First steps

Last weekend I planned to camp near St Davids in West Wales with Murph, we packed the van and headed off. Things didnt go quite according to plan … First off I went to set the tent up and no tent poles – god knows where they are but they weren’t in the tent bag.  It was also clear that Murph wasnt very happy with the campsite, he’s very nervous anyway and new situations plus people meant I could tell he wasnt going to enjoy the whole thing as I had hoped.  So what do you do when life gives you lemons – go for a run!

We did around 9 or 10 miles (I’m not wearing a watch at the moment as the plan following the ultra is to just enjoy it again) along the coastal path and it was Murphs first “proper” run and he did fantastically.  I kept him on lead all the way as I dont know the area well enough but it wasnt a problem. He’s pretty good at judging pace (though he clearly doesnt notice hills like I do and doesnt slacken off) so I would imagine we knock along at 8 to 9 min/mile pace which he seems to enjoy best.  I even had his lead tied around my waist (its one of the fancy ones with a clip on the handle to accomodate this) and that works too.  The only problems we had were on technical sections where he tends to choose the best line (Ie the one I’ve also picked) a split second before me.

Limbering up at the beach

Its a beautiful path

Even better when the sun comes out

Some rocks and stuff

tongue out = water stop

Might even be the same rocks … who knows?

Looking handsome

Laying off

Last weekend I headed for St Davids in West Wales to camp with some friends for one of their birthdays. Of course I also intended to run. We were going to spend saturday walking the coastal path so I headed out ahead to run for a while and then wait til they caught up.

It became apparent to me after a mile or so the ankle is pretty much screwed at the moment. I waited for them. I walked the seven or so remaining miles with them. I decided this is no good and it’s actually time to really rest it now. Enough is enough. Plus with some family stuff coming up its time to focus on important stuff, running is just running. Probably a good chance to recharge mentally too.

We saw some great sights though!

The heather was the most amazing colours!

Islandy things

Hey look a coastal path ….

Seals!

More heather

The bay where I waited for them – Was so hot I even swam

More bays

Friends with alcohol are the best friends

West Wales – Wet, Windy and Wonderful

Spent the weekend down in West Wales with a couple of friends and their dog which of course meant I got to do some running at last. The idea was to do a few miles of the coastal path in glorious sunshine and take in the views. This being Wales of course it was blowing a gale and raining on me from the outset. I was not to be deterred though!

The beach at Newgale. Not accurately represented here is the howling gale

I was actually really enjoying myself despite the wind, cold and rain and was happily putting out enough effort to prevent hypothermia. The only times I got cold was when I stopped to take photos for you my dear readers. The sacrifices I make!

 

Newgale is tiny, thats about it – The river cuts between the pebbles to make its own channel which is pretty cool. Well it would be if the sheer amount of pebbles wasn’t forcing the closure of the road

I had forgotten to bring my energy foods with me and so my friend had given me some marshmallows and chocolate but as I didn’t want them to melt in my pocket we shoved them in the only bag we had available – an (unused) dog poo bag.  A bags a bag but I decided to eat while crossing the bridge in the photo – So there I am in front of the cafe shovelling marshmallows straight from a dog poo bag into my mouth. Always make a good first impression when visiting a new place.

The views were great despite the weather

And the path was fun, technical and steep

I returned via the beach and missed the point where I could rejoin the path home so I kept going to see how far the beach went

Found some really pretty rocks while scrambling along

Then I came to a dead end, the only way was to go back the way I came or so some scrambling up a scree slope. I am not one to be deterred by a challenge so off I went

Up here – This was actually loads of fun until I got to the top of the scree and realised there was a 20 foot vertical bank up to the path covered in gorse and brambles. Having already cut and scratched myself to bits I decided to let sense rear its ugly head and retreated back down. Only added about 4 miles to my run …..

View from halfway up a scree slope

I eventually got back after about 3 hours, tired, cold and wet but happy. The quad is still not entirely happy but then i cant really blame it after a dozen miles and a climb up and down a bloody scree slope.

In the afternoon we popped into St Davids – The Smallest city in Britain.

St Davids Cathedral

More importantly than sightseeing we took Iolo the dog to the pub

Stare into my eyes and give me your Guinness

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

Or happy St Davids Day!.  St David is the patron saint of Wales, however unlike St Patricks Day which appears to have been hijacked by Guinness to become a global green branding day, St Davids day is much more low key. To be honest you wouldn’t really know it was going on but luckily as I work in schools I got to watch the kids in their outfits performing their Welsh renditions of songs.  I also discovered in this afternoons school that the kids (and I suspect the work of their parents and grandparents in this) had made numerous welshcakes and various traditional Welsh dishes and brought them into school to be judged by the staff. And it was all up for tasting grabs!  Hey it’s my national day too, I’m allowed to shovel cake!

Sadly due to the climate of today I can’t show you any photos of the kids as its strictly forbidden under pain of death to take any so I present you with my last remaining cat Trouble patriotically draped in the Welsh flag.

Not quite sure why he stayed still so long with a flag on him, I expected a fight to the death over this photo but it was actually very easy

So after all my cake it was lucky the sun came out this afternoon so a quick run to and around the beach was in order! Just a quick 4 and a half miles to get the legs moving again after the weekend. Hamstrings a bit tight but hey ho thats to be expected after a near 20 mile weekend.

One day i’ll hold the camera level I promise

On the way back some colour amongst the rocks caught my eye so I investigated and found a buoy! Ok so I’m terrible for beachcombing, I love stuff that the sea gives me, usually driftwood and I really really really wanted this buoy! Look it’s orange! This is after I’d actually untied it from the rope and yes I ran back with it. God only knows what i’ll do with it now … Maybe one day i’ll find a whole boat and I’ll already have a buoy to go with it ….

I so wanted the rope too!

My driftwood finds have at least been more practical. I cant remember if I posted this before but simply chopping up a length of driftwood and screwing it into the wall makes handy pegs for running gear! There you go today has been most educational :p

Living alone means you can do stuff like this!