Challenge Stu

One week from now I will be in Costa Rica! It's very exciting but also a little scary. I've now pretty much stopped training now in order to make sure I'm properly tapered and ready for the race, and I have spend this weekend trying to get everything I'll need into 55kgs worth of luggage allowance. I thought I'd quickly write about my final preparations and some information if you want to follow our race. As an end to my running year, it was great to have a weekend with the other Accelerate supported Athletes at Castleton YHA last weekend. We celebrated achievements, planned more success for next year and even did some training! Onto Costa Rica planning... First, my bike is back to AR mode - plenty of extra capacity for carrying water, kit and food, and a tow on the back. My team mates have also decided I'm the packhorse of the team, so I'll be using my big Alps rucksack for the first time since that expedition So, not long to go, Team Great Lang...

The 15 trigs is a Dark Peak classic ... 55 miles or so with around 8500ft climb, taking in all the trig points found on the KIMM map from 1984. The route was first run in 1985 and Andy Harmer set a record of 10:04 in 1987, which stood until 2009 (!) when Simon Bourne of Calder Valley Fell Runners became the first person to run the route in sub-10 hours, lowering the standard to 9:58. Attempting the record in November was always going to be ambitious, and probably foolish. I’d love to say that I waited on purpose, but in reality the reason was purely a lack of time. Either way I would need all the available daylight, so at 7am on Saturday morning I left the Sportsman pub and set off down the road, over the remains of the bonfire at the Three Merry Lads and onto the edge path... I had written Simon's split times on a post-it note in my pocket, and at Rod Moor I was already a couple of minutes behind: It was going to be a tough day! From here the route takes you on a well...

It's now less than a month until I fly to Costa Rica to meet my team-mates Tom, Dave and Sabrina, and take part in what will probably be the hardest event of our lives... The Adventure Racing World Championships in Costa Rica. Last weekend was our final training and planning weekend together. We spent Saturday kayaking on a wet (from above as well as below!) and very choppy Windermere, before a planning session and a few hours watching videos of similar races like Borneo Eco Challenge... Useful, if a bit scary. I shall simply say: Leeches. Lots and lots of leeches. Leeches where you reeeeally don't want them. Team "Great Langdale Bunkhouse" - Sabrina, me, Tom, Dave After a good pub dinner at Stiklebarn I headed home, planning to stop on the way for a quick run. I got to Glossop at about 3am, unfortunately without a map, but having spent a while studying the 15 trigs route I thought I'd try to find the Cock Hill trig... After an hour and a definitely s...