Malvern Hills Ultra 54

Due to flooding along the River Severn the original course had to be revised and some bright spark came up with the suggestion that it could be an out and back - out to the Malvern Hills, run along them, and run back again. Thus the flat 15 miles along the river was cut out entirely. All of the flat bit on the left of the profile!

We set off in good weather at 7:30 from Holt Castle down near Worcester. We had the route on OS maps and we had written instructions which had been hurriedly reversed for the outward stage. To reverse instructions one could start with changing all lefts to right, however, a right immediately followed by a left is just that from both directions. I binned the instructions and stuck to the map from that point.

I got to chatting with Liz Tunna and another girl Ellie and before too long we had formed a triumvirate sharing the decisions of which way to go. Liz had the course on her Garmin too which would let us know if we strayed too far off the track and this saved us from one long trek back up a hill when we didn't spot a way point near the top. It was a superb course and the weather was near perfect. There was enough sun to make the views fabulous without any worries about sun burn. Check points were well stocked with lots of cake and sandwich making equipment so it was easy to keep energy levels up. Occasionally we had to find unmanned "punch points" to prove that we hadn't gone around a hill top or taken a short cut and as is sadly so often the case nowadays some cretin saw fit to remove one of them.

Approaching the turn around point I was really enjoying being up in the hills - so much so that I ran up another peak to take in the view again. It was a good knowing there were other people in the race and that some of them were not too far ahead! We had enjoyed running down a lot of hills on the way out and now we had to go up them instead. Of course this works both ways and we would be running down those that we had cursed earlier. The toughest part of the course for me was after we had left the main hills. We were following the Worcestershire Way and it was pretty consistently up and down. Despite the food at the checkpoints we hit a bit of an energy low which had us tucking into the food we were carrying. Liz was finding it difficult to stomach anything so we stopped briefly at a pub for coke and crisps. I managed to take out two of the (empty) glasses with my rucksack but everyone was too engrossed with the football to notice.

The last checkpoint was a welcome sight - just 7.5 miles left and mostly on road. Chatting to the volunteers we discovered that one of the ladies was the organisers mum and the other was his aunt - who else would you ask to stay out in a gazebo all night? Bearing in mind there was an 80 mile option we were by no means the last people through and they were planning to be there until 4:30am. Moving on we had to get the head torches out for the last bit. We'd left the Worcester Way by now so navigation was back to map reading. There was a nice run through a wood but in our tired state we came out of the wood too soon and while the  Garmins said we were going pretty much the right way we knew we were off the route. We should have gone back but we pressed on across fields to join the road which kept getting further away and by the time we reached it I knew wasn't the right road. Thankfully I did know which road it was and we only added a mile but it was a mile we could have done without! Navigating with a map in the dark is not the same as in the day so I was pleased when I got the next footpath section spot on.

We finally got back at about 11pm. Hot soup, pasta and chilli, then a shower in a ridiculously large bathroom in the Castle before driving home and falling into bed at 3:30. The unofficial result is 55.5 miles in 15 hours 27 minutes. I think it's the largest medal I have ever received.

A really well organised event. Top marks to the organisers for making it happen despite half of the course being flooded.

http://www.ultrarunningltd.co.uk/malvern-hills-ultra.html

London 2012 (VLM)

The last time I ran London Marathon I didn't really enjoy it. It think this was down to my approach to the event. I went there as a runner expecting to achieve a certain time. As a result I didn't pause to enjoy the atmosphere or to appreciate the millions that had come out to line the course. All I saw were crowds and all I heard was noise.

This year I turned things around. I've recently bought a video camera which can be attached to a head band. At the risk of leaping ahead - it looks like this...

The reason I bought it was to try and get some decent shots of Iceland when we go there in July. It was the terrific photos taken by some of the previous competitors that made me so want to run the Laugavegur Ultra Marathon so I thought I'd use London as a practice and see if I couldn't get some video of the marathon from the runners perspective.

We got the coach down with the running club and were deposited some 500m from the start. We found the toilets, queued for 5 minutes, dropped our bags off and before long headed for the start pens. You can't really fault the start organisation. I was doing a bit of filming trying to get some of the atmosphere. I caught a shot of two club mates doing that most unlikely of things - warming up! I also caught a shot of two ladies dashing out of the start line up and whipping their shorts down for a quick wee. Maybe Harry Hill will give me £200 for it? It would serve them right - I had a nice shot of the runners starting to shuffle forwards in anticipation of running and had avoided all the blokes peeing against the fence.

The camera (a Drift HD) is rather more bulky that it looked in the pictures and likewise heavier. Carrying the weight wasn't an issue but when you run it has a tendency to bounce up and down like everything else. I therefore ended up running around Greenwich doing a walk run something like John Cleese does.

It was nice being able to take the time to see what was going on around me. I tried to capture some of the moments - the start streams merging, the bands, the kids looking for high fives and so on. I doubt I'll make any money from the results though! Cutty Sark looked magnificent and Tower Bridge was a great sight too.

On the way around Greenwich I came across 73 year old John Dawson who I had the privilege of running the 10 in 10 with last May. He's had another round of major treatment but here he was running another marathon. We had a bit of a chat and I ran back and forth trying to get some shots of him before I carried on.

Tower Bridge brought the first Sue Ryder cheer point and boy could they cheer. That was quite a lift. I carried on filming around the corner to Fetchpoint but it seems the battery had run out by then. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do the silly walk any more which wasn't doing my legs any favours. I waved wildly at the Fetchies and a few recognised me in my Sue Ryder disguise!

I hit a bit of a wall at 15 miles. Earlier than usual but probably down to the silly walk in hindsight. A caffeine gel picked me up again and by the time I got to the 2nd Sue Ryder cheer point I was back in action. As indeed were they. They had a keen eyed spotter who pointed at me and shouted (I assume) "over there" and the whole crowd sparked off cheering twice as loud as they had been moments before.

Big Ben appeared and I thought I had to have some video of the finish so I got the Blackberry out and reverted to the John Cleese impressions again. I was stopping to film and people would shout encouragement at me - you can do it! I crossed the line at just under 5 hours on the clock and was given a chip time of 4:52.

The meeting point area at Horse Guards was packed so I became an international runner and went straight up to Trafalgar Square. Just down Whitehall I spotted the Sue Ryder colours outside the pub. More smiles and photos but most importantly, and in the correct order, a Guinness, a massage, and a Cheeseburger with chips.

I'm a bit undecided about the camera. It is a lot bulkier than I expected and it's size was the main selling point for me. I should have read the small print! And it was disappointing that the battery died like it did. It claims about 2.5 hours and it probably did something like that, but it died without warning. The first I knew was when I tried to stop filming and it didn't bleep. At some point I will get around to publishing what I have got.