Its now upon me !! ……. The Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie !

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Mark Lyons

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The Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie ….. the TDS race of the UTMB mountain running Event.

“Wilder and more technical than the UTMB® and the CCC® it is a race in exposed country along the ‘Grande Randonnée’ paths crossing though the high Mont-Blanc, Beaufort, Tarentaise and Aosta.
A mountain event, including numerous sections at high altitude (>2,500m), in weather conditions which can be very difficult (night, wind, cold, rain or snow), requiring a very high level of fitness, the appropriate equipment and a real capacity for personal autonomy”


TDS Profile .. up down up down up down ouch ouch !!!!

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What now seems like forever ago I entered the  UTMB race but failed in the ballot to get a place, therefore I was offered a place in the TDS race which runs alongside the CCC and PTL races to form the The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® mountain running  festival based in Chamonix….. now I’ve got that mouthful of abbreviational mumbo jumbo out the way lets talk English.

Mt.Joly

The North Face UTMB festival is a magnet for mountain runners worldwide and boasts the highest number of entries in any event of its kind. It will be amazing for me to be part of it and I fully expect Chamonix to be buzzing with top runners from all over the world including some of the worlds top mountain athletes ,hopefully I will spy a few of my favorite “celebs” during the week 🙂  Even if I don’t  I am heading out with an illustrious bunch of extremely fit compadre’s including Johnny Millen the Geordie hill cruncher , Paul Giblin the “floating” Scotsman and the one and only Sir Davie Bell of Bathgate , need I say more !. Whatever happens in Chamonix I’m in for a good time !

I hear the Gates of heaven are up here ? … thank God cos my calves are in Hell !!!!

If I’m honest this is a race that has me a little worried, it is a very serious undertaking for anyone,   it is over remote high mountain terrain with an unrelentingly tough course from beginning to end. I’ve run up Scottish hills, baked in hot deserts and ground my way up Himalayan mountain trails but never have I undertook something as long and as unrelentingly tough as this race. It is 112 kilometers long and has 7150 meters of technical ascent and descent . that’s 23,454 feet or 8 Munros from sea level to summit , it’s all to be done in one single stage and my calves and quads will be screaming for mercy if I can keep going to the end. And that is the burning question in my head right now, it is what I keep asking myself over and over , will my legs keep going and will my knee hold up ?

ouch !! pass the peas 😀

This year has been exceptionally tough for me,  my shoulder which was wrenched violently from its socket while kayaking a spot of Alpine white-water gnarl during my last visit to the french alps has now deteriorated to the point where it dislocates for apparently no reason other than twisting it the wrong way , making anything but running near impossible, and even running has recently started to give me a gnawing pain deep within the socket. It has also been another big year of change in my life. Working out-of-town at the University made my early seasons training very tough to keep consistent and I let my mileage slip badly,thankfully I was welcomed into the “screaming calf society” of the local hill runners who beasted me twice weekly with hill reps and intervals after work . My weekends have and still are chaotic , having left self employment behind means finding time to spend with my daughter is a lot tougher, I took on a freelance programming contract to help pay the bills on-top of my new full-time job thinking I could “sqeeze” it all in, then at the same time I was asked by a local charity Anthony Mundell Memorial Fund to help train their charity runners in the 10 weeks leading up to the Edinburgh Rock and Roll half marathon. This I enjoyed immensely but all the juggling of my spare time meant that again I dropped back my training even further, still I was happy enough, running has to take a back seat to both my daughter and making a living. I felt I still had loads of time before the light nights and the start of the summer where I could run to my heart’s content ….. well think again Marko !!   My first ultra-race of the year, the 55 mile Cateran55 came quickly in May and I should have been better prepared. It saw me run well until shortly after 40 miles a rapidly stiffening groin and quads slowed me down before a sharp pain in my knee at mile 50 saw the last 5 miles take me nearly 2 hours. It was an amazing race and I seemed to be better by  mid-week so stupidly I went on to run the Edinburgh marathon with Rhalou only 7 days later , pain set in early and I kept running despite knowing better, this knocked another nail into my ultra running coffin for 2012 !!  I had an enforced rest for a few weeks before running the Lairig Ghru mountain race which saw me stiffen up at 9 miles before my knee went half way up the pass !!  fuck me!! only another 19 miles to go !!  🙂  I was having no luck at all , I soldiered on to the end and still enjoyed the race despite everything.  I then had a full months lay off,  hoping for a miracle recovery that has never came. In the end having to cancel both the Lakeland50 and The Devil ‘o’ the Highlands in the hope of being fit for Chamonix. Since then I’ve juggled rest and light running in an attempt to keep some CV in me yet let my knee heal at the same time. My shoulder operation is due soon after the race in October, this will see me on several months downtime . So at least when I get to the race I can give it my all and not have to worry too much about injuring my knee as I’ll be recuperating anyway . Errrr did I really give that as an option .. haha 🙂   The past two weeks have finally seen me out and about running on my local trails trying hard to get mileage into my legs. It’s not been pretty either, I’m nowhere near as fit as I was last season, not even close! My brain tells me to pull out yet my heart says try your best , so I’m left hoping that I can run,walk,limp and hopefully crawl over that Chamonix finish line before the cut off time ……….. have I got enough in the tank?, can I keep moving when my body tells me to stop? …. keep your fingers crossed , I’ll be crossing mine 😉 


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My normal alpine soiree’ …. Doing what I did best, Letterbox on the river Guil Grade5

Posted in Adventure, Mojo, mountain running, Ultrathon | 2 Comments

Sean MacFarlane does ….. The Celtman !!

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Mark Lyons

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Sean MacFarlane does ….. The Celtman !!

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I wrote about Sean MacFarlane once before here .. http://www.runner786.com/2011/07/04/west-to-east-beast-a-serious-challenge-and-then-some/  and if you read that already then you know that Sean is an exceptional outdoor athlete and has ran, biked , swam and kayaked just about every conceivable terrain out there , he likes it tough and he likes it long so when the Celtman extreme triathlon popped up as this years must do extreme multi-sport event he was sure to enter …. this is his write up ……

Posted in Adventure, Marathon des Sables, mountain running, Training | 2 Comments

Cold Black …………

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Mark Lyons

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Cold Black …… by Under Armour

I was recently contacted by Under Armour during a Blog outreach program where they chose  unassociated athletes suitably qualified  ( I use the term “athlete” loosely 🙂 ) to test and independability review their products , on this occasion the new Cold Black technology in the form of a wicking outer T-shirt. Its a combination of its existing Heatgear principle with a new heat reflecting fabric called Cold Black that is meant to keep you cooler in the heat of the sun. It reflects the suns rays and stay cool …… does it work ?  watch the videos then read on compadre’ …….

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that’s the fabric now here the principle … 
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I don’t do a lot of reviews on the blog to be honest , it really has to be something that blows me away to the point I need to tell everyone but this time I was super stoked to do it as Under Armour is one of my favorite brands  for compression/wicking and whether kayaking, climbing or running, 99% of the time I’m wearing their product  …. Under Armour has kept me comfortable all over the world from kayaking the Grand Canyon of the Himalaya to running the Marathon Des Sable …. so I agreed to independently test and blog my opinion , good or bad  . And a week later a Cold Black T-Shirt arrived through the post . It must be stated though that the Cold Black technology is aimed at use in the heat of the sun so as I live in Scotland, and we were going through a spell of horrendously wet and cold weather I had to wait a while to review it properly , however it was worth the wait as a heat wave hit Scotland on the same week the Edinburgh marathon was being run and luckily enough I was entered. Game on Cold Black !!!  lets see just what your made of …..

I decided to try it out the day before the marathon with a short 10 mile blast across the countryside on my local trails , the sun was high and the temperature a touch over 25 degrees Centigrade , the T-Shirt was comfortable enough on , clean inside seams so no chafing and looked to be very good quality especially given that it was only £22 in the shops , that is pretty cheap for a running T-shirt, let alone one which apparently blocks the heat of the sun. So off I went and after a mile or two being baked in the open I could visibly feel the difference , the T-shirt was actually feeling like it was cool to touch , sweat was dripping off my brow and the heat of the sun burnt down on my arms but the T-shirt was not hot at all , not only did it reflect the Suns rays, it did not retain any heat either so it felt cool to wear. I felt I could have done with a smaller size to benefit fully from the sweat wicking but it was fine and I sailed up the trail back to my house pretty impressed.  My final opinion is that I wish I had one when I was running across the Sahara and Gobi , I can guarantee the next time I’m in the desert I will be wearing one

Absolutely nothing to do with running but check this video out !!!  Awesome !!

Posted in Marathon des Sables, Mojo, Review, Training, Ultrathon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cateran55 mountain trail race….. 55 miles is a lot of running !

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Mark Lyons

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Cateran55 mountain trail race….. 55 miles is a lot of running ! 

I had definitely been better prepared for a race but this was one journey I really didn’t want to miss, even if I was guaranteed a tough time…  So I packed my bags and headed North for the Cateran Trail … 

Follow the hearts ……

I’m no gifted runner, quite the opposite in fact and I have to work hard for every mile I cover, but usually I put the training in and for the most part enjoy my races. But lately life has been getting in the way of my outdoor pursuits; a return to full time working as a programmer and a huge backlog of freelance work has had me working night and day. I grudgingly had to cancel both the Highland Fling and the Sandbaggers Scottish Ultra because of my life’s various commitments and this was starting to piss me off no end, my belief is that I work to allow me my adventures and if it gets in the way of these, then what’s the point? However the spare time I have had has been put to good use, I’ve been training with the local hill runners and by God it’s been intensely hard AND painful! It definitely helping to improve my hills but the only problem is that it is short distance; races are normally under 12 miles and under an hour for the training sessions during the week. So when the Cateran55 came round I was left wondering whether to cancel that too, but I dug my heels into life and decided to go for it!  So with a quick 23-mile cross-country run the week before to make sure I could still run over 12 miles, I set off on Friday after work for the GlenSpittal Hotel, the start line of the race.

Glen Spittal Hotel

It’s a lovely hotel with good food, clean rooms and a warm bar in a beautiful part of the Highlands, what’s not to like! And they had laid on a special deal for runners so I was staying until Sunday, nice and comfy in a double room with mountain view, lovely! I arrived late Friday night as it’s several hours drive from The Borders to the heart of the Cairngorms. I took in the scenery, huge mountains all around me, I thought back to my days of winter climbing and the many ice routes I used to scare myself senseless on. Many are now regarded as scary test pieces, back then my naïvety was probably a good thing… However this trip I was here to run , 55 miles of running to be precise. The Cateran55 is a super runnable ultra race, there’s not many places in its 55 miles that you are forced to stop and walk, definitely a real runners trail. An old drovers road that snakes gently along climbing and falling, spilling its way through beautiful green countryside filled with mountains and forests. But do not let that fool you, 7,500 feet of ascent AND descent (never forget the descent) is also there to take its toll on your legs…

Myself and the ultra monster that is Pyllon …

My first port of call once settled into Glen Spittal was to search out my friend Paul, he’s one of Scotland’s top ultra runners and was last years’ winner of the Cateran55. He was here in the hotel with his girlfriend and had bagged room 444, obviously paying homage to Paul’s training schedule where his alarm goes off at 4:44am every morning for his early runs, about the same time as my cockerel finds the bedroom window and starts screeching underneath it! However Paul gets up and runs 15 miles before work, I roll over and try to go back to sleep… Now there’s a lesson on why I’m rubbish and he’s top of the tree 😉 It was great to finally get a chance to meet his family who support him in every way possible, and what a fantastic bunch they were, lovely friendly people with a huge love of the ultra scene, if his mum doesn’t know it, it’s not worth knowing… His sister Nicola was every bit as cool and funny in real life as she is online and his Dad was so full of pride for Paul it was bursting out the sides… Eventually after a load of laughs and Paul giving me the low down on what to watch out for in the race I retired to bed , preparing for an early 7am start to the race .

Karen reads the race brief …

6am and my alarm went off, I necked an oatmeal yoghurt, prepared my drop bags, filled my bottles, and headed down stairs for the race briefing where I met Paul and the delightful  Louise Jones, bubbly ultra-lady and a very strong ultra runner … Outside it was a beautiful high pressure morning, bluebird sky and a cool temperature. Karen the race director read out the race brief and finally we all walked over to the start line , about 70 odd runners congregated and chatted briefly before we were told to get ready , BANG and we are off !!! …. 55 miles ahead, time to get busy .

Runners ready for the off ….

Its was a smooth run out over a cattle bridge and down a rough track before hitting the fields and following broken single track, the first checkpoint came quickly at 6 miles but the next one was 11 or 12 miles further out . In an Ultra race of this kind  the checkpoints are set out where they can be accessed by car which means they are often intermittent and with varying distances between them, there’s nothing set up every 3 miles like a marathon but that’s why we love it, the game of off-road Ultra, every race is different , a character of its own , no set patterns here !! … I hit the 20 mile point pretty strong and had run with Louise most of the way, she had some great stories to tell and the miles disappeared behind us as we picked our way across the beautiful GlenShee landscape.

I ran into the half way checkpoint a little under 5 hours and I was now happy that I had enough  in my tank to finish , all was good in the world until I received news that Paul who had battled it out up front with the other Ultra-rockets had been forced to withdraw from the race due to a problem with his stomach , I was gutted for him !! I knew this would be very upsetting for him …..   After a 5 minute rest break with my feet in the air and meeting Steve from Tentsmuir at the check point I set off again. Steve would later be a friendly and encouraging face for me at the checkpoints ahead.


running more miles than you can ever remember ….

I set off up the long hill that was to follow , whose Idea was it to put that there !! The scenery along the trail was beautiful to see and just as fantastic to run on, long sections of soft if a little muddy at times trail , broken up with short country lanes and steep hills , tracks through dark forests opening out into mountain views …. I was loving it and tried to take some mental snapshots of it all as I ran !!  but after about 40 miles my legs weren’t loving it back .. my lack of training was starting to show , hill running may be the toughest of training but no substitute for a long run and hard day long grafts in the hills. My muscles and tendons had been slowly weakening and I was feeling it bad, my groin area the most , even the tendons in my arms were starting to nag  with all the swinging back and forth , I soldiered on but I was starting to seriously flag and losing places , Louise was being held back by me  yet seemed content to pull me along , I encouraged her to bash on as it wasn’t fair on her ,and just as well as the next 10 miles really took their toll and I slowed down considerably , by the time I reached mile 50 I was so debilitated by my groin strain that I was pretty much unable to hold any pace at all , I had a horrible feeling I would wake up with a double groin strain the next day …I soldiered on though , no way I was DNF this day !!!

taking a load off ….

When I  think of  the unrelenting pace that Paul , Matt and the guys in the front pack run these distances at I am full of awe and admiration for not only their athleticism but their steely determination when the pain kicks in !! …….  after a long hill climb I was high in Glen Shee following a high level mountain path for the final few miles to the finish.. the rough ground was torture and the final climb hard on my legs but finally I crossed the shoulder and  looked down on the Glen Spittal hotel , less than a mile below down a steep path that in a hill race would probably take me no more than 6 or 7 minutes ,  after 54 miles however my groin and knees were so weak that I  could only hobble down …. It took me over 30 mins to reach the finish !!   in fact those last 5 miles took me over 2 hours !!  Steve and Nicola were waiting for me as I hit the bottom of the hill and we ran/hobbled the last 200 yards to the finish line ….   God it was nice to see that finish !!   I fell into the bar with Nicola and Paul’s mum and  finally took a load off my feet, I had made it  to the finish and after 55 miles  I was battered , broken but not beaten !!…… Paul’s sister introduced me to Matt Williams in the bar , he had won the race this year in a time of just over 8 hours !!  now that is amazing !!!

Matt shakes hands with Karen at the finish ….. I probably had 15 miles to go

So next week is Edinburgh marathon , I swore Id never run a road marathon again but Rhalou has persuaded me to chum her round … fingers crossed my legs are recovered …. last year I ran 3:38 against gale force winds , hopefully this year may be a little more demure 🙂

 

 

Posted in Adventure, Marathon des Sables, mountain running, Ultrathon | 3 Comments