Monday 25 October 2010

Knoydart

Got back this weekend from a week in beautiful Knoydart, the biggest news to report is that Alex and I are now happily engaged! We also bagged two Munros and consumed far too much wine and whisky. What a great week.

Monday 11 October 2010

Lakeland runners are superhuman

This saturday was the race I'd been looking forward to/dreading all year - the langdale fell race. I call it a race but after the first ten minutes all thoughts of racing had left my mind and been replaced with trying not to die a wheezing snot flecked death.

The very start was ok, but extremely busy - there were nearly 400 runners running.



After the first climb at Stickle Tarn, by this point I was knackered and a little concerned there was still almost all of the race to go.


The steep gully up Thunakar Knott, how could there possibly be this much up in the first few miles I thought. I would soon be delighted to learn that the whole race consisted of up, I'm not sure how I didn't finish several thousand feet above the start.


In between these two photos was about 8 miles of beautiful scenery which I almost completely ignored because I was concentrating on not stopping. This was harder than it sounds as I'd slowed to a pace almost indistinguisable from actually being stopped, so was in constant danger of becoming a permenant feature of the countryside (maps of the area would start including me as pile of fellrunner and people would take bearings from the top of my head).


This is the bad step on crinkle crags, it was nice having a rest waiting for the people in front to climb down. After this all that was left was a nice run down to and over Pike O Blisco (cramp again, note to self no more pre-race flapjacks). I had a gel at this point and it made me feel much better and I overtook a few. Then all there was left was downhill to Old Dungeon ghyll. I didn't care that it was a great deal of down, it was all down. Feelings of relief and released tension washed over me as I bounded down through the heather and mud.

Crossing the line I couldn't do much aside from stare into the middle distance. Alex and her Mum were there at the finish and asked how it had gone. I couldn't seem to formulate a coherent reply but managed to say "buh" or something similar, so they got the idea.

Here's some more pictures

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alun.williams/20101011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSAy8Wd34vERw&feat=directlink
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Wednesday 6 October 2010

Funny coloured sheep

Went for a leisurely run up South Head after work today. On my way up saw this motley collection of oddly coloured sheep. I wonder what breed they are. The greyish one looks particulary snazzy.



Then at the top I decided to sit down in my favourite spot and wait for a Hen Harrier to appear so that I could astound all with my wildlife photographer skills by putting it on my blog. Unfortunately nothing was doing so I took the classic picture of my feet shot instead.



I thought these fields looked nice on the way down.



Our house, complete with freight train. I do wonder sometimes if the Victorians had made any errors with their slide rules (did they have slide rules?) when looking at all the tonnage sitting on top of some paltry masonry.

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Sunday 3 October 2010

Rainy Sunday

Lots of rain today, didn't do any exercise but went for a little walk after lunch to see if everything had been flooded.


Black Brook going past the back of Gregory Row.


The river level gauge further downstream, think the top of it said "5" so i guess thats feet.


Footbridge under the arches, still there!
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Saturday 2 October 2010

Soggy

Went out for a short ride over Chinley Churn and then over to the Roych this afternoon after completing various chores. Got rather muddy (understatement). Good excuse to clean the bike though (why am i so keen on cleaning my bikes but washing up is torture?)



One week to go till the Langdale fell race, getting a bit nervous...
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