Clarendon Marathon - We Did It!

Pete and I at about 18 miles!

A few years ago, looking at my OMM training schedule, I had spotted the Clarendon Half Marathon as a potential training event, but after a little pondering had dismissed it as being a too close to the OMM three weeks later, worried that I wouldn't recover from the 13.1 miles in time for our annual wander round the mountains.

I thought of that and how much my fitness must have changed yesterday as I was in the middle of the full Clarendon Marathon, a whole 26.2 miles of hilly paths winding from Salisbury to Winchester.

Keep on Running

It's been a while since I have posted about running.

The Big Wales Thing was a big run for me, and a culmination of a lot of training runs to get ready. After it was all over I didn't feel I had a huge reason to keep going out at the frequency I had been, or run those distances.  And I certainly didn't want to put a rucksack back on!

Big Wales Thing - Food

Cooking Supper in the Wild

You can't do a 200 mile journey without sorting out the food! So here are a few thoughts on what I ate and what I learned along the way.

Jiva Coffee Cubes

I love good coffee. I normally start the day with a couple of cups of freshly brewed strong coffee, and one of the things I miss when out hiking is a decent cup of coffee to get me going in the morning. Sometimes I take a small stovetop espresso pot, but there was no way that I had space or weight for that on the Big Wales Thing trip. I know there are the real coffee pouch/sachets that you add water to, but they were just too bulky and expensive. What I needed was some sort of instant coffee that had the taste and kick of the real thing.

So I was very interested when I came across a review of Jiva Cubes in an outdoor blog. Good tasting instant coffee cubes?  Sounds perfect!

Big Wales Thing - I did it!

224 miles and 15 days of running and walking and the Big Wales Thing was all over. I stood on the cliff edge by the lighthouse on Great Orme on the North Wales coast, grinning at the blue sky and sea, and I had completed my journey on foot from one end of Wales to another.

I'm Off!

I think I am ready to go.

Food selected and packed.

Bag packed. (Too heavy. Repacked. Too heavy. Threw out a few things. Repacked. Still too heavy. Too late!)

Off to get the train in a bit. Overnight with a friend in Cardiff and then starting at 0700 tomorrow.

Weather looks good :-)

Updates via Twitter (@jell and #BigWalesThing) and Facebook (jellellis)

Wish me luck!

Jell

Quick Microadventure and Kit Check

A magic snatched night on Dartmoor.