Vale Royal AC Runners

Nicky runs her best cross country of the season and the team perform

way above expectations :-

www.golobos.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/112309aaa.html

Ascension Island Mountain Race

It was sunday morning, due to start at 8am. Ascension timing meant it was actually about 8.15am. The race was open to the whole Island, there were competitors from the RAF, the US Air Force, locals and any other visitors on the Island at the time. There is a long standing tradition that the races is started by everyone dipping their hands in the turtle ponds on the beach in Georgetown. The turtle ponds are brick built enclosures on the beach, where turtles that had been caught were kept. The race is just over 7 miles, from sea level up to the top of Green Mountain, the highest point on the Island (870 m). I expected a few of the USAF and RAF to be tough competitors, but had no idea how the race would turn out. I had my eye on one chap, the favourite to win. He is from St Helena, and apparently competed in the marathon at the Commonwealth games (not sure what year). He was asked at the start what time he was expecting to win the race in, so the timers could get up to the finish before him. No one asked me! There are some pretty tough hills up to the mountain road, and some flatter sections. I was in second place all the way up to the mountain road, then gradually overtook the St Helenian guy. The mountain road is the toughest section, some places really steep, so the running turned into a very quick walk for parts of it. There was a guy on a quad bike following the race, taking photos and giving support. The race finished at the Dew Pond, on the summit of the mountain. Every finisher has to dip their hand in the water. The favourite to win came second, by 45 seconds. He congratulated me on my win, and said he was pleased not to have been beaten by another man. Apparently no female has ever won the race in all its history. Afterwards everyone gathered at one of the cottages on the mountain, we had drinks and food and waited for everyone to finish before the prizes were announced. There was a couple of hours to wait, so plenty of food and drink consumed during this time!

LIv.

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: