This first bit is by way of a 'before the proper blog' bit and is to say that on Monday Beagle Nik, Ice Cream Sian and I ran the Twin Peaks Challenge. From the Parlour to Machen Mast, then to Rudry Top via the Tardis. 17.5k in all. Good grief. And have my knees recovered? Um, no, not really...
This is us at Machen Mast celebrating with a glass of something fizzy. Yes, I did carry it up. We'd chatted about a picnic so I was equipped with wine, cheese, fruit cake and a cereal bar thingy. Nobody else had done 'picnic' but luckily I'd packed enough for everybody. It was kind of heavy though...
It was the hottest day of the year so far and although we were mostly in woods our feet were BOILING! With the lack of rain water was hard to come by, but we found one muddy puddle and took it in turns to stand in the cool mud...
And here we are, some 11k later, at Rudry Top. We stopped for the second half of our picnic and then found that our legs didn't want to work for the last 4k home... Hey ho.
Yes, that is a picture of Ice Cream Sian and Beagle Nik but not me. By this time we were so tired I couldn't hold the camera at arms length to get us all in.
As my knees didn't really recover and Beagle Nik was also feeling the effects, our planned recce run on Friday to work out today's route didn't happen. So I did it on the Ordnance Survey 'Get-A-Map' thingy. I'm sure it's very clever and I did start properly, but by half way round plotting the route every 100m or so I got a bit bored and just drew a straight line on the map to the finish. It said the route was 10.13k. Perfect for Wee Gill's first 10k run...
The first part of our team outfit has arrived - the wigs! Yep, not content with water, lakes, lots of mud, filth and serious hills, we're adding nice hot wigs. And why not? Fit Mark had decided to join us, so he kindly modelled one. And looked worryingly happy in it...
And then we set about our evil plan to slow Quick Ceri down. Ice Cream Sian had brought nice new trainers three sizes too small, I'd helpfully provided a rucksack filled with 2 litres of water and a couple of half bricks, Beagle Nik brought some dumbbells and we added ankle weights too. Oh, and then tied her to Wee Gill for good measure. Yep, that should do it!
And off we went... Fit Mark led the way and romped ahead with Quick Ceri, Beagle Nik and Wee Gill were in the middle, and Ice Cream Sian and I were way behind at the back, nattering away as usual and nursing my creaking knees.
As we approached Rudry Common (it's a mountain really) Fit Mark was way ahead and took the direct route to the top. The rest of us took my easier route which is sort of like a helter skelter in reverse only it doesn't go round the mountain that many times. So not like a helter skelter at all then... By the time we reached the top there was no sign of Fit Mark and we reckoned he'd got cold waiting for us and run on ahead... So we stopped and took a photo:
The white blob under the red arrow is the ice cream parlour. Yes, it is a long way! We thought so too...
We ran on through the forestry where we found helpful obstacles to climb over, preparing us for Oblivion. Most of us clambered through this gate thing, but Quick Ceri vaulted impressively over the top. And then I made her go back and do it again for a photo. Ha ha - another way to slow her down - yay!
Because I'd given up on the online map thingy I was a little bit out on the distance. So we passed 10k when we were still some way from the parlour. Oops. Wee Gill was very nice about it and didn't shout at all. Not enough puff probably. We took a photo of her watch to celebrate her first 10k. No, it's not out of focus at all. I had enough energy to keep the camera perfectly still. Well, nearly perfectly still.
When we did (finally) make it back to the parlour Wee Gill's watch said we'd done 11.98k. So we made her run round the car park until it said 12k. We're good like that.
And after all that (well, actually, before we ran, maybe afterwards she wouldn't have given it to me??) Wee Gill brought me and Ice Cream Sian pressies. How perfect is this?!
Obviously now we're in proper training so we're going to work towards increased stamina, better preparation on hills, improved timings and specific muscle groups on our next run.
Or we'll go the same way again because the bluebells will be pretty.
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