Happy Monday post- 2 years since I was brought back from an induced coma, you may remember I took a hit on Constitution hill on the way to work. Thankfully the Southampton Neuro experts kept me alive and cleaned up the Subdural Heamatoma (blood clot on the brain) returning me back to normality. There have been many others involved in bike crashes since then, many more unlucky and some who never returned. R.I.P.NHS hospital staff are true undersung hero’s in my book. Thankyou to them all and the friends that saw me through that period.
Post Topic- The Great British Relay 2014- my earlier post ‘I go to smugglers top’ outlined what was a night recce a couple of weeks ago, heres the follow up to that adventure. So, thanks to Roger Thetford first from T.V.O.C. for getting me involved in this, as it looks like we will both be acknowledged Guinness World Record contributors in a few days. A crazy idea that someone dreamt up became reality during the whole of June this year. Over 30 days and 594 stages around the entire U.K coast, hundreds of individuals and many more running club groups ensured that a baton was continuously in motion for the record attempt. Said baton was a special GPS tracker device inside a small carry case of 1 kilo weight. Leaving Scarborough on the 1st June, this was to meet me at 0150 in Beer, Devon, thats Beer the village where I would run with it through Seaton, and to hand over 10 miles later in Lyme Regis. Watching the early stages unfold we saw a smooth start all the way around England Scotland and Wales, at this point I strongly felt that the required pace of 10 KM per hour which was what the whole event was timed around would remain intact until the South West coast path reared up its friendly coastal challenges in Devon and Dorset. Intuition? or experience of running these hills on various events over the years?
So my 24th date approached, June was a superb month this year, with my work at Bournemouth Velodrome only interrupted by the first rain of the month in Dorset on the 26th! slight digression – in total 54 track cycling sessions and only 4 cancelled in june. Brilliant! back on topic, slightly crazy to get ready for the event, and on the 23rd the hills that make up South West coast path had indeed delivered the delays I had expected, the relay was now 6 hours behind schedule…all evening of the 23rd was spent txting the previous runners who worked out my handover would no longer be 0150 but 0650 – a sunny morning to come. This meant that the night recce would have been unneeded, but I was still really keen to get on the beautiful undercliff, what must have been one of the knarliest stages of the relay. Remember this area of coast hosts great races like ‘ the Beast’, ‘the Grizzly’ and saturday just gone the ‘Charmouth Challenge’ . Cut a long logistical story short and I got to Beer ready to run at 0630.
Dream terrain, twisty turny rooty trails that put you in a constant state of attention when youre running, with short sections of climb, and lovely flowing downhill slopes to have a look around on. You pass lots of waymarked cliffs, to gaze out onto a pan flat summer sea. Its the sort of run I wish I got out of bed for more often! Feeling good I continued along making smooth progress towards Lyme and you know what? didnt pass one other human being on the way, so a solitudenous experience you could say, happy time. Making it out onto the seafront and passing the Cobb I guessed around 8 on track to meet the Bournemouth joggers team who had heroically jumped in at the last minute to replace someone who couldn’t make it due to the late running. Trotted through and past the start of many of our Dorset Coast Relay starts, up the hill in town to meet the 3 ladies taking over. Time to swim, after that little start I jumped straight into the sea here- heavenly. Mission accomplished.
As I write the relay has tracked 6,522 km, with the current record st at 5, 644 km- the Guinness record is in the sight of hundreds of ace people that made this crazy idea a reality. Confirmation should be soon also with the photos taken along the way, cant wait to be included. Brilliant to have been involved with so many clubs, and runners just getting on with something so original, there may be a 2015 version too so watch this space.
heres the full details of my run, theres some of this S,W coast path officially closed so dont tell anyone O.K?