Big badda catch-up time!

Oh my goodness, I've been so lax in my updates and now there's too much to go in one post so I'll have to split into bite-sized chunks (and not necessarily in the right order).

First we have the long-awaited ballot results from the London marathon:

Oh no, I hear you cry!  You haven't got a place and it's all about dementia charities in 2019.

But fear not dear friends, the lovely people at The Dementia Revolution (the partnership for 12 months between Alzheimer's Research UK, the charity I've been supporting for the last 13 years, and the Alzheimer's Society) have offered me a Gold Bond place so I will be there - well I could hardly not be there could I!

This of course means that I have to raise £2000 for the cause which is going to be jolly hard work as everyone I know has supported me at least once and some many times more.

I've raised over £54,000 for research already but I'm going to have to be super-creative to find new ways to reach my fund-raising target this time - as usual I have a plan brewing inside my head and it's  a very scary and suitably testing challenge for 2019 which I can't share just yet.  Suffice to say it will be tough and will take me right out of my comfort zone (yet again), especially since I will be 62 when I undertake the really tough part of it (gulp!).

My fund-raising page is now up and running and full details of my challenge will be revealed in due course.  I might also do something special at the London marathon just for old times' sake..................

A short while ago Dame Barbara Windsor very bravely announced that she is living with dementia and she sent this lovely message:

Now what else is there to catch up with?  There have been a couple of marathons:

The Tolkien Challenge

Back to beautiful Samphire Hoe again for my 4th running of the Tolkien Challenge.  I wasn't sure whether to do marathon or ultra distance at the start but settled for marathon in the end as the motorway traffic was bad due to roadworks and I wanted to get home at a decent time.

It was the perfect weather for a little jaunt by the sea and I'll let the photos do the talking:

The Highland cattle and sheep were sharing the grazing in different areas.

I always love seeing the cliffs.  They make me feel small and humble.

Traviss made the usual announcements but this one for Nick, my favourite nutty American, was extra special and I need to give him his own post.  Suffice to say he is shattering and setting so many World Records and is absolutely amazing (note to self - don't forget to write about Nick asap!)

I tried to be really good and only took photos on my last lap (although I did spend about 10 minutes chatting with a bird watcher at one stage.  He was watching a Peregrin Falcon on top of the cliffs but was interrupted when someone flew a drone overhead which scared it off.

As we stood chatting this small murmuration of Starlings took flight and flew down the side of the cliff right over my head - the noise of their wings was amazing!  They performed some fabulous  acrobatics before settling back on the cliff-face.

Dungeness power station in the distance

For some unknown reason, I was captivated by receding lines that day.

Jon striding out along the sea wall.  His mum & dad were there too.  He's got his whole family into marathon running and his mum has been an absolute treasure during races, handing out ice-lollies and sweeties when needed (more receding lines).

The day-glo orange Sea Buckthorn berries look unreal don't they!

There was lots of Sea Lavender along the sea wall

I don't recognise this plant and must look it up

The obligatory lichen shot!

The rust-coloured reeds against the green water drew my eye

Sea meets clouds, meets multi-coloured sky

Bye-bye sea.  See you again soon.

Another fab Tolkien medal

My finish time was around the usual taking into account chatting and taking photos - 5:39:44.  That was number 157.

The Kanga-Roo Kanter

Back to Ashdown Forest for another challenge event in Traviss and Rachel's Winnie the Pooh series - for the past 2 years I've done both days and earned suitably themed medals at the Winnie the pooh Wander, Eeyore Expedition, Tigger Bounceathon & Piglet Plod.

This year it was the Kanga-Roo Kanter and the Owl Amble but I could only do the first day as life got in the way.  The other issue is that I had a camera malfunction and so all the photos I took were lost.  I couldn't work out why until I remembered the start when we were all setting out.  I was going over a short, sharp grassy mound when Dee was taking photos and I waved to her - a man behind me pushed into me and I stumbled and fell flat on the grass.  The rude man didn't even say sorry, nor did he stop to check that I was OK!  I think the memory chip in the camera must have been dislodged in my fall hence non of my photos were saved.  Ho hum.

So this is the only photo I have, taken right at the start by someone else.  I'm on the right, wearing my pink flamingo crochet cap, chatting with James and plotting adventures for 2019 (as you do!).

I had a very pleasant run despite the tumble and the weather was perfect with a gentle breeze to cool us down.  Everywhere looked wonderful as the bracken was changing colour to shades of rust and lemon.  There were lots of dog walkers and horse riders out and I had some lovely chats with fellow runners en-route.

I hadn't decided whether to stick at marathon distance until my last lap when I decided I wanted to get back home for Strictly come dancing (Mike and I have become strangely addicted to this programme which is odd because we are rubbish dancers!).  For those of you who watch this I was sad to see Katie Piper leave this week as she is such a lovely lady but sadly she wasn't the best at dancing.  I met her years ago on the This Morning programme and I was humbled by her amazing attitude to what had happened to her (she had acid thrown in her face by an ex-boyfriend).

Sorry, I digress.

Before I set out for my last lap I paid a visit to the aid station for the first time as my water bottles were empty.  They're those soft, squishy bottles which fit into my ultra-running vest.  I topped one of them up and tried to get it back into its pocket but I couldn't get it back in so Kirsty very kindly took pity on me and came to help.  This resulted in much hilarity and squirting of my drink and I must have wasted about 5 minutes there for no real reason!

Never mind, I trotted around my last lap without falling over so that was a bonus and even better I finished faster than day 1 last year so was very happy with that.  So that was marathon 158, completed in 6:04:09 which is a couple of minutes faster than last year and would have been more if it hadn't been for the squishy bottle debacle (oh and the chatting and photos)!

To finish here's quick showing of my completed Allie Shawl which has been blocked and just needs a few finishing touches (I'm feeling the need for pompoms for some reason) before I do a write-up about it unless of course I get distracted by something else as is my wont!

Marathon 150, A Long Way to Go

On Sunday I completed marathon number 150 .  It was actually a 32 mile ultra on trail rather than road and there were spectacular views which helped one forget about the climbs!

The beauty of this event was that it was only 22 miles from home with no motorway hold-ups to contend with.  Pure bliss.  Race HQ was based in the village school in the pleasant village of Muddles Green.

As I parked in the field opposite the school I saw Jimi and Sam from the 'Rebel Runners' together with Glen and Kay.  Sam was a little worse for wear as he'd done a nighttime marathon with little sleep between finishing and heading over to this one. He paid for it pretty soon!  There were a few more familiar faces there at the start and in the photos below you can see Bryan on the right of the photo (Louise is just peeping out from behind my right cheek!) and Glen on the left.  

I wore my 100 marathon vest and new cap because I thought I'd probably come last and people might think I'd just had a bad day at the office rather than me being very slow!

The route description was very detailed

There were 2 distances to choose from: half marathon or ultra distance.  We ultra runners were first to set off at 8am.  The route followed part of the Vanguard Way and Weald Way.  There was a real mixture of terrain, from running through villages to scrambling through narrow footpaths with shoulder-high nettles either side so I'll just let the photos give a feel for it:

We ran a few hundred metres along the lane before heading across the first of many fields

Bryan and Louise running through Oil-Seed Rape

Heading along someones drive which formed part of a public footpath.  There was a cheering squad of children with their mum (you can just see them on the left).

I was fascinated by this plaque and so looked it up and found that it was available as a Home Defence emergency landing ground for the RAF in World War One between 1916 and 1917.  This link shows a view of the land as it is now but with a marker of the site.

Although that path looks nice and grassy it was rutted and hummocky with plenty of trip potential!

Yep, we had to squeeze through there

We had to go down these steep steps (and you know how much I hate going down steps!) to cross over a railway line and then climb up equally steep steps on the other side

We passed what looked like part of an old stable complex with an interesting bell tower.

It was part of the Buxted Park Hotel complex.  There was an interesting church, St. Margarets, next door.  Sadly, my photo was blurry but you can see some images here.  I looked it up and was fascinated to learn it has an interesting history.  I took this snippet from their website and I think it might be worth a visit next time Mike and I are in the area:

Churchyard 

The churchyard has a number of key features: 

• The large yew tree to the east of the church is over 2,000 years old.  Behind the church entrance door is a certificate that attests to this fact. The yew tree is also featured on the website www.ancient-yew.org . Hundreds of cuttings were taken from this tree, blessed by Bishop Eric and distributed to churches across the country to celebrate the millennium.

• There are four Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard.

• On the eastern wall of the churchyard is the grave of Christopher Wordsworth, Rector of St. Margaret's from 1820 to 1846. He subsequently became Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.  He was the youngest brother of the poet William Wordsworth.

• Also in the churchyard is the grave of the author Winston Graham who lived in Buxted until his death in 2003. He wrote over 40 novels, including the famous Poldark series.

I saw lots of interesting gates and gateposts throughout so there are a few more photos to come.  I loved these 2 eagles as we left the Buxted complex: 

That's Saskia (red hair) running her first ultra marathon with Debbie in front

As we neared Ashdown Forest we passed these wrought iron gates with Piglets on them.  How appropriate as we entered Winnie the Pooh country!

Strawberries growing on a raised pole system

Although there were A5 size printed booklets of the route or a downloadable GPX file, the Race Director had also been out and marked the whole ultra route with arrows/tape or chalk marks on the road.  Apparently one year some tape had been removed and people got lost so this time He put notices up explaining that the tape/arrows were for the safety of us runners.

We passed several small vineyards

Heading into Ashdown Forest

A mixture of Gorse and Bracken

Heading up towards 'Camp Hill Clump' and some fabulous views (although it was a bit hazy in the distance)

The rutted tracks were tricksy

See that sandy-coloured track up the hill towards the clump of trees in the distance?  Yep, we were heading up there!

I had a nice chat with some horse riders on this section but my photo of them was all blurry.

This rutted section was even harder to navigate!

As I scrambled down this section I looked ahead and realised that we'd be going up to the top of the hill straight ahead in the distance - deep joy!

At some stage in the proceedings I overtook Debbie and Saskia and then in turn was overtaken by Louise and Bryan which was a surprise as I thought they were ahead of me already.  I have no idea at what stage this next photo was taken by Debbie so I'll just stick in here:

Ooh lovely, a flat bit!  That's Louise and Bryan storming ahead.

I loved the look of this pretty church in the village of High Hurstwood on the South East border of Ashdown Forest.  It is Holy Trinity Church and was designed by an unknown architect in 1870-72, paid for by Lady Catherine VenerablesVernon-Harcourt (a local resident), with the addition of a half-timbered tower in 1903.

Another nice gate, rather like stems of grass

Magnificent owls

On the home straight, heading for the finish (well, just a few miles away)

I crossed the finish line in 7:42:30 so well within the time limit (hoorah) and probably could have taken another 15 minutes or more off if I hadn't taken photos (but then it wouldn't have been as much fun!).  I later learnt that several people had been pulled off the course as they would have been too far the cut-off which is always tough.

Leaving marathon 149.........

........having completed marathon 150!

Another medal for the collection

Another lovely handmade mug

Now we have a pair we can each have one and we tried them out with our morning coffee

But that wasn't the end of it.  I got a special plaque for being the first FV60 (Female Veteran 60+ age group).

Plus I got this lovely Montane running belt and soft flask.  What a lovely surprise!

This was my last marathon as a 60 year old which means that at the Kent 50, in a couple of weeks, I will be "in my 60s" (gulp!!!).  Never mind, next will be number 151 which is  a very pleasing palindrome.