trail running

This was the hardest race I've ever run.

It wasn't just the 15.5 miles - severely over-distance for a miler/5k-er like me - but that the combo of gruelling uphill sections and technical descending often on loose rocks that were training to become scree meant there was no let up, anywhere. Oh, except maybe on the log over the river.

Today's run was at 6:26am. It was cloudy with a slight wind. I think it was in the 50's?? This run was a combination of a Recover run, Tempo run and Hill workout all wrapped up into a 2 mile run. Stats: Start: 6:26am, End: 6:45:48, Pace/mile= 9:54.

I think it was halfway up Green Mountain, at a point where I could hardly breathe, that someone asked, "Simon, are you training for anything special at the moment?"

"Believe...it...or...not", I gasped, "I'm training for the mile".

Total respect to George and Scott for NOT immediately asking, "Then what the hell are you doing here?" Although I'm sure it crossed their minds.

Until recently the British version of trail racing was a rather more vertically-orientated pursuit known as fell running. Find a mountain, preferably with fog hanging over the top, and most weekends you'd see scantily clad nutters humping their way up and then descending in suicidal style.

When bad weather rolls in, as it often does, some of these races get cancelled halfway through and mountain rescue teams are called out to round up the stragglers. Part of the tradition is a solo endurance event called the Lakeland 24, in which legendary figures like "Iron Joss", the hard-as-nails sheep farmer Joss Naylor (these guys round up their mountain flocks on foot), run as many peaks as they can in 24 hours. When Joss first ran 72, Olympic steeplechaser Chris Brasher described it as the equivslent of climbing Everest, then climbing Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK at 4000 feet), then Snowdon (3,500), then Kinder Scout (2,000 feet), then descending them all again.

Storming round the Res (Boulder Reservoir) on Sunday, every time I checked my watch I shocked myself. I'm no danger to the Kenyans, who have just arrived back in Boulder to put the finishing touches to their Boston marathon preparations, but I have no idea why I was running so fast.

I knocked out 11 miles at 7:30 pace, which is probably the fastest sustained bit of running I've done there. Well, it's fast for me. What I can't understand is where the pace has come from. :)

Monday had to be a rest day; I could have gone out, but Abby persuaded me to go out for breakfast, and by the time that was over and digested, the slump had set in.

Heading out on the "Route of Fire", the new course for the six-day off-road adventure race in Costa Rica, is a mate of mine -- Jason Rita. Jason, a regular at our drills sessions, has swopped snow and ice for a 200km jungle race.

I'm going to be tracking his progress through the race website and tracking site. See how he gets on -- or pick your own favorite.

PRESS RELEASE February 3, 2007

2007 COASTAL CHALLENGE RACE STARTS TOMORROW

Six-Day Race Begins Sunday at Base of Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

SAN JOSE , COSTA RICA -- The Coastal Challenge, the World's Expedition Run TM, starts tomorrow, Sunday, February 4, at approximately 10 a.m. in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Following today's registration in San Jose, competitors, volunteers and staff will be transported before sunrise Sunday morning to the base of Arenal Volcano for the race start. The 2007 race will follow 200 kilometers of rugged terrain to remote areas of the country that will test both the mental and physical limitations of each competitor, according to Tim Holmstrom, founder and race director.