Review of 2010

Hard to know where to start with this one, 2010 has in many respects been the worst year of my life going through a divorce which I can confidently say is an experience I would never wish on anyone. Coupled with the loss of Granny at the start of the year and a serious stroke to Grandma 2 weeks ago it has been a year to forget.

However, even through this awful period there have been some surprising positives and many of them have come from ultra running and the ultra running community. Having the distraction of training for UTMB was a great way to focus on something away from the breakdown of my marriage and everything that followed. Running is a great escape and gave me a huge amount of strength to cope with the emotional stress I was experiencing. Competing in the Pilgrim Challenge, the Jurassic Coast Challenge, the UK 100k Trailwalker and the ultimately curtailed UTMB helped me process what was going on elsewhere. It is not just the running itself which I drew strength from but also the people I was running for and the people I met running. I run all my races for Help 4 Heroes and knowing what those brave men and women have gone through put all my own issues into perspective and helped keep me going when my body was begging me to stop!

The greatest benefit from ultra running is by far the people. I have been deeply humbled by the welcoming and supportive nature of some incredible people. At I time when I was necessarily losing friends who I have known some 6 years by virtue of the divorce new friends were appearing who more than made up for those I had lost. A fab girl I met in Namibia gave me great tips for UTMB and then recommended the JCC and in doing so introduced me to Mark and Jenna (also Namibia vets) and the three of them very much took me under their wing and helped me back on my feet through their immense generosity of spirit. They have become great friends and I hope 2011 brings me the opportunity to return some of the friendship they have shown me. Through them I met Philipp my running partner for UTMB and if the organisers hadn't called it off after 3.5 hours I am sure he would have helped me to the finish.

I also have to thank two wonderful sisters I also met in Namibia for their support. Despite living in Hong Kong their thoughtfulness and friendship has been fantastic even if one of them talked me into joining her 100k Trailwalker team! The little things make such a difference when you are having a tough time and the invites to join them skiing and drinks in London all helped massively. Coupled with all the support and advice from the legendary Frank the Tank I have actually been incredibly fortunate to have discovered ultra-running only 2 years ago and discovered the amazing supportive nature of the ultra running community.

The list goes on and you all know who you are and I am very grateful to know you all and count you as my friends.

Outside of the running world my brother and a mate from school must be singled out for their unbelievable support over the last year. Total legends -nuff said!

So after the lows of 2010 it is with some optimism that I look forward to 2011. I have a new career outside of law (a career I have wanted to leave for some time!!), the opportunity to finally get on the property ladder, an application pending for UTMB 2011 (fingers crossed I get through the ballot!), Racing the Planet Nepal and various other adventures which hopefully will mark the beginning of a new chapter.

All that of course begins tomorrow, now it is time for champagne and beers!

Happy New Year!!

5 days to go....!

So it's Monday before race day, I have just come back from the Altitude Centre in Covent Garden (http://www.altitudecentre.com/) where I have done 5 sessions over the last couple of weeks running on a treadmill wearing an oxygen mask replicating conditions at 3000m. It has been really good to do and hopefully will take the edge of things when I arrive in Chamonix. Was a great tip from Rob Bolton who I met in Namibia. The place has been more or less empty each time I have been but being such a small world I have bumped into fellow RTP runner Ricky twice. Ricky is undertaking the massive challenge of completing the RTP 4 Deserts Series in the same calendar year (http://www.4deserts.com/) which is an awesome undertaking.

My final weekend before heading off was spent worrying about my knee which buckled under me as I left work on Friday evening. The stabbing pain in the front and back of my knee left me panicking that I had done something serious. An emergency trip to my physio/sports massage people on Saturday allayed my fears but meant that there would be no final 10/15 mile run on Sunday. Instead it was a case of resting and hoping that I have the fitness from the last 8 months of training. To take my mind of it I sorted out all my kit in preparation for my flight out on Wednesday.

Now I know it looks a lot but I'll be wearing some of it and half of it will be going in my bag for the 50 mile mark where I can change and refuel. Some will also be going with my folks, sister, niece and nephew who are coming out to support me. Will be really nice to have them all out there at various checkpoints and mentally will give me little goals to aim for. Though I am not sure what Florence will make of Uncle Zandy dressed head to toe in lycra and talking even more gibberish than normal after 2 nights of no sleep!





I think most runners find the tapering period the worst; as you wind down in preparation for the race you also feel like you should be doing more with the event getting so close. I know that I have kept asking myself whether I should be out doing another 20 miler but I have stuck to a few 10 mile runs and my British Military Fitness classes where I do a lot of core, strength and conditioning work. Part of me wishes I had another few months to prepare and another part of me wishes it had come 2 weeks ago! I think there is an element of excitement about the magnitude of the challenge ahead tinged with trepidation and a huge desire not to fail. It is great that I am going to be meeting up with fella runner Phil when I arrive and we hope to at least get through the first night together and hopefully we'll find a good pace to keep each other company most or all of the way round. It will be great to have a friendly face at the start as the adrenalin starts to pump through the body.

Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to thank a few people for their help and support over the last 8 months. Firstly, Carl who is my go to man on gear, there is nothing this guy cannot find out about gear and if I have a question about something you can guarantee within a few hours I will have any number of user reviews and comparisons with other products to help make my decision. The guy is a legend and also got me signed up and accompanied me on the 55k Pilgrim Challenge as soon as I got my place in UTMB confirmed to kick start my training.

Secondly, Frank (the Tank) and Steph, these two are amazing ultra-running, adventure racing, endurance nutcases of the highest order. If it's not on their combined list of achievements it is probably not worth doing! When I need event advice; what to pack, what to do in certain situations, how to plan the race these two will provide the answer. Steph has been a calming force when I have had minor panic attacks about such fascinating things as which painkillers to take and whether I should take Perpetuam and salt capsules and always comes up with great advice. Frank has sent me some awesome emails sharing his experiences of UTMB and answering all my last minute questions about strategy and equipment. I really appreciate having the support of these two experienced runners and will be trying to remember everything they have said when I am going through the lower moments of the race. I have the laminated maps Frank!!

I have to thank UK Gear, my sponsor, for supplying me with the fab PT1000 shoes, if they perform as well on UTMB as they did on the 100k Trailwalker then it will be another run with no blisters which I will be very happy with!

My sports massage therapist, Jen Walker at Pure Sports Medicine for keeping my tiresome calves as loose as possible and Matt at the Altitude Centre for getting me ready to deal with the lack of oxygen.

Also a big thank you to my family for giving up their bank holiday weekend to come out and stand around in the middle of the night and cheer me on, hopefully to the finish line! And to all my friends particularly all those I have met through RTP as they have been incredibly enthusiastic and supportive of me in this event.

I may try and update this from Chamonix, otherwise my next update will be after the event. Right now I'd buy 45hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds!

Oxfam Trailwalker - 5 weeks to go

I am on a roll! Two updates in a week which will bring my training diary up to date. After this one I will try and do a general blog about the non-running side of life. Yes I do have one!



Anyway back to the small matter of 100k over the South Downs of England. Originally, I was going to go and support Steph and Lucy (my fellow avocet from Namibia) as they were putting together a formidable all girls team to run the event. However, they were struggling to get a fourth girl and then Steph had to pull out after her foot op. Lucy then texted me and asked me if I wanted to join the team. I knew of the other girl in the team, Jo, as she is a friend of Steph's, had been in Namibia and had recently done RTP Australia. Consequently, like Lucy and Steph, Jo is another very strong runner - unlike yours truly. The third member of the team was a friend of the girls from Hong Kong, Anthony, who they had run the HK Trailwalker with. Another former avocet, Rowley, sent me a message on facebook warning me to beware of AD. So I could assume he was also going to be a fairly accomplished runner too. Unfortunately, I had no excuse not to say yes and believe me I did try to think of a few! The run fell 5 weeks before UTMB and would be the perfect chance to get 100k into the legs as well as being a good physical and mental test. So I texted Lucy to say I was in and instantly regretted it!



Given that my team mates were all based in HK I would not meet Jo and Ant until the night before the race. So I spent the next few weeks getting increasingly nervous about being the slowest in the team and not being able to keep up! A couple of 25 mile runs round Richmond Park in 30 plus degrees did nothing to help my confidence as I melted in the very un-English summer weather!



On the Friday evening I met up with my team down at the registration centre in West Sussex and then Jo's parents cooked us the perfect pre-race meal. Though it was very hard not to pile into the red wine on offer sitting in the conservatory on a sunny summer's evening! Unfortunately, I had had a virus over the previous week or so and was not feeling on top condition but there was no turning back after our 5am porridge. As you can tell from the picture the girls were looking considerably perkier than me as we headed off to the start line!!





At the start the Gurkhas were playing bag pipes - a slightly incongruous image and to be honest not necessarily what I was after at 6.30am! But it made for a good atmosphere amongst the teams. We bumped into Team Gold's Jenna and Mark with support crew leader Steph which was really cool and definitely gave me a bit of a lift before setting off at 7am. Team Gold were to go on to have a great day and Steph's blog (http://ultrarunnergirl.com/) and video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_UzRRsAk7o) are well worth a look!

I won't lie the first 35k was hideous. I was white as a sheet and sweating profusely as my body and the virus had a little set-to about things. To make matters worse we were setting a 12hour pace rather than the 14hour pace I had been told we were aiming for! I was in serious trouble and luckily just as we came into CP 4 where Jo's parents were on hand with the first stint of their awesome support it seemed as if I had sweated the virus out of my system and for the first time I actually began to feel ok. Taking on amazing homemade brownies and fudge only improved things further and I can honestly say that 45k to 90k were actually pretty enjoyable. It helped that I was in great company and had Ant and Jo and Lucy to talk to during any of the low points.

Running with better runners definitely helped me raise my game and we kept up a pace which I never thought I would be capable of passing lots of teams who started at 6am.

In the end we arrived onto Brighton race course at just before 8pm and could see the finish line. A voice came over the loud speaker to say that we had 1 minute 30 seconds to cover the last few furlongs if we wanted to break 13 hours so we held hands and summoned one last effort from our legs to drag ourselves over the line with seconds to spare! Not so much a thoroughbred photo finish but unbelievably satisfying all the same! We ended up being the first fixed team over the line and only missed out on setting a new record time for a mixed team by less than 20 minutes! Massive thanks to my awesome team mates who encouraged me through out the day. I think this was the best confidence boost for UTMB and I hopefully can carry this forward for my last 4 weeks of training and into the main event!

If you are feeling generous the sponsorship page is now up and running and any donation towards Help 4 Heroes will be massively appreciated and will spur me on through the dark times out in the Alps http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlexHowarth

Finally, a word about my sponsors, UK Gear, they have been working on a new shoe, the PT 1000 and managed to get me out a prototype 3 weeks before this race. The shoe is super comfortable and even though I had only done 40 miles in it in training I did not blister at all and it was great for trail running and I am now very pleased that I have my shoe for Mont Blanc sorted. UK Gear work closely with the Physical Training Corps of the British Army and it is fitting for me to use their products when I am raising money and awareness for the brave service men and women who are battling to overcome horrific injuries sustained in the name of their country. If you are looking for new trail shoes they are worth a look!

Altitude Training in Chamonix

Ok so I am officially rubbish at this whole updating blog regularly thing! It's now a little over 4 weeks until the big race and lots has happened since the Jurassic Coast run I did back in March. I am going to do a couple of entries to give you the highlights and low points of the last few months. First up was a trip out to Chamonix at the end of May to go and scope out part of the course and get some good mountain and altitude training under my belt. Given that I had never trained at altitude before I was pretty keen to have a training partner for this weekend just in case I reacted badly, so I was stoked when the legendary Steph Case said she'd be keen for a long weekend of running. As she'd just got back from RTP Australia, where she'd finished 2nd woman, I was going to be in good company and was looking forward to getting the benefit of her experience. Unfortunately, Steph was due to have an op on her foot and a few days before flying the op was brought forward and she was unable to make it out. As it turned out this was just as well as the damage to Steph's foot was serious and a weekend of running up and down some mountains would almost certainly have made it worse so it was definitely for the best. However, it meant heading out to Chamonix alone which was less exciting!

Now most of my updates have been about runs but this next bit will all be about the total disaster which was getting to Chamonix at the end of May. Having arrived in Geneva airport I went straight to the information desk to ask about buses to Chamonix and was informed there were none. So I asked about trains and was told there was a train and was informed that if I waitied 2 hours there would be a train which would take 3 hours and 2 changes to do a journey which takes just over an hour in the car. If I'd opted for that I would have arrived at midnight and been unable to get into my flat. So I asked about the more expensive alpine transfer minibuses and was told that they were not running......at all! My only option was to get a cab! This cost more than my flight to Chamonix. Needless to say my mood was pretty dark as I drove up into the mountains and it did not get any better as the clouds descended and the rain started to fall. I was wondering why I had elected to spend my bank holiday running around the mountains rather than be in London enjoying the sunshine, bbq's and beers that all my friends were having!

Having made it into Chamonix and parted with a ridiculously large amount of cash I picked up the keys to my apartment and having dumped my stuff went out to get supplies. First impressions were good, despite the rain this looked like a fun town and I thought I was bound to find a few people to share a few beers with. With my spirts lifted I wolfed down some food and headed out into town in search of my new soon to be drinking buddies. Unfortunately, it now became clear why there were no buses, trains or mini buses operating; 75% of the bars and restaurants were closed! I had apparently arrived in a ghost town! I initially thought perhaps they were closed because traditionally our continental friends like to eat and drink later than we do in the UK. But no the real reason was that I had arrived in the 2 week period between the end of the ski season and the start of the summer season where everything shuts down! Having nursed a couple of drinks by myself in a hotel bar I wandered back to my flat through the rain repeating the mantra "you're here to train, that's all that matters"! Then I passed a bar with a big sign outside advertising a Beach Party the following night and once more my spirits lifted and I headed off to bed knowing that after a full day out on the mountain I could reward myself with some down time at the Chamonix Beach Party - all was not lost!

My first day training consisted of hiking as fast as I could over the first 30k or so of the course before looping back to Chamonix, I covered a good 45k and a few thousand metres of elevation. The sun was out and the mountains looked stunning. To make things better I bumped into a German chap who was training for UTMB and had last year's official route maps so we covered the ground together and made good time to St Gervais where we enjoyed a nice lunch is the town square. Having parted company out towards Les Contamines I was feeling pretty happy about things. The legs were feeling good, altitude wasn't causing any issues and I was getting a feel for the terrain and the Beach Party was only a few hours away! That put a spring in my step and after 7 hours out on the mountain I found myself tearing down the 900 metre descent from Col du Voza into Les Houches singing along to some cheesey tunes!

Having stretched and showered I headed out into town grabbed a pizza and a couple of beers from one of the few open restaurants (needed to line the stomach for the long night's boozing that lay ahead!). I then headed for the Beach Party..... I walked into the trendy looking bar and was greeted by the sound of an Englishman singing and playing guitar to an audience of about 12. I figured this must be the warm up act and took a seat at the bar in front of the 2 rather attractive French barmaids and got ready for things to pick up.....they didn't pick up.....at all. A few more people came in but as the bar capacity was probably around 150, 25 people did not really make for a great atmosphere. All the while the 2 bar girls kept half lifting their tee shirts which was a welcome distraction to the Englishman's cover version of the Chili Peppers Under the Bridge, though I was unsure whether I missing something cultural difference between English and French girls. All was shortly revealed, literally, when the bar manager appeared wearing a hideous pair of board shorts and promptly told the girls to get their tops off. Brilliant you might think, and in other circumstances I would have applauded this move. However, with 3 random guys sitting at the bar and a dozen or so other punters dotted around the place this only heightened the depressing nature of Chamonix nightlife at the end of May! I proceeded to down my beer and marched back out into the rain once again repeating my mantra!

Luckily the next 2 days training were great and I covered a lot of ground and a lot of elevation and I am sure I would have covered a lot less had the night life been better! As it was I returned to England with the best part of 100 kilometres and almost 7000 metres of elevation under my belt and I'd managed to test my kit in rain and sun. So it was not a total disaster!

Mud, hills, rain and some sun along the Jurassic Coast

It has been a while since my last update so there is plenty to fill you in on. After the Pilgrim Challenge I headed abroad for a few weeks to some winter warmth to have a bit of time out after a fairly grim start to 2010 and it did the trick, I returned feeling rejuvenated and ready to put into action things I have been thinking about doing for a while. Firstly, I have turned down 2 permanent jobs in the legal team at Deutsche Bank to finally make the move out of law and into something I actually enjoy! Unfortunately, this means that come the 16th of April I will be out of a job unless I find something before then! There are a couple of things on the horizon either on the business side at Deutsche or in a business intelligence company so I am hoping one of them comes up with an attractive offer before mid April!

Secondly, it was time to knuckle down with the UTMB training a couple of 15 and 20k runs in the last 6 weeks were not going to cut it, and so, thanks to a recommendation by Steph, I signed up to the Jurassic Coast challenge; 3 marathons in 3 days along some of the UK's most dramatic and scenic coastline (not that I would either see much of it or appreciate much of it as I later found out!). One thing I have noticed about doing these runs is that you never believe the distances they tell you, they are always longer - may not be by much but that extra mile or so per day makes a difference! The JCC was no different coming in at just over 80 miles a few more than the advertised 78.

In the end Steph couldn't make it due to injury but hooked me up with fellow Racing the Planet: Namibia vets Mark and Jenna as well as Alex and Ric who also happened to be my caravan buddies for the weekend. Everyone is always super friendly at these events and the slowest and the fastest will all have a chat on the way round.

Day 1 from Charmouth to Chesil Beach was a brutal day of hills, rain and mud which practically came up to my knees! A good two thirds of the day was spent in this stuff which while I am assured is good for your complexion it is not good for your energy levels or your motivation when you know you have got another 2 days to get through! Needless to say I spent most of the day sliding around the path which is particularly interesting when it is at the edge of a cliff top! At one point I lost my balance and to stop myself lurching towards the edge I grabbed the fence to my left - that would be the barbed wire fence! Having chastised myself out loud a few times I managed to find a bit of rhythm and finished pretty well after a gruelling start. A hot shower (after which I had to drip dry because I hadn't read the 20 pages of guidance notes - only the daily kit list so I missed the bit saying you needed to bring towels!) and a curry I felt a good deal better and hoped that day 2 might involve a little less sliding around on my ass and a bit more running!

Day 2 from Chesil Beach to Lulworth Cove was a much better day with a good solid 10 miles of relatively easy (after day 1 that is!) running terrain and a noticeable absence of mud! The sun even made an appearance for most of the day which gave me a real lift and I even managed to take stock of the amazing scenery especially the run by Durdle Door and down into Lulworth Cove which looked stunning in the late afternoon light. Typically there were some killer hills to finish the day but the good weather and the absence of mud had made it far more enjoyable which translated to a move up the field of 30 places from the end of day 1. That night Mark, Jenna, Alex, Ric and I headed into Weymouth for a good pub supper and a nice couple of pints of local ale to dull the aching in our legs. I do like the fact you have all these super fit people who can run flat out during the day and then will drink, eat crap and smoke in the evening before doing it all again the next day - that has to be the ideal pain/pleasure balance!

Day 3 from Lulworth Cove to Studland was the toughest of the lot. I reckon we did Mont Blanc in terms of elevation before we reached checkpoint 1!!! It was an absolute killer! I suddenly had my first real doubts about my ability to finish, my knees were causing me no end of grief from the previous days steep downhills and I was really struggling to keep going. Somehow I staggered through to CP2 and got my second wind I had an inkling that there weren't too many people in front of me and I wanted to keep it that way. Have grabbed a handful of harribo and a jelly snake (perfect running food!) I set off map in hand feeling better than I had all day and when we descended down onto Studland beach happy memories of Namibia and the sand came flooding back and I decided it was time to use up whatever was left in the legs. On day 1 you try and keep you feet dry and avoid obstacles by day 3 you run the shortest distance and if that means straight through knee high mud or thigh high water then that's the way to go! So having reached the "end" on the beach and been told there was just another "800" metres to the finish of the beach I stormed through the mud and puddles to the finish and to that indescribably good feeling of knowing you've done it and it's over!

Or at least it's over for this week...

Pilgrim Challenge - North Downs Ultra

On Saturday Carl and I took part in the Pilgrim Challenge a 33 mile run across the North Downs Way from Farnham to Merstham. This was to be the first real test of my running fitness and an opportunity to try out my new Raidlight waist belt which I think I'll be using on the UTMB. I had fairly big reservations about this run as Carl and I had not done anywhere near enough running - a few 9 mile runs home, a couple of 8 mile runs along the river and only one 10 mile run each did not look nearly enough for 33miles of trail running! Having not run over 15 miles in one go since Namibia last May this looked like it may have been a step too far too soon! Anyway we started well and found a good rhythm, conditions were pretty muddy which made the downhills and uphills a little bit more exciting!

There were loads of people on the race training for the MDS and a few for Atacama - you can spot the MDS lot from a mile away as they all use the Raidlight back pack! As always on these things people who pass you will chat and discuss what you're training for and encourage you and we were also doing the same with those we passed. I gave the Atacama lot the benefit of my Racing the Planet experience!! Ha ha - not sure if that helped them or not though I did see them all finish as a group later in the day so clearly didn't put them off completely! I told them to look out for the girls of Team Good Sport.

It turned out that trying new kit out over long distances for the first time is not the best idea! By the time we reached checkpoint 2 my powders had exploded in my bag covering everything and my back was being rubbed raw and I could feel a little blood on my hips from where the waist belt was rubbing. I kind of felt this made it a better test as I am absolutely sure I'll be in a whole world of pain for most of the UTMB!

Despite going off the North Downs Way twice (!!) and giving ourselves and extra couple of miles to run for our troubles we actually did much better than expected, the legs kept going even through the thigh burning climb up Boxhill and the thought of being done and dusted in time for England vs Wales in the 6 Nations helped us fly through the last 6 miles. We ended up completing the course in under 7hrs putting us 34th out of 90 odd starters. Given that I honestly thought our legs would go and we might not finish at all this was pretty pleasing and sets up my training for the UTMB quite nicely!

More importantly we made it home, picking up GBK burgers on on the way, and were in front of the tv in time to see the English beat the Welsh all washed down with a couple of cold beers! Perfect day!

Next event is the Jurassic Coast challenge, 3 marathons in 3 days on the coastal path (more hills!).

Sponsors and ramping up the training

Having come to terms with the fact that I am now signed up for one of the world's toughest ultras (re-reading Frank Fumich's experience did give me a few substantial doubts!) I am now back into looking for new kit. In Namibia I used trainers made by UK Gear who work with the physical training corps of the British Army. I figured kit tested in Afghanistan and Iraq should be up to the Namib desert and I wasn't disappointed - no sand in my shoes and no blisters all week! As good as an endorsement as I can give a pair of trainers! I lost a fair few toenails but you can't have everything. I contacted UK Gear to see about a trail running shoe I can use for the UTMB and thought I may as well ask if they would consider sponsoring me. The result was yes they would and I am meeting up with one of their guys to discuss sponsorship and also get my hands on a new pair of trainers.

I wrote them a review of the desert shoe which you can read below if you are in need of a shoe that is good in sand, rocks and temperatures up to about 50 degrees!

http://www.ukgear.com/Pages/Media-Centre/Product-Reviews/Consumer-Reviews/251-PT-03-DESERT-Alex-Howarth,-Namibia-2009.html

Next up is a cheeky 50k dash across the north downs - suspect it might actually be easier than the hour and half 5-a-side footy I played on Saturday - first outing in over a year and still feeling it!