Friday 27 November 2009

Active Canaria OFFICIAL LAUNCH!!

Tonight is the official LAUNCH PARTY for Active Canaria...

Please remember to keep checking http://www.activecanaria.com/ for updates...

New packages to be announced soon!


Launch Party photos tomorrow!!

Sunday 22 November 2009

Active Canaria!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!



Exciting news!! Active Canaria have just launched their brand new web-page!

What is Active Canaria?

Active Canaria is a new sports travel company based in Gran Canaria that offers affordable training packages for runners that are tired of training and competing in the cold!

For more information check out the web-page, or why not follow them on Facebook.

www.activecanaria.com

Follow on Facebook!!

Orienteering in Maspalomas

Today was the final race in the Gran Canaria Orienteering Series. The race was held on an open area north of Maspalomas and was a very enjoyable format. It was a mass start with a 'score' of 10 controls followed by a 4km loop with 7 more controls.
I got of to a shaky start, finding it difficult to get into the map. After taking a stupid route choice to my first control on the score I soon started concentrating and running better. By the end of the score I had built up a lead of about 3minutes, but was soon to losing it again after spending too long running up and down a reenterant full of cacti looking for number 10. I was caught by Fran Hernández who had a very good race. Fran and I battled right the way to the end however I came out dominant, making it 3 wins out of 3 for this year's orienteering!

Saturday 21 November 2009

El Corte Ingles Road Race

I would like to wish Good Luck! to everyone running the El Corte Ingles Road race tomorrow. I will not be running as my legs are still a little sore after last week's K42 in Argentina. Instead I am running the last race of Gran Canaria Orienteering series. A mass start 'score' followed by a set course.


Thursday 19 November 2009

Races in November and December

Over the next few weeks there are several interesting races coming up:

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Don´t cry for me Argentina...


I am back in Spain now after a very long journey. This is the first time I have been able to sit down an analyse my race since finish in 18th position (3hrs40). Am I pleased with my result/ time? Well yes and no...I had hoped for a top ten result and I hoped to run faster! however I have learnt some valuable lessons about mountain running! unlike track and road races it is impossible to predict times, as you are often running through "the unknown". How I had pictured the race course in my head was very different from the reality. In my head it was not as tough as the qualification race I won in Gran Canaria, so therefore I expected a time a lot faster as I was in a lot better shape! However it wasn´t long into the race I realised things were not going to be as easy as I imagined! From the gun the pre-race favourite (the winner of the Brazilian Qualification race) set a ridiculously fast pace, he went through the first 10km in under 35mins (which is fast even for a road marathon) the chasing pack went through in 37mins! I had found myself in "no-man´s land" by myself struggling to maintain visual contact with the pack!seeing 39min on my watch at 10km and feeling my legs I knew I had made my first mistake! It wasn´t long before the course started winding its way up through a forest before dropping down into a river crossing. After the river crossing at about 15km I started to get over taken by runners that had started off more conservatively, I managed to get back into a good (more sensible) pace. At the half way mark the route began to climb! and climb! and climb! I knew it would be steep..but I had unestimated just how steep! we climbed 2000m in the space of 10km through some of the toughest terrain I have ever seen! knee deep in snow I was exhausted by the time I reached the summit, the only good news was that the last 12km would be mostly downhill. On the downhill section I started to feel a lot better and was able keep a good pace going, however I was alone and didn´t realised that only a few minutes infront of me the was a tiring group which included Martin Fiz (former World Champion marathon runner). When I crossed the line I was pleased with what I had achieved however I knew there was a lot of room for improvement. (whoops...need to go catch my plane)!I will write more later!

Saturday 14 November 2009

And back over to the Canarian correspondent.


First of all, let me tell you that I was at WOMAD last night, and I’ll haphazard a guess and say that it was marginally more exciting than a ‘pasta party’. Sorry!



Anyway, enough about me... The day of the race is finally upon us and I’m sure that emotions are running high. I haven’t heard from Allan yet this morning (being it 7am over there) but last night he seemed on form and set to go. If you would like to follow the race online today, follow this link:


http://www.k42trailrun.com/index2.php


The race starts at 1pm our time, 10am there’s and there will apparently be regular updates on the website above throughout the day.


So, I shall sign off for now and wish all of the competitors (whose desire to run 42k up and down mountains will never make any sense to me) the best of luck. And, of course, send lots of love and support to ‘The Bogletron’. You show ‘em how it’s done!

Friday 13 November 2009

One day to go...


Between training, carbo-loading and TV interviews I have had very little time to up-date my blog over the last couple of days. This morning marked the"24hours to go" mark! My days here have been following the same pattern, I get up at 7am and have my Quaker Oats with dry apricotes while reading my book (Born to Run), at 8 I put on my running gear and go for a short jog which is closely followed by more porridge. I try to relax as much as possible during the day, but this hass proved to be hard when surrounded by just beautiful scenery. I the evening I go for another short jog before consuming ridiculous amounts of pasta and then trying to get an early night.
Yesterday we picked up our race numbers and t-shirts before being whisked off to a beautiful lake to be interviewed by ESPN. Today we have been to check out part of the race course which seem to be a lot more pleasant than the qualification race in Gran Canaria. Tonight we have a race meeting to find out all the logistics of the race and we will hit the PASTA PARTY (not quite as exciting as WOMAD I know..but a little healthier!!) Tomrrow will be an early start as we have to have get on the bus to the start area at 7.45am... and the then at 10am (13.00 GMT (UK & GC)) we start running!!


You can follow all the action at http://www.k42trailrun.com/

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Argentina (at last)

I have eventually managed to get online for the first time since arriving in Argentina on Monday! Firstly I would like to thank my girlfriend Alison for updatting this for me...I even like the pink writing!
After my epic journey for Las Palmas to Madrid to Sao Paulo to Buenas Aires to Bariloche I eventually arrived in my log cabin in Villa la Angostura late on Monday night. Going to sleep that night I did not know what to expect out of my window the next morning! When I woke and drew the curtains I was confronted with snow capped mountains on all sides and bright blue skies! it was literally breathe taking! After breakfast Fernado, Estrella (the winners of K42 Sahara) and I went for a jog to get our bearing...it was one of those runs that I love...we should have probably covered the distance in about 30mins but by the time we stopped to watch eagles flying over head and to take photos of lakes filled with turquoise blue glacier water we had spent over an hour running.
Today we rented a car and have driven through the Andes to a town called San Martin de los Andes which could easily be the front of any christmas card! We are going to spend the night here before returing to Villa la Angostura tomorrow to complete our race registeration and to continue with our carbo loading.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

HURRAH (I say with clenched teeth).....


...after a 5 million year long journey, Allan's made it to Patagonia!! Yet, I cannot help but feel just a tiny twang of jealousy.
'Like a moveie set', '...driving through snow capped mountains', 'so beautiful'
have been amongst many descriptions that I have already been texted during my dreary day at work (not to mention the weather!). 

NEXT TIME I'M COMING WITH YOU, BOGLE!

P.S. Does anyone know any nifty tips on ringing Argentinian mobiles from Spain? The woman at Telefonica is driving me mad!

Sunday 8 November 2009

Buena suerte, Allan!

Hello Allan fans/random people who have had the great fortune of stumbling upon this blog! This is Ali, Allan's lazier half. I am under strict instructions to keep his blog updated whilst he's away racing in Patagonia.
So here we go....
I dropped Allan off at the airport this morning (at a time that I didn't know existed on a Sunday), ready for the 1st leg of his journey. There were a couple of occasions when the Irish tone went a couple of octaves higher than usual, the 1st being when we looked at the departure board and saw 'DELAYED' flashing next to his flight, the 2nd when his hand luggage (which Mo assured us would be fine) was too fat to fit in the tester stand. As it turned out though, he was sitting on the plane before schedule and Mo was right, the lovely people who sit behind the desk at Ryanair didn't even bat an eyelid.
So I have waved him goodbye and wished him good luck and await the next bit of news to come this way which he wishes me to publicise.
Watch this space.....!


P.S.  Do you think he'll like the pink writing?
P.P.S. Hot off the press... He has landed at Madrid, but cannot find baggage collection.

Saturday 7 November 2009

Ruta Doramas

Today I went to watch Ruta Doramas in Firgas. It was nice to be a spectator at a race for once. The race was a 30km trail race organised by Club de Montaña de Firgas and was won by Matias Ojeda (the winner of GC Challenger).
When the competitors were racing Guacimara and I did our last training on Gran Canaria before flying to Argentina tomorrow.

Friday 6 November 2009

Leaving meal...

Last night I went out with a few friends to say good-bye. The plan was to go to an Argentinian steak restaurant, however I didn't book a table so we actually ended up have a Lebanese. It was a really good evening and I even got a good-luck card (thanks Mo) and a few presents. Thanks for everyone for coming along and I hope I do you all proud!

Tuesday 3 November 2009

My new socks...


I have just finished my first training in my new Bridgedale X-Hale Speed Demon Socks. I recently approached Bridgedales (a Northern Irish sock company) to ask if they would be interested in sponsoring for my upcoming race in Argentina and for my future races. Today I received a range of their most popular socks in the post. The Speed Demons are the perfect racing sock, light, breathable and providing support in all the right places.

The Greatest


Recently I bought Jim Demison´s book "The Greatest" (the story of Haile Gebrselassie) to read on the flight to Argentina. When it arrived I decided to read to first chapter after training one day, and I couldn´t put it down. It is a very well written inspirational story of an amazing man, and I thoroughly recommend it to all runners and sport fans. Today another book arrived in the post "Born to Run", I am definately keeping this one for the flight.