New trail/fell shoes

I started running more than 15 years ago, but I'm still only on my second pair of trail/fell shoes. I suppose there are two reasons for that. One is that you just don't wear them out so quickly; mud and grass are hardly as abrasive as asphalt. The other one is that I am predominantly a road runner. I have worn out so many road shoes over the years!

I bought my first pair of off-road shoes in a shop. I just bought the ones with the biggest lugs they had. But later I developed a habit of buying my shoes secondhand, and my second pair (bought just before a trail 10k) was a bit less luggy. But I really like grip. So when these shoes were showing signs of old age, I decided my next pair should be more grippy.

I am in the position to try several of them out. On a fairly regular basis, there is a demo event where we can borrow a particular (new) model of trail shoes and try it out on the hill. I had really liked the Inov8 mud claws. I hadn't bought a pair at the end of the event, as I wanted to try both the regular model and the wide one. Maybe they could have provided me with that, but among the shoes I could see these options are not available. I probably should have been a bit more proactive! 

With spring well on its way, I figured we would soon go back off the road on the Thursday nights. I should be ready for that, with new shoes. I intended to they just get to Llanberis early enough one Thursday to get there before the shop close, and sort out my mud claws. But then there suddenly was a demo event of Altra. The shoes were fine, but not quite what I wanted to buy. But after the run but before the prize draw, I had a mooch in the rest of the shop. And I noticed that there was a sale going on with running shoes. And there were some seriously grippy models! And they had my size. I suppose everybody in the world has bigger feet than me.

I tried the two grippiest shoes. The pretty one didn't have a good fit. The ugly one did! And prettiness doesn't matter. And the people in the shop were totally fine with selling me a pair of shoes that were not Altras. So now I am sorted! Sorry Inov8. Maybe next time. And wish me luck in the new off-road season!

To the physio for unusual reasons

I've been going to the physio for almost two years now. It normally is something to do with some part of my legs. My ankle, my knee, my hip… but now something was different. 

For some reason, I had been feeling a niggle in my elbow. No idea where it came from! But then again, I had no idea where my hip issue had come from either. Maybe I'm just getting old. And it wasn't a big problem, but I had a caving weekend coming up. That could involve a fair amount of rope work, and for that you need your arms. I thought I had better get me some exercises before that would happen. Luckily, Adam could fit me in.

He seemed to find it funny that I turned out to have a golf elbow. It certainly has nothing to do with golf! But he must've seen this many times before, and he knew what exercises to give me. Most of them involve a rubbery cylinder I had borrowed from Neil, because he has been struggling with the same injury in the past. So now I can try to get myself back to normal before the caving weekend hits. Or at least part of the way! 

One of the exercises: the metronome 

Beach trip with better weather than expected

After the beautifully sunny and calm trip to Cwm Idwal, the trip to Red Wharf Bay could almost only be a bit of an anticlimax. And the weather forecast was rain and wind. One of my colleagues even emailed me the day before to check if it would even take place. But I thought it would be OK. 

On the day, it was actually sunny when I arrived on main campus to wait for the coach. That was a bonus! And it was still sunny when we arrived on location. It was rather windy, and the wind was quite cold, but it was quite doable. 

I had a rather responsive group, but I was a bit worried to notice they hadn't remembered an awful lot of the material. They would have to do a lot of revision before the exam in May! But maybe that's normal.

We talk to them about all the evidence of the tectonic and sedimentary processes from the Silurian to the Carboniferous you can spot there, and then some from the last Ice Age. And then we were basically done. A little bit early! The weather had held the entire time. And the coaches hadn't gone anywhere, so we could just go back to campus a bit earlier than timetabled. I had been a bit worried about this trip, but in the end was lovely!

Lovely rock

Heading back

Trying to get to Borders League

I was looking forward to this Borders League race! It was going to be quite far away, on the north shore of the Wirral, but we were going to drive up with three of us, as we had done before. And I would drive. So the day before, I did a bit of a car check. I had already checked the tires the day before, but now I did oil and coolant. The coolant was a bit low. I still had some, so I topped it up.

On Sunday I happily set off to where I would meet the others. And at some point, the temperature warning light of the engine came on. Oh dear! But I had just filled up the coolant? But it went off seconds later. Maybe a fluke? Maybe, I don't know, an air bubble in the system or something? Because of the top-up?

A bit later it came on again. Just after a roundabout. There was no layby. And really shortly after that the whole engine cut out. Oh dear! I was glad there was a slipway to some maintenance yard or something. I cruised to it and stopped. And I was safe there.

The first thing I did was phone Helen, to tell her I had broken down, and couldn't pick her (and Anna) up. She did offer to come and get me, but I wasn't on a layby; she wouldn't be legally able to get to me, and I couldn't legally leave the car there. I had to sort this out first. I wished her all the best for the race. She would have to drive herself and Anna! 

I then contacted the AA. They would send someone soon. And then I phoned Neil to tell him this had happened. But the AA was there so quickly I had to hang up on him.

The AA man said that in all likelihood, me topping up the coolant had probably actually been the problem. He said that it was a known issue with old Corsas that you had to tighten the cap of the coolant reservoir well beyond reason; if you didn’t, it wouldn’t seal, and when your engine would get warm and the pressure would rise, all the coolant would come out, your engine would overheat, and it would cut out. That was probably what happened to me.

He brought a huge jerrycan with coolant, and filled up the reservoir. Then he checked the engine. It was fine! Then he topped it up a bit more, and said I was good to go. He said he would follow me home to make sure I got there OK. And I did! There I gave him my email address and then he was off.

I noticed I had some adrenaline still in the system. It hadn’t really clocked it was in there in the first place! But I had a nice big cup of coffee next to the cat, and then I was ready to fill  my day with something other than a Borders League race.

I was a bit sad. I had been looking forward to this! Travelling with three ladies is quite nice, and the travel becomes part of the event. But it was not to be. At least I have learned something about my car now. I will be really careful with that cap in the future!

It may also have been my last Borders League race of the season. The next fixture is at the same time as the Trawsfynydd race, and then the only thing left is The relay with presentation ceremony. That is on the same day as the Rhostryfan 10k. I think I prefer that! So a really sad way of bowing out of the season. But it will have to make do!

XC at Vaynol

On the club social media accounts, there was a call for marshals. This concerned some cross country (XC) championship. I've marshalled for that sort of thing before; my first marshalling was actually for XC. And I would have a busy weekend; on the day after that, there was a Borders League race. But if the club needs a hand…

It turned out to be nothing to do with the club. They were advertising for a third party! I was a bit miffed at that. I am struggling a bit combining a busy job, running, and a relationship. The weekends are just too short. But well, I had put my name down now. But then there was no communication from the organiser. At some point I got annoyed and I asked them if they could confirm they still needed me. No answer! I decided to not go. But then, the evening before the actual marshalling, they did get in touch. So I decided to show up.

It was an absolutely glorious day, and the venue was also amazing. It is the estate of the old owner of Dinorwic Quarry. That's quite glamorous!

Attempt at arty shot of the mansion 

I found the tent that was HQ. There we got a radio and a hi-vis vest, and we were assigned positions. The route was some distorted figure of eight, and I was right next to the top loop. About as far away as you could be from start and finish.

I made myself comfortable there there. I had brought a mat to sit on, clothes for if it would be either warm or cold, a book, and materials to do some hair maintenance that I had fallen behind on quite severely. And, of course, lunch.

As a traditional, the races started with the juniors. First the youngest ones, all locals, that only did one full loop. Then the slightly older ones, running for their perspective countries, that did two. Then a relay, with only four runners on the field. One for England, one for Ireland, one for Scotland, and one for Wales. And that tended to be the order they came in. I suppose that may reflect population size! If you have a large population, it is easier to draw strong runners from it.

I didn't have much to do. The whole route was demarcated with tape, so there was absolutely no ambiguity about where they had to go. I just cheered them all on. I suppose I was mainly there in case of emergencies. We all had radios. And I could hear that some of the other marshals sometimes asked for first aid. I suspected some sprained ankles. I saw two runners misstep a bit, limp for a bit, consider their options, and then decide they were good enough to keep running. It would be easy to imagine that sometimes they wouldn't end so well!

The rather uneven ground the runners were running on 

Talking to the organisation afterwards it turned out that first aid was mainly called for kids who had dehydrated. It was marked! And they ran such short distance! What would happen to them in summer?

Anyway; my radio was basically in use for keeping headquarters informed on which runners were in the lead. There was an announcer with a very loud sound system, and they could keep everyone informed.

After the juniors it was obviously time for the seniors. These were running for their clubs, not their countries. I recognised many local clubs. There weren’t many Harriers running! But Helen had changed from a marshal to a runner. And the runners had their age on their back. There was a man in the 85+ category! I don't think I had seen that before. He wasn't fast but he was going for it.

Then the last race, with faster age categories, was run. They ran five loops. And the front runners did it in no time! I had lots of déjà-vus. The last runner wasn't very fast, but he was steady. And when he came past the last time I knew I could pack up. I have read four chapters of my book, and used all the thread I had for hair maintenance, and eaten all my lunch. Time to go home!

I could really have done with that day for myself, but as marshalling days ago, this was perfect. Lovely venue, perfect weather, and I could use the time between races for something useful. And I always get vicarious joy out of seeing other people run. So it was as good as it could've been! But as a club we have now decided to not advertise for marshals for third parties anymore. There is only limited enthusiasm for such tasks, and we need to save some for our own races! 

Film: how deep is your love?

Bangor turns out to have its own film festival.  Or at least; be part of a Wales-wide film festival. The WOW festival. I had never noticed! But this year I got an email about a specific film being screened. It was about the deep sea. I suspect they made sure to send it to everyone in Ocean Sciences. And it looked interesting!

On the day I was quite knackered from a heavy week, but it started at five. It was tempting to just stop working at half past four and bike to main campus. And I did. And to my surprise, the cinema was packed! 

The film is basically about the Clarion-Clipperton zone, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean;  the largest known field of manganese nodules. These are lumps on the sea floor, roughly potato to sugarbeet size, that are full of the sort of metals industry wants for mobile phones and solar panels and whatnot. But they are also non-renewable; it takes millions of years to form them. And they are quite possibly crucial for the deep sea ecosystem. 

The film was basically report of a scientific cruise with the James Cook, on which I sailed some ten years ago, which aim to go there, and to do as good as possible a job of inventorising what life is there at the bottom of the sea. If you don’t know what’s there, how can you effectively protect it? 

Footage of the cruise was cut through with footage of negotiations about whether to mine or to protect the area. I can imagine people are keen on these metals for the energy transition, but at what cost? 

The cruise also tried to find the traces of some trial mining in 1979. That sounds so hard! But they did it. The sea floor looked like it had been churned up yesterday. 

The cruise had a robot with lights, cameras, a grabber and a hoover, and could therefore see and film what life was down there, and grab them and bring them to the surface. The scientists clearly had bleeding hearts when they decided to bring a creature up. They don’t survive it. But about 90% of the species there weren’t known to science, and you can’t legislate protection for what you don’t know exists. 

A new species needs a name. The important one is the Latin one. But they get colloquial names too. And these speak of the weirdness of the animals found. The gummy squirrel. Barbie pig. Headless chicken monster. And a lot more! I was hoping to see a purple sock but that didn’t happen. 

It was quite a long film and I was tired, and I skipped the Q&A session afterwards. But I was glad I had come! You don’t get to see footage of such a remote and deep ocean floor very often. And it was poured into a great narrative form. But I think everyone left that cinema a bit sad... 

A crinoid (sea lily); they still exist! 

A Barbie pig, and the shadow of the grabber that tries to sample it

New computer, new troubles

The good news is: I now have a computer that runs on Windows 11. The bad news? I can’t dictate to it. 

New desktop! 

I had Dragon voice recognition software installed on the old PC, and the new one obviously didn't come with it. When I raised this with the bloke who had done the transfer, he first said he would be able to move it across, but then he changed his mind. And the old license I had didn't allow me to install the software on any new machines. I had had it for years!

I figured it had been worth a lot more than it had cost; I had had it for years. I raised the matter with Stuart and he agreed that it was worth buying a new license. But he wanted it at the lowest possible cost. That makes sense. I relayed his to IT, who should do the purchase. 

There hasn’t been a response yet. I hope one is imminent! It’s a pain to not be able to dictate. I get around it by dictating to my phone, and then emailing myself the text. It’s a bit cumbersome. And it’s not helping my RSI to take these detours!