Under Starters Orders

Sadly the Steyning Duathlon didn’t materialise as expected. Due in parts to myself contracting a severe case of man flu from which I was lucky to survive and Liz twisting her ankle whilst we were Snowboarding in the brilliant resort of Briancon. There is some mystery around the exact cause of the twisted ankle and whilst Liz is claiming it was a boarding injury I do seem to remember having to give her a piggy back ride home one night after she insisted on wearing her high heeled boots out drinking – apparently there’s only so many days a girl can go without her heels!



The truth is the winner from all this was probably the Duathlon event itself as it was spared the slightly ridiculous sight of me being lapped several times by the competitors of an event which we hadn’t realised was part of the British Qualifying series and therefore attended by all the would be internationals looking to gain a place in the more prestigious international events.

So that made the next event on our schedule the first race of the BARC Westfield Series the at Rockingham, a circuit I’ve never been to before. Rockingham is quite and intimidating site as you drive up to it. The Grandstands dominate the skyline as they envelope the oval track to provide seating for nearly 100,000 people. Needless to say we didn’t manage to attract those numbers and the 2000 odd spectators that enjoyed the glorious spring sunshine hardly seemed to make a dent on the miles of green seating.

I arrived with my pit crew (Josh, our neighbour’s lad) on the Saturday evening just in time to witness the Mini Challenge team setting up a double pit garage with a huge plasma screen, glitter ball, sound system and even a couple of grid girls! How the other half live; we made do with beans on toast by torch light.

The next morning saw the car safely through scrutineering although being a new car on the grid the MSA scrutineer was very thorough with his examination which can be no bad thing. After some friendly banter with my new fellow competitors the qualifying took place. I had problems pretty much straight away. The car just felt undriveable to start with. I can only really describe it as like driving on ice. The steering was very light and it seemed to have no grip, especially under braking.

After a few laps I came into the pits to check the tyre pressures. We are using a new tyre this year and the pressures had gone through the roof. With little knowledge on what pressures worked best Josh reset them in the pit lane and I went out again. The car was noticeably different although braking was still an issue but sadly the chequered flag came out so I didn't get a flying lap in and would start 15th and last on the grid!

It was great to see my friend James arrive just in time to give me some much needed moral support and the photos are courtesy of his hidden talents with a lens.

So on with the race and lining up at the back gave me a great view of Rockingham’s wide start line from where I managed to get a pretty good start utilising a technique I’ve been perfecting over the years and which cannot be divulged here. It’s a long run down to the first corner during which I flew past three cars, one of which belonged to series newcomer and novice Harry Gordon-Finlayson who had some issues selecting 2nd gear but recovered well to put in some strong lap times that bode well for the future.

I then managed to take another car into the first corner and another into the next. It's amazing how being in a race pushes you much more quickly than testing or qualifying and pretty soon I'd picked the pace up and was chasing down the guys ahead of me. I noticed I was much quicker than them through the back section but quite slow on the brakes into a hairpin and too aggressive on the throttle getting out of the tighter corners, one of which led onto the main straight where a fast exit was very important as it was then a straight drag along the banking and round one of the banked bends.

With a couple of laps to go I had caught up the two cars battling for 6th and thought about a lunge up the inside into the last corner onto the long main straight but decided to try and get a good exit and use the tow to get past. Unfortunately I just got too much wheel spin and lost ground so had to leave it very late into the hairpin at the end of the straight and locked up onto the grass and span twice. Fortunately I didn't lose too much time getting back onto the track and crossed the line in 8th with a massive grin plastered across my face.

With battles raging throughout the grid there was always something interesting happening but up front Simon Pryke took the win and was generally in a class of his own. However my heart goes out to Will Chappell whose gearbox gave up the ghost in the final corner when he was looking set for a podium.

Personally I reckon there are a couple of areas for improvement. Just knowing the track helps massively as it's not immediately obvious at Rockingham where the best lines are. Also my driving style could do with some improvement to say the least. I was too aggressive on the power and the rears were just lighting up on exit from the slower corners. A couple of times on the last couple of laps I focused on being smoother and got my fastest lap so there should be some more time to come from just being better at that. Then there are the brakes. I was using a set of pads that had sat in my damp garage for the last couple of years having last been worn in 2006 they just gave no stopping power. It was impossible to get the car slowed from high speed and they had no feel at all so a couple of days ago a deal was struck with EBC to become my first official sponsor. EBC make the excellent Yellow pads; if they’re good enough for the last two Westfield Champions they’re good enough for me.

So with the first race out of the way I feel like a proper racing driver; that first win is surely only an excuse or three away now. Roll on Mallory Park on the 10th May.

In the meantime the marathon training is going well, Liz has now recovered from her twisted ankle and the four weeks off doesn’t seem to have affected her fitness too much. I’m having a few niggles with my right foot which is probably a result of increasing the length of my runs and the fact that my left leg still has slightly less muscle mass from the ACL surgery. I’ve booked in to see a Podiatrist next week to get some advice on how to overcome this but I’m suspecting it will involve leg exercises and maybe some custom orthotics.

In the meantime I’m focusing on losing weight so have been running before breakfast which is a truly horrible thing. I’ve been told your body gets used to it, I hope so! I’ve set a target weight of 11st 7lb having started at 13st 8lb, currently I’m at 13st 2lb.

Bleeding Nips

No the title's not a socio-political comment but a reflection of the state of my chest at the end of 13.2 tortuous miles (for me at least)!

The good news is that both Liz and I completed the Bath Half Marathon on Sunday and in doing so we both managed to beat our times from 2003; the last time we ran the event.

Liz was a quite staggering 19mins faster than before and did, as expected, open a can of whoop ass on me. I trailed in almost a mile behind.

Our final run the previous weekend had been difficult; we covered just less than 9 miles in a mixture of rain and sleet. I was suffering cramp after 6 miles and needed to stop and stretch. Liz was fine the next day but I didn’t quite get rid of the soreness until Thursday so wasn’t able to do a warm down run mid week. It also left me feeling a bit worried about my ability to complete the course without stopping.

We headed down to Liz’s dad’s house in Cardiff on the Saturday and tucked into a huge pasta meal whilst casting a jealous eye over the wine bottle – we’d both been “on the wagon” for the last week.

Race day morning arrived and we soon realised a basic flaw in our cunning plan to consume huge quantities of porridge for breakfast, the race wasn’t due to start until 11.30 some 4 hours later so we tucked a few crafty croissants into our bags and headed off. It was in the car on the way that we made our biggest mistake. Both Liz and I were concerned about being properly hydrated so chugged down about a litre of water each and promptly spent the majority of our time up until the start of the race needing the loo. Apparently the trick is to take small but frequent sips of isotonic drink in the build up – DOH

Overall it was a well organised event and with 15,000 runners it’s difficult to know how else to start the race but having to stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow runners for 30mins before the start meant that any benefit I’d gained from stretching and warming up had been completely lost. It’s really not the ideal preparation for running a half marathon.

Sadly Liz was entered into another section of runners and I didn’t get to see her at all during the race. This also meant that my cunning plan to run hand in hand until surprising her with my sprint finish over the last 10 metres was scuppered. Liz ran a well paced race with slightly negative splits, apparently this is ideal, and finished very strongly whilst I just seemed to find it a world of pain from about a halfway. The good news is that my new ACL was completely pain free. Sadly the same couldn’t be said for all the other parts of my legs not to mention nipples; why did no one tell me about this – I’ll be using plasters next time!

I need to say a big thank you to the ladies that gave up their time to provide massages after the race. Both Liz and I benefited hugely from their healing hands, making the 3 hour drive home just about bearable.

A few days on and the stiffness has now gone and we’re about to start training for our next challenge, the Steyning Duathlon on Easter Monday. This is a 7K run, 36K bike ride and a final 5K run so we need to get out and about on our bikes and practice the transition phase apparently (thanks for the tip Tricky).

Alastair Kerr, who was a great friend of PA, has been organising runners for the event on behalf of TRUST PA for a number of years and again put on a great day with the usual passionate support from both Rob and Gerri Blundell so thanks guys, we’ll be back next year.

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has donated using our Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt it was heart warming to see the donations grow and with literally blood, sweat and tears being shed in the cause you did get good value for your money plus we are now one fifth of a way towards our target of £500.

A break from the old routine......

Well there's one week to go until our Bath Half Marathon and the training's been hard work for me but Liz has been flying.

I've had this virus since New Years eve and only started running 3 weeks ago. Originally I'd be aiming for a 1hr 45min time but with the lack of training it would be more realistic to look at simply completing the course. Liz had been hoping to break 2hrs but she's been going so well that a 1hr 50min looks a reasonable target so I'm facing the real prospect of getting spanked out of site by my wife - and not in a good way too!

Honestly though I don't know how anyone other than the unemployed manage to undertake any kind of regular training programme. I’ve been having to get up at ridiculous o’clock to fit an hours run in before jumping in the car and driving to work. This is not ideal and means I look like an arthritic octogenarian trying to get out of the car and walk into the office!

To break things up and help in our goal to climb Mt Blanc later this year we recently took a trip to Aviemore in Scotland for a weekend of winter climbing. I’ve been before so had some idea of what to expect but it was Liz’s first time so we hired a guide, Anna, who sorted the routes and organised all the extra gear we’d need like crampons and ice axes.

The first day was spent in Coire an t Sneachda climbing up some easy snow gullies and learning how to build snow bollards to provide secure protection for belaying down slopes when there’s nothing else available. We also dug out a couple of ice axe belays and platforms which were nice and solid but you’d end with piles if you spent too much time sat in them.

Unfortunately Liz got very cold which meant she didn’t have such a great time so that evening she headed off to some of the gear shops in Aviemore and treated herself to some shiny new clothing and was toasty warm the next day.

The second day we headed into the neighbouring Coire for some altogether more serious stuff. Armed with technical axes we headed up some steepish ice and rock and traversed several very steep and icy slopes which we both found quite unnerving as a fall hear meant that one or both of the other’s on the rope would have to hold the fall which would probably be ok if it was me but as Anna looked 7 stone wet through I didn’t fancy the chances of her managing to hold my near 14stones. As it turned out I did slip on one slope as I got sudden cramp in a hamstring and went down quicker than Desire Washington. Luckily I was on the only bit of flat rock at the time so disaster was avoided.

The final pitch turned into a bit of a nightmare as both Liz and I were exhausted, it’s particularly hard on the calf muscles and we were both shaking like a small, bald dog as we clung to the side of the mountain watching a storm come in and engulf our Guide as she headed out of sight up a steep chimney leading to the top out onto the Cairngorm plateau. Obviously we made it OK but the first thing I said to Liz was “let’s not do this again!”

Several days later we’re contemplating a return in October.

So we have a week to go to the race. We will be doing a 10 mile run tomorrow followed by a couple of gentler runs mid week – wish us luck and if you can pop over to the Just Giving page then that would be great.

Matt

The End of Days

Ok, deep breath, are we sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Once upon a time in a land far far..........oh bugger!

We'll just cut to the chase, this page has really been set up to give some life to the things my wife Liz and I are planning to do this year to have some fun and because we're trying to get you lot to give money to the charity TrustPA through our web page www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt we thought we ought to at least let you know what sort of blood, sweat and tears (of joy hopefully) you can expect us to go through on behalf of your hard earned.

After spending the last few years renovating houses with all our spare time we just had enough so early this years plans took shape to have a bit of fun, get fit again and just go out and do some stuff. So far we've got a rough itinerary that looks like the following:

Feb - Winter Climbing in Scotland
March - Bath Half Marathon
April - Steyning Duathalon & BARC Westfield Chaps Rounds 1&2 @ Rockingham
June - Welsh 3000 & BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 3&4 @Brands Hatch
July - BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 5&6 @ Donington Park
August - BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 7&8 @ Castle Combe& Rounds 9&10 @ Croft
Sept - Climb Mont Blanc & BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 11&12 @ Snetterton
Oct - Chicago Marathon

As you can see, we're both planning on doing some endurance events and will be updating this blog with progress to date. Although we both ran the Bath Half marathon in 2003 we have done little running since. We started the training before Christmas using a training schedule nicked from www.runnersworld.co.uk and so far so good minus a couple of lost weeks due to a nasty virus, the upside of which was half a stone of weightloss.

In addition I'll be racing my Westfield in the BARC Westfield Championship this year and hoping to be able to upload some video of the races if I can figure out how. If you're one of those people who are into these types of cars then you are either single, on the verge of divorce or fortunate to be married to an absolute angel of a woman.

If you can make it to any of the events above it would be great to have some extra support and we may have spare tickets.

Right, that's the first post out the way, lets hope the rest are somewhat more, well just more!