100 Mile Challenge - Stage One Complete! #ride4MB

Saturday morning, gale force winds, sideways rain and 14 miles of Welsh hillside to run along whilst racing a train. Madness? No, just stage one of my Ride For Michael 100 Mile Challenge at the Race the Train event in Tywyn on the Welsh Coast.

It's quite a simple premise, there is a narrow gauge train and you race it from the station up the valley and back again. Apart from the first and last miles, the whole race is across private farm land. This is not a road plod, more of a fox hunt with bogs, grassy fields and hills to conquer.

I'm not much of a competitive runner, in fact I wouldn't even call myself a runner, but this seemed to me like a very friendly and approachable event. Yes, it was dominated by strange club types ( I guess some people just like wearing the same 1970's vest as everyone else? ) and there were some wannabee expedition runners looking like they were going to set out on the Marathon Des Sables, but other than that it was relaxed and very well organised run.

The first half of the race was up the valley with some mild ups and downs across fields littered with slippery cowpats. This was the easy 7 miles and I should really have run faster. Reaching the half way mark I saw the train coming up fast but I turned before it reached this point. Now came the fun bit and the uphill stretches to climb the other side of the valley. Dropping some SIS energy gel I looked down at my #ride4MB t-shirt ( now soaked through ) and remembered that I wasn't running for myself, dug deep and gave it some welly. I kept the train in sight right up until the bog of doom and that slowed me down enough for the Train to get away.

Then came the gale force wind. Coming out of the woody area and back onto the farm land meant that the full force of a cheeky storm made running forward pretty interesting. At one point I couldn't actually see! Progress was hard and slow, but my legs felt good and I just kept plugging on and held my position in the race.

Unfortunately, the bog, hills and wind hit my time and even after dropping a really fast last mile ( overtaking a lot of people ) I came in just after the 2 hour mark ( the train arrives around 1hr 45 ish ). I can live with that though, I finished running, injury free and smiling and hopefully I have got some more money in for the fund.

Cheesy event picture of me here......

Needless to say if you are reading this, don't think of it as a challenge, think of it as an experience. You can sit on your sofa watching Country File and thinking about the outdoors or you can get out there and be part of it.

Next up... 60 miles on a Road bike at the Ride For Michael Sportive. See you there?

Just get on your bike.

Been up since 5am this morning. Caught the redeye train to London to conduct a round of interviews for work in a mini heatwave of 32 degrees. I just couldn't help but look on jealously as the cyclists of the city made their merry way around. Their speed creating their own air conditioning. Some on Boris Bikes, some on carbon racers, some on battered old mountain bikes.

I didn't get on the Ride for London list this year ( see old posts with some mini-rants about it being another London Marathon where only the big charities can get places ), but I am desperate to get back to the smoke of my youth and once again explore it on two wheels.
 
It should be no surprise that getting hold of a Steel dream machine from those awesome folk at Genesis has been a mini revelation for me. Lets not get crazy,I'm NOT going to start shaving my legs, but lets just say my mind is not not only full of mountain missions, but also the roads to those mountains.

Why? Well I'm riding for Michael.... are you?

Ride for Michael

After a hard and hot day in the office and a slow commute home on the M6, getting this t-shirt and stickering up the fleet of bikes puts life back into perspective. Quit your moaning and get out on a bike and Ride For Michael

 

Crunching the Miles - #Ride4MB 100 Mile Challenge Update

Not long till the first part of my #Ride4MB 100 Mile Challenge so I have been trying to get the miles in where I can.

The first event is the 14 mile RACE THE TRAIN trail race. With this in mind I made sure that whilst on a family holiday to Menorca I got some trail miles in before Breakfast ( and before the heat of the day kicked in ).

Not really sure what to expect on this one. I've raced over 12 miles doing the Tough Mudder before and I am pushing my road miles to 14 pretty easily on the road, so it should be a grand day out.

The latest info from the organisers is that the train ride is just over 6.75 miles, and takes 45 minutes so the average speed is 9mph. This excludes any stop at the top of the line etc., which has an impact on average speed

The RTT timing is

42 minutes up
43 minutes down
23 minutes stop at Abergynolwyn

Overall timing is therefore 108 minutes for 13.5 miles giving an average speed of 7.5 mph. If you exclude the stop at Abergynolwyn then average speeds are 9.5mph. The Train will however reach up to 15mph depending on location as obviously it is slower at certain places due to speed restrictions for operating purposes.

What does that mean for the race? Well I'm b*ggered if I know, I'll just turn up and work it out on the day. The only thing I hope is that the weather is bad, as I tend to be faster when the rain is coming down and others are suffering. In a weird way I enjoy it more when the conditions are against you. That said, I'd rather not run in a heatwave. 

The next event after this is the actual #ride4MB sportive in Penrith...watch this space for details on the training ( and awesome bike ) I am putting in for that....