Most people in Ponteland Runners who know me are aware of my fondness for hills! I often receive gentle teasing and I’ve even been sent videos, mid race, of the ‘using your elbows’ technique J! So it may not have been a shock to my fellow runners when they heard that I’d signed up to the ‘Dirty Double Lakeland Trails’! It comprises of the 15K Helvellyn Trail on the Saturday followed by a 14K Ullswater Trail on the Sunday. For those who know me even better it was even less of a shock that I signed up to do both because there was a discount if you did so, I’m a sucker for a bargain! So with family in tow and the promise of an evening in our favourite Lake District haunt, Ambleside, we set off early on Saturday morning for a weekend of rain, gale winds and running!

I had registered for the Helvellyn Challenge, to be completed in under 3 hours, rather than the Helvellyn Race to be completed in 2 hours as I was a little unsure how I would cope with the terrain. The race started at noon and the first 4 km were straight uphill, nothing like a nice gentle start?! The cold that I’d had the previous week and was still fighting to get rid of was causing me to sound like an ancient set of bellows, I think people next to me were running just to get away from the horrendous noise I was making and from the possibility that they would have to give me mouth to mouth if I collapsed! Once we got up into the hills and started to contour round the trail the terrain was a gentle downward slope, but the ground underfoot though was boggy, rocky and we had to wade through streams every 100 metres or so. It was great fun, but really difficult to traverse. There was lots of stopping and starting, slipping and splashing! Everyone was in great spirits though, likeminded nutters can have fun together! Finally after a couple more kilometres we rounded the corner to the other side of the hill. A lovely, narrow but less rocky track – I was just thinking to myself how much easier this section was when I suddenly ended up flat on my face! A lapse of concentration is pretty lethal on the trails! Several fellow runners helped me up, found my trainer, which had flown off and helped me back to my feet! I’d bashed my chin and my knee quite badly, but I knew it wasn’t damaged and I also knew I had to get straight back on it before I either started to cry or worse my knee seized up! So with my face covered in mud I carried on running, suddenly I saw the photographer right in front of me! How do they manage to hide so well and choose the perfect spot for snapping you unawares? We were deep in the hills at this point and the weather started to turn, the wind and icy rain lashed down – for once I didn’t have to take my top off (thank goodness you all say!) and actually considered putting on my coat, but you don’t really have a chance to stop on the trails and I could see a sheltered section coming up so I kept going. By now we knew we were more than half way and heading back to civilisation. The next few km passed in a bit of a blur, all I could think about was making sure I lifted my feet up enough to avoid falling again, but then farms, roads and civilisation started to come into sight, yes we were nearly at the end! Catching sight of my family waiting near the end I managed a very choked and emotional dash across the finish line in an official time of 1h 46m 40s.

The weather on Sunday morning for the Ullswater Race was so horrendous that they had to cancel the sailings for the 14K race. This was a great shame as we were due to be transported across to the start at Howtown on the Ullswater Steamer, whilst being serenaded to by a pub singer, you can’t say that’s something you experience with every race! As we registered we were told that an emergency contingency route had been invoked and we would be doing just 13K. As we congregated for the mass start at noon, rumours passed through the crowd that we were now only doing 10K! Several minutes later, whilst being held waiting in the torrential rain, we heard more rumours that the route was now just less than 9K – we all had a good chuckle at the rapidly decreasing distance and wondered if they held us for much longer at the start whether the route would be reduced to just running round the field! Finally we were off and skirted round the bottom of Ullswater lake and up into the hills through farmland on farm tracks. Finally getting into some proper trail terrain we turned a corner and we all had to stop and laugh at the long snake of bodies that we could see winding up a ridiculous hill (my strava profile showed an elevation of 100m in a distance of 400m?!). The whole field, apart from maybe the few elite people at the front and mountain goats, was trudging up a narrow trail, which was actually now a stream, in single file. I love moments like this though, the runner camaraderie really comes into play and you can laugh at all being in the same boat, or stream together! At the top of the hill the gale force winds and rain like needles in your face drove you on to get over the top as fast (and safely!) as possible. A lovely grassy stretch took us back down to the lake and on towards the end of the race. There was no family at the end today, I had left them all tucked up snuggly in a nearby hotel bar, so I made a quick dash through the finish line to complete the race in an official time of 1h 09m 09s and collect my tshirt souveneir.

It was a great weekend and I thoroughly loved every minute of it, ok maybe not the epic sprawling fall at the time, but I will definitely be back next year and I may even register for the Helvellyn Trail Race now I know I can do it in under 2 hours! So if you fancy a weekend of mud, rain and frolics have a look at the Lakeland Trails Facebook page or website, they have loads of races throughout the year. We may even manage to get a Pont Runners tour for the Dirty Double next year ….?

I knew I had been extremely fortunate when I got into the New York City Marathon through the ballot back in March. To be honest I had entered just for the crack and never dreamt I would actually get in so my initial reaction was how I was going to break it to wife about the $$$ that are coming out of our account! Fast forward nearly 8 months and I had convinced her to join me with the incentive of a relaxing trip to Arizona with friends tagged on the end so after many days planning the trip and even more hours training for it we were off to New York the Friday before the Marathon.

I would love to say that I stayed on UK time because that’s what the pro’s do however with a three year old it wasn’t that easy so with a bit of jet lag we headed to the expo.  After a relatively quick look around the anxiety was put at ease by the fact I had finally got my hands on my participant t-shirt and the all important race number.  We intended to do a little bit of sightseeing the day before and stretch the legs with a gentle jog around Central Park as the opportunity was too good to miss but I didn’t intend to walk 11k and having set out on a 2.5km warm up I ended up doing the worst starva doodle in Central Park and clocked up 6km run- legs definitely stretched.  Not really a great example of resting the day before but there again I wasn’t convinced dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and ice cream in the park was pre marathon nutrition but I was doing it all the same!

Sanitas Marca Alicante 10K – What do you do on a family holiday to Spain at Half Term? Find a race to do, of course. This street race around Alicante was very well organised, with closed roads, a great organisational set up and a decent T-shirt for the €12 entry. Obviously, that meant missing the thrill of dodging the traffic on a drizzly day that you get on a Run Northumberland event but, hey, you can’t have everything.

There weren’t so many in the “veteranos gaggie” category but I was pleased to finish second, just twelve seconds behind the winner and in 104th position overall. I think I was   probably the first Ponteland Runner home (unless you know different) and quite possibly first Brit as well, which presumably qualifies me to represent my country somewhere or other. This race is part of a series run around Spain (there was a 5k as well) and would be another great way to do a club trip to somewhere warm in the North East’s cooler months. Adios. David Buffham.

It was an early Saturday morning start for David Buffham, Paul Holborow and I to catch the 9:15am flight to Amsterdam. Many other runners accompanied us on the flight including four Heaton Harriers and perhaps 30 Tyne Bridge Harriers clad in orange tour tops for their annual club outing!

The Amsterdam running festival has an 8km event as well as half marathon and marathon – most people from TBH were doing the half marathon with a few opting for the full 26.2m experience!! We arrived in Amsterdam, checked into our hotel then walked to the expo to collect our numbers and t-shirts for the following day. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent relaxing, watching the odd bit of rugby and generally preparing for the race.

After a restless nights sleep, Paul and I met for breakfast at 7:15am, as our marathon was due to start at 9:30am in the Olympic Stadium. There were many runners milling around, looking far more at ease than Paul & I, however, we psyched ourselves up and talked through our strategy over our runners breakfast. We were slightly surprised that David didn’t appear to wave us off, however, since his half marathon didn’t start until 1:20pm he had opted for a leisurely late breakfast in his suite in preparation for the half marathon. So now the nerves really did start to kick in as we walked to the start and prepared ourselves for the next 4 hours effort.

The start area within the Olympic Stadium was fantastic, there were a lot of supporters already and the atmosphere was fully charged. At 9:30am prompt, the race began with the elites heading out of the stadium and onto the streets of Amsterdam. By the time Paul and I actually crossed the start line, the elites had completed over 2 miles, however, our start was quite slow with the first 3 miles covered a couple of minutes slower than we had intended due to the restraints of the course. This was probably not a bad thing  – as they say, “if you think you’re running too slow at the start of a marathon, you’re probably still running too fast”! And so we settled into the race. The miles actually flew by and pretty much before we knew it we had completed the first 9 miles within the city and headed out onto a 7 mile loop along the Amstel River, passing some beautiful houses and several windmills! We had a good spell at this stage and whilst Paul was getting far more shout outs than I (the Dutch have difficulty pronouncing Elliott I believe), spirits remained high and our pace was good.

At 16 miles we returned to the city. We started to count down parkruns at this stage – 15km’s to go meant only 3 parkruns so how difficult could that be? We were still passing the majority of runners but ‘banter’ was non-existent by this stage and ‘diggin in’ was the order of the day!

Only two more parkruns to go…

I recall getting a big lift as we caught up the 3:45 pace group and subsequently passing them although I can’t remember where this was.

I also recall that at the 3-hour point we had 5 miles to go and so our main target of breaking 4 hours was virtually certain barring a major disaster.

And so we plodded on…..one more parkrun to go!

As we approached the final stages, the atmosphere intensified and the crowd noise grew – I actually got quite a few shout outs at this stage – the occasional “come on Elliott (they had learnt to pronounce my name by now)” but more “come on Ponteland” in recognition of my club vest. This gave me a huge lift and I felt really good as I approached the stadium.

A bit like in the Great North Run, there was a 500m to go sign but unlike the GNR it didn’t seem to get further away! I passed this point and then headed back into the stadium I had left earlier that day. It was a huge sense of relief and euphoria as I completed the last 200m on the track and tried (and no doubt failed) to initiate a sprint finish and look presentable for the photos. And so it was over with both Paul and I achieving personal best times – Paul smashing his Rome Marathon time from earlier in the year by a huge 40 minutes. We were both exhausted but elated and delighted with our achievement.

As we were finishing, David was just starting his half marathon. This race followed pretty much the same course as the marathon but without the out and back section along the Amstel River. David had run a solid GNR of 1:43, then an excellent Great Cumbrian Run a fortnight ago of 1:40 and so was hoping to complete his 3^rd and quickest Half Marathon in 5 weeks. His efforts were rewarded with a fantastic time of 1:37:50 beating his all time PB and achieving the honour of being first Ponteland Runner home in the race.

Amsterdam is a great venue for a potential club trip, with various race options, easy flights from Newcastle and scenic flat courses!

We certainly had great weekend with the bonus of PB’s all round!!