Cateran55 mountain trail race….. 55 miles is a lot of running !

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Mark Lyons

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Cateran55 mountain trail race….. 55 miles is a lot of running ! 

I had definitely been better prepared for a race but this was one journey I really didn’t want to miss, even if I was guaranteed a tough time…  So I packed my bags and headed North for the Cateran Trail … 

Follow the hearts ……

I’m no gifted runner, quite the opposite in fact and I have to work hard for every mile I cover, but usually I put the training in and for the most part enjoy my races. But lately life has been getting in the way of my outdoor pursuits; a return to full time working as a programmer and a huge backlog of freelance work has had me working night and day. I grudgingly had to cancel both the Highland Fling and the Sandbaggers Scottish Ultra because of my life’s various commitments and this was starting to piss me off no end, my belief is that I work to allow me my adventures and if it gets in the way of these, then what’s the point? However the spare time I have had has been put to good use, I’ve been training with the local hill runners and by God it’s been intensely hard AND painful! It definitely helping to improve my hills but the only problem is that it is short distance; races are normally under 12 miles and under an hour for the training sessions during the week. So when the Cateran55 came round I was left wondering whether to cancel that too, but I dug my heels into life and decided to go for it!  So with a quick 23-mile cross-country run the week before to make sure I could still run over 12 miles, I set off on Friday after work for the GlenSpittal Hotel, the start line of the race.

Glen Spittal Hotel

It’s a lovely hotel with good food, clean rooms and a warm bar in a beautiful part of the Highlands, what’s not to like! And they had laid on a special deal for runners so I was staying until Sunday, nice and comfy in a double room with mountain view, lovely! I arrived late Friday night as it’s several hours drive from The Borders to the heart of the Cairngorms. I took in the scenery, huge mountains all around me, I thought back to my days of winter climbing and the many ice routes I used to scare myself senseless on. Many are now regarded as scary test pieces, back then my naïvety was probably a good thing… However this trip I was here to run , 55 miles of running to be precise. The Cateran55 is a super runnable ultra race, there’s not many places in its 55 miles that you are forced to stop and walk, definitely a real runners trail. An old drovers road that snakes gently along climbing and falling, spilling its way through beautiful green countryside filled with mountains and forests. But do not let that fool you, 7,500 feet of ascent AND descent (never forget the descent) is also there to take its toll on your legs…

Myself and the ultra monster that is Pyllon …

My first port of call once settled into Glen Spittal was to search out my friend Paul, he’s one of Scotland’s top ultra runners and was last years’ winner of the Cateran55. He was here in the hotel with his girlfriend and had bagged room 444, obviously paying homage to Paul’s training schedule where his alarm goes off at 4:44am every morning for his early runs, about the same time as my cockerel finds the bedroom window and starts screeching underneath it! However Paul gets up and runs 15 miles before work, I roll over and try to go back to sleep… Now there’s a lesson on why I’m rubbish and he’s top of the tree 😉 It was great to finally get a chance to meet his family who support him in every way possible, and what a fantastic bunch they were, lovely friendly people with a huge love of the ultra scene, if his mum doesn’t know it, it’s not worth knowing… His sister Nicola was every bit as cool and funny in real life as she is online and his Dad was so full of pride for Paul it was bursting out the sides… Eventually after a load of laughs and Paul giving me the low down on what to watch out for in the race I retired to bed , preparing for an early 7am start to the race .

Karen reads the race brief …

6am and my alarm went off, I necked an oatmeal yoghurt, prepared my drop bags, filled my bottles, and headed down stairs for the race briefing where I met Paul and the delightful  Louise Jones, bubbly ultra-lady and a very strong ultra runner … Outside it was a beautiful high pressure morning, bluebird sky and a cool temperature. Karen the race director read out the race brief and finally we all walked over to the start line , about 70 odd runners congregated and chatted briefly before we were told to get ready , BANG and we are off !!! …. 55 miles ahead, time to get busy .

Runners ready for the off ….

Its was a smooth run out over a cattle bridge and down a rough track before hitting the fields and following broken single track, the first checkpoint came quickly at 6 miles but the next one was 11 or 12 miles further out . In an Ultra race of this kind  the checkpoints are set out where they can be accessed by car which means they are often intermittent and with varying distances between them, there’s nothing set up every 3 miles like a marathon but that’s why we love it, the game of off-road Ultra, every race is different , a character of its own , no set patterns here !! … I hit the 20 mile point pretty strong and had run with Louise most of the way, she had some great stories to tell and the miles disappeared behind us as we picked our way across the beautiful GlenShee landscape.

I ran into the half way checkpoint a little under 5 hours and I was now happy that I had enough  in my tank to finish , all was good in the world until I received news that Paul who had battled it out up front with the other Ultra-rockets had been forced to withdraw from the race due to a problem with his stomach , I was gutted for him !! I knew this would be very upsetting for him …..   After a 5 minute rest break with my feet in the air and meeting Steve from Tentsmuir at the check point I set off again. Steve would later be a friendly and encouraging face for me at the checkpoints ahead.


running more miles than you can ever remember ….

I set off up the long hill that was to follow , whose Idea was it to put that there !! The scenery along the trail was beautiful to see and just as fantastic to run on, long sections of soft if a little muddy at times trail , broken up with short country lanes and steep hills , tracks through dark forests opening out into mountain views …. I was loving it and tried to take some mental snapshots of it all as I ran !!  but after about 40 miles my legs weren’t loving it back .. my lack of training was starting to show , hill running may be the toughest of training but no substitute for a long run and hard day long grafts in the hills. My muscles and tendons had been slowly weakening and I was feeling it bad, my groin area the most , even the tendons in my arms were starting to nag  with all the swinging back and forth , I soldiered on but I was starting to seriously flag and losing places , Louise was being held back by me  yet seemed content to pull me along , I encouraged her to bash on as it wasn’t fair on her ,and just as well as the next 10 miles really took their toll and I slowed down considerably , by the time I reached mile 50 I was so debilitated by my groin strain that I was pretty much unable to hold any pace at all , I had a horrible feeling I would wake up with a double groin strain the next day …I soldiered on though , no way I was DNF this day !!!

taking a load off ….

When I  think of  the unrelenting pace that Paul , Matt and the guys in the front pack run these distances at I am full of awe and admiration for not only their athleticism but their steely determination when the pain kicks in !! …….  after a long hill climb I was high in Glen Shee following a high level mountain path for the final few miles to the finish.. the rough ground was torture and the final climb hard on my legs but finally I crossed the shoulder and  looked down on the Glen Spittal hotel , less than a mile below down a steep path that in a hill race would probably take me no more than 6 or 7 minutes ,  after 54 miles however my groin and knees were so weak that I  could only hobble down …. It took me over 30 mins to reach the finish !!   in fact those last 5 miles took me over 2 hours !!  Steve and Nicola were waiting for me as I hit the bottom of the hill and we ran/hobbled the last 200 yards to the finish line ….   God it was nice to see that finish !!   I fell into the bar with Nicola and Paul’s mum and  finally took a load off my feet, I had made it  to the finish and after 55 miles  I was battered , broken but not beaten !!…… Paul’s sister introduced me to Matt Williams in the bar , he had won the race this year in a time of just over 8 hours !!  now that is amazing !!!

Matt shakes hands with Karen at the finish ….. I probably had 15 miles to go

So next week is Edinburgh marathon , I swore Id never run a road marathon again but Rhalou has persuaded me to chum her round … fingers crossed my legs are recovered …. last year I ran 3:38 against gale force winds , hopefully this year may be a little more demure 🙂

 

 

Posted in Adventure, Marathon des Sables, mountain running, Ultrathon | 3 Comments

End of the winter…………..

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Mark Lyons

End of the winter…………..

Well that’s the end of the winter and what a send off its had this year, kicked right back into touch by 20+ degrees temperatures and long sun soaked days… Cold, wet and windy weather get back in your box! I don’t want to see you again until October!

Looking out over the Highlands

I used to love the winter, it meant Kayaking for the wettest of it and Ice Climbing for the coldest , whatever the weather there was always something to push me , I love the extra Ante’ the winter adds to everything , the danger of anything going wrong is far worse than in the summer , the conditions you face all factor in and make  it far more serious thank most realise , everything must be checked and double checked.The daylight hours are short and its normally very cold so you need to be in and out with little fuss or you could be in trouble. Unfortunately since my shoulder injury I have been unable to climb or kayak, only my fight to become a better runner has kept me busy but c’est la vie I’m getting to old anyway !! 😉  … Feeling a little Melancholy the other night I started flicking through some old climbing books and found a newspaper clipping stuck between two pages, it was marking a climb on Stob Coire Nam Beith … It is very unusual for me to have done something like this because much to my regret, back in my ignorant youth I didn’t keep anything to remember the glory days, my halcyon years are lost to memory for the most part , and too much smoking of weed back then lost me a few of those to !!! 🙂   Magazine articles, paper clippings, photos and even friendships have been lost over time and now I truly regret not even attempting to keep something , maybe now in the digital age we forget the effort required to store and keep safe memories , life beyond a hard drive seems way more complicated …… although my mum allegedly has a hidden stash intended for my daughter to read when she’s older.

The clipping was from what now seems a life time ago , when as a fledgling Ice Climber I undertook a 3 star classic gully on the famous GlenCoe mountain of Stob Coire Nam Beith. My 3 companions Jim, Jock and Tam …. wow!  that sounds like a warm up to a joke 🙂  and I had headed off from the Scottish Borders at 4.30am on the long journey to Glencoe fully expecting a tough day out but not in the way any of us expected…

Here is my recollection of that day……

We arrived at first light, and looking up at Stob Coire Nam Beith from the car park below I saw a behemoth of a Snow covered mountain towering above me, full of steep Icy gullies and long fang like icefalls, was I really going to climb that? Was I ready? Although already pushing well into the E-grades on rock I had very little experience on ice that morning; this was soon to be rectified!!

Typical Winters climbing rack

Jim and I sat behind the car sorting out all our equipment , lots of it for Ice climbing , checked and double checked, there was no way I was humping a rucksack that heavy up a mountain to forget a vital piece of equipment and have to come back down empty-handed , no way !  Finally we were ready , crampons on and off we went, walking the 1800 feet up the icy mountain paths and through the slippery rock gardens to find the traverse that would bring us out at the bottom of Central Gully, this was the route we had chosen to undertake that morning, a 3 star classic  and one that given our relative lack of experience would definitely be a test of our skill, nerve and character. It’s hard to remember how I felt in those early years , I think I was to stupid or at least seriously naïve to the dangers back then , now a days I am quite rightly a quivering wreck .. 😉


Stob Coire Nam Beith

I was to lead the route, Jim was belaying so nervously I prepared to climb. Standing below the route I eyed my foe for a few minutes … Fuck it time for battle !!!Off I went , slowly picking a route up the Neve’ and Ice . Eventually I hit a difficult Ice step, maybe 30 feet of 90 degree steepness before a step over a ledge and into a gully above, I headed up and after maybe 20 minutes of slow deliberate climbing I took a rest in a handy nook before making the move to go above…. all of a sudden snow came down, lots of it, an avalanche!!!  I sucked close to the wall, pulling my body as far into the recess as I could, holding on for my life as I was blasted from above by snow for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably only seconds, once it eased I lifted my head and looked below to check the lads were still there, they had dived for cover and thankfully they were ok but they were shouting up at me , Mark !!! Mark!!  There was a body!! …..

Its a long way down ………….

Shit!!  a body ?  I looked below and saw blood and what appeared to be a lot of it, it was smeared down the gully below and continued out of sight… Adrenaline shot through me , I remember shaking , I got myself together and quickly I started to reverse my route. After a while I had made it back to my companions. A body had come down with the avalanche and disappeared below, was he alive? We had to find out !   Tam had the flares so he set off a rescue flare high in the air; we desperately needed the Mountain rescue there as soon as possible. I started to set up a series of abseils and followed the gully to way below where we had joined it, following the snow and blood splattering as far as we could until it appeared to go very rocky and disappeared off into a sheer cliff face . I could see a body and it was caught precariously just above a chute which looked to drop right off the cliff face…Adrenalin was pumping again and I felt very nervous looking down at the body stuck between the rocks. We had to find out if he was dead or alive, if he moved and fell down the chute he was certainly dead!!   I set up a last abseil and took my equipment down , I headed just right of him for fear of dislodging anything that could hit him, at first I couldn’t see his face for blood, his hair was long and blood soaked to, at first I thought head injury but later discovered his nose to be severely broken and responsible for most of the blood, he was jammed into some rocks , he looked like he had several possible breaks or dislocations, I couldn’t move him for fear of back or neck injuries so I secured him to the rocks he was snagged on, this way at least he couldn’t fall any further. My companions set off another rescue flare and we waited on the arrival of the Mountain rescue who seemed to be on the scene with no delay at all!! The Lochaber squad don’t mess around and are the number 1 mountain rescue squad in the U.K. , they get plenty practice for sure. I had a flask of hot orange and as the man regained consciousness I let him sip some  to stave off any hypothermia and shock that was certainly setting in.  We didn’t talk much as he was not able but I think he was better for me being there while we waited.

Scottish Mountain rescue at work …

Eventually the rescue boys were on the scene , a ground crew arrived first, they assessed the situation and radioed for help , soon a helicopter was swirling over our heads.  That was the first time I witnessed a mountain rescue and soon the injured climber was whisked high above to a huge Sea King helicopter that nearly blew us to our feet with its downdraft. The sense of relief seeing him head to safety was very emotional and as the adrenalin died down we began to chat about what had happened and just how crazy the day had been, welcome to Scottish Winter Climbing …  No doubting that it was a horrible day to have been part of but thankfully one that spurred me on to learn, practice and practice even more the mountain rescue techniques which would later pay me back in full for the effort back then.

Sea King flys overhead

I read in the paper a few days later that his name was Andrew Porter and he was a climber from East Kilbride, he was in the Glasgow Royal infirmary and would recover fully from his injuries, he had fallen near the top of the gully and slid 400 feet down the front of the mountain before being jammed in the rocks just 20 feet from a sheer 500 foot drop.. As much as he was unlucky, he was VERY lucky…  If anyone reading this knows Andrew , say Hi from me 🙂

It’s amazing the memories that a clipping can bring back….. If you’re out there now pushing yourself and having the time of your life, keep some memoirs, it’s totally worth it !!!!

Id like to thank Jim, Tam and Jock for being there that day ,and James Roddie for the use of some of his excellent photos … thanks James , they are a beautiful portrayal of Stob Coire Nam Beith ..

Posted in stories from the past | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Art O’Neil Ultra-race……what a way to spend a weekend.

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Mark Lyons

Art O’Neill was an Irish bandit who was arrested and held at Dublin castle, later escaping at midnight one cold January night back in 1592, his Ultra race follows the 35 mile escape route that he used , it runs through Dublin , up and over Blackhill mountain before ascending Arts Cross , the name they gave the mountain where Art and Red McHugh made their final stand against the soldiers chasing them, unfortunately also where he met his end …. One of my favourite Ultra races and a real adventure , with a starting time of 2am  , a super fast and very steep road section through the country lanes heading up to the Wicklow mountains , then after checkpoint 1 it is off-road mountain  running with navigation in the dark, this year the Sun rose as I was climbing Arts Cross … it was so awe inspiring that I said screw the race and spent 10 minutes just taking it all in …….

The summit monument of Arts Cross …. in the daylight

 The Art O’Neil Ultra race……….

I had hoped to spend Friday at my desk with my feet up in the air but unfortunately the University had other ideas and gave me a Japanese student to look after instead, so my whole day was spent demonstrating and talking on my feet, eventually though my working day was over and I headed to the Marriot Hotel near Edinburgh Airport where I was meeting Lee , a kayaker from Ayr to hand over the last of my kayaking equipment … My retiral from kayaking was to be finalised only a few hours before my first ultra of 2012, a sweet and sour 24 hours it was to be .Deal done I headed to the airport and went through customs before jumping on Ryanair flight RY322 to Dublin, finally a little time off my feet …Waiting on the other side was my old friend Adrian Shanahan and his lovely girlfriend Carla, they were my hosts for the weekend and they were that and much, much more ….. The word awesome is used far too easily these days but definitely not this time, they were “AWESOME” hosts!!!

Runners gather in the courtyard of Dublin Castle ….

As we approached Dublin castle I could hear the music thumping hard and soon I saw the crowd of runners and walkers raring to go…. Over 400 entrants in 3 different categories, walkers, hybrids and Ultra runners…. Walkers are self explanatory, hybrids run the first 15 miles to checkpoint 1. before joining a walking group where they are guided over the next 20 miles of mountain terrain, and then the Ultra runners who run all the way and navigate across the mountain by themselves. I had to register before 12am so quickly changed in to my running gear , loaded my pack with all the necessary equipment that is required by the rules and headed into register my appearance , I was quickly asked to check my equipment and then sign the disclaimer before I received my number, I met Gearoid the main man , a fine fellow and ex Olympian rower, we hugged and he looked happy to see me back for another year.

Mark King , myself and Dominic …. strong runners indeed , Irish old skool hill men.

I looked around the hall for my friends Aiden Blake and Mark King who were also in the race, I found them quickly and it was great to see them, Aiden I had run with last year and after a year of hard ultra he was looking super fit , Mark I met in the Himalaya with his friend Stevie , I loved those guys up there , they were warm and funny and really made my Himalayan100 race perfect , unfortunately Stevie hadn’t been able to make it as he had a bad groin strain … Another brilliant find was Paul Kelders, a fella I met on twitter, an MDS 2013 competitor and in the flesh a friendly and witty Irishman of the best kind, it wasn’t long before we were all swapping tales, joking and having a laugh passing the time before the start.

Gearoid addresses the crowd ….. telling the story of Art O’Neil and Red McHugh

Pretty soon it was midnight and the music was turned down for Gearoid to tell the tale of Art O’Neill and Red McHugh’s daring escape before meeting their end on Arts Cross Mountain … he wished everyone well and the horn went up for the walkers to begin their challenge , a roar went up ad 300+ left Dublin castle courtyard with a 35 mile trek ahead of them , it was to be a tough night ….. Next up were the hybrid runners at 1:30am before we, the Ultra Runners were cheered off at 2am..  I waved good-bye to Adrian and set out on my first section from Dublin to Kilbride high up in the Wicklow countryside… this was a tough run following the city streets up and out of Dublin then at mile 7 a hill that climbs over 1700 feet and just keeps on going up and up !!! I started to meet the walkers at about 8-9 miles in and it was great to hear them encourage us onward and upwards….. Still I was very glad to get to the top and see checkpoint 1…

Climbing towards the Wicklow mountains and looking back at Dublin .. awe struck !!

Here we were allowed a “drop bag” full of equipment and quickly I looked for my bag… disaster!! it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, I looked everywhere but no…. I grabbed a steward and we both searched , eventually finding it in totally the wrong pile but hey these things happen , maybe someone thought it was theirs and dumped it back in the wrong place , anyway I quickly loaded up my rucksack with mountain supplies including my GPS and mountain gear …

Checkpoint 1 ….

I headed out into the dark , pretty much I was on my own now as the walkers were few and far between … it was a very cold clear night , the sky was alit with stars and it was a half-moon so visibility was good , I switched my head torch off for a bit to save my eyes as it was now 4 am and they were starting to tell me they were tired , I ran along a rough track for a mile or two before spying head torches below me , I thought I better get busy and check my position , I pulled out my GPS and switched it on … shit !! it appeared to be in some strange language , bugger , I couldn’t figure it out at all , the symbols just weren’t intuitive enough and I couldn’t change the language back, I must have spent the best part of 20 minutes trying before giving up , the only solution was getting my map out and going old skool, it wasn’t hard getting a fix on my position, just as well as I didn’t recognise where I was because the route was different this year from last … I ascertained that I had missed a cut off and should have been down in the valley , I ran back to see a couple of fellow runners heading down a field which brought me out on a country lane that I recognised as the start of a monster climb up to the cut off onto the rock path for Blackhill …

Where the hell in Ireland am I ??

I ground my way up the hill in 200 metre bursts as it was way too steep and long for me to run especially after now nearly 18 miles of steeps , I remembered it from the year before so had a plan …. By the time I hit Blackhill I was shattered, the lack of sleep was definitely taking its toll and I looked in the sky, the moon was still high, shit!! I desperately wanted the sunrise to lift my body’s natural energy and shake me out of my zombie state, although I must say there are some striking similarities to running with sleep deprivation and smoking a pot filled bong….allegedly 😉

Leaving checkpoint 1 … any speak Polish ?

I was trying to see the outline of Blackhill in the distance , I knew where I wanted to be and headed into the heather and grass tuft strewn hillside , if I fell over once I fell over a hundred times , was it the night , the lack of visibility or was it just because I was tired I don’t know but it was doing my nut in and at one stage when I fell , I put both my hands out to stop myself and my gloves went into a puddle of freezing cold water , my gloves started to freeze with the wind chill and  I started cursing just being there !! Then I realised I started to think I was way to low as I was close to the river… I again tried to get the GPs to show me where I was but I kept getting stuck on the menus, then all of a sudden!! BINGO!! The map initialized and finally I I could see where I was , it was still in Polish but I didnt give a shit !!  just so long as I could see the map and my position I was happy , unlucky for me I was to low and I quickly headed north to a break in the upcoming forest at a firebreak… I ran through and down a forestry track for a while and eventually I arrived at checkpoint 2 where I met Adrian and  Paul Kelders who both looked to be having fun.

Mountain rescue organising safety cover ..

I quickly grabbed a cup of tea and headed out of the checkpoint and ran quickly along the trail to climb through a steep wood before hitting the fells of Arts Cross , there appeared to be 2 options for the ascent , a long shallow climb up the shoulder or a fast run into the valley and up the steepest part … I opted for the long shallow climb, hoping that after 30 miles of steep running it would leave my legs fresher for the run down the back side and to the finish … I was right and I topped out reasonably fresh and with one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever seen, so amazing that I had to stop for a while and take in the ambience, 30 miles travelled and less than 5 miles left … I wanted to finish yet I still wanted to be out here in the hills.

Wicklow mountain sunrise …….

From the summit it was navigating peat hags and deep bogs  that looked like they  might swallow you whole if you were to fall in , the year before this had been a frozen wasteland but this year it was wet and dangerous looking , I took a bearing and went for it … I had met up with Dominic on the run up to the summit and we formed a loose partnership over and across the bogs , he was a great guy and we ran the last 3 miles over the hill paths down the back of Arts Cross to the finish at Barravore below … as we approached the finish line it was nice to know my legs were still running easy and there was more to give if I needed it , I had been nervous as the Art had approached, the weather had been stormy and wet for so long and I had gotten so lazy this winter that my training had suffered badly, however I paced it out easy and a finish was never in question but all the same , hard training for 2012 starts now , nothing better than a hard race to get your motivation back …….

Dont ask …. haha

I’d like to say just how friendly the whole event is , the Irish runners are gentlemen of the finest degree and I was made to feel very welcome at every stage …. and you have to respect their abilities , they will not be beaten !!!   Waiting in the hall before the starting gun there were whispers of certain English and Danish supermen amongst us over to take the crown from Eoin Keith , holder of the record and title, but in the end Eoins battle was not with them but with his own fellow Irish men in the shape of Paul Tierny and Greg Byrne …. power to those boys , they are outdoor athletes of the highest order.

Eoin and Paul head out of Dublin to do battle in the hills …

Thanks to all at the Art O’Neil, Volunteers, organisers, competitors and spectators and most of all Gearoid!! That guy knows how to throw an Ultra race!!!! 

 

The Art O Neil , certainly was a bumpy ride ………..

Posted in himalaya, Training, Ultrathon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Merry Christmas one and all …..

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Mark Lyons

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Merry Christmas one and all …..

2011 has been another amazing year , one of both great success and heartbreaking failure. ..What with my decision to close my High street business’ due to the effects of the recession , the death of a close friend and the news that through injury I would never kayak hard White-water again it has had its low points but I held my head up and embarked on some madcap adventures of the running kind and along the way I met all kinds of charasmatic and crazy  people , from meeting my adorable girlfriend Rhalou to running across deserts and mountains with forest monks and crazy Irish farmers and through it all tweeting the time away with the inspiring people of twitter. I’ve laughed, joked and cried my way through 2011  …. so to everyone who comes here to read a little of what I’ve been up to , Merry Christmas I hope you found something worth reading and it helped get you out the house …….

Enjoy the Holiday , eat , drink and be merry ……work hard later ….

Posted in Mojo | 8 Comments