The return, and the exit

Time to end the record (even for blog tardy me) post free stint. My blog has successfully received no postings since late April. Months of endurance, one might even say ultra, non-posting. Well all good things have to come to an end and I'm going to tell you what has been going on in the land of Doc McIntosh. Read on or stop here, you have been warned. :-)

Highland Fling (53 miles, April)

The race was going great. A bit hot and sweaty but good conditions. 10 minutes ahead of my sub-9:40 time when I hit Beinn Glas farm, feeling a little odd. I'd passed a few folk I knew near the top of the Loch including Ian B and had mentioned I was feeling a bit off but I was running well. I drank a can of coke and ate something at Beinn Glas then headed off, feeling increasingly rough. A mile out my legs seized up in a double spasm forcing me to clutch them in serious pain.. The spasm lasted for 10 minutes, me unable to move. Salt! SALT! DOH! I b****y forgotten to take any salt pills so far in the race. What a school boy error. My legs eased as I stuffed 3 tablets down with water but they spasmed again for 5 minutes then again for a further 5 minutes. I toyed with giving up but settled myself into just finishing. People overtook me as I went as fast as I could without incurring more cramping spasms. DOH! I came in rather slower than desired at 10:26. Oh well lesson learned. Other than that I had a great time.


Coming over Conic Hill

Grand Union Canal Race (145 miles, May)

My next ultra racing outing was the GUCR at the end of May. This has to be the hardest race in the UK - mentally it is draining and physically the homogeneous flat terrain really batter your calves and feet to bits. I learned a lot from doing it. Or rather DNF'ing at ~94 miles (Leighton Buzzard) despite the best efforts of Drew Sheffield to convince me otherwise (thanks Drew). I struggled with motivation from 6 hours in and knew I'd be running within 0.5 miles of my house at 87 miles into the race. I pushed on beyond this but at ~1am after 94 miles and 19 hours of flat canal running I decided I didn't want to finish enough to do the further 13 odd hours that it would take me to finish. Physically I was fine and could have gone further but mentally I just didn't want to. Why? I've mulled this over lots both during the race and afterwards and have come to 3 conclusions:

(1) I am not interested in running ultras simply for the distance challenge. There have to be mountains or some kind rugged landscape for me to run across. I found canal running just drained my motivation. It was tough.
(2) Don't run a very long, mentally hard race that goes within 0.5 miles of your house. It has to be easier to finish than to simply stop, call your wife and go home to bed.
(3) I got into ultra running to do the UTMB. Now that I've done this race I think my motivation for the very long (100 mile or so) races has waned a bit. I need to refresh my mojo. I just didn't have the necessary desire to complete as I found out.

No regrets though. It's all a learning experience. Maybe I'll come back another year, don't know.


Me somewhere north of Milton Keynes on the GUCR, I think around mile 60

France

I've been on holiday in France camping with our daughter near Marennes, just south of La Rochelle. It was great. She stayed up late and we all went to bed together in the same tent. Given that she sleeps for 10-12 hours a night we ended up with more sleep than we've had since she was born. I'd do it again at a drop of a hat.



Australia

And our big news is that we are emigrating as a family to Australia, to Brisbane more specifically. It wasn't on our plan but Kirstin's folks need some support so we've moved quickly and I've got a good job sorted out (at http://www.watercentre.org/). We're waiting for my visa to come through ad our house to sell but it looks like the start of November will be our leaving date. I'll be sad to leave the UK ultra running scene behind but there's a decent enough ultra and trail running scene in Queensland and northern New South Wales so I'll be OK. Thinking of taking up triathlon for a bit to spice things up as well ... :-)

If any Family members find themselves in that bit of the world then make sure you give me a shout.