LEJoG 2017 - FAQs Part 1

It's definitely time to put out some FAQs here as I've had more than a few questions so far:

1 - Who/What charity are you running for?

I'd normally get pretty pissy with this question in relation to races and/or touring runs. I  run because I enjoy it.  I may not be an elite athlete and I'm never going to win a race, be fastest at anything etc. but I really do enjoy it.  I also find it uncomfortable and distasteful to beg for money from friends, family and strangers, especially for enjoying myself and doing something I'm pretty sure I'll achieve.

However.  This is different.  1000 miles is an 'ing long way, especially considering I'm carrying all my own stuff.  So it's actually a challenge that I'm not certain I'll complete.  I also finally have found a cause I really do care about (and they just got charitable status, but not yet set up on a mass fund-raising site yet, so watch this space).  This time, yes, I will be raising money and awareness for PHCuk.org.

2 - You're running a long way, in the middle of nowhere a lot; what about food?

Yep!

So.  I almost always run before eating; my stomach is just happier that way.  I'm OK eating *while* running but generally in the morning it works out better if I start out before breaking fast.  I'm intending to eat one meal per day, usually.  It worked really well on my 6 day running tours and I often eat 2 or fewer meals per day anyway these days.  I'll carry some emergency food for when I end up camping wild and away from anywhere I can buy food for the day.

On a related note; water. I'll be carrying 1.5L. That's heavy.  Water is all over the place, in shops, pubs, cafes, etc. as well as springs (there's a ton of them all over the place) and I have capability to purify 80L over the time I'm away.

3 - Have you practised putting up your tent in a howling gale and downpour?

No.

Three points on this one.  A. I'm not intending to camp every night - I'm carrying a tent for the times I want to stop for the day and there is no hut/bothy/yurt/barn/B&B/hostel or cheap hotel.  B. There are extremely few exposed parts of the route I have mapped (plus, I'd have to be really unlucky to get that sort of appalling weather in June).  And C. my tent is *extremely* easy to put up.  In a light breeze, it takes just over a minute.  (and a couple of minutes to put away)

4 - Have you checked your stove is safe to use inside your tent?

It isn't.

Again, two points. A. see above about weather/exposure. and B. Heck no! It is *never* safe to use a gas camping stove in an enclosed/unventilated space.  If I'm camping and the weather is appalling and there's nowhere nearby to get a warm meal/drink, I just won't have one. It won't kill me.

5 - Can I come and run with you?

Mostly no.  For safety reasons, my location will be known to very few people, and by a satellite tracker.  I may make an exception for the last day of my run, which is planned to be only 8 miles up to Duncansby Head, but *when* I'll get there is pretty much down to how things go in the 36-41 days before that.

I'll have a PLB a bit like this one. But not this one. A different one.

HELLO HORSEY, CAN I GET PAST PLEASE?

6 - Safety?

This is the big one.  I'll never be more than 15 miles from civilisation in some form.  I've got a satellite tracker/personal locator beacon that will last for 45 days of active tracking at a 10 minute interval before I need to replace the battery (and I'll have spares).

Being in the UK, there's pretty much nothing venomous enough to really do damage, and no large predators that would want to eat me.  I'm reasonably experienced with bull, cow, sheep and horse wrangling where I need to get by and they're in the way.

7 - Aren't you going to get really tired?

Yes.

And... I'll get hot, cold, scratched, sore shoulders, sore feet, back ache, cut, stung, grazed, blisters, sun burn, wind burn and chafing.  I'll probably have nights with very little sleep.  I'll also trip and/or fall over, especially when I'm tired.  And I'll make poor decisions through inexperience and/or tiredness.   I've also got a route that avoids any of the particularly difficult parts of the UK; the Pennines, most of the Lake District, the Cairngorms.  Anywhere really high that can get difficult in "weather" is off the route.

This isn't a walk in the park.  It isn't easy.  It's a very long way.  I'm not deliberately setting out to sit on a spike here, but without increasing the time for the trip (which would cost me a lot of lost earnings at work) and spending a *lot* of money and/or carrying a *lot* more kit, it's not going to be a luxury trip.

Bike and helmet damage

I'm back from the Evans workshop with an initial, rough diagnosis - letter to follow and the handlebars and frame still need full assessment.  The guy in the workshop wanted to have a chat about what happened before having a proper look.  Nice guy.

Basically the front fork and wheel are definitely no good now and the back wheel is iffy.  It's hard to show the wheel damage, so I haven't.  The frame -may- be OK.  It's a few mm out but without a more thorough assessment tomorrow the jury is still out.

Remember, these are carbon fibre reinforced forks, so rather than bend, they will crack or snap and even if you can't see any surface damage, once impacted hard they can be damaged internally and you'll never see that.

See the crack right through, opened up at the back and bulging at the front.

It might not look like much damage but, trust me, that's trashed and utterly unsafe.

Helmets should -always- be replaced after an accident, regardless of whether there is visible damage.  In my case, there -is- visible damage and I now have a new helmet.  The absolute kicker is that this one was brand new!  I only bought it at the weekend and wore it out for the first time on the day of the accident!

Nice crack right through the polystyrene.  It's probably compressed quite a bit internally too.

You can clearly see that I hit my head on the back at the right.

Prognosis at the moment is that the bike -might- be OK to replace parts on and still be safe to ride, but I have to wait to find out for sure tomorrow.  But at the cost of forks, wheels and potentially handlebars all plus labour... it's going to be a toss-up probably even if the frame is safe.  There are comparable road bikes out there for the price I paid for this Felt and comparable to the cost of fixing it up again.  I -do- love my Felt, but...

I'm probably not going to post images of my injuries, mostly because I couldn't get a decent angle on them by myself.  Suffice to say, I have 13 bruises of varying size (6 utter corkers and 7 smaller ones) and a few grazes as well as the injuries you can't see (neck, shoulder and lower sternum/ribs/diaphragm area).

I'm not scared though.  And I can't wait to get back on a bike again.  It wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could have done not to crash, but that doesn't mean I should be frightened, it just means I was really unlucky.

What CS7?

This week I've been cycling home really rather later than usual and it's a real surprise what a huge difference it makes to the journey. There are So Many cars and vans parked in the cycle lane that it isn't possible to cycle in it. I'd come across this one weekend on the way back from the North and I'd assumed it was a weekend thing, but apparently it's an evening thing too. Which really sucks. A lot. It did take "only" 44 minutes to get home tonight, including a stop to chat with someone and lend them my lights (well, give, I'm not expecting to get them back) but if I'd been able to cycle in the cycle lane it could have been quicker and a heck of a lot safer.

I don't know what the rules are about the cycle lanes, who isn't allowed to be in them and if there are time rules. I need to find out. And I need to be able to leave work at a time which means I can be a bit more protected from a reasonable proportion of traffic.