Half way through 2021 and I had to absorb the chastening experience of nearly 11 hours out on the SWCP on the Pure Trail Tsunami course. It wasn't what I planned and I didn't think it represented where I was, fitness wise. But, truth be told, the ankle I injured has been a physical weakness throught most of my running life. The "original" injury took place playing rugby when I was at university in 1976. In all places it was in Boston, Massachusetts on a tour. With a tour group of only 19 players for 7 matches in 18 days we were somewhat stretched! But as my injury was one of the minor ones, or so it seemed, I was patched up to play again just 4 days later against Amherst College. It didn't go well, and I never played a competitive game of rugby again.
I've twisted, sprained and gone over on it with regularity ever since. At times it has received expensive attention from physiotherapists, podiatrists and even Simon Costain had a look at it in the mid 80's. It actually looks deformed with a big lump on the side these days. It doesn't help that my gait is irregular (like most of us), one leg is 2 cm longer than the other, and I apparently over-pronate, but only on one leg!
Given all of this, I had actually had a pretty good run (!) since 2015, training regularly with only the occasional injury blip. Running on the mostly soft ground on Dartmoor had, I believe, an overwhelmingly positive effect on maintaining a good range of motion in the joint. I seemed to be able to wear most types of offroad shoes, and although I am always extremely reticent on uneven downhills, I got by. Coming out of the Tsunami, it settled down, but now I started to have difficulty on any left to right downhill camber, where the tendency of the ankle to collapse inwards (downhill) gave me discomfort and I felt pretty unstable.
Around this time, with uncertainty still surrounding the Covid pandemic, UTMB offered all those registered for their races in 2021 the opportunity to cancel or defer their entry. So I decided to defer, as did several of my other Devon running friends. I decided right there and then that I needed another challenge! A solo project.....
So I set my alarm for 3 am on Friday July 9th, headed up the M5, and saw the dawn over Winchcombe in the Cotswolds. I was taking on a 50 mile 'anytime challenge' of a route called the Cotswold Ring, unseen, unmarked and totally self-supported! A verified completion of this would also act as a qualifier for the LDWA Trans Pennine 100 mile in 2022. I even logged the route for a Fastest Known Time to give myself some extra incentive!
I had a really good day - well nearly 17 hours of the 24 spent on the route - encountering some great variety, and coping with some overgrown paths, a shortage of water and "on the fly" fuelling in some of the tourist hotspots of the Costwolds. The ankle held up pretty well, and I used my trekking poles throughout. There were some great views.
Just 5 days later I lined up for a 10km road race on the totally flat paths in Exeter along the River Exe. It was a sweltering evening, and probably way too close to my 50 Cotswold miles! But somehow, with another vest from my club in my sights in front of me I managed to sneak home a couple of seconds inside 50 minutes. Sore legs obviously followed!
We also took the decision in the summer to sell our Dartmoor home, which really was too large and expensive to run and maintain for us. Initially we hoped to move to a new house in North Devon but eventually this didn't work out, and we changed plans and location.
I had one last "fling" on Dartmoor, completing the 50 km Chagford Challenge with some of my Devon running friends in late September. We were blessed with some really good weather, on terrain we were all pretty familiar with and made pretty good progress without ever pushing in just over 7.5 hours. LDWA events are invariably very friendly, give you great support at checkpoints and are cheap to enter. The very non-commercial ethos is in tune with how I feel about my runnjing these days. Walking and running when youy feel like it is very much the way to go, and although you normally get a memento and a time, it is never really a race.
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