Endurance Life Coastal Trail Series - Exmoor

"Exmoor is classed as an extreme..."

So I said that I was planning on running a few of the Coastal Trail Series events before the end of the year, however I didn't realise that I would be booked into four of the events already!! What I hadn't banked on was Ali reading the post about my targets for the year! (What a mistake...) and this being a great excuse for her to sign up for a number of them as well to fill out her full year of events - by the sounds of it there is a minimum of one per month, February to December!

The main reason for signing up for the four events was the discount you received on signing up for that many at the same time, and as we are only running a maximum of 10km per event this year (something specified by the specialist when Ali was recovering from her fractured hip after the marathon) the elevation gain on the events we could see were 'relatively' easy so should be good fun! (time will tell if I regret that statement!)

First up is Exmoor, and the thing I noticed was the classification it was given on the Endurance Life website - EXTREME! Yeah that sounds like a great one to start off with...!

Given the fact that neither of us had actually ran 10k in the best part of a year (since Paris Marathon in April 2016), going for an extreme classed event first off seems like an odd decision but to be honest I'm pretty sure that most people think that we're a bit weird with all our exercise anyway!.. In for a penny, in for a pound (and all those things!) we may as well get the difficult one out of the way and then look forward to the remainder of the events!

Exmoor (8th April)

According to some of the comments I read in the comments of the video from last year's event, if the weather is good then the scenery will more than make up for the pain endured in getting up the hills during this event... I'm quoting the Endurance Life website here -"The Exmoor course is widely regarded as the toughest course in The Series and is definitely a grueling test of endurance for even the very hardest trail and fell runners." Yippee, well let's just hope that the 10km route is on the easier bit of the course! The actual length of the route we'll be running is 6.6 miles with total elevation gain of 1,270 ft.

I've put a link to the video of last year below, just to show what views we're hopefully going to be running in, fingers crossed we will have the same great weather that they have had for the previous couple of years as I can imagine it's going to be a real grueling event if not!! Having looked at the weather for this weekend it looks like we are in luck! Nice bit of sun and possibly not too hot!!

Wish us luck, and be sure to check out my even review afterwards!

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Paris Marathon - The write up...

What a weekend!!

Over 72,000 participants in the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris and our two runners finished (a superb achievement!) and technically came pretty much in the top 50%!

From the official results page, nearly 30,000 people didn't even get to the finish line - so very well done to Ali for walking / hobbling the last 3 miles with a bust hip, and very well done to Emma for running the full distance. If you want to see their times then they are available on the P4YTS Facebook page!

It was a glorious day to be out, especially if you were a spectator, but maybe a little on the warm side if you were running 26.2 miles..! Both runners were up bright and early, and with game faces applied were off out the door whilst the support team took a more leisurely journey to the first point to see them (via the bakery of course!).

The planned meeting point was supposed to be the start on the Champs Elysees... However, due to manic Metros and yummy pastry we ended up waving at them, and snapping the first photos with the Eiffel Tower in the far distance, in Place de la Concorde.

The plan was to see the girls at the 10km marker next, just as they ran into the first of the Parisian parks, however as you might be able to tell our plans didn't always go to plan! By the time we emerged from the Metro (after meeting up with Jamie) and fired up the phones to see where they were they were already on their way to kilometre eleven - onto the 19th km then, just as they exited the park....

Since this was only a very short walk to the exit of the park we had plenty of time to kill, and had the chance to get a few snaps of the various costumes being run in, and even managed to see a couple of impersonators (Jamie!) as they jogged along in the crowd. However, since he'd just been off with Craig to find some cold beers to cheer on the runners with we couldn't really be too peeved that he was looking like he was taking part!

Not long after the beers, our two (still very) smiley runners were on their way past, taking the high fives, and ignoring the beer salutes! 

We were then off on the travels again, following the route and wandering past the feed station just after 20km - the scale of one the food for an event of this size is one that you have to see for yourself - it must have been over 100 metres of tables FULL of bananas, bars, water and sugar cubes!

Once back onto the Metro, the support team headed over to around mile 20 (as requested), and just where the local fire team had set up some hoses to spray the runners. The look of joy on some people's faces as they ran through the freezing water really gives away quite how warm and painful the marathon was for them!

Ali's hip started to cause some real problems at around mile 17 so by the time we next saw them both they'd split up to make sure that they were both able to try and finish in their own pace. We ended up putting Craig in the middle of the road on 'Ali watch' to make sure that we saw her (and she saw us) for a bit of motivation and a health check! The smiles were still there (just!), but with only 6 miles left to go the end was in sight...

The next stop for us was just around the corner, and near the top of a cruel false flat that seemed to be the final tipping for a couple of runners, and unfortunately we saw more that one leave the race at that point - the more worrying thing was the number of ambulances that we saw head back down the field when we were waiting for Emma and Ali to come back past!

Still, come past they did - with a cheery wave, and turning down another beer(!) a final lap of the park was all that stood in their way before the finish line.

Once we'd topped up on our picnic, and then topped up on provisions for the post-race binge, the race was on to get to the finish line before either Ali or Emma got there. Safe to say we lost, blame it on blokes shopping, public transport, or Emma running too fast, but she was finished quite a while before we got to the exit of the finish area. Even Ali had crossed the finish line, after hobbling the last three miles with her hip before we finally found where Emma was taking a well-earned rest!

Congratulations to both Emma and Ali for completing the event, you did us all very proud and obviously enjoyed the event massively by the size of the smiles on your faces the whole day!

Over £350 has been raised for The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation and The Gabrielle Gray Foundation, if you haven't donated yet then follow the links below!

One Life - Live It, Love It

The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation

The Gabrielle Gray Foundation

Paris Marathon - two weeks to go!!

The countdown is really on now! Only two weeks to go before the Paris Marathon!!

From what I've heard it's beginning to get to be a case of "let's get it over and done with", training has been done to the best of Ali and Emma's abilities so the best way to help motivate them is to help raise as much money as possible for their chosen charities.

Please click on either (or both!) of the links below to donate.

The Gabrielle Gray Foundation

The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation

One Life - Live It, Love It

Ali and Emma run the Paris Marathon!

I know I've mentioned it in other blog posts, but most of the time Ali is training for one event or another...

At the moment, she's training with her friend Emma to run the Paris marathon - "just for fun" to quote them both, but they'd also like to raise a bit of charity if possible.

The first charity they are running for is the Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation, a charity set up in memory of one of my University flatmates. For more information and to donate to this charity please click on this link, and to see where I've mentioned it before see this blog post.

The second charity is The Gabrielle Gray Foundation, a charity set up in memory of one of Emma's friends who passed away in 2012. To donate to this charity please click on this link.

Thanks!

One Life - Live It, Love It