15 minutes of fame and Ninjas V GPS

WOW - What a couple of weeks we have had. Since meeting Mimi on the 5th January Sarah and I have been interviewed by Ian Corless from Talk Ultra.

For those of you who aren't aware Talk Ultra is an incredibly popular Ultra running podcast and to actually have the chance to be interviewed for the 15 mins of fame section is an absoloute honour so thank you to Ian for giving us the opportunity to appear.

I think I can speak for both myself and Sarah when I say we were ridiculously nervous for the interview. We weren't sure how it would work and of course because me and Sarah were not together it was going to be difficult to know when to speak.

When Ian called it was the wierdest feeling - I have completed so many long runs listening to him on the podcast so I recognised the voice immediatly but actually hearing him speak to me was very surreal.

We had a lovely conversation and Ian asked us lots of questions about the race and our preperation for it and it wasn't at all as scary as we thought.

If you would like to listen to our interview you can find it by clicking the link below

Click for episode

We are 1hr 52 mins in - but make sure you take the time to listen to the whole episode there are some incredible interviews on this one. Perfect for listening to on your long run.

The weekend just gone (i can never figure out if you say this weekend or last weekend for the weekend just gone) Karl and I travelled over to stay with Sarah and Ben oop North.

It was a great trip - we left on the Friday after work, and after batteling with the sat nav to give us a route that wouldn't take us on a toll road we finally got there to a dinner ready and waiting for us :) we did plan to have an early night ready to get up early for a run but of course this didn't happen once we got chatting :) we finally went to bed around midnight and agreed to get up at 7 to run at 8 ( late for Sarahs usual Saturday run but early for me)

we did 3 runs over the weekend, a 12 mile Saturday morning followed by a shorter faster 3.5 mile in the evening and then on Sunday we did a GPS navigated run.

That's right me and Sarah were let loose on Cannock chase with a GPS and a piece of paper with coordinates for check points. Ben and Karl dropped us off at Cannock chase but not before we had a picture to show that we meant business :)

Then we were off. We had had a crash course that morning on how to enter in the co-ordinates and a general idea of how it worked. And although we were nervous because if we got this wrong it would be a very bad omen for the desert we were also hopeful that we would kick butt.

And kick butt we did -

This is me at check point one. And we hit checkpoint after checkpoint dead on continuously after this 

I didn't actually notice the runners in the road sign until I was uploading this picture earlier :) Sarah is pulling a funny face as she is worried about my husband standing in the road taking the picture, I however seem completley unfased - not sure if that is a good thing ;) 

At this point we had made it back to the last check point and just had a 2 mile run to get home - Sarah knew the way so there was no need for garmins now but mission accomplished

WE DID IT !!!!

We then spent the rest of the day relaxing and planning what we needed to take (a final list) and also what we needed to put in each drop bag - it became so much more real at this point becuse we were having to think about what we would need at a check point 145 miles in !!! I still can't get my head around it.

I have my last longish run this weekend - the Folkesworth 15 but I plan on running this having had next to no sleep (I am working at the Music Box in St Ives the night before) and carrying my full pack - wish me luck

On that note I should also mention that we received our packs this week from the wonderful people at Inov-8 - we now each have a racepac 25 litre and some water bottles and a mesh pouch to use with it. I can't wait to try this out at the weekend and will post a review on how I got along with it following the race :)