Calvert Trust Website article

Good intro to Killer Kielder on the Calvert Trust Kielder website. Cheers guys

KILLER KIELDER IS GO!

Killer Kielder is GO!

After a period of months and discussions with a wide range of stakeholder parties last Friday I was given permission to undertake Killer Kielder. I’ve had great support throughout from the Calvert Trust and the Forestry Commission and Northumbria Water have now signed off permission for the kayaking and run elements of the challenge.

In the coming weeks I will be looking to build momentum fairly quickly and come up with fundraising ideas and work together with the Calvert Trust on how to most effectively deliver these.

Lastly a few thank you’s so far, without these people I’m sure Killer Kielder wouldn’t have gotten past the idea stage:

Hazel Munro, Pete Coulson and all the guys – Calvert Trust      “

Alex Maclennan – FC

Kevin Hudson – Northumbria Water

Kielder Sailing Club

Everyone else who has given me advice, words of encouragement or has offered to come and support the challenge.

Now the real work starts!

Newcastle to Kielder Calvert Trust

Newcastle to Kielder Calvert Trust by wenanwhere at Garmin Connect - Details

Kielder Duathlon, Simonside Fell Race

Kielder Duathlon 9^th January

High terrain events set up an interesting looking series of off-road duathlon events in the North of this fair land and they were straight in my calendar.

The rescheduled kielder duathlon (December cancelled due to snow) ironically also took place in some pretty snowy conditions which made for a pretty epic race. The planned route included an 8k run followed by 25k bike and a further 5k run to round things off. Sensibly these distances were shortened on the day due to the amount of snow particularly higher up so these sections were cut out. I don’t think this took anything away from the event which was tough going from start to finish.

We set off from kielder castle where the transition area was well set out. Straight up hill and it felt like that for most of the run despite a short stint down on fire road. The freezing cold air and snowy conditions meant everyone was gasping for air from the off. The route climbed up on fire road before briefly taking part of the mountain bike trails. A fairly steep and long narrow singletrack followed where some substantial footwear was required to keep upright. Even on the fire roads it was difficult to pick a line, soft snow that seemed a bit grippier (but you couldn’t always tell what was underneath) or the tracks of the forestry vehicles which were compacted but bore the risk of being icy.

Heading back in to transition a quick change on to the bike which promised to be fun in the snow. The route was a mixture of fire road and singletrack and took in some of the red route kielder trails but to be honest I was pretty lost in what are normally familiar trails to me! A fairly long unrideable push up really drained the lungs about half way round the route. There was a lot of drifting round berms and loose corners and lots of riders were bailing out as the snow threw people completely off line. A few hairy fast fire roads descents required 110% concentration but it you had the stomach you could really make up some time here.

Back in to transition and the final run was a bit more sociable, more or less flat along the river for the route out followed by a couple of short technical wooded sections before the final spring across the field. This was the final battleground for a lot of the positions and looking at the finishing times says as much.

I set out fairly hard on the run although this is always my weak spot. I managed to come in to transition in about 17^th but after taking quite a few risks on the downhill sections I managed to get up to 5^th by the end of the bike. A couple of position changes in the final run meant I was sitting in 6^th heading in to the final field. I’d just passed a guy before that and was aware he was right behind me and another 20 yards back were two more guys hunting me down pretty quick. I managed to find a bit of energy for a burst across the field before the final 100m up to the castle in the hope that the competition would think I was away from them. I fell over the line in a total time of 1hr59 in 6^th place which is probably my best result in biking or running events. The winner took 1hr 49 so I wasn’t that far off which was pretty pleasing. The field was much reduced due to the weather conditions so there were 64 finishers in total.

Pos	No.	Name	Club	Category	Time
1st	33	Gary Grounds	BikeTraks	MV40	01:49:57
2nd	39	Andrew Higgins	Northumberland Fell Runners	M	01:49:59
3rd	58	Stephen Magrath		M	01:56:26
4th	123	James Dickinson	One Life Biking	MV50	01:58:35
5th	31	Simon Gibbs	Wallsend Harriers	M	01:58:43
6th	50	Matthew Jones	Killer Kielder	M	01:59:55
7th	57	Graham Lund		M	01:59:58
8th	41	Joe Horne	Ryton Tri	M	02:00:06
9th	52	Andrew King		M	02:00:11
10th	60	Tom Matthew	Bogtrotters	MV40	02:01:40
11th	5	Paul Beckett		MV40	02:02:26
12th	63	Tim Mccall	Auchencrow Thistle	MV50	02:03:16
13th	56	Jerry Lloyd		MV40	02:04:13
14th	83	Michael Phillipson		M	02:04:26
15th	107	James Walker		M	02:05:47
16th	89	Mark Roberts		MV40	02:06:37
17th	125	Brian Smith	Gosforth Road Club	MV40	02:08:57
18th	66	Glen McGowan		MV50	02:09:21
19th	90	Darryl Roe	Wallsend Harriers	M	02:12:14
20th	36	Martyn Hemsley		MV40	02:13:43

Looking forward to the Grizedale Duathlon which is the next in the High Terrain Events Series.

Simonside Fell race 16^th January

I’ve been wanting to do an out and out fell race for a while after taking on some duathlons and a couple of challenge type trail runs and getting a taster for the pain and adventurous side of running. After doing my first and last road race, the great north run and getting pretty bored of constantly running round people and the monotony of road running I came across the Northumberland Fell Runners (http://www.northumberlandfellrunners.co.uk) website which lists a whole host of fell runs over varying distances and thought I’d give one a go.

Although only a week after the kielder duathlon I spotted the 11 mile fell run up Simonside in Rothbury and thought this would be a good a place as any to begin my fell running career. Although probably a bit longer than I would have gone for in my first race (being the 3^rd longest distance I’ve ever run after the great north and kielder marathon) the scenery and locality were a definite draw.

I was still feeling the effects of the kielder duathlon and only made the decision to enter the night before where a quick call to the organiser confirmed that I could just show up on the day and enjoy! The first thing that struck me is that fell running seems a much purer sport than most, just turn up, pay your £5 (bike races are normally about £25) and join the small friendly huddle on the start line with the knowledge that you need to carry enough kit with you in case things go wrong. There are certainly no marshall points/water points to give you a more pampered race experience, but that certainly is the appeal. Without stereo typing too much the guys and girls that do these things definitely have the been there done it look to them, it was pretty cold, raining and windy at the start and about a third of the field just had short shorts and vests on, respect!



The nice flat bit before the hills!



I set out to just survive on this one and to try and enjoy it as much as possible. The route was a no nonsense get to the top and back down with a couple of up/downs in between.

If this was a horse race the going would be heavy! The snow had only just melted and long sections were really boggy to the point of lost trainers if they weren’t tied on tight and there were lots of reports of full submersions.

The first half of the race was in the rain and wind but this eventually eased off and by the time we reached the top of Simonside there were great views to be had. The run down from the top was really technical with lots of rock steps that I couldn’t seem to keep any speed down. Lots of people passed me at that point. For the whole race I was sat somewhere mid pack and eventually came in with a time just under 2 hours which was pretty much what I predicted it would take me.

Position	Name	Cat	Club	Time
1	Alasdair Anthony	M Sen	Ochil	1.21.53
2	Philip Sanderson	MV 40	NFR	1.22.29
3	Callum Gilhooley	M Sen	Dark Peak	1.22.56
4	Dan Gay	M Sen	HBT	1.27.11
5	Tom Smith	M Sen	Lochabers	1.27.28
6	Stanley Charles	M Sen	Clwydian	1.28.05
7	Adam Fletcher	MV 45	Berwick	1.30.20
8	Gareth Huxley	MV 40	NFR	1.30.53
9	Lee Bennett	MV 40	NFR	1.32.05
10	Andrew Higgins	M Sen	NFR	1.32.06
11	Scott Gibson	M Sen	NFR	1.33.23
12	Philip Addyman	MV 40	NFR	1.34.48
13	Paul Redman	MV 45	NFR	1.34.59
14	John Barker	M Sen	Alnwick	1.35.32
15	David Steel	MV 45	NFR	1.35.52
16	Ally Macdonald	MV 45	Dundee	1.35.59
17	Keith Murray	MV 45	Teviotdale	1.36.15
18	David Armstrong	MV 50	NFR	1.36.29
19	Cameron Murray	MV 40	Carnethy	1.37.27
20	David Daniels	M Sen	Newcastle	1.38.12
21	Phil Smith	M Sen	NFR	1.39.11
22	John Duff	MV 40	NFR	1.39.15
23	Gavin Coventry	MV 40	Thirsk	1.39.25
24	Kenny Short	MV 45	Teviotdale	1.39.39
25	Graham Walton	MV 40	U/A	1.39.56
26	Emma O'Shea	F Sen	Deeside	1.39.57
27	Tim McCall	MV 50	U/A	1.39.58
28	Stewart Meche	MV 50	Thirsk	1.40.25
29	Neil Cassidy	MV 50	Tynedale	1.40.32
30	Mick Golightly	MV 40	NS Poly	1.41.11
31	Rob Stephens	MV 45	NFR	1.42.12
32	Sarah O'Neill	F Sen	HBT	1.42.30
33	Chris Rowe	M Sen	NFR	1.42.54
34	Mike Telfer	M Sen	NFR	1.43.08
35	John Butters	M Sen	Morpeth	1.44.34
36	Stewart Barrie	MV 40	HBT	1.44.57
37	Lawrence Johnson	MV 45	NFR	1.45.50
38	Barry Young	MV50	NS Poly	1.46.16
39	Rob Murray-John	MV 40	Wooler	1.46.37
40	David Walton	MV 50	Tyne & Wear Fire	1.47.07
41	Claire Buis	F Sen	Heaton	1.47.22
42	Andrew Squires	MV 45	Alnwick	1.47.40
43	William Pikett	MV 45	Norham	1.48.17
44	Paul Hainsworth	MV 50	NFR	1.48.21
45	Phil Green	MV 40	NFR	1.48.42
46	Francis Shillitoe	M Sen	U/A	1.49.34
47	Jack Walton	M Sen	NFR	1.50.29
48	Jamie Wilkinson	M Sen	NFR	1.50.55
49	Richard Kirby	M Sen	Morpeth	1.51.52
50	Chris Little	MV 45	NFR	1.52.16
51	Graham Bingham	MV 45	NFR	1.52.23
52	Darren Murphy	M Sen	U/A	1.52.25
53	Peter Hayle	MV 45	NFR	1.52.44
54	Bernard Kivlehan	MV 50	NFR	1.52.54
55	Matthew Jones	M Sen	Kielder	1.53.08

Pretty happy with the result, just outside the top half of the 102 entrants.

Overall a really good challenge and I’ll definitely be looking out for local fell races in the coming year to use as training for Killer Kielder. Going to get some rest now before the first in the series of the Bike Place organised mountain bike Marathon series at Kielder. Then the Innerleithen enduro the following weekend, hmmm I’m going to be tired at the end of this month!

Winter riding, SNOW!

Loads of snow around in the toon. Went for a few missions to the local parks recently and STATO got some cool pics. Have made some ice tyres now, god it is a slow and boring process but gives lots of grip on the ice thats around now.

We were only in the pub for an hour and came out to this!

jesmond dene biking

jesmond dene biking

Heaton park biking

Heaton park biking

Riding, Racing, injuries and success!

Lots has been happening in the last couple of weeks and I'm now sat at home with grazed knees, visions of muddy bogs but most of all a sense of achievement.

Rothbury Ride and DNS Whinlatter Duathlon

Last weekend I had a great ride up in Rothbury on saturday then was planning to go down to Whinlatter to do the Whinlatter Duathlon which is a great event that I did last year, check out http://www.highterrainevents.co.uk/ as there is a whole series of these and I'll be doing the Kielder one in a few weeks. Unfortunately we did a bit of night riding at Rothbury and I came a cropper a couple of times on the same knee, then just as I was nursing this at the bottom of a sweet bit of technical singletrack, bosh one of the guys who came down after me couldn’t stop and smashed straight in to the exact same spot!


Rothbury, Northumberland, great day

 It was pretty sore but headed to the pub none the less and hoped for the best. I headed back to the bunk house a bit earlier than the other guys to get a good night sleep and neck some ibuprofen...what I'd hoped to be a good night sleep turned in to a nightmare when the others returned to deliver a incessant chorus of snoring :(



So when my alarm when off at 6am I opened my eyes to having had pretty much no sleep and instantly knew that my knee was badly swollen and it wouldnt be worth the trip to the lakes, gutted! So me and housemate/fellow riding mate/killer kielder official photographer Rich E (twitter @STATO) headed home to the Toon and straight back to bed to get some kip. The rest of the day was spent moping around...

Kendal Mountain Fest/Newcastle Stampede 10k adventure run

The knee recovered during the week just in time for this weekend where I headed to the Kendal mountain festival for bike film night (brilliant, check out lifecycles isn't amazing) with a bunch of guys with a proper lakes natural ride planned for the next day. We set off from Ambleside and did a loop that took in loads of technical singletrack (ace), epic climbs and unbelievable scenery, loved it. Back home that night, good feed and ready for the next day and the Newcastle Stampede www.newcastlestampede.com!

It rained a lot the day before and was raining on the day as well. The Stampede in its first year promised to by muddy, challenging and tough for every k of the 10k in total but all for a worthy cause, the British Heart Foundation.

The race went off in waves, 5 in total and me and some friends were in wave 2. After an army style warm up session I was on the front row and ready to gun it off the start to get the obstacles that were clearly going to be choke points. Me and mate Andy went out pretty fast and got ahead of the pack, we the got to the first tunnel followed by waist deep bog/river but had to wait behind the people from the first wave that we had caught up. The water was literally freezing and pain was definitely felt in certain body parts!



Newcastle Stampede bog

 This set the scene to follow which was a mix of trail running and mud scrambling through the marines designed course and a lot of time was spent in trenches or half submerged in ice cold water. Oh and the hay bales, it felt like there were hundreds to climb over and towards the end they were punishing when you were soaked through and knackered. Lots of good banter with the marines on the way round, a couple of them just near the end did the usual ‘just one more lap to go’ so I scooped up a big slab of mud from the bog I’d just climbed out of and smothered their nice clean army kit with it J.

I managed to get a good gap about half way round and somehow found myself out in front. This was strange territory for me in any race. Fortunately for me some of the guys behind got held up by wave 1 stranglers so unbelievably I’m pretty sure I crossed the finish line in first place in my wave!


There’s no chance that I would have got the fastest time on the day out of all the waves as wave 1 had nobody to hold them up and we were waiting 5 mins to get through the first major obstacle. But hey ho it was all for charity.

Frozen cold but happy it was done. Yet another challenge where I managed to push pretty hard and outdo myself.

1st place in my wave?

Unfortunately I still had some cuts on my knee from the bike crashes the week before so on crawling hands and knees through tunnels and over rough ground these quickly opened up and were accompanied by others fairly quickly. These are now really sore and stiff but nothing a good feed and sleep won’t sort out. Think I might do the pizza hut challenge next week, my record is 18 so I think the big 20 slices is my next big challenge!

Meeting Northumbria Water next week to discuss permission for the lake section of Killer Kielder, hopefully there will be a positive outcome and I can start cracking on with organising the mass of things on the to do list!

Matt

Getting ready for winter

As I'm sure you will all have noticed the weather is now officially poop which means a rummage around the cupboard for tyres with a bit more tread and the inaugural root around the light box to get them charged/repaired/traded in for something better.

Killer Kielder is making good progress still, I'm planning on meeting up with Hazel from the Calvert Trust to discuss some logistics and to get a full tour of the site at kielder which will be great. I've also been asked by Northumbria Water to put together a safety management plan of sorts for the challenge which is fair enough as I will be knackered in the middle of the biggest man made lake in northern Europe so I imagine this might require a support craft of some kind. Needless to say there are a lot of logistics/infrastructure things to consider and I'll be liaising with the right people in the coming weeks and months to make sure everything. The Forestry Commission have been particularly helpful in supporting me and putting me in touch with the right people in the last few weeks.

I've now got a domain name for the challenge http://www.killerkielder.co.uk/ but for now it just links straight to the blog. I'd like to get the logo done properly as I just bodged it together and it would be nice to have it looking smoother.

I'll be writing an article for Alan's website about my approach to training for bike races which will focus on how to make the most out of opportunities when you work 9-5. Watch out for it on http://www.frogfoot.co.uk/ soon. Speaking of articles I'll be looking to speak to a few biking/adventure magazine websites/mags to see if there's any interest in me doing something around killer kielder.

Matt

Where it all came from...






 

Killer Kielder has been gathering momentum so rapidly that I realised I haven’t even properly introduced it. So I will attempt to explain then give an overview of the last week or so! This began with getting boozed in London and ended in running the Kielder Marathon the following weekend.

Where it all came from





After completing a couple of big mountain bike race challenges this year, the UK solo 24hour champs and the Kielder100, I’ve definitely had a taste for challenges that push both the body and mind beyond what you previously thought possible. I have also been inspired to think of an epic challenge after seeing the achievements of the likes of Eddie Izzard and that iceman guy on the channel4 programme, basically normal guys doing extraordinary things (ok ok the iceman guy was a bit weird. I also did quite a few biking races last year, usually finishing somewhere about the top half/third having only really started to enter races a couple of years ago. I am fortunate enough to work with Rich Rothwell (elite endurance bike racer) and words of advice on the two aforementioned events have been both inspirational and seed sowing in my head about mind over matter as a concept. His advice was very simple, keep going and you’ll be surprise what you can achieve. The SCIENCE of kit prep/food prep are also obviously key but what he was fundamentally saying is you can go far beyond pre expected limits if your head is in the right place.

So being new this year to endurance type events I’ve definitely caught the bug and on completing the kielder100 in just over 10 ½ hours (putting me in 99^th place out of around 350 finishers from 550 starters) I got that feeling of invincibility that you get after completing great challenges. Like most adventure challenge seekers, I asked what’s next. The great drive along kielder lake the day after the kielder100 inspired me to think of something completely beyond anything I’ve done before and certainly something which would push me to the absolute limits of physical and mental endurance:

Killer Kielder

- Compete in the kielder100 (there are cut offs so the slowest I could do this would be about 13hours) finish 5-6pm?

- Jump in to a kayak and paddle the length of the lake from the castle to the Dam (about 5 miles) finish 7pm?

- From the shoreline begin the run back to that point via a lap of the Lakeland path (a marathon) finish 12-1am?

All in one go.

With the various enforced cut offs I would probably be looking to complete in between 20-22 hours. The run will be almost entirely in the dark which will, I believe, be the toughest part of the challenge, particularly after the inevitable cramp up from sitting in a kayak.

Although this is set out as very much a personal challenge, I have very quickly come to realise and appreciate the level of support I will require to achieve my primary two aims of the Killer Kielder challenge, to push myself to the absolute limits of endurance and to raise as much money as possible for the Calvert Trust at Kielder.

Given that this is such a massive challenge for me personally and a totally unique challenge in itself I felt that as it goes beyond the usual sponsor me for running the great north run things that do the office rounds constantly (not that this is a bad thing of course), I thought it would be a huge opportunity to harness and capture the imagination of people for Killer Kielder and hopefully turn this in to donations for a charity.

I wanted raise funds for a charity that was locally based and the Calvert Trust at Kielder was both an obvious choice and a perfect match (without trying to sound too cheesy or melodramatic). They give people with disabilities the opportunities to participate in adventure activities that others might at times take for granted. For these individuals who face daily challenges in their lives that most of us could not begin to understand to be given the opportunity to participate in activities that most able bodied people might think twice about is truly a worthy cause. For more information see http://www.calvert-trust.org.uk/smartweb/kielder/kielder 

I wanted the challenge to have a strap line that summed up the fact that completion would be as much about mental strength as physical stamina. One stood out immediately from Sir Edmund Hilarly

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”

So format, charity and challenge in place, what next…?

Well through a contact at the Forestry Commission the ball has certainly got rolling with ‘putting the word out’. I will hopefully be in touch with various important stakeholders like Northumbria Water, Kielder Partnership and SIP events to name but just a few. I hope to use and enhance contacts to raise as much sponsorship and support as possible.

Everyone I’ve spoken to far has been hugely supportive (as well as labelling me crazy) and most people have asked me if I’d consider turning it in to a full on event for 2012. Well who knows, but for now I’m happy to be crash test dummy and take all the advice I can get.

Kielder Marathon

So that’s the background but how about last week! Well after a boozy weekend in London with friends I had a week full of activities planned - Monday football, Tuesday giving blood then a 4 mile run with the Sustrans Tuesday night running club (my second outing with the girls), Wednesday 25mile mtb ride with a couple of mates, Thursday squash with Doctor Dave and Friday lunch time yoga with the plan to do the Kielder Octoberfest mtb race on the Saturday. 

Then, Friday night BAM- my other half (Sarah) says that the Calvert trust have seen my justgiving page for Killer Kielder and have offered me a place in the Kielder Marathon on Sunday! The timing of this offer was interesting to say the least as I was just about to go to the pub for a pint and would be up early the next morning to go the Kielder mtb race. For some reason I instantly knew if the place was available then I would give it a go. I think after surprising myself at the 24 hr biking race earlier in the year (a decent result was well within reach if bike failure didn’t curtail me towards the end), this gave me a self belief that I could push my self much further and for longer than I had previously, so why couldn’t this be applied to running?

Anyway it wasn’t possible to get in touch with the Calvert Trust guys at that point so I asked Sarah to contact them on Saturday then try and get a message to me if I definitely had a place. I set off early Saturday morning hoping that I might find out either before the start of the race or at least during it whether I would be needing to conserve energy/not race at all! I took my mobile with me on the race but didn’t get any signal so decided to take it easy just in case. It wasn’t until using a pay phone at the pub in Kielder at 2pm that I found out, having done a 30 miles bike race…

Fast forward through last minute preparation (Sarah had to go out and buy me some running shorts ha) and there’s me stood on the start line to what many people called the toughest marathon they had done. Talk of someone doing it as their 26^th marathon put my level of training (two 4 mile runs since the great north run last year) into perspective. However I stepped up with a clear mind, no major expectations other than completion even if that meant crawling over the finish line.

Running with Steve Cram

My work mate Alan (twitter @perfectrunning new really useful running website www.frogfoot.co.uk) was up front as he was looking for a fast time. I also managed to get in touch with another mate Al to share a lift with Sarah and Rich E (twitter @STAT0), moral supporter and official photographer respectively. As me and Al went over the start line STEVE CRAM himself joined the crowd at that very point and we ended up chatting with him for the first few miles which was a good laugh and I had a chance to tell him about Killer Kielder (we also managed to grab him briefly before the start for a pic). I won’t go in to the individual ups and downs of the race other than there were lots (steep incline/decline signs everywhere) I’m sure all by now are well documented.

Me, Cramy and Al

Fortunately Richy Rothwell gave me some last min advice to take gels and a couple of protein bars, so Sarah kindly went to the bike shop to source some just before it closed on Saturday night whilst I was on route back from the Kielder race. These turned out to be an absolute life saver and not sure I could have finished without the SCIENCE. I was going ok until the last 5 miles or so when I started to do that shuffle you normally cringe at seeing when people are finishing the London Marathon or something. I was trying to get some adrenaline going in the last few miles by whacking up the volume on the mp3 player (which I had saved for the second half to have a bigger motivational effect, highly recommended). Although I got the odd burst of energy it required a lot of ‘having a word with myself’ type motivation to get me through, people surrounding me must have thought I was bonkers as I was muttering things like “come on, nearly there, avvvittt, lets go f’ing mental” etc. Fortunately this technique got me over the finish line.

The pain, sense of achievement, relief, jubilation and a whole host of other emotions as I came over the finish line at a sprint was immense and there were definite tears in the eyes as a result. Meeting up with Al afterwards and him reporting that he felt similar gave me some reprise at least that I wasn’t the only one.

So with no training, less than 24hours notice and with a week of fairly intense general physical activity (with having blood sucked out of my arm to boot) I had done it. I thought back to the strap line for Killer Kielder, it was apt indeed.

Mind over matter!

Although I was on some level a prior believer in mind over matter due to various individuals inspiring me that great physical feats could be overcome with will power and self belief, I am now a devout believer.

I hope to take from this experience some mental strength that I expect will be required in bucket loads if I am able to complete the target challenge, KILLER KIELDER 2011.

Thanks to:

@Calvert_Kielder – for the marathon place

@sarahgudgin – moral support/should to cry on/general admin skills

@STAT0 – photos

Richy Rothwell www.richyroth.com – endurance advice/inspiration