Trail run with The Pope and JFW

They were chatting all the way while I struggled at the back

Very disappointed with my performance in this run. 

I was expecting more of myself. I was expecting myself to be fine with the pace, to hold myself behind JFW and The Pope for the whole run, and, still, feel fine at the end. After all, the plan was to run “slowly” in the hills for “only” three hours.

Whenever you cross a river prepare yourself to climb. I learnt it works also for running

As soon as we started to run I knew I was up for a hard day. The Pope and JFW were running at the front, chatting casually and the effort I had to do to sustain their pace felt harder than it should have. I had to walk up the climbs four or five times, including the steps up Box Hill.

I used to think I was great going up the steps... until today

By the time the question of what to run next was asked, two hours and a half into the run, I begged to go straight to the car. I had been running slower and slower for a while and even if nothing felt particularly painful I was tired and really looking forward to stopping running. 

The further we run the further back I was

I thanked JFW and The Pope for taking me to the car, for slowing their pace to keep me in the run and apologised to them for my lack of performance. As I said above, I was expecting more of myself today.

Now, if I want to look at it from a positive angle, all I have to do is to remind myself that this has been my longest in kilometres, longest in time, and with more climbing trail run so far, that I have run it with two riders way stronger than me, and that I’m not feeling that bad after the mandatory siesta.

I’ll go with the positive view.

The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15567834683

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González 

Eaten alive by JFW

Jim left me well cooked yesterday (https://www.strava.com/activities/15475420410).

Well cooked but alive.

I stuffed myself during the day. I wasn’t conscious of it yesterday but today I realised that’s what I was doing. Stuffing myself like a turkey. 

(I might be getting my metaphor wrong as I believe you normally stuff the dish and then cook it, and I’m going I was first cooked and then stuffed but bare with me in this one. It is not the first time I get my metaphors wrong)

I don’t know if stuffed turkey is a dish JFW likes but he surely ate me, alive, today.

Look at the profile of the route. That’s a revenge profile. A profile that says I’m going to hit your legs in the first climb. I’ll go to your throat in the second one (I was coughing so heavily at the top that I had to make efforts to not throw up. Didn’t want to ruin JFW’s fest). I’ll eat you alive after the third one.

It was easy for him. The third climb was so steep I needed to use my hands to hold at branches to not fall. I was defenseless.

From that moment he just had the best time. Devouring every piece of me and my soul one kilometer at the time. 

I knew I had one more hour of suffering. 

That was because I listened and took note when he said we were going to run two hours. 

But he was making the route as we were going. I sensed this was going to last a bit longer.

Especially when he asked how we were doing in time and I told him we had been running for 1 hour 40 minutes. 

He changed direction immediately and suggested we had 40 more minutes to run.

It was a whole hour. 

Enough time for him to finish his digestion. 

Ps. I find it funny how it turns out I had my best 400m time of the season in this run. 1m 14s, one more proof that I’m a sprinter.

The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15487629357/

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Back to trail running in the hills with JFW

The farthest I have run this year. 

I begged we run slow as I knew the impact of LEL was still affecting my body, a cold sore in my lower lip is a very reliable clue.

To his credit he ran slow all day, chatting all the way. I just managed to match his pace.

When we were running for about an hour he asked how I was doing and I answered I was doing just fine. That I wouldn’t mind running another hour or two as far as we kept the same pace. That was about half of my talk for that whole hour. The rest was him talking and talking about things I didn’t understand (limited blood in my brain affects my capacity to understand English, or any other language for that matter).

My answer was an honest one though. I was talking very little but with honest words. Until the “big” “climb” in the middle of the run came. About 20 minutes after I felt so optimistic. By the time we got to the top of the steep section I was done. Properly done. More than honest, those were delusional words.

That meant I went even quieter than in the first hour. JFW kept chatting away, saying “good morning team” to everyone we crossed paths with. I wasn’t even saying good morning to any of them. Politeness gets out of the window when I’m tired. And I was very tired.

JFW noticed my silence and inferred my struggle. He wasn’t tired enough so he was polite (JFW was polite to me!!!) and asked whether I prefer to go straight to the car or to take a longer route. 

I broke my vow of silence to just say “I had enough now”. 

We went straight. Which meant downhill. Which was great despite feeling in my feet every single irregularity in the ground. 

I thought we were about to get to the car when I saw a “climb” in front of us. In the profile is the last one but at the moment I didn’t know it was the last one. I couldn’t recognise it from previous runs (like 90% of the route), it looked long and steep for me. 

That felt hard. JFW asking me questions. Me questioning why I was doing this and forcing myself to keep running. I wanted to avoid having to walk at any price. My arrogance almost killed me. 

JFW kept talking all the way to the car, in the car all the way to Cobham, all the time while we were having a coffee at Gail’s, all the way back home. 

By the time we were arriving home my Garmin watch showed a message I had never seen before. “Higher than normal stress detected. Start a breathing exercise to relax?”.

While JFW was talking I tried to take a picture of the message. Between nodding to him to pretend I was listening and having to take my phone out but the time I was ready to take the picture the message was gone. Anyway, I found a picture on the internet, that will do the trick.

I am amazed how great these Garmin devices are. I don’t know if the stress it was referring to was the run or JFW constant chatting, but I got home, did a short breathing exercise (I’d never, ever, would do that in front of JFW) and fell asleep immediately.

Amazing what an hour of no hearing anyone talking to you can do to reduce your stress levels.

The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15410834903

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

My first ever trail run

 On Friday JFW goes: “Anyone fancy a long trail run on Sunday am?? Could head out to the hills”

I answered: “I'm tempted. How would that work? Where? When? For how long?”

I got this response: “Great - I’ll pick you up at 8.30….”

(I agree with you if you think that is not how communication between two people actually works but my English is not that great so what do I know)

On Saturday, yesterday, JFW clarified: “2-3 hours steady around polesden lacy - cross trainers best if possible?”

Here is the thing. This was going to be my first trail run, I don’t have cross trainers, I have never run for that long, I have no clue what or where “polesden lacy” is and I still answered: “Ok. I'm in”. I don’t really know why.

Move forward to today. At 8:22 JFW sent me a message (“Am outside”). It is pissing rain outside but I can’t bail now so I come out and get in the car.

We got to Effingham, got out of the car and in 30 seconds we were running.

The run was ok at the beginning. Apart from the fact that I was running on hiking shoes (Salomon X BRAZE), I wasn’t carrying any water and I had no idea for how long we were going to keep running. But we were chatting and I was having a great time.

Things got a bit tricker when JFW said “right, we are now heading back”.

Wait, what???

I don’t have a running watch so I can’t tell for sure but it certainly felt like we had been running for ages. I was getting tired.

And thirsty.

But I was still feeling ok(ish) so didn’t complain and just kept running behind him. Although we were not chatting that much anymore.

At some point we saw one of those mobile coffee vans. JFW suggested a stop to drink something. We had been running for so long that I guessed we were close to the car so I suggested we should keep running. The fear of not being able to start running again after a stop was much more powerful than how thirsty I felt (and I already played with the idea of drinking out of a puddle).

Right, he said, three more miles (that is almost 5 more kilometers for the rest of us). Turns out I had guessed incorrectly how far we were from the car.

So now JFW is doing all the talking. I run in silence. Feeling tired, very, very thirsty and the blisters in my feet growing. Not really in the right mindset to hear JFW saying “Let’s take this trail. I always wanted to learn where it goes”.

I still followed him. Uphill. Without saying a word (I couldn’t speak. Not even to ask for water).

We kept running for what felt like an eternity and suddenly JFW said “Well, it is now a long downhill to the car”.

THAT. That is what I needed to hear.

Not that I was thinking of sprinting or anything like that. I wish I would have been able to think about sprinting and winning this “race” but my thoughts were all about how tired I was, how big my blisters were going to be and how hard it would be to walk tomorrow (I knew I had a 1 liter bottle of water in the car so thirst was not a worry anymore).

So, here I am. Back home. After a shower, lunch and a siesta. Thinking I had a fantastic time.

Such a great time that I find myself asking life changing, philosophical questions.

Will I be able to ever walk normally again?

Who decided to build the toilet upstairs in my house? I need to talk to that person.

What 100 miles (more than 160 km) trail run should I enter next year?

What is the world record for the size of a blister? Asking for a friend.

The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12474081248

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González