Red and Landy have been playing with each other's treads since the day they met.

So it was at Bedford Athletic Stadium, on a wet windy day, suitable for something rubbery that was impervious to rain, Landy and Red became officially devoted to each other.

For the day Landy had a major make over and looked rather fetching ;-) for the Fetch Wedding Mile. Red pushed him forward as TG passed them and thus was given a lap of honour around the track for his sweet fair tyre Red. Red screeched with delight and has asked for photos of Landy to be put up on the site first. Photos of Red will be up at the end of the week :-) ....when I can get them to stop playing with each other's treads!

For those wondering what I wore and carried and want to attempt this event in the future. Please note though that this year the temperature range was crazy warm for the "ice box" of the country;  -14 celcius to -4 celcius (ssshh - I'm not supposed to tell you)

Clothing
Head gear: Started with a balaclava, later switched to light hat - to keep the ears warm,
Body: Two fleece bodies
Hands: Runner's gloves + fleece fingerless gloves + mittens if got cold
Legs: Long john baselayer + a pair of ski pants.
Feet: Thin socks + vapor barrier + thick pair of wool socks
Shoes: Trekking shoes + gaitors + yak traks that I took off later

Was toasty and warm. The temps could have certainly gone down further

Carried:
- Snack bag + water bottle in jacket. Lost water bottle at some point on trail. Bought another at Gateway
- Snot rag - hate a blocked nose from the cold. Lost the rag some point bombing down a hill.
- Spare batteries
- Gels + electrolytes
- Compass - because it looks like I know what I'm doing!!!!
- Whistle to play music to keep me entertained
- Head lamp - helped me see where I was going when sledding down a hill. Other than that - never used it throughout the night
- Chemical stuff to keep hands and feet warm - never needed it this time

Pulk:
- Fiberglass expedition sled - (next time will adapt a children's plastic sled)
- Food/snacks for 4 days + cup - (next time reduce cooking food and snacks - brought extra in case I made a friend!!!!)
- MSR stove + 2 bottles of white gas for cooking
- Overboots (next time will not bring them)
- 2 jackets
- Spare socks, hat, gloves and goggles
- fleece hood balacalva neck gater
- Spare clothes for end point (next time give to drop off)
- Sleeping bag for -40 celcius (this time could have just carried a smaller bag for -20); bivvy bag; mat
- 3 litres of water
- Medical bag with plasters; strapping tape (that I didn't how to use!); anti-inflammatories; hair brush (need one luxury!)
- Electrolytes
- Two spare lamps + spare lights (snapped a light off - so had to use spare light!)
- Trekking poles - that I nearly left behind two times.

Thank you to my friends in Wisconsin for all your time, help and support :-)

Felix (from Kilimanjaro trip) once asked me "Does Peace come before Love or does Love come before Peace?"

My mind has pondered over this thought. Is it possible to say we love this world without peace? If we loved this world, we would fight to protect this world. In order for us to protect this world we must find peace with this world. That is we should be in harmony with this world. Yet corporates tell us to spend on trivialities, spend on toys/goods that won't last, spend because that is what makes the world go round and that is what will get us out of recession. Firstly what are we supposed to spend when inflation and wage freezes have meant we have less money? Secondly change that word to "consume" and I cannot find peace with those thoughts. Our economics and greedy corporates need to change to become more sustainable so that each one of us can find peace with the way we live our lives and look to protect our natural world or we will continue to destroy our heritage for us now and for our future generations.

We all need to pull together for peace!

Bisaniiwewin would remind me of this continually throughout this trip for I was nervous about this event. My preparations were haphazardly put together, but some how everything came together in the penultimate days leading up to the event.

Just days before, Dave (Arrowhead organiser) found me a buddy, Eszter, a biker and a great athlete who finished in the top 10 and smashed the women's record by 2 hours. She sorted out my accomodation and ride up to International Falls.

_Nicole, another amazing woman who is a friend of a friend, lent me her gear. I cannot complain, but when I saw the 5ft fiberglass sled she had lent me, I thought "oh dear". It was beautiful beast, weighing about 8-10 kg that needed two hands to carry it. In comparison, I could lift other racers' plastic sleds with my little finger. My second thought, was no big deal, I've pulled 60 kgs before.

With that thought, my mind went into expedition mode and began to load my sled for survival instead of opting for drop bags at check points. Wrong mode! Eszter helped me to adjust my head. So I left the snow shoes and a small bag of gear for a drop off at the finish, but still forgot to take out the over boots and a spare bag of thermal clothes that I would never use. I still had all of my food. All of which would be dead weight, and contributed to a total sled weight of about 30 kgs alone.

Most sleds in the race had a total weight of about 12-15 kgs.

Again, I thought "no problem", this would be great practise for an expedition. My head was challenging my body and my body was rising up to the challenge. My mother asked me to leave the tyre behind, but how could I leave Bisanii behind! Tim, another bike racer, who picked me up and dropped me off at the start point, commented at how heavy my sled weighed. However, at 6 am on race day I was committed.

The night before the race was an unrestful night as being a girl, my menstrual cycle was happening. Yes that "girly" thing that makes us crabby and snappy to those around us! This meant my body temperature was on the rise and thus the room felt hot and sweaty. It is typical for me to have insomnia the night before when that "that girly thing" is about to happen, although I managed to snatch an hour or two of sleep! It is typical for me to have an upset stomach and diarrhea when "that girly thing" is happening. Thus I had several moments in the toilet before the race started and unfortunately I had to be in the toilet when the race started! It is also typical for me to feel extremely tired when "that darn girly thing" is happening. This is a mind game, and the only way to defeat the mind was to keep everything positive.

The Race
I raced over to the start line and saw everyone's flickering racer lights disappearing into the distance. I was 5 minutes behind everyone but no big deal as I normally started a race behind everyone!

We were briefed at the pasta dinner that the first 25 miles would be flat with undulations. After that the hills would strike with increasing severity.

Within 3 miles I had caught up with 4 other walkners (walking runners). Ryan from Manitoba was attempting this event for the second time (he completed the event). His motto was to just keep going. Jen had completed the bike last year and was now attempting to complete the distance by foot this year. Her head was not in a good place starting, so I tried to encourage her. She kept up with me at first but had to stop for water for about 5 minutes. I stopped with her but later had to question myself why I was stopping. Ryan kept going. On her second stop I had to apologise to her that I needed to keep going. As a racer, it is important to stop only when you need to stop. With cut off times, time was an important consideration and I wanted to be going at least 3 miles an hour in the beginning. When I next looked back to see if Jen had caught up with me, she was in the distance with another walkner.

The trail was easy to follow, with marshals located at turn points to ensure you stayed on the correct path. Temperatures this year were warmer than last year starting at -14 Celcius. However the soft snow packed trail would collapse unevenly under foot. I did not consider that this would have a significant impact on one's ankles and would force John, the walkner who had won the event 3 years in a row, to quit 10 hours into the event.

Day 1, 10am: I was at mile 10 and was fairly happy at the progress being made. However the yaktraks that I was wearing in case of ice, were making my feet impact with the ground sooner than I had expected. I had only tested using these for about 5 miles prior to the event. I decided to bear with them until the first check point as I would have to also remove my gaitors in order to remove the yaktraks.

There was only a french man (Jean) and a lady (Angela) a couple of hundred metres behind me. Both had completed 100 mile marathons before this marathon, both were looking strong and both would eventually catch up and overtake me back. First Jean at mile 11 and then Angela caught up with me at about mile 20 something.

It was nice to have a chat with someone, but as we continued a wave of lethargy washed over my being. I blame it on the "girly thing". It is when the brain vacates the body, leaving the body to feel alien and wanting to stop and sleep. It was 3 pm, too early to be in a zombie stupor and I would have to fight this, but I needed to do this alone. So I shooed Angela on ahead of me so that she would not pick up any negative emotions I would be feeling. I decided gels would be my answer.

3 slow hours, 3 slow miles and 3 gels later, my head began to sync back in with my body. By this time I had caught up with Chuck, a man on a mountain bike with normal mountain bike wheels. I guess if the snow was hard packed, the wheels would have worked, but being soft snow, the ground below collapsed into crevasses making the bike inoperable and useless. However Bisanii packed down the snow for Chuck, and made the route a little easier for Chuck to cycle on but not significant enough. He would make the first check point just after the cut off time.

Day 1, 5 pm: Anton, a volunteer with a snow mobile who was looking after participants on the course told us the first checkpoint was 5 miles away. Just before Anton came by, I began to have an achilles niggle on my left ankle. Dave and Ron who were behind me decided to dig in to make the checkpoint by 7pmish.

Unfortunately again I had to slow everything down. I was annoyed at myself for even having an achilles problem but continued to find difficulty with the soft snow to correct my technique. I felt the real problem was having left on my yaktraks and now my "girly thing" was really kicking in. Yuck! But I was close to the check point and would be able to sort everything out in the warmth of the service station.

Some slopes presented themselves, steep enough for me to dive onto my sled, head first, to take a ride down. My first attempts to use my body weight to steer the sled, ended with me crashing into a bank of snow and laughing to myself. I looked forward to more hill runs so that I could perfect my technique. However there would be no further runs until the first checkpoint, which I reached by 20:22. This left 38 minutes to top up water and sort out gear. Having over compensated on the right leg, my right shin decided to play in the pain game. I should have strapped up my left ankle, but time was ticking away fast. I was able to remove the yaktraks and just hoped this would help to make the ankles play nice.

Day 1, 21:00: I was back on the course, excited about the night. The ankles felt slightly better with the short rest, or perhaps it was the milky coffee I had at the service station. I walked without my headlamp on so that my night vision would have a better panoramic range rather than being light focused.

As I turned back onto the trail, I met a very positive Jen, who thanked Bisanii for making her so happy!

Day 1, 22:00: another wave of tiredness swept over me. I decided to use my secret weapon - red bull. It's sickly sweetness made me retch but unfortunately I had filled my bottles with energy drinks for the night so just had to deal with the sickly sweetness.

The trees were shimmering a strange green tinge. I looked up at the sky and it was a muted, faint green. Perhaps this was the Northern Lights, but as the sky thickened with clouds, the green tinge quickly disappeared. Or perhaps I was just high on caffeine. Regardless I was happy with my "illusion" even if it was watered down.

In the gloominess the pine trees appeared to have big broad prehistoric leaves laden with snow. Outlines and shadows took on shapes of animals and everydday objects. Every now and then light would catch onto the snow falling from the sky, making me think I was catching up with someone. I was happy my mind was entertaining itself but I could not stop the achilles pain that would occasionally cut across the back of my ankle with a shooting sharp pain when I did not concentrate on keeping my form. Soon a battle was stewing in my head:

The negative side: "You have a 100 miles more to complete and this could have a long term impact on your achilles. It would be better to consider a DNF (Did Not Finish) in order to save your achilles."
The positive side: "This will be your first DNF. You know about running techniques, you can correct yourself and you'll be fine."
The negative side: "Additionally you have slowed down to a mile an hour. You are not going to make the second checkpoint."
The positive side: "You can overcome your pain and have done so before"
The negative side: "Yes you broke an ankle because you strapped up a sprained ankle so stupidly tight in order to continue with your sport. You were out of sport for a year. Also remember your brother who continued competitive squash with a badly sprained ankle and won the game but suffered for years after."

TG: Okay you two sides, I will go to the second checkpoint which will probably be late and so will be kicked off the course anyway. So leave me alone to continue with whatever hallucinations my mind wants to entertain me with.

Anton came back to check on me and again asked me if I wanted to leave the course as there was a minivan with participants who were leaving the course. My mind was made up, and besides the trail was getting better with a hill to climb and a hill to go down. My spirit was alive. Bisaniiwewin was riding on the sled with me.

Day 2, 4am: There was the minivan with Ron, Jean and Lynn. The boys were sleeping at the back. Lynn said they were feeling too tired to go on. I tried to persuade her out but she had made up her mind as had the boys. My achilles and shin were now just a dull pain despite a flush of heat upon the achilles. I was high on hills and suppose the pheromones were dampening any pain.

Day 2, 6am: More participants were being snowmobiled out. I was surprised to see Angela and asked her to continue. She did not want to do another night. She had made up her mind that she had done enough and just wanted to get back to see her kid.

Day 2, 7am: I was now steadily completing 2-3 miles an hour and looked forward to the sun rise, to watch the sky lights changing. Anton came by and asked me if I wanted to leave the course. Again I responded no. However he wanted to reason with me and said I would miss the checkpoint time. I wanted to head for the second checkpoint. He decided he would leave me for a couple of hours to think about it. But I was adamant that I wanted to make that second checkpoint.

Day 2, 11am: More hills and I was feeling very good. 60 miles completed and 12 more to go. Anton came back to see how I was.

_TG: Anton at this moment in time I am feeling strong. My head is in a good place.
Anton: Yes you look strong and we have no idea how you are hauling that load the distance you have done but you are not going to make the second check point. You have 3 more hours to make that checkpoint. At the rate you are going, you will need 4 hours.
TG: Well I do not want to go back to International Falls, I want to keep moving forward and get to Mel George (second checkpoint).
Anton: I can take you there because by the time you get there, the checkpoint will have packed up and have moved on.
TG: Am okay with that. I have everything here to support myself, including stoves to make my own water. I would like to carry on under my own steam.
Anton: Okay well, I will wait for you and support you.
TG: Please do not, I will be fine.
Anton: I want to ensure you are safe.

I felt guilty about my own selfish pride and I buckled. Anton had been working non-stop throughout yesterday and the night checking on our health and safety. It would have been unfair to have made him cover the extra distance and cause further concern just because I felt I had to go the distance. It was after all just an event and mentally I knew I had the capacity to go on.

It was time to use the achilles card and allow someone to help me. So it was at mile 60 I was snowmobiled to MelGeorge. Unfortunately I had caffeine coursing through my being, thus was wide awake and at a loss at what to do. The caffeine would not release me until 22:00 on day 2.

_I decided to support the rest of the back guys. At mile 85, Lisa started to have negative thoughts. But I would not allow her to entertain those thoughts. After all she had to carry on as there were only 2 women left out of the 7 who started and she had less than 50 miles to complete. She completed in 59:29 (59 hours and 29 minutes). Alicia, the other woman, completed in 55:56. This apparently doubles the number of women who have ever completed this race on foot!

Out of 51 walkners, only 45% of the entrants completed the entire course.  A number of drop outs were hard nosed ultra runners who by MelGeorge were suffering with all sorts of ankle injuries. Last year out of 55 walkners, only 36% of the entrants completed the entire course.

My sled weight was a contributing factor to my slowness but my tyre was certainly not to blame. If my ankles were perfectly fine, my sled weight would have been a non-issue. I will be back to slay this dragon and so will Bisaniiwewin.

Thank you to all the excellent volunteers and the organisation. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and the course, and feel lucky to have watched the sun set, wandered through the woodland trail corridors, watched the sun rise in a beautiful natural place and play on the snow and hills. This is a fantastic race and one that I look forward to completing the next time round.

Having arrived in the US without a tyre, my friends took me to a farm yard to choose a tyre. There were macho tractor tyres of all sizes saying "pick me, pick me", but they were not the ones. We were looking for a peace tyre. 

After looking thru a couple of barns, Richard picked out a wretched looking snow-mobile trailer tyre. A sport trax 20.5 x 8.0-10, 15lb tyre with a scar on one side. The other tyres told me they were better looking, but instantly I knew she was the one!

Erin removed her rim, scrubbed her up and cabled her. 

She was now ready for her make over and given the name Bisaniiwewin, which means Peace in the Ojibwey language.

Q: Do you like the frigid cold?
A: Since the North Pole, I know that I suffer badly from Raynauds. Both my hands and feet could take an hour to warm up in negative temperatures. I have frozen my cheeks and ears from exposure to -30 C. I got hot whilst joining a lap of the North Pole marathon and moved my face gear as I was sweating. I learnt sweating is bad.

Q: So why have you joined Arrowhead Ultra, that is held in the coldest part of the US?
A: I missed the frigid cold! In fact I've forgotten what cold is. Although this year at the moment, weather predictions are that it is going to be warm compared to last year where temperatures went down to -41 C (-42 F). This year it may get as cold as -20 C. Half as cold compared to last year! So I should feel warm. Although last Sunday, I burnt my left cheek from wind chill in -3 or -4 C. But I've now got a balaclava to sort that out.

Q: The race is 135 miles in 72 hours and you have to be self supporting and carry your own survival gear. I hear most people do about 2 miles an hour. What plans have you made to cope with the endurance, cold and time?

A: For the first time, I am going to wear a watch and stop every 2 hours to eat and drink. Have planned in 3 coffee breaks. Don't know if that is cheating but I am very sensitive to caffeine so expect that to keep me awake for the entire journey. In addition to that, I will be singing songs of praises when I need strength and "Bob the Builder" for the "Can you do it?" "Yes you can"

Q: How long is that journey going to be?
A: Maybe 65 hours

Q: Have you done this before?
A: About over 20 years ago when I had to complete a write up for my degree. Stayed up for 4 days. I was delusional and emotional at the end of it. My brain was younger and could take more abuse. So right now in my head, I think I can do it but who knows since I am older, I might just collapse in the snow.

Q: So you must have done a lot of preparation for this?
A: Nope. Longest distance I've completed was a 40 mile race in 2008. Leading up to next week, I did 2 weeks of 20 miles, doubling the distance I've been doing from week to week. This week I have slacked off big time, gaining weight, preparing my gear. Just got myself a sleeping bag to cope with -40 F. One day before the race I will get a sled, stove and more extreme gear.

Q: Sounds pretty foolish preparation
A: Yes. Please do not do this at home for your own ultra marathon preparation.

Q: Why put yourself thru this?
A: It's all about slaying dragons

Q: What do you mean?
A: It's about finding out about yourself. The journey is more important than the end. 

Q: But you've been in extreme cold before
A: Yes with a buddy. Now I go alone. Although there will be 134 other participants cycling, skiing and running. So who knows I might pick up somebody or someone might pick me up :-)

Q: And if it wasn't hard enough, I hear you are still taking a tyre with you. 
A: Yes I've just got a tyre from the local diary farmer (Dave and Rich). She was a poor wretched thing when I first got her. But she's cleaned up real nice. We're calling her Bisaniiwewin  (Bi-sanii-we-win) which means peace in the Ojibwe language. Our mission is to pull for environmental peace as a continuation of the peace mission completed in Kilimanjaro.

Q: Well good luck to you
A: And may you all work harder to reduce your impact on this world's resources :-)

Landy thinks I've been rather slack, so on the 8th January, he dragged me out of bed to do some training. My pillow loves me, and mornings are for.....morning people! Anyway so Uncle got involved and dumped me and Landy at the park saying he'd be back in 4 hours. That week, I doubled my training mileage from 10 miles a week to 20 miles and instead of a mere 40-50 minutes tyre pulling, Landy had me going for 5.5 hours. The following week he had me out again for another 5-6 hours.

To keep my mind occupied, I either sing or look at people watching me. The looks on passerbys have been a mixture of emotions:
- Disdainfully - i.e. should not be allowed in the park.
- Incredulously with a "What are you doing?"
- Nutter with a slight shake of the head
- Doggy inquisitive look. Yes some guys have occasionally turned their head to the side
- Supportive - you go girl
- Congratulationary with laughs

Of course there have been the usual quips
- "You must be tired"
- "Think you forgot the car"
- "Excuse me, did you know there is a tyre following you?"
- "Did you forget your dog?"

Speaking of dogs, Landy has been teasing loads of them, inviting them for a sniff!

So am I prepared?

Probably not in terms of distance, but my mind is telling me I'm stubborn and head strong, so shouldn't be a problem!!!! Famous last words. Have just bought my sleeping bag. I have a pair of trail shoes that are large to accomodate an extra pair of socks, but am contemplating purchasing larger ones to accomodate more socks. I also have a whole load of gear to purchase when I get to Minnesota. Am I prepared? No, not really! In the back of my head, I hear Uncle Pete's (from Kilimanjaro) words - Poor Preparation leads to Poor Performance. My response is a plethora of excuses about work and feeling constantly tired.

Additionally have just been to the docs due to a mystery with my right hand. The finger joints have been swollen for the last 3 weeks for no apparent reason. There is no pain, just a little discomfort from excess fluid around the joints. The strong possibility is some type of autoimmune disorder. I'll know in a week's time when the blood tests and x-rays come back. Or perhaps not, as I'll be in an event in North Minnesota. Doc has given me diclofenac sodium to take 3 times a day to reduce the swelling. Am still thinking about taking them......have you seen the potential side effects!

Next time I blog, will be in the snow and ice. Apparently the Minnesotans are having a hot winter at -20 degrees celcius!!!

February: The year was kicked off with the Enigma 4 marathons in 4 days challenge and the fastest time was completed by Rec (7:10:49) and our longest event so far.
March: Red was introduced to the world in the Daffodil Dawdle and by December she has finally accepted to being dragged!
April: We finally got a time in the London Marathon.

May: Landy was introduced to the world. Currently he is the highest tyre (15 kg) and is in a relationship with Red.
June: Had fun in the Hatfield McCoy marathon - this has the bestest, most excellent value for an event
July: Had a beautiful race in the High Weald Challenge

Aug: Rec did a reasonable time in Santa Rosa at 7:45:32 and stayed for the sunshine rather than return to the UK. He didn't want to have cold treads
Sept: Armani was introduced to the world and went to the top of Kilimanjaro. He is the highest tyre - 5895m.

Nov: Red was still sticking her treads into the ground, picking up mud and leaves in the Gatliff Challenge.
Dec: Red helped TG complete her 25th tyre dragging marathon and has decided to try to be a better tyre for 2012!

_I know, am late writing up my diary. TG has been running and I've had to follow her! So down the rabbit hole and we go back in time....

25th December: 5K Run
It's the time of giving and today I thought I'd give TG a present. To be more giving! :-) So in today's 5K race, I pulled up my treads and allowed myself to slide along the ground. TG was happy to have completed the event in 40:41. Which means on the tyre league table, that places me in second position. TG was unusually happy. Hmm, perhaps I might try a little harder and beat the old gal Tam or my bro Rec who holds the top position at 36:57. We're not sure who holds the top position as most of us think it was Rec but he's in California and cannot confirm it was him and TG thinks it was Tam but Tam's a little off her treads now a days so she can't confirm either!

27 December 2011:
Christmas Challenge 26.6 Miles
TG was disappointed about the lack of snow this year, however having gorged herself on food for the last 2 days, TG was keen to run and I was in the mood to please!

The website directions to the venue were perfect and we received a warm welcome by Glen, the RD, who said he was so happy to see me. Of course I gave him a little shake of the ol' rubber ;-)

Now the race......what is wrong with the next set of pictures?

You'd never guess it was winter. Let me help you all remember Winter last year. The picture on the left is 18th December 2010. We had Arctic weather. In contrast this year it was a balmy 10 degrees Celcius. It was warm and TG took the opportunity to get her legs out for an airing! It was not only warm it was relatively dry. I enjoyed gliding on the ground. Yes I know, this also is in contrast when I got my treads stuck in the mud and leaves in the last marathon, but hey it's a new year and sometimes it's good to change. I've made a realisation that it's more fun to go fast. Perhaps a new year's resolution needs to be made to beat a couple of records made by Tam and Rec as long as TG can find her way. Sometimes it's a bit worrying when the sheep follow her. The blind leading the blind!

Speaking of navigation, this is the best TG has ever done on a self navigating trail marathon. 5-4-3-2-1 had excellent signage, but the large signs made it easy for hooligans to play a little havoc with the system. The signage on this race was subtly brilliant. Despite the signs having been put up 2 days before, it did not appear anything had been disturbed. This was all backed up with a route description that was exceptional. It would be great if more LDWA events used the style of the route instructions from this event. (TG does not trust signage due to past experiences with hooligan's changing signs around!).

TG seemed completely in control and for TG's 25th tyre dragging marathon, we completed the 26.6 mile event in 7 hours 55 minutes. TG was very happy at the end. Perhaps I should carry on being more giving ;-)

Collected £5 in donations. Thank you to everyone who donated, your donations will be going to Earthwatch.

Highlights:
A Doggy Tale: In the first mile and a half, a bull-terrier decided to goad me, pretending to attack me, yapping at me, telling me I was like a bicycle tyre. TG was on a mission, so we ignored him expecting him to return to his owner. He continued with us for a mile ducking into ditches scaring pheasants. TG tried to catch him and I tried to roll over him! Thankfully one of the participants managed to catch him and return him to his owner.

The Guardian Angel:
For a while TG appeared to have a guardian angel. The same participant that had returned the dog to its owner, finally caught up with TG and kept her in view in the first half of the event, always ensuring that at a turn she would see him, before he continued onwards. Heading towards mile 18, TG lost sight of her guardian angel, as she was distracted by two labradors who kept bringing us things!

Race Overview
Signage and route description: Excellent
Checkpoints: There were 4 checkpoints, 3 had water, the first two also had biscuits. The first one at 3 miles had gels. TG carried her own food and water.
Certificate at end
Event cost: £20

Tam has the ability to call animals to her and has been retired to a place in the garden to enjoy the animal scenery. All the tyres voted this photo as their photo for Christmas.

Thank you everyone for visiting this site.

More news on the way with the Christmas Marathon Challenge on the 27th Dec and then 135 miles in North Minnesota where the temperatures last year were recorded at -60 degs F. TG is currently researching into how to keep her feet and hands warm as she has raynauds.

_Gatliff 50km Marathon Overview (24th tyre marathon)
Organisation: Very good and a generous cut off time.
Type of race: Route description, self navigation
Course: Trail, up and down hills, up and down stiles and thru kissing gates. Very pretty in the light; awesome in the dark! Need a headlamp if you are slow.
Volunteers: Very good
Check point: About every 5-7 miles with biscuits
Food Stops: Lunch stop in a village hall and food served at the last 2 checkpoints/end. Sandwiches, bananas, biscuits, sausage rolls (veggie and meat)
Start Time: 7am
Weather:  @ 9-12 degrees celcius, a little rain
Route Description: 97% well written. Had a description of a broken stile that had been replaced with a gate; an ambiguous line had about 15-20 of us scratching our heads together; one wrong direction a lethal time wasting "turn left" when it should have been "turn right"

Since coming back from Tanzania, TG's alter ego has been muttering about trying to get her accounts together to sort out her corporate tax and done zero training over the last 2 months. Landy and myself have been left outside collecting rain water and leaves, looking after spiders, slugs and earthworms. So surprised when TG decided to clean me and bucket up for a 50 km marathon.

05:30am: Uncle Wayne drove us to the venue. TG is rubbish in the morning.
07:20am: We were off, TG managed to complete a couple of miles running before changing down a gear to walking.

TG appeared to lack energy so after "poodling" on the ground for a while, decided to keep myself entertained by clearing the paths of leaves, after all there were a lot of untidy paths. TG was not amused and cleared out my collection of leaves, carrying me over some of the leafy terrains.

Wasn't too happy when TG chucked me back on to some muddy paths. TG said it wasn't as bad as the stuff my brother Rec was dragged through last year in Steppingley Steps, nonetheless the showers during the day had made the ground sticky and was making me a little dirty. But I could see that if I grabbed hold of mud in my treads, I could build up a nice layer of dirt to slow down TG. TG picked me up, kicked off the mud build up, and voila she became my porter. It was easy playing with TG today!

LOST
Throughout the day we met a group of runners who continually lost their way. We also lost our way 3 times, adding time and distance, however the instructions were mostly well written. As night began to embrace our day we met up with the "lost group" one last time. TG appeared to be on a high and her energy levels had increased as the route directions appeared to now fall easily into place. She tried to encourage them to follow her into the now darkened woods, but they refused to come with us calling it madness.

It was an awesome run being wrapped in the darkness and silence of the forests and I could dance on the leaves and trail. TG appeared to easily find her way. We soon had one last sentence on the route description to help us reach the last checkpoint before the finish. It should have been a fast leg for TG but upon entering a large field, TG could not see the exit point in the dark and so added more mileage by going round and round the field, adding an hour in time looking for a bridge and stepping into a very boggy marsh. She then understood how I felt about being dragged in mud! :-)

TG had a slow day taking nearly 12 hours to complete 50 kms. Slow in comparison to last year when she completed 50 kms in 5-4-3-2-1 in 8hrs 39 mins.

Thank you to everyone who donated on the day. Your funds will be donated to Earthwatch.

Onwards now to the next marathon on the 27th December, a Christmas Challenge, after 2 days of feasting.