Gin Pit Trail Marathon

At the last minute, I entered a local marathon near Wigan and, having not run more than 5 miles, I managed to complete it!  It was a tremendous event, being organised by Malcolm Collins.  

Stok Kangri Summit Day 17th August 2011

Written shortly after returning back to camp...

I’m writing this having successfully summitted Stok Kangri.  I’ve managed to climb to an altitude of 6,150m!

My initial feeling is of relief.  It was so tough.  We set off at 12:30am and returned at 2:30pm – a 14 hour trek!

First steps

We were woken at 11:35am by Deepen to get ready.  I had all my stuff with me so felt ready.  However, it’s hard to judge how many layers you’ll need so I was a bit behind setting off at 12:30.  I had to walk quickly to catch up.  By the time I’d caught up I was out of breath!  Not what you need!  To make matters worse, I’d dropped my head torch and hadn’t even realised.  Deepen handed it back to me.

Reaching Advanced Base Camp

We reached ABC in about 2 hours.  Because of the thick snow that had fallen 24 hours earlier, it was made all the more difficult to get there.  From then on, we were split into 2 groups. 

Crossing the glacier

At the foot of Stok Kangri is an enormous glacier.  I’m guessing it took about an hour and a quarter to cross it.

This the furthest we’d walked towards Stok Kangri, having trekked to ABC 2 days earlier.  I remember thinking how unusual (and to be frank intimidating) it was to be walking in the dark.  In fact, it was only light by 6am.  Crossing the glacier was hard work.  The snow was over 3 feet deep in places.

Steep, steep terrain

What followed after the glacier was exhausting.  It was over 2 hours of steep, steep ascent to the ridge through thick, fresh snow.  Our guide was going at quite a pace.

I remember it getting to 4am and realising how hard this was going to be.  I longed for the sun to rise.

Ridge to summit – madness!

At 6am, it was a superb feeling to get to the main ridge at 5,900m.  What followed was unexpected and very difficult, climbing up very steep cliff faces with sheer drops either side.  There were some scary manoeuvres to be made!

The biggest cock-up I made was when our guide told us to put our crampons on.  Had the summit day been 4 days earlier, it might not have required them.  I, with hindsight quite stupidly, put mine on myself.  I should have had the guide look at them.

I got myself into a situation where both crampons had fallen off my boots and it was stuck on my own with no grip whatsoever.  One guy from Israel tried to help me but again the crampons fell off.  It felt utterly hopeless and I was almost prepared to give up.

It wasn’t until our guide came back for me and fixed my crampons with my lying on my stomach in the snow that I was able to contine.

My legs were already burning with lactic acid build-up after battling with non-existent grip for 20 minutes.  The final push to the summit, therefore, left me absolutely exhausted.

The arrival at the summit (at 9am by the way) was an exhausting moment.  There was no big feeling of achievement.  It had felt like hell so I just wanted to sit down.  As I reflect on it now, I wished I could have felt a sense of achievement at summit moment.  But there was so many great moments on the challenge, it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t until the 2^nd party of our group arrived that my emotions started to flow.  One of the group, Alex, had shown amazing character and determination.  We all got photos together and I seized the moment – to get a photo taken with my NAS t-shirt and a photo of Peter.

Back down again to the ridge

As I thought about Peter and my motivation for doing it, I truly wept.  Peter has the most amazing smile and finds enjoyment in the most simple of things.  Right there, at over 6,000m altitude, I was humbled and tears flowed.

What followed was quite an exhausting start of the descent.  Four of us and the guide were roped together and we descended over steep, icy terrain.  You kind of forget you have to get down again!

Ridge to camp

It’s a unique position to be sat on a mountain ridge at 11am, when you’ve already physically been on the go for 11 and a half hours, and you’ve got 4 hours or so still to go.

We descended the mighty drop to the glacier with crampons, anxious for a rest.  We crossed the glacier to advanced base camp, stopped for a refreshments and made it back to camp for soup, chips and hot lemon.

I feel so relieved.  I’m not in a rush to do it again!  I do feel extremely pleased that I’ve been able to climb to that altitude using my own two legs.  I suppose after knowing this day was coming I’m glad it’s done and I can now rest!

Stok Kangri Itinerary – August 2011

Thur 4/8/11 – Fly from Heathrow, UK to Delhi, India

Fri 5/8/11 – Arrive in Delhi, sightseeing

Sat 6/8/11– Fly from Delhi, India to Leh, India

Sun 7/8/11– Leh sightseeing, 4 hour accilimatisation walk

Mon 8/8/11 – Jeeps to 5,605 m altitude to acclimatise

Tues 9/8/11 – Drive to Chilling, start point

Weds 10/8/11 Day 1- 5 hour on foot – crossing Zanskar river to Skiu (3,500m)

Thurs 11/8/11 Day 2 – 5 hour on foot – Skiu to Ganda La Base Camp (4,100 m)

Fri 12/8/11 Day 3 – 4 hour on foot – Rumback to Ganda La (4,980 m)

Sat 13/8/11 Day 4 – 6 hour on foot – to Mankarma via Stok La (4,800 m)

Sun 14/8/11 Day 5 – 2.5 hour on foot – Mankarma Valley to Stok Kangri Low Base Camp (4,900m)

Mon 15/8/11 Day 6 – 2.5 hour on foot – to Advanced Base Camp & Acclimatisation (5,200m)

Tues 16^th  Day 7 – 10-13 hour on foot - Summit Day – to 6,100m and back to Low Base Camp

Weds 17^th  Day 8 – 4 hours on foot) Low Base Camp to Stok Leh

Thurs 18^th Rest in Leh

Climbing Stok Kangri Preview - August 2011

Swapping trainer for trekking poles....

Great workout today! Climbed Great Gable in prep for S.K. 2 and 3/4 hours to the top, but over 3 hours to get down after a bit of a bad choice on the descent route. Oh well! Must have been a good workout because I feel s-h-a-t-t-e-r-e-d!

It takes 30 seconds to help end a lifetime of fighting

I just campaigned with The National Autistic Society to urge my MP to support the Great Expectations campaign.

The NAS found that 1 in 5 families have taken legal action to get the right support for their child’s education.  This is unacceptable.

This is our chance to make sure the Government get their education reforms right so parents don’t have to fight the system to make it work and children with autism get the education they deserve.

Please click on the link below to take part in this campaign action now. Thank you!

http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=10&ea.campaign.id=11038

Day Three of 3 marathons in 3 days: The final marathon!

At the finish

Finally!  I've got around to writing up my blog for the 3 marathon challenge.  It's going to be hard to relive all of the emotions I've gone through in the last couple days.  I've been procrastinating about it.  When I finish this blog post, it'll all be in the past.

I managed (just about) to run 3 marathons in 3 days, a goal I set out to do.  

My dad ran the marathon today with me, which was a massive boost.  I was tired at the start of the race, really tired, but set out at quite a quick pace (11 minutes a mile).  By the time we were 4 miles in, I realised I really needed to slow down to conserve energy.  My body was shot!  I slowed down to 14 or 15 minute mile pace, and dad carried on.

Day Two of 3 marathons in 3 days: The Empire Strikes Back!

At the finish of day two, medal in one hand,
 picture of Peter in another.

That morning I had a ton of time to get ready.  The marathon only started at half past three!  Arrrgggh!  Worry, worry, worry....

As I arrived there, nerves set it.  I'd never ran two marathons back-to-back!  Here I was saying I was going to run three!  I was so nervous and anxious to get going.  I'd had all morning to think about it!

I started the run.  The Liverbird marathon is a course of  4 'out and back' laps of 6.6 miles or thereabouts (it was a marathon I assure you!).

I was fully aware of how anxious I was, so allowed myself to relax.  My knees had been sore overnight and so I used the first few miles to 'feel out' my body.  I listened to Michael McIntyre's Audiobook to calm my nerves!

The Liverbird marathons take place on a gorgeous Merseyside promenade between Brunswick Dock and Otterspool.  I'd ran a marathon there at New Year's

Day One of 3 marathons in 3 days: The 'Peter Ryall Marathon' (named after my nephew who has autism)

Finishing a marathon!  (Not a medal or goodie bag in sight!)

Okay, I'm actually writing this shortly before I run my second marathon, but I'd still like to give a brief report.  I called this run the Peter Ryall Marathon, as I'd be running to his house three times.

Time? 6 hours and 1 min
Where? Coppull and Standish - 3 laps of an 8.7 mile route

The plan of the route was great.  I had two 'aid stations' set up: my house and my sister's house.  The lap started and ended at my house so I had two opportunities there to pick up drink and supplies.  Halfway through the lap was my sister's house, so I had three opportunities to take on board whatever I needed, leaving my carrying of stuff to a minimum.  To always be running to one or the other was psychologically a real boost.

78.6 miles - can I do it?

The route for the 'Peter Ryall' marathon on Sunday

When I started this challenge at the beginning of the year, it was a huge jump in running mileage for me.  I'd need to average 100 miles a month.  To put that in context, last year I ran 100 miles in November and December combined.  At the time, that was a big achievement for me.

Now, I stand on the brink of trying to run 3 marathons in 3 days.  The big question in my mind is 'Can I do it?'  Maybe the bigger question that I should be asking myself is 'Why am I doing it?'  A big reason why I'm doing it has been to focus on something over the last two months, something to aim for.  It has been a reason to channel my running before the start of the preparations for Stok Kangri and the Summer ahead.