Drystone Radio Interview

Enjoy!

Trailtrekker 2011 in pictures

Below are some of the photos I took en-route. Due to how miserable (I mean awe-inspiring of course!) it was I only took 3 photos in the second 15 hours of the day. All these were taken on my phone, by way of explanation of the poor quality of the photos!

Ady, James and Hollie lead the charge down the canal from Niffany Bridge


(Arthur) Sarah (Jack and Ellie) and Emma support the team at Malham.


Ady and James stroll towards Malham Cove


Ady climbs into the ambulance and his trailtrekker is over, later diagnosed with a fractured rib!


Nick supports us at Horton as James reclines


James and Hollie walking between Horton and Cam Fell.


Hollie and James negotiate a stile between Buckden and Kettlewell in the dark.


Kilnsey crag across the valley from above Conistone. Day 2!

Almost time

Hi everyone,

Thankyou so much to all the sponsors and those who have wished us luck. Tomorrow morning at 6am we will be setting off on our 100km trek. My ankle seems to be alright (touch wood and not wanting to tempt fate) so now all that remains is dumping, ermm i mean dropping the relevant child(ren) off with their relevant nanas (thankyou so much!) and then it's registration time. There is a live feed via the Oxfam website if anyone would like to track our progress -
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/trailtrekker/live

Must go now as i have some squashed grapes to pick up...i do love my kids!

Austwick Amble provides final preparation

"Ill advised", "idiotic" or "asking for trouble" would be comments that would sum up my decision to run in the Austwick Amble fell race on Bank Holiday Monday.

Thankfully I'm pleased to report I came through relatively unscathed. The calves are a bit sore from Sunday's football and the quads are a bit sore from the fell but both are better than a sprained ankle (or worse).

I'd bowed to peer pressure as 2 of my brothers have been running the fell racing circuit and had asked me if I was competing at Austwick. I'd agreed on the basis that the course was pretty familiar to me (I was brought up in Austwick and had walked most of the course in my youth) and I figured that by fell racing standards I wouldn't find too many which were this gentle (8miles/1200ft climb).

As I found out fell racing is different to the roads. The first mile and last mile and a half were on the road so I knew I had to make good my time whilst on 'my surface'. I was in pretty good shape until the fell and whilst I didn't completely die I got picked off by the seasoned fell runners in the middle third of the race.

2 such runners came past me as we approached the top of Crummack Lane and the road eventually allowed me to overhaul them just before the finish line (helped by a steep road downhill which I used as my sprint finish). My finish time of 1:00:37 (27th) seemed pretty good although I had few pre-conceived ideas of what a good time would be.

As for my brothers; Harry is knocking on the door of the 'elite' group with a time of 55:00 (9th) and Sam, despite having to stop to tie a shoe lace, finished in 1:01:38. Another mile on the fells and he'd have caught me.

Thoroughly enjoyable though and luckily no lasting injuries that I can feel!

Results are here and the route is here.

The Dogs of War win The Oxfam Cup

The 2011 Oxfam Cup was won by The Dogs of War after beating the SSC 2-0 in the final at Sandylands on Sunday.

Defence proved to be king with only 10 goals scored in the group stages. The Q-Team did their best by conceding 5 of these! In fact in our group Bayer Neverlusen conceded the only other goal, something that probably cost them their place in the semi-final and allowed The Dogs to progress.

SSC - Finalists

In the second group The Ice Cream Scoopers can count themselves even unluckier not to have progressed. The were pipped to second spot by Club Com First Madrid on goals scored. The all important goal came in the final group game and secured a 1-1 draw against Franks Tanks.

The Dogs of War - Winners

In the Semi-Final SSC progressed with realtive comfort against Club Com First Madrid, 3-0, and The Dogs of War edged past Franks Tanks 1-0.

As with the 2009 tournament the same group (the one The Q-Team happened to be in) produced both finalists. The opening minutes of the final were even but then The Dogs managed to score a goal which took the wind out of the SSC sails.

SSC get a shoot away during the final

The SSC seemed to struggle to regain their composure that had seen them totally untroubled in the tournament to date. In the second half both teams pressed for the crucial next goal but it was The Dogs who eventually settled the tie and win the trophy with their second goal.

Jonathan Endersby shoots during the final

Despite me being the organiser the tournament seemed to pass by without major incident. Hollie did a great job refereeing pitch 2 for the tournament, as did Ady when he took charge of the fiesty second semi final.

I am indebted to Ady, Nick, James and Emma for the photos taken (some of which appear in this story).

The Q-Team (minus Emma (behind the camera), Simon and Ben)

Team T-Shirt has arrived!

Just a quick post to say a massive thank you to Eclipse-Sports (http://www.eclipse-sports.co.uk/) for printing out t-shirts for free. They have arrived and they look totally awesome :o)

Please say hi to us if you see us - we don't bite :o)

Ouch!

After sleeping off the immediate aches and pains, i realised my ankle was hurting more than it should be so off i popped to the doctors. When she asked how i'd done it my reply ''walking 23 miles in the dark over the dales'' wasn't really what she had expected. Then i told her i was walking 100km overnight in 2 weeks time...

Anyhow, it turns out that i have torn a ligament and it takes 6 weeks to heal. I told her i had 2 weeks so she's given me some pills and told me to use my bike instead of walking. Clearly my main worry now was what i was going to wear to my daughter's [fake] wedding reception at the school. I opted for the trainers with the dress look, i completed the outfit with a limp.

I will cross the finish line even if i have to crawl!