Dark O'Clock X-C

Dark O'Clock X-C
Early morning cross country run from Flitwick to Luton

Sunday 30 September 2012

Day 274 Sunday 30th September 5 miles miles : miles to date 1819.6 Another cold morning reliving my rugby playing days vicariously through my lad, meant I was tired and need of a rest before today's jaunt. I am now firmly in taper mode and I didn't need much persuading to hop on the couch for an hour or two. Trouble is I didn't want to get off, until prized away by Fi late afternoon. I would like to say we had a great, easy and speedy cross country five miler, but we didn't. We were both tired and took it easy all the way. I certainly wouldn't have gone that far without her today, so thanks Fi. I think? A few more days and the carb loading will start and the weight lost will zip back on. My monthly weigh in saw me dip below 12 stone for the first time in quite literally 17 odd years, with 11 stone 11lbs. I cannot in fact recall when I was last in that bracket and I am guessing around my wedding day? At my age, weight has nothing to do with vanity but running speed. It just cannot be a coincidence that the drop in weight has come at the same time as a big increase in my speed. Just another stone then and I'll be flying. Whhooaa there Fi, just kidding. Anyway, in line with my earlier ranting's at the BMI calculators, at five foot eight (and a half..) I'm still borderline overweight. By the end of the week I'll be firmly back in that bracket.

Saturday 29 September 2012

Marathon pace or not??

Day 273 Saturday 29th September 12 miles miles : miles to date 1814.6 Today was down as a slightly quicker marathon pace run before race day next weekend. I was tired, got out of bed 17 minutes before the last time I could start (to allow for the finish to coincide with a park run) and I decided to stick to a slower seven minute mile pace. I'm now all of a quandary and don't know what to do at next weeks race. I ran the 12 in 1.23.03 averaging 6.55 per mile. In a perfect world, I would run 6.50 per mile in the race, but I am worried that I may go off at that pace and blow in the second half. On the one hand today, I was tired, my legs a bit heavy and I wouldn't want to run more. That suggests that I set off slower next week. On the other, it is taper time on top of a lot of running, I was late starting and went without any breakfast, no carb loading and non race day. What to do? Go out at 6.50 and aim for the big one or perhaps at 7.10 ish and go for a good for age time? My guess is come race day, if I feel good and up for it, its going to be all cards in and if I don't it will be a more conservative and sensible effort. I shall be all higgildy piggildy all week trying to make my mind up.

Friday 28 September 2012

Day 272 Friday 28th September 3.4 miles miles : miles to date 1802.6

Just a meandering run around my old stomping ground in Maulden Woods. I haven't braved the Doggers Delight car park for ages since moving offices and it was good to get back to a slow, easy run around the trails through the woods. It was quiet and uneventful which was just what the doctor ordered. Time, pace, splits and all the PB hunting stuff just got parked and I went back to my true running love. Trails.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Hairspray, me? Naaa

Day 271 Thursday 27th September 5 miles miles : miles to date 1799.2

I’ve done it again. I really should look at the miles done to date. If I had, another .8 would have slipped into the mix. Having said that, I had a bit of a rotten run. Like Samson, my power has been lost through a go faster haircut this morning. Now I say power. Samson was granted supernatural strength by the man (or woman) upstairs, to combat his enemies and perform heroic tasks like slaying an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass. I on the other hand, was nick named Harmony hairspray in school as my B.J. Hooker centre parting and shoulder length hair never moved. I guess our powers weren’t quite equal?
Something went wrong and my loss of hair is as good as anything to blame. I was meant to do an easy mile, fast three and easy mile. I was over anxious and set off running too quickly too soon and just blew at three miles, when I then did the two easy miles back. I went out with the GPS in a bum bag trying to run to perceived effort and just ran too quickly without any energy.
For the record, the coiffed locks have been long since replaced with a far too sensible short back and basin cut look which makes me look respectable. Appearances can – and indeed are – deceptive. Now, where’s that hairspray gone…

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Super heroes

Day 270 Wednesday 26th September 6.3 miles miles : miles to date 1794.2 If its Wednesday it must be laps of the forest centre with the super heroes at 7.30 mile pace or less. We are now in a grove and we are all finding the pace easier each week, consistently averaging quicker than the target time even on the longer runs. Hopefully after Chester we can keep it going and pick it up to closer to seven minute mile pace. Having said that, the lads found it easier than me tonight. My breathing was fine and not really an issue, but my legs were a wee bit tired towards the end and I was quite glad to stop. We averaged around a 7.19 mile pace and the truth is apart from the heavy legs, it felt quite comfortable. I am struggling with what pace to run Chester in. I have for the last 14 weeks planned to run this as fast as I could and as it draws nearer, I am constantly oscillating between various race pace strategies. I am tired this week, but I hope with the cut down in mileage, the less intensive sessions and proper carb loading I'll be up for it by race day. The extra adrenalin and the fellow runners should also hopefully help, which is the problem. I really don't want to set off for an unobtainable time and blow, but equally I want to go for it. Aaarggghhhhh my head hurts. Hark at me mind, race strategy if you please. I'm not exactly going to win the thing. The only strategy I had last year was turn up for a marathon just before the start. And I didn't even do that once.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

The John Bunyan Trail run 25th and 26th May 2012

 The John Bunyan Trail run 25th and 26th May 2012

 Some months ago, I had the idea of running all of the John Bunyan trail in Bedfordshire. At the time it didn't cross my mind that the run would turn into a major event for my running club, with six people trying to run what we thought would be a seventy eight mile route (which turned out to be eighty two) and many more doing a mixture of short and long distances. The aim of the run primarily was to encourage as many people as we could to come out from the club to run whatever distance they felt like, on new trails and with people they may not have run with before, save perhaps at a Tuesday night club session. Whilst the club runs are superb and achieve exactly what we all want as runners, they don't tend to lend themselves to much social interaction other than with the people who run the same speed as you do. That's totally fine, but the JB was intended to be a way to allow people to get to know each other much more. There was never going to be the type of pressure that runners often feel going into races. The JB was not timed, although we did have approximate meeting points, people could run what ever distance they wanted, they would not be pressurised into going a step further and there were no positions at the end. It really was a long distance run for the pure love of running.

 Over the months that followed my idea, one by one runners came out of the woodwork and said they would give it all a go. By the time we had reached the start line, six hardy souls stood side by side about to run a very long way, without any reward at the end other than the satisfaction of having done so. Of the other five, beforehand I would have guessed only one would have been there and that was of course Richard Jones. That in itself meant the JB was already guaranteed to be a success before a footstep had been taken. The others were James Handley, Bec Fleckney (who fibbed and said she was only doing 50ish), Paul Barton and Mark Folker. 

 The start and finish was in the main square in Ampthill and the vague idea was to run it in twenty four hours but if we didn't it wasn't an issue. Satnav and I had worked out a number of stops and times, which gave us in total eleven checkpoints. We worked out the times we thought we would reach each in order to allow runners to come and join us at anytime of the day and night. Rather remarkably we were almost spot on with our timings at each checkpoint right through to the breakfast stop at 10am, some sixteen hours after the start. We were thrown out of kilter by the distance between legs nine and ten, due to a mixture of heat, five very long fields where we could not run due to the terrain and the leg being two miles longer than we had believed it was. That did mean we were late for the remaining checkpoints although we ended up covering the whole distance in twenty four hours and nineteen minutes, which was only nineteen minutes outside the vague finish time. Out of the six that started all but one finished the whole distance, with Mark having to drop out early in the morning after a magnificent forty five miles most of which was run in the dark and through the night.



From L to R - Paul Barton, James Handley, Richard Jones, Paul Owen and Bec Fleckney




 For me, the greatest achievement of the run was to get so many of our friends from the club out running with us, with runners starting or finishing at every single checkpoint throughout the day and night and even a jocular Scotsman calling us from Phoenix, Arizona at at 4am our time via a skype call between mobiles. It really was quite a wonderful sight to turn up at the start and see a total of eighteen runners joining us, some of whom did a few miles and others a lot of miles. The distance each covered was not the issue, but the taking part. It was also nice to see so many non runners also turn up to cheers us off.






crossing the fields into the outskirts of Flitwick












Having run through Flitwick, heading over towards Steppingley before turning towards Westoning 






The first section took us from Ampthill over to Harlington Church on a windy, mostly cross country eight odd mile route. We were to learn later on that if John could have taken the twisty indirect route or the direct route, he always chose the former. I guess it might have had something to do with the terrain at the time, his wish to preach in settlements that have long ago disappeared and he probably didn't think about us poor runners retracing his steps some 350 years later. We wound out of Ampthill and crossed the fields entering Flitwick, then over to Westoning where we picked up Ed Druce and Phil Clarke on route.



Phil Clarke joining us in Harlington..


....and Ed Druce



A very proud father, Jody Buczynski meeting us in Harlington, before he joined us later on in the run



Checkpoint one and on time at Harlington Church



Katie at the end of leg 2, just about to shoot off to a party


  We rolled into Harlington on time where we regrouped and waited for the Church Bells to chime 8pm. The sun had come out in the previous three days and it was a lovely warm summers evening. We were joined here by Richard Stanley who was running and with support from Keri Stanley who would eventually start her various legs at 3am, as well as Rob and Jan Cook who were racing on the Sunday but who still came out to give us a cheer which was very much appreciated by all. The full timers seemed to be quite relaxed and quite loose. We were not running the legs particularly fast and went at the pace of the last placed runner which was often me, which was the intention of the rough pacing chart we had devised. At my normal pace, I would have covered the first eight miles in about half the time it took us, as would a number of others but to try to run it fast would have defeated the objective of the run. There are faster and slower runners at the club and I tend not to talk to them anywhere near as much as the runners I train with, so this was the chance for everyone to get to know others just a little bit better, which meant speed went out the window. 

 A perfect example of how the run brought more of us together and hopefully engendered a  bit of team spirit, is the way it encouraged runners like Richard and later Keri, to come out. Both find it hard to get to the club due to work commitments and whilst I knew their names and would see their results in the clubs weekly race round up e-mail, I hadn't spoken to them much before despite seeing them at club awards nights and races. Richard proceeded to run 27 miles with us, until we arrived at his house at 3am in the morning when Keri took over for the next 5 hours. Both then re-joined us for the final leg into Ampthill as well, later on the Saturday. The same thing happened with other runners throughout the whole event, which for me was the best part of it all.  




 Having forced everyone to wait until the church bells chimed at 8pm, we headed out of Harlington and took a very slight detour to allow a few photographs at the Bunyan oak. In his time, Bunyan had joined the church and proved himself a gifted speaker.  For some time he had been field preaching as he had been forbidden to speak in churches without being trained, which he wasn't. As a result he called people to join him in the open air away from authority, to hear him nevertheless.  The oak tree in Harlington has a well-established tradition that from here Bunyan preached.  Indeed until fairly recently, the tree was easily climbed into as foot holds had been worn on the outside of the trunk and it was hollowed out rather like a pulpit.  The ground slopes upwards from the tree, making it easy, still to this day, to speak from it and be clearly seen and heard.  A tree in Stewartby also is said to be one from which Bunyan preached. Having reached the tree, Chris Jenart climbed into the very hollow where Bunyan allegedly preached although I suspect that Chris may not have quite realised he may have been in the very same foot prints of Bunyan, when he did so. 




 We spent a few moments enjoying the history of the Oak, before we re-traced our steps and rejoined the trail. By this stage, there were still fourteen of us going strong and starting to look forward to a fish and chip stop that I had organised in Sundon Hills country Park. We still had a number of miles to cover before then and we of course took the most indirect route as did Bunyan, heading firstly over to Pulloxhill turning right at the very large water tower before heading off again cross country towards Sharpenhoe Clappers which we could see in the distance.  There is a very good view from that across the fields in the small valley below towards the imposing Clappers on top of the hill in the distance which we knew we would have to climb. The Bunyan route took us on something of a circular trail, clearly on this occasion with the intention of taking in Pulloxhill where there is another church, which was the third one we came across by that stage.  We didn't quite make the Church itself and I suspect Bunyan was more interested in preaching in the open air than under its roof in any event. It was at this point that Niki Bowerman and David Cook bid their farewells and headed off for the comfort of their respective homes. 





Climbing the very steep steps up into the Clappers at Sharpenhoe


 We first headed down into the valley and crossed over to Sharpenhoe, where we came across yet another closed local pub in the heart of the village. The Clappers are believed to the site of a Promontory fort located at the edge of an ice sheet formed during the last ice age, which is why there is a magnificent view across the flattened plain. The Hillfort is located within the the magnificent beech trees at the top and the whole formation dominates the skyline from miles away. It is reputedly haunted with a fine monument hidden in the trees and is a classic chalk escarpment. The chalk itself is evident on the steep climb into the woods and the path that winds it's way around the side of the hill that we took heading towards Sundon. In terms of running, unless you are Lizzie Hawker or Jez Bragg, on a decent size ultra run the runners motto is "walk the hills", really right from the off. The truth is that the climb was so steep, I think even the above two would have adopted the classic stance of hands on top of the knees as you push on up the hill. Mercifully, whilst steep the Clappers are not that high comparatively and the pain was over relatively quickly.  




Looking back towards Pulloxhill in the distance from where we had just run


Having reached the top of the clappers, the trail heads around the side before heading towards the country park at Sundon


Becs and Richard Stanley


After the Clappers, heading over the hills to fish and chips at Sundon Country Park 


We left the Clappers and headed over to Sundon Country Park where we had arranged to meet the wonderful Sue Jones, who was turning up with out drop bags and hot food. The meet was timed for 10pm, when we were four hours into the run. Ideally, I would have liked to have timed the food stop after around six hours on the go, but we were stuck with the chip shop closing time so 10pm it would have to be. As it turned out, by that stage we were all starting to get hungry and a little cold, as the sun faded and it turned dark. It was at this point we were also going to be able to pick up our head torches and rucksacks for the night section, so we were quite looking forward to a fifteen break or so whilst we wolfed down the grub and put on warmer clothes. We arrived early and there was no sign of Sue. A quick phone call established she was just leaving the food establishment and we choose to wait. In the time that we did, the air temperature dropped and combined with the exertion of having run for four hours, so did our body temperature's. It was with some relief that we jeered Sue pulling into the car park not long after. Out she bounded with bags of piping hot food, before Richard asked innocently if she had swapped the bags over from his car to her car, which she had turned up in. No, came the answer and the realisation that we were going to have to carry on for that section without some of us having head torches and no warm clothes. Was anybody upset? Not one single person, possibly with the exception of Sue. We gobbled the food down which in fact raised the body temperatures no end, had a good laugh about it and then headed onwards through the woods and fields at a snails pace towards Streatley village , which in itself was a bit of a mini adventure. 





A very cool looking dude wearing shades in the dark...ok ok it's me looking a bit daft! 


Waiting for the traditional ultra marathoners diet of fish and chips to arrive at Sundon





Satnav Jones doing what he does best - to be entirely fair, in 82 miles we got lost once only



 Sue very kindly shot back home, swapped cars and raced back in time to meet us in Streatley where we had stopped to fill our bottles in yet another Church on route. One thing I have learnt from my years of marathon and ultra training, is if you are out on long training runs in the heat, try to sort a route that will take you past Churches with a cemetery as they often have outside taps. If there are flowers on the graves, that is a sure sign there is a tap. This one was located next to a pub which looked very busy and with quite a number of it's patrons sitting outside. We must have looked quite a sight with twelve or so of us turning up at 10.40pm on a Friday night in full running gear. We must have made a few more question our sanity as we then proceeded to change into our night gear and don our backpacks. Having said that, one of the lads knew three cyclists who emerged from the pub as we were changing. It appears that they have a regular Friday night thing of going for a long ride, before downing quite a few liquid beverages prior to cycling home in the dark. Now that is madness, but I could have murdered a pint of cold larger at that very point. 


                                                                    Richard and Ed



Chris Jenart


 Leaving Streatley, we followed the trail towards the outskirts of Luton. On the way, we ran into a field full of sheep which in the dark was quite a funny sight as their eyes glowed in the dark as we shone our head torches on them. I came across this a few years ago on my first night run, when I ran into a field full of cows when there were only a couple of us present. That was a bit scary, as we didn't know if they were cows or bulls and the shiny eyes seemed quite tall and spaced far apart. At least the sheep just baaahed a lot, which I did to them in return whilst putting up with the inevitable Welsh and sheep related jokes.







 A mile or so further on we ran into a rather large field or rape which in places was head height, at least for me albeit not James Handley. That was quite a surreal moment, running along a narrow path with rape that high in the pitch darkness, with hands often held high above the crop. When it dropped, it was quite a sight to look behind and just see a line of head torches in the dark in a straight line moving as one in the darkness.









We ran across the A6 just outside Luton, before heading towards the North Bedfordshire golf course. We ran in-between the playing holes and headed up to what is normally a great viewing point looking over towards Luton. This is where a number of trails cross' including of course the Bunyan and the Chiltern Way. The wind picked up a little on the top and there was a chill in the air. The conditions were never the less almost perfect. In the weeks running up to the event, the weather had been foul at times, with cold temperatures and driving rain. In the lead up week, it became very warm which made it a little sticky on the Saturday daytime but great running conditions at this time of night. We slowly meandered over to the fourth meeting point in Lilley, where Deborah was joining us for a midnight run to celebrate her thirtieth birthday along with Jim Dodds. We were also met by Helen Dodds and Jarca Handley, both of whom turned up with a boot full of cake and warm flasks of tea that went down a storm. The problem with really long distance running, is that you just can't eat the same amount of calories that the body use's up. After a while, your appetite just goes almost at the exact point you should be eating. I know again from experience that is likely to happen and at that point, you just have to find something that can tickle the taste buds enough to make you want to eat something. You often wont know what you fancy until then, but previous races have shown me that is normally a very salty bag of chips (hence the first stop), rice pudding and peaches, cakes, plain sandwiches and flapjacks, but most importantly a hot, sugary cup of tea. 

  We passed another pub on the way in with people coming out. I have no idea what they must have thought as we ran past them and proceeded to have a mini picnic on the Green. We dropped off a few runners at this point including the wonderful Lorraine Tur who had probably been running for the longest time she has been on her feet, Chris and Ed. 



The wonderful Helen Dodds meeting us with hot tea and cakes at the first of three separate points


A tea party at midnight on the Green in Lilley


A cheerful Robbie Craig, who also came up trumps with his support, especially with ice lolly's on the last leg and buying the first beer in the pub at the end






What a way to spend your 30th Birthday. At least Deborah had a happy birthday sing song at midnight


Mark Billington


After a brief pause, we headed into Lilley in the dark. The route took us through the village until shortly before the end of the main road, when that bloke Bunyan played another trick on us and instead of taking the straight route, off we went into the fields in the opposite direction of where we would eventually end up going an hour later. He's a cheeky little chappy is old Mr. Bunyan. We left the lights of the village and crossed through overgrown rape fields again in the dark winding our way slowly around the countryside. I assume in days of old, there would have been some form of settlement that took him that way but these days it is just farmers fields. Still, the banter was going strong with a lot of light hearted complaints being levied at JB. We made our way back to the outskirts of Lilley, only yards really from the right turn we had taken sometime earlier. The trail then followed the outskirts of Luton North golf club, criss-crossing other local trails and heading down into the village of Barton. This was only quite a short section as the crow fly's, but it took us almost two hours due to the meandering route. 





We had somehow managed to calculate our meeting times quite accurately, which meant that the runners who were due to meet us didn't have long to wait. The weather was good to us and we were enjoying one of the warmest nights of the year to date. Given the weeks of rain that came the event , it would be accurate to say we were somewhat fortunate. That might well have contributed to four more runners joining us at the 2am stop in Hexton, which I had long thought would be the quietest meeting point. As we arrived, Jodie and the others had managed to find a couple of chairs  and another flask of hot tea and cakes were waiting. I think this might be the only eighty two mile ultra event where I might possibly have put weight on? They were of course very gratefully received. We were also joined by Annie Paige who was aiming to be out for eight hours, partly in preparation for the Greensands Ridge Ultra marathon that she would end up running with Becs in June. Martin Davey also came out, after finishing work late and coming straight out in the early hours.





We didn't have long to wait until our next brew, which was only an hour later in the next village as we ran past the front of Richard Stanleys house. Keri was waiting for us with a pot of tea and a particularly nice cake which was wolfed down. I did spy an attractive looking bottle of Chateauneuf du pape on the sideboard but didn't quite feel like a glass at that stage. Richard had been running for the best part of seven hours and it would have been very easy for him to say cheers chaps, the beds upstairs and I'm passing on the baton to the other half. Luckily Keri is also a long distance runner more than capable of taking up the baton, which she did. Despite the magnetic lure of a shower and bed at 3am, Richard came back out and ran another few miles with us before turning back. Keri then took over and ran for the next five hours, with them both returning later in the day on Saturday and joining us for the last leg. I know that all of the longer distance runners very much appreciated this, as well as all the other friends who came back and joined us again on the Saturday afternoon. Bit mad really to think that runners could come out and run miles with us one day, go home, have a normal night perhaps with a few beers and something nice to eat and then come and find us the next day and we were still chugging along. The fact that so many did, very much added to the convivial atmosphere of the whole event.



Richard and Keri Stanley doing a stirling job at 3am








 Just before Richard turned back, we ran into a large field with a number of horses. I don't know if our head torches spooked them or the sudden arrival of so many runners, but we were circled for a time by one large white horse that thundered past us at some speed. It looked a little ghostly in the half light of morning and chased us right to the exit gate. We probably ran the fastest section of the whole event in that field. Richard had to back track the same way, although he made it out alive. 






Martin Davey looking fit



Shortly before Shefford, the phone rang at around 4am and we were joined on route by the Flying Scotsman George Arbuckle who was calling from Phoenix, Arizona. It was around 8pm local time and the lack of a slur meant he hadn't made it to the hotel bar despite the searing heat which he told us about. The last time George contacted me mid ultra in the middle of the night, was on the Heart of Scotland 100 mile race. At that point, I was shivering in a tent in the middle of nowhere, having been rained on for 8 hours solidly with a total lack of anything approaching suitable clothing. I even had to resort to wrapping a survival blanket around my core, before putting back on my soaked, thin running t-shirt and shower proof only jacket for the next four hours. He sent a text to say words to the effect of he hoped things were going well and he was off to his nice warm bed. It did not go down well at the time and has since been a long running wind up between us, hence the planned call at 4am on the JB. It was great to hear from him and I know he was very disappointed not to be able to join us. We then wandered into Shefford where we met the club chairman Jeremy Bell bang on target just as the sun began to rise. It was a little surreal sitting in the town centre at that time in full running gear with a bunch of other equally loopy individuals and it is one of the memories that will stick with me.



After leaving Shefford we headed towards the next handover in Elstow, just outside Bedford. We had quite a long trek to get there, with a mix of trail and road running along the way. It was by now gone 4am and the sun was well on the way to coming up. This was probably the most magical part of the day for me. Having run twice through the night before, I know its a special time of day. The first rays of light and warmth felt good and gave us a little lift. Its still quite out there at that time, with no cars, noise, dog walkers or even cyclists. It just felt that we had the world to ourselves, no cares, pressures and a rare feeling of isolation in a normally busy part of the country even with a dozen plus runners around. 




Just outside Haynes, we ran past the Greyhound which we knew from previous runs had an outside tap. I suspect if the landlord had looked outside he might have been a tad surprised to see a bunch of runners spread all over his tables. 





Having run through Haynes, I began to look forward to a great view on a high point looking towards Bedford and beyond to the northern most point of the course. By now the sun was up and the day was clear. We had a wonderful vista in front of us, with Cardington Airship Hangers visible on the right, Bedford directly in front of us and the last few legs over to the left, which we were not going to get to for another nine or so hours. 





The meeting point was outside yet another pub, the Red Lion in Elstow. During the previous few miles, Mark had slowed and after stopping, he decided to call it a day. He had been out from the start and had covered a magnificent forty five odd miles. There was no pressure put on anyone to do a step more than they wanted to do. We still had what turned out to be another thirty seven odd miles to do and you just cant make people run that sort of distance. Mark had contributed an awful lot to the event and he was missed on the rest of the run.

Waiting to join us was Dave Coker, meaning that someone from the club had joined us at every meeting point, which would continue for the rest of the run. We had a few others drop out including Jim, which meant that unbelievably Helen Dodds was back out again with warm tea and cake. We really could not have done this without such great support.

John Bunyan was born in Elstow in 1628 and there is a commemorative stone in a field nearby marking his birth. He was baptised in the local church and did not lead a trouble free childhood it seems. Civil war broke out in 1642 and Bunyan joined the Parliamentary forces in 1644 whilst still a teenager. After the war he returned to Elstow where he married for the first time, before later moving to Bedford after the death of his first wife. He had by then joined the congregation of St. Johns Church, to the south of the river Ouse. In 1660, the monarchy was restored and a belief spread that national unity could only be achieved through uniform religious beliefs. Independent congregations such as the one Bunyan attended were forbidden to preach. The man himself was by now a regular speaker and he refused to accept the states stance. He continued to preach and was eventually arrested in the hamlet of Samsell, near to Harlngton.

Bunyan was only 32 when he was arrested and taken to the county Gaol, which was less then five minutes from his home. Initially he expected to stay for weeks, but months went by and he was not released. Despite his second wife petitioning the Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Matthew Hale, to re-open his case, Bunyan ultimately spent twelve years in prison. During this time he wrote several books, including his autobiography " Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners " published in 1666 and " The Pilgrims Progress " although it was not published until February 1678. 



We didn't have a great deal of time to do any sight seeing. If we had, we could have tried to find the commemorative stone at the far end of the village. Elstow also has the Abbey Church of St Helena and St Mary which was restored in 1880, over looking Elstow Green and Moot Hall. The church has two stain glass windows, one depicting a scene from the Pilgrims Progress and the other from The Holy War. Bunyans mother, father and sister are buried in the graveyard, although the man himself is buried in the cemetery in Bunhill Fields, London following his death on the 31st August 1688.



At around 7am, we ran into the outskirts of Bedford to the next food stop, which was McDonalds on the High Street. I am fairly sure they weren't expecting so many dirty, smelly runners clogging up their tables, but hey ho needs must. I plumped for a calorific bacon and cheese bagel and coffee. Satnav Jones had been looking forward to a strawberry milkshake. When they said they were not doing them for another half hour, his reaction of "I've not just run 47 miles to be told your not doing milkshakes" didn't go down that well. So we did what all mates do. Laugh and sat down to eat our food. 



James Handley munching his way through most of the menu at McDonalds


John Bunyan statute at the top of Bedford High street




Not far off Bedford High Street is the Bunyan Meeting Free Church and Museum







The JB trail headed straight through Bedford, along the High Street and up into Clapham. Richard still hadn't had his milkshake and his chuntering kept us amused for the next few miles. The 8 am stop was outside a local spa and despite being out for the best part of fourteen hours, we were exactly on target time. We were by now slowing, with an increasing number of walking sections interspersed with shuffling runs. We knew we would slow and had added extra time into later sections.





Having arrived at the spa and having run past a few open shops that would have had milkshakes, the spa was shut. That set up a great deal of mirth aimed at Satnav, who didn't fancy retracing his steps 400 metres. The shop in fact opened at 8am, which was the time we were due to leave but of course, there was no prospect of that until the shake had been consumed. We were joined by Mike Petty, Niki Rouse and Julie Pritchett. The sun was up, we were fed and had a two hour time limit to get to the breakfast stop where we were going to have an hours break. We also said our farewells to Keri, albeit it was only temporary as she came out later again.




Satnav in action




52 odd miles of running and the first and only wet/muddy foot of the entire event for me



The next section was to me at least, one of the most picturesque as we passed to through some beautiful fields and country villages. We partly followed the tracks of the Bedford Clanger off road marathon in which I had somehow managed to bag third place earlier in the year, albeit in an entry of only around forty runners. The pace this time was somewhat different as we meandered slowly along the river for a few miles to the rear firstly of Pavenham and then Stevington. I had been the only person who had checked this section out before the race and I know the others appreciated the scenery. They probably would have enjoyed it more had we not run more than fifty miles to get there in the first place.







 As we ran into Stevington, we came across giant flora which was fine for James but made me feel like an extra in "Honey I shrunk the Kids". It was quite a funny sight, just to the rear of St. Mary's village church in Stevington. At the side of the church which we passed, are two wells. A natural spring issues from the limestone rock on which the church is built and it is a moot point as to whether one is considered Holy because the water flows from under the Church or if it was built originally on top of it. Either way, given the colour of the water and the abundant supplies we had, no one was tempted to partake from the spring. 





 We paused for a moment at Stevington Cross in the middle of the village, basking in the glorious sunshine. It is unclear when the cross was built although there is a reference to it in 1279 records. There is a legend that reached at the cross due to words in The Pilgrims Progress : "He ran till he came to a Place somewhat ascending and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below in the bottom, a Sepulchre". As we paused a group of brightly clothed cyclists went past although no one had the energy to gently rib them for sitting down. After an all too brief pause, we continued on taking in the windmill built in 1770. 



 I knew we were close to the breakfast stop and it did take us all a bit of an effort to cover the next few miles into Bromham where a garden had been commandeered to allow us an hours break and recuperation. 











  We were joined by Keith Morgan, Terry McHugh and the fabulous chef, supporter, motivator and runner, Fiona Owen. I may be a tad biased in respect of the last one, but it is right to say that Fi made a major contribution to the run with a table full of hot food waiting for us, hot and cold drinks, chairs and clean clothes via a pre-planned bag drop. We had planned to arrive at 10am and did so almost to the minute despite being out there for 16 hours by that point. We had built in an hour's rest and threw ourselves onto the lawn at the front of the house in the glowing sun. We all then proceeded to just sit still for a moment and enjoy the feeling of not actually moving forward. One by one, we peeled off shoes, socks and other assorted items and tried to let our feet dry out. The run had been mostly dry up to the last section where we hit some water as we ran along the Ouse. It was an ideal point to stop, re-charge, clean up and take on some more food before setting off for the last few legs. The breakfast point had been carefully worked out and the entire timings had centred on that. We wanted to be well over halfway, which we were comfortably, a place easily accessible to those joining and leaving, at a time which then just gave us the rest of the day to run and not another night and at a point where we would be able to sustain the remainder of the run without having to have another large meal stop. By this point, we had under a marathon to go albeit in the end it took us over seven more hours to do it.




 The hour whizzed by unfeasibly fast and before we knew it, the time to depart was upon us. Our running friend Franchesca Hardwick popped by to say hello and wish us well, as did another runner Emma Else a little further on as we ran out of the village. It was very nice to see both. We reluctantly bade farewell to Annie who had run as far as she had ever before and welcomed with open arms our new comrades in arms, including Fi. 







 I knew part of the next section quite well, having run some of it three times over the years as part of the Bedford Clanger, where I had somehow managed to nab third place earlier in the year. Very soon the route changed and Fi took over with the navigating as she had done this before. By now the sun was fully overhead on what would turn out to be one for the warmest and brightest days for many weeks before and after the run. We entered another crop field where it was head height and I did stop to take some fantastic photographs of the runners at this point. We were chugging along quite nicely and it was just another great moment to be out there in the sun with your mates and - in my case at least - with my wife, on a shared endeavour. I had long since stopped worrying about the runners who joined us thinking about how slow we were going and instead just enjoyed the moment.

















 We were all parched and in need of a drink when we came across a local pub, which was open. An unplanned stop for a coke and brief pause in the shade meant that we started to move away from our target time although initially only by a small amount.




That having been said, not long after the entirely new section that we hadn't previously checked out and which was more enjoyable as a result, we came across the five fields of doom and the only really inaccurately measured section of the entire run. The fields were each very long, highly rutted and far too difficult to run. We all struggled to walk in places and the section ended up being around a mile and a half longer than we thought. With the pub stop, we ended up being around fifty minutes late for the next meeting point which wasn't bad going seeing how long we had been out there. The fields of doom were probably the hardest section of the run, especially for James who had turned his ankle at one point and which had gone up like a balloon. How he ever finished the run is beyond me and it is a huge credit to him that did. 







Me and Fi





We were joined at the penultimate meeting point by a few runners that I for one hadn't gone out with before. These included Ian Orr-Campbell, Warwick Browning and Tracey Nichols, as well as Laura Johnston with whom I have shared many a trail. Ali Parker also re-joined us for another leg. Fi had made plans to head back and we were sad to see her go. The new runners had been waiting around in the sun for us and I was a tad worried the inevitably slow pace that would follow. As it turned out, they were fantastic and very supportive which came as no surprise. At one point, we ever so slightly lost the trail and reached a cross section. The fresh new runners volunteered to head off in every direction trying to find the correct path. The rest of us lay on the ground, closed our eyes and dreamt of the finish. 







At the final meeting point we were re-joined by a number of runners who had been out the day before or even earlier that day. They included Phil Clarke, Brendon O'Mahoney, Sue Jones, Shaun Kirtley, Jim Dodds, Paresh Aatkar, Jo Aatkar, Martin Beare, Robbie Craig and Richard Stanley who had run much of the first half. It was a very welcome sight to see so many friendly and welcoming faces waiting for us and we all had a tremendous boost as a result.







Ampthill Park




The last leg was still tough. We continued to follow the JB trail out of Ridgemont and along a very well known and frequently run section over to the glorious surroundings of Ampthill Park. We were all by now very tired and knowing we were so close, added to the feeling of just wanting to get it done. As we left the top end of the Park, a left turn would have taken us half a mile down the main road and back to the starting point. It will come as no surprise to learn, that good old Mr. Bunyan decided to take yet another twisty route adding on an extra and painful two miles. We had known at the start we would come close to the finish and then have to carry on. At that point it didn't matter. At the end it did and the knowledge we were so close and yet had to put in the distance seemed to make those last two miles the hardest.













One last slow run through Ampthill and we were back to where we had started just over twenty four hours earlier. It was truly wonderful for all of us to see so many of our friends waiting at the end, many of whom had taken part in the run at some point or other. It was a very nice touch for the Chairman of the club to present us with chocolate gold medals and certificates. The run was always planned just as a bit of fun with the club, to get to know other people and to undertake what ever length of the challenge people wanted. Sitting on a bench in the middle of Ampthill after we had finished, tired, dirty and in need of something stronger than water, I got the distinct impression that everyone just had a ball and enjoyed every part of it all. At that point it dawned on me that it was so successful we would have to do it all over again next year. 







There are so many people to thank for helping turn the JB run into such a wonderful experience, that its impossible for me to start naming everyone as the list would be very long and I would not want to miss a single name off it. So, so many people helped contribute to it in so many different ways, without whom it would not have been anywhere as good as it was. This was for me, one of the best if not the best, running experience I have ever had. To a very large extent, that was due to so many people taking part. Not just running, but turning up at various points to support, posting facebook messages, arriving at checkpoints at all sorts of hours with hot tea and food, texting messages of support, opening their doors in the middle of the night, being at the end, joining us for a few beers and generally just supporting us and each other every step of the way. It was truly marvellous. 

I do have to name check one person though, without whom this just would not have happened and that's satnav himself,Richard Jones. I don't want to get all self congratulatory and the boy wonder is such a modest chap, he will brush this off with his usual joke. I may have had the idea for JB, but if Richard had said no, it would not have got off the ground. I would not have asked anyone else in the club, as it was such a long way. Having said yes, we then spent a long time planning and discussing the logistics, how to encourage people to come out, training in some very long races for it and generally preparing for it. He even navigated almost the entirety of the route, despite the rather tongue in cheek nom de plume I have hung around his neck. I wouldn't and indeed couldn't have sorted this on my own and I certainly would not have tried running it on my own. So Mr. Jones, it is an extra large thank you from me.

The final word has to go to the runners, who I hope are all listed below and the legs they ran. 

Richard Jones 1 – 11
Rebecca Fleckney 1 - 11
Paul Barton 1 - 11
James Handley 1 - 11
Paul Owen 1-11
Mark Folker 1 - 6
Brendon O’Mahoney 1 (part) & 11
Sue Jones 1 (part) & 11 (part)
Phil Clarke 1 (part), 2, 3 and 11
Ed Druce 1 (part), 2 & 3
Val Philpott 1
Shaun Kirtley 1 & 11
Lizzie Ash 1
David Cook 1 & 2 (part)
Ali Parker 1 & 10
Carloine Gilby 1
Niki Bowerman 1 & 2 (part)
Katie Ruditis 1
Chris Jenart 1 – 3
Nick Jones 2 (part)
Lorraine Tur 2 & 3
Richard Stanley 2, 3, 4, 5 (part) & 11
Mark Billington 3 & 4
Jason Theobald 3 & 4
Deborah Pedley 3
Jim Dodds 4, 5, 6 & 11
Annie Page 5 – 8
Jeremy Lewis 5 & 6
Keri Stanley 5 (part), 6, 7 & 8
Martin Davey 5 & 6
Jody Buczynski 5 & 6
Jeremy Bell 6
Dave Coker 7 – 9
Mike Petty 8
Niki Rouse 8
Julie Pritchett 8
Keith Morgan 9
Terry McHugh 9 – 11
Fiona Owen 9
Ian Orr-Campbell 10 & 11
Warwick Browning 10 & 11 (part)
Laura Johnston 10
Tracey Nichols 10 & 11
Paresh Aatkar 11
Jo Aatkar 11
Martin Beare 11 (part)
Robbie Craig 11 (part)