"Carry On Up The Kinder" or The Edale MMM

Early start and pick up Dave Motley to get down to Edale for around 8:00 am. Some bad omens as we get lost driving down or were we just half asleep? All's well as we get registered and start for about 9:00, Dave probably going 10 minutes before me.

Dib, get my map and set off planning as I jogged up the lane towards Edale village. I've only been here once before so it's a little understandable when I run into the car park of some sort of outdoor centre; looked a bit of an idiot but never mind. Run back out on to the lane. I had looked at the map carefully before hand so I had an idea of the way I'd do this checkpoints. One bunch to the west seem to be better to bag at the end if time allows as they're slightly isolated. I'd go anti clockwise right round towards the back of Kinder near the A66 and then come back and decide which to pick up towards the end.

All went well with just a few problems and slower legs. I did find it difficult to maintain map to ground contact at times when I was crossing very rough ground and the absence of any local knowledge beyond one Skyline rec was both difficult and more exciting. My biggest mistake was after over 3 hours by choosing to go west steadily traversing up toward the edge to the north of Grindsbook Clough instead of climbing up on to the edge and just running along it. Although it lost me little time it was so difficult under foot and so tiring I didn't plan my next leg properly and that cost me a few minutes. It also meant that my finish had to be absolutely flat out, descending 1100" and running like a lunatic through the village to not go over 4 hours and 5 minutes and start incurring double penalties. I made it by 5 seconds.

Dave appeared and asked if I'd moved the keys hidden on the car tyre, not very secretively. No I hadn't but they'll turn up, I thought!

Once I'd downloaded I realised I was in the lead, at the time! This didn't cheer Dave up, he's a bit selfish sometimes! Anyway after he got a lift up to Lancashire got my keys and came back and I'd stood around for 4 hours trying to keep warm we did get into the car. The wife was very unimpressed with having to drive the keys part way down!

Lessons learnt:

• Look after your car keys
• Look closely at the terrain on the map
• Break bad news to the wife gently

Final result was that I came 4th and 1st vet 40. I presume I've taken the series V40 title with 2 class wins. I think that gets me into the Rab MM 2 day event for free next year. Might have to take this seriously!

Dark and White MMM Edale Preparation

Didn't want to go overboard preparing for this but I know I'd kick myself if I messed up for want of a bit of simple fore thought. So I've had a few evenings of night nav practice trying to find premarked points then seeing if I hit them. I have to say I got many spectacularly wrong, even running to the wrong checkpoint ( even though I'd marked them) and then trying to convince myself that I was right. I got back into pacing, running the needle which is pretty difficult in the dark! Madge seemed to enjoy it all, although she was a bit puzzled by the erratic routes. I was all good fun and the more I got wrong, the more I learnt.

I think given the time that the checkpoints might go right around the back the Kinder Plateau. I can't see us going south but I'm prepared to be surprised.

Physically I should be okay for Edale. I think given 4 hours I'll hope to get round 17 or 18 miles with 5000" of climb, maybe more.

The main thing on Sunday is to enjoy it and see how it goes!

November 160 miles 40000 ft

November has turned out to be a pretty good month. Only one race and few irregular commitments have seemed to mean that I have actually managed to do what I had vaguely planned out for the month. Lots of running, loads of climb at a reasonable intensity.

We moved house in September and this obviously meant a few missed runs. October was partly about the relays.

November though has been about getting out and really enjoying my running. Ironically we've not been away in the motorhome since the end of August whereas we're normally away a couple of times a month. All this seems to have combined to enable me to run and recover almost endlessly. Although Im not sure about my short race fitness and haven't yet done a cross country this season, I think my longer race fitness is better than it's ever been.

Moving back to Trawden has been a massive coup. Having moved away 10 years ago it feels great to get out on those tops again. I'm running further than I was those days and I'm stretching out into the Pennines. Exploring new routes, I'm getting a couple of runs over 2 hours each week and running twice a day most days.

Madge (above) is continuing to be a fantastic training partner, always willing (unless its tipping it down), always fun and pretty much inexhaustible.

December is going to be a bit more varied. I've the next Dark and White MMM down at Edale and I'm going to taper properly for this one. We're away for much of the last week up in the Lakes with walking  and mountain biking as well as Wansfell Race.

January should be a big month with again plenty of miles and climb but some higher intensity stuff starting to appear.