Racing from one race to the next!

AJ and Sarah pre-race. The look of confidence. LOVE IT.

Seriously this week has been a complete whirlwind. I'm actually just so thankful I've made it. NO LIE. When I wrote this week's to do list and four sides of A4 later the list still wasn't complete, I nearly had a mild heart attack. But I am now a to do list Queen - actually I'm the ALL DONE with a Shiny Bow on Top Queen (that is, until I write the list for this week of course!)

Here are just some of my shiny bow highlights - just in case you have had trouble sleeping ;-) I've moved out of my flat, the subletter is in situ and she is LOVELY, I have sorted currency, insurance, rebooked flights (courtesy of my way too smart friends and their Bar exams ;-)), I negotiated a £3million work contract in under a week, my suitcase is packed and now closes although lifting it is still a feat of science fiction - America has AJ to thank for the fact that I'm actually bringing a suitcase at all and not going travelling commando except for my everyday lycra getup. The suitcase would have been hurled out of the window, for sure, if lifting it more than a nanometer was a possibility. I LOATHE packing and I will continue to do so until the Mary Poppins/ Hermione's bag charm that automatically packs and sorts everything you own into a bag the size of a handbag and that weighs less than a kilo becomes a reality. To me this goal rivals world peace. Until then apparently I can buy everything I might need in America. Even shampoo. Thanks a million AJ! xx

BUT back to the business of this blog. Today was the long awaited 10km time trial (remember my bet to run 10km in 55 mins and under) well today was THAT day.  Unfortunately this week's manic to do list mania has full out knackered me and running wise I am only good for the scrap heap:

• My 5km attempt on Wednesday proved that much - I managed 3.75 km and that was with a 5 min full stop REST mid run; 


• Thursday training's 0.5km intervals confirmed this - I had to stop and walk as soon as I was out of sight (the old school gym trick)


• And yesterday brought the message home - people noticing that I was breathing like a steam train just whilst walking or sitting. 

Not a good sign. Lung meltdown at the worst possible time ever. A course of superstrong steroids, sleep and a 4 month holiday - wahooooo!!! will sort the breathing issues and ensure I don't actually suffocate any time soon BUT as steroids are essentially performance enhancing drugs - it seemed like an unfair advantage over AJ ;-)) - well that is if I could run more than 300 yards without needing to lie down and die.

LONG STORY SHORT - Sadly I limited my participation today to the pre-race warm up and being chief cheerleader. BUT AJ and Sarah were simply amazing. AJ pulled off such a solid 10km performance - 1 hour 5 mins!!!!, saving her sub hour 10km PB for when she and I go head to head 10km time trialling in October right?! ;-)) and Sarah restrained herself from running off with a cup...... but only just and only because this was her first race post toe break!

It was actually a delight being able to heckle - oops I meant encourage - the runners round the course - including a couple of my work colleagues who are seriously impressive runners - 41 min 10km anyone? INSANE.

But now for the real goodies of the day - the photos!!

The field lining up: 30-35 minute 10kers at the front

Wha............t the F*&@

Admiring the view

From my race position. 

The Glam Victors with their spoils.

Yes they ARE now sponsored by Capri-Sun! Only the best for the best!!

Unfortunately cups to drink from were only provided for the top three.

Next time Sarah, Capri-Sun shall be swigged from a cup - straws optional!

Very nice rankings!! 

AJ's run profile on the Nikeband - not set to her pace mind.

CHECK the superimpressive SPRINT FINISH

Two races this week and not a medal in sight for me. But important lessons learned none the less: Just like with food I have to learn that my enthusiasm is sometimes greater than what is physically good for me.

So I've pared down my next running goal in line with my current actual ability - for the next few weeks I will be working on being able to run 5km comfortably in 90-100 degree Texan heat in preparation for some real life running action with the legend that is Ben does Life. CANNOT FREAKING WAIT.

Similarly excitingly AJ is now working towards a kilomathon - 26.2km race - JO is always AMAZING!! and Sarah is half-marathoning it next weekend - cup glory will be hers for sure.

The race to be the best runners we can be NEVER ends! xx

London Moonwalk: A Walk on the Wild Side!

Face Art all courtesy of my outrageous demands and the insanely talented GG (check the costumes below)!!

Moonwalk. Take 2. One of the longest days followed by the shortest day of my life - I went to bed at 9am this morning and woke up at 6pm - nooooooooo such a waste of my Sunday and a gorgeously sunny Sunday at that. I'm writing this still feeling punch drunk with tiredness. So please forgive me if I ramble a little.

My partners in crime for this event: 

Sarah's Mum & Hottest 'Bird of a Feather' of her local Ramblers Club: Janis 

(Janis' stories about teaching hopeless numpties (aka me when I was a pupil) hockey and tennis, despite now approaching the big 60!!! nearly/actually had me wetting myself)

& Every Fireman's Dream (as we discovered first hand traversing Chelsea during the early hours!!): Debbie

These ladies were insanely good company - gossiping about men's dating chat up lines never gets old and evidently they DO NOT improve with the years it appears. Note to self: The Ramblers is where all the action is at! Everytime these ladies spoke - I ended up in heaps of giggles and nearly in a heap on the floor.

Three bits of essential Moonwalking lingo:

'azard (MUST be spoken with an East London accent) = bollard/tied up bike/lamp post etc. Most usefully said prior to impact but just as effectively said once impact had already occur and a doodah was entangled with said 'azard.  

doodah as in 'a breeze up my doodah' as quoted by Debs.  'Doodah' for anyone who was not giggling helplessly at 3am this morning is the plastic poncho supplied to keep Moonwalkers warm/dry. The breeze in question almost caused the doodah to take off with Debbie in it. Typing this I'm still giggling helplessly. You probably had to be there. Trust me. Hi-larious.

morning/ good morning - must be said anytime you greet one of the amazing Moonwalk volunteers even if its only a few seconds after midnight, pitch black and both parties are massively sleep deprived. On average expect to hear/say this 2,000 times during the race.

Releasing 17,000 women and men dressed as women into London, even at midnight = lockjam.  There were a serious number of roads to cross which kept jamming up the crowds even more and the stop/starting was hard going on cold legs. The volunteers responsible for getting people across the roads safely were STARS and couldn't be faulted. But just try power walking down Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon and doing that for 26.2 miles straight. Not great fun. I was also really worried to see some horrible falls due to poor lighting conditions and crowded pavements and of course, tiredness. Some of the falls were plain nasty i.e concrete and faces - not a good combo. Thankfully our little crew all successfully managed to stay upright the entire route despite some very close encounters. I went flying at one point when someone else dodged a bollard but not me. Fortunately I was prevented from a headon collision as that same someone was standing on my foot at that juncture. ;-)) I also thankfully caught Sarah's mum from falling on her face after tripping up a couple of times. My ONLY useful contribution to the race proceedings! Honest. 

All in all, I am ashamed to say I was completely rubbish company. Mostly because I was beyond tired. Even just turning up at the event at 8pm Saturday evening I was yearning for the exact moment I would crawl into bed 13 hours later. I sadly couldn't muster much energy to speak much and when I did I made basically no sense. Sorry girls. Most of the time I was channeling my energy into ensuring I didn't vom everywhere. Annoyingly I felt seriously dizzy from the get go. Trying not to trip up and the combination of looking in front of me through the swarm then down at the swarm of legs to find a free patch to tread and mixed in with all the flashing lit costumes (all the costumes were truly BRAlliant!!) in the pitch black sadly didn't fare well with me. 

Have no idea what this is meant to be - 

I think this was meant to be a Moonwalk signage in front of O'Neils - a little momento for Sarah 

- clearly this didn't work but it does kinda evoke how I was feeling

Fortunately the ladies made up for my crappy race behaviour. Well Janis' feathered breasts did that all on their own. No part of London was safe.  These escaped EVERYWHERE (ok the feathers not the breasts!!) Still giggling at replaying my mental image of watching Sarah husband's attempting to re-feather his Mother-in-law's bra whilst she was wearing it and all of Janis' own commentary and attempts at keeping her feathered beauties contained for c.7 hours during the race. *major giggles enjoyed by all* 

N.B. Teachers recall EVERY pupil who has ever thrown up in their care EVER and are capable of some seriously hilarious re-enactments. These ladies were on such amazing form. I couldn't have been luckier that I didn't actually end up throwing up. I'd have NEVER lived it down!

Plus it was honestly like having Sarah there with us - Sarah and her Mum have EXACTLY the same laugh, so much so, I kept wanting to check that Sarah wasn't actually walking alongside. Plus so much goss on 'when Sarah was a child' but my knackered noodle has locked these gems downs. Never fear these gems will resurface ;-))

Apparently the Moonwalk this year was themed 'Walk on the Wild side'

I want this as a pet.

In the zoo that was the Moonwalk holding bay for 17,000 intrepids - I went ahunting and found these wildly exotic but strangely familiar creatures:

Kaye and GG!!!!

This lady did this herself!!!!

The no-carb diet is making this hottie EXTRA grrrrrrrrr worthy

Soooooooooooo jealous

Flanked by two superhot wild things

Shame about my own horrible and bizzarely saggy midrift.

Please avert your eyes.

(Secret: I was sucking the gut in at this point but I still looked awful. Sad times)

Thankfully this was the only point I was this nekkid as it was FREEZING COLD.

Now I must apologise for the lack of race pics - I was too busy giggling, announcing or dodging 'azards, giggling some more and trying to alleviate the nausea and dizziness. Plus when we got to the 13 mile mark at the chelsea embankment c.3.30am in the morning - we spotted two pairs of Moonwalkers going in the opposite direction - in what we later discovered was the 23 mile mark - HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? That was enough to make me properly retch.

Marking the end of what Debs kindly described as 'purgatory'.

It was a long walk.

Actually for me the walking was the easy part, 

it was the tiredness of a long week that was killing me

We finished after 7 hours and 39 mins of walking (according to my stopwatch)

(I think the clock was for the first wave of racers who left c.20 mins before us)

NO STOPS except at the hideous traffic stops

 & just a very quick loo break at the Southbank 10.5 miles in.

WE DID GOOD.

The steps - we actually started in the second wave at 11.25pm so there are another c.4000 steps to add to this race total - my 60,000 step estimation was pretty close!!

Sarah - our beautiful breakfast picnic ANGEL and the person I was impersonating

greeted us at the finish line loaded with hot tea, OJ, muffins, brioche, blueberries and MORE

Seriously AMAZING!!!  Thank you xx

In place of an official finishers photo - as I just plain forgot. Sorry.

Having Moonwalked twice now - both occasions were so memorable and it was such a genuine privilege to stand in for Sarah and walk with Teachers Extraordinaire Janis and Debbie but I'm now of the opinion that the organisers do need to sort out the crowd problem or cap the entrants numbers for this race better. It was a Zoo. A very fun Zoo. But still a Zoo. Personally I have decided that I will only EVER do the Moonwalk again if a) the Theme is the Walk of the Living Dead and b) I can dress as a ZOMBIE!!  How much fun would it be to scare all the drunks of London with hundreds of zombies walking around at the dead of night?

Mwahahahahah  - ok as it's now 3am it's back to bed I go. This Zombie has to be up for work in 4 hours - nooooooooooooo xx

p.s. MASSIVE THANK YOUS to all you lovelies who sent me Good Luck messages on the night - it meant so much to know that people read my blog and care that I survive to tell the tale!! xx

60km: The Protege becomes the Master

As you know brevity is not a gift I was blessed with - so you have two options - 

Either just enjoy the 90 second photographic tour of this weekend's 60km adventure and stop there.

AND/OR you can continue on and read my account of 60km - it's honestly JUST the highlights.

Either way understand this - HANNAH whipped my butt. BIG TIME ;-))

Registration - 7am and yes I am apparently cross eyed

Slight bag differential - mine is the baby one - thank goodness

Both weighed a tonne though

Getting ready at the start - see it is a race ;-))

Then of course the heavens open

Urgh - most hideous photo of me on the planet number 200876

BUT - wearing Lucinda's size 8!!!! waterproof jacket - couldn't really breath

Breathing is so overated - size 8!!!!

THANKS Lucinda  - hoping it's still a size 8 when I give it back?! xx

No kidding - 12 hours of delay before I can sit down again

I miss proper Park Lane - with traffic and buses and pavements

No idea where we are right?!

There is no glamorous way to get over one of these - after 87 attempts or thereabouts in one day we can say that with confidence.

At least neither of us attempted to leap over one very wet fence like one unfortunate male - sometimes you really just have to laugh!

Forgetting about the walk for a sec and being a tourist - SORRY Han!

Re: strange outfit - The kit list asked for bright clothing so I wore all of mine at once

1/3 of the way - woop. Time for lunch.

First mammoth hill.  

Twenty seconds after taking this snap I tripped over a rock and nearly fell off a cliff face. Gave Hannah a heart attack - oops.

This was my view for about 7 hours of the walk - then she seemed to speed up or did I get slower?!

Half Way Now - The Marshy Bit.

30km took us exactly 5 hours 59 minutes (including breaks!)

The Pony Toll - a close encounter of a different kind

My squirrel topiary - it's the little things that made me happy enroute

Starting to fall behind. Pace is getting too much

Han............nah.......wait for meee.........

Told you. Hannah is too zoomy for words 

- This was at the summit of the three kilometre vertical Bignor Hill. 

We completed 40km in almost exactly 8 hours.

Dinner stop at the top of this section - WOOP de DOOP

Going solo - just me and my camera now - no Hannah. 

She's basically already at the finish line, feet up, with a cuppa in hand ;-))

I'm only smiling as I've just been fed. 

Another pic for my superhideous modelling portfolio ;-))

Totally stopped smiling when I saw this hill.

This was the dreaded V track section

Flint. This was a good section.

Sense of humour returned a little here - just 12 km to go

 - basically the distance from my home to work

Finish line in the distance - between the two fence posts!!

The guys were trying to convince me it wasn't far then apologised with a choccie biscuit

Hand swelling - not a good sign

The dreaded V tracks underfoot - don't let appearances deceive you - this was nasty

The hunt for the glowsticks begins as the forest gets dark

For all you Mentalist fans - this creeped me right out - especially as a man had just jumped out of nowhere behind me about two mins prior and the adrenaline was still pumping

- I only just managed not to scream the place down - cos he was cute. 

Serial killers are not cute right?!

Creepy barn with the open door at the bottom of a wooded glen 

- I so wasn't going to check out what was inside

This place was literally a beacon of hope 

-You could see these lights from about 2 miles away - heaven

See - the glowsticks help

This is a great depiction of how I was feeling in the latter stages

- I actually thought I saw blood pouring out of my shoe at one point 

I had to check three times to make sure I was just seeing things

Racecourse - Hooray

Goodwood and the finish line in sight

Just 2km left to go

Even walking on the road by this stage was painful

Loving the glowstick arrows

Victorious smiles - 60km completed

Challenge Hannah  = 12 hours and 10 mins

Girl on a Mission =  12 hours and 40 mins

Hannah showed me!!

p.s. Hannah has also raised over £1000 in sponsorship - TOTALLY incredible

60km took me 12 hours and 40 mins 

(plus c. 2 minutes to remember to turn off my stopwatch)

and only 77982 steps (77000 of those were like walking on a bed of nails ;-) )

You can see the difference between having Hannah pace setting and me going it alone - pre and post 5pm.

How sweet are Hannah's parents?!

Thank you

The route

The elevations

Between stations 5 and 6 was the two-staged Bignor hill

Between 6 and 7 was the cursed v track hill

By comparison - the last hill up to Goodwood through the forest was a doddle 

- I even managed to overtake a couple of people on the last hill!

For the complete race highlights, please read on:

Well finally home after yesterday's epic race.  Han disagrees that it was a 'race', rather it was a walk but if you'd seen the intense pace Hannah set right from the off and maintained for 12 straight hours, not to mention the amount of overtaking - it was definitely a race. Please feel free to walk 10 minute kilometers for 12 hours straight with just seven brief rests and tell me that's not a race ;-))

We lucked out with the weather - despite my worst fears - only the beginning and end were wet. The most difficult and painful aspect of the 60km wasn't the distance but the terrain.  We joked early on that we were covering every terrain known to man - mud, swamp, woodland, grass, stone, gravel, chalk, flint, concrete, tarmac, basically everything except sand.  We spoke too soon as later on there was a horse trail to follow - of deep sand. Tick.

I probably cannot fully express to you the sheer pain of walking on flint - it's sharp, uneven, loose, impossible to negotiate and did I mention PAINFUL - all despite the protection of walking shoes.  There was A LOT of this too - maybe 30-40% of the course was flint. I vividly do NOT recall the recommended training plan outlining the need to perfect the art of walking on a bed of nails or on hot coals.

A terrain almost equally and surprisingly painful to walk on were tractor tracks - it may just look like harmless mud in V shapes - but it was extremely compacted and impossible to find a good footing and again painful to walk across.  We also encountered both of these terrains going up some epic hills - gradients basically vertical - which of course did little to endear me to them.

The second and third hill we encountered (of the four most horrendous ones on the route) basically broke me.  The second hill - Bignor Hill was sneakily in two stages - I thought at the end of the first stage after a kilometer of climbing and seeing the 40km sign that was it. But then I rounded a corner and saw Hannah still climbing and now about 500m in front of me and basically started sobbing on the inside. At the top of Bignor Hill after another 2km of basically vertical incline, was a memorial to Bob. This very nearly became a memorial to Bob and Justine. No kidding. (Hannah's insider tip - regular 30 min sessions on the stairmaster are key!!)

Fortunately after Bignor Hill was rest station 6 where dinner was served and I managed to regroup - slightly.  At this point, with 18 km still to go it became clear that I was not going to manage to keep up with Hannah and her awesome but punishing speed EVEN SLIGHTLY. I was having serious hand swelling issues and my right arm was also swelling up worryingly and painfully sore.  From what the medics could determine, my rucksac position was cutting off the blood supply to my right arm - this swelling had kicked in from the c28km mark and I only realised about my hands and arms when I went to give Hannah, c. 50 meters in front of me a thumbs up and realised I couldn't close my hands. A tad gruesome. Anyway realising that personally I needed to take it easier, we agreed that unstoppable Hannah should press on ahead and I would take a more manageable pace, more in line with my pain threshold and the intensely painful terrain we were crossing, and catch up with Hannah if I could.

I couldn't ;-))

Hannah was incredible - however crap a runner I am, I pride myself on being a fairly decent and fairly fast walker but Hannah is something else. In just 4 months the girl is completely unstoppable. Hannah is the weight I was when I started out 15 months ago and so has an extra 2 stone on me (currently and not for much longer knowing Hannah), her backpack is bigger and heavier than mine and I still couldn't keep up. Seriously impressive (and/or I am seriously lame).

The third hill was personally the toughest for me mentally and physically - as I was spent after Bignor and this hill was massive and visible from about a mile away. I could see how steep it was and how tiny the groups of people making their way up were and how slow their progress was.  It was also where I first encountered the deadly V tractor track terrain. Dear God. It took three pep talks to myself, some seriously 'about to give birth' laboured breathing and a lot of praying but eventually I made it.  I have never been so relieved to get to the lip of a hill in my life.

From then on it was a case of just keeping going however slowly and painfully; not stopping for more than a few minutes at the last two rest stations and definitely no sitting. Just swapping some banter with the incredible volunteers whilst partaking in my two cups of blackcurrent squash drinking race ritual which commenced from rest station one and continued for all of the eight stations. FYI: I have never full out sweated for 13 hours solid - it is gross.  I am still amazed that Hannah's parents allowed me into their car post race.

Best moment EVER was seeing the racing fences of Goodwood, seeing the finish line lit up and hearing the cheering in the distance and passing the 58km sign sometime after the 12 hour mark. When I eventually rocked up over the line 30 minutes after Hannah at 12 hours 42 mins - I was glad to be done and more than a little sad not to have been there when Hannah crossed the finish at woop, woop 12 hours 10 minutes!!

Hannah is such a testament to the notion that you can achieve anything you put your mind to (even if it's something that you don't really want to do) - Hannah has gone from never really walking anywhere to complete 60km in one go and at an incredible pace - she was wayyyyyy up front - all in less that 4 months of training.  There were tears.  WELL DONE Han. Incredible doesn't even come close. Only 3 more challenges left to win our sky diving bet. Help.

Things I've learnt yesterday:
a) I'm much more a 11-12 minute kilometer pace person over really long distances.
b) Flint is the devil. If I never see another piece of flint in my life it will be too soon.
c) I cannot wait for the 26.2 mile Moonwalk next weekend and some more sane, flatter and smoother walking terrain.
d) I still want to do the 100km Gurkhas challenge next year.  Hannah has already said absolutely, positively, categorically, even if hell freezes over N.O. - so I'm on the look out for three team mates if anyone's keen?!
e) I love the camaraderie between the participants on long race challenges - we met some real characters: - the scary lady who walked 10km extra, the men walking on their own, an Italian foursome going the opposite way. Everyone was on form no matter how hideous they were finding the walking.
f) The South Downs are beyond beautiful - Arundel is such a photographic gem that Hannah had to insist I come back on a tourist visit and to get a move on.
g) Never ask me the height/ depth of something - at one point I genuinely exclaimed in admiration "look how high we are?!" Hannah responded "that's a river" Doh.
h) Walking 60km over very uneven terrain have given me a very sculpted bottom - hurrah!!

So now it's time for some well earned relaxation so I'm off to the cinema to watch - you guessed it - Hanna!! A film about a girl, called Hanna, with the strength and stamina of a soldier. Though I believe I've already spent the weekend with the genuine article.

Well done Hannah. Talk about an inspiration. xx

p.s. For all you ex-SUPERchicks out there - we have another incredible lady in our midst who also achieved an incredibly poignant and personal milestone last week. I implore you to go check this out.