Week 1 - Hills, Cows & Mud

During the week I managed to buy the very last Coventry Way book in the old cathedral tourist information shop. I know from the website that a new book is in production and I am promised it will be sent to me in March. I also know that there are some minor variations to the routes, but I hope that using the old book will not send me hopelessly astray. I will photocopy the relevant sections of the book each time I go out, fold them up small to fit in my runner belt, and whip them out when I am bewildered.
Since completing the Toronto Marathon six weeks ago I have only been out running three times and the longest of those runs was 4k. So I have quite a lot of condition to get back into.
I drop Jan, my wife, off at palates (whatever that is) then hack down the A45 to Meriden village hall for the first stage. Fortunately there is nothing happening at the village hall so they will not mind me using their car park. The weather has been rainy, the air is damp. I calculate I only have 50 minutes so the plan is to run for 25 and then turn back.
So its back up the road and right at the kissing gate. I immediately encounter three of the principle hazards of running through rural Warwickshire:

1. Hills: I am used to these as my usual training runs from home, next to Nauls Mill Park, to Coundon, Northbrook, Corley and beyond include plenty of topography.
2. Cows: no trouble in themselves but it is what they deposit in the field that needs careful navigation.
3. Mud: in the corner of the first field the Cows seem to have come together at some point to tread it into a quagmire. I can see dozens of cloven footprints in the mud. Perhaps it is to this corner that the farmer comes with some bovine snack that they all rush for, or perhaps it is the only place in the field where they can get a signal on their mobiles. I pick my way through the swamp.

Through Meriden churchyard; giant tombstones lean precariously over my path. That would be a bizarre death for a runner; crushed under the enormous slab which had been dislodged by the vibrations of my footfall, an epitaph imprinted on my chest.

I have never had any reason to visit this part of Meriden before so the handsome Moat House Farm, built in 1604, is a nice surprise before I turn into more muddy fields.
I realise later that I am crossing the fields of Berryfields Farm. They have recently opened some huge new farm shop emporium but I have not been there. I am loyal to Phil Tuckey at Berkswell Traditional Meats in Back Lane. We have a mutually beneficial relationship; I help maintain his profits, he helps maintain my girth.
I am soon crossing Back Lane, and also crossing from Map No 1 to Map No 2. More muddy fields; in the first variation from the old map the route takes me diagonally across a field instead of round the edge. It is planted with things that look like they might become cabbages apart from the footpath which is planted with slime and puddles.
I am now in a pleasant pasture with lots of sheep. They all scarper when they see me running towards them, apart from one which wants to show it is not intimidated and fancies a staring match. I have reached Hill House but my 25 minutes are up and I must double back on myself. On the way back it starts to drizzle, but I am quicker as there is less way-finding to be done.
Finding my way has been remarkably easy thanks to all the little circular waymarkers that the Associations volunteers have nailed everywhere. Only once, where I was confused as to which was the clockwise route and which the anticlockwise, did I really need the map. I am grateful for all the volunteers efforts, if they could just get round to laying a tarmac path along the 40 miles, it would be perfect.
3.4k (2.1 miles) of route completed. Running through the countryside is tough.  What with all the stopping for kissing gates and stiles, stopping to find the way and slipping around in mud my time is very slow. Usually on these long runs I aim to do each kilometre in around 6 minutes. Today each K has taken 7 minutes 14 seconds.
1.3 maps
3.4k

I have a plan

Time for my 2009 running shoes to be retired.  They have carried me through the Great North Run and the Toronto Marathon and over 800k of training.  So its off to see the lovely people at Coventry Runner.  I tell them I am thinking of going ‘off-road’.  They advise me that I probably do not need special shoes.  So I stick with what I am used to: another pair of Mizuno Waves, only this year with bright purple trim.

There are two obstacles to overcome before April 18^th.    Firstly, all my running so far (apart from a few shortcuts across Coundon Wedge) has been on roads, pavements and parks.  Footpaths, fields and the like are foreign to me.  So I have to get used to running ‘off-road’.  Secondly, advice on the A Coventry Way website says that challenge entrants should take maps with them.  I really do not want to do that.  By April 18^th I want to know the route. 

So the plan is that my Saturday long runs will all be on sections of A Coventry Way.  Section by section, the route will become familiar to me and my feet and legs will get used to running cross-country. 

Another essential part of the plan is the training schedule.  I look online and nobody seems to produce a ready-made schedule for a 64k (40 mile) run.  But I do discover the dark world of the ‘ultra’.  These websites are not dedicated to Italian football hooligans but people who seem to be equally fanatical.  Technically an ultra is any run longer than the marathon distance of 46k, but these nutters all seem to be talking about 50 or 100 mile runs and feature training schedules which culminate in five hours running on Saturday and another five on Sunday.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have a life.  So I simply modify my marathon schedule from earlier this year, just extending my longest training run from 35k to 45k.  Looking forward to that one.

Facing the inevitable

It has been creeping up on me, almost stalking me, until it seems inevitable that I must do it; the A Coventry Way Challenge (strange use of the indefinite article there). 

It is a few years since I first came across A Coventry Way.  The A Coventry Way Association had a stall in the ‘Lives & Times’ tent at the Godiva festival.  I must admit my first reaction was ‘why?’.   Why create a 40 mile long circular footpath route all around Coventry?  Nobody is going to take a holiday to walk the whole thing like they might with the Pennine Way or the Devon Coastal Path; at the same time it is too much to do as a single afternoon walk. 

Of course that initial reaction missed the point.  Not only does the Coventry Way form the basis of whole number of circular walks, which lots of people might want to do, but it is an idea around which a group of enthusiasts can come together to improve footpaths and promote walking, and what can be wrong with that?  And of course some people do complete it as a single walk (or run): the A Coventry Way Challenge.   

Another thing that has been creeping up on me is running.  It has been about six years since I began seriously running, wanting to put some purpose into my workouts at the gym, it seemed best to focus my efforts on an activity that required no skill (as I have none), not much money (as I resent spending money on sporting equipment that could be spent on wine or holidays), and did not involve making arrangements with other people (not because I am anti-social; just because I have a very busy life). 

So now I have completed five Great North Runs and three other half marathons, a couple of 10ks and in October my first marathon in Toronto (see picture - 4 hours 10 minutes since you ask).   What next?   Why not run an absurdly long distance, for almost twice as many hours than I have ever run before, across terrain that I am totally unused to?  It’s a logical step. 

I have submit my online entry.  It asks me how long I expect to take.  I have no idea but, after some back-of-an-envelope calculations, I eventually plump for 7 hours 30 minutes.  I get a nice welcoming email back from Bob Carey.  Now there is no turning back (only some running round in a big circle).