Apologies, gifts from the Gods and eeeeeeeek!

Cripes!!! How long has it been since I have posted something....flipping ages is a polite phrase that comes to mind. So my apology to those who have wondered what has happened to me (well all one of you, haha). Basically the weather has just been so good that it was necessary to strap those mudclaws to me feet and head out into the fells for days of fun. And fun it has been.

Well quite a bit of running has happened in the meantime and if I go on one of my normal rambles I'll be nattering for ages. To avoid masses of drivel and the possibility of sending people into a state of comatose I have decided that I should just bullet point a few sentences and post a load of pictures.

So here goes......
1. Training for my Paddy Buckley Round on the 4th of June has been going well during April :)
2. All but one weekend of April was spent doing recon runs in Snowdonia.
3. The one weekend I missed Tracy & I ran the Dark & White Mini Mountain Marathon and won the Hope Valley Mixed Team event and therefore the overall Series for the Mixed Team. Which we are both pleased about as we have not ran a navigation race before until we ran this series.
4.I have been eating like a horse (and enjoying it) with out putting weight on...pass me the chocolate :)
5. I have a first class support team for my Paddy attempt now finalised.
6. The Gifts from the Gods!......Whilst out running the Moelwyns section I realised I had put some old socks on and blisters where beginning to form...drat. If I had only remembered to pack my padded compression socks....3 miles in hanging of a barb wire fence what did I find...yes a pair of socks that where perfectly dry and my size! The rest of the run went well needless to say. Thank you sock gods! Mmmmm I could do with some new fell shoes..I wonder if there is a God that deals with this? I might have to email Terry Prachett to find out :P
7. Eeeeeeeek as I said training went well in April. May however is a different story. I lost concentration coming down the Roaches after an easy run and yes the ankle went in one direction I went in the other. Anglo-saxon terminology filled the air in a very colour full way. To cut a long story short the police drove me to the local hospital where I was transferred to Macclesfield for an xray. Luckily no fracture or brake but several badly torn ligaments.I've started physio and I'm still aiming for the 4th June its just looks like I'll be having a longer taper period than I thought. Time to buy some ultra light trekking poles me thinks at least I can then aim to be the first person to hop around the Paddy :)

Hope everyone else there has been having loads of fun on the fells! Here's the pictures then :)

Tracy survives, but only just, the bogs of the Moelwyns.

Jon & Tracy climb out of the Moelwyn quarries

More of the Moelwyns.

Just before starting the climb from Llanberis slate mines

Great views and great weather along the Glyders section.

Looking back to the Snowdon section from the Glyders

The lunar landscape between Glyder Fawr and Glyder fach

The scree slope of Glyder Fach...if you tilt your head sideways ha

Dale, George (on his hands & knees) and Tracy doing the Cnicht ascent.

George, Dale, Tracy and Jon take the views in from Moelwyn Mawr

Moi, Tracy, Dale, George and Jon still on Moelwyn Mawr

Tracy and Moi at the start of the Dark & White Hope Valley MM (Photo's from Dark & White)

Running to the end of the Dark & White and still energy left for a smile (Photo's from Dark & White)

The result of weekends away running the fells in Wales. Time for new shoes for Tracy me thinks.

And what do fell runners do after a hard day on the fells...get down to Pete's Eats in Llanberis and eat like a horse...well I do anyway. Tracy and the ex fell runner, legendary cafe owner that is Pete; who has a brilliant beach running theory which I shall share at a later date :)