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| Inov8 Debris Gaiters.....before.... |
It didn't start well. Alarm went off at 5.30, and as I was already awake I got up quite easily, but Rich insisted on an extra 25 mins in bed whilst I walked dogs. When I went to wake him after his lie-in, we started on the "Do you want to go?" and the "We could just snuggle back into bed and have a lie-in" scenario. However, as I had already had my breakfast and it wasn't raining outside, and the fact this was such a local race.... we managed to turn it around and get ourselves out there. It only took us 25 mins to get to the start in Newburgh (near Parbold, Wigan) and the weather was fine.... so we had no excuse. We'd also bought some Inov8 debris gaiters to prevent stones and twigs going into our trainers on the run, so we had to try out our shiny new kit...
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| Newburgh Sports Club |
Once we'd got ourselves into gear, we got into the car with all our kit and set off. The sat-nav took us round the houses to get there, but we arrived and found a parking space (amazingly) in the actual venue! We couldn't believe our luck. It's quite a small event (150 max I think) held by South Lancs LDWA and the entry was about £6.50 as I recall. There was no queue for the toilet (unbelievable) and a minor change to the talkaround had been printed out onto sheets to avoid all confusion....a good start!
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| Illegal parkers.....at the start! |
So, when it got to 8am and we were due to set off, we were taken out to the carpark and given a good telling off! Firstly, anyone who'd parked in the venue car park got told off (oops!) because we were supposed to park somewhere else. I hadn't seen anything saying we couldn't park at the sports club, and there wasn't a sign at the car park (as there usually would be) saying no parking on site. Then we all got told off because last year someone left a gate open, some sheep got out, and as a result the group have now got to staff an extra checkpoint at the entrance to this field. Having had strips torn off us, we were told to have a lovely day and to start. Joy. If we weren't in the right frame of mind at the start (which we weren't), our little 'pep' talk wasn't making anything better!
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| Rich on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal |
Anyway.... we started off on a slight downhill through Newburgh and onto a footpath crossing a sticky field heading towards and then along the canal (Leeds-Liverpool this time). Now, if you've read my Ultra-90 blog entry you'll know that if there is one thing I HATE running on, it's canal towpaths! Rich's legs were taking time to warm up and his shins were hurting, but he managed to run this off. We stayed on the flat until bridge 30, then we crossed the canal and went up hill to Parbold hill. Now, we walked this route as a West Lancs Social Walk late last year, and we both recalled this being a horrible hill, but it was fine! I felt a bit sick as it was the first uphill and I'd just downed a carton of Alpro Strawberry Soya Milk drink.
It was my first time experimenting with soya milk as running fuel and I THINK it was ok. I had my porridge and rice milk for breakfast with a smoothie mixed with chia seeds (for hydration) and a carton of soya milk just before the start. My body isn't used to drinking soya milk, but following the advice of "Vegan+Sports" writer Arnold Wiegand, I thought I'd give it a go. It certainly kept my well hydrated, and I managed to get 3 down my neck during the 21 miles.
I didn't feel hungry, but I did miss the burst that sugar gives you - although this is a deliberate attempt to stop the highs and lows of blood sugars, ensuring greater endurance and consistent fuel consumption. Anyway - subsequent cartons didn't cause nausea, but caused much frustration trying to get the stupid straw out the packet (with gloves on) and pierce the little foil hole! Drinking them was easy, but made me burp a bit - probably because I was trying to drink them as quick as I could. Anyway - I'll definitely keep trying it! I didn't have anything else apart from one packet of crisps and my energy levels felt ok.
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| We got a bit fed up of the muddy fields....like goo! |
Anyway - back to the Beacon Bash. Having got up Parbold Hill we then ran down the muddy other side through countless sloppy gooey fields, collecting lots of mud along the way. We were pleased with our gaiters, they stayed on, didn't move, were comfy and certainly kept the debris out of my trainers. I tend to have them quite loosely tied, so there's plenty of opportunity for twigs and stones to get in them! We'd managed to take in 2 of the 5 checkpoints by this time, both offering just drinks.
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| Rich choosing his French Fancy at the CP! |
We ran up Hunters Hill (well, we walked it actually due to the big muddy fields - one step forward, half a step back all the way) where there was a much better stocked checkpoint where Rich managed to down a French Fancy and some home-made cakes. We were leap-frogging some guys from last week and they took some photos of us - so if I can get them off the website, I'll attach them to the blog too! There was a long road section downhill which meant we could run some of the mud off our shoes finally!
We headed on towards Fairy Glen (a wooded area with walks) and we managed to get a bit lost. The talkaround was pretty good, but we weren't using it much because we remembered a lot of it from the recce walk we did, but when we did need to use it, we had to check back and find out where on the details were actually were! A local dog walker put us right and we navigated our way through, ending up on muddy fields (a recurring theme).
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| Debris gaiters holding up well aganst the mud! |
After visiting the visitors centre, we had a slog up to Ashurst Beacon. I say slog because we remembered slogging up it last year on the walk, but in fact we trotted up and it seemed to take only minutes! You start the ascent on the golf course and through muddy gloopy wooded paths up to the top. There's a checkpoint just before the final push (with soup - I couldn't imagine anything worse!) and after a short pull, we were at the Beacon. Easy! A nice muddy sloppy gooey (recognise the theme?) run down then to the muddiest section of the day. Debris gaiters still holding up well though.
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| Ashurst Beacon - and my new nutrition drink! |
We did the finally muddy field and managed to trot up the roadway to the finish. We completed in 5hrs 14. We were hoping for about 5 hours, but I think the sloppy muddy sections that we were forced to walk could easily be blamed for the extra 14 mins! We had to take our trainers off before entering the sports club, and we realised then that the gaiters were both friend and foe. They were clogged with mud, and now we were trying to get them undone so we could go inside! We managed though!
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| Mud....lots of it! |
Meal was pie and peas, so Rich tucked in, but there was nothing for Vegans!! Not surprising really, restaurants rarely cater for us, so you can hardly expect the LDWA to! I found a bit of cherry pie and ate my remaining pack of crisps. Rich had TWO puddings, both with cream...... We set off home and got bathed etc. Feet were grubby as usual, but had clumps of mud on this time, not just staining. However, it wasn't anything that the nail brush couldn't cope with. Rich walked the dogs whilst I nipped to the shops for food as we were craving chips and burgers (a vegetable burger for me of course!).
We were then shattered - much more tired than we were last week, and yet we hadn't worked that hard at all. I think it was the fact we were tired before we started that made us feel like that! Anyway - we're sat here in our recovery tights barely able to keep our eyes open. I'm just pleased it's half term next week!
So, to conclude, an OK run. It's local, but it isn't the most exciting. No particularly spectacular views or rewarding downhills, but it's undulating and guaranteed to be muddy. Yes we'd do it again, but only if there's nothing more interesting to do that weekend. Checkpoints were lacking in food, but they made up for it in the after-run meal, so can't complain really!
Our prize....makes it all worth while!
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