Cape Wrath & running hills

Fifteen event Tee`s I originally wrote about event Tee’s in 2019 things have changed a lot since then and so have I, I have been taking part in organised events for over thirty years, to begin with in my twenty’s I only done a few 10km fun runs and organised charity cycles with my wife I was married all of my twenties, when the divorce happened I found the social element of sporting activities was where I belonged rugby skiing cycling and running, I didn’t do rugby long I was rubbish at it but made loads of good friends at the time, cycling is much more a solo thing I’ve only got two cycling event T shirts, and haven’t took part in an organised event in about 15 years I seem to remember twenty years ago it was standard to get a tee free? With your entry fee, when you completed organised events certainly for half and full marathons, tough mudders spartans half or full marathons 10km runs; some of these T shirts I got were cotton but most times they were polyester, I sometimes wore th...

  Running luck I wrote this in march 2020 just as lock down began! i will leave it just as i wrote it then, my thoughts looking back at what i wrote then? are much the same i am no different from anyone else really in what happpened over the next nearly two years all our lives changed dramatically and still are feeling the effects of the pandemic, >> I am not superstitious; I believe we make our own luck and if things aren’t going your way then change direction! There is no thirteenth floor in the hotels in Las Vegas because gamblers think it’s an unlucky number. I have no issue with running thirteen miles today or running under ladders or not saying good morning to solo magpies! I don’t carry a rabbits foot or horseshoe, fate is something I think we have no control over unless of course you court danger all the time then perhaps that’s not fate but pure statistics, you can mostly be in command of your own fate, if you never leave the house you wont get ...

I wrote this in march 2020! I have changed a lot since then, I think for the better? The world however has also changed a lot and not for the better in my opinion, I will leave most of this write up as it stands for publishing, with minimal updates! but; will make some notes at the bottom, Imperial to metric                 11/3/20 was a big day for me! A day I left the past behind and leapt into the future? Sounds a big deal? Well it must be I’ve been putting it of for at least 25 years! On this day I switched my mindset from miles to kilometres, in order to do this I had to change my Garmin watch from imperial to metric, from now on there will be no, one mile beep on my watch it will be one kilometre beeps, my distances for all activities will from then on be recorded in meters, which is much easier in the long run(intended pun)! I had been stuck in the past        ...

Everesting?           what is everesting? pick a hill any hill Everesting is an activity in which cyclists or runners ascend and descend a given hill multiple times, in order to have cumulatively climbed 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) (the elevation of mount Everest) The first event described as "Everesting" was done by George Mallory, the grandson of George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924. By strange coincidence I just recently finished reading a fascinating account of those early attempts on Everest, called into the silence by wade Davis – I can’t recommend it highly enough an excellent read, The younger Mallory ascended Mount Donna Buang in 1994, having ridden eight "laps" of the 1,069-metre hill. The format and rules were then cemented by Andy van Bergen, inspired by the story of Mallory's effort, In the first official group effort, van Bergen organized 65 riders, 40 of whom finished the Everesting attempt, the Australian cy...

Tentacling Prologue - I am picking this blog back up now in February 2023, I had started writing this in march 2020, when the world was about to change forever, not just for me, but; for everyone 2020 was a shit year all plans thrown out the window, my year was better than most peoples, I was at that time an essential worker, so; I still had a social life, (work) my cape wrath journey and life have taken a dramatic turn in these nearly three years since the start of this blog, my life is nothing at all like it was then, and neither is the world, my life has changed for the better - some would disagree with that! But the world has changed for the worst and going to get much worse rapidly sadly, this was supposed to be a fun numbered daily blog about running and my running journey, posting for 90 days pre CWUltra, 2020 was a fail let’s see if I can make it work for 2023 now? what is tentacling? According to the dictionary a tentacle is a slender, flexible limb or appendage...

Buy nice or buy twice !                        sheila used to throw those words at me regularly, unfortunately I am renowned for my frugality which leads me to sometimes buy the cheaper products, which can sometimes work out ok, but mostly ends in me having to buy newer better products to replace the crap I had previously bought, I have a new mantra for this that goes -  if its cheap then somebody or the planet is paying the price!   I say this to myself and try to stop buying anything that isn't - Eco friendly, fair trade or throw away disposable, sadly my toy cupboard, shelves, garage, storage boxes and loft are filled with stuff I have bought twice,           I shall use headphones in this blog as an example of equipment I have bought that I bought cheap only to find that what I bought wasn’t suitable for purpose and I ended up having to buy more, I took a ...

If i were to go at that pace 14:28 Minuit miles it would take me seven hours fourteen minuits to do thirty miles? ! Pace                 On three consecutive days I ran the same route which I named the brae three peaks challenge it was a six point six five mile route (give or take a couple of yards). With one thousand 100feet of ascent but this ascent was up and down to sea level three times over the peaks, the route is over mixed terrain and ideal for testing my pace over the cape wrath event,   I ran it the first day with Stu MC-loud walked it the second day with Craigy bugs then fast hiked with my poles alone on the third occasion, I made the conditions and timings and route as close as I could on each night, for example by stopping to take photos at the top of each peak for roughly the same time, also going as close as I could to the same over peat routes and pathways etc. this was my experiment o...