15th Lap of The Lake.

18^th May 2014

After much ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’ over whether I would be able to organise any days off work to make it all the way from Eastbourne to the North West and onto the Lake District or not, I decided that it was worth the effort of organising (that was a mouthful!). Windermere Marathon started it all. It's where all the madness started and when the ‘marathon seed’ was planted. I also get complimentary entry from completing the 10 in 10 in 2011. If this wasn’t good incentive enough, I also knew a few friends participating in this year’s 10 in 10 challenge and making my way up north also meant that I got the see the family and I got to go to a lovely part of the world for a weekend 'break'.  So, I got the train to London, from Eastbourne on the Friday and me and George travelled up to Chester from London later that same afternoon. Then on the Saturday morning, we drove to the Lakes with my parents.

Once we had reached the Lake District, we drove to Newby Bridge (almost half way point of Windermere Marathon) and cheered on the of the '10 marathons in 10 days’ runners. It definitely brings all of the memories back. We said hi to a few people and stopped for some food and a drink before making our way to Brathay Hall to pick up my marathon number.

We also managed to sneak in a little wander around Grasmere on the Saturday, before making our way to the hotel – which was lovely and situated in Near Sawrey – the home of Beatrix potter. That night, we had some lovely local food at the pub in the village, which also happened to be Beatrix Potter’s local! The views were beautiful around there.  It isn’t hard to see how she managed to come up with Peter Rabbit; there was so much wildlife and bunnies everywhere!

On Sunday morning we got to Brathay early and saw the 10in10 runners go off I saw lots of familiar faces and had a giant catch-up with everyone. Once we were off, I vowed to try my best, but I didn’t want to go too fast. I was really aiming for anything around the 4hrs 30 min mark. After all, Windermere is a hilly place and I had GUCR to think about the following week. Nonetheless, I decided to run as many of the hills as I could. And relish not being quite as slow as I used to be. It was a hot day, so I didn’t push it too much. In the end I was extremely pleased with a finishing time of 4hrs 24 mins 35 secs. I even got a suntan. And lovely George was stood there at the finish with a pint of ale for me. He’s so thoughtful :)

This blog is dedicated to Badger who we sadly lost (literally) during our adventures in the Lake District. He is sadly missed by me, Fox, Grey Mouse, Brown Bat, Black Bat, Penguin and Hedgehog! We called up the hotel to help track him down, but I fear we will never see him again. Hopefully he is now living amongst the bunny rabbits. Bye bye ultra-buddy Badger! x

GUCR - Take 3!

Not really sure how to write a proper blog about it yet. It was an amazing and incredibly tough weekend. My 3rd GUCR 145 miler in 38.25 – so, sooo happy with my time. Brought to tears by foot pain, blisters and manky feet, we got through the painful bits and we finished in the daylight. Funny to think that we were in the Lakes just the week before and I did Windermere; two very different experiences!

Watch this space for a proper blog...too much to write....

Three Forts 27

Up and down and glorious sunshine...

Sunday 4^th May

Another bargain of a race (only £20) and another lovely run along the trails of the South Downs Way. Highly recommended. We got the train to Worthing and it was easy to walk to the start from the train station. The route was partly out and back and was well marshalled. Marshalls were also really friendly and supportive. The route had a fair few hills thrown in for good measure. At the end we got a nice medal for our efforts. All in all it was great value and a great day out. However, I’m not sure Worthing has the best pubs on offer and because both me and George didn’t know our way around, it took us ages to find somewhere serving beer and food afterwards and it the end we had to make do with good old Wetherspoons. However, overall a great day was had... apart from the sunburn! It was a little too toasty out there....

South Downs Way LDWA Marathon

Whilst I’m in Eastbourne, I've decided to try out new races that I wouldn't normally get to do. After all, Eastbourne is so far away from the North West. So, I decided to be brave and do the LDWA South Downs Way Marathon (well, 28 miles). I used to do LDWA ‘self-navigational’ marathons all of the time, but I’m a bit rusty these days. I think far too much about all of the times I have gotten lost in the past....which is a lot, by the way!

Early morning on 27^th April, I decided to get a bus to a little place called East Dean and sign up on the day for the 28 miler. I saw a few familiar faces, but not many. Runners were meant to start at 10am, but I arrived early and found my way to the village hall by 8.20am, so I decided to start with the walkers at 9am. A lot of other runners started early also. We all knew it’d be a hilly one and it didn’t disappoint. The South Downs and the Seven Sisters are hilly, but so beautiful.


Fortunately, I managed to tag along with some extremely friendly locals. They had done the route many times before and knew exactly where to go. I didn’t even need to look at my route description. Although, I had – very professionally – highlighted and laminated my route description.

Ultimately, I’m really happy I decided to give this one a go. We took approx. 6 hours 17 mins (you never know quite how long you're going to be out there for where hills, trail and directions are concerned), with over 3, 600ft of elevation. There was some chilly wind and drizzle up on the hills but overall, the weather held out pretty well. We also got biscuits and sandwiches on the way round. However, the sandwiches were a strange array of apricot jam and Marmite. I’m more of a cheese, pickle and/or ham kind of girl... But we did get beans on toast and a cuppa' tea at the end of the race :)

I think my favourite bit of the day was when some friends came to see me after the finish. They actually made me a banner (If you can't read it, it says something along the lines of 'Liz, you're the biz, you might need a whizz, so lets grab some fizz and set up a pub quiz'), which was so sweet and I got to have a nice pint of ale in the pub, which was aptly names 'Legless Rambler'. Overall, I would definitely recommend this one. It was only £8 in advance and £3 extra on the day = bargain!

Manchester Marathon & The Elusive Sub-4...

54 ultras, 54 trail marathons and 32 road marathons (now 33) – I had never achieved a sub-4 marathon. So, I was pretty happy and a little teary on Sunday 6th April at Manchester Marathon to finally get a sub-4 (just) PB  - 3:58:43


I have been running a lot better than I used to, largely because I haven't been running quite so many marathons or ultras and so, my leggies now get better rest and better quality training.



I just had a look at my splits and there were definitely lots of places I could have upped my time. I couldn't go as fast as I wanted near the beginning as there were just too many people in the way/ people in the wrong bit, with the wrong colour numbers for predicted time etc. There were at least 6,000 runners doing Manchester Marathon and it was very congested to begin with. In hindsight, I think I should have gone further up the field, but I'm in the habit of doubting my ability and speed.

Some well-deserved post-marathon ale...

It definitely wasn't the most scenic marathon in the world. It started from Old Trafford and there were a lot of out and back loop-de-loops. I saw a sign for the sewerage works at one point. However, I made sure to stick with the 4 hour pacer for a little while and eventually I was able to overtake him. Soon, the 4 hour pacer was out of sight and remained so until around Mile 22, when he overtook me. It actually really threw me off, because I was still running at a sub-4 hour marathon pace. I could still do it. I was struggling and really warm and my energy was being quickly zapped, but I was still on target. When the 4 hour marathon pacer overtook me, I had a mini panic. He was obviously going faster than this pace, which I guess is great for those that had followed him the whole way, but was really bad for those that he overtook, because it puts you in a bad head space. Anyway, I tried not to let this scupper my dreams. I did not want another Loch Ness Marathon moment, of finishing just over 4 hours and 6 seconds! So, I absolutely legged it (and kept saying 'Come on!' to myself, a lot!)

Overall, I know there were lots of bits I could have run better, the wheels definitely fell off at some points. However, all in all, a great day . And in some ways, knowing that I could have done better and knowing that I didn't feel my best at some points is amazing, because it means that I can do even faster on a really good day...

Ooooh and I also bumped into some other runner buddies at Victoria Station in London. I was making my way back from Manchester Marathon and they had just run Brighton Marathon. It's a small world!

Navigation

It seems silly not to do an LDWA event whilst I'm in Eastbourne. So, I'm going to do the South Downs LDWA Marathon next Sunday (27th April). I'm actually a little nervous as I've not done anything involving a lot of navigation in a long,  long time. Try as I may, lovely George isn’t free to navigate with me as he’s doing a 10k in London, so I’m going to be brave and go it alone!

So, South Downs Way it is, then Three Forts the week after and then hopefully I'll be able to get up to Windermere for the Brathay Windermere Marathon (my favourite) and also have a little chill out (maybe) before my 3rd GUCR the week after :)  yeyyy

Also, I had the best run along the South Downs the other week, with George. We ran from Eastbourne to Beachy Head to Birling Gap. We stopped at Birling Gap for a cheeky cream tea. My scone was massive and it was great to refuel mid-run. It's been very sunny over this way lately. We ended up running a nice 15 ½ miles in the end, so the scone was much needed, and so was the beer afterwards... 

Birling Beachy Beautiful

Okey dokey, it’s been a little while since I last wrote a blog post – I have been a bit of a busy-Lizzie. So, here we go:

I can’t really describe how exciting my casual running wanders have been in the last few weeks. Yep, I have been full of every type of cold and bug, but when I have gotten out on those South Downs, it has been absolutely amazing. I love it. I think it might be one of my favourite places to run ever.

It’s so calm and beautiful up there, all your worries just flow out to sea. Last week, I ran a little further than Beachy Head, past the lighthouse and onto Birling Gap. It was quite astonishing to see the extent of the coastal erosion at Birling Gap and how destructive the sea can be. 

As we ran I noticed a lot of ‘Endurance Life’ race event markers, since it was their South Downs race series the other weekend. Unfortunately, it was sold out by the time I got the job in Eastbourne. However, I feel so thankful and so happy that I can run this route all of the time, for free. Okay, Eastbourne is a pretty small seaside town and there’s nothing amazingly special about some bits of it. To be quite frank, some of its inhabitants seem downright miserable. However, the surrounding scenery is just beautiful. 

In the last few weeks I also got to visit: Smuggler's Cave, Stone Henge, The Roman Baths, Brighton - lots of cool places :)