Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The Caythorpe Canter
I am a bit late updating this!! It was a bit of a last minute decision whether to do this one or not, but turned up at the small village of Caythorpe on Saturday. I though I'd got the wrong day- when I've done this event before, everybody parked on the road, but it was strangely deserted. I drove through the village, and only saw a couple of folks walking their dogs or buying papers. A bit worried now, I turned round, tried a different road and saw the pavilion and marshalls directing folks to park in the playing field, which was a great relief!
Walkers started at 8:30am and runners at 9. My pack was fairly light, but I had intended towalk most of the way as my knee had been a bit dodgy. I saw Sue, who was walking with a (very fast) chap, she was going to try to match his speed in preparation for the '100' (LDWA flagship event involving walking 100 miles in 48 hours! Maybe one day...)
We set off, and Sue and her companion strode off at an impressive pace. I started off walking down the grassy track, and as it was flat, thought I'd try a little run... I am trying to build up my 'endurance pace' which is probably laughingly slow, but hopefully one I will be able to keep up for some time. I passed Sue and told her they'd be overtaking me when I walked again. There were quite a few others who were alternating running and walking, and we ended up leapfrogging each other quite a bit.
I did take a couple of pics with my phone, but can't seem to email them onto my pc... sorry... you'll just have to try to imagine it, it was Lincolnshire so think flat, sweeping views and muddy tracks, and, er, that's about it!
We followed a few more tracks, before a road led us around a race track. I was still running apart from when it was really muddy, and managed to keep going til the first checkpoint at 6 miles in the village of Stubton. The 'proper' runners had started to come past at that point, and I stopped for a slice of lemon drizzle cakes and drinks.
There was also a 14 mile option, and routes split shortly afterwards. I started to run again, along more farm tracks across huge open fields. The wind had picked up, and we were unfortunately running into it which made things quite tough. More runners came past, and I was still jogging. We reached the village of Hougham at around 10 miles, and a really picturesque section over the river and by the church. The sun was out, in fact we were quite lucky with the weather as the forecast had been quite dire. I walked through the village as I was replying to a text message (bloomin' mobile phones!!) but as we reached the neighbouring village of Marston I was running again.
I kept it up along more flat, wide fields but hit the first real hill of the day and walked. The next checkpoint wasn't too far, and my legs were getting a little tired, although my knee seemed to be ok luckily. I stopped every so often to stretch it out and it seemed to do the trick. I could see for miles, and there was nobody in sight in any direction. I felt a little lonely as I walked into Barkston, but the coffee, jam sandwiches and chocolate at the checkpoint in the school more than made up for it! I had a bit of a linger and a chat to the checkpoint ladies who told me to load up on choccie bars for later; I don't need telling twice!!
Straight after the checkpoint was quite a long, steep hill, especially for this part of the country. I followed two ladies on horses up it and when we reached the top and turned on to a track I started jogging again and passed them. It started to rain quite heavily, and I thought that was it for the day but luckily it blew over.
We entered some fields, with another long ascent, which I walked. I could see a group of runner/ walkers quite a way ahead which was quite useful, as although there were signs and coloured ribbon, navigation at this point took quite a lot of concentration! I was still jogging on the flat, but I suspect that there were probably folk actually walking quicker! There was a bit of a road walk after, unfortunately sporting a vast array of various roadkill (pheasants mainly). I had a bit of a heart stopping moment when a hare shot across the road, as there was an ice cream van approaching which wasn't going to slow down, but it made it!
We were warned that the next section was slippery but it wasn't too bad. I was still jogging although my legs were suffering a fair bit. A chap overtook me who I recognised from the Charnwood Marathon, and we reached Ancaster, with it's Roman heritage, and the last checkpoint. This was bliss- more coffee and cold rice pudding!!!
The very last section was quite undulating so I walked uphill along more tracks. I caught up with 'Big Dave', who I recognised from the Charnwood Marathon too. He told me that another group of runners/ walkers had got lost so were still behind us. About half a mile from the end, it started to rain- that horrible, icy rain that hurts- so I managed to jog back in but I wasn't half glad to stop! My time- an amazing for me 6 hours and 10 minutes!!!
There was crumble and custard on offer plus a gorgeous selection of cakes! Sue and her companion finished in 6 hours 40 minutes which is a great time for walking. The group that got lost came in and announced that they had done 29 miles!
I was aching a bit the next day, but not too badly, and there was no knee pain- in fact, I managed to walk to Syston and back, and even run a little. What pleased me even more was when I found my certificate from when I did the Canter in 2004 and it took me 9 hours 34 minutes for the same route!
Total weekly mileage for last week was 43 1/2 miles, not too bad!!
Well, I have been following this year's MdS on the Darbaroud site here- and it is the long day today so really thinking of everybody out there. It is really hitting home how serious this event is. All the guys from the forum have put in so much training and effort, and to read that they are finding it hard going makes me realise just how much work I will have to put in over the next year. Quite a sobering thought...
Walkers started at 8:30am and runners at 9. My pack was fairly light, but I had intended towalk most of the way as my knee had been a bit dodgy. I saw Sue, who was walking with a (very fast) chap, she was going to try to match his speed in preparation for the '100' (LDWA flagship event involving walking 100 miles in 48 hours! Maybe one day...)
We set off, and Sue and her companion strode off at an impressive pace. I started off walking down the grassy track, and as it was flat, thought I'd try a little run... I am trying to build up my 'endurance pace' which is probably laughingly slow, but hopefully one I will be able to keep up for some time. I passed Sue and told her they'd be overtaking me when I walked again. There were quite a few others who were alternating running and walking, and we ended up leapfrogging each other quite a bit.
I did take a couple of pics with my phone, but can't seem to email them onto my pc... sorry... you'll just have to try to imagine it, it was Lincolnshire so think flat, sweeping views and muddy tracks, and, er, that's about it!
We followed a few more tracks, before a road led us around a race track. I was still running apart from when it was really muddy, and managed to keep going til the first checkpoint at 6 miles in the village of Stubton. The 'proper' runners had started to come past at that point, and I stopped for a slice of lemon drizzle cakes and drinks.
There was also a 14 mile option, and routes split shortly afterwards. I started to run again, along more farm tracks across huge open fields. The wind had picked up, and we were unfortunately running into it which made things quite tough. More runners came past, and I was still jogging. We reached the village of Hougham at around 10 miles, and a really picturesque section over the river and by the church. The sun was out, in fact we were quite lucky with the weather as the forecast had been quite dire. I walked through the village as I was replying to a text message (bloomin' mobile phones!!) but as we reached the neighbouring village of Marston I was running again.
I kept it up along more flat, wide fields but hit the first real hill of the day and walked. The next checkpoint wasn't too far, and my legs were getting a little tired, although my knee seemed to be ok luckily. I stopped every so often to stretch it out and it seemed to do the trick. I could see for miles, and there was nobody in sight in any direction. I felt a little lonely as I walked into Barkston, but the coffee, jam sandwiches and chocolate at the checkpoint in the school more than made up for it! I had a bit of a linger and a chat to the checkpoint ladies who told me to load up on choccie bars for later; I don't need telling twice!!
Straight after the checkpoint was quite a long, steep hill, especially for this part of the country. I followed two ladies on horses up it and when we reached the top and turned on to a track I started jogging again and passed them. It started to rain quite heavily, and I thought that was it for the day but luckily it blew over.
We entered some fields, with another long ascent, which I walked. I could see a group of runner/ walkers quite a way ahead which was quite useful, as although there were signs and coloured ribbon, navigation at this point took quite a lot of concentration! I was still jogging on the flat, but I suspect that there were probably folk actually walking quicker! There was a bit of a road walk after, unfortunately sporting a vast array of various roadkill (pheasants mainly). I had a bit of a heart stopping moment when a hare shot across the road, as there was an ice cream van approaching which wasn't going to slow down, but it made it!
We were warned that the next section was slippery but it wasn't too bad. I was still jogging although my legs were suffering a fair bit. A chap overtook me who I recognised from the Charnwood Marathon, and we reached Ancaster, with it's Roman heritage, and the last checkpoint. This was bliss- more coffee and cold rice pudding!!!
The very last section was quite undulating so I walked uphill along more tracks. I caught up with 'Big Dave', who I recognised from the Charnwood Marathon too. He told me that another group of runners/ walkers had got lost so were still behind us. About half a mile from the end, it started to rain- that horrible, icy rain that hurts- so I managed to jog back in but I wasn't half glad to stop! My time- an amazing for me 6 hours and 10 minutes!!!
There was crumble and custard on offer plus a gorgeous selection of cakes! Sue and her companion finished in 6 hours 40 minutes which is a great time for walking. The group that got lost came in and announced that they had done 29 miles!
I was aching a bit the next day, but not too badly, and there was no knee pain- in fact, I managed to walk to Syston and back, and even run a little. What pleased me even more was when I found my certificate from when I did the Canter in 2004 and it took me 9 hours 34 minutes for the same route!
Total weekly mileage for last week was 43 1/2 miles, not too bad!!
Well, I have been following this year's MdS on the Darbaroud site here- and it is the long day today so really thinking of everybody out there. It is really hitting home how serious this event is. All the guys from the forum have put in so much training and effort, and to read that they are finding it hard going makes me realise just how much work I will have to put in over the next year. Quite a sobering thought...
Labels: Caythorpe Canter, Marathon des Sables
