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Matt & Jen

The Inaugural Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon

I'd done a few decent runs in the last few weeks in a mission to lose my baby bulge, so when Matt found this local race and mentioned it, it seemed like a good idea. I floated the idea with Helen, my local running partner and cake-topper extraordinaire (www.caketops.co.uk), and after a bit of persuading she was up for it too.

All smiles before we set off:

The Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon is a new race, run at the same time as a 5km fun run, and as we pulled into the car park at the Nevis Range this morning we could see a few runners limbering up preparing themselves. As we gathered at the start I was slightly concerned by the very small field - there were only 90 entrants and fewer than that were lined up waiting to set off. The front runners set a pretty fast pace as we set off from the car park, but Helen and I set off at a cautious pace (so as not to exhaust ourselves too early, obviously). Soon the field was totally spread out, including Helen and me, and it wasn't long before I could see nobody in front or behind me.

The route was really well chosen - there were some lovely stretches through the forest but also plenty of open stretches, including some great rocky downhill sections and enough hills to keep things interesting without busting the lungs too much. As I clocked up two hours on the stopwatch my body was starting to seriously complain, but a few minutes later I rounded a corner to find a marshall telling me I had only half a mile to go - hurrah! I crossed the finish line after 2 hours 15 minutes, with two very sore feet and a bit of a sweat on. Helen joined me a few minutes later, very pleased with her first half-marathon result, and we were soon congratulating ourselves over some excellent cake at the Lochaber Farm Shop.

Approaching the finish line:

Thanks to No Fuss Events for a great race, hopefully I'll be back next year ready to shave a few minutes off my time!

Celebrating afterwards:

Jenx

Ben Nevis + 7 others

Ages ago my brother Mark suggested we try a Tranter round - a 24 hour circuit of the 17 Munros around Glen Nevis -we made a date in our dairies. A month before we were due to do it we decided we didn't stand a chance, we had done no training at all so we (Mark) decided we'd do half of it - Ben Nevis, down the CMD arete, over to the Aonachs and then on to the Grey Corries.

We set off nice and early with the charity trekkers up the tourist track, zig follows zag follows zig....but we made good time and reached the summit in 1hr 45mins. Unfortunately we had white out conditions and spent 20 minutes trying to find the way down to the CMD arete.

Eventually we found the absail post in blizzard condtions and headed across the arete.



All was going well until we had to descend from the CMD down to the bealach, down a knife edge snow ridge and then completely missed the path and struggled down steep grass and slabs. The ascent up to the Aonachs was much easier than it looked from the CMD, easily up to Aonach Mor then back down again to a complete white out on Aonach Beag.


After a long hard slog up to the first of the Grey Corries (who put that other hill in the middle?) the sun had decided to come out between bursts of horizontal hail. The down and flats between the summits on the ridge where flying by but any up and we slowed rapidly to a crawl.


20 miles, 10,000 foot of ascent and two packets of jelly babies - not bad for 9 hours work.


--Matt

River Oich Kayaking

My big brother Mark is up for a day on the hills tomorrow, we had a few options for today but eventually decided to kayak down the River Oich.

According to the Scottish Canoe Association, "only paddlers equipped with helmets and significant moving water experience should be tempted to take this ‘short cut’"- well, we had helmets but not much (i.e. no) moving water experience but you have to start somewhere. I knew where the hardest rapids where and I also knew you could hop over to the caledonian canal a few hundred metres before if we didn't fancy them so we decided to give it a go.

Mark getting to grips with his kayak at the top of the river.

The river could have done with slightly more water running down it, for future reference the weir should have a good flow coming down the main chute, even better if there is water coming over the main face as well. The river is gently flowing and very picturesque, there are a few fallen trees to look out for and today a few shallow spots to ground yourself on. There is only one slightly serious set of rapids, and yeah you guessed it, it got me almost before I'd even started down it. I'd negotiated the first set of rocks but somehow hit the second, the boat turned sideways to the current and it was all over. I emerged from the water like Daniel Craig in that Bond film only to see Mark at the bottom of the rapids looking very happy with himself and very dry. Oh well, I'll have it next time.

--Matt

Saturday Night Fever (3 Cluanie Munros)

I took the opportunity for another run last night, the three Munros just north of Loch Cluanie - Ghluasaid, Conbhairean and Sail Chaorainn - actually, I returned back over the middle one so it probably counts as 4? yeah, definitely 4.

Whilst doing them I discovered a new branch of fell running where you don't actually run up anything steeper than about 5 degrees, I just couldn't get going, still, the down and flats are always nice.

Last of the light hitting the South Shiel Ridge

I didn't set off until after baby bath time so ended up doing the last section of descent by head torch which added to the excitement but also meant I got to enjoy the setting sun over A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire to the west.

View from Conbhairean

The sun disappeared as I hit the last Munro, Sail Chaorainn

I set off from the van at 7.30pm and was back at our Highland hostel at 11.10pm and covered about 16km, not bad but could have been faster in the daylight (and if I actually ran some of the ups!).

--Matt

Jenny Potter and the Goblet of Clay

Having racked up enough brownie points to earn myself a day out, I decided to finally have a go at something I've fancied trying for years - throwing a pot. Despite a few attempts I'd found nowhere offering pottery lessons or classes anywhere nearby, but Matt came up trumps and found a small pottery near Aviemore where I could have an afternoon lesson. Realising it would be a bit lonesome having a lesson by myself, I invited Helen Caketopper (www.caketops.co.uk) along as she was also very keen on having a go. Helen's friend Shell also happened to be in Aviemore that week, and so it was that all three of us arrived at the pottery on Thursday afternoon, keen and eager to get potting.

Our first lesson was in wedging the clay, which basically involved kneading the clay to make sure no lumps or air bubbles remained. This warmed us up nicely as we pushed and squashed the clay. Then it was time for throwing. First of all we had to centre our clay, which meant getting the lump of clay to sit right in the middle of the wheel. Without achieving this it is impossible to get a nice round pot, so after some top tips from Penny the Potter we dived straight in:


After centering the clay we were then taught how to hollow out our lumps of clay, give them height, mould them into bowls and give them rims. Before long we had created our very own bowls! Well mine ended up as more of a goblet, as I somehow managed to give it a bit of a 'foot', but I was very pleased with my efforts nonetheless.


With our goblets finished, we then progressed onto jugs, which came with the added challenges of spouts and handles. Despite managing to put a hole in the bottom of mine, this little faux pas was soon fixed by Penny and soon I had a jug I was pretty pleased with, if I do say so myself.

What a great day out, Penny looked after us and was a great teacher, and after our lesson (and before we got too ahead of ourselves) we saw how it was really done by having a browse around her gallery, which contained some really beautiful pieces (www.penspots.co.uk). I can heartily recommend pottery throwing to anyone who doesn't mind getting very messy, and although I don't have too much time for extra hobbies right now, when I do I think that pottery may just become my new pasttime of choice.

Jen x

The Loch Lochys

My darling wife and our beautiful baby boy were heading up to the bright lights of Inverness for some important retail therapy, I took the opportunity to squeeze in a quick(ish) run.

The Loch Lochy Munros (Sron a Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga) are our local Munros and soar steeply over Loch Lochy, an imposing sight from the A82.... and easily reachable by bike.

Unfortunately, today it didn't look like the picture above...it looked more like

....and this....

It was pretty grim up on the tops but this probably served to speed me up a bit, no reason to hang around and enjoy the views.

As per usual for me, the up was hard going but the down was very enjoyable (apart from my fall), from the usual parking spot at the forest gate it took 2 hours 45 minutes to bag both summits, much better than the 6 it took last time I walked it. I broke up the 6km ride back to the 4 star luxury comfort of Invergarry Lodge (Reviews) by stopping to watch a little of the Scottish Six Day Trials before getting home to a well earned shower and a dozen or so beds that needed changing.

--Matt