lazyotter

Photos taken while visiting my friend Kathryn in the rather flat but picturesque area of Norfolk - mostly around the coast at Blakeney.

Last night I dreamt that Gordon Brown secretly programmed in VB by night. He showed me his code and it was pretty good.

I don’t like what work is doing to my brain.

Last sunday as it was snowing and almost certainly not a good idea to be out on the Welsh hillside, I did the opposite and went fell running around Worlds End.

From Worlds End I headed up the road and climbed Cyrn-y-Brain (565m) on snow covered mud tracks. From the summit I descended down the concrete track a short way to find myself behind two horse-mounted police officers. I politely said good morning to them and learned that they were looking for illegal moto-x riders who were damaging the area with their bikes. Next they told me that I wasn’t on a public right of way and I was trespassing. I told them honestly that I wasn’t aware of this, despite having walked in the area for years. They then proceeded to lecture me on damage to the environment while I stood on the blustery snow covered mountain side in my shorts and t-shirt quietly freezing (can you believe this s**t?!). I could hardly see how running on a concrete track was damaging the environment… Bloody idiots.

After I left the loony lone rangers I descended roughly 1200ft (running over lovely untouched snow) down to the road from Worlds End and then immediately began the climb up to the top of Ruabon mountain/Trevor Rocks. The climb (some 950ft in under a mile) went up over fields to reach a small thicket, then begun a very steep and challenging scramble over snow covered scree up to the cliff tops. I paused to take the pic (above) and then continued along the top of the rocks all the way back to Worlds End, battling against a sub-zero degree gale from the west.

There is a map of the route here.

Although it was a bit chilly at first (1 degree C in the car when I started!) I didn’t mind the cold once I got going. The sun came out a few times and I was amazed at how warm it felt. Running on the snow was a fun experience, and my Inov-8’s held up really well too - don’t think they lost grip at all apart from on the steep scree section.

Hammered it!

Last night I took part in the Chester Spring 5 road race. I was hoping to finish just inside 35 minutes (meaning 7 min per mile average) but I surprised myself and got round in 31:20 :). This works out at 6:16 minutes average per mile which is way faster than anything I’ve done before. I came 55th out of 296 and was the 3rd unattached finisher (i.e. not a member of a club).
The results are here. There is also a map of the route here.

On the night I started right from the front to try and avoid the stampede of 300 people squeezing down a small country lane. I pushed it very hard at the start and for a few minutes I wasn’t too far behind the leaders. My first mile was 5.47 which is probably the fastest I’ve ever done in my life (!) but unfortunately I couldn’t sustain this like the elites can! Think my second mile was also about 5.50, but during miles three and four I was suffering and slipped to 6.40 ish. On the last mile I dug down and hammered it to overtake a bunch of guys in the last half. The finish after the last straight was very deceptive - you could see it but still had to do a twisty lap of the field to get there! Even managed a sprint finish to nearly ensure a heart attack, but the suffering was all worth it when I saw my watch ;).

All through the race I was panting like a mad rabid dog (think I may have been foaming at the mouth too) ;). Wouldn’t like to think what my heart rate was doing, but needless to say it was flat out for the whole time. I think running up steep hills has helped me get used to this punishment ecstasy…

Very pleased overall. Have to try for sub 30 mins next time ;).