Hadrian's Wall 2013

Hey all,

Hope you all had great Christmases. I managed to get down to flooded Cornwall which was a right lark. Fun slipping round the mud on a walk though! Got Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner so was happy with that.

Blakester how did your race go?

No real running presents (well, no real presents at all, we're mid-recession in our house, one job gone, one still hanging gamely on) but I counted my new Start Fitness thermal tights as the nearest I was going to get.

Impromptu half-marathon on Christmas Eve was my other present to myself...

If I win on the lottery tonight, going to treat myself to an OMM Kamleika jacket, I reckon.

Hi all, I'm new to all of this! 

I have just signed up for the wall! Doing the challenger, extremely nervous about it now ... took a lot to even sign up! Now time to start training, never ran more than a HM!!

Got a few adventure and trail races up and coming ... think I may need more now! 

I'm sure you'll do well! Welcome! This forum's pretty good for bolstering some confidence

Bring on the New Year - hope everyone has had their fill of extra food and is now ready to begin burning it all off... less than 6 months to go until our joint adventure whoop whoop.

Let's face it - the weather in June can't be any worse than it is just now (something to look forward to...)

The weather last June was worse than this! it was flooded from the start, I'm doing it again on the assumption it couldn't possibly be like that twice, so I am anticipating an easier ride this time around.

I was interested in this run, however at 70 miles it is too much too soon, when I read backward I saw on weedys list that some are doing it in 1 day and Ekgo your doing it for the second time does you Psychiatrist know about this.

one day maybe

Hi Crash Bang Wallop. Welcome to the thread. Think you've already done the hard part - deciding to go for it and signing up. There's me and a few others here in the same boat as you - never done anything like this before. What races do you have coming up?

Hi Nick. Hang around and pick up some tips in case you fancy trying it next year.

Bees - good luck with tonight's lottery. Altho it must be my turn to win by now.

Less than six months to go Sleepy Bear? You're right. Eek

One day
Alick
Amster and Mr Amster
Benjamin Kissel
Blakester
Checkmate
EKGO
Gramck +1
John MacKenzie
Mr X
Rockhopper Penguin

Two days
Crash Bang Wallop
Louise Hall
Marcus Nichols +2
Oscarr
Pinkbug
Pursued by Angry Bees +1
RunningRaRa
Sleepy Bear
Weedy

Hi Weedy, thanks for the welcome! Have got 'The Beast' in Melton Mowbray and 'The Wolf ' in Leamington Spa booked in. Then probably a few local 10k/milers that will be booked days before!
Are people getting a long race (Marathon) in before the impending race?

EKGO has made me a little nervous about the rain, few more pairs of socks will have to go in the bag then! 

Howdy CBW - The Wall will be my first ultra, though for me the deciding bit was easy, a few beers on payday and a handy debit card while trawling around t'internet.

Training up to longer distances - been running the occasional half marathon distance, and a couple of 10 mile + per week, building up to longer as I go, just hard to find the time. Main worry for me is getting used to back-to-back running - after a halfie I usually take a day (or two) out to  recover - with two 35 mile runs need to get used to hobbling off on the next day. 

Still, inventing some crackers new routes as I go - for New Year's Day I'm planning to run from the lighthouse at the end of the north pier at the mouth of the Tyne to the lighthouse at the end of the south pier using the first runnable river crossing, the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel, for a total of about 10.5 miles. Tempted to GoPro it...

Hi all

CBW - We're doing a mara in May (as prep - not  racing it that's for sure) - it's an off road / uppy downy one just for good measure (Cape Wrath). I'm right there with you on the sock stash - I'll be carrying extras just in case!

EKGO - hope you haven't just jinxed us LOL   though I can cope with a bit of wet as long as it's accompanied by June temperatures - got very soggy feet last weekend and it was flipping freezing floodwater at that.  Toughened me up, I can tell you!

pbab - sounds like you just need to slow down a bit - you'll get the same endurance benefit but it does take extra time if you have set miles you want to cover.  The best bit of advice someone once gave me is that "walk is not a swear word".  Taking walk breaks can ease your muscles off and balance your heart rate (even if you just walk 5 minutes of each hour you should notice a difference the next day in terms of fatigue).  I used to be incredibly guilty of over racing halfs and then hobbling for days but slowing down even just 20-30 seconds a mile makes a massive difference if you want to then do something else the next day...

Headed out on the Peak District trails today - did 2½ hours of walk/jogging with the dog - could do that all day.  Oh that's right...I will be soon enough!

Crash bang - I've got Northumberland Coastal Marathon in March, Paris Marathon in April and Edinburgh Marathon in May.

I'm with Sleepy Bear on the wet weather. I don't mind the rain, it's the wind I can't stand.

Bees - Lighthouse to lighthouse run's an inspired idea. What's GoPro?

Sleepy Bear - Just had a look at the Cape Wrath mara, looks a nice scenic hilly route to do! 
Weedy Gonzalez - They sound like some good marathons to be running! Guessing the marathon training has began properly for you now then! 

I think I may have to get one under my belt, although not sure the scenery will be as nice as both of yours! 

pbab - I'm thinking the same, having never ran that type of distance it feels daunting to be doing it twice in 2 days! 

Nice trail run over the fields today, got a little dark on the way back ... bridge over the ditch seemed to have moved ... nothing like a cold splash to wake you up! 

Have a great new year everyone.

Ditto from me. Hope you all have a good time.

Have a good 'un folks - waiting to find out if Mrs Bees is still fancying a midnight run to Tynemouth and back before I uncork the whisky bottle...

Weedy - GoPro make head cameras - picked one up from Rat Race with the discount from joining up to enter the race. Proper good fun, and you can mount them on just about anything...  couple of examples I've shot here on my Vimeo page.

Think the lighthouse to lighthouse will be mint - especially excited at running through the pedestrian tunnel.

Hey folks

I'm in for the one day .. completed London to Brighton in September which wasn't too bad despite getting lost a few times and adding extra miles (covered 62 miles for a 57 mile race!).  Looking forward to this one ... hopefully if we're just following the wall I've got less chance to get lost???