I have been looking on-line for challanging race events that are not your usual GNR/London Marathon etc, and I found this. I knew about the old KIMM, but now I have found this....
If you are brave, follow the link..if you are really, really brave, look the OMM and RAM Mountain Marathon events up on Youtube.....if you are really, really, really, really brave, start training and enter next year's event.....
Hehe, I know my names Real, but its a bit much for me I think. It never ceases to amaze me the diversity of events that are out there, It's a whole new world to learn about.
To parahprase Sheldon, 'I'm not mad; my mother had me tested and I'm just a runner'. I didn't actually say I was going to do it. I would love to, and I may one day be fit enough to enter, and hopefully complete it, but someone out there may well want a stab at it.
Ooh, ooh! I spotted a TBBT quote from The Jiminy Conjecture.
More:
"Sally, while I subscribe to the Many Worlds Theory, which posits the existence of an infinite number of MarkyDs in an infinite number of universes, I assure you that in none of them am I marathoning".
I love the idea, but I am happy to watch others. I would rather go down to the train store and buy an 00 gauge engine, or pop down to the comic book store.
Ahah, you've been hooked and are starting to be reeled in...
Which event looks best? The UTMB, the OMM, the RAB, the MDS or A N Other? I will warn you that getting a place on any of the big ones is difficult, but achieveble. A friend of ours did the UTMB and he says it is really, really tough, and he is really, really fit. I may go for something like the OMM or RAB next year.
Not one with cycling (which I prefer on a 1940s 3-speed where you can sit upright and civilized and wear a dress), or kayaking (which scares me). There's a shorter (haha!) race on the UTMB page (ends up in beautiful Chamonix) which looks a bit gorgeous. But I'm still a baby runner at the moment. Should probably try some fell running in the Peaks where I live before I do anything rash! D'you know how long it took your friend to train? I'm 27 and have only been running regularly for about 3 months, but do a fair bit of hillwalking and can manage 9k fairly comfortably at the moment - off road but mostly undulating hills rather than anything approaching mountainous.
I'm with you re bike. I would love a Pashley Princess Sovereign, but I can't justify one for it to just sit in the conservatory being looked at....it should be ridden with a long skirt...
My mate, let's call him Malcolm, because that's his name, has always run. He is now in his 50s, runs obscene distances, is built like the proverbial rake and loves a challenge. Wretched man!
Chamonix has some very tall pointy-bits, and they get covered in snow!! Brrr.
I would suggest doing lots and lots of running, geting familiar with navigation and then doing some more runing. I'm up for a challenge, but I may stick to a goal of the OMM or RAB. Call me a whimp if you like.
BTW, I love the Peak District. I have some very fond memories of Mam Tor, Castleton and Cave Dale, Winnats Pass etc, not to mention Edale and Kinder Scout.
Hmm, well, I'm also proverbially rake-shaped, but it's lucky genes rather than a lifetime of running, so I probably can't compete there! And you are right about the pointy bits with snow. Have you seen Ueli Steck's speed-climb of the Eiger? That might trump the jungle marathon, I think...
And in my teens I used to ride around with my boyfriend on a Pashley tandem, so with you there! Lovely (the boy didn't work out so well in the end, but still!).
And yes, I love Kinder Scout because our parents used to take us when we were little, so it has layers and layers of memories now. Am contemplating running that, actually, because I'm confident of the route and it's pretty familiar and not super far...
Good luck with Kinder, lots of peat and rather messy when wet, as I recall. I 'found' some lost army chaps up there once who were completely lost ~ oh, doesn't that inspire confidence....? Conversation something like...'Do you know where we are?', Me, unfurling my map, 'Yep, we are just here.' Pointing at where we were. 'Oh, are you sure?'. Me, 'Yep, I have just come up Grindsbrook, and we are here'. 'Oh, @$$?!@.'
I would LOVE a Pashley Princess, just to look at and ride occasionally. One would have to dress the part too, and have homemade ginger beer in the basket. A long, hot summers day, a gentle breeze and the buzzing of insects. The sea crashing on the cliffs and the smell of summer flowers filling the air....I should start saving for one, and wardrobe of Laura Ashley skirts...
I shall look at the clim, and get vertigo watching it.
Yes to ginger beer. Maybe a nice picnic as well? The sort with delicate sandwiches and very hefty fruitcake, and proper tea in a nice Stanley flask?
I've had similar experiences on top of Kinder (one with my heavily pregnant sister, which wasn't our favourite.), but if I'm after an easy-to-stay-on-track kind of walk we usually head up Grindsbrook then sort of loop around the side rather than crossing the top, and come down Jacob's Ladder. I reckon the obligatory river swim/dunk/splosh about would be enhanced by having run the bit before!
A know Jacob's Ladder well. Firstly from my Scouting days, and more recently with my wife.
Yes to delicate sanwiches and fruit cake (home made, of course, by my own fair hands). I may go for a Zojirushi flask now, but the Stanley would look better. In fact a Cath Kidston one would be nice.
I'm just an old-fashioned sort of 'girl' really!
Not sure of the wisdom of carting a pregnant woman onto Kinder!
Haha. And I didn't cart her, she went up first at the age of 3 as a result of my dad saying "I don't think she can manage the walk, we better bring the back carrier for her" in her earshot. She has been similarly stubborn ever since and did amazingly (and to dispel the impression of total irresponsibility I am cultivating, we did have our parents and partners with us and managed fine, though she was pretty sleepy afterwards). Am going to have a look at Zojirushi flasks.
We took our 4 year old son up and round Cavedale, up to the top of Winats Pass and back down into Castleton. He had done walks like it before, but grumbled all the way round on this occasion. He had chicken Pox ~ opps
Check the flask out. We have used one for years, and it is truly excellent; if they are still built to the same standard!
I'd love to participate in a challenge like The OMM, but since I'm struggling to increase my distance beyond 25km, it's not going to happen anytime soon.
For the first time this June, I really thought I'd like to try the Highland Cross (20 miles on foot, 30 miles by bike), but it's very difficult to get a place. It's usually a case of knowing a team that is left with a space following injury. highlandcross.co.uk/
Hmmm. hats off to you. I'm not sure I can trump that one.
What a great shame, those date co-incide exactly with a dentist appointment I have. OK, my noes is now little longer, but who does these races? Where do these people live and work, or do they just appear, do the event and then dissapear back into the mist only to be seen at the next event? Maybe they are kept locked up in some secret facility owned by the outdoor equioment companies?
Why don't we set oureselves a challenge to enter something like this? You can see if you can get ready for, and a place on that race, and I will find something in Devon (Dartmoor).
I think I'll try. I think it's going to be easier to train for distance events over the winter anyway (the Highland Cross is the last weekend in June) as during the summer I have more 'cross-training' activities vying for my time and energy. Neil and I have more long days out hillwalking and cycle camping and this is hard to fit around long run days, which could involve several-hour long runs.
Enjoy the Annapurna, take your time , do not run it.... and if you can try to go on hikes with lots of stone steps before you go! I wish someone gave me the same advice before I met thousand of steps on the Nepali "flat" .... flickr.com/photos/sivask/se...
Ah, Nepal. We sent our son there to work on a well project, volunteer at s health centre and orphanage when he was 11. We didn't go with him, and he had a great time.
He walked in the Himalaya and slept in tea houses....not bad for his first volunteering job.
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