Vale Royal AC Runners

In the Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championships, having her best run of the Cross Country season so far, Nicky showed that her high mileage Marathon training is starting to bring rewards as she took 3rd place  -

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-xc/

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/103109aaa.html

See the action here :-

http://www.byucougars.com/cross_country/

Continuing her Cross Country season in the build up to the Las Vegas Marathon, in early December, Nicky finished in an excellent 51st position at the Pre Nationals on 17 October

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/101709aab.html 

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234565-2009-brooks-isu-pre-nationals/204725-prenats-women-s-white-race

www.golobos.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/100209aab.html

Hello All!

Wow its been a long time since I sent an update (thanks for passing ahint along James!)...I forget that not everyone lives in the facebookworld to see the updates on there!!!

Anyway....lots has been happening here since I got back, some good,some not so good.  When I first got back I found out that my ferritin(iron) had gone low again, so my build up to full training was slowerthan planned.  It just meant that although I could still put in a lotof miles, I couldnt do too much in the way of sessions.  But after 3weeks another blood test showed that it had recovered to a good enoughlevel for me to hit the training 'properly' again. 

On the brighter side, I now have a new best friend called Hank.  He isa white Saturn L200, and he takes me to lots of fun places to run :o)unfortunately Dad has passed on his obsessive streak of having a cleancar...everyone tells me im obsessed as I think Im about the only personin America who washes their car with a bucket and sponge!!!  Hank looksgood though!

As most of you know I am training for a marathon in earlydecember...Las Vegas!  So Ive been racking up the miles over the pastmonth.  Im up to 18miles for my long run now, and I nailed that in 2:01today so things are starting to look up.  That rounded out a 108 mileweek for me!

Race wise I have only run 1 so far...down in southern New Mexico.  Itwas a low key race, and I had to combine it with 3x10mins of temporunning afterwards to put in a decent marathon training day.  the racedidnt go too well, but I wasnt in race shape at that point.  I stilldont think Im in great race form (at least not over 5k anyway!) but itsearly in the season and with 10 weeks til my marathon i dont want to besuper fit just yet.  Next race is this coming friday in Notre Dame,IN.  A flat, fast 5k round a golf course...definitely not ready forthis speedy one but will see what happens!!!

Only other exciting story I have for you is my first rattlesnakeencounter!  I was running in the foothills with one of the othergirls...I was in front as it was a narrow single file path...I stoppedsuddenly with an "Oh s**t"...as this 'stick' (that was only about 3ftaway from me treading on it) moved, lifted its head to look atme...hissed and rattled.  we promptly turned and ran the otherdirection.  not too sure who was least happy to see who, but I dontthink I would have won a fight with that guy.

Right, thats it for now...pretty long update this time as I hadntposted one for so long.  Will try and make it more regular if I can!

Hope all is good back home and your all training hard (and trying to keep my old man in check!)

TTFN :o)

We've made it!!!

We cycled the last 17 miles to john o'groats this morning and finished about 9.15ish.  We thane had a quick look round and took some photos. That makes 897 miles in total, so we didnt stray too far from the shortest route!

We then cycled back tp Wick and managed to catch midday train to inverness. Staying in the city centre tonight and heading to the airport early tomorrow.

The bikes have done us proud, we are the puncture proof plumbers! Not a burst or a leaky valve all trip!

Don't forget you can congratulate us at:  http://www.justgiving.com/lejog-bigmarkandgoffy

We're in Wick tonight having covered another 70 miles..... less than 20 to go tomorrow to  finish this adventure off!

A nice ride up the coast today with some great weather for a change.

We're planning to get out early tomorrow and get to the finish line  then it's time for the journey home to check on how much you've all been sponsoring us!!  We'll catch the train to inverness tomorrow afternoon and we're hopefully flying back to Manchester on Saturday. 

We have spent the day on the A9 (many time winner of britains dullest road!) but we're now 89 miles nearer to the finish line.

Managed to get thruough both Aviemore & inverness before todays thunderstorm arrived! We spent some time sheltering under trees clutching our bikes but still the lightening missed us!

We've found a really nice smart (well it was before we checked in) b & b to stay in at in Tain about 30 miles north of Inverness (Dave Gough thinks that the rain in Tain falls on the cyclist in the main!).

Well we've passed 800 miles now amd pnly about 90 to go!

We're aiming to get to Wick tomorrow & john o groats early on friday!

See you all soon!

We've had a pretty good days cycling except fot the hills and the weather!  Got caught in a pretty big storm this morning while riding through the Little Glen.  Was lovely weather first thing as we rode to Crieff but the heavens opened on the way out of town, so we arrived in Dunkeld extremely wet and cold.  Wouldn't want to do this ride in winter!!

Called in to Pitlochry to sort out the train back to Inverness from the finish on Friday......yes Friday!  We are a full day up on schedule.  We are in Dalwhinnie tonight a full 29 uphill miles north of Pitlochry.  Two and a half hours of cycling on the A9 helped us dry out!

Arrival at Dalwhinnie:

Thanks to Mary, we now have the full story on why it took so long for LeJoggers to get through Warrington (and i'm sure we'll hear Goffy's side of this story after the trip!):

A few of us agreed to accompany the Dynamic Duo on the Northwich to Lancaster stage. With a start time of 8.30am, we started to gather from 8.15am, nervously adjusting our gear and gears, waiting patiently for Thunderbolt and Lightening to turn up. They made their entrance at 8.28am.

A quick headcount saw Darren and Helen, Thomas, Goffy's nephew plus dad, Philip, Jo Moly, Toppo and Mary, Matt S with daughter Ella, George and Speedy 'all the gear, no idea'- Weedy. The latter looking particularly cool in the sunglasses he'd said Mark could borrow. We were ready for the off - but where was Head Coach, Ken - never late - Bennion? We waited and as time slipped by, the nerves increased and there was concern that Ken must have had an accident.( As Ken is never late). 8.38am Ken came into view and there was an audible sigh of relief.

Mark was getting tetchy and without further ado we were off. Mark in the vanguard, hotly pursued by George. The peleton was spreadout by the first roundabout with those of us using stabilisers still exiting the carpark, grateful that it was left rather than right at the first junction. To cries of Vive Le Jog we hurtled towards Northwich.

Worth mentioning at this point that Ella is that delightful age where she totally trusts her father which is lucky as she was on the back of the world's longest bike and being thrown around at least two lanes as Matt attacked the roundabout.

Some five minutes later disaster struck as Thomas appeared to swerve to avoid a car and took a tumble. He jumped up quickly and as his dad checked him out the tail-enders passed him by to catch up on the leaders who were patiently waiting by the traffic lights with less patient cars queued behind. We waited and waited but no Thomas or Philip. Toppo ever the intrepid, decided to go back to find out what was happening and agreed to meet us at The Beech Tree at Barton.

We set off up Winnington Hill, left at Barton/Winnington Bridge (with The Good Luck sign for the Boys which no-one saw) onwards to The Beech Tree where we congregated again. By this time we'd now lost Matt and Ella, Jo, Ken, Toppo, Philip and Thomas.

Matt and Ella had planned to go no further than Barton ( according to Mark - whose was becoming decidedly more tetchy). Diane then arrived with Thomas in her car explaining that the chain had come off his bike. We continued to look down the road when Jo and Ken appeared from quite the wrong direction. They'd headed right at the Bridge and had decided to do a mini-tour of Barton housing estates. Philip then arrived but there was still no sign of Toppo. We waited and waited.

By now Goffy was getting tetchy. Maybe the team ride wasn't such a good idea after all. A quick check of the computers revealed that we'd cycled 3.75 miles in 40 minutes and that it was now 9.20. Speedy Weedy had covered 4.25 miles but that was only because he couldn't get his feet out of his newly acquired cleats ( that's cleats Jane ) and had been cycling round the car park for the last 10 minutes.

We tried to contact Toppo to no avail. We decided to give it until 9.30. Goffy and Mark were both getting a bit tetchy as Lancaster by midnight was looking distinctly unlikely. Finally contact was made with Toppo who'd decided to go via Comberbach. ( Why?) We agreed to meet him at the Cat and Lion at Stretton. I think I heard someone say that the lion will have ate the cat by the time we get there but I can't be sure.

We set off again and managed at least 8 minutes cycling to get to the A49. We were in spitting distance of the Cat and Lion when disaster struck again. This time Helen had a puncture. We agreed to wait for her at the Cat and Lion in case we missed Toppo again. We were a bit worried he'd head off to do a circuit of Preston Brook if left alone for too long.

Eventually, we all met at the Cat and Lion. Toppo was embraced like a long lost brother. 10.15 and we hadn't got to Warrington. After Stretton the lesser domestiques - Toppo, Jo Moly, Mary and George peeled off leaving the others to progress to Winnick. Toppo had cycled less than quarter a mile with the rest of the group.

Progress now appeared to speed up. Darren and Helen continued to Lowton ( where?) before making their way back.

After this Ken Ben, Speedy Weedy, Goffy and Mark really started to motor. I'm reliably informed that they reached a top speed of 29 mph ( this was Mark going downhill) and averaged 19 mph . There were a few road rage moments. After being cut up by a boy racer, Goffy caught the offender up and gave him a really hard stare.

The chaps made it to Carnforth by about 5pm. Mark matched his biggest breakfast with the

biggest salad we've seen in a long time. Those truckers know how to eat.

We left them relaxed and anticipating the next day at 6.30.

A good day on the roads today.  Nice quiet roads up to Lanark then on through Airdrie  before a major storm got us on the way to Cumbernauld!  We had to spend some time sheltering in a bus shelter waiting for the rain to ease.  After that we were chilled to the bone but pushed onto into Stirling and then further on to Dunblane.  

That makes...........yes...........100 MILES today 

(Surely that's worth some sponsorship! http://www.justgiving.com/lejog-bigmarkandgoffy )