Peak District Ultra Challenge - 22nd June 2013 - Part One

It would seem that running 46 miles is not enough for some people. Apparently I have to blog about it too!

Actually, I do want to blog about it as it gives me the opportunity to formally record the events of my most enjoyable running event to date and also to give thanks to those friends who joined me on the run and the all important support crew who dutifully followed us round and fed and watered us.

My life of running commenced in earnest following a serious injury suffered whilst playing football in January 2006. After a long rehabilitation I decided that it was time to hang up my boots at the ripe old age of 34 and to take to a sport which was, by the law of averages, less likely to leave me potted up to the you-know-whats.

After one marathon and numerous halves (not of the beer kind, I don't believe in halves) I discovered Twitter and before long I was virtual friends with many runners. Some already running legends (in my eyes), some soon to be legends, but most of all just a great bunch of people from whom I drew much inspiration. I started to run more regularly and further and, due to the mutual feedback, we all seemed to feed off each other's running and collectively PBs were broken and then broken again.

Many of these friendships developed from people just being friends within my iPhone into real life friendships as we met, ran races together and supported each other through difficult personal times. I could give numerous examples and get quite emotional when I reflect on these experiences, but I should try and hold it together otherwise this blog could end up being as long as our run for the 2013 Longest Day Run.

Ok, let's cut to the chase. I conceived Longest Day Run in 2012 and had high hopes of being an active participant in the debut year of the event. A stress fracture to my Femur, which was diagnosed in early June (having run Manchester marathon with it - oops!) meant that I wasn't even allowed to run one measly mile. The upside was that I spent the whole weekend glued to the laptop reading and retweeting the amazing stories and enthusiastic responses from those who were enjoying taking part.

Many people were keen to have another bash in 2013 and I was keen to put my legs into action and challenge myself.

Having been tempted into running two marathons on consecutive weekends in April by Catherine aka @mrsbedders (I am so weak willed!) and actually feeling better after the second one than I had done after the first, I decided that I was ready to join the band of "Nutters" who had long since moved on from marathons into the mythical world of the "Ultra" marathon. I'd always laughed in the face of suggestions that I should attempt one. "A marathon's far enough for me" I would regularly say on Twitter to Mike, aka @mikew30, Trevor, aka my neighbour, @houndkirk and Andrew, aka @mrafletch (not to forget Matt, aka @m8dkn & and a few other ultra runners who maybe prodded me slightly less).

So, what would I do? Inspired by Trevor who would fly up Blacka Moor nearly every day, accumulating incredible hillage like it was going out of fashion, I started dreaming (literally) about setting off early morning on Longest Day Run weekend with my backpack and running as far as I could through the beautiful Peak District, which we're lucky enough to have on our doorstep. I could do 30 miles couldn't I? If I took my time and had regular breaks that should be no problem, should it? Even a road runner like me could take to the hills and add the extra 4 miles over and above the marathon distance I was starting to get the hang of?

I floated the idea on Twitter and immediately Catherine, my April marathon partner in crime, put up her hand and committed to joining me. Neither of us have made any secret of the downer we both felt after our back to back marathon adventure had drawn to a close and this seemed to be a powerful enough running drug to give us something to bridge the gap between the spring and autumn marathon seasons.

Would anyone else join us?

Like a football manager trying to make the marquis signing of the close season, I knew that the perfect team needed an expert at fell running and also someone who could navigate. The thought of Catherine and I plodding aimlessly across a vast expanse of countryside was too scary to put into practice. There was only one man for the job, the man who got me round the Grindleford Gallop recce and then race within the space of two weeks: Trevor. It also helps that not only does Trevor tick all of the boxes from a running perspective, but he's also a lovely guy.

I got my man!

Trevor asked me "How far are you thinking?". I asked Catherine. She asked me what I thought: "30 or maybe 40 miles perhaps". Her immediate response was: "Let's go for 40 as it's a nice round number". I was daft enough to agree.

Briefed with that figure Trevor set off to pick a route. It was always going to be hilly; we don't nickname him "Mountain Goat" for nothing you know. He came back with a route; it was 42 miles. We decided to let him off with a 5% margin of error. What's 5% after all? Nothing really.

Who else was going to join us?

The Ultra Nutters obviously weren't put off with the distance, but logistics and other plans which had already been committed to meant that they were out. Others may have been put off by the distance (sensible) or maybe the thought of running for most of the day with me?!

Just when it seemed like it was going to be just the three of us, I received a text from Matt and he was in. We were now four and it meant that half of the team had previous ultra experience. This was good.

Things got better. the King of all of the Nutters and twice my marathon saviour, Mike, would be able to join us for potentially half of the run before he had to spend the evening with Robbie Williams. Well, taking his fiancee, Sarah, to see him in concert. Mike's work running partner, Alex, aka @alexloach would be coming along too and then Chris, aka @chrismarritt, decided that he too would be able to join us for the middle section of the run. Brilliant!

We had the route, we had the team and Rachel, aka Mrs W, had kindly offered (or did I beg so much that she felt obliged?) to be one of the support teams and lug the kids, food, drink & clothing to various checkpoints along the route to help us along.

Nothing could stop us now. Training had gone well, the weather forecast was looking reasonable and there were no injuries. Too good to be true? Yes.

I received a tweet from Trevor on the morning of the eve of our run. He'd picked up a stomach bug of some sort and was not in a good way. We don't need to go into the details, but the odds were stacked against him to make a recovery in time. Not eating for 24 hours would be poor preparation for a 10k never mind a 67k! I went to bed on the Friday evening after regular updates and with Trevor having gone from a 25% chance earlier in the day to a 75% chance by late evening.

Catherine was staying with us, Matt driving up from Birmingham in the morning, but would Trevor be walking the 100 yards from his house to mine to make up the full "Team Nutter"?

Having packed away the OS map which I'd tried and failed to follow (see above) I went to bed anticipating a poor night's sleep, but excited about the challenge ahead.......

TO BE CONTINUED

Registration is now open, and it's FREE!

Just a quick blog post to pass on the message which I've been repeating endlessly on Twitter (I'm sure to the annoyance of many of the followers of @longestdayrun) for the past few days.

You can now register for the event by following the link on the home page of www.longestdayrun.com. This will take you through to the Daily Mile website where you can register for free and it only takes a couple of minutes and is extremely simple. You then follow a separate link and register for the challenge.

So, what are you waiting for? Get signed up now, think about your targets, train hard and then enjoy the challenge!

Please tell your friends, get family members to sign up too and have some fun in the process.

Charity begins at home

Hello fellow runners. I've just realised that it's been slightly over a month since my last blog post - oops!


I have been working on the website, which most of you will know is now live, and I'm trying to update it frequently so please keep checking out www.longestdayrun.com and don't forget to tell your friends. If they're not runners yet then what are they waiting for?!


The other reason which explains the lack of posts is also the reason why I've chosen to raise funds this year for The Stroke Association (www.stroke.org.uk). I wanted to share this with you to help raise awareness of stroke, how to identify it early, and what to do if it happens to you or somebody else. 


People who follow me @mazymixer will know that in early February I had a few days away due to a family health matter. I didn't explain publicly at the time what that was, but I want to do so now.


I won't go into all the details, but on the 8th February, my 37 year old wife woke up with weakness in her right arm, leg and slight numbness in the right side of her face. We acted quickly and the fantastic Yorkshire Ambulance Service took her to the Stroke Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. It wasn't until the next day that we were told conclusively that she had actually suffered a mild stroke. I don't know about you, but I knew very little about stroke. However, after she had spent three days in hospital undergoing MRI & CT scans and various ECGs and Ultrasound tests and I'd scoured the internet for as much information as my brain could absorb, I knew much more.


She's ok now (touch wood), other than the need to take precautionary drugs for the rest of her life, and should make a full recovery. It was a very scary experience, and she was one of the lucky ones and we're appreciative for that. It's worth noting that she's in a low risk group: Doesn't smoke, eats well, exercises regularly & drinks in moderation. Many are not so lucky, and the facts below (taken from The Stroke Association website) highlight the sheer scale of this condition:

• An estimated 150,000 people have a stroke in the UK each year. 
• Stroke accounts for around 53,000 deaths each year in the UK. 
• Stroke is the third most common cause of death in England and Wales, after heart disease and cancer. 
• Stroke accounts for 9 per cent of all deaths in men and 13 per cent of deaths in women in the UK.
• At least 450,000 people are severely disabled as a result of stroke in England. 
• Stroke costs the economy an estimated £8 billion per year in England alone and it is likely that it costs proportionate amounts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Stroke patients occupy around 20 per cent of all acute hospital beds and 25 per cent of long term beds.
• Stroke units save lives: for stroke patients general wards have a 14 per cent to 25 per cent higher mortality rate than stroke units.
• Each year over 130,000 people in England and Wales have a stroke. About 10,000 of these are under retirement age.

The F.A.S.T campaign which has been shown on TV and other media, highlights the key signs to look out for so that timely action may be taken. Further details can be found at: www.stroke.org.uk

I've always tried to use my running to good effect whilst trying not to take too regular advantage of my kind friends and colleagues, and have done many races for charity in recent years. I always like to choose one which is close to my heart, and although I'd rather that stroke hadn't come into our lives, I'm now motivated to give something back to help raise awareness and raise much needed funds to enable the charity to continue their fantastic work.

So, this is my charity for 2012. I'm proud to be running for them and hope that my small efforts and those of others add up to something worthwhile.

I hope that Longest Day Run gives those of you who wish to raise funds for a charity of your choice a great opportunity to encourage sponsors and help you achieve your goals.

Thanks again for reading, and happy running.

Simon

Longest Day Run in press

It was an email out of the blue. Had someone passed on a message? Were we being followed by a runner who just happened to be a journalist? Was it divine intervention? Ok, I'm getting silly now.  


Whatever it was, The Northern Running Guide thought that the Longest Day Run was interesting enough to write about, and today the article was published on their website. The logo (designed by our very own Twitter friend @cmmercer) looks great, but foolishly they also wanted an "action" photo of me too. I was at work, and all I had available on my laptop were the official photos of me from the 2009 Flora London Marathon. With the exception of my finisher's photo, the others were taken during the final mile of the race. By this stage my legs were so full of cramp that in each pic it looked as if I was standing still, hence the choice of photo!


If you haven't seen the article, well, here it is:


http://northernrunningguide.com/news.php/743/the_longest_run_of_your_year/full


My next plan is to email the editors of all of the running mags I can think of and anyone else who might have a few column inches desperate to be filled. 


The plan after that is to get a simple website set up. Well, there's no point having all of the domain names bought up and not using them now is there?


Alongside that I need to find a method of getting people to sign up & log their times other than me setting up a huge spreadsheet. Although, I'm not averse to a huge spreadsheet.


I still need to find time to think through the charity options so that we can have something tangible to show for our efforts on 23/24 June other than blisters and sunburn.


That's all for now folks, but I think I'm getting the hang of this blogging lark. I have never had a problem in waffling on aimlessly so please forgive me for the lack of a concise writing style.


I hope you're all running well & looking forward to the challenge ahead.


Cheers 


Simon

World domination?

Good evening all you lovely runners out there. I hope the running's going well so far this year, and that any injuries are only minor niggles.

I promised a new blog this weekend, but after "one of those weeks" it's been "one of those weekends" where spare time has been scarce. I did manage to fit in a 12 miler this morning though which temporarily reinvigorated me after a late night last night. As I have only a few minutes now to post a quick blogette I thought I would just quickly announce some news and then promise faithfully to apply my mind this week to something a little longer and more worthy of a read.

I decided to register the following two domain names and am now the proud custodian of:

www.longestdayrun.com & www.longestdayrun.co.uk

What I'm going to do with them is still to be decided, but I thought that now we've reached a very respectable 237 followers in just over one week since launch, we should prepare ourselves for world domination!

Please keep spreading the word about the Longest Day Run. The feedback & enthusiasm so far has been excellent.

Back soon.

Happy running.

Simon

The Longest Day Run. What's it all about?

One week ago I had this little idea; it was inspired by a charity event I'd completed a couple of times a few years back. That event was called the "Longest Day Challenge", and involved playing 4 rounds of golf on the longest day of the year. Three mates and myself spent the best part of 16 hours on the golf course, and managed to raise over £5,000 for a charity very close to our hearts.


So, why the "Longest Day Run", you may be wondering? Well, since my golf challenges, most of my fundraising & indeed sport has been through my running. My football career (in the loosest sense of the term) was ended at age 34 due to a broken leg & ruptured ankle ligaments, and I used running to get myself fit again & also to satisfy my competitive nature. In most cases I'm competing against myself, the clock, the hills, or the weather. I do, however, enjoy taking part in races; it helps me focus my training, and the sense of achievement & enjoyment is always great, especially when getting a new distance or time PB.


I realise that the previous paragraph didn't actually answer the question, so let me try again.


In recent years I've met many great people through Twitter and also through joining a running club and entering races. The best thing about running is that you can set your own targets & goals, and everyone has it within them to improve. I have a daydream that one day I'll get a team of runners together and we'll run from John O'Groats to Lands End and back in a big relay. I haven't gone as far as planning the route yet, but it's definitely on the bucket list.


I've still not answered the question have I?! This writing thing's not as easy as some people make it look. Right here goes:


The Longest Day Run is whatever you want it to be. It has no rules and no boundaries, no minimums & no maximums. It's for each of us to get out of it what would make us happy. I want Ultra runners to attempt to run over 100 miles & I want novices who have never run before to run at least one mile. I want people to challenge themselves & each other to achieve a new milestone, to do something they haven't done before. 


This is not a fixed distance, it's a fixed time. This is unusual for runners, we obsess about distance & how quickly we can get from start to finish. I'm hoping the planning & strategising brings a new element to people's training and gives them the opportunity to attempt a running challenge which they otherwise wouldn't try.


Here's the plan......


Between 12 Noon on Saturday 23rd June 2012 and 12 Noon on Sunday 24th the aim is quite simply to run as many miles as you feel you can.


You can do one long run, 10 shorter runs, or in fact any combination of runs over that time period. The aim is to set yourself YOUR challenge, and for everyone who takes part to encourage each other and help them to achieve their goal.


What if you can't do it between those times and on those dates? Then do it when you can. This is intended to include as many people as want to take part. 


Run with friends, run on your own, run wherever you are in the world. There's no need to be on Twitter, to upload your data to the internet, or to blog live from the open road. All I ask is that people state an intention to take part, and then provide me with details of the miles they manage to amass during their chosen 24 hours. 


I don't know how many people will take part, or how many miles we'll cover as a group, but let's see where this thing can go. If at the end of it people have enjoyed the challenge, possibly raised some money for a charity that means something to them, and made some new friends, then it will have been worthwhile.


This is not MY event, this is OUR event. I just had the crazy idea (unless somebody else somewhere in the world is doing the same thing!) Let's show people why running is so great, and why runners are great people. If we could each encourage a non runner to take part then we are spreading a great message.


The charity angle is something I've not fully formulated in my mind yet, but I am open to all suggestions. There's probably a clever way for people to communicate via this blog, but as a novice I've no idea how, yet.


Those on Twitter can chat via @longestdayrun or to my main account @mazymixer. Anybody who wants to email me can do so at longestdayrun@hotmail.co.uk 


This is still very early days, but I just wanted to get the concept out there and see how it develops. Please feel free to customise YOUR Longest Day Run and to suggest any ideas which will make it more fun/challenging/rewarding for all of us.


Thanks for reading my waffle (assuming you got this far!)


Until the next blog......


Cheers


Simon


P.S. Please spread the message as far and wide as you can. Thanks.