Challenge Stu

Here's a quick write-up of my weekend activities, namely two short fell races! Not what I'd usually go for but I do like short fast blasts, and they have the distinct advantage of not taking up loooads of time, which means you can do two in a weekend and still have time to cut the grass or wash the car... Both races were part of the Gritstone series (www.gritstoneseries.co.uk), a series of seven short races around the Peak. The first race this weekend was Castleton on Friday night, then a day to recover before Edale country day on Sunday. The weather was fantastic for both, and pretty warm when I arrived in Castleton at about 7pm on Friday. Soon I was vested up, registered and ready to go... And we did GO! The route goes straight up Lose Hill, then along the ridge to Hollins Cross, Mam Tor, back to Hollins Cross and down to the village. As we ran out on the road I had a familiar feeling of despair at the pace, but having reached the bottom of the climb in about 20th I reali...

I got a very exciting thing last week... A brand new running watch! It's a Suunto Ambit, which is a bit of a step up from the Primark special I've been using for the last couple of years. It does all sorts of clever things, so I put it to the test at this weekend's Open Adventure 2 day race... I raced in the male pairs category with Dave Spence, but we didn't actually catch up until the race briefing on Saturday morning due to Dave's long drive up from London. The event centre was Rydal Hall, a big old house now open to the public. At the briefing we were told what we'd be doing over the two days: 2 hours of running, five of mountain biking, then a 90 minute night navigation event on the Saturday, followed by 2 hours of paddling and a trail run on Sunday. All the events apart from the trail run were score events, so we'd be trying to get as many points as possible in the time... Rydal Hall After riding then walking up to Easedale tarn for the ru...