Dark O'Clock X-C

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

Sunday 30 December 2012

Hadrians Wall run Day's 1-3



Day 362 Thursday 27th December 31.1 miles : miles to date 2437.9

AKA: HWD1 - The Blood, Sweat and Beers Ultra Boys Tour 

 Like all daft idea's, it was a good one at the time. Why not run all of Hadrian's Wall between festivities was the question? A multitude of very good reasons could spill forth, not least leaving the family to run through mile upon mile of deep mud, water, cow droppings and all manner of farm debris.

 As the alarm went off early doors, the rain was hammering against the window and I had to gently persuade Fi to drop me at the metro. Three hours later, Satnav and Mrs. Satnav collected me from the station having left Beddiesford land at 5:30am. We then carried on for another forty minutes until we reached the desloate coastline of Bowness on Solway. With Ireland behind us, Scotland on our left and England on our right, we ran back the way we had come before the tide came in and swamped the area.In true Roman road fashion, we ran along a windy, open and straight as an arrow stretch for three miles, before finding Sherpa Sue Jones who waited at various points all day with supplies. 

 There were very few houses and not a single shop for the entire route. Even when we wound along the river skirting Carlisle, there was nothing but trail and mud. Lots and lots of mud. We found our first field of the brown stuff early on and soon realised we were going to spend the entire day totally caked in the stuff. I have no idea how many field's we went through for mile upon mile we sank into the stuff at least up to our ankles, if not halfway up the shins. As a result, it was very slow going for almost the entire section. It is difficult convery just how muddy sapping this route was, although on the plus side it was very well sign posted for the entire run. 
We collected Sue at the 18 mile point, having waded through a field flooded by an adjacent river. The next section was relatively fine. At the 24 mile point the tables turned again. By now we were in the dark and finding it difficult to find our way out of the fields, simply due to the fact that we could not see the exits until we were virtually standing next to them. We slowed a huge amount and the cold, wetness and six hours of sodden feet beagn to take their toll. After another three miles of very deep mud, we decided to step off the trail and run an extra mile or two around to the b&b on the road. Despite the extra distance it was the wise move we eventually made it the pit stop after a long, arduous day on the trails. 

 Satnav was as always Satnav. If it hurts, run more is his mantra which came out today. Sue had a very interesting to self navigating long distance trails and to be fair, the last two hours in the dark were hard and demoralising. Still, a quick shower and nip down to the pub for a rather large steak and several pints of Welsh wine should hopefully set us up for day two. After a full English breakfast of course. 

 Pasta? Bar humbug.


Day 363 Friday 28th December 25.5 miles : miles to date 2463.4

AKA: HWD2 - The Mud, Sweat and Beers Ultra Boys Tour

 I awoke early doors in my warm, comfortable and wind free b&b on top of an exposed hillside looking over the Irthing valley not wanting to leave. It was a struggle to make it downstairs for the full English, but having done so I perked up and felt almost ready for the off. The idea of starting at a high point in a wind and rain swept isolated village was actually worse than starting itself. As soon as we were outside we realised it wasn't that bad and we were at the top of the contours, so it was a flatish start. I always say I prefer a bottom in front of me rather than a frontal lobotomy and I knew early on that I would be following the main man's buttocks for a long way which I did. 

 Within a mile we found our first Roman ruin at Banks Turret and spent a little time being tourists. We carried on slowly as Satnav's knee was playing up. The terrain had changed almost overnight. Where as we had spent the first day at a low level, with lot's of farms and very deep and filthy quagmires to try to wade through, with a bit of higher ground the cows made way for sheep and their much smaller feet made my trying to keep my very go slow daps on my feet a little easier, but not much. I still managed to fall in a Tom and Jerry way at around the three mile point as we came down one very slippy hill, landing very hard on my back with my legs in the air. Luckily the ground was very soft and muddy as it was all the way.

 The first real big tourist stop was a Roman fort at Birdoswald which had picnic benches outside and no one anywhere to be seen in every single direction. In fact, in the first two days we came across a total of one walker in 56 odd miles. This section was relatively fine, in the sense that every step was in water or mud, but at least we weren't fighting to keep the shoes on. For quite a few miles, we then battled with sheep, wind, mud and isolation. We slowed badly after that and were very glad to meet Sherpa Sue at an old quarry for a pep talk and sarnie. It had taken us over three hours to reach just over eleven miles. It turned out that this was the easy section.

 We then began to climb crag after crag after crag. There simply was not a sole to be seen for miles as we did clambered up one very big hill after another. The climbs were very steep, slippery, muddy and constantly an ankle turning or leg breaking worry. It was impossible to run up or down all of them. The descents were more difficult than the climbs. It was difficult to even walk them, but the panoramic views at the top were breath taking and worth every second of discomfort to get there. At the top of the highest it was hard to stand still it was so windy, but it was utterly fantastic to me there, especially with my very good mate and guide.

 It was blooming hard work and despite the ultra boy's fitness and sheer bloody mindness, we knew after some hours of the terrain and with light fading badly, we were in danger of serious injury as the light went and the crags continued to punish us. We still had some miles to go and made the decision to go down and wade through marshland where I doubt a single person has walked in twenty years.  We somehow managed to make the main Roman Road and as the light went, we had no real choice other than to miss the last few crags. Eventually we would have gone through the main outstanding Roman fort at Housesteads. Instead we dodged cars on a very narrow country road for some miles, before reclaiming the trail in the dark. By this point, my trench foot had begun to heal and the total immersion back into the goo had my tootsie's almost in tears.

 We struggled back in the dark oscillating between road and HW trail all the way down to the finish point at Cholleford. Both of us are not that far off three hour marathon boy's (ok old blokes), but it took us over seven hours to finish less than a marathon, but this was three times as hard. And ten times better. The views, the country, the experience, the fact that there was just the two of us, the isolation and the sheer majesty of this part of the UK made every painful step worthwhile. Standing at the top of Hadrians's turret's and forts quite literally looking over the same view that a Roman centurion would have looked at in AD 122 plus was spine tingling. 

Even so, it was great to finish a long, hard and difficult day. Sherpa Sue did an awesome job in supporting us at various stages and me and Satnav were very grateful. At the end, Fi was an angel in a Volvo descending down the road to collect us, before whisking us back to the outlaws small, but very warm, cosy and food fueled house on the North Tyne to a fabulous home cooked meal, a couple of bottles of wine and a short, but very nice trip to the local pub. Which was called the Grey Bull, which was next to the Black Bull. Say's it all really.


Day 364 Saturday 29th December 30.5 miles : miles to date 2493.9

AKA: HWD3 - The Mud, Sweat and Beers Ultra Boys Tour

Roman Wall Blues by W.H.Auden

Over the heather the wet wind blows,I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose.

The rain comes pattering out of the sky,I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.

The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.

Aulus goes hanging around her place,I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.

Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.

She gave me a ring but I diced it away;I want my girl and I want my pay.

When I'm a veteran with only one eye, I shall do nothing but look at the sky.

 Having done such a sterling job, Shepra Sue was promoted to the starting grid with Fetcher Fi coming in to cover the essential support crew role. We headed back to the exact point we had finished last night at Chollerford next to a bridge crossing the North Tyne. We then proceeded to climb for two consecutive miles, with the feet soon becoming wet and muddy. The wall route from Chollerford almost exclusively follows the Roman Road and is very well sign posted. This made navigating very simple and once we were at the top, the route for longish sections was on relatively firm ground, although inevitably it dipped into the brown stuff with every undulation. There were Turret's after Turret's and as always, the panoramic views across Northumberland were stunning. 

 In this section in particular the Vallum was very obvious for many miles. It is a huge earthwork unique to Roman frontiers and runs from coast to coast on the south of the wall. The Vallum comprises a ditch, nominally 6 metres wide and 3 metres deep, with a flat bottom, flanked by two mounds about 6 metres wide and 2 metres high, set back some 9 metres  from the ditch edges. For a great deal of its length a third lower mound, the so-called marginal mound occupies the south berm (flat area between mound and ditch), right on the southern lip of the ditch. The total width of the fortification (consisting, from north to south, of mound, berm, ditch, marginal mound, berm, mound) was around 36 metres. The distance of the Vallum from the Wall varies. In general there was a preference for the earthwork to run close to the south of the Wall where the land allowed. In the central section we ran yesterday,  the Wall ran along the top of the many crags while the Vallum lay in the valley below so far away we couldn't see it.

 The route was still quite and isolated even though we were only fourteen miles from Newcastle. We came across two walkers and within a few miles, two runners who were local and dressed for a short run (probably fifteen or so miles). Despite the weather forecast, we were extremely lucky with the rain in that all we experienced in three days was drizzle every so often with the wind being the main element to contend with. Even that was South Easterly and mainly from behind. After ten miles, Sherpa Sue was picked up by Fetcher Fi and normal ultra boy's service was resumed. Mind you, it was a lot better following Sue's derriere than Satnav's.

 The route was by far the easiest to follow in the whole three days, although for the next five miles we did run through a few very wet and muddy sections. The girls met us an hour or so down the road and were a very welcome sight indeed. We were both starting to struggle a little and needed to see them and grab a sarnie. We then headed over to the first main village that had any shops or pub's open in the sixty five odd miles we had covered by then. We didn't know what to do with the bright lights and carried on as quickly as we could to join the Tyne, which we then followed for the last nine miles or so. Approximately four miles from the finish we ran into Newcastle Quayside which looked magnificent in the light rain and darkness. We ran under a number of bridges crossing the river, until we reached the main night life area. On the left we had pubs, clubs and lots of places to eat and on the other was the Sage and the huge converted Baltic Arts centre. This would have been a lovely place to stop, especially when we found the girls waiting for us in the dark under one of the bridges. 

 Wallsend was still another four miles further on and this was probably the ugliest part of the route. As we ran away from the town, the area became rougher, more rundown and for the last two miles with no street lights at all. Fi and Sue continued to be hugely supportive and were waiting for us at the end. The actual HW monument was tucked away in a closed museum  so that was a bit of an anti climax, but the warm car wasn't. 

 There was no way that we could have done this run without the help and support of Sue and Fi, so a huge thank you is needed form us both. I know just how much Satnav benefited from Sue being there and I felt exactly the same way about Fi. Their help, support and tolerance were very much appreciated.     


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