As my body recovered from the 100 miler, a strange and new experience was playing out in my mind. I was getting congratulated for becoming a Centurion and I found I was putting a positive face on when replying to the question that I must be over the moon. I certainly didn't feel it. I felt like I had fallen off a cliff edge and had an almost empty feeling. I done some digging on the internet and quickly realised a big goal gives us a powerful sense of direction and order. Having targets directed towards the goal gives us the feel good factor and a sense of purpose. So why didn't it happen after the PW? My guess was that given the 100's bigger miles, sense of occasion, the nerves I had shown before it & having to kick at the end to get in, I was completely spent emotionally. One question I like to ask people, that have done both the PW and 100 milers, is which is harder in their eyes. I am surprised when the majority opt for the PW with the answer mainly due to the hills. My own view is its "horses for courses". I get excited about the idea of attempting to walk around the whole of the Isle of Man on PW day. Walking around a loop 25/50/100 times doesn't ignite my imagination in the same way - but then again one did in October 2016....
So feeling empty and in need of something to kick start me again, Sam Fletcher and co arrives like a whirlwind into Ballabeg to live. I first met Sam when we were work colleagues a few years before and had kept in contact through our love of walking when he had left. He had previously lived 'down' north and we had sometimes gone on longer walks together. Sam was learning how to "race" walk and was becoming good technically and with that his pace was much quicker than mine. I was trying to think of a few words to describe Sam and have come up with; heart of gold, strong, fun, not ego driven, unpredictable and a bit mad. My nickname for him is Crazy Frog after the character in the mid 2000's ringtone adverts.
Sam would regularly pass on tips to me of how to walk more efficiently, but the only problem being he would tell me something different to contradict himself each week! Without fail, he would always say to me before heading out for a walk or run - "can you do this?" and with that he would put a leg out straight with his heel on the floor with toes pointing upwards. I would copy and he would flick me with his hand, point and say with a grin "you can race walk!". He would also say "come down to the NSC with me mate and we can learn to walk technically together". At that time, I wasn't interested in this type of walking. I was an ultra walker and the vast majority of people in the events I had been in didn't walk in the traditional "race" walking style. That's only for people doing the smaller distances is what I was led to believe by my own observations.
So, once the body had recovered from the 100 in September 2015, we were going to push each other out training around the south of the island. One thing you would not be able to accuse us of is doing things by half measure. To build up our fitness we started with some running first. During the week we would leave at 6am and go up and around Cringle and would run/jog the whole way. Sam would then do some technical training down the NSC after work. One day Sam brought one of his pharaoh hounds (Mud) out with us with a lead that would be attached to his waist. The hound made light work of the run and I was asked if I fancied taking one out. I'd give it a go.
It was enjoyable running with Mud and I formed a good bond with him. While out on these runs we frequently thought of ways we could up the ante through the winter and the BBB was coming out in both of us. I had bought a 10kg weighted vest the year previously. The vest would certainly raise your heart rate and you would sleep well at night after using it believe me! Sam had invested in one and we had already used them to walk to Peel in 4 hours from Ballabeg via the Sloc back in January of that year. Yes, it does sound extreme but at the time I was thinking I had 3 of those weighted vests in body weight on me when I first started losing weight in 2013! We vowed to park the vests for a while after that walk as it took a few days to recover.... So now, the weighted vests cropped back up in conversation. Why don't we see if we can run the 10km up around Cringle in them. The goal was to not stop even if we were at snails pace we would still jog and keep each other going. So that Saturday I turned up at Sam's and he looked as nervous as I did. Laura, Sam's other half was pissing herself laughing - "enjoy!" as we gingerly trotted off. Just over an hour later we returned and crashed out on Sam's garden, started to laugh and vowed not to do that again in a hurry.
We could feel the running (without vests) was getting us fitter and we continued to run or walk before work throughout the winter together in all kinds of weather. The fear of letting the other person down made us get out. I would be wrapped up with running tights and thermal kit including gloves. Sam would usually have his paper thin shorts on and moan that it was "pretty cold today isn't it mate?!". As we were running in the morning when it was dark we needed to have head torches. Mine was a Pretzl brand that I had got before the PW and was light weight. Sam bought his from ebay and it was shipped from Hong Kong. One morning he excitedly pointed out his new bit of kit and switched it on and the whole of Friary Park nearly lit up and this was on the lowest setting! I thought how big are the batteries as it won't last till the bottom of the road. There was a big battery pack on the back of his head - "it'll make my neck muscles stronger mate!". I can't tell you the amount of times I nearly fell over when we were out because when he talked he would look at me and I would be blinded. I was surprised planes didn't try to land in front of us! However, what was handy with this torch, if any cars or vans were heading towards us with full beam on, he would flick the switch to full power and they quickly dipped their headlights!
As Sam was in the Manx walking circles, coming into the new year (2016) he found out that a southern group of walkers would go out early on a Saturday morning. He asked whether we could go out with them and were welcomed along. I had sometimes seen the group out in the past year but knew they were a lot faster than me and hadn't even entertained on going out with them. In the group they were all good walkers; Andrew Titley, Janette Morgan, Werner Alberts, Suzannah Corkill and Robbie Callister. As we headed out the pace was pretty quick for me and I was thinking - this is them warming up! Soon enough the field was spread out and at certain points of the route the faster walkers waited for the others to catch up. This was all new to me. It was brilliant going out with these guys and I remembered thinking that they didn't make you feel inferior but encouraged you along the way. On one particular walk they had mentioned they were all going to Schiedam (in The Netherlands) in May to do the 100 miler in an attempt to get their Continental Centurion pin. I looked into it and decided that if I wanted to raise my game and prove to myself that these ultra's didn't have to be on my doorstep - then lets go abroad and do it. The PW would have to wait a year before getting back into it. I told Sam I would be available this one year to support him during the PW. Our targets were set and this would push our training on. I continued to train with the southern group on Saturday mornings and with Sam during the week before work.
Some of the more memorable walks myself and Sam went on usually involved big miles and big hills. None more so than the one we dubbed The Epic. We still talk about it now and have a laugh when recalling it. I would always tell him about the Glen Maye old post office hill (GMOPOH) being very tough and possibly the toughest road to walk up on the island. He would say Injebreck. How do we decide? Why not do both of them.....on the same day. We started at 5am one cold Sunday morning from the Waterfall pub car park in Glen Maye. Baptism of fire to begin as we headed up GMOPOH and headed down to St Johns via the Slieau Whallian back road. Then over to The Hope and up the hill and past Archallagan plantation and took the left which headed down to the Garth. Down into Crosby via old school hill. Up the back of Crosby to get onto West Baldwin road and after that warm up (!) went up Injebreck. Once at the top we headed down Sartfeld road and cut down Little London and over to Cronk v Voddy which took us onto the Staarvey road till we got onto the Poortown road. Through St Johns and retraced our steps up the Slieau Whallian road and down GMOPOH. I'm knackered just typing that route! Some highlights of the walk; it turned out being a nice day to walk and other than that it was brutal. We had hid some drinks in hedges the day before but had run out of supplies with about 4 miles to go and boy did we feel it. Walking down GMOPOH towards the end a woman was walking up it with her little dog. As we could both feel the bottom of our knees and we were literally broken the woman started laughing saying "isn't it supposed to be harder walking up the hill?". I softly muttered that we had done a few miles. It was around 49km to be more precise. As we got back to the car, Sam being the ever professional had to round the distance up to the full 50km. So, as I was sat on the bonnet of the car drinking coffee I watched him do about 5 laps of the car park in his best race walking style albeit after the hills we had just conquered. We never did decide which was tougher GMOPOH or Injebreck. Maybe we should do the circuit again? Er no.
In March 2016, we had decided the Cringle run in the morning was becoming a bit samey and we thought of something, yes wait for it, a little more extreme. For a month, each Wednesday we would head out with the hounds at 4:45am and run around 12 miles in total. That's big miles even if it was on the flat but this route wasn't flat. It took us from Ballabeg to Round Table via the PW route and back down Ronague. So this included Ballakillowey and the Sloc. We did it in all sorts of weather and the few cars or vans we did see up the sloc must have thought they were still in bed dreaming. On one particular Wednesday, Sam had brought one of his other dogs which was an Ibizan hound named Ice. It was like a small horse but wasn't particularly thrilled of being hauled up the hills at stupid o'clock. Myself and Mud waited at the top until Sam and his running partner finally caught up and he explained Ice wanted to run in the opposite direction!
I could go on and on about our experiences but one final walk that will always live with me was one I did by myself a couple of months before the Schiedam 100 miler. One Friday after work I had planned to go up and around Cringle 5 times in a row which was 30 miles. I drove the route first and dropped off bottles and food in hedges. At around 6:45pm I took a deep breath and set off from home. It was always going to be tough but I made good progress and was determined to get through it. At around 11:00pm a car drove up behind me and then went slowly to the side "hey boy! how you doing mate?". Sam had come up with Laura and the kids and told me he'd brought me some coffee. I stopped and thanked him and got the red hot black coffee down me. It was a brand called Rocket Fuel which states that it is an intense dark roast coffee with guarana in it to give an intense double energy hit. I poured the last remains on the ground after thinking I better keep moving - I had one last lap to do. I thanked Sam and he headed off home. I thought that it was good seeing some familiar faces and the coffee had certainly given me a boost. Half a mile down the road I could see Sam's car and when I got up to it he shouts through the window "mate, can you do us a favour? Can you give us a push?". He'd broken down. So here we were, me with around 20 odd miles done up in the sticks and I was pushing his full car to get it going again. It burst into life and off he went with a cheer from the occupants. I finally finished past midnight and couldn't get to sleep and put it down to the Rocket Fuel. I was back up Cringle the next week and could still see the coffee stain on the road. I thought what the hell had that done to my insides.
Welcome to the world of Crazy Frog, never a dull moment...……
Brilliant. Just brilliant ��
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