Keep on Running

 

Only one who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S.Eliot

 

Well it’s done, the big one the Bob Graham Round, or as it’s become know in this house simply the BG. It’s not just Mr Uhdd that’s exhausted, whilst he has more reason to be so than the rest of us, the boys and I are never the less, totally pooped.

How to tell you what it was like, I think we might have to have a guest post from Mr Uhdd for that, I can only tell you what it was like from the bottom of the hill. The weather was bad, out off the 44 peaks climbed, there were no more than a handful that weren’t shrouded in low cloud and whilst we are delighted, relieved that it went so well for Mr Uhdd and ‘Laid Back Runner’ others didn’t have it so good and had to retire, I was a bit of a loss as to what to say to them, you could see they were gutted, I suspect they will regroup and give it another go. And there were a lot of runners out there, the challenge starts at the Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick at midnight on Friday night, and there must have 50-60 people gathered to give them a good send off, in addition to the towns Friday night revelers, who seemed to think we might be the start of a party.

After they had gone and we went back to the climbing club bunk house that was ‘mission control’ I tried very hard not to think of them out on the fells, running in the dark, rain wind and low cloud, but as I heard the pacers come and go through the night, my GCSE geography, from long long ago, came into mind, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, U shaped valleys, scree slopes; which ever way you look at it, bloody big things to fall off and into.  So it was a relief when it came light, it seemed to me like one hazard  out of the way; we went to the second road crossing at Dunmail at about 7am, there were a lot of support vehicles and supporters there, not just from our club.

Looking, waiting with the kettle on, hot food ready, the next pacers ready to take over

 

There were many miss-sightings, ‘here they are, on the ridge, look’ only to realise on closer inspection, the dots were in fact sheep not runners, but on schedule, they came over the ridge

for a the briefest of stops, in the whole event, all 23hrs and 8 min, Mr Uhdd stopped, to eat drink and rest for only 38 min in total.

The running club are poetry in motion, so slick and prepared, everything is done to allow the runner to do just that, to keep on running. I’ve posted more photos on my Flickr site. The willingness and effort by club members, to help other  complete this challenge is impressive, sportsmanship and camaraderie at it’s best.

After we watched them leave Dunmail, there then followed a long drive (for us) around the mountains, to meet them at Wasdale,

they had a rough time on this leg and lost some time, we watched and waited

  

And saw some very nice sheep

When they came in to this check point, Mr Uhdd looked rough, he skin was grey and you could see from his bloodshot eyes he was dog tired

The climb out of this valley is murderous and I wasn’t yet confident he was going to make it, it wasn’t till he got to Honister that I felt, he could, and would do it. As they came towards Honister they decided to split up and ‘Laid Back Runner’ and his pacer went on ahead,

We waited  for them at the finish in Keswick, this time with Saturday nights town centre revelers, they both made the last push, up the main street, accompanied by much cheering from from family, friends, supporters, and anyone else who was around, to slam into the doors of the Moot Hall, job done. There were a few folk swaying around Keswick, who looked ready to slump to the floor on Saturday night,  but some have more reason than others:  ‘Laid Back Runner’ makes it to the Moot Hall

Back at ‘mission control’, the guys had to be assisted out of their running gear, showered and put to bed. The support team on the other hand, had a beer or two, it was very late, or early depending on your perspective, when I found my bunk

Mission Accomplished

 

Mission accomplished; Mr Uhdd ran ‘The Bob Graham Round’ in 23 hour and 8 minutes and his running partner ‘Laid Back Runner’ came in 22hours and 14 min.  We are very proud of them. More photos to follow.

Gone to Work

Mr Uhdd and ‘laid back runner’ have gone for a run, they will be gone some time, it will be hard sweaty work

Numbers Game

 

Preparations continue for Mr Uhdd’s attempt on the fell running challenge ‘The Bob Graham Round’ and whilst there has been a lot of training on the fells, there has been an awful lot of work in the planning, it’s like a military operation, and Mr Uhdd’s running club are seasoned campaigners. You are not alone in this assault on 42 of Lake District summits, each runner has the fell runners equivalent of a Doula, better known as a pacer, well several in fact for, at least one for each of the 4  legs of the attempt, they keep the runner on track, carry gear, navigate and provide support, company and motivation (it’s is as  much a mental challenge as a physical one.) The attempt is an impressive team effort. As well as the pacers there will be welcome support where the route crosses roads, here preferred food and beverage along with pre-packed bags of spare clothes, back up fell shoes and other goodies will be available.

I am struggling a little with the catering, for one thing I can’t quite get my head round how your guts can cope with eating running  and digesting at the same time (and we have planned for the eventuality that they can’t) and then there is the issue of what your body will crave, under such punishing conditions, my brief is tuna sandwiches (tuna, canned in brine, he’ll need the salt) with extra mayo, to hold the thing together, energy bars and gels, cereal bars. But the feed back we get from those who have ‘been there’, is you might ask your support team to prepare a bowl of hot porridge with honey at the road crossing, a plate of pasta, or a bowl of stew; but when you get there you are likely to want to eat things you normally hate, so I am tasked with going shopping, for thing Mr Uhdd would normally never eat, ‘Cup a Soup’ and ‘Pot Noodle’s’ being my starting point.

And what to drink, well this lot for a start

We don’t as a household, use ’sports cap’ mineral water bottles as a one off disposable item, we refill them with tap water until they are worn out, and as there is no way they are going to get left on the fells, the majority of these bottles will retuning home after the event and will be falling out of the kitchen cupboards with annoying regularity for many moths if not years to come

 

Our PC has been groaning under the strain of keeping up with the barrage of GPS way points, maps, spreadsheets, schedules, emails and attachments. So here are some numbers for the geeky.

24 hours to run and climb;

42, peaks, that means if you spend a  minute at each summit, admiring the view it will add you add 42 minutes to your overall time, you can’t afford to fritter that amount of time away, some of last weekends ‘BG’ runners finished with only 5 min to spare; if you want to look at the view, go back another day and take a picnic on this occasion only running and time matter.

66miles to go, at a guesstimate of two thousand strides to the mile that equals 128,000 strides, that’s an eighth of a million

26,500 feet of ascent, not far short of an Everest, from sea level.

Its not a big job it won’t take long.

Smile please

How do you measure a quality smile? There has been much in the UK press this week about the need for nurses to smile and Gadgets post of yesterday had me mulling on this conundrum

Ok so I am dumbing the issue down a bit here, but what its really about is the need for nurses to show compassion and empathy and they are entirely different things to a low grade smile. Nurses (and that’s a good number of my friends and acquaintances) have to carry the mantle of nurses somehow being ‘angels’, throughout their shift and that can’t be a light load, but I know there is scope for improvement, I’ve been there, well Mum has.

But how do you quantify a smile? not all smiles are equal, so do ‘they’ plan measure the smiles on a scale of 1-10? #10 being the nicest smile you have ever seen and #1 being a sneering sarcastic grin (oh dear an image of Gordon Browns ’smile’ has just come into my head, it’s not pleasant, think the joker from the batman movie.)

But anyone can tell when a smile is not genuine, a faux smile may stretch from ear to ear, but if the eyes aren’t smiling it’s not for real. And that’s the thing, you cant, slap a stick on smile on the face of the NHS and pretend its all OK, it has to come from what deep within, and that’s more (or at least I think it should be) than a stack of statistics and tick boxes.

Role Reversal

Jack Sprat could eat no fat

His wife could eat no lean

And so betwixt the two of them

They licked the platter clean

So goes the traditional British rhyme, well in this household the roles are reversed. Mr Uhdd continues a pace to prepare for his attempt at the ‘Bob Graham’ fell running challenge next month (its a while since I mentioned it, so here are the statistics; length 74 miles, taking in 42 Lakeland peaks and over 28,000 feet of ascent, to be completed in 24 hours.)

The amount of training required for this sort of challenge, needs fueling and ‘catering control’ (and that’s me) is struggling to stop him from eating himself, his body mass index is now down to 20.6 and his body fat is 3.7 that’s heading for pro cyclist levels. Meanwhile I am shopping for and living amongst food I most defiantly shouldn’t be eating; it’s high in protein and fats and there seems to be no restriction on the flapjack, chocolate and biscuit consumption. It’s hard to cater for a more modest diet for me and keep focused on the salad draw in the fridge, when the other shelves are laden with so many tempting goodies and the fruit bowl is juxtaposed with the biscuit tin.

I’m awash with commitments and challenges of my own over the next few weeks, though non so energetic. So posting and blog reading may be a bit spasmodic till mid June, when normal service will be resumed.

A spoon full of sugar

Just a spoon full of sugar may make the medicine go down, but other aids to convalescence are less palatable.

Tom was ‘proper poorly’ after he got back from his school trip, he slept and slept for days, his Easter egg that was awaiting for his return remained unwrapped and uneaten (but it was circled regularly by the rest of us, but you can’t go nibbling on a the Easter egg of a sick child can you, I mean I wouldn’t stoop quite so low, would I?) Tom coughed and spluttered and ate nothing for nearly a week, the traditional ’sick room’ drink of Lucozade was rejected as was the trendier Lucozade Sports drink, nothing would tempt him

We went through days of ‘If your not better tomorrow, your going to the Dr’s.’ But the next day dawned and he seemed a bit better, but then only for a few hours later, he was rough again, or fast asleep; by which time all the days appointments at the doctors surgery had been bagged (in fairness to the surgery, if I had pressed the point he could have had an emergency appointment, but it wasn’t that he was getting worse, just not any better.) In the end I got a telephone consultation and they asked me to take him in to see a doctor, a chest infection was diagnosed and antibiotics prescribed, this worked a treat, it was not the taking of the medication that worked, but the thought of taking it, Tom was not impressed at the idea and he started to recovery quickly. In truth I think the infection had run its course and he was about to get better anyway; the antibiotics remain in the fridge untouched.

The upshot of Tom being ill is that he has lost weight, he was as skinny as a latt to start with, there is even less of him now, he needs feeding up. He’s working on it, The Easter egg is now consumed, along with a large tin of chocolate chip muffins he’s a boy on a mission; my mum tells me this is what he needs; Virol a preparation bone marrow ‘fat food’ for children and invalids.

I don’t fancy it myself nor does Tom, talking with a friend about how to feed Tom up, he told us as a kid (circa 1960’s) his mum used to ‘feed him up’ by making him drink milk into which was beaten a raw egg and fish roe. It obviously worked as my friend has grown up big and strong, not only that he can stomach absolutely anything. Kids today they don’t know how lucky they are.

He’s Back

Tom is home, he’s been away on a school ski trip

We’ve missed him, the house has been toooooo quiet, (in spite of Joe’s best efforts) when I picked him up from the airport, I wasn’t expecting him to be very lively, they had a long long journey, but he was worse than I feared; all limbs intact, which is good news, but he had but for the last couple of days of his holiday he had ‘flu’ like symptoms,cough, cold, loss of appetite and nausea; I am sure the  there are the tales of what a terrific time he had, up until then, but for now he is tired and ill and is now fast asleep.

Yay for the Lufthansa cabin crew that, noting his cough, checked how he was feeling and offered him some nasal drops to help making his ears less painful coming into land.

On the subject of flying, thank goodness we didn’t have to go any where near Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to get him home, yay for living well north of Watford Gap

All Through the Night

Mr Uhdd and his mates will have been out on the hill running/walking  for over 12 hours, they started the race started just before midnight, it’s 40 plus miles, dark, cold and very windy, 200 men and women moving on through the night, running when your body says you should be sleeping.

What state they will be in when they get back, I’m not quite sure. 

Yellow

Because we all need a little sunshine sometimes

Gaudy, primary, in your face yellow, the colour of crocus,

forsythia and daffodils, all the flag waving flowers that promise spring, just the thing to spread a little cheer. Mr Mans Wife if feeling a little blue, the black dog of depression is snapping at her heels, I hope she feels a little brighter soon.