Jonny Morgan - 2010 Uk Ultrarunning Champion

We’ve been busy splashing around in the mud at Langdale and the Ian Hodgson Relays amongst other things since finishing the summer season – so a quick roundup of the latest autumn running action:

Big news is Jonny Morgan winning the 2010 Uk Ultrarunning Championships, with outright wins at the Tour of Bradwell, Pumlumon and Calderdale this year and a close second in the Lakes 50, which was enough to top the overall points series - a great result from the Morganator!

Last weekend Jonny and I were also down in Dartmoor doing the elite course at the Original Mountain Marathon - that ever popular two day suffer fest…  We finished up 3rd after 2 days and 70miles racing in endless bogs and cloud – so happy with the result.

Time for a bit of R+R now – Jonny’s off to Turkey climbing for a couple of weeks (travelling all the way by train – very green) and I’m resting up for the first round of the Open5 Adventure Race series this coming weekend.  I’ve got to finish building the bike back up first though – having finally killed the old frame in Wales a couple of weeks ago, I’ve found a suitable replacement that’s very black, very carbon and very light…

Random French running prizes - pair of socks anyone?!

Finally got off the bike a couple of weeks ago and put the trainers back on to start preparing for the OMM, so i’ve been doing a bit of racing to kick the legs back into gear.

First off was the Husky Trail Guillestrois down in the Queyras, with 43km and a lot of climb - so a suitably painful outing. I wasn’t feeling too good but nailed a few folk on the final 1500m descent and managed 3rd Vet, so pretty good.

After a week of stiff legs it was off over to Macon last weekend for the Trail Haute Clunysois - at 58km quite a long affair.  Setting off feeling good, I ended up it the lead for a while before being caught, then managed to get off route avoiding a pair of horses and lost 10 minutes.  Now down in 3rd, catching up the 2nd and then the leader again by the final feed station took it’s toll somewhat, so I ended up 2nd - but well pleased with that.  The OMM is down on Dartmoor this year and I’m running with Jonny Morgan again, who’s on great form this year, so all to play for.

Jonny and I have just spent a great weekend competing in the annual Scottish Island Peaks Race on the yacht Playing FT$E - sailed by Jonathan Anderson, Bill Fowler and Stewart.  For the uninitiated this is an annual sailing and running race starting in Oban on the West Coast of Scotland: teams sail to Mull, Jura and Arran and on each island two competitors have to run up the highest peak (that’s what we were doing) – 160miles of sailing and 60 miles of running in all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end we  had to retire from the sailing side of the competition on saturday night, due to a lack of wind (having  rowed a 13 ton boat for several hours!) but  finished well up in the King of the Bens running competition.  This is a great race and a total adventure, so we’re keen to go again next year with hopefully more wind.

Night O - running round in circles in the dark..

Just home in the Uk for a few days family time, so squeezed in a local night orienteering event in yesterday evening at Adel woods in north Leeds -  I’ve been doing a few local league events this winter after a 20 year break from the sport.

Definitely not as quick anymore on the short races, but technique counts for everything in this sport - so been doing Ok with a close second in the first race, then 3 wins in the others.  Last night was probably the best result,  coming in 7 minutes clear – but there’s 6 races to count in the series and I’ve only done 4 - ie need to get more organised next winter!

Torrential rain at the Open 5 Adventure Race in the Lakes this w/e.

A very wet Sunday in the Lake District this weekend competing in  my first ever Adventure Race – round  1 of the popular Open 5 series.  My brother’s done a lot of these events, so we entered as Team Alpine Guides in the Male Pairs category - ie a rapid learning curve in terms of tactics, racing on a bike (never done that before!), transitions etc etc.  Basically it’s a 5 hour score event, with half the controls to be collected on a mountain bike and half on foot – when to changeover and how many checkpoints to go for on each leg is all part of the game…

I bought a second hand bike last year, then steadily upgraded it till I finally found a decent  frame a couple of weeks ago – so now have something competitive to ride on. Ifor’s been doing a lot of riding recently, but struggles more with the running now - so we decided to do as much as possible on the bikes (ie collect all the checkpoints) then just do as many as we had time for on the run.  This worked rather well, as we ended up winning! – so well pleased with that and I suspect we may be doing a few more of these if I can find the time…

Al and Jonny finishing 2nd on the OMM Elite 2009

A good result in the annual big daddy of the mtn marathon calander – the 2009 Original Mountain Marathon, this year held in the Elan Valley in mid Wales.  I was running the Elite as usual, this year with fellow Alpine Guide and keen fell runner Jonny Morgan.  Day one went well, though we were caught by last team off – Steve Birkinshaw and Jethro Lennox – till they made an error near the end which left us 8 mins in the lead overnight.

On the chasing start on day two however, Steve and Jethro found some good sheep trods into number 1 whereas we got caught in horrible tussocks lower down the slope - so we were soon back together again.  I lead for a couple of hours till I had to stop and tie a lace, where upon Steve made a very well timed attack and broke clear from us a few controls out from the finish.  We pushed hard but were unable to catch them, so a well deserved win and we were well pleased to be second. 

I’m not as fit as I was in the summer – too much time in front of the computer since getting home – so obviously need to get the autumn workflow more organised for next year!

Al and Steve Bottomley finishing the Ian Hodgson Mtn Relay this Sunday

Just a bit of news on the home front – been getting stuck into the autumn fell running since I got home, with the 17ml Black Mountains race last w/e (5th – just under 3hrs - it hurt!) and Ian Hodgson Mountain Relay for Pudsey Vets team yesterday.  I was doing the final leg with Steve Bottomley – not a strong team this year as various folk injured, but we managed to pick up 6 places so all went well.   Jonny (Morgan) was also doing the last leg for Dark Peak Vets who won,  so a great result there – time wise, we were just 5 secs apart however for the leg, so that bodes well for the OMM that Jonny and I are running together at the end of the month.  It’s Langdale coming up this weekend, so we’ll see how much the Morganator nails me by on that one.  I do know the course pretty well though, so praying for a bit of cloud and rain!

River crossing at the Black Mountains Fell Race

Been out running this weekend in the newest race in the ultratrail series – the Tour du Ducs De Savoie.  Starting at 5AM in Chamonix, the course went south over Mont Joly and on into the Beaufortain, before a long descent to Bourg St Maurice followed by an equally long climb back over the Petit St Bernard pass into Italy, then on down to the finish line in Courmayeur – 106km and 6300m of climb in total.
I’ve not been training anything like as much this summer (too many weekends working on the hill!) – so took the first half really steady, as this is where most of the climb is.  Apart from a struggle with the heat climbing out of Bourg St Maurice, the plan worked well and I had enough juice left to pick up the pace over the final 3hrs and pull away from the group I’d been with, finally finishing 3rd in 14hr 40min – so a good result in a really strong field.
Thanks to everyone out on the course supporting – much appreciated as ever! – and to Bertrand for the excellent running pics.