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