UltramarathonMike

It seems for the past couple of weeks that I have has something on my chest, any running I have done has been accompanied by a wheezy chest and sub par performance/disappointment. Thankfully during the last speed session on the Westwood, it eased up to the point that at least one sprint went OK. That was a 100% improvement on the week before.
Tonight though was a different story and for 8 miles of road pounding I felt good. The initial light wheezing eased up after a mile or so and although my pace wasn’t up to my best, it was nice and consistent the whole way round. It was also nice to get back on our standard winter route (clockwise tonight) now that the evening light has faded. After hitting the same route on a weekly basis for two months I really won’t be saying that but you really can measure your progress (or currently my lack of) against it.
Alas, this doesn’t really do much for the upcoming RRR50 and I am sure it will be a painful struggle, but hey, at least I’ll have at least one half decent run under my belt!

The results have been posted here and they make great reading.

I got a text from Chris the other night with his position and result, but didn’t see the rest of the results until now. Chris put in a great performance of 231.506km/143.8miles netting him 5th overall, 1st England position and leading in the silver team, exceptional. His thoughts are posted on his blog.
Sharon Gayter took 1st place in the 24h hour race and second place was also held by England runner Vicky Skelton. Bethany Clague also managed to put in a new PB with 176km/109.3miles. Great effort.

The mens 100km was dominated by the England team taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with Jez Bragg taking 1st in 7hours 5minutes.

Just wish I had been there!!

The Lakeland market town of Keswick is currently hosting the Mountain and Ultra Commonwealth Championships, this inaugral event sees athletes competing in 100km, 24 hour, 8k and 12k uphill-only and 12k looped course.
Sadly, my trip up with Megan had to be curtailed when it twigged that she would be at School. It’s great to see these disciplines join the Commonwealth games.

In the 100k the only runner I know anything about is Jez Bragg who is young, unstoppable, sponsored by North Face and has had a great year. His race starts tomorrow, two laps of a rather tough course …

Getting 3rd place in the brutal Western States 100 comes with serious bragging (no pun intended!) rights so if Jez thinks 24 hour races are crazy, they must be!
The 24 hour race was held between the 17-18th September (finishing yesterday) but I haven’t yet seen any results. I am waiting to hear how well Chris Carver has done, he worked hard and put in some excellent performances to get to the championships. In addition to Chris, Sharon Gayter was running for the women’s team and I found out today that Bethany Clague was representing the Isle of Man after her performance in the East Hull 24 Hour Race. Speaking of East Hull, Jim Rodgers of the local East Hull Harriers was also on the 24 hour team, again after a qualifying run in the East Hull 24 Hour Race.

For more information on the Commonwealth Championships can be found on the official site at http://www.cumbriacommonwealthchampionships.org/

Like a bolt from the blue Autumn appears to have popped in early to have a look around make sure things are in order for his imminent return. Still, I don’t let such things get in the way and I headed out for the Wednesday club run. It was raining, windy, quite miserable and the nights really are drawing in … all the more reason for a good run.

Our route master, Pete, had found some new territory for us to run in an inevitably after not paying enough attention or taking a map I missed the small route turn off, meaning it was going to be a long one, after wandering off the course (twice) a rather wet nine miles was done and dusted.
Having only done 13 miles since the Osmotherley Phoenix it was great to be out, in addition to that running in the rain and hitting the streets in the dark felt great. I am sure come February that feeling will have gone completely but for now I am going to embrace it!

With some speed training on the cards tomorrow evening it feels good to be getting back in the swing of things.

After the endurance pregnancy, baby Joshua took everyone by surprise and pulled out a sprint finish on Wednesday evening (26th Aug). He weighed in at a healthy 8lbs 1/2oz and, like his Mother, is doing well, so well in fact that when he would normally loose weight he now weighs 8lb 8oz. Clearly, he eats like his Dad

After a manic few days things are starting too settle down so I can start uplifting my fitness back in readiness for this years final goal, the Beacon Ultra. Just the RRR50 to get through in the meantime.

It is too early for me too say if he has runners legs yet or not.