Outrunning cancer

It's been a busy 10 days: the Yorkshire Three Peaks and two of the most demanding fell races I've done, for different reasons.

It was the second time I'd walked the 24 mile route up Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. I actually found it a bit easier this time, largely because my preparation was better. I took - what looked like - too much food. It turned out to be just the right amount. I loaded up on carbs in the days before and filled my body with fluid and electrolytes during the hike. We weren't too concerned with the time but I think it was about an hour or so faster.


A few days later, I had a 7 mile fell race along some of the most difficult terrain I've encountered. We set off from Edale and did an incredibly scenic loop, with 2,464 feet of elevation gain. It was brutal. I felt broken afterwards.



On Bank Holiday Monday, it was the Bamford Sheepdog Trials Fell Race. It was also 30 odd degrees. I somehow managed to survive the steep climb up to Win Hill and the technical descents, before decking it on a flat bit of tarmac road about 100 metres from the finish line. Great. I think I'd switched off and my legs went to jelly.



I'm trying to spend as much time away from work as possible at the moment and put all my energy into the things I love doing and the people I love doing them with.

I watched an excellent short film this evening on the Salomon TV Youtube channel. It's about a 6x cancer survivor who ran marathons on 7 continents. It's lump in the throat stuff. I can relate to a lot of what he says when he's talking about trying to outrun cancer and stay ahead of it for his children. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX35CPZGk1U

Definitely worth a watch.

I've got a couple of less extreme races on the horizon but I'm a regular visitor to the FRA website these days, so we'll see if there's any more that take my fancy.


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