Adventures So Far

A quick summary of the best (and most educational) adventures so far:

• Carrera X Montana Sierra de Chiva - 40 mile run in Spain, worthy of it's own post...coming soon!
• The CCC, 61 mile version of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. Best day of my little life so far!
• Runfurther races; Haworth Hobble, Calderdale Hike, High Peak 40 and the Long Tour of Bradwell. All very excellent days out with all the best ultra runners in attendence! Always great to see devout, Runfurther-tattoed Nick Ham and the other friendly faces.
• The inaugral Tour de Helvellyn - what a lot of snow! Grown men bum-sliding icy decents, moonlit mountains and the most-needed/best-tasting soup ever at the finish! :-)
• The OMM Perthshire and Dartmoor: great combo of misery, fun and trying to weigh super-fast Nath down with the tent, etc!





Nath hits the euphoric stage, Perthshire


• The High Peak Marathon; a 40 mile race at night in a team of 4. Team Andy+Jenn had never met Team Premier Quest (Phil+Tom) before but we had a great night out, fighting our way through the bog, up some peaks, through more bog - the best way to spend a Friday night!
• The LDWA Dorset Doddle, my first ultra. Crashed and burned at about mile 27 out of 33 then tried to hitch to the finish...but nobody wanted to pick up a sweaty runner. Total distance: 31 miles, should have just carried on with the race but had a train to catch and the extra 2 miles would have taken a looong time! Lesson learnt: eat and drink. Successful finish the following year. Fab event, they even had rice pudding for dessert :-)





Team High Peak Marathon


• Mont Blanc Cross/Marathon: my first race was the Cross and we have since returned for the marathon three times! It's such an amazing route, I love running around Chamonix. Lesson learnt: hydrate, don't eat a million oranges (even if they are deliciously refreshing) then mix with lots of cola...bleeeurgh!
• The Cheltenham Circular Challenge:  lovely and muddy!
• The Montane Lakeland 100; number of starts: 2, number of finishes: 0! Must...not...eat...out-of-date food at start of races - typical student!! But had a fantastic time on the bits I did do, 2013 is going to be a completion!!

First night, Lakeland 100

• Tour de Turkey; my friend Nath and I decided to cycle from Bodrum to Antalya...in the middle of summer! Very hot and probably not the best 'roads' to take your new road bike on, but absolutely amazing coastal route with plenty of mountains to challenge you, then fantastic food and sleeping on the beach - perfect!
• Also cycle-toured the Scottish Isles after the Isle of Jura fell race and cycled Conway to Cardiff this year. Currently addicted to a new cycle route planning website and can often be found attempting to cycle a silly distance rather than paying for trains.
• Lots of mountaineering adventures have been had so far with friends from Nottingham Uni Explorers. Particular favourites have been alpine trips to Chamonix and Saas Fee as well as the yearly trip to the Isle of Skye.
• Downhill mountain-biking in Morzine, Les Gets and Chamonix - totally addicted!!!




I wish the commute to uni was this fun!