Note: A version of this report was published on Sleepmonster.com, but had to be edited down to fit their recommended word count. This is the full rambling 'extended play' version of that - feel free not to read if you've read enough of my ramblings already! Pics should be credited in the hover-over title, but variously by Wladimir Togumi, Marco Bergeron, Kevin Mackinnon, Diane Leger, Wayne Leek, and if not credited to anyone else, by me. I don't often get to write about international adventure races from a racer's perspective. If I'm honest, I don't get to write about enough local adventure races from a racer's perspective, though that's my own fault: A lot of time being the observer rather than the participant, and a lot of time forgetting how being a participant works. I'm lucky enough to have travelled out to Quebec for the Raid Temiscamingue twice before, the previous two international editions after the first year was Quebec and Ontari...
I guess Janathon's had a few positive effects, on both my running and on life in general. In terms of running, it has meant I wasn't worried about the prospect of covering 20km-plus over a day, and in terms of life it's meant I've met some new, friendly, like-minded people. Well, 'met' is a contentious term, but at least commented on blogs and had them comment on mine... Yesterday was a combination of both of the above. I headed out relatively early in the morning to get down to the Leeds parkrun, a nice steady 25 minute jog from home down to Hyde Park as a warm up, then a steady 28 minute 5km, taking it a little bit easy as I knew I had more mileage to come over the day and I didn't want to wreck myself early on. A cuppa and a bottle of water at the Union and a lovely couple of hours just relaxing, stretching out gently, enjoying the sun, the Redlands Palomino Company and a good book, and then back over to Hyde Park for the 'Northern Post-Janathon 5k...
So there's technical and logistical write-ups of the race going to other sites elsewhere, they're the ones that tell blow-by-blow story of the area, the trails, the race organisation etc. But this here is my blog, and this here is the personal side of things, so this here is the personal account of the Grand Raid des Pyrenees. In the beginning... A year ago, I would never have thought about running an Ultramarathon. A year ago, I rarely ran anything over 5km, except in races. Longer runs tended to butcher my feet with blisters which stopped me wanting to run. Road racing holds no appeal, and I'm not a skinny racing whippet so I'm never going to win anything doing it anyway. I run only for myself, for enjoyment and catharsis, to clear my head and shake out my legs. Because of that, the whole build-up to the GRP has been very strange for me - not unpleasantly strange, but strange nonetheless. Running, as I have often said, is a weak discipline for me, so entering t...
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