During mountain marathons, you need two types of food – one type for when you are running during the day and another lot for when you’re hanging out at the overnight camp. The overnight camp food is easy – you need dehydrated food that is lightweight and got loads of calories. Dried tortellini pasta mixed … Continue reading Fast Food for Mountain Marathons
Rogaining is a sport of long distance navigation on foot for teams of two or more over a twenty four hour period. The object of the sport is to score points by finding checkpoints located within a specially mapped area within the allowed time period. As checkpoints / controls can be visited in any order, … Continue reading The Worst of Weather for the 2008 Irish 24 hour Rogaine
Lights shone through the darkness, exposing the path straight ahead. 2.20 am. I sat in the car, silent and scared. This was it lads. This is what I’d be thinking, dreaming, eating, sleeping and training for, for the last 12 months. The Wicklow Round lay right on down that track. All I had to do … Continue reading Waiting to Attempt the Wicklow Round – July 2008
Angle Tarn with Hanging Knots to the Right, Lake District. Photo courtesy of Mark, http://picasaweb.google.com/markinbucks Maps don’t always tell you all that’s out there. I was doing the Great Lakeland 3 Day, a three day navigational event covering 100 miles of distance and 30,000 ft in climb in the UK’s Lake District. Not from the … Continue reading Nothing like a bit of Local Mountain Knowledge
I've never run a marathon. However, I have run a mountain marathon. Three to be precise. Unlike the standard 26 mile / 42km marathon, fully marked along tarmaced city roads, a mountain marathon is: 1) Anything between 35 and 55 km. 2) Is not marked. 3) Is in the mountains. To make it more interesting, … Continue reading Surviving Mountain Marathons
IMRA’s Navigational Challenge Series is a compendium of three races, the distance of which totals 50k. However, unlike IMRA’s Wednesday runs which abounded with signs and markings showing the way, these races demanded ‘navigational ability’. You must know how to read a map and work a compass. You have to carry with you jacket, water … Continue reading Learning to Navigate: IMRA’s 2006 Navigational Series