Well, Christmas is over and it's time to start hard training again. I've managed to acquire a couple of motivational tools though. The first is a new pair of trainers, and aren't they good! So much better than my old pair. The second is this quite cool ipod chip. It goes in my new trainer and tells me how far I've run and how fast I'm doing it. It even talks to you through the ear phones to keep you updated on your progress!

Just got back from a run in the wind and rain actually. Pretty invigorating actually. Got a long'un tomorrow morning. I shall update you on how that goes.

Ciao for now.

I'm Back

So it's been a rough ol' year. Nothing really to report and I regret to say that I have been neglating these sites for a while. No matter! Time to start fresh.

I've not done much recently, just the odd half marathon here and there, and nothing really close to what I want to achieve. But, I've had my first break! I'm in for the London Marathon 2008; very exciting (http://www.justgiving.com/jamesfitchett). So I'm looking to you all to donate and help me out with this!

I'm going to try to post regularly with my progress...we'll see what happens with that...

The Reading Half Marathon

13.2 miles around the town of Reading.

This was the second time I had run this. In 2005 I ran it with very little training and brand new trainers. This is a novice mistake, do not make it! Anyway, my mum bet me I couldn't do it in under 2hrs - my time of 1hr 59 was very satisfying.

This year I ran it with Rosemary. We had been training two or three times a week for 3 months getting ready of this day with a target of running it in 1hr 40. However it was no smooth ride. January brought freezing conditions and very little light (as we were running at 5 or 6 in the morning). Then shortly before the race Rose developed shin splints. These happen at some point to every runner, and it was unlucky it had to happen now. But she never saw not running as an option, so whether it was wise or not she decided to run.

13,500 people were running the half so it was packed, took ages to get away from the crowds at the start, making the first mile really slow. After about half a mile Rose and I split up, I had decided to push for 1hr 30. At half way I was just behind schedule, but then I started to hit problems. My body was not happy that I had been working at a pub till 1am the previous night, so before the race I had about 4 or 5hrs sleep. My heart started to skip beats as it used to, and my stomach started playing up (I was at the peak of food poisoning). So what do you do when this happens? Well, I just hit my ipod onto a good tune and after shouting at my body to sort itself out I pushed on.

As I came on the last mile I put my favorite burn out tune on “Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Pray”.Getting high on my adrenaline I finished with a sprint in the respectable time of 1hr 36. After trying to stop myself passing out on the finish line I crawled back up to the stands to look out for Rose – but she had hit far bigger problems than I had.

Shin splints are extremely painful and they were giving Rose absolute hell, although capable of sub 1hrs 40 she came home in 2hrs 34 still running. Lesser people would have given up, but her exceptional mental strength and will had got her through. It goes to show that you can achieve anything if you focus on your goal, even running a half marathon with an effectively broken leg. It was pretty amazing.

But looking forward now, we’ve got a 10k road race coming up on July 1^st, so look out for the next installment then. I may post some other things such as good advice between now and then so keep checking!

For Rose and I this is hopefully just the beginning, we want to build up to do ultra long distance marathons amongst other insane projects.

J.

Results of the Reading Half Marathon : Sub Two Hours, Over Two Hours

The Pennine Way

For those of you that don't know the Pennine Way is a 270 mile walk over the backbone of Britain between Edale and Kirk Yetholm in Scotland. It begins and finishes in a pub, which can only be a good thing! My sister Gemma and I decided that we would try and do this in the summer of 2005. It was going to take us 17 days with only 1 rest day. Neither of us do any real walking, we didn’t have much of the right kit, and we were young. I was 17 and she was 15, we are possible the youngest people to complete it unsupported.

We started in Edale and the first day brought low level cloud and visibility of about 10 feet. Luckily I recognised the landscape and realized I had been here before, thus even with so much cloud and snow around we still found our way…for the first half of the day. The afternoon led us to the aptly named “Bleak Moor”. This is a very high plateau and we just had to get up and over it. However, the path seemed to vanish at the top. Taking a compass bearing we eventually got to the other side, but about 2 miles east of where we were meant to be. In short…we were a bit lost, and it took another 2 hours to work out where we were and how to find the campsite. Lesson of that day is not to just take strip maps to navigate!

My bag ended up weighing in at about 4 or 5 stone (25-30kg) depending on how much water we were carrying for that day. The reason I had so much stuff was to take some of the weight off my sister (she had 2 stone) and because we had camping kit spread between only two of us. The maximum weight you should have to carry should be no more than about 2 stone. If you decide to camp either buy specialist lightweight kit, or take more friends to spread the weight.

The second day was one of the toughest on the whole trip. We decided to walk two days worth in one shot. Crowden to Mankinholes. It was very very hard, and by the end of it I had a blister that covered over half my foot. Second lesson to be learnt…get boots fitted. DO NOT TAKE ANY OLD BOOTS!

The couple of weeks involved pushing through pain barriers, trying to get into the rhythm and really trying to enjoy it. But it was tough, real tough.

The last day was the second toughest; going straight over the Cheviots in one foul swoop. There is no where to stop except for a couple of mountain rescue huts, but this should not be relied on. We started walking at 5am, getting onto the top peaks for the main part of the day. Being very careful not to get lost we followed the boarder fence for about 25 miles, stopping only once for half an hour. We arrived at the Boarder Inn Hotel at 4pm, exhausted.

It had been all in all and incredible experience. Some of the people you meet are amazing, friendly and helpful. It is as if all the walkers are one big community looking out for each other. For example, Gemma left her waterproofs on top of Cross Fell. Another walker picked them up and left messages with all the campsites and hostels for anyone who had lost them to contact him. In my opinion the hills bring out the best in human nature.

This walk is not for anyone, you must be fit and strong; mentally and physically. It will be wet, it will be cold, and most of all, it will hurt. If, however you do decide to go for it, I promise you fantastic landscapes, a sense of power, achievement and inner peace.

For those thinking of walking The Pennine Way I recommend the following books:

Pennine Way North by Tony Hopkins ISBN:1-85410-962-6

Pennine Way South by Tony Hopkins ISBN: 1-85410-851-4

Pennine Way by Edward de la Billiere and Keith Carter. ISBN: 1-873756-57-7

The first two contain strip backs and detailed descriptions of the route. The third contains sketch map with useful information on places to stay and eat. I would recommend taking all three. It is very hard to get lost with all of them. But most of all: Enjoy it!!!

J.

The List As It Stands

Here I shall soon be posting a list of the events we hope to enter and I shall be ticking off the ones that we completed successfully. Reading other posts will give more detail on individual competitions.

To Do

The Camino de Santiago walk.
The London Marathon
The Boston Marathon
The New York Marathon
The Atlantic Rowing Challenge
The North Pole Marathon
The Antarctic 100k
The Marathon Des Sables
The Everest Marathon
The South African Addo Elephant 100 Miler Trail
The South African Kalaharia Augrabie Extreme Marathon
The South African Comrades UltraMarathon
The Polar Challenge
Tour de France
London to Brighton
The Three Peak Challenge
The Cape Wrath Challenges
The Chicago Marathon
The Badwater Ultramarathon


Done

Reading Half Marathon

Check back soon!

J.

Welcome

Hello and welcome,

Part of my life plan is to complete as many challenges of human endurance as I possibly can. This blog is designed to keep a note of these events and to keep people posted on the many successes I shall hopefully have.

J.