Carneddau and Vanessa Chapel

These two races are at two ends of my fell running scale.

On Saturday, I did Carneddau, which runs up the 3rd and 4th highest mountains in Wales. It was blowing a "hooley" at the summit and I was very lucky to have a Dark Peak runner in front of me who knew where he was going.

It took me over 2 hours, and I was pretty broken for the last half hour. In the end I lost about 5 minutes on the Dark Peaker who I was with at the summits. It also has about 2000 feet of descending in one go. I can't really train for this in the Peak District, so my thighs were trashed by the time I reached the flat section at the end.

I was 9th out of about only 50 runners. A disappointing turn-out for such a great race. Especially one that demands so much time and enthusiasm from the numerous marshalls who sat on the summits in the dreadful weather. Here's me looking wet and tired after only about 40 minutes. This pici is from the Al Tye's excellent photo site.

Then on Wednesday night, I did Vanessa Chapel fell race. This is a classic Peak District fell race, relatively short and mainly on footpaths. There are also many more fell runners in and around the Peak, so there were about 180 runners in this race. I was pleased to finish 16th, two places behind my Pennine team-mate Steve, who is getting better despite his advancing age (only joking Steve).

Although I'm much better and the short and less steep stuff, this is only because this is what I train. Towards the end of the Carneddau fell race, I asked myself "am I a mountain man?" The answer was a defnite "No".

Crawling at Cressbrook, running at Rainow...

I think I'm improving, after my long winter off racing.

I did Cressbrook Crawl last Saturday and was about 2 or 3 minutes down on where I think I could have been. Then on Wednesday night I did Rainow fell race. This race includes quite a bit of my lunchtime run when I go out from work, and includes the landmark White Nancy - an old summer house that is built on the summit of one of the Bollington hills. At Rainow, I was much closer to where I think I could have finished.

I have another chance to run past White Nancy today when I do Bollington Festival fell race. I'm hoping to beat my time from last year, but only because I got lost in last year's race.

Moor fires

I suspect there are lots of downsides to long dry spells. One of them is the moor fires that rampage across the country fuelled by strong winds and young kids with nothing better to do.

We met up with my parents near Crowden on Sunday, but what started as a small plume of smoke in the distance had soon developed into a grey cloud that was blocking out the sun. By the time we'd packed up and were driving home the police had closed the roads to the area and fire engines were pouring in from about ten different towns.

So when it's raining and nasty in a week's time, I'll try to remember that we wanted a bit more rain.

Can you spot a good runner?

I'm often intrigued by the biomechanics that define someone as a good runner. Things like leg strength, cadence and stride length are obvious determinants of speed. So if this is the case, we should be able to tell who are good runners and who are not, simply by looking at their running style.

There are, however, exceptions. I am often overtaken in fell races by someone who looks like they were designed based on a drawing done by a 5-year-old. Conversely, I very occasionally overtake someone who looks like a proper athlete.

So how good are you at spotting who is fast and who is not. Here is a collection of short videos showing club runners in the Kinder Downfall race. From my memory, these runners were not consecutively placed - so you have a fair spread of finishing times. I should also tell you that this is after about 8.5 miles, so the runners are probably quite tired now.

Can you place them in the correct order?

Runner A:

Runner B:

Runner C:



Runner D:



Runner E:



So how did you do? The answers are shown here. I'd be interested to hear how many you got right. Before anyone points it out, I realise it's hard to spot how much training someone has put in (ie, fitness).

What do tadpoles eat?

We're growing frogs in a washing up bowl. They've hatched from frogspawn and are developing nicely as tadpoles.

Wildlife pond!

We don't want to be bad parents, so we've been researching on the internet what they eat. Apparently you can buy tadpole food or fish food, but we're not that keen, so we were looking for another alternative. Some websites say they'll eat lettuce. We put a few small bits in with them and they completely ignored it.

Luckily, Mrs Noel found another website that says they like dog food (the dried stuff). And hey presto - they love it.

Yum yum. Thanks Noel.

Was I ever a runner?

I was hoping to be in the thick of training at this time of year, but I've been fighting off some 'general feeling a bit rubbish' cold-viral-thing for the last few weeks. I haven't even felt like jogging, let alone running.

I realised I had to attempt to get out of this lethargy yesterday when I got a funny sort of muscle cramp thing walking across a park in Buxton. Walking!! Slowly!! So yesterday afternoon I went out for the slowest 5 miles I've done in a few years. Today I followed this up with another 2.5 miles.

At times like this, it's like my body is trying to convince me it's never been a runner. It's like it's saying "no, you must have me confused with some other body - wouldn't you rather be sitting down?" Fortunately, I know that after 3 or 4 runs, my body will be saying "wheeee, this is so much fun - see if you can go any faster".

I think this is why a lot of people don't go running regularly, even though they might go to the gym or something similar. It takes 3 or 4 outings before you get anything back from running. And for many people, they don't reach that point before deciding it's not enjoyable.

I'm hoping my next blog entry will be something like "the joy of running" and not "lung infection finally takes hold". Watch this space.

Every young girl's dream?

I notice I'm writing a lot of blog entries reminiscing about childhood.

It seems one of my mum's childhood dreams was to drive a train. Here she is posing in the cab of one of the steam engines on the Worth Valley Railway, which runs from Keighley to Haworth. I always thought it was supposed to a boy's aspiration - I'm told she was a tomboy as a young lass.

Mum was also impressed by the firebox, and even took a picture of it. We've all spent a fair amount of time trying to work out what "file to retrieve" means. Smug points to anyone who can work it out.