Okay. Things are finally looking up. Phew.
April got off to a good start as I attended my Fell, Hill, Off Road and Trail Module - Leader training in Sedbergh... I have been working towards an England Athletics coaching qualification and this bolt on module was the next step on the ladder to becoming fully qualified. Due to COVID, I missed out on the two day outdoor first aid course organised by my running club in February last year, so I will have to do one soon as having a valid outdoor first aid certificate is a requirement for achieving this part of the qualification.
April also saw Andrew's Bob Graham Round attempt... spoiler alert, he smashed it! I volunteered to support him with pacing duties on Leg 2, the graveyard shift: a 02:30am departure from Threkeld Cricket Club car park, bound for Dunmail Raise. As it had been a moment since I'd done Leg 2, I thought it a good idea to tag along on a recce with Mike and Will a couple of weeks before Andrew's attempt... we had a glorious day on the fells and it provided a superb opportunity to get a feel for the required pace up Clough Head... arriving at the trig eighteen minutes up on Andrew's target schedule, I realised I'd got it a touch wrong! I also paid for pushing too hard early on when it came to taking Andrew's preferred line up Fairfield: an all-fours shortcut crawl up the grassy slope from Grisedale Tarn to intersect the tourist path higher up. I think I might have let it slip to Mike that I was struggling a teeny-weeny bit at this point.
I'll write a separate post about supporting Andrew's Bob Graham Round, the Bowland Fell Runners camping weekend at Newlands and the Newlands Memorial and Teenager with Altitude Fell races.
With the clocks going forward, our Tuesday evening club run moved from Beacon Fell to Parlick: I must say it has been wonderful to get out in the lighter evenings without needing a head-torch and great to see some folks that I haven't seen in a while returning to the club runs... here are a few of our awesome runners at Paddy's Pole.
A little tired after a big weekend of running in the Lakes, I returned to the Wray Caton Moor Fell race for the second year and had a thoroughly fine evening on the boggy slopes above Wray!
I also had a lovely camping trip with Belle... we camped just one night at a local site to test our new Helsport Ringstind Pro 2 tent which performed very well. We had some rain overnight and had to pack up in the wet but it's such a quick tent to put up and take down, it was no problem at all. We took walks before and after tea along the nearby canal and spotted a magnificent swan.
I also helped out at the Sheriff 10K road race in Scorton. It's an important local road race which is held in memory of Phillip Sheriff. I absolutely love marshalling and seeing every single runner giving it their all almost as much as I love running myself.
Lastly, I've been working on my climbing legs throughout April with hill repeats on Parlick... a total of 38 of them all told, which has resulted in a significant increase in elevation gain over last month. At some point during the month, I figured out the obvious: that I could get more elevation by starting and ending the repeats at the bottom of Fell Gate, which I have been doing since. I'll continue to build on the good foundation I've laid in April in the coming months... mixing in a good dose of fast efforts at fell races and a smattering of longer, easy runs as well.
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