Sunday 9 May 2010

Heading South

A tough week, ready for a rest now.
Yesterday  seen me and Iain Kelly parking at Seathwaite and climbing up to Esk Hause and doing the rest of leg 3. I have struck gold in having Iain on this leg, his knowledge of it is very reassuring. 
I imagine leg 3 could be where the wheels come off for me, so with having Iain and Steve Angus im hoping they will pull me through it. Mind you Steve can talk some bloody crap at times!!!!
Yesterday also saw me banish one of my main worries by climbing Broad stand without a rope al tho I very nearly ducked out. I was stood on the second ledge whilst Iain was trying to explain to me what to do when all of a sudden a couple of other BGers came sailing by me and sailed up it, making it look very easy and me look very stupid (not hard). So with Iains encouragement I got up it, which in truth was not that bad at all, but it would be a different story if it was wet.Also went down the line of Scafell which again didn't seem that bad , but with 16 hours in my legs I think it might be a different story.
Got back to the cars via Styhead Tarn.It was on this route where I seen some runner trying to get use to running with walking poles, he was having  quite a fight!

Today I was going to do leg 2 with Steve Angus but at the last minute decided I would throw leg 1 in as well, so I arranged I would meet Steve at 10.30 to do leg 2 with him.
I set off from Keswick at 7.07 and got back to Threlkeld CC at 10.07, surprised myself at how quick I had done it, al tho it was far to fast.

 I had 13mins to wait before Steve arrived so I had some food and refilled my bottles. At 10.25 we were off again and the climb up Clough Head felt very hard, but we reached the top in 44mins, too quick, but Steve was on fresh legs and moving very well.
We finished the leg in a time of 3.20.
So 2 legs done in 6.38 that included a 18Min wait at Threlkeld. I hope on the day of my attempt my pacers do a good job or I fear its curtains at Wasdale!
On Wednesday me and Steve Bennett had a good run along the coach road from Dockray to Clough Head and up over the Dodds and back down Hartside where we watched the Dockray-Hartside fell race. As always Steve supplied the entrainment by trying to convince me were running south when in fact we were running north east.WARNING : DO NOT FOLLOW THIS MAN IN A FELL RACE!
(it is my good fortune that he is completely computer illiterate and he cannot work out how to reply on this blog)

And as said in my last post on Monday I did leg 1 running from Threlkeld.

So my total feet climb for the last week was 22500 and 66 miles, im going to start backing off now and try and work out my schedule and road stops and fuel intakes, all of which I am really struggling with, its the part of the BG that Im totally no good at and wish some else would do it for me!

4 comments:

Emma said...

you're doing excellently! yep, you're right the organisation is far harder than all the bloody training...no wonder people have a taper week there's just NO time to run!!

Donkarlo said...

Sounds like you are going great guns Stu, give me a shout if you need anymore help donkarlorunner@gmail.com I could send you some of my support notes and checklists to help you out as well if you like.

blencathrafrommykitchen said...

Stu

re Broad Stand... remember that climbing it in a recce is quite different to climbing it on the day - you will have been out for 10+ hours and starting to get tired.

When we did it I was grateful for being able to use Andy Ramsey's head as a nice foothold and for the caving ladder that another team had put in place.

Irk said...

Stu
you are in great shape for this. The speed and ease with which you are covering the ground of the BG says one thing. You will enjoy the big day. You have a solid support on every leg and on the road. just keep focussed and relax.