Well, that was a busy month!
I continued with hill repeats on Parlick throughout May but I only managed four sessions... granted, one session was ten repeats, which gave me just over 7,000ft of elevation gain: these sessions are hard, sometimes it's blowing an absolute gale, other times the sun is blazing but all-in-all, they're helping, I am climbing better and I feel stronger!
On Saturday, 6th May, I headed to Ambleside for the Todd Crag Junior Fell Races... it was my first experience of supporting at a junior fell race and our club, Bowland Fell Runners, had runners in the under 13, under 15, the under 17, 19 and 20 boys and girls races. I have to say the event was brilliantly organised by Ambleside AC and the juniors really did give it absolutely everything... before the races began, I walked part-way up the first climb and can report it was very steep indeed! It was fantastic to watch and cheer the runners at the start and to see them pushing hard for the line at the end!
After the last race, I headed North to Keswick for a Bob Graham Leg 1 recce... parking in Threkeld Cricket Club, I ran the four or so miles to Moot Hall. Keswick is always busy on a Saturday afternoon so I started my watch and walked through to Bell Close car park where I was able to actually start running. I've run up Skiddaw a few times before but always as an out and back so Skiddaw summit onwards was all new to me. I really enjoyed the long downhill section, the boggy section to Great Calva was... boggy but overall I found it all pretty easy going. I had gotten myself all worried about the descent off Blencathra (Halls Fell Ridge) by watching a few YouTube vidoes that made it look at lot worse than it is... I'm sure in wet weather and poor visibility, it's a very different experience but I had a wonderful time dancing my way down and surprising myself with how quickly I was popping the boot of the car open.
I was going to run Mearley Clough Fell Race but instead took Belle along to watch and support the runners. It was a beautiful evening on Pendle and it was great to see Rachel, a fellow Bowland Fell Runner, take on her first ever fell race! Ellis Bland won the men's race and at the pub afterwards, whilst waiting for the awards ceremony, he sat chatting away to Belle... on collecting the rather stunning trophy, he placed it in front of Belle and said, "There, that's for you...", alas, Ellis had to return the trophy so we didn't get to take it home after all.
The following weekend, I headed down to Sussex to look after my Mum who'd had a back operation and was unable to bend... it was lovely to spend time with her and we were able to get out for some short walks with her dog... I bet you can guess who got the pooper-scooper job?
The weather was absolutely fantastic whilst I was there and I couldn't resist heading out one evening for a blast up Kingley Vale for some... wait for it... that's right, more hill repeats! I have no idea if it's really called "Spitfire Run" or where I even first heard the name but as a kid, my friends and I always used that name to refer to the steep, bowl section that leads up to the highest point. Some years ago, some steps were added at the top of the climb, to aid accessibility but I remember back when the only way was to scramble up the grass slope. I had a wonderful time chugging up and down and I managed twelve repeats for 4,000ft of elevation gain. I recorded a short video one of my slower descents down the steps.
The Garstang Colour Dash was also “fun”, I didn’t reckon on the volunteers actually targeting the face with the coloured dye but they did… it was all for a good cause but I don’t think Belle and I will be doing it again!
The month of May also saw our first company away week since before the pandemic... we arranged to meet up in the South of France and so we broke our journey midway for a surprise visit to Disneyland Paris! We had visited Disneyland back in February and whilst there I'd spotted the almost perfect circular road around Disneyland, I fancied seeing if I could create a perfect circle on Strava but unfortunately I was pretty ill during February and wasn't able to run. This time though, and with a closer study of the map, it seemed feasible to directly cut across the roundabouts and make a near-as-perfect circle but alas, when I got to the second roundabout, it turned out to be a bit tricky: it was more of an underpass with steep sides down and up to what looked like a road with fast moving traffic. In the fading light, I elected to kiss the apex and carry on... As we all know, I will be returning at a later date for a proper recce of the roundabout because that little blip really does bug the hell out of me. I titled the run, The Disneyland Paris Round.
My very last run of the month was from the beautiful little village of Flaux where we were having our company away week... I took a route North out of the village up to Saint-Hippolyte-de-Montaigu and then up to La Madone, a religious destination. I had time for two repeats of the steepest part and even then didn't hit 1,000ft of elevation gain.
A very busy month indeed... and I'm really looking forward to June: I move to a four day working week with Wednesday's off for training so I'm already planning some exciting runs!
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