Long Mynd, Shropshire

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Long Mynd

So after the Long Tour Bradwell, I was a bit worse for wear, that been I couldn’t move or get out of bed. I had lost all my oil, I was as stiff and battered, like a washed up piece of furniture that had been tossed aside after a great storm.

Exhausted, Battered, Drained, Emotionally Spent, and over relieved that I had managed to survive the night.  Thanks to the coke and the fish and chips.

After two or three weeks of resting I started to train for the Long Mynd.  I also had to under go more physiotherapy, before and during my training. Thanks to guys at Sub for Health, I made it through. Thanks Steve.

I started to train at the roaches again, doing my usual route, and my usual core exercises, apart from this time I stopped drinking and eating bread for while. This seemed to help with my diet and I felt a lot lighter, “floaty like”. 

After a few weeks of doing my roaches runs it was time to do a few recce runs of the Long Mynd.

I figured it would take about 4 or 5 days to do the recce. This does not sit well in your consciousness when you have to complete the course in 24hrs and when you are only 3 months into ultra and fell running.

I begun to fear the worst and questioned my ambitions.

So with this ambitious task at hand, I decided to ask my friend Ben to come with me (yep the same Ben who I go fishing with).  Now Ben’s the kind of person that throws himself into the deep end to.  This was evident when he declined my offer to pick him up from his house. Instead he decided to run 10 miles along the canal, before heading down to Shropshire…

I didn’t know he was doing this, else I would of advised against it. Crazy Man.

When we arrived in Stretton after a 2hr drive, I was amazed at how picturesque the village and the surroundings were. It definitely has a romantic feel, and you fall in Love with the place straight away. Valentines day must be special there. When you picture England in your mind, you picture Church Stretton, it’s the perfect postcard.

This was also Ben’s first time at running in the hills and mountains. So I was keen to make him enjoy it. But when the first hill is Caer Caradoc its hard to understand the logic behind the sport. And after you have do a ten mile run and ran a mile or two to get there. Its hard to convince people that this is for fun. We did how ever stumble across another fell runner and she accompanied us to the next check point (The lawley) and gave me advice about the course. Thank you Fell Running Angel.

After following the angel to the second checkpoint we, started to head towards the Long Mynd Valley for Pole Bank and by this point Ben was suffering cramp, so I decided to carry on and continue to do first and last part of the course.  I am not sure if Ben enjoyed his experience as felling running, but I am sure it’s not one he’ll forget in a hurry. I am sure that he enjoyed the Stella nad the crisps he brought from the local shop.

Over the next two weeks I decided to continue my scouting of the course with four more runs.

I was pretty happy with the routes that I decided to take, but that changed when the race day came.  My Brother did advice me on the routes to take, thanks Ant.

I also practiced running with Nuun tablets, and also tried different snacks and foods. I settled with Jelly babies, jeffa cakes, power ade and salt and vingar crisps.

During my scouting, I decided to stay over one weekend at a Bed & Breakfast in Church Stretton. I managed to stumble across one of the nicest Bed & Breakfast’s I’ve ever stayed in.  The B&B was called the Arden House, in Church Stretton. I would recommend it to anyone. As Ian and Julie, will go out of their way to make you feel welcomed and comfortable.  It also turns out that a lot of fell runners also use the B&B. Also this year Ian and Julie were helping with Long Mynd Hike, and were at one of the checkpoints. I think checkpoint 9, around 25miles in.  So Ian was keen to find out my ambition for the course.  I always responded with “I just want to complete it”.

I would also recommend the B&B as a weekend away.  As Church Stretton is an area of natural beauty, you simply just fall for surroundings and not because of the running. The restaurants and bars are really nice and the walks are good to. All filled with friendly people.

On the day of the race, Ian had arranged for me to park my car at the B&B and leave my belonging there as I decided to book the B&B for following day and night. As I knew I wouldn’t be moving far the next day…

I was nervous and arrived early to organise my racing kit and to do my kit checks. I passed after buying a few things on site.

I then started to wonder around the school, this was the meeting and base for the Long Mynd Hike. I also covered myself in deep heat, to keep my muscles warm.  Then I made my way to start after about 2 or 3 hours of arriving at the school.

I also saw Ian and Julie at the start as they said they would come and see me and the other runners and hikers off. I thought that was really kind of them. I also saw some old friends from Wales that were taking part in the Long Mynd. In fact they inspired me to take part in this years challenge. As it was something of a regret not doing the hike the year they did.  As I feel I would of developed my love for the hills and mountains a lot sooner, but sometimes things are best done together and sometimes things are best done alone.  This year it was the latter. I wished them well and after hellos and byes, I made my way to start. I was nervous about the task a head and the uncertainty of what was to come.

I did however get some comfort from Ian and Julie again. I promised I’d make it to their checkpoint at least. The whistle went and we were off towards the hill that Ben and I ran up about a month before.

Having realised my mistakes at the Long Tour Bradwell, I went off slow with the runners, knowing to hold myself back. I stopped myself from running to hard and fast on the flats and uphill’s for the first part of the course.  Again my brother offered me some good advice. He said play it safe as the race won’t start until 20 miles in.   I listened to his advice, and I also drank either water or nuun tablets every 15minutes.  Within the first few miles, there was a gap between everyone, with the fast runners coming down The Lawley as I was going up it! Eek!

Luckily the weather was nice, there was little breeze, with a clear sky, perfect conditions for running in. The race had started at 1pm.

I like to think as myself as a chatty runner, and try to get the most information out of people before and during the race, as I am new to whole thing I like to find out what other people are doing and also find out previous results and times for course.  I was also trying to see if I was in the right position for my first time at running the course.

I came across someone called Emily Millington who I now follow on Strava. This is a local runner to Long Mynd and she was kind enough to offer me advice, and said that I needed to eat more.  She had already completed the course the year before in 13hrs. So I thought I had better so down, as I wasn’t sure if I could get round in that time.

So I eased off a little on the way down from Pole Bank to Bridges and had a walk up to Stiperstones, eating lots of crisps and taking on more fluid. When I got to the top of Stiperstones I was surprised how good I felt.  So I decided that I wanted to enjoy it, and this was my favorite part of the course as it technical due to the rocky paths.  Running on the roaches does pay off. So I decided to pick up my pace along stiperstones. I than joined a group lads running together, so I decided to run with them for a while at least to pub before Earls Hill. Then they ran off up to earls hill, I stopped myself going to fast up there as its pretty step.  After eating a power bar at the top of Earls hill I headed back down to the pub there.

I meet up with same group of lads again so I decided that I was going to run with them and they were kind enough to let me. They names were Ry, Alastair and Dave.  They were also kind enough to give me some nuts. Thanks.  After some flat coke and more liquid we headed off as we wanted to get to Shelve before 7. The cut off before the volunteers group you. I think at this point it was around 6pm.  Myself and Dave run up to Bank Farm together, with Ry and Alastair going before us. We then all ran together towards shelve, before making a wrong turn, but lucky enough we realised so we only lost about 10 minutes. We did however gain another runner to our group. His name was Richard.  It started to get dark on the way to shelve so we put on head torches on, and I was excited to be running in the dark for the first time. I was also pleased that my scouting had helped me out. As it’s much harder to tell where your going. Especially when your head torch is as good as a candle in the wind. Lucky we were all grouped.

We all got to Shelve, the ninth checkpoint by 7:20 and managed to have some tea and biscuits. We also got grouped there. I think Ian and Julie we as surprised as I was to see them so soon. I thought I did well to get to this point.  They greeted me, with warm smiles. We didn’t want to settle to long, so we decided to make a move to Corndon Hill. Ian and Julie wished me luck.  Before we got to the next checkpoint we had to run through some woods, and a field full of mad cows.  It was at this point I started to think that completing the course wasn’t going to happen simple because of the ascents that we still to come. I had to use all my energy to get up to top of Corndon Hill, Ry had suggested using the side of my feet to go up the hill. I was surprised at how well this worked as it does take the pressure off your thighs.  Once we reached the top, we found some volunteers in a landranger with a tent and a cup of tea, very nice indeed. I wasn’t jealous at all. After a little break we headed to Woodgate and then to Black Rhadley hill. This was the hardest part of the course, as we got lost therefore battled with muddy fields and bogs. We somehow managed to find the wettest field in Shropshire. We mustered on and fought our way out.  I changed my socks afterwards. This was a welcomed relief. Dry socks after 9hrs of running feels amazing.

After heading up the long hill to Black Rhadley, we made our way back to the Stiperstones car park.  When we got to the checkpoint I managed to eat a few celebrations on offer. Yes. Get in!  Never to early to celebrate celebrations! At this point Dave had decided he wanted to stop as his knee was hurting, and had been since Pole Bank. So I was amazed that he got this far. He had also been suffering with cramp. Dave was a great runner and kept our spirits so it was a bit of blow. We tried to change his mind but we couldn’t.  So we decided to carry on, as what I regarded as the home straight, that being a very very long home straight. We ran down past Bridges to Pole Cottage and then Minton. I was aching in my feet and legs, and had been doing since Woodgate farm. I was just hoping not to get blisters, as that would be the end of it.

We got to Minton and then did some road running to Ragleth Hill, this is a killer. The last hill but not the tallest (Corndon Hill), but definitely the steepest and the hardest.  At this point you have nothing in your legs, its all in your head. I am pretty sure I just got up this hill through pure determination.  And Ry was as always encouraging.  I made it to the top, only to nearly get blown off by the wind. It had picked up and I wanted to get off the hill as fast as possible. So we headed back to school, after a few slips down the hill. We made it into Church Stretton, we headed for the school.

We all managed to finish the course in 13hrs and 15minutes.

Shortly after we had finished Dave arrived with Beer, so we shared some cans of lager in celebration. Boy does beer hit harder after a long run.  Only one thing left to do, eat lots of toast and drinks lots of tea.

I was to excited to sleep and keep still and began to wonder around, and I bumped into Helen Skeleton.  A great and well known fell runner. It was nice to hear some words of comfort from her. She gave me some encouragement for next time. Thanks Helen.

I later head back to the B&B to get some rest to come back again for breakfast in the morning. Where I later meet up with Dave, Ry and Alastair.  It was great to see them again, as I felt we had gone through so much together. I glad we decided to run together as we supported each other.  Watch Out for Ry Webb, I am sure he will make a great runner.

It was also great to see one my family friends from Wales Complete the course in the morning.  He had been out all night, and finished in the morning. To how someone can keep going for so long is amazing. To have the will and the push to finish after 23hrs on feet is something I am yet to experience. And when I do I will think back to this moment and remember those that have already done so. 

Its these experience that help drive you on.

Thanks for everyone that helped me achieve my ambition for last year. Special thanks to Ben, Ant, Tracey, Helen, Rye, Richard, Dave and Alastair.

Here is a link to the website for the B&B. Arden House