Citius, Altius, Fortius

Abhainn

HM by my calculations your hitting 80 miles per week , and alot of those some miles with a heafty a bag. You may be overtraining a little which is surpressing you immune system , but sure you know this already!
Maybe take a day ot two easy? :P

hunnymonster

lol, I know. Today I am resting :-) Next week will also be pretty light for the moonlight challenge on Saturday night.

hunnymonster

I was going to do a new race report thread, but running around in the mud for hours probably has limited appeal so it's more suited here! Myself and Mr Hunnymonster did the Moonlight challenge last night. London and Kent had been badly hit by the weather last week so it was entirely possible that we would have needed skies for this race but as it turned out the weather turned and the snow melted leaving lots and lots of mud :-), The course is a 10.8 km loop which can be repeated up to 5 times so is tailored to the abilities of all sorts of runners. This inclusiveness really appeals to me and the organiser Mike is a legend. The checkpoint on each lap is in the pub. It is a bit sureal running into a full pub on a saturday night, yanking open your jacket to expose a number on your chest and running back out again. Add to that, puddles that come up to your knee, mud more slippery than I've ever seen, a aid station with mulled wine and and you have a great night and a brilliant race. I finished in 4:58 (just in time for last orders) and loved every second. Mr Hunnymonster did just over a marathon so was finished about an hour before me. Neiher of us took our trainers home, I'm sure they would have been incinderated at the airport on some health and safety rule!

Slogger Jogger

Great report and fab running by the Hunnymonsters.

donothoponpop

Well done HM, 5 times through mud past a pub, doubt I could have done more than two laps:)

You're getting quite a feel for the off road events, are you going to try any of the IMRA races this year?

hunnymonster

Oh yeah, forgot the punchline. Although this event is a challenge not a race, I was first woman home by a long shot (long shot being the non-exact length of time that it takes to have a wash in pub loo's, have soup and a drink and reload the car) as it was then before the second woman arrived.

SUNGOD

great stuff HM sounds like as well as having a great result/time you and mr HM had a great time which is half the battle. im getting to like the sound of these events

hunnymonster

I've not really been updating this as my running miles have been logged in the 1000 mile challenge and the swimming and cycling have barely been kept ticking over.

We are leaving Ireland for the desert tomorrow (though it will take us a couple of days to get there). The event starts on Sunday and I'm starting to get nervous about it all. My main worries are the sand and the weight of the pack. I only ran with the full weight of the pack for the first time last weekend and it is heavy, very heavy. Added to this the hard work of the sand and I'm starting to get very apprehensive about the whole thing. Although I never had an out loud goal for this race, I did secretly want to give it my best shot, over the last couple of weeks I've realised that the first trip, is going to be a very steep learning curve and I shall be pacing myself accordingly. Survival will be the name of the game in 2009 though I may go back another time to try and do better.

There will be an email satellite/email thingie set up but I can only send emails to 1 person, so, via a very complicated chinese whisper type set up, Amadeus should be forwarded some progress reports on how myself (Jo), Zuppylurk (Niall) and Odysseus (Seamus) are doing. We are also able to receive short messages out there and I've been told by some veterans that these glimpses of home are a real life saviour when things are going bad. Details on how to do this are below if anyone is interested.


"Dear Competitor

I am getting lots of enquiries about emailing you when you are out in the desert. Your friends/family will need to go to the organisers' website - www.darbaroud.com - and look for 'Ecrire au concurrents/write to competitors'. In previous years, this hasn't gone live until the Sunday that the race starts - I don't expect it to be any different this year, but will keep you posted.

Last year, you could select the category of person you wanted to write to (staff/competitors etc) from a drop down menu. Selecting 'Competitor' led to a further drop-down menu listing all competitors and their running numbers - just click on the right one and it brings up the message screen. Number of characters is limited (but reasonable), no attachments, emoticons etc. However, until it's live, we won't know exactly how it will wotk.

I will be back in the office on Monday 30 March and more than happy to help anyone who has problems with the site - they can call me on 0845 026 4575 or email me at mds@realmorocco.com"


614 - Hunnymonster
713 - Odysseus
711 - Zuppylurk

MCOS

The very best of luck all 3 of you! I'm keenly interested and will hound --amadeus-- (won't be necessary I'd imagine!) for the slightest whisper. Checked that site and the ecrire au concurrents section is closed right now. Will check it again on Monday.

I'm actually jealous but so looking forward to hearing about your experiences

kingQuez

Best of luck to the three of ye. Like MCOS ill be on the lookout for any updates as the race reports come in... you're all going to kick ass

Abhainn

The very best of luck to you three. I'm sure its going to be a surreal experience. I wonder will there be highlights on TV somewhere?
Looking forward to your reports.

hunnymonster

@abhainn, eurosport usually have a tv crew there but they tend to be producing a 30 minute documentary that gets shown much later.

asimonov

Best of luck to all three of you, I am sure there'll be a tale or two to tell on your return!

Krusty_Clown

Very best wishes for all three of you also. I hope you have a wonderful experience, and memories that will last you a lifetime.

Magnet

Hunnymonster
The very best of luck in the dessert
That`s the 1000 mile challenge nearly sewn up!!
Go get `em
magnet

SUNGOD

good luck to the 3 of ye, looking forward to hearing how ye get in fact i feel a little jealous:D

Slogger Jogger

Best of luck hunnymonster and the other desert rats

RacoonQueen

Best of luck. I'd say enjoy it but I doubt you need any encouragement. Will be keeping track of you out there.

donothoponpop

Reading these well wishes, I finally understand the mentality of those who stand at the base of a tower block shouting "Jump, jump!":)

Best of luck in this insane race Hunnymonster (& pals). You're certainly making the most of your time on this planet.

ultraman1

best wishes hm...

excitementcity

Best of luck HM and co!

I have no doubt you will do fabulous. One of my friends did the Marathon de Sables last year and was one of the many to finish. He said it was one of the best experiences of his life even though it was so tough! Will keep an eye on yer progress! Best of Luck!!:D

Racing Flat

Enjoy!

Munster_Gal

Best of luck to the 3 of you.

Munster_gal

McConkey

Best of luck you guys, can't wait to hear all about this one Sounds tough....and exciting

Woddle

Best of luck Mr & Ms Hunnymonster can't wait to read how you get on.

TheRoadRunner

Best of luck. Would love to this one day myself so will be interested in reading your report

hunnymonster

Thanks for all the good iwshes guys. We're just about to head to the airport here in London. Next stop the desert :-)

hunnymonster

This was written for Runners World who is who I went to Zurich with, sorry that you don't know all the people involved but you'll get the idea. Photo's up at

http://picasaweb.google.com/fearonj/IMDE_IMCH_July09?feat=directlink





IMDE/IMCH
Training:
This section should really be blank. I've done a fair bit of running this year and really enjoyed it but swimming and particularly biking were a bit hit and miss. In fact I had only done one proper bike ride before the race so I knew I wasn't going to cover myself in glory. The reason for the lack of training was part laziness and part mechanical. I had so many bike parts fail on me this year that the bike I did IM on was 10% mine and 90% borrowed bits.
Germany:
Zuppy was in charge of booking accommodation for this part of the trip, this or course meant nothing was booked so we ended up in an overpriced hostel in the red light district in Frankfurt. The air con was broken so we baked in 38 C days. We arrived on Thursday, put the bike together (a job I hate more than almost anything), registered (painless) and had a wander around. Frankfurt sounds like it's going to be a horrible town but I always enjoy visiting it. The food can be fantastic and there are loads of green area's for such a big city. Friday I took the bike out for a test ride and saw a bit more of the city and attended the race briefing in the evening. The day before an IM, I really don't like to be on my feet too much so the day consisted of nothing more than bringing the bike out to T1 to rack it and a quick dip in the lake. I went to bed early but when Zuppy hadn’t arrived home by 3am I went to look for him. I found him in the bar of the hostel buying drink for all sorts of random people and having “a few” himself. Good to see him living up to his reputation as a Sherpa extraordinaire (see Florida 07!)



Sunday morning, up at silly o clock for breakfast. My friends in the red light area were still working hard when I left to get the bus out to the race start. Once out there, I did the usual flaffing with bike parts and food for a while, into the wetsuit and down to the start. IMDE is a deep water start so we were in the water when the gun went off. The swim is in a lake formed in an old gravel pit. The course is so well laid out. There were large yellow marker buoys every 100m and at the turn around points large pontoons with safety and ref's on them. Inflatable thingies are put on dry land to sight off as well. It’s almost impossible not to take a good line in this race. There were also kayakers every 20-30 meters. I've never enjoyed a swim as much. Out of the water and a run up a pretty steep beach to transition. I'd left my shoes on the bike and was already dressed so didn't need to stop in the changing tent. Out on the bike and the first 12 km are uneventful into Frankfurt city. Then you start on the loop. It goes through a number of villages and rural country. The support in the villages was amazing. People put out picnic tables and have bbq's to cheer people on. The terrain of the course is perfect for me, the hills are short sharp affairs and the downhills are long gentle and straight. Even a scaredy cat like me can get up a descent speed on them. One of the hills is cobble stoned which makes things interesting but the music and the cheers makes is superb. I was having some minor gear problems so had to do the whole thing on the top couple of gears. Not a huge problem for a grinder like me but it would have been nice to have the option on more than 3 gears had I needed them. 2 loops of the course and it's into T2. I swapped my bike for trainers and was on my way. The run course is a 4 loop affair along the river. Quite a bit of the course is cobbled which I'd forgotten about. Not a huge problem but did require attention. Just as on the bike, support was amazing on the run. Temperatures were pretty high at this stage (38 I believe) but the organisers had arranged extra ice and supplies so we were ok. My lack of training started to show on the run, I was comfortable gut not moving as fast as I would have liked, also slowing with each lap so i just enjoyed the atmosphere rather than beat myself up about it. Zuppy's son came to support as well and it was great to have him there. The finish of IMDE is in the historic centre of Frankfurt. It's a beautiful spot to finish.
I got my nutrition very wrong on this race. I ate and drank ok on the bike but because of the heat I decided to stick to liquids on the run, I drank far too much coke and when I finished felt pretty bad. I managed a shower but then had to go to the medical tent. My Potassium levels were running amok so I needed to get treated for that. I managed to throw up about 2 liters of coke, bile and iso over the lovely medical staff. Sorry about that guys. Then I just went home to bed. What a wimp. 11:17 in total, faster than I deserved on no training, a lot slower than I'm capable of though.

Switzerland:
Thursday, arrived at youth hostel and met up with some pirate friends. The only reason I was doing a second IM race in the same week was to meet up with these guys. It's funny how you can go without seeing people for a year, and just start up where you left off last time. I always enjoy going away with the pirates. Put the bike together again (grrgh!), had a quick run to check legs worked (they did and even felt good) and then down to the serious business of socialising! I did manage to make it down to registration. Almost nothing was open but the registration itself was pretty harmless. No transition bags though, which worried me. Friday we had a quick dip in Lake Zurich and a short cycle to test out "heart break hill" on the bike course. Thanks to Bassy for twiddling stuff on the bike to get more gears. Zurich is biddy expensive so we ate in the hostel most nights. Saturday we met an old friend of mine for coffee and cake in the city centre. It was good to do something non-Im-y for a couple of hours. I tried to iron-nap in the afternoon but couldn't get settled. Dinner with the pirates and then off to bed, then up to check on Zuppy in the pub (and confiscate his Credit card) and back to bed. Zuppy came home at 4am just as I was leaving. He was certainly making the most of the trip!!! Transition was a bit of a mess, there was no space to leave anything but no bags to put stuff in so it was all very cramped. There were also no toilets inside transition so there was the bizarre situation of having to wait on tourists to finish in the loo’s before the athletes could use them! There was not much music and the PA seems to play a recording of a very boring man reading out a list of the sponsors. Usually at IM, the nasty 80’s power plays are getting people really excited and there is a general atmosphere of something big about to happen.


Swim: Another deep water start. I would have hated these a couple of years ago but they don’t bother me now. 600m to the first buoy and I was enjoying the swim. The water was relatively clear. Giving competitors yellow hats and using yellow buoys was just another (of the many) silly mistakes the organizers made. Towards the end of the first lap we swam around the back of an island to get out on our RHS onto the island to begin the 2nd lap. This was where things started to go wrong for me. Someone in front of me suddenly changed direction, and then he stood up and seeing me coming, for some unknown reason decided to make a fist and punch me in the nose. There was blood EVERYWHERE. I got out of the water and asked the volunteers what I should do and they told me to go on. The pirates were on the Island, Garr went very pale which is my biggest memory. Rosey filmed me leaping around like some druggie leprechaun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvvGcuwXKk) smiling and saying I’d broken my nose. It’s only when you think back that you realize how stupid the situation was. Anyway, still bleeding (I think I lost at least a pint of blood based on how long I was bleeding) I got back in the water but had to breast stroke as I was feeling quite lightheaded and was afraid I would faint and drown. The second lap took and age but I got through it


T1: Out of the water and I met Simon. I was really looking for any excuse to stop but he said “actually, you don’t look that bad, get on with it”. Afterwards, he said he can’t imagine why he would have said that as I looked a bloody (literally) mess but he did so I did (get on with it that is) Almost every bike was gone L At least that made mine easy to get at. I had to think of the twists and turns the fast swimmers had to go through. Some idiot photographer kept getting in my way as I tried to get out of transition. He wanted pictures blood and gore, I wanted to get on my bike.
Bike: 2 loop course, first bit is about as boring as it could possibly be. No support, nothing to look at, bad marshalling. I passed a couple of pirates and plenty of people with really cut calves and bling bikes. I really need a good bike equivalent of “crap swimmer” to yell at this particular beast as I pass. The second part of the bike route has a few bumps in it and a couple of more significant climbs. I didn’t particularly enjoy them. I like to hammer up hills and recover on the way down but this course just didn’t suit this. The marshalling was also pretty bad. Someone really should tell them that pointing a flag at us just 3 meters before I reach a turn travelling at 55kph is not really helpful if there is no prior indication that I’m going to have to turn. To be fair, a lot of them were kids so I think the organizers are more to blame than the actual marshals. My heart goes out to Nam who went the wrong way but I can easily see how it happened. I’m also surprised no one was run over. Many of the roads were not marshaled at all.
The aid stations were also a bit of a mess. At one I took a powerade bottle that was actually water, not that it really mattered as every bottle I got was leaky and one had a really sharp edge where I cut my tongue! They were also badly spaced and at bad locations (an aid station going downhill, wtf?) With the exception of heartbreak hill (towards the end of each lap) support on the bike course was sparse to say the least, in fact the Rosey/Bryan outposts probably doubled the total out-of-town support on the course.
I’m sure you can tell from all this bitching that I thought IMCH was the worst organised race I’ve ever been involved in. Most of the issues were small (and a result of them trying to be cheap) but they really ruined the experience for them. I feel really bad for the novices doing their first race. No support on the bike to make them feel like the hero’s they are and bad value for money to boot. After the work they’ve put in, they deserved better.


T2: dumped bike, put on trainers and out on the run – I’m really not sure what some people do in transition?


Run: I love IM marathons, the craic, the cheering, the moveable picnic. This was no different. The pirate support was exceptional as always. The aid stations were (as on the bike) badly placed but at least they were stocked (with the exception of 1 of them). The course was very twisty and backed round on itself a couple of times which is great for seeing supporters a lot. Harrier half and Mrs GOM really stick out in my mind. No wonder they were both hoarse on Monday. I’ve never heard such loud cheers. I wasn’t moving particularly fast. I don’t know why, the head cold I had, the broken nose or the lack of training – who knows but I was still enjoying it. I ran with various people for a while. At one stage I stopped to ask Pete/Oxy/Munch for Vaseline and was directed into a first aid tent. There was the very surreal moment where I asked for lube for some minor chafing and HH suggested I might want to get my broken nose first-aided as well. Much along Simon’s biazzre line of “you look fine” earlier in the day I said “naw, only a broken nose, I’ll deal with that later!”. The final lap of the run was so much fun even if this was turning out to be my slowest ironman ever. I went up the finishing chute in 12:49, sore but happy.


Post-race: I met Zuppy at the finish line and told him I was going straight to the medical tent to sort nose. Vision was also pretty blurred. They triaged me and gave me a red card (never good - must have been a slow day in the IM tent, I wonder why, oh yeah the organizers were charging for basic medical cover – unheard of in IM and downright dangerous IMO) Anyway, into an ambulance (who kindly waited on Zuppy to join us, you would think saying to the bouncers on the finish line “my wife is in an ambulance out the back, can I get though” would be enough but no, they didn’t let him in until a passing paramedic overruled them (another black spot on the organization). They also made him leave me alone in the hospital to go back to collect my bike, but that’s another story.
Off we went to hospital. Swiss hospitals rock. In three hours I had bloods done (kidneys not working, lots of waste products – no ****, I’ve just spent nearly 13 hours abusing htem!), xrays (yes nose is broken) had seen an eye consultant, been given a drip and anti-nausea drugs and was allowed home into the care of Zuppy (a nurse himself). I was super impressed. Something quick to eat at the hostel and into bed for me. The pain only started the next day. A broken nose is quite sore, would you believe? Zuppy had spent most of the previous day trying to get the organizers to look into the incident, but they were having none of it. Eventually we had to go to the police to make a statement. As with the hospital, I was very impressed with the Swiss police. Not sure they’ll ever find him, but I’m happy enough that at least I didn’t just let it go.


Now for the teary award ceremony thank you bits. The pirate ship is a blast, where else can you go away to do something that hurts and emjoy it so much (don’t answer that Carl!). Zuppy gets bad press as a Sherpa, he might not be any good at putting a bike together to getting up on race morning to calm my nerves or any of the tradional Sherpa roles, but when the organizers didn’t want to know about me being punched in their race, he kicked up a fuss where I would have been intimidated into saying nothing. He is also the one that makes me lighten up a bit when I’m being too anal or throwing a strop (over bed sheets of all things!) or anything like that. He is a perfect balance for me so thanks hon!

Peckham

Still trying to get my head around what on earth the punch in the nose was all about!

Magnet

WOW
I`m in awe!
Great report HM very well written - sorry about the nose!
Whats the recovery time on that?
Mind yourself and reap all the Zuppy TLC goin...:)