End of another October in Scotland

The weather here has been pretty rotten for the past couple of weeks with torrential rain and strong winds. I have been out doing my local 10-15km routes almost everyday. It's been a bit of a slog in some of the weather but it needs to be done. I have also managed to run a couple of Munro's up near Callander in what was also horrendous weather and a few days ago I went for my annual run up the Cobbler in Arrochar to be greeted near the summit with gale force winds. I was car to car in 1hr 18mins. I can't say it was super fun but I do feel I still need to get out in these conditions just so when it happens on a race I am used to it. It really is one thing I don't think a lot of Americans do. From what I seen it is usually amazing weather over there especially in the Denver area and foothills. I am sure it gets cold in winter but the driving rain and gale force winds is something I reckon they never venture out in. For sure I would prefer to always run in good weather but that's impossible here so now and then it's good to get out and battle with the weather.

Heading up Ben Vorlich near Callander just
before the weather turned absolutely foul

I have still been getting the shin pain creeping back on me from RRR. It always starts around the hour mark and just gets worse and worse. It seems more aggravated on the tarmac. It's funny how it never really happened on the Lakes 3x3 race but since then it comes back on almost every run. I am icing it in the evenings and from next week my running will fall back to 2 or 3 times a week so I am hoping that all it needs is just a long rest.

Time for an epic mud run to the car

So for now it's back to Chamonix for yet one more winter. I was all ready to say bye bye to Chamonix for a good while when I left in June for Colorado but having now been back in Scotland for a month and having just a week of great weather and raced at the awesome Lakes 80k. The monsoon arrived and I had been offered my job back in France so I couldn't really say no. I had no other plans in Scotland for work and I need £££££££'s after my long long summer so Chamonix it is. I am not complaining about going back there but I was feeling like I needed a change for a while but Scotland is not it. It's great to come back here and see some friends and run some Munro's but when reality kicks in I realize Scotland is not the place for me to be living right now. I am excited to get skiing again and I will be doing more and more touring this season to keep my fitness level as high as I can. All I am thinking about is working as much as I can this winter to fund another summer in the States and pay for my flights and race entries and I really hope it is all going to work out.

A rare sight recently. Blue skies appeared
so I shot out the door and went for a lovely 20kms

So I set off for Cham again in a couple of days and once I get settled into my new place I am sure the trail shoes will be going back on until the snow arrives. I must admit I am pretty excited about doing a couple of my usual runs back there next week.

Arran , Skye and The Ben

Well it's that time of year again and I am sitting back in Scotland wondering what's next. After a truly amazing summer , training , exploring and racing I am now currently at home not really ready to be resting and all I am doing is thinking about what to do next.

Anyway it's almost two weeks since the Lakes 80km and I am still feeling strong. My running has eased off a little but I have still been out in the Scottish Highlands due to some rather strange stable weather. I made a trip over to the Isle of Arran to do a little circuit there I have always been meaning to do. Normally I like the loop from the ferry slip , Goatfell , Saddle , Cir Mhor , A'Chir Ridge , Glen Rosa and back to the boat home. This time however from the top of Cir Mhor I headed north up to Caisteal Abhail , over the witches step and along the ridge down to Sannox Bay. It's a cracking loop. The run up Goatfell is always brilliant. I love the normal trail up there as it's never too steep and you can run the entire line up.

Summit of Goatfell looking out towards the rest of the days peaks

The summit was a touch blustery but as usual the North Goatfell ridge and down to the saddle was tremendous with some techy terrain and a bit of scrambling if you stick true to the crest. The steep haul up Cir Mhor is always a good workout and even pushing on up to Caisteal Abhail was tough on the old legs. The next section along the ridge to the witches step is a joy to run. The descent down into the gap below the step is pretty damn steep and for sure you don't wanna trip.

Running along this is awesome

The climb up the step direct is about an easy Diff climb but seeing as it was soaking wet and the hardest move is on a slab with zero handholds I chose the option of the easier scramble on the north side. Once past the step the ridge line all the way along is great with a cracking narrow trail all the way to the last peak. From there it's a direct muddy , boggy , horrible descent down to the Glen Sannox trail and back to Sannox bay and the bus back to the slip or you can choose to run the 6 miles back to Brodick but since this consists of nothing but road I opted to sit by the edge of water and wait for the bus to arrive. All in all a cracking day. Sunny morning then a pretty cold and rainy afternoon.

Another Goatfell summit selfie

My other couple of more notable days out here since I've been back have to be Nevis and Skye. On Monday I headed up to Fort William with the idea to run up Ben Nevis assuming the weather was okay. I didn't have a route in mind but was going to see what it all looked like once up there. I arrived at the north face car park around 11am and the sun was out. I grabbed a very lightweight set-up and threw my 7mm 30m rope , harness and a sling into my running back and set off. My plan was tower ridge. I have done tower ridge a few times in the past so I know the way up. I took the gear in the off chance something went wrong and I could escape but to be honest given the ridges fierce reputation it really is not hard. For sure the average walker would have a nightmare on it but even an average scrambler would be fine on the thing assuming they don't mind exposure. I think the difficulty of the route is built up way way too much but it keeps it quiet.

First Chimney of Tower Ridge

Don't get me wrong here it's not just a walk but as I said , if you scramble fairly competently or rock climb at all then Tower Ridge should not pose any problems(the gap is awkward but not hard) when conditions are good. In winter however it can be a different story. Anyway I ran up and was at the base of the ridge in around 45-50 minutes. From then it's up the lovely first little chimney then it's time to run again until the little tower is reached and the good fun begins. From just after the little tower a lot of the route started to get very very frosty with ice in many places. I managed fine on this stuff but my pace really slowed as I was just being safe. The climbing was easy but a slip would not have been nice. Especially the big blocks heading up onto the great tower. Then it was over to the gap. Again this is not hard but very exposed and the whole place was covered in frost and incredibly slippy in a pair of Salomon Sense. I love these shoes , they are simply the best fit of any trail runner I have ever had , they are so so good for technical terrain and super light but not the best when you need lot's of grip and I for sure couldn't run 100 miles in one go in a pair but they are my go to training shoe and for any races up to 50 miles.

Just past the gap. Nice and frosty!

I managed to lower myself down into the gap admittedly with some worrying but I got my foot on the ledge below just as my grip started to slip from the hold. Once down in the gap it was an easy yet again slippy scramble up out of the gap and easy terrain to the end of the ridge. The sun was out and I ran the last couple of minutes to the trig point on the summit hitting it 1hr 35mins after I had left the bottom car park. The descent was down the tourist path to the little Lochain then over towards the CIC hut and back down to the car. Overall a cracking afternoon out. 18Km's , 1200m+ in 2hrs 30mins car to car. I was well pleased with this time and for sure could get that down when I next hit the ridge in proper dry conditions. It's a cracking ridge route and easily one of the best in the UK. Some people think it's overrated as the climbing isn't continuous all the way to the top but what climbing is there is quality and the situation of the entire line is impressive. I love it and it's a must do for anyone who heads to the Ben but don't be afraid to take a long sling to loop around the block on the gap and lower yourself down.

Can't beat the Ben on a sunny day

I left Fort William and headed for the Isle of Skye. I had a rather uncomfortable nights sleep in the car and headed off to get another mountain run in. Obviously whenever you mention Skye you think Cuillin Ridge but I have done it twice already and given it was again a blue sky day I quite fancied doing something else and something that gave me a good view of the ridge.

Blaven

Bla Bheinn (Blaven) was the answer. I had a look at the guidebook and maps for the best lines to take then left them in the car and just headed off ready to pick my own way up. I left the car park at the head of Loch Lapin and ran off up a great trail passing some pretty impressive waterfalls until I got close up to the cliffs of the mountain. The normal line up goes up a very steep loose gully to the right. To me this way up looked a bit rubbish and unrunnable so I chose to just keep heading straight up ahead of me to the Col.

Heading up to the Col

A little bit of loose scree didn't cause any problems then I was on a broad ridge which rose all the way up to the west summit. The view going up here out to the sea and over to the Cullin ridge was tremendous. I popped over to the east summit to properly tag the peak and then headed down possibly the steepest and loosest gully I have ever ran. I must admit I loved going down it but I am glad I never came up it. Very very steep and loose with some seriously nasty fall potential. It was however a rapid descent and I was back at the car having done the loop in 1hr 36mins.

What a view of the Cuillin Ridge

The horrendous scree gully is just to the right of my head

It's been great having had these three great days out running in some of Scotlands best spots and to have the blue sky weather on Nevis and in Skye was pretty special. For sure I know I have been a bit spoilt all this summer and I know very well how lucky I have been to be able to run so much of Colorado and then come back to Scotland and get some great stuff done but now is time to go back to work and try to make enough cash to see me through winter and hopefully have some change in my pocket to get back to CO in June/July. This lifestyle will not/can not last forever but I am not willing to give it up just yet. I am not far away from wanting to have something more stable but there is just way too much more for me to do in the US. My name is in the hat for Hardrock and I will be putting my name in the hat for Western States also. Both races get drawn on the same day this year. December 6th so I will be glued to twitter watching and preying my name comes up in one of them and god I hope it is Hardrock. In the high chance I don't get either of these races I will go back to scouring the web to find one that sticks out at me. 100% I want to run another 100 next summer and possible even two. I will defo be going back to pace Leadville and Hardrock(if I don't get in) and would like to pace Run Rabbit Run or I may even run it again. I have nothing certain at the moment except from Transvulcania in May which I am excited to be kicking off my running season with. Races are now over for this year and I will continue to go out exploring and taking it easy until the snow arrives then it's time to ski!

I need to give a big shout out to Larabar , Nectar Fuel and For Goodness Shakes for helping me out this past summer with my nutrition. Their products fuel me through all these epic races and training days and long may it continue. Thanks guys!!!

And finally I managed to get some of Woody's Colorado pictures off of her so I have attached some at the bottom here for y'all to have a look........

Canyonlands , Utah

This picture makes me smile every time I see it

More Canyonlands epicness

The Needles area

Probably the best mornings run ever

Running up Mt Sneffels in the San Juan's CO

More Needles area

Canyonlands. Pictures just don't do this place justice!!

About to embark on my 2nd 100 miler. What a race it ended up being.
Bring on 100 miler number 3 next year.

Lakes 3x3000 80km Ultra

We arrived at the race start at 4.30am on Saturday. The weather was horrendous. It had been pouring with rain all night long and there was no sign of it letting up just yet. The race briefing was kept short and sweet. The organisers had taken the decision to cut out the summit of Scafell Pike due to the weather. We would go some of the way up but then cut off early taking about 3kms and 350m off of the race totals. So around 77km and 3650m of climbing. Still pretty reasonable. I was a bit gutted about this however later on I heard the section was cut out not because of the summit conditions but because we couldn't actually get to it due to the river crossings on the way up. There was so much rain it was impossible to pass these sections so a pretty good call from the organisers. I think there were 300 registered. Over 250 picked up their numbers the night before at registration but I think less than 200 actually started the race. Some not even getting out of their beds due to the weather. Poor show if you want my opinion. It's the UK it's going to be wet. So my last race of the summer and Woodys first Ultra.......

Race prep the day before. No cocktails were ordered!

Off we went at 5am. We must have ran about 1km until we hit the first big puddle that some people were still trying to avoid. God knows why because we all knew it was going to get a hell of a lot worse. It must have been about 5k in when it started getting proper interesting. The entire trail was just a river. Most of the time well over shoe depth and at one section both myself and Lauren thought we were in the actual river. It had burst it banks and everything was submerged. I looked to our left and could see the race maker sign floating in the river and at this point we all ended up waist deep in the water and wading through and this was us up on side above where the actual trail should have been. This went on for quite some time and to be honest I didn't really mind it. It did get a bit annoying that we couldn't just get a proper run on but we had to laugh about it as it was ridiculous just how bad it was and at the end of the day nobody was making us do this. We were there because we wanted to be. This all went on for the first hour and then it started to ease off and the trails became kind of runnable.

Last one of the year

Once clear of the rivers it was time to climb up towards Scafell Pike from Seathwaite. This went fine for both of us and I was feeling strong on the climbing. We hit the Styhead checkpoint Km 18 in 2hrs 28mins. I am pretty sure we could have taken easily 30 mins off of that if we could have actually properly ran any of the first 10km. Anyway neither of us were looking for a time on this race. I was just hoping to get round feeling good and it was Laurens first Ultra so she just wanted to get round the thing. From this checkpoint we cut off towards Esk Hause on a lovely bit of trail. We continued along here for a while before making a little descent where I stacked it big time slap bang onto a rock with my hip. From here we again followed an awesome muddy , techy ridge line and started our climb up to High Raise. This section was completely off trail. Straight up the side of the Mountain we went. Excellent! Lauren started to slow a little on this climb but she was still moving fine. Just over halfway up a problem arose. Most of the sole from Laurens right shoe had come clean off! Panic time! We were still a good 15km from the next checkpoint where she had a spare pair but we had to get there and the next 15km's was all off trail through bogs , marsh......pretty much horrendous underfoot. Once on top of High Raise I found us some pathetic shelter from the wind and began to work on the shoe. I got out my bandage and started to wrap it around the sole that was hanging off and attached it to her leg using some tape. It wasn't great but it had to do. It was mighty cold up here at this point and we both needed to get warm fast so off we went for the long descent. Our pace obviously dropped here as we couldn't risk the whole sole coming off or it was race over so we gently made our way down. Again I slipped and fell another two times and both absolute belters. The terrain was just awful. Knee deep marsh and bogs. Again we had to just laugh about it any time one of us sunk to our hips in whatever dirt or animal waste we came across.

Slight problem

We made it to Wythburn car park at Km 37 in 5hrs 03mins. Here we got Woody some new shoes and we both changed into some dry socks and tops. We must have spent a good 10-15mins here just getting warm and fuelling up but it was worth it. I was still feeling great here with no problems at all. I was pretty amazed just how strong I felt and if I had wanted a time on this race I would have set off here but I just really wanted to run this with Woody so I decided to wait. Next was the steep climb up to Helvellyn. I was plodding up here fine however Woody was starting to slow a little and I could tell her legs were not enjoying the climbs. We got to the incredibly windy summit at 41km into the race in a time of 6hrs 17mins. From here on the ridge is amazing. It was pretty damn windy but the long winding ridge line as far as we could see was amazing. We started to get the odd view here through breaks in the clouds. It was 9km along here on rolling terrain to Clough Head where we would descend. This took us a bit longer than we expected. Woody started to experience what a proper downer is like on a race. Again though she never stopped moving but was finding it hard work to keep her legs going. I think she had a bit of a word with herself and she seemed to pop out of it when we hit Clough Head at Km 50 , 7hrs 37min in.

Km 37

Clough Head to the next checkpoint at Latrigg was 9km. It was a rather interesting descent from Clough Head. Incredibly steep grass. No trail and it was soaking. After coming close to some more major stacks I decided the best way down this was to get on my arse and go and it really was a quick way down. We then had a a mix of trails , river paths and a tiny bit of tarmac. My legs somehow were still feeling bloody great. Woody was pushing along the flats brilliantly but I knew she was hurting....everywhere! Along here we met another runner. Giles. He pretty much stuck with us from here to the finish line and it was nice to have another person to chat with. I jogged along in front of him and Woody a few times to give them a rest from my constant jibbering which I was sure by then Woody was sick of hearing it. The sun was starting to come out and we got to Latrigg at Km 59 in 8hrs 53mins. All that was left now was 20kms. 10kms round the back side and up to the summit of Skiddaw and then 10kms down the front passing back through this checkpoint again then down to Keswick.

The next 9km up the trail before the climb up Skiddaw was again great. Great views , the sun was out and we were all just chatting. We were mixing between speed walking and jogging. I was trying to get Giles and Woody running as much as I could and most of the time they agreed. I was way too happy about how good I was feeling. Along this section I did get a few little bites from Woody as she was not into doing what I told her to. She was obviously hurting but she was well on her way to finishing so I was just pushing her on as much as possible. There was no way she was going to DNF now. At Dash Fall checkpoint at 68km we were hit by a rather freak hail storm which didn't last very long but it was pretty intense.

Heading to Dash Falls 

Now it was time to climb up Skiddaw. It's actually only a 2km hike up but it was mighty steep and again completely off trail. Woody started to venture into that dark Ultra place yet again here. I was impressed here to see her proper grinding it out on this climb. It was also rather funny as 3 weeks previous she was feeding me energy bars during RRR when I was having a major downer and climbing up here I was now the one feeding her. It was hard work but she kept smiling. Sometimes. The summit was proper gale force winds but it was clearing and the views were amazing. I jogged up a bit ahead of Woody here to get some pics and turning back to see her summit(70km) I could see the relief on her face that she had made it up the last climb and it was just 10km downhill to the finish. I got some more pics here and down we went.

Summit of Skiddaw

The descent went great. Never stopping(except to get jackets off and stash poles) and just looking out at the epic view down to Keswick and over the Lakes. It was such a difference from the mornings wash out. Descending the last peak with the sun out was pretty special. Our good friend Josh appeared as we were descending. He was planning on meeting us at the summit but we were almost back at the checkpoint by the time we seen him. An awesome and unexpected surprise. We got back to Latrigg 75km in 11hrs 52mins. We never stopped here and I was shouting at Woody that it was time to up the pace.

Great views on the way down

Oh how we love our descents. Mile 47.

Off we went for the last 5km to town and there was no hanging around. Woody was hurting but she was sticking with me all the way. After a few confusing sections on the road near Keswick we found our way back to Crow Park and the finish. Running in together we crossed the line in a time of 12hrs 15mins. 70th overall and Woody getting 5th placed female.

12hrs 15mins

This course is amazing. I think there is probably about 1.5 miles maximum on road and the rest trails or open hill side. The conditions in the morning really couldn't have been any worse but it was great how it improved as the day went on. I still cannot believe just how strong I felt over the entire day. Obviously my legs were a little heavy here and there but I still had so much power in them. To feel like that only 3 weeks after a pretty decent 100 mile time I am still a bit speechless. I am sure if I decided to go it on my own I would have got around 10hrs 30mins but that was not the plan at all here. We had planned all along to run it together and that's what we did. I had an awesome time and even though Woody experienced some major lows I know for a fact she will be back for more. She smashed a cracking time on her first Ultra on a very very tough course. I am so happy for her. Big shout out to James for the pics and the help all day long also to High terrain Events for putting on a great race and to every runner that finished on what was an epic days running.

Chuffed

So that's the end of my summer of running and what a summer it's been. I still need to do a full report on my trip to Colorado but I will do that some time soon. For now it's time for a little rest and the odd little run. Next up is winter and many months away(May) my first race of the 2015 summer season. Transvulcania!

Some of the runners the morning after. Photo High Terrain Events