No rest

.... or at least not yet. Since my earlier BG attempt in June I have been keeping up the training, so when take 2 arrives on 30 August I'm not running entirely on grit.

Although I did some running in July, much of the month was spent on a trip to the Tour de France, first the prep as I adjusted from mostly running to mostly biking, then a week of biking in the Alps with a day of watching the Tour itself in the middle (which didn't arrive until early afternoon so I did get a mountain run in that morning by way of a change). We had a fantastic time, the Tour day being a total carnival and good to see those super human (super clean!) riders I'd been watching on the tele and in some cases for years (Jens Voigt, 36, almost as old as me). The riding itself was also utterly amazing: my first cycling trip to the Alps, so heaving up some of those famous climbs and lots of less famous ones, riding some of the stage we then watched, and at the end of every day, a 13km climb up Alpe d'Huez to round off whatever else we'd done as our accommodation was up the mountain :-/  Stats for the four days: 312km, 8,841m climb.

Back to the hill running, I have upped the miles again and had two more trips up to the Lakes. Last weekend I ran leg 1 and Clough Head and an arc back to Keswick. Irritatingly my shoes / feet gave me trouble, first toes and toenails on hard descents, then blisters no doubt as I compensated, then my quads hurt for days afterwards. A fair run out with a disappointing impact on me I'd say. Last weekend was much better: a full leg 3 and 4 double, run roughly at pace in 10:45 with lunch stop of 10 mins or so, plus a few photo / phone call / faff stops I won't indulge in on the day. I ran this with some folk from the FRA forums who just happened to be doing this route on the day, and the nav man certainly knew his tussocks. I have a good new line for Sargeant Man and also did the West Wall Traverse from Lords Rake to Scafell which I have not done before but will now use on the day. Although tired, as is to be expected, I also had no utter collapse on any of the hills which have on occasion been a slight nemesis (Scafell, Yewbarrow, Great Gable). Altogether a very encouraging recce.

I have a week on the Welsh coast approaching now, which should give plenty of training opportunity and some welcome variety.

Team and schedule for 30 Aug

I have updated the team and schedule for 30 August hopefully taking into account eveyone's preferences for legs they are able to help with - let me know if you have a difficulty with your leg / timing. Once again, a massive thank you for all who have said they can support and also those who did so on my first attempt and / or have helped with training.

The start time and exact schedule I am still thinking about, bearing in mind the amount of darkness and other things. My aim this time with the schedule is roughly leg 1 4 hours, leg 2 4.5 hours, leg 3 6 hours, leg 4 5 hours and leg 5 3 hours. I will try to stick to a modest schdule for the first 2 legs in particular.

Bother

In both senses of the word! I did not afterall get round on my first go, the chief culprit I think being the weather conditions rather than my condition. It's hard to say whether my fitness was enough for the task, as all I can really say is it wasn't up to the task in the weather we had. I had a bit of knee trouble, felt knackered to the point of stopping on certain climbs (Clough Head, Scafell, Yewbarrow), but on the other hand I was still running on leg 4 ok through to Honister where I stopped.
The weather was quite a story. We set off from Keswick in shorts and sunnies and had no trouble at all, just a hint of cool when we came over the top of Blencathra for the descent to Threlkeld. On the climb up Clough Head we still just had a top on each but at the summit I could feel the cold and a hard wind picking up, plus it was 1030 or 11pm so on went the jackets. Then the waterproof trousers. Then the clag came in. We had rain, clag and wind for the rest of the day; the mist gave between 5 and 100 metres visibility which hampered us sometimes, especially around Sargeant Man where we lost around an hour, but it was the wind which really scuppered the Round. It was relentless at 40 - 60 mph, making us stagger and demanding untold amounts of extra effort for the running. Although I'd always thought I'd complete even if over time, you never know what you'll do until you're at that point, and I'd had enough. In fact the wind if anything was getting even stronger and as we came into Honister the rain also lashed down again. It seemed a good choice!
There's always another day eh? We'll see. At the moment I am thinkiing of having another go later this year but need to check the diary.
The last and massively important point to say is the support I had, which was outstanding in every way. The nav was excellent, allowing for the visibility some places, I was fed and watered constantly, encouraged mercilessly, pampered at the roadside and even met in the howling gales at Sticks Pass and Rosset by those who'd walked up from the nearest road with sweet coffee and flapjack: honestly, no one could have more generous and welcome support, thanks so much to you all!

Right, let's get on with it then

I am still planning to set off at 18:00 Friday 21st. There was some thought as to moving it forward a bit but I've decide to stick with the plan, what's a little rain eh?!

If anyone wants to follow my progress I will be carrying a GPS tracker courtesy of the good folk at Open Adventure (thanks James and Lisa) so from the start you’ll be able to see how I’m doing and whether I am on schedule. The link is here: http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/bg2013.cfm?n=5
and you simply refresh the page every now and then; I think it's accurate to within about 10 minutes or so as to where I am

Right, let's get on with it then ...

BG in 1

Beyond the fatigue
curving up into the hills,
in the clag is strength.

BG in 2

Ankle mangling crags
and endless boggy tussocks
enrich the challenge.

BG in 3

Waiting in dark skies,
a thousand miles behind me,
the long fells beckon.