Training Log Archive: fluceluce

LAMM day 2 - we set off in the chasing start at 7:37, and before team 22 had marked up their maps we were off! team 22 shortly caught us up and overtook us going up to number 1 which was up a nice 350m climb. It was a little apparent that alex was suffering a bit....we were still with teams 22 and 19 by number 2 (never having seen 20 or 21) but the nasty contour around to 3 took its toll on alex hu was clearly really suffering and my feet weren't much better! we said about 3 words to each other in the 1hr and15mins it took to get to 3! by 3 we had been overtaken by team 27 and 30 who were both moving very fast (i wonder if they had navigational difficulties yesterday...) and were met at 3 by team 25! after eating lots of sugar and drinking water we picked up the pace a bit across to 4 and so got time back on 25. From 4 alex appeared to have recovered and so it was his turn to make me run faster! faster! with brain a little crazy we took what could be described as not the best route choice to 5 and so lost about 4/5mins hacking through bracken! from there it was clear running down the hill to 6 and 7 (which was quite painful to say the least) and then into the finish. We attempted a 'sprint' finish in order to go under 5 and a half hours but as the finish was further down the track than anticipated it took us just over! As going to 3 i thought it could take us 6/7hrs i was very grateful we had upped the pace and beating team 25 was a good feeling after being overtaken by them!
came 29th out of 135 :-)
midges are nasty! no amount of suncream can protect u from the sun if it melts off and blisters that rip off with blister plasters leave evil painful skin in their place!

Event: Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon
 

LAMM day one - woke up to a lovely warm day, then realised it was still only 7am...it was going to get hot!
going to number 1 and 2 from the start was staight forward climb then contouring as the really nice track route was 'out of bounds'. Took the planners route exactly to 2!
Then came 3......there was some climb involved in the realm of 600ish m in one nasty hill and when u got to the 'top' it wasnt actually the top. Several teams went wandering (including us for a couple of minutes before we realised we were being silly) due to vagueness and we got overtaken by crazy bungee mixed team who were moving insanely fast! (this was possibly due to a guy who could run elite/A pulling a girl who weighed nothing and was carrying nothing round) Alex made a joke about 'pulling' which apparently wasnt the funniest comment they'd heard all day!
When we reached the top i was ready to collapse and not move again...then i heard alex yell 'Edwards!' sure enough team edwards were there! this gave me renewed energy and we sped across to number 4 in no time! 5 had a sneaky climb in it of a couple of hundred m, then came the big route choice of the day, did we 1) go munro bagging and take the high route with 300ish m climb 2) contour round the rocky rocky hillside or 3) loose all our height down to the stream where there was a track and then run back up 300ish m. we chose option 3 and along with tom and barry headed down the valley. While decending alex very wittily came up with the name 'team beansterk' for his friend with last names bean and sterk....when they caught us up along the valley he told them this...again this was apparently not the funniest thing they'd heard all day!
The climb up to 6 was nasty! but when we got there we could see all the way into the finish past number 7! after a breif pause to cool down we went and finished! 23rd overnight, with 4 team within 2 mins ahead of us! my best position in a mountain marathon yet, 3rd time lucky seemed to be working!