4m easy, Parc Eaux-vives

I admit I was tired and did not feel like going today, which was exactly why I needed to. Stiff and sore after the swim on Sunday, jumping off massive rubber rings and then borrowing a friend's paddles for a couple of lengths took more out of me than I thought it did at the time. Plus, two late nights in one week is beyond me.

So, hobbled along the prom to the car park underpass and back to the park. I even let someone over take me and did not feel compelled to chase them down. As I was running "free" of all electronic devices I enjoyed that freedom and picked my route through the park to be as pleasant as possible and eased up the hills without any need to race to the top.

Stumbled across some guy doing his laces in the trees so had no choice but to go past and then, of course, mr stripy top decides to race me down the hill. Hmm. Before too long I'm crashing through the trees at 10km race pace and scream past some jogger deftly to leave him in the path of the hunter behind me. Wait until the last moment before taking a route I'd spotted through the under growth to avoid a confluence of dog walkers. That probably won me a 20s and was more than enough to get me out of the park. The hunter kept going around the park and the prey headed home, back down at super easy pace.

During my stretching ritual amongst the office workers soaking up the sun and munching their lunch, who lollops past at super easy pace? Mr. stripy top. Come on, what was all the fuss in the park about then?

8m easy, in the rain

It must be a bank holiday weekend in the UK as the predicted wet weekend failed to show here until around 1am when it started lashing it down.

It was still doing that as I sheltered behind one of the pillars to the Rossey Estate and while the Garmin found some Satellites on top of the pillar I waited for Jason to rock up.

We agreed the original plan of the woods was a seriously bad idea in this weather, so he parked up and produced some croissants. Now this a proper running buddy. Not only does he turn up in shocking weather, even after some hard training the day before, but he has gone down to the bakery and picked up breakfast for my family. Nice one buddy!

He got me at Perroy. 6 feet before the gates he sprints off and goes through before me. Bother. Must remember to pay more attention.

Got a bit lost on the way home, pushing out for a route undery the railway to avoid Perroy, but ended up running 3 sides of a field before getting to the railway tracks. Jason wanted to run to the station along the railway tracks or something, but I was not too keen on that plan. I could hear a training coming and see the headlines now, "Expat squished by efficient swiss train." Let's get the 4th side of the field clear and try the other path. We did and as we climed to Perroy I thought of those gates again. Also though of turning the screw on the hill to avoid being beaten to the gates, but though better of it. As we came through downtown Perroy Jason says, "Where to we kick for the gates? And by the way, I get a 3 second start." Ok, we agree the start point and the handicap.

As we draw level with the white car Jason hits full speed in a flash and there is spray everywhere as he hammers faster and faster to the gates. I ease up to his speed and hold the gap at 2 seconds. About half way I sense just a hint of pace drop ahead and accelerate to my max and power past and hold 100% to the gates. I made it to 159 bpm so top of zone four, felt like max but was really about 80%. Fastest bit during that fun was 3:28 min mile pace! But only for a few seconds!

8 miles covered in 1h 13m or ave 9:13 min mile pace. Super slow and all in zone one or two save the curious incident of the Perroy gate.

7m with the Pregny Hill

The Garmin locked up completely. Luckily one of the guys at work has one and knew the magic mode and lap button for 10 seconds and et voila it started working again!

So off I went into the Botanical Gardens and took the passage under the road to take me up the hill to Pregny. This is a serious hill, over 300 feet in less that a mile. Check it out and weep.



Guy in an orange top ahead, made a mental note not to let him get any further ahead. Went the "off road" option up and remembered about the steps too late. A guy came down the steps (wearing only a garmin chest strap on his upper body) and I had to jump out of his road pretty sharpish. Lost orange top.

Overtook a few slackers on the hill and at the top could see orange top had gone around the park rather than straight up. So now he was not that far ahead. I tried to reel him in. It was around now I forgot it was an easy run.

Suddenly, foot falls right behind me. I'm on the field nearly at half way and there is a junction 400m ahead. Foot falls even closer. I kick, and imagine it is Ken closing in and still the foot falls are getting closer, so ease up a gear and let the slight incline do it's stuff and focus to the junction. If he holds this pace and takes the same turn as me I'm done for. I remind myself I'm 3.5m out and it is probably not the best place to race an unknown. 100m to the junction and I'm sure he's dropped off. I take the turn wide and am delighted when he keeps going. Phew. I spot orange top in the woods. I deliberately go around the woods first to let him get away as I'm sure he'll be a handy target for the home ward leg.

Crossing the little stream there is a guy with bike who has to get of the bike and let me past.

Track back through the woods and slow down as the turns are sharp and fun. Soft under foot and the shade is lovely.

Out the woods and over the bridge and the same dude with the bike going the other way this time has to get off his bike to let me past. How unlucky is that?

Work on orange top and catch him half way back to Pregny and there are another three ahead. I have to call to the last two for them to let me past as the pavement is only wide enough for two.

I think about letting rip on the downhill and just as that thought goes through my head a guy comes from nowhere travelling at pace and tanks it down the hill. Yippe, we're on. So before I finish with this story, you need to know a few things about this guy in a blue top. He was very toned. Not an ounce of fat on the guy. Pure muscle. He was tall. A good head and shoulders taller than me, so his stide was long and loopy. His gear was top of the range. And he was going much faster than I would normally even consider.

Followed him down the hill at pace. Took the racing line to shave a few cms off the route and one point and nearly ran into a car as I'd crossed to the wrong side of the road, I forgot this was not a real race with closed roads.

He was pulling away. More speed. I glance a the garmin and it says 5:50 min miles. Sanity wins, I ease off, I know when I'm beaten. Into the park and easy to recover then pick it up back to the office on the flat.

One the bridge back over the Rhone blue top is jogging back towards me, he's blown it!

55mins for 7 and a bit miles with that hill is not bad. Nice one.

10x 400m Reps

I decided on something a little faster today. I really wanted to move at faster than 10km race pace and see what that felt like.

So I fiddled with the fully mains charged Garmin and convinced it to do 10 sets of 400m and only permited myself a minute between each to recover.

I was pumped as I got the rep start point and revved up into the first set. Wind behind, but decided to just run out hard and deal with the wind on the way back. 1:23 was my fastest and 1:42 was the slowest with a fairly tight range.

Hrt was deep in zone five for the second half of each on section and the recovery was fast - dropping back to zone three almost instantly. Felt like the minute recovery was over too soon every time and it was a real effort to keep going and I needed Tenke there to scream "No stopping" at me. By the last rep, I felt how Jason looked at the end of his max hrt test.

1 00:01:27
2 00:01:33
3 00:01:29
4 00:01:23
5 00:01:33
6 00:01:42
7 00:01:39
8 00:01:29
9 00:01:42
10 00:01:29

Giving an average pace of 3:52 min kms, so a 19:18 5km. Still not really good enough, but definately trending in the right direction.

4m easy, Parc Eaux-vives

If even 4m, hot and bothered!

Pushed hard up the hills and then enjoyed the shade.

Once again garim died after 2 or 3 miles, annoying as wanted the distance of this route.

I know now that if trickle charged the thing lies when it says charge complete. It means to say now plug me into the mains so I can sort myself out.

5m with Jason des Bois

Like Robin Hood we lolloped around the lovely Bois de Chene. There is a maze of footpaths and we randomly went around the forest, enjoying the shelter from the horrible wind that was blowing hard, LA BISE!

Easy four miles and "picked the pace up" as Jason put it and he pushed it through on the last mile to prepare for his max hrt test, we reached the giddy hights 8 min miles, which is pretty respectable in robin hood terrain.

I was tempted to jump the fences the horse people have put in around the lower part of the woods, but decided that ending up face down in the mud would not be cool. Especially in white compression socks.

Second part of the run was Jason's max HRT test. Four by 90on 60of. I thought Jason put in a stonking performance and he looked close enough to death after rep 3 let alone rep 4 to be pretty certain we found his max. 183. Nice!

Bodybalance

One other bloke and new lady leading.

Her catch phrase was (excuse my translation, it was definately foxier in female french) "Each of you has your own limit. Find it out. Go past it." At this point I decided to keep well within my limits as several of the ladies around me toppled from their impossible positions finding the hard way where their limits lay.

I draw the line at, wrap your left leg around your other leg then lie flat on the extended other leg. I would simply snap.

5m easy run, with Railway bridge

To get out the wind today I decided to head for the river side trail and the park on the far side of the Arve took my fancy as I have never been there before.

Having explored the Jonction area I confidently went through the bus stop over the bridge and turned right to into a massive area where rubbish trucks dump their contents into river barges. They have a thoughtful pedestrian route through the truck area into the forest on the far side. Not long in and the path has gone, washed away completely and I can no-longer ignore the "danger de mort" messages and the graphic sign of a guy falling to his certain death in the river. I double back.

I catch a glimpse of someone walking over the railway bridge. Suddenly, I just know I need to cross that bridge.

Find something that looks like a path that might head up. I take it. Climb over a tree blocking the path. It gets steeper. Then steeper. I cannot run, I cannot walk. I crawl, knees on the mud, careful to keep three points of contact with the ground I scramble up the mesh net that stops the hillside falling into the river. At the top I reflect on how stupid that particular climb was. At the top, I find a zoo. Run around the park and eventually find a brand new foot path that switches back and fourth to the railway and over I go.

Had a Livingston moment as I hit the bridge, I felt like I'd found the source of the Nile! Three things:
1) the colours of the Arve and Rhone joining, perfect viewing place from here
2) a heron dived at me and went over the bridge but under the railway wires just in front of me
3) a train came over the bridge, to prove it really was a train bridge

Back down to the trial at the sewage treatment plant and along the normal tail home.

Note to self: check if high route home possible with out going down steps at works.

5m Reps, 8min cycle

After climbing the walls a bit yesterday, no running it's a rest day, I was raring to go today having also had a good deep sleep.

It was sunny, but windy and going for billy no mates reps suddenly became hard work. What session to do? Could I be bothered? Oh yes. I found another half to do in September and the guy who came 13th last year in my age group assures me it is flat. Only thing is they intend to run it in the dark! Click here for the video.

So after sorting out the motivation I needed to pick a session and there were three pre-loaded in the Garmin. Anything involving one km or four mins was out as too depressing to consider, but the 8 minute cycle seemed to fit the bill for a sunny windy day. 4x (5on 30off 1on 90off).

I decided to focus on making the one min reps really count. The out bound was wind against today, but the return was a joy. I actually enjoyed the 5on during rep 3. Felt fast, controlled and effortless as the wind pushed me back to Geneva. Indeed, that one I managed all 5mins at sub 4min per km pace (the others were all just over).

But the real story was the one minute reps. I've struggled to do them well in the past and today was much better. By doing the 5on at a sustainable pace, I could actually go faster on the 1ons today. 3:42, 3:51, 3:38 and the last one a belter at 3:24. I'm sure the naked lady statue smiled at me as I punched the air when I went past on the return, by getting back beyond where I started I'd scored a hit.

Plenty of runners of all standards out today, so made the reps fun as I could pick of targets during the on sessions.

So well chuffed with the day's efforts and treated my self to a lovely big slab of strawberry cake.

4m easy, Parc Eaux-vives

Out to the yacht club then over into the parc.

Easy mostly, save the parc hill, mullered the climb just to get the hrt going.

Instant recovery at the top and found a nice faster pace down the tree trail which I held comfortably back to base.

Guessing around 4 miles, time on feet a nice round 30mins.

5m and another 1,000ft

Richard from the 1,000ft debacle in Prenovel got me on facebook last night and as he needed to get a brick session done today he agreed to cycle down from his mountain hideaway and go for an easy run with me.

Te he, I fancied my Signal de Bougy route and since I knew Richard was into hills I said nothing, but headed up.

Garmin died so no idea how long it took us, but did get there much more easily than back on Valentine's day when I last did it, check out the hill profile here.

At the top we did a couple of loops of the field, with some pursuit fartlek to make it more interesting. Then we slalomed and skipped our way back down to Rolle.

Richard came in for a breakfast and after some class unrepeatable fellowship with the kids he is now definately part of the familly!

9m Tenke style

9 miles with the Tenke program is like having a Garmin virtual partner that actually talks to you. This is a distinct advantage, as the machine is much more easily dismissed, but with Tenke I know for sure there will be no stopping. Ever.

Now, for those of you not in Switzerland we need to explain why Geneva was half shut day. It was a bank holiday on Thursday, so around half the people and all the schools decided to "faire le pont" and close on Friday too. The school decided not to bother about Wednesday morning either, so for the kids the weekend started on Tuesday night. Now that's a five day holiday from one bank holiday!

Anyway, we decided to go out on the river trail with a loop back into the city.

We found the fabled pedestrian river crossing. I've head about it, but never dared to come this far on the trails. And then she was there (male in French, but bridges are female in Scottish) and did not disappoint. Passerelle du Lignon is stunning. From woods straight into woods on the other side the bridge dramatically dips in the middle as she straddles the two banks. Quite something to see and run across. This was nearly the highlight of the run.




Before and after the bridge were some tough energy sapping vertical muddy climbs. Steps reduced us to walking in many places, destroying the average times.


On the way back to Geneva, Tenke asked if I minded if we stopped for a drink a fountain. Stop? Who is this running with me? Things like "ok love, if you really need to a drink we can stop then." or "do we have to?", but I know I could be destroyed at any second so I opt for the "Sure, I could do with a drink too." And it was true, the sun had come out and we'd been running for an hour so needed that drink.

Need to find a better route back to Geneva avoiding the big roads.

Some nice views of the old town and glimpses of the jet d’eau as we cruised in accelerating home on the downhill which all comes in the last mile.

Just over 9m cleared in 1h17m or 8:30pace, but with the deed stops for the vertical climbs taken out I think the pace was just under 8s and the last mile was 7:26. Zone 3 mainly with some zone 4 to get up the hills!

6m Allaman to Buchillon

Text from Jason read "if it is raining, or if it rains, I'll see you at 7am". That's the kind of running buddy I appreciate, priorities in the right place! So met Jason for an easy six. Needed to be back by 8:30 so we cheated and drove to the plage at Allaman. Through the river area, over to Buchillon and looped back on some new footpaths giving a nice twist to the run.

Turns out Jason knows not only the people who are coming to lunch today, but also knows Richard of 1,000ft fame. Everyone is connected here. I'm also sensing a running group forming here....

Anyway, back in the woods and about a mile out from the car we get some time pressure and so Jason suggests upping the pace. We take the direct route through the woods, this bit was fun. With the brakes of we tanked it though the woods, me calling the downed trees and branches to get over or under. The path was narrow and the floor of the forest was covered in little white flowers which gave of a lovely sweet smell.

Then, as we draw closer to the car, Jason suggests getting the hrt up and pelting it back. I figure we've half a mile left so agree to 80% to the turn then full on all the way back - er the car is not at the turn? Too late, Jason has made the call and now we're already moving more quickly than I've ever done with Mr 10min miles (we nearly had an 11 minute mile today) and as we get to the corner I sense the gap growing as I ramp up to full speed for the last clip to the car. I'm almost recovered as Jason rocks up. Job done.



Note to self, check out the loop by continuing on at the woods and see if the path is ok all the way to the other side of the river we are normally on.

3m Rainy Recovery

Weird day. Was dry when I walked to the gym, but by the time I got to the street it was raining hard. Like a grey day in London I forced my self to run out to the edge of the lake. Gave up on that plan and switched to running next to the buildings heading towards the Park Eaux-Vives where the perimeter trail is sheltered by large trees.

Passed a woman under an umbrella smoking a fag and she smiled at me as if to say, well my excuse for being out in this lashing rain is that I'm addicted these things, why are you out?

Well I'm out because I needed a recovery run, easy leg spin after the race. Felt fine, only slight tiredness was after the climb to the top of the park. Trail was indeed dry under the canopy and nice and bouncy underfoot.

By the time I was back at the gym I was so wet I had to wring out my top!

Geneva Half Marathon

Got into town seriously early due to there being only one train an hour on Sunday from Rolle to Geneva.

Plan was to get the "Dossard" which took me ages to find had to ask a lovely helper to make sure and test my French was still working. Walked the start/finish which was good to have done and see how it was all set up. Got my number which also had my first name on it, nice touch. They also gave us a goodie bag before the race which bizarrely contained a shampoo sample, some bumf and a big canister of shaving foam. Are they trying to tell me something? Anyway, I was not going to use the communal "vestiers" as have my Holmes Place membership to enjoy. Had to swing by the office to get my soap bag and then to the luxury of a near empty gym. Pulled on the running vest and disaster, my number is still in the goodie bay I've left on my desk. Opps. Quick dash back to the office and now I'm suddenly a mile from the start and it is 20mins to gun time and I'm not even dressed! The three guys appear and all start putting numbers on. I relax. Leave with them and bit of local knowledge takes me under the main bridge avoiding cutting over the marathon runners and going through the crowd. Warm up nicely and just make it a few minutes before the start of the half, just as the first guys in the marathon are finishing.

I had planned to go to the back of the 1:30 pen, but could get nowhere near it so settled for the 1:45 pen and was pushing to the front when I saw the guy with the 1:40 balloon. I decided he was my mark and drifted back to make sure he was ahead of me. I promised my self I would not go past him until at least 11km.

The start was smooth and having the balloon man there helped massively not to shoot off too quickly, in fact mile one was my slowest split.

I let them go. All different shapes, sizes and running ability. Some I knew I'd catch sometime others was not so sure.

Let the gap grow between me and the balloon as too many people had the same idea as me and it was crowded around the pacer.

Quai de Seujet sees us cross the river over the hydro electric dam and I know exactly where the metal and glass pyramids are on the deceptively clear crossing. Suddenly, I'm sure one is right in front of me so a quick elbow in the ribs for the guy behind to the left of me makes sure I can jump the comer of the pyramid without us both going over.

At around 4km there was a woman trying to come out of her underground car park, but had no hope as there were several thousand people running past!

My route recci last week paid off as we came to cross the Arve I knew the cycle lane some guys were taking was no good as it came up behind the crowd barriers, while I took advantage of the closed road to run supper wide and use my "hill skill" to clear twenty places on the rise to the bridge.

By now the yellow pacer balloon was drifting too far in front and the field had spread out enough for me to decide to catch him. Took a couple of km and then I was running level with him. Suddenly he pulled the balloon down narrowly missing me and held it in front of my nose - what was going on. The I realised, we were on an avenue and the trees would have snagged the balloon. I burst out laughing. Got chatting to the pacer and he felt we were too fast for 1:40 which suited me fine, but was annoying him. We slowed a bit and a thought about pulling away. 8km. Too soon.

Back into downtown Geneva and suddenly the empty roads are replaced by massive crowds cheering, bands playing and alpine horns blaring. Loads of people had cow bells and rang them with vigour. By now we are nearly at my normal running start point and I am very concerned about the steps from the road down to the lake. I need not have worried they've build a massive wooden ramp to take us down level with the lake, I accelerate down the ramp and hold the speed for a bit, dropping the balloon man and his merry band. 11km, hrt 140 time to rock. All well trodden paths now as we take my regular route out to Geneve Plage and the Yatch Club de Geneve, I feel like I am on home turf and push on streaming past everyone moving through the crowd.

The turn comes sooner than expected and it is BEFORE the hill. So I get a massive boost make the turn tight and accelerate back to race pace. Homeward bound now and I can see the whole route back to the start. Gramin beeps 10miles and I think nice, nice, now lets go again. Percived effort massively up working hard to hold the pace if not increase it. Still moving through the pack. Gery 20km Lausanne t-shirt goes past at speed, I consider a challenge, but let him go. He stops putting distance between us about 20m ahead. I close the gap. Draw level a few time and he still pushed on but I know he's mine, just a question of when. Lots of kids hi-5ing along on the side so I take every one that is offered. Time one a bit to well and set a little kid on a 360 spin - opps.

One mile out and it is time for the final push. Up the pace and go past grey shirt at pace, out the corner of my eye I see the look of death in his face and permit myself a wry grin. The band plays some rock song and I respond. Every cow bell is just for me. I channel the energy in to the big finish and try not to go too fast before the turn at the President Wilson hotel. I around the corner and see the finish. I remember the first tunnel is the start not the finish and keep a little something in reserve. Under the first tunnel and 30 people between me and line. I decide to take them all. Full Lockett's Rocket mode is engaged and I'm pumping the arms and getting very close to max. One more to clear and overtake the light blue shirt with 50m to go. Feeling very smug until just as I am about to cross the matt a flash of light blue goes past me like a missile and then collapses ahead of me. Someoe tries to tell him what to do with his chip, but he pushes them away and wobbles around. I chat to him later in the runners village, he's very pleased with his time. And so am I.

Set off with a sub 1h 40m attempt and ended up with a well balanced race, where I felt totally in control and happy with the result. 1h 35m 18s. Only three mins outside my PB and if the training keeps yielding improvements like this next year will be a blast. 120th in my age group and 319th over all out of 1530. Hrt was low, first half in zone 3 and then zone 4 from the first kick and only the last mile in zone 5.

So, a great start to my racing in Switzerland. The hills, Tenke and a sensible approach have got me pretty close to where I want to be. Not long now until the PBs start coming again!

Bodybalance

After my previous attempt at this on March the 12th, I know what I was letting myself in for.

I could follow the french slightly better today. Only having two other blokes and just the twenty super supple svelte sizzlers for company also made it easier to see what the lady at the front was up to.

The tubby bloke was clueless, but the other guy in front of me could do most of the moves so I started following him. That worked ok until he started following me and then it all went horribly wrong. The mirror in front was off putting too, I don't need to see myself doing this kind of stuff, I know how bad I look with out actually seeing it.

Streching felt good, legs feel strong having had a whole day to recover. Race day minus two.

7m TRP

That's Target Race Pace.

Tenke's back in the land of the running, well almost. We met up and she had an iphone with her which went off after a few files. After she sorted the caller (making more calls and sending emails) she appolgised and asked me to check if we were ok pace wise. Wow. 7:30s bang on. Exactly the pace I needed. I was sweating and grunting a few words while she worked away on the phone like she was sat at her desk in the office.

Got all the way out on the left bank of the lake up the hill just beyond where the half marathon will turn at Manor and back we went.

7:34 ave pace for 7 miles. So no worries, looks like my target of going out with the 1:40 pacer and seeing how it goes will work fine. On today's performace I was steady as she blows in zone 3 with a dusting of zone 4 working the hill. Back into the wind slowed us down, but that was matched by the hrt drifting down through the run. Learnt a lot today about how things will be during the race. Feeling happier about it to have done a decent clip at TRP, rest till race day now.

Gym: cross training?

Very wet and windy in Geneva today, so just went to the gym. 10mins on a treadmill to warm up, some drills out on the patio that Malcolm had taught me and then some balancing with my eyes shut.

Inside for some circuit training and stretching then 10mins warm down on the bike.

5.8m lost in Geneva

Blowing a gale today. Flower pots and chairs bouncing around the patio when I got up this morning.

As it stayed dry I decided to see what was happening up by the part of the Geneva Half that I have never run before.

Rather than trace the route I thought I'd see what was on the left bank of the Rhone, I always go on the rails on the right bank. Well, I found out. A dead end, that's what. A concrete promentary marks the (click here) junction between the Arve and the Rhone.



There is a swan's nest just to the Arve side and also a set of canoe gates. Back out and over to the other side. A new bridge is being built here so the footpaths both sides of the river were blocked.

I got completely lost and had to use the GPS to get back to the start. On the way back stumbled across Calvin and his reformation mates carved on a massive wall (see below, click on the picture to get it to open up fully).

Climbed to the top of the old town and took the lift down to lake level with a guy on bike who wanted me to run around the lift as it went down. I made an appropriate Gaelic jesture as I could not be bothered trying to converse in French.

13.4 miles and 1,000 feet

At the Westlake Church weekend away in the announcements for the outdoor activities "Running with Richard, meet on the Terrace at four pm" caught my attention. Then the Richard dude gets up and says something like, "Just to let you know there going to be some marathon runners on this run so we may need to split into 'A' and 'B' groups." I'm thinking perhaps I'll be an A group runner today....

Just before 4pm I bump into Pattie, who's in running gear, looking for the running group. I nip up stairs to get changed, drop the room key with the kids and head out. By now we are 4 at 4pm - Richard is there and so is Edmund, looking like he knows what he is doing and he is clutching a map.

Edmund is up for a 5-6km loop, but Richard and I are up for more, as is Pattie. 100m in we come to a complete stop at the first sign-post as we do the whole what route thing all over again.

I spot Katja with her group of walkers heading home and that's the childcare handover done - your daughter has the room key, she's in the cinema! Nice one.

Meanwhile back at the sign post some kind of decision is finally made, my input being up first, so we can run down to get home. Deal done we're of at Kenny pace on zombie heart rate run. 9/10 min miles, but hey it is up! And more up. All the trails I spot are denied as we push on up. Here is a typical view of the route.

At 3km the wise Edmund chucks the map at Richard and announces he's heading back. What a great call that turned out to be.

Richard was confidently guiding us with the map. Richard was a star on the first climb, encouraging Pattie to make it to the top, which she does. Turns out that Pattie is also doing the Geneva half next Sunday and she's already done a few halves. Richard has done two marathons and I was treated to a step by step account of them both. I was fatigued just listening to them!

We go over the top and Richard studies the map and encourages us to go for it as it is all downhill from here back to Prenovel. We let rip, after the 10 min miles uphill the 8:30 mile pace on the way down feels very quick. The down feels strangely longer than the climb.

At 6 and a half miles we hit a village and it dawns on Richard we're off the map and have basically failed to loop back to Prenovel, but continued in a straight line over the hill and down into the valley on the other side. Some colourful language ensued that can't be repeated here. A glance at the map feature on my Garmin confirmed that the deal was exactly that. 1 hour out and a mountain to climb to get back. Opps. To give you an idea of what that involves, check the hill profile. We're in the bottom of the middle valley.


We now have 3 miles to climb the 1,000 feet we'd just tanked it down. Pattie was a star. She dug deep and worked the arms and tried to float up the hill.

Somewhere on the hill Pattie and Richard decide to call me Skippy the Kangaroo as I'm feeling light on my feet and bouncing up the hill. I think that was a complement!

I was trying hard to keep them running (I did not fancy walking in the woods in the dark much) and zipping between Pattie and Richard trying my best to encourage them with running stories and positive metal images.

In response to the early days Kenny chatting on the hill story, Pattie smiles at me as says, “I’ll be Kenny!”.

I told Richard there was an angel gently lifting him up the hill. He looked me in the eye and replied, “yes Niall but can you tell her to stop sticking that sword she carrying into my left calf!”

By now they've probably worked out that my kms are actually miles and I'm using the Garmin to make sure we get home on the exact same route we took out.

Finally, I get Pattie back to the centre and it is around a mile back to the last junction so I need to run hard to get back and make sure Richard takes the correct turn and no matter what I say or do he simply refuses to run anymore. He is adamant he's left his last bit of strength on the hill, miles ago.

Total distance was 13.4 and time taken was 2hours 20mins. The statistic that I loved was the total climb, 1,014 feet! On a typical Harpenden run I was lucky to get above 300, so that was some pretty serious hill running we did.

But lots of fun, lots of great stories and what a great way to get to know someone! Richard is a top bloke, even in agony and after the intro about the standard for the run, he kept smiling all the way back to the centre. That's something he can be seriously proud of!

Guess who's organising the running outing at next year's weekend away? I’m thinking I might volunteer for that job.