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31st July 2008The black eye is looking less like the aftermath of an afternoon of fun down at Millwall and more like a bit of tiredness. The bruising on my face, knees and hands has turned into the golden glow normally associated with a tanning session but with slightly longer results than you get from the average bottle and the pain in my left knee has dulled from excruciating to hardly noticeable. I’m back :)
For my birthday, my young lady bought me a gym membership and for the last couple of days I have been doing non impact exercise as I have not managed to run for more than a mile and a half in the mornings without collapsing in a heap. It’s a great little gym with a swimming pool and the couple of times that I have been there after work; I’ve almost had it to myself. I’d tell you where it is except you might join and crowd me out :) It even has bikes that I can take out on the various trails in the area which should allow me some cross training. The only negative aspect of joining the gym is that I have an assessment next week and I’m going to have the humiliation of listening to how unfit I am. I was chatting to Mark, who will be doing my assessment and he asked what my goals were, the conversation went something like this:
Me: I have an 85 mile race that I want to do next year.
Mark: Oh, you’ll need a bike then
Me: No, I’ll be running it
Mark: Do you run Ultra’s then
Me: No, but I’ve run 6 miles though
Mark: (walks off tapping the side of his head muttering)
This morning I ran 3 miles with the dog before work and I’ve not seen her look so relieved for some time. She’s been a bit miffed with me recently, not only did I climb Snowdon without her but I came back a wreck. Without the runs that she has come to expect, she’s been a bundle of energy the last couple of days.
26th July 2008
We left Sonning at 9pm stopping briefly just outside Telford to pick up Tom; arriving in the car park at the bottom of Snowdon at 1:30 Saturday morning. It was pitch black and the moment that I switched on my head torch reality struck (actually, reality had struck Friday lunchtime so I rushed out to buy the aforementioned head torch as the alternative of climbing in the dark was slightly worrying!). I was almost ready and looking up to where I assumed the mountain was awaiting our arrival, when a voice came out of the darkness, ‘has anyone see the compass?!’ There was much rustling followed by a few choice phrases which belonged after the 9pm watershed and then it was decision time; do we climb in the dark with no compass or wait until dawn. I looked up, there was no moon, the cloud base was too low, a moments hesitation, I shone a torch in Simon and Tom’s faces to check their fear levels and we were off.
The planned route was to reach the summit via the horseshoe and finishing with Crib Gogh in the daylight - a sensible decision considering the warning from the ‘hightrek’ website:
‘Warning: Crib Goch should not be attempted in poor conditions. It is a serious climb in winter, and is dangerous in strong winds.
The Snowdon Horseshoe is one of the best ridge walks - if not THE best - in the country. The route should not be attempted by anyone with a fear of heights, since it includes the knife-edge arête of Crib Goch, and for the same reason it should be avoided in high winds.’
The first 45 minutes was simple, we were able to switch off the torches and walk with just the ambient light. Then it got difficult, the gradient steepened, the path became harder to follow and we were completely reliant on Simon’s knowledge of the mountain. In short, he was an absolute hero. How he managed to keep us heading in the right direction without disappearing over one of the many vertical drops I will never know. Each time my worry got the better of me, the path would appear again in the beam of the torch. If I was worried for myself, poor old Tom was having a nightmare - he had 2 head torches, both of which were failing and a hand held torch which hampered his ability to clamber over the rocks. I spent so much time swivelling my head around to show him the paths, I felt like I was at a tennis match.
After a couple of hours we were in the cloud, visibility was appalling and at some point we lost the ridge we had been following. We quickly came to the decision that it was time for a brew and we would wait for first light before moving on. Simon again showed his hero tendencies when he produced not just a stove and tea bags, but also a fresh pint of milk. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a cuppa as much as that one.
All too soon it started to get light and we were on our way. Then it was just a slog to the top, too often sliding on the wet rocks. If I hadn’t realised it before, there was a slight difference in conditioning between myself and the other two; basically I was paying for the last 20 years of the good life and it hurt. The top was a great feeling, the cloud was swirling all around us and we took turns to stand at the summit looking up into the whiteness. All too soon it was time to move on, the decision to finish on Crib Goch was confirmed and we were off.
All I can say is that it was magnificent, totally awe inspiring. ‘The arête was formed from the cooled magma of a great volcanic eruption sculpted by glaciers on both sides.’ We were tired and it demanded respect every step of the way. After about an hour the ridge dropped down into the valley and we were passing people just starting their climbs. The energy started flowing back into my limbs and we ran the last mile. I finished on an absolute high collapsed in a heap next to the car, 7.5 hours after we started, with two knackered knees and a bruised face from getting too familiar with the mountain as momentos.
What a blast, good to meet you Tom, bring on the next challenge :)
24th July 2008
If I was under the impression that Simon was going to go quietly enabling me to crawl back onto the sofa with my dreams for company, I was rudely awakened yesterday. My phone bleeped with an incoming text ..
‘Don’t suppose you fancy climbing Snowdon on Friday night for sunrise. 1st stamina session, back sat afternoon’.
I sat and stared at it for some time, obviously he was tired and not thinking properly; that would mean that we were going to climb in the dark! I gave him a quick call, to have a laugh at his expense, but he was serious. So, here I am, bag packed, waiting for tomorrow evening, hoping that the weather will be good, because I don’t have a torch of any kind. If I’m honest, my stomach is a bit knotted; but it’s a good feeling, I’m looking for my boundaries again, something I haven’t done for 20 years.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll be having a brew on the top of Snowdon watching the sunrise on my 42nd birthday.
22nd July 2008
I got bored talking about what I used to do when I was younger, how much I loved my running and how my life changed when I injured myself. I don’t remember exactly when I made the decision, but I did, enough was enough; it was time to stop living on past glories, get out there and find the buzz again.
First of all the smoking had to go, I’m still clean after a year and am very chuffed with myself. Next I stopped walking the dog and started running with her instead. Then when I moved jobs, the wonderful people that I worked with bought me a Garmin 50 and all of a sudden I knew how far I was running. Not far, as it turned out, 2 miles of huffing and puffing was about my limit; but it didn’t matter, I was hooked again.
Then last weekend at a family BBQ, things changed. I was chatting to my cousin Simon about the Exmoor coastal marathon, by all accounts a pretty impressive 28 mile run with 10,000ft ascent thrown in for good measure. The article I had read enthused me and I was waxing lyrical to Simon about it and an 85 mile run along the Ridgeway, which happens to be where I run with the dog; when he upped the stakes and said he would run them with me.
Oops, now I have a target and someone to run them with me. My bluff has been called so I thought I would start this blog to track how I am getting on. As the saying goes, for better or worse.
