Its only 3 more miles.....
When pressing the ' YES' count me in button for the Run For Your Life Trail Weekend I didn't really think I was going to make it! At the time I was icing my swollen ankle and doubting my ability to ever run again! Eight months on I was buzzing packing for a weekend of adventuring in North Yorkshire. Eeeeeeeeekkkkk!
And even after the weekend I am buzzing! Buzzing so much that I am struggling to put words in a sensible order to share everything! I have written and re-written this so many times, but can't seem to do the weekend justice. So here it goes....a bundle full of exciting facts and stories in no specific order.
SPREADSHEETS! Yes every good weekend needs a spreadsheet or two! Everyone laughed when I started to say we needed spreadsheets, but with Claire's help they proved to be very important! A spreadsheet for car sharing ~ a spreadsheet for food preparation..... I am surprised we didn't need a spreadsheet for beer drinking!
RABBIT WARREN! Yes now this was home for the weekend. 20 of us took over the West End outdoor Centre. It was a huge place with brilliant facilities for a group of eager trail runners. With so many doors, corridors and secret rooms though it certainly did feel like you were going down a rabbit hole or two. Thank goodness I didn't have to escape in the night as I would have certainly got lost.
THE FEAST! The youth hostel was in the middle of nowhere. This meant that we were a little restricted on where we could eat over the weekend! Knowing this in advance and having kitchen facilities available we thought we would cook ourselves a feast! Who knew a bunch of trail runners could be such good cooks! We were blessed with Lasagne, Cottage Pie, Spaghetti Bolognese, Garlic Bread, Salad, Veg and even some Chicken Potato Salad! All this followed up by an amazing Chocolate Cake and a vast amount of Crumble and Custard! I swear this weekend just turned into an eating competition rather than an activity weekend!
BEER! - Now most people might think us sporting types are healthy and treat our bodies like a temple! Fear not! Few of us have many boundaries when it comes to being sensible the night before a run! Plus this weekend wasn't all about running! It's about catching up with running buddies, sharing stories and having fun. Only natural a few beers would come as part of the package.
ROUTES! - Now many people fear signing up to the trail weekend thinking that they can't run the distances or won't be able to keep up. There certainly is no need to worry or be concerned. Sean was a legend and spent several weeks plotting, reviewing and putting together a variety of routes. There was an option for everyone! Some people initially ventured out for a park run - followed by a short run around the local reservoir. Others ventured off for a variety of shorter runs up to 12 miles, while the balance of us took on a slightly longer route of 24 miles. You will laugh though when you view our route! It is the slowest minute miles I have ever run in my life.... We decided to call it our personal worst!
TERRAIN! ~ Now we are all avid trail runners who thrive on our love for mud and some tricky off roading, but Yorkshire brought some new challenges for us! My group set off for a 25 plus mile planned route and struggled from the offset!
Running through heather style moor plants - with pot holes at every corner proved quite time consuming. This plus limited footpaths and slightly dubious river crossings put our skills to the test! We certainly felt the impact of the terrain as it took us nearly two hours to even venture across six miles! Part of this six miles though did see us crossing two small streams and a larger river! It was quite slippery under foot! Might have been quicker if we had noticed the bridge slightly further up the river bank! Our expectations needed to be rejigged a bit, but ultimately it was all part of the adventure.
SCENERY! ~ Breathtaking! By having to go a bit slower we got to take in more of our surroundings! We got to experience so many different views on the route. Woodland, moors, hills, valleys, rivers and quaint little towns. Every now and again though we saw the RAF golf ball pods on the horizon and these helped us direct our way home on a few occasions! Handy to have such a big landmark on the horizon!
HILLS! ~ Well our route took me up the most I have ever climbed! Over 3000 foot over the course of our run! OUCH! Now our legs took a beating! You won't be surprised to hear that the majority of those hills were hiked! Running was so tricky, but we certainly got a workout and a half! I may also moan a little about the uphills, but the downhills were amazing! Every downhill we met saw us flying - sometimes struggling to stop!
GETTING LOST! ~ Undoubtedly this happened. Even with routes planned beforehand we struggled to find our way here and there. The paths on the maps are not always as clear in real life. Sean did an amazing job of navigating us while we all helped trying to locate access points out of fields to get us to the next point of destination. Getting lost is all part of the fun and sometimes you end up seeing some things you would never have stumbled on!
Now it might seem that I have just listed loads of negatives about the adventure! It was far from a negative experience - it was just very different to anything I had run before. Plus despite the challenge through the majority of it I had a smile beaming from ear to ear! Loved every moment of it!
ULTRA RUNNERS! ~ Only us could stumble across an ultra race while running our route in Yorkshire. The last ten miles of our route followed their course! Some of the runners were inspirational whizzing up the hills ~ certainly something for us to aim towards, but I guess if you are racing and have some bling to race towards the hills may seem easier!
SENSE OF HUMOUR! ~ Now I think we all just about kept one of these - even when we were stuck in a middle of the field, lost, freezing, with hail stones firing from the sky! When being out on an adventure for up to eight hours there will naturally be ups and downs, but thats why I love running in a group. Everyone has moments when it feels tough, but by running with others we can help build each other up when we struggle!
SAYINGS! ~ Every weekend ends up with some comical saying! If anyone ever tells me its only three more miles every again I think I might cry! It has never taken so long to cover three miles as it does in Yorkshire! It was funny though and made everyone laugh every time it was said! That plus a few too the lefts.... too the rights
STYLES/ FENCES AND PRETENDING TO BE SHEEP ~ Trail running soon turned into an obstacle course with styles and walls in our way. It was fun to work out how we could get in and out of the fields by crossing different obstacles. Some options were more dangerous than others as we meandered over and under barbed wire fences like sheep!
ICECREAM / CUPS OF TEA AND A TARDIS! ~ Yes, this happened! We stopped around 17 miles to refuel and it was the best cup of tea I had ever had! Hit the spot! This plus some yummy ice cream for the others put some big smiles on our faces! The perfect feeling to have our picture taken with the local tardis! Every town has one doesn't it??? No wonder the guy taking the photo of us found it weird when we called him a strange man out loud - surely we are the strange ones!
ANIMALS! ~ The scenery, hills and adventure wasn't quite enough for us! We had one more demand - to run past the llama farm! Without even having to take a detour we found it! They were prancing about in excitement to see us! We also had some interesting experiences with dogs, sheep and a field full of cows that tried to scare us all!
POST RUNNING ~ The only option really - the local brewery tour! Time to rehydrate and purchase as much beer as possible to cram into the cars to take home the next day! The tour was £10 and included basically as much beer as you can drink while you are on the tour! There certainly were a few people swaying before we headed off for dinner...... !
Speaking of dinner - lets just say it probably would have been better for us to cook again on the Saturday night! For a variety of reasons it just didn't quite go to plan!
AMAZING COMPANY!~ Now the running may have been hard, but I loved every minute of it! The challenge, the terrain, the adventure and above all the people I spent the weekend with. Both old friends and new friends I certainly couldn't have spent the weekend with a nicer bunch of people. With everyone sharing tales, stories and supporting each other its a truly lovely environment to be in. It may have been an energetic weekend, but it was also a really relaxing weekend. Hanging out with the running crew is never stressful or demanding - it is just about everyone enjoying the company of other people who love running as much as they do! Cannot put into words how much fun I had and I certainly cannot wait to go on another adventure really soon! Bring on next year!