K42 training

Today was my last 'long' training before next month's K42. Last year I won the K42 on my first attempt at a marathon, and my prize was a trip to Argentina to compete in the K42 final.

Today I ran for 4hr45 mins (my longest ever training run). I ran the last section of the Gran Canaria Chellenger route along the barranco to Santa Brigida. I chose this route because it follows a dry river bed for most of the way, which is very similar the final 15km of the K42 route, and it was this section that I suffered the most last year.

I felt good for most of the run, until the final 30mins. However I had my girlfriend Alison to keep my company during this section. She is training for a 5km Race for Life this summer and ran to meet me.

Lizzy Hawker wins Transgrancanaria 2010

British ultra running super star, Lizzy Hawker, has won the 2010 edition of Trangrancanria.

(PHOTO: Alberto Cardona)

The Swiss based North Face runner lead from the start, giving most of the top men a run for their money in the 123km ultra marathon across the beautiful island of Gran Canaria. At the 83km aid station in El Garañon Lizzy was in 6th position over-all, and was feeling very strong. With no pressure from the other girls in the race, she was able to cruise the last 40km finishing in 11th position over-all, beating many top male athletes.

The mens race was won by Bejarano Miguel Heras (13 hours, 04 minutes 14 seconds), who took the lead near the start and held it to the end. This was his first time running Transgrancanaria which he described as very hard and the biggest win of his short ultradistance running career.

Over an hour later finished Arnau Julia in 2nd place, repeating the same postion as last year. In 3rd was last year's champion Adolfo Aguilar.

(PHOTO: Alberto Cardona)

Training with Lizzy Hawker

Over the past few weeks I have been working for Trans Gran Canaria which is a 123km Ultra Trail race across Gran Canaria that takes place this weekend.

Many great athlete have run this race including ultra running legend Marco Olmo. This year´s star entrant is Britain´s Lizzy Hawker.

Lizzy has won Ultra Trail Mont Blanc twice and is the 100km World Champion.

I had the opportunity to train the other day with Lizzy and to pick her brain to try to find the secret to her success!

More to come soon!!

Müller and Leonhardt win in Tamadaba

Swiss orienteering star Matthias Müller and Austrian orienteer Karin Leonhardt both came out on top in Tamadaba today. Matthias won the 7km H21course in a very impressive time of 38 mintues beating me by over 2 minutes. Karin's win was equally as impressive winning D21 on the same course as the H21 in just under 60 minutes, beating most of the men.

I was quite please with my run today, as I have had quite a tough week's training. I was pretty clean until the 9th control when I lost my line through some green. Matthias caught me and we ran the rest of the course together. I felt good to be running with someone like Matthias after such a long break from top level orienteering, and it made me really want to try to get to some race in main land Spain and the UK.

VIII Media Maratón Campo a Través Ciudad de Arucas (half marathon Arucas)

Today was Carucat's 8th annual mountain half marathon in Arucas. I had planned this to be my last race before K42 Gran Canaria (6th April), however things didn't quite go to plan. After spending a little longer than planned at carnaval (dressed as The Tin Man), I forgot to set alarm clock to off on Sundays. I woke up at 09.10 ate a bannana then started to look for the car keys, to cut a long story short I eventually found the keys at 09.45, and started to attempt to get Arucas for a 10.00 start. As I arrived in the car park I heard the starter gun go while I was frantically looking for a car parking space, I quickly changed my shoes and ran to the start to pick up my number and timing chip. I started 8mins behind the other competitors. It wasn't long before I start to pick off some of the slower runners, passing runners soon became very difficult on the narrow paths. I never quite caught up with the leaders but I managed to finish in 8th position in a time of roughly 1hr27 (I forgot my watch too).
The race was won by host club's Yeray Santana in the very quick time of 1hr24.

What have I learnt today? Carnaval and racing do not mix well!

Results available here. Or on Top Time's webpage.

Corre Ve Y Dile!! What a crazy race!!

At the weekend Zonaboxes and RunGoSay (my mountain running club) held their second edition of Correveydile, and Active Canaria had a team 'running'. Before you read anymore let me explain, this was a novelty race where teams were expected to dress up! So for some reason Active Canaria decided we would go as the Spice Girls.

Active Canaria's team consisted of:

Allan Bogle- Posh
Alison Hill- Ginger
Gordon Sutcliffe- Sporty
Manga Dembele- Scary
Fran Harkins- Baby

Although we did not win, or came anywhere close to winning we had a great time...and we are already thinking about what we will dress as next year! Any ideas Gordon?

Photos: Bichillo Runner

Africans dominate in Gran Canaria Marathon

Kipkosgei Kutto James (Kenya) and Ture Chatumoha (Ethiopia) win the new edition of the Gran Canaria Marathon.

Las Palmas lived up to its high standard in sports event organising yesterday by hosting the new edition of the Gran Canaria Marathon. Over 3000 competitors from 23 countries hit the historic streets of Las Palmas, cheered on by thousands of spectators which lined the entire route.

Kutta could not get close to his PB (two hours and eight minutes), however he ran a very respectable time of 2:17:40. Behind him was the Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Vaquero with an amazing time of 2:18:30 and Swede Kristoffer Österlund, who crossed the line in third place (2:28:53).

The women´s race followed a similar story with the Africa runner, Chatumoha winning in a time of 2:40:31 followed by Aroa Merino in second (2:50:08), and Heike Angel in third (3:19:46).