Trabuco Christening

Today I finally christened my new trabucos. Reluctantly I must admit, but I could not postpone it any longer. It had to be done. But I did get a photo with them all clean and shiny before I took them out. I joined the club's "easy" off road run again. 5-6 miles round the reservoirs high above Greenock. It was a great day, dry, you could even call it sunny.
On Thursday I had done the hill reps with the club in pouring rain. So I guess you could call that a bit more regular running again. Last week I had been in London at a conference, but also meeting my sister and visiting friends. It was great. The only downside was that I missed the club's annual prizegiving. Thomas did attend his 1st club prizegiving though. And he came home with 2 prizes! One for the fastest HM and one for the fastest marathon. Maybe next year he will bring home a goblet?! I live in hope.

I am back ...

... in my running shoes! After many weeks (I think in fact it might be a couple of months now) of not running (skating instead and then "recovering" or being lazy, holidays) I went out with the club today for an "easy" run in the hills above the Greenock cut. I had been out twice at the waterfront for very short runs lately, just to get myself into the running motion again. Then I had planned to do the Diet Coke version of the Glee Club run yesterday, but as Thomas has been (and still is!) working we had to cancel. So off I went on my own to join the Sunday stroll. Well, there probably is no "stroll" when a club goes for a run, so off we went into the hills and onto a course that will be the Xmas race course. I had thought of putting my new Trabuccos on, but then decided against it and used my old black running shoes. Good choice as we went through numerous bogs. Then suddenly I heard, we'll do a time trial for the 2nd loop of the course! Time trial?! It is a Sunday stroll! Luckily someone had a hangover and I managed not to come in last, sneeking in just before her. At the end of the 5-6M I was knackered, feeling sick, covered in mud and some scratches after a fall, but I felt like a cross-country runner and was very happy!

NEPAL 2009

We have returned from our trip to Nepal where we joined a trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary.
The trip was organized by Mountain Kingdoms UK (formerly known as Himalayan Kingdoms), there were 12 people in our group led by KC, a Sherpa by profession who had won the international Sherpa of the Year Award a few years ago. He was indeed a great leader assisted by 3 other local guides and 10 porters.

The trek as such was superb. The scenery is difficult to put into words, the size of the mountains, the vastness and the beauty of it. I am hoping to put a little film clip together and will post it here to give you an impression. For now there will be a link to some photos on facebook at the end.

Our highest overnight point was 4130m, the Annapurna Base Camp or “ABC”. The trek started at around 1000m, but instead of gradually going higher, the trek leads through lots of small villages that are reached by going up and down all the time. There are a lot of “staircases”, built into the mountainside, that let the Devil’s staircase look like a walk in the park.
On one morning alone we climbed 2500 steps up to reach a village, not to mention 2500 down in the afternoon and – yes!, up again the next day! It was harder than I thought though I did not have any big problems with the altitude.

After 6 days into the trek Thomas was known as – yes, “crazy German”! Where have we heard that before? While everyone of the group was glad to have reached the Machapuchare Base Camp at 3700m for an overnight stay for acclimatization purposes, he decided to go for a run! He returned after 1 hour stating that he had actually ran up to ABC at 4130m and back again in 59min! The uphill alone would take us 2 hours of slow walking the following day. Realizing that most people might not believe him, he had scratched our initials into a big boulder up at ABC!

A few days later he and 3 others of the group wanted a “fast day” so we split into 2 groups. The fastest and fittest Sherpa was sent with them (Phuri, he recently summited his 1st 8000m mountain, Manaslu) and only Thomas could keep up with him!
Anyway, not to bore you with any more of the details of our trip, here is a summary:

HIGHLIGHTS
- Spending a whole day and night at ABC amongst some of the highest mountains on earth and watching a magnificent sunrise
- Walking through sub-tropical forest for days in sunshine and bamboo forest until around 3000m.
- Being invited by Phuri Sherpa after the trek to meet his family in Kathmandu. Thomas & I were given typical Sherpa food and saw how he lived.

LOWLIGHTS
- Kathmandu (KTM): a city that seems to have descended into chaos and corruption over the past few years according to the locals. It is unbelievably noisy, dusty and dirty.
- Mt Everest flight: great views over the whole Himalayan range, but unfortunately no close up views of Everest as expected. I did see the cloud shrouded top though!
- I must have brought a bug with me as I have been off work since Monday with N&D. Slowly recovering though.

A trek worth doing and thoroughly recommendable!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45435&id=1245781862&l=605fb8f41a&subject=Nepal 2009

Berlin Marathon rocks!

What an incredible weekend we had in Berlin with great PBs all around and what a finish to a season that has not gone too well for Thomas. It was just perfect with great weather (too hot for some), blue skies and sunshine all the time.

I am still looking at my watch where I have saved my finish time just to make sure it is actually true! But it is official. My chip time for the Inline Marathon is 1:41:41. Never in my wildest dreams did I think of a time like this. I considered 1:45 well out of my reach. After failing to beat 2 hours three years in a row, mainly due to bad weather, I had joined the 1:50 paceline which I thought ambitious but not impossible in dry weather conditions.

The paceline is organized by Experts-In-Speed and the 130 participants met up 5 hours before the start to be divided into the groups and practise. There was already an electric atmosphere in front of the Brandenburg Gate in glorious sunshine. I met up with my 2 fellow Scottish skaters, Don who would be in my paceline and Marcello who was going for 1:35. Unfortunately our group was very big with 20 people of very different ability. There were 3 "pacers" or guides, but it became clear that it would be very difficult to keep the group together. There were 3 fairly small girls just behind the leading guide as well as others whose technique did not look great and the group kept falling apart. So much for drafting. We changed the order around with Don & I among the first 6 and it worked much better. It is all about keeping the rhythm of the skater in front, keeping only a small distance so you benefit from the drafting and trusting them that they will warn you about obstacles, bends etc. We then had a discussion about the aims of each of us, i.e. just staying together as a group without being too focussed on the time or going for the time no matter what. The guides tried to persuade 2 people to join the slower group but they wanted to stick with us. There were 6 of us who wanted to go for the time and I was certainly up for it and did not want to hang about.

So we left it at that and all met up again 30min before the start at 3.30PM. We got into our starter block and the 3 slower girls were gathering around the leading guide and I was getting concerned that they would just line up behind her and break up the whole paceline again. So I said to Don to stick closely behind me and I would try and get us into a good position. This was the time to throw your towel onto your sun-lounger! I am German after all. The other faster guys were also keen to get organized and as the start approached and we were trying to sort out our formation I actually ended up in 2nd position just behind the leading guide. Perfect! I could even still see some of the road in front of me which helps to reduce the risk of falls. Don was right behind me and off we went. What came were the craziest 5K I have ever skated. Imagine 7000(!) skaters trying to get away and jostling for positions. There was so much pushing and crossing of all the other skaters around us that I just tried to hang on to the leading guide who was trying to get us out of this crowd and into a bit more space. Only 200m after the start the message came "Don fell" which I had not noticed as he had lost contact with me when it all started. He would get up again and try to join the group or get into the next one, I was sure. So on we went at some speed. In the first sharp right bend we lost 2 more people and the group had already divided itself into 6 at the front and the rest had either fallen or split into 2 other groups.
Don managed to get under 1:50 and arrived in 1:48 having been picked up by a different paceline-group. He was delighted. He is in the M70 group by the way!! And one of the few Inline Instructors in Scotland.
I was still in 2nd position where I stayed most of the time able to copy the guide's rhythm perfectly. The rest were happy in their positions so we did not change much until half way point when we noticed we were actually going much faster. We crossed the HM point at 49min! Our guide was getting tired and we took turns at the front and I was still feeling great. When I was at the front I was actually ordered to slow down as we were loosing a couple of people. This kept happening, some getting tired, wanting to slow down a bit, the rest still feeling strong. When I was back in 2nd position the 3rd guy kept loosing contact so I stretched my arm backwards a lot to pull him in again. I was so enjoying the skate that it is very difficult to describe. The speed, the excitement, the concentration, and all that in glorious sunshine feeling the wind in your face.
The decision was made to stay in this smaller group even if we had to slow down a bit but we knew the time would be good anyway. And this is what it is about.
You work together in your group and benefit from each other. The group at the start had been too big and inhomogeneous to get this group feeling but the six of us at the front had now worked together since the start. So we finished it together and I just could not believe my time. It is incredible! Especially knowing I could have gone even faster and probably get under 1:40. It is like trying for a sub 4hour marathon as a runner, knowing on a brilliant day it might be 3:55-3:50 and suddenly finishing in 3:35.
Where did it come from? I really don't know. My endurance must have been really good still from all the running. I only went back to skating 4 weeks ago. And I was going to hang up my skates if I had got to sub 1:50 and concentrate on my running. Now I suddenly see that I can go much faster, maybe I should try for a 1:35 next year? What if I get faster skates with bigger wheels? It is certainly a good time to stop skating for the winter - on an incredible unexpected high!

Ben Nevis Race Pictures

As promised here is a link to our Ben Nevis Race Pictures
Warning: there is loads of them ;-)

Spectating at the Ben Nevis Race

Well, at least that was the plan! But for once the weather forecast was right and the rain just kept pouring and pouring. Nevertheless we left early on Saturday morning for Fort William hoping that it might get better.
We set off from the Youth Hostel towards the Green Wall, as advised by Bob Allison, for the best viewpoint just below the small Loch. We arrived a bit early, i.e. 12.45 with the race starting at 13.00 and nearly got blown off the path by the mountain rescue helicopter that was dropping crew members off onto the path for the race. Reaching our "viewpoint" it also became clear that today there was no view. You could hardly make out the contours of the Green Wall, never mind any runners coming down it later on.
And it also turned out that Tom's 10-year-old Goretex jacket had reached the end of its goretex life and had become completely waterlogged causing him to be very cold indeed. So we decided to turn around and see the runners coming through further down the path. We actually picked a good spot where they all had to cross a small stream. Thomas took lots of photos with the camera sticking out from a plastic bag that was over his head! Most of the runners though did not even look up even when we called out their numbers and in some cases even their names! I guess they were just keeping their heads down and trying to get on with their task. It was a very wet one! Well done to everyone who was brave enough to start the race on Saturday.
We saw a few familiar faces, Sarah Ridgway and surprisingly George Cairns only 1 week after the UTMB. Bob Allison, Jim Alexander and Karen from Strathearn Harriers who ran the Fling this year, Jean and Angus Bowman.
We went straight to our B&B to get dried off and later had a very nice meal in the Lime Tree restaurant. The next morning the weather had not changed and we nearly went straight home. Not before checking out Nevis Sport though.
And surprise, surprise the horizontal rain turned into drizzle and Thomas could not resist to run from the Braveheart Car Park to Kinlochleven. I drove round and made my way up to the Lairig Mor from the other side. We then ran down into Kinlochleven together and I enjoyed my 1st run since the Devil very much! The rain had stopped and there were even a few sunny spells at the end!

There will be a link to a lot of photos once they are all uploaded. Those who would like the original size please send us your email. Sorry Bob but yours are all out of focus :-(

What next?

I am back on my skates - yeah!

Having completed my 1st ultra I have bathed in my glory ever since and not run at all!

This is why I call myself a reluctant runner. I don't "need" to run, I am quite happy if I don't. I recovered fairly quickly, but realized that it was only a few weeks to go until my Berlin Skate Marathon and I had only been on skates 3 times this year due to all the running. So 4 days after the Devil I was back for a short skating session and have been skating ever since as long as I have got time and the weather is good enough. This is the downside of skating, you can't do it in bad weather so not a sport recommended for Scotland.

I was then off to Germany for a week where I had 2 great skates in glorious sunshine with stops at a beer garden! I visited friends and family, followed by a weekend in London for the Christening of my god-daughter. I also met up with one of my friends in Germany who has been bravely battling breast cancer over the past 7 months with chemotherapy, an operation and then radiotherapy. Now there is a "race" for which you need all the physical and mental determination imaginable.

I am hoping to finally get under 2 hours in the Marathon, I have tried 3 times but each time it was raining and you were just glad to arrive at the finish in one piece. So there are 3 other Glasgow skaters going and we have joined a pace-line for a 1:50 finish. Quite ambitious, but if it is dry it might just be possible. Fitness wise I should be o.k. but I still have to train up some of my muscle groups that are needed for the skating.

I have also decided not to run the HM in Glasgow because I realized that there was no way I could fit in enough running at the same time. As I was hoping for a PB (incidentally also sub 1:50 :-) ) I would have had to do some serious sessions. So just now it is all about skating. I hope to reach my dream time so that I can lay the skating to rest a bit and just do it for fun and cross training during the summer and not with a time target in my mind.

Instead of the HM we will go up to Fort William to watch the Ben Nevis Race - something I have wanted to do for the past 2 years but it always clashes with the HM. I just can't imagine how these guys are getting up and down there so fast, so I must see for myself.

After Berlin I will take up running again and hope to get some experience in cross country running later in the year with the club. I am also looking forward to a few trail runs, maybe as part of the training runs. But I won't plan too much ahead and enter races early on in the next year as I get too entangled in training plans etc. I want to just "go with the flow", run and see where it leads me.

In my euphoria after the Devil I was going to go for the "triple crown"! I quickly came back to reality and realized that it involves sooo much training! So I will definitely not even attempt to get into the WHWR next year. Also I guess there will be a very large number of previous runners who want to do it next year in memory of Dario. And so they should. And I would not want to take away a place. And of course I just have to be there when Thomas gets to the finish line. I think I will deserve that moment as much as he does!

But if you look closely you will (soon - hopefully) find my name on the entry list of next year's Devil! The race and route is too nice to be missed! Maybe I can even get under 9 hours?!