish – Frankly, I’ve had enough of hills for the moment!
Late September/early October ideally – plenty of time to recover from Ride London and the temperature shouldn’t be at summer levels.

Any ideas? Yorkshire and Chester are the 2 I’ve found so far.

If you’re willing to fly there are a few in Spain around then.
October:
https://www.palmademallorcamarathon.com/english/
https://www.edpbilbaomarathon.com/ (night marathon)

November:
San Sebastian and Tenerife

December:
Valencia

Millport 10 miler event at the weekend. A great small scale event that was well organised. The strong tail wind was good on the way round. Fantastic views as well.

Canny have been a tail wind all the way round! Been tempted by this before, but always clashes with something else, this time it was a work fire competition and an overnight ridge walk on Arran, which was awesome.

There’s another millport 10 miler in september IIRC, I’ll have a look.

Longest run yesterday since the hernia..

22k of QECP/Head Down hack’ness.

Shame the weather wasn’t like it is today (when back in that there Lu’n’dun)

🕺

Went out for a wee tempo 5k at lunch and took 8 secs off my PB, happy days! wasn’t really pushing hard either, suppose that must be weekly track work paying off.

Anyone doing the Jedburgh Ultra? Looks awesome, entries open this sunday, think I’ll be hitting the button.

Jura tomorrow and for the first time in quite a number of years not a great weather forecast.

It’s going to be interesting!

Anyone doing Edinburgh Marathon this weekend? Mrs Lunge is making her marathon debut so I’ll be there to cheer her on.

Good luck Spin. By all accounts it’s a tough place to nav in clag/dodgy weather.
Meanwhile I am doing my last big week of training prior to doing the Joss Naylor Challenge on 8th June. I have been getting up early for a pre-breakfast run on the moor with the dogs, running at dinner from work (on the roads – bloody rubbish) and then another moorland run at night. On a club night I have been running over to the pub where we meet then leading the ‘Merry dance’ fell run and taking an extended route home (after a couple of pints). I’m off up to Lakes tonight to get some ‘proper’ stuff in on Sat and Sunday so if all goes to plan I should be on track for 70 or 80 miles done this week. This will be my highest weekly mileage ever. It’s been hard tbh but it’s not bad for a 56 year old crock who’s had cancer, I reckon. I’m hoping I’ve done enough to get round the JNC. We will see.
If anyone can spare a couple of quid to donate to the fundraiser then it would be massively appreciated. I am using this as motivation for getting round.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/simon-fox24?utm_campaign=pfp-tweet&utm_content=Simon-Fox24&utm_medium=fundraisingpage&utm_source=Twitter&utm_term=4YzWDwjMQ

I’ve just come back from finishing the Dragon’s Back Race in Wales. Very very tough week. Definitely Type 2 fun in places! Amazing route and amazing weather though – 5 days of mountain running in Wales and not a drop of rain. Got buzzed by a very low flying Hercules in the Elan Valley as well, that was pretty cool to see. Legs now pretty sore so I’ll be taking it easy this week.

Awesome stuff guys, impressive!.

I organised our second works charity 5k which was last night, 29 last year, over 150 entries this year!.

Was a beautiful night for it, and a lovely wee flat trail course, only downside was some dog walking arsehole ripping down taping and signage, sending a few folk the wrong way.

Prick.

All of the fiver entry fee went to charity though, so between that and donations there will be well over a grand going in.

Well Jura was something of a mixed bag! Poor visibility and didn’t feel great then made a stupid navigation error on the first top by just following others rather than taking my own bearing. That cost me a few mins. Felt bad over the first two paps and kind of gave up a bit. Then I looked at my watch and thought wait a minute…maybe sub 4 hrs is still on. Picked up a few places off the last top then put my head down and buried myself on the road. The result? 4hrs and 26 seconds! Bastard! But a 12 min pb and got the prize for 3rd vet40 so can’t really complain. One year I’ll get everything right in that bloody race!

@nobeer, how’re you feeling about Arran? I’ve done lots of racing but not many big runs!

Did my Barden Moor/Appletreewick back to Fewston loop today in a gale and sporadic rain.

Knackered, totally shot 🤷‍♂️🤣🤣🕺

Spin, I’m going over tomoro to recce the route, I’ll know better after that!. 🤣

Jedburgh 3 peak ultra entries opened tonight, I’m in!. Mrs is doing the half, good excuse for a wee weekend in the borders.

Did the Cateran trail race yesterday, 11 miles in the peeing rain. I had had a silver DoE group out previous 3 days so ran like I was still carrying a 13kg rucksack. The highlight was one of my GF’s mates who is a rabid vibram barefoot evangelist sliding sideways on a muddy trail and falling full length into one of the biggest, deepest cowpats I have ever seen…Does that make me a bad man?

🤣😂🤣

Tough route Spin.

The route up goatfell isnae bad, though I must be into double figures easily going up there by now, easily!.
Along ridge to north goatfell fairly straight forward.
What follows is a very techy descent, and very steep and techy climb up onto cir mhor. No much scope to make time up on either.
Then it’s not bad down west side of cir mhor, and not bad up onto summit of caisteal abhail either.
Turn round and back down way you came.

Next but is a horrible bypass path of a’chir, again very techy. Then another steep techy hoist up onto beinn tarsuinn.

From here is about the first bit you can really open up along to beinn nuis!.

From beinn nuis down is a bloody mixed bag! Great at first, then techy and steep, then a boggy bastard moor, then more boggy badtardness after the burn crossing, before getting into very small but well made steps down into Glen Rosa.

Then its a few relatively flat miles honkin it back to Brodick.

Loved it, I’ll post up pics tomoro, it was bloody stunning, as Arran always is. 💙

Nice one, look forward to the photos.

Would have been blowing a hoolie? Nice pics though.

Will one of the el cheap(er)o AONIJIE bladders (Amazon favourite) fit ok into a Salomon Skin 12 Set pack?

WOW! ^

Race reccie of 30k and 1800m on Sunday, my longest run to date but not the hilliest. Very, very slow, 5h10 I think, and finished absolutely wiped out – the thought of an extra 13k and 800m on race day is very scary. Rained all day, making it hard to get any traction on the steep ups and downs, so should be a bit quicker if it’s dry on the day.

Anyway, relatively pain-free injury wise – aside from my right foot still being sensitive to being placed in any way not flat. Recovery run yesterday, easy but hilly 10k and felt alright. I am almost feeling like a runner! I’ve even seen a few 4min-something KMs the last runs, unthinkable even a couple of months ago. My mechanics still feel too wrong to go any faster though. Big progress in 6 months though – so many injuries it was hard to feel any improvement, but it is there. Considering I’ve not followed any plan, just gone up into the hills a few times a week, quite pleased.

Sunday is Zegama-Aizkorri, so going to try and fit in a long run which coincides with the race going over the top of Aizkorri – support on the hill is legendary so should really see it for myself.

Would have been blowing a hoolie? Nice pics though.

Not at all, stood on summit of the 4 Corbetts and wasn’t a breath of wind on any of them, it was bloody glorious.

Will one of the el cheap(er)o AONIJIE bladders (Amazon favourite) fit ok into a Salomon Skin 12 Set pack?

Ciaran, I have 2 of the 500ml of those, you want sizes?.

Spin, you can see pretty much the whole route below, from Goatfell on the left all the way round over Cir Mhor and onto Beinn Tarsuinn on the right.

Kit question, any run in Brooks Launch shoes?
Looking for a new pair of shoes since Nike made the last thinner on my beloved Pegasus. Tried on a pair in the shop and they felt amazing, just ultra-comfy from the off, seemed good on the treadmill in the shop, and their description seems close to what I want.
But, I don’t like change and so didn’t buy them, but may go back in tomorrow and treat myself!

Running has taken a bit of a knock since the arrival of baby #2 on 17th May, but I was still keen to test the legs yesterday at the Vitality 10k. This has been a PB for me every time I’ve run it, and was hoping to dip below 31 minutes this year, but the preparation was far from ideal. Very little sleep over the past week with even less running, so I tried to compensate with a mega dose of caffeine instead! Caffeine drink, gel and 2 caffeine bullet chews took me to 370mg, or the equivalent of about 6 espressos, quite a bit for someone who abstains entirely from caffeine apart from during racing…

This may have explained the average HR of 176, 5bpm higher than last year, but I came in for an identical finish time of 31:32, having died an absolute death in the last mile or so. 2nd V40 though, so not a complete disaster.

It does suggest an upward trajectory when last years PB is this years minor disappointment!

Ciaran, I have 2 of the 500ml of those, you want sizes?.

Thanks buddy, but no need. Having read a few reviews of them, I fronted up the extra tenner for the Salomon.

Aye, probably a good shout, they’re awrite, but the flow is nowhere near as good as my wifes Montane ones.

Lunge, I ran Chester in 2017 and it’s a nice route, and well organised, but it’s certainly no London – the majority of the course is rural and has comparatively minimal spectators. I’m running York in October, the Masters Championship race, which I expect to be pretty similar. Depending on where you are in the field, you probably won’t struggle for company, so won’t be running alone.

Anyone doing the New Forest 10k in early July?

See you there 🤗

Aye, probably a good shout, they’re awrite, but the flow is nowhere near as good as my wifes Montane ones.

Yeah, that was the main bug with the reviews – that people are struggling to get a drink out of them when they’re out of puff. Given that that will be how I’ll feel after about a km, I thought better than to risk it…

Anyone at the Sal50k at Box Hill in a couple of weeks?