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Roadrunning Running Ultrarunning

The need for speed

Some thoughts on speed work, training volume, and results on the road….. Ultra running is fun, right? No emphasis on pace, mile splits, Strava segments. You can run slowly, you can walk the hills. Well, if you get really tired you can even walk the flats too and still no Read more

By Petra, 3 yearsApril 22, 2023 ago
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backyard ultra ballot camping CCC Centurion Running Chamonix Cheviot Goat Cheviots christmas Coast to Coast Courmayeur Cumbria Eryri fast packing handicap Hardmoors Hardraw hiking long distance walking marathon eryri Montane Spine Race mountain running mud Nav4 North Downs Way Northern Traverse Northumberland Ourea Events Pennine Way Punk Panther road running Robin Hood's Bay running Snowdonia Marathon Eryri Spine Challenger North Spine Race thru hiking trail running training ultra running UTMB Wainwright Wales winter Yorkshire

petrabijs

Happily retired 😊 | Trail and ultra runner🏃‍♀️‍➡️🌳| Still runs the odd road race 🛣️ | Green Runner 🌍| Blog writer 📝

The re-recce of the @spinerace Challenger North ro The re-recce of the @spinerace Challenger North route continues. A few weeks ago I walked from Twice Brewed on Hadrian’s Wall to the end of the Pennine Way in Kirk Yetholm. This weekend it was time for the next section, Dufton to Twice Brewed, taking in Cross Fell in shorts and T-shirt conditions even on the summit 👍 and the endless Corpse Road down to Garrigill 👎. At Alston I restocked at the petrol station/Spar and sat outside on the pavement with a coffee and a reduced price hot cheese and onion pasty 🥧 Somehow petrol stations often become a weird kind of highlight for me on any ultra adventure. It rained when I was there, not a problem in itself but as I was to find out in the night there would be miles of long grass and woman-high bracken to traverse and this was all wet now. After a nice sunset near Slaggyford the short summer night turned out to be long and tedious. The miles in the dark over Lambley Common and Blenkinsopp Common were endless and did not spark any joy. Plenty of low moments, but that’s good ultra practice. Only consolation: it wasn’t as boggy as normal. I was pleased to reach Greenhead and had another break in the Walltown toilets, IYKYK. When I came out of there I could put my head torch away and go onto the wonderful Hadrian’s Wall, and all was well with the world once more. Cold and overcast, but the clouds briefly parted at 5 am to allow me a glimpse of the sunrise. I held a gate open for a fell runner out for a morning run, the first person I had seen since Slaggyford. Coming off the wall at Steel Rigg I walked down to try my luck at the @twicebrewedinn It had just gone 7 and I asked if they would do breakfast for a non-resident. The answer was yes and boy did that make me happy 😋🤩 They were hugely welcoming and I enjoyed my veggie full English 🍳 I did confuse them a bit saying I had walked 50 miles from Appleby station! So where did you sleep? Umm, I didn’t. (I carried sleeping bag, mat, bivi bag so could have bivied out). Walked the 2 miles to Bardon Mill station, home just after lunch in time for a siesta 😉. Just Hardraw to Dufton left to cover sometime before January….
🚨Part 2 of my ‘Hiking tales of an injured runner’ 🚨Part 2 of my ‘Hiking tales of an injured runner’ blog post is out now 🚨 A write-up of a 24 hour jaunt on the Pennine Way, from Hadrian’s Wall to Kirk Yetholm 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Hope you enjoy having a read 📖 
In other news: my return to running seems to be going well 🤞🤞🤞 so hopefully no more hiking tales….
🔗 in bio.
New Running Words blogpost alert 🚨 A month ago I New Running Words blogpost alert 🚨 
A month ago I hiked the Dales Way from Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere. Mainly out of frustration at not being able to run. I had a grand time despite some less than brilliant weather. My first backpacking trip in many years, decades even. I wrote a little blog post about it too, 🔗 in bio. 
There will be a part 2 🔜 , featuring a return to the Pennine Way.
Another mini-adventure on foot. As I will be havin Another mini-adventure on foot. As I will be having another crack at the @spinerace Challenger North next January I want to reacquaint myself with the route. Decided to start at the top, my fave section, from Hadrian’s Wall to the finish at Kirk Yetholm 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Took the train up to Bardon Mill (one stop before Haltwhistle) on Thursday afternoon, walked 3 miles up to #winshieldscampsite ⛺️A real gem. Early start 06:45 Friday, setting out fast hiking for Byrness with a lunch stop outside the Coop in Bellingham. Kept an open mind on whether to camp at Byrness or push on. Weather forecast remained very favourable and I was feeling good, so after a stop in #stfrancischurchbyrness and stocking up on water there (thank you @runningbishop and @diocesehexhamnewcastle ) I pushed on at 7pm to cross the Cheviots overnight. And wow, my favourite hills did not disappoint. The bogs were dry 🤩. Sunset (spot the #cheviotgoats🐐), a brief stop at Hut 1 where I got my stove out to heat up the chocolate milk I had carried along from Bellingham. Then a full moon and a magnificent sunrise I witnessed from Auchope Cairn and Hut 2. Another brief stop there, before going over the Schil and reaching KY at 6:30. 58 miles with 9500 ft hiked in under 24 hours. I was in time for the first bus 🚌 out. Back home at lunchtime for 🛏 💤 
I met one (!) walker on the way, near Padon Hill, coming the other way, and we had a brief chat. Two people in a tent at Hut 2 likely there for the sunrise too, I heard them talk but did not see them. Absolutely no one else on the trails, which surprised me. Good thing I don’t mind solitude 😉
Blog post 📖 about my hikes in May i.e. the Dalesway and this one may well be forthcoming in due course.
Having been on the injury bench for almost three m Having been on the injury bench for almost three months now 👎👎 walking is just about keeping me sane. Not at all the same buzz as running, but for now it has to do. This week I walked the 81 mile #Dalesway from Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere in three and a half days, camping ⛺️ in Kettlewell, Dent, and Sprint Mill Bridge near Burneside. Three big days, leaving just ten miles to the finish yesterday. The weather was disappointing, lots of rain, with the worst of it on day 2 whilst crossing over the bleakest and highest ground of the route into a headwind, it was type two fun for sure. But lots of lovely stretches through gorgeous hay meadows along the rivers Wharfe and Dee. Lots of lambs, calves, ducklings and goslings.
I had covered the trail before, in 2022, as a non-stop ultra with @punkpantherevents Going in the other direction that time. Nice to revisit it in this slower format. Three nights of poor sleep (despite being delighted with my new @durstongear tent) did give me a bit of the ultra experience, with that horribly familiar level of exhaustion that we ultra runners seem to crave 😉
With thanks to my friend Gill for walking some later miles with me, bringing along proper food, and giving me a lift home 🏡
This weekend I was meant to run the @centurionrunn This weekend I was meant to run the @centurionrunning Thames Path 100 race, but a torn meniscus put paid to that plan 🥲. With typical runner’s optimism I had left my decision too late to cancel my Friday night AirBnB, and I also had a non-refundable LNER outward ticket to London, so I decided I might as well offer my services as a volunteer 🦺, as well as have some time in London to myself. End result: two lovely walks around Kew, Richmond and Wimbledon, including seeing deer swimming 🦌🦌🦌 in Pen Ponds in Richmond Park, a visit to some old haunts in NW London, as well as helping on registration before the start in Richmond, and then at the finish line at Queen’s College Sports Ground in Oxford. Had a great time working with other volunteers and Centurion staff, met old friends and made new ones, and had the sheer privilege of seeing just about every single finisher come over the line, from race winners in the early hours to the very last finisher just before 3pm. Special highlight was seeing the first ever F70 to complete a Centurion 100 miler come over the line, Jan Payne was looking fresh as a daisy too! Let’s have it for older women 👏👏 I returned home on Sunday night tired but very happy. Will I be running the Thames Path in 2027 instead? Watch this space 👀
Another beautiful sunset at Hook of Holland from t Another beautiful sunset at Hook of Holland from the Stena Brittanica 🚢 🚙 . So long 🇳🇱 🇩🇪 🇪🇺@stenalinenederland @stenalineuk_to_holland
🚨New RunningWords blog post out🚨 3 weeks ago I ran 🚨New RunningWords blog post out🚨
3 weeks ago I ran the @nav4adventure Lady Anne’s Way 75 mile race from Skipton to Appleby. When I say ‘ran’ that should not be taken too literally….there was an awful lot of slipping, sliding and slithering involved. You could say it was ‘a little muddy underfoot’. And rain ☔️ overhead. It didn’t look like the photograph that’s for sure! That one is from the recce. Still, it’s an event I would really recommend. Have a read and see if you could be tempted to have a go at this lovely low-key race in one of the most beautiful bits of England. Link 🔗 in bio.
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