Hills, Hills, Hills and More Bloody Hills

Next Exciting Instalment in the 50th Year Challenge

The last couple of weeks have had a lot of ups and downs, all in the name of this 2017 challenge.   When many people had a relaxing time over Easter, myself and Victoria booked a cottage in Ambleside and set about climbing as many Wainwright peaks as we could in one week. The lakes threw every sort of weather at us in 7 days. On day one we ended up buying after-sun, after getting burnt, on the final day we almost got blow off the top of Clough Head due to gale force windows. In the interim we had hail stones, rain, wind and sun. A typical week in the English lakes.   This is not Victoria doing a Donald Trump Impersonation, it was Very Windy, honest We did however manage to “bag” 21 Wainwright peaks in a week, taking the total for 2017 to 25, so halfway through this part of the challenge. For the Fitbit geeks, we walked over 110 miles in the week and around 210,000 steps each. For the non Fitbit geeks 10,000 steps per day is considered an acceptable level, we averaged 3 times that, and our steps were 50% up hill. The Wainwrights conquered were: Hartsop Dodd, Stony Cove Pike, Thornthwaite Crag, Gray Crag, Nab Scar, Heron Pike, Great Rigg, Fairfield, Hart Crag, Dove Crag, High Pike, Low Pike, Tarn Crag, Sergeant Man, Sour Howes, Swallows, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Troutbeck Tongue and Clough Head. We did get joined by our kids and Alfie the dog, who suffered from mountain wind ears

So, after that week of hills we set off to visit Luxembourg to tick off another country and my 48th Half Marathon. The weekend actual involved two runs, the first was an impromptu run across Newcastle Airport. When I booked the flight to Brussels the confirmation confirmed the flight departure as 6pm, when we arrived at the airport at 4:20pm there was no 6pm Brussels flight on the board, several expletives followed when we noticed the 5pm Brussels flight. A very quick sprint across the airport only just got us to checkin before they closed. Within 40 minutes of arriving at the airport we were on board and taxiing down the runway. Victoria thinks this is a great way to travel, a sentiment I don’t agree with. Half Marathon preparation wasn't brilliant with a couple great and late nights in Brussels. A night at Delirium Café which boasts over 2000 different beers apparently is the wrong type of carb loading, I have now discovered. After 2 nights in Brussels it was off to Luxembourg for the Semi Marathon Des 2 Luxembourg. Finding a half marathon in Luxembourg had proved difficult as there only seems to be 3 in the year and due to prior commitments, I could only make this one. This event took place in the small town of Beckerich (population 635 according to Wikipedia). I had emailed the organisers to get a list of hotels in the area, the list was very short, there wasn't any, but one of the local farms had a B&B. We arrived Sunday afternoon at Four Oaks B&B, only to find it to be an American Ranch themed farm, with all things cowboy everywhere. We had cow hide lampshades, horseshoe towel rails and cowboy boot toilet roll holders? What we also discovered was Luxembourg shuts on a Sunday night, fortunately Mike, the Cowboy who ran the “Ranch” (he even drove an American Dodge Ram Pickup), had found one restaurant open, about five miles away, which turned out to be quite good, actually. In my haste to book the Semi Marathon Des 2 Luxembourg, I had not bothered to look at the route, which most races post on line. I made the mistake two days before I ran of looking at this, the online description “hilly” should have set the warning bells away, (this may have explained the need to have a few beers in Brussels).

The very Hilly Profile of the Semi Marathon Des 2 Luxembourg This race was unbelievably good value for money, the cost of entry was €5.50, which when you compare it to The Great North Run at £54, it is for nothing. The organiser, Michel, was extremely apologetic that as they had gone to chip timing they had had to put up the price from €3.50!! To make it even better value every runner got a €2 voucher to buy food or a drink at the end (I spent mine on a celebratory Diekirch beer, brewed in Luxembourg). No medal or T-shirt, but I think that would be too much to ask for. So, the run, as well as the hills (1500ft of climbing) the race turned out to be a trail race (again never checked that out). For those who don’t know what a trail race is, think school cross country, but 13.1miles of it, almost all either uphill or downhill, they don't do flat in Luxembourg. The route was stunning, through woods, a 600m tunnel, over the border into the Belgium Province of Luxembourg (hence the race name), back into Luxembourg and home. All on a course of forest tracks that either climbed or descended (well almost all). The event was friendly, cheap, a great route and bloody hilly. It wasn't a quick run, but one of my favourite half marathons so far. So now back in the UK, 48 half marathons completed, next stop for running is Denmark in September, which is the only Western European Country I have not completed a Half Marathon in. First priority is to blow the tyres up on my push bike, see if it will start and get cycle training, I now have 7 weeks until the coast to coast bike ride. 48 Half Marathons Completed 1 Country in Western Europe to Run in 25 Wainwrights to Climb 1 Coast to Coast Bike Ride to cycle 1 fiftieth Half Marathon to Run in the Arctic Circle 1 embarrising flashing incident in Wales 1 nearly missed flight to Belgium 1 expensive pair of compression socks purchased So, the rest of the year will be fairly quiet… Thanks for all your support so far, the challenge continues…… The Justgiving Page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nigel-Cook2