Behind again!

Oh dear, I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging for some reason. Must do better!

My 3rd event of the year took place in muddy old Ranscombe last weekend. It wasn't quite as muddy as back in 2018 but it wasn't far off. This time, as back then, I set out with the intention of doing an extra lap to get an ultra under my belt but this time, although I couldn't face another lap of the mud-slide, I changed into my road running shoes after marathon distance and headed out along the main road for an extra 5 miles to get to 31 miles.

Here are some photos to give you a feel - at least there wasn't quite as much flooding this year and there was no snow and the sun came out so it was much nicer:

There have been a lot of changes recently, the best being a lovely new mud-free car park and these rather impressive composting toilets (which cost a whopping £10,000 each).

Paul tried unusccesfully to take a selfie but was photo-bombed by us.

As Traviss had said that it wasn't as bad as 2018 I decided to try the first lap without my walking poles. This was after lap 1 so I knew that my poles were needed! Thank goodness I'd put my gaiters on as they make such a difference.

The next batch of photos will give you an insight into the extent of the mud!

From left to right: Debbie, Kirsty and Jo. Only Debbie went on to complete the whole thing as Kirsty and Jo had enough after halfway.

Thsi section got worse and worse after each lap and I ended up walking it after lap 3

After a few hours the sun came out which made everythign feel better. Some of the wooded areas were bone dry but large sections were still treacherous and I was very grateful for my poles.

There are some lovely views and Mike and I will be heading off there for a walk when the weather improves.

The highland Cattle were out grazing around the Darnley Mausoleum

He was all sleepy and chilled

I always take a photo of this tree as I love its shape.

There always has to be at least one photo of beautiful bark!

My time for marathon distance was 7:02 as opposed to 7:09 back in 2018. I love the new medal as it's got a bunny on it, along with a deer, a butterfly and some Highland Cattle:

A lovely medal as always from Traviss. It's the first in a series of 4 throughout the seasons and if you do all of the events you can join them all together to make a circle.

On the crafting front there's not much going on except for a bit of knitting and crochet but I have just joined a weaving bootcamp which I hope will kick-start my journey into the world of weaving.

I'm now into week 4 of the Six Pack Revolution, the Intensive Wave again, and I'm really enjoying it. I wrote about my first adventure here if you're new to my blog. This shortened version is great and I'm already seeing a difference in my strength and stamina and my jeans are looser which is a bonus! For me, this Wave is all about strength and stamina rather than weight loss as I've maintained my last results quite well.

The meal plans are full of my old favourites with some new things thrown in and Scott even launched an SPR cookbook last year which you can see here on Amazon, although I didn't buy it 'cos I've got all the recipes anyway. They're all quick and easy to prepare.

Exercise-wise it's the same format as my first wave in the link above with a discipline of daily exercises Abdominal exercises to be added into the mix on alternate days with different Challenges of varying duration which focus on specific areas of the body and are guaranteed to get you sweating!

Shelley's been helping enormously both inside the house and in the garage (which she's enjoying as there's so much to investigate):

Here she's helping me with Diamond Press-ups!

And here with Decline Press-ups (on the 4th step)

Exploring the garage is great fun whilst mum does silly things with weights and Battle-Ropes!

Next time I write I'm hoping there will some craftwork to show but in the meantime I"ll leave you with a photo of my beautiful Paperwhite daffodils which are filling the whole house with their amazing scent!

Before I forget!

Sometimes the days just fly by and then I suddenly remember I haven't written about something so whilst I've got a few moments here's the latest!

Marathon 168, The Darnley Challenge

I nearly didn't go to this as it was so soon after we lost our dear Tilly cat but I made myself get out there as it was just 6 days after the London marathon and I knew it would be a good test of my foot/knee. I had intended to trot round with some chums but I wasn't feeling very chatty and so kept myself to myself.

I wore a crepe bandage on my knee to give it a bit extra support and as the weather had been changeable I wore a long-sleeved top under my vest just in case it got chilly. Well, it most certainly did get chilly - when we started off it was bright but not too hot.

It was a lapped event of 13.1 miles with a cut-off of 8 hours to do as many or few laps as you liked. There was a 50k option which I was considering but changed my mind - you'll see why later!

We started at the Cyclopark at Gravesend then headed across part of Jeskyns country park, through Cobham towards the Darnley Mausoleum then a loop around part of the Ranscombe Nature Reserve before heading back towards the Cyclopark. 

Here's some of the Jeskyns section:

Gary (left) and Nick who's appeared on here many times as he's smashing Guinness World Records with his amazing running schedule - I think he's now upped his own record to 281 50ks in a year

On leaving Jeskyns we headed along Cobham High Street which was a bit chaotic as there was a food fare taking place and the traffic was nose to tail. I managed to snap this beautiful Wisteria whilst the traffic on that side of the road was held up.

Then it was over to Ranscombe and past the Darnley Masuoleum - look at that lovely blue sky. It was a mixture of trail, rutted tracks and bare ground through crop fields.

Heading back to base camp at the end of the first lap I was starting to get too hot so took off my long-sleeved top but thankfully I kept it with me!

You can see the sky looks somewhat darker in the photo above and by the time I'd reached the Darnley Mausoleum for the 2nd time this is what happened - great big hailstones so heavy it looked as if it was snowing!

So I put my top back on along with my buff and gloves! Then the sun came out again and melted it all but I wasn't going to take my top off and this proved to be the right decision as we had a further 4 hail showers before I got back to base camp and decided that 2 laps was quite enough thank you very much.

A typical path through Ranscombe with rough flints as trip potential

I wore my blue Dementia Revolution tee shirt

I managed to get back to base camp just before the last round of rain/hail came!

Someone had tipped all this rubbish at the side of the road. Why not just be responsible and take it to a regulated rubbish tip rather than spoiling the countryside?

So that was marathon 168 completed in 5:39:21 so just 10 minutes slower than London on a much more demanding course and without any nonsense from my knee (thank goodness).

The next day I went out on a recce of part of the route we'll be taking for the 1066 100 mile event in July 'cos I knew there were going to be issues with waymarking/rightsofway/crops/overgrown paths and I certainly wasn't wrong! I'd already reported lots of stiles/signs to the Rights of Way Team at our local council but I know how long it can take to get them sorted out (it took 8 years after being reported before one in our village was repaired and there were many more!).

First a pathway in our village which is always completely overgrown and impassable by Summer!

Nick's massive field is planted with wheat which will be really tall by then so we need to work out the best route through it (following tractor route is always good)

Then there's the issue of getting from the tree on the left to that gap of light in the trees without damaging the crop or having to traipse all the way round the edges.....

.....whereupon you reach this stile without a footplate and it's too high to just step over - already reported several years ago by me and several local residents.......

.....but the main issue is the motorbike scrambling track which was constructed several years ago. The footpath goes to the right of a pond where those trees are but you cannot get out at the other end as it's been fenced off............

....and now they've taken the track around the other side of it too.............

.........and put up this strange fencing arrangement which takes you away from the designated footpath!!! Thankfully I know which way to go but others will find it very confusing.

Having navigated my way to the main road the written instruction told me to pass over a stile 100 metres ahead. Half a mile later I came across the stile which has seen better days and will be obscured and made difficult to climb over because of brambles and nettles in Summer:

Brambles and a flimsy stile but at least there's a way marking sign

Yep, that was easy to spot - NOT!

At one point I lost sight of any waymarking and ended up going through a stable yard (at which I knew there'd been a dispute as they'd blocked a footpath) to bring myself back onto a lane so I could head off to collect the newspaper from the village shop.

The sight of the ewes with their sweet lambs helped lift my spirits.

So that little outing was only 6.5 miles and took a long time. As soon as I got home I emailed the Race Director and told him about some of the issues as I knew they hadn't finalised the route. He told me they would be doing this final section on 18th May and that they've already had to re-route several sections and would do the same again if necessary. 

The other thing I learned was that the route is actually 103 miles which makes the 30 hour cut-off very tight for our little group of 3 runners. Having chatted with my lovely chums we've all agreed that although we'd love to get the beautiful buckle and an official finishing time we would treat it as another adventure in our running journey even if we are timed-out.

I now feel so much happier about it.

Having had my morning coffee and read the paper I settled down to darning Mike's favourite cardigan which was very soothing.

Which reminds me, I've finally finished the Weel Riggit jumper too and just need to block it - pity I won't get to wear it for some time now though as it's very warm!