Good to see you back DT. I hope you can get back into some more good BG training now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
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Good to see you back DT. I hope you can get back into some more good BG training now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Hey freckle what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...... or makes you cry and vow never ever, ever, ever to put yourself through that hell again :)Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
We all have bad days and in races I have them more often than not - last year I was crap in pretty much every race that I entered (although I did okay I guess in the AW) with much going off miles too fast, twisting of ankles, bonking (ooh ah vicar) and getting completely lost moments involved. Its all part of the 'fun'..... I think.
I might try and make Fairfield which I've done once before and absolutely loved (the descent is just brilliant and never ending), although I have to survive (and recover from) the fellsman first.
I'm planning on running at Fairfield. I'm giving up on Jura this year due to the serious amount of descent and my poorly knee but I am going to do some shorter races. Is the descent the same on as the Rydal Round? It was brilliant, went on for miles but I did get cramp in both calves as I got to the gate to the showground and I couldn't walk. My mates from harriers just sat and laughed as I hobbled to the finish.
HHH - Knee is officially bust. Going for Xrays and then physio. Could be a bone chip floating about or a fatty pad getting trapped. Doc says 'you can run on it as much as you can bear as the damage is already done' !! She also laughed at my shorts tan mark. I think we'll get on! Managed a 3 miler last night and only hopped once. Going to try a race at Ilkley tonight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I have only done the Rydal Round Hes but I believe the two courses are very similar. First time I did the Rydal I came off the wrong side of one of the Peaks in the clag and ended up a long way away :o (that should make freckle feel better about her AW experiences as it happens to us all). I think it may clash with another race so I don't know if I will be able to make it.
Now another poem by Mr Hardy :cool:
First sight of her and after
A day is drawing to its fall
I had not dreamed to see;
The first of many to enthrall
My spirit, will it be?
Or is this eve the end of all
Such new delight for me?
I journey home; the pattern grows
Of moonshades on the way:
"Soon the first quarter, I suppose,"
Sky-glancing travellers say;
I realize that if, for those,
Has been a common day.
Thomas Hardy
I always forget which summits the checkpoints are compared to the Rydal Round but there are threads on here somewhere which will tell you. It is pretty similar, although it starts at the hall so you have to run the track at the end rather than the start, which I find tough with wobbly legs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
Sorry that you've had your fears about your knee confirmed, but is is the first step to getting it sorted out which is positive. Fingers crossed for you.
Good luck with Ilkley tonight. I'm sure a bit of hopping will do you no harm.
Hopping Hes has had
her hinjury hopefully
helped. Hallelujah!
Hurray for HHH's Haiku Hs....cheers Harry, I like the alliteration. Am annoyed about my knee but at least I might actually do something positive about it now instead of just running with my fingers crossed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill
Lovely. I do like Thomas Hardy.
where once there was one
the sunrise through the curtains
makes two soft shadows
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
It strikes me that my humble blog at http://poet-in-residence.blogspot.com may be something for somebody?
That is a fantastic resource, Woodlander, and some great poetry content too. I can see myself spending some time there in the future.
Yes, a fab resource Woodlander. Looks like the Fell Poets Socitey is now international :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevie
I see mountains all around,
Lakeland beauty surrounds me,
Within a moment i hit the ground,
Where am i ? How can this be ?.
Stomach churning, Head turning,
Marshalls come to my aid,
To reach the finish was my yearning,
Well there goes my plan best laid.
Coming round i thank them all,
Strangely i've enjoyed myself,
There's always next year to stand tall,
When i shall be in better health.
It was a joy to meet the forumites,
And put their names to faces,
We'll have fun on the poetry nights,
Round the campfire drinking whisky chasers.
By Herakles.
I am still at work (what a top grafter!) so I haven't got time to comment fully on all the good stuff on this here thread today but I just wanted to say that i really liked this poem herakles, i am glad that all is well that ends well....Quote:
Originally Posted by Herakles
I particularly like the hopeful yet slightly incongrous image of fell runners necking large amounts of whiskey chasers whilst discussing the finer points of armitage poetry...i do hope I will not be toooooooo lairy! :rolleyes: but the chances are...i probably will be if whiskey is on the cards
Sweet xQuote:
Originally Posted by Hes
That looks fabulous. That'll keep me entertained for hours.Quote:
Originally Posted by woodlander
I met someone out running tonight who is a lurker around these parts and they said some really positive things about this thread. Thanks for that as you didn't have to share those thoughts. Please keep on lurking and enjoying the thread.
There was a thread a while back called 'how do you navigate' or something but the search isn't working at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
I'd look at it in two sections; interpreting what's drawn on the map which is the hard bit, and dead reckoning using the compass which is the easy bit. Dead reckoning is based around the fact that the top of a map is always north, and it requires you to know where you are at the start and where you want to finish. If you align the side of your compass on an 'imaginary line' between the start and finish on your map then point the painted N for north arrow on the bezel to the top of the map (north), when you line up the red end of the compass needle with the N on the bezel then the blue arrow on the perspex plate is giving you a direction of travel to meet your finish point and directly representing the 'imaginary line' on your map. You move from one known point to another like this until you're done but if you ever fail to know where you are you can't plot both a start and a finish and are lost. I've never had to use a compass while running because i can sort of transfer the map lines and features i see to a 3D image in my head which i can cross reference with topographical features i'm looking at, and this recognition of things by eye is just as important as dead reckoning ability.
It won't be an overnight thing to pick up it has to be improved on over time with experience, i'd liken it to learning to play a musical instrument, you keep doing it and it keeps coming. Don't be afraid of being 'geographically mislocated' either, it's different to being lost and it just happens, if you know which way is 'out' you're not lost. I remember being on the side of Skiddaw years ago having followed a gamekeeper's track accidentally, i knew i was somewhere within a half mile square box on the fellside and this is what i mean by geographically mislocated rather than lost. In the end i just ascended and came accross some hikers who set me right, i'd been fannying around for ages trying to pin down my location when i should have just followed my nose.
I tried to put this in Haiku but it just wouldn't fit, sorry ;D
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
thank you mr brightside you put a lot of thought and consideration into this post and I really appreciate it. I will take your advice and have come to the conclusion that as well as honing my navigational skills I generally just need more time in the hills which isn't easy with the way my life is organised at present but will be my aim! I am looking forward to putting these tips into practice as soon as possible. I was thinking about Fairfield horseshoe but think that it is too near another road race that I am already doing (Blaydon Race)....thanks again
this is lovely...there is such a gentleness in the way hardy writes i think....hes i loved your haiku it was beautiful i hope you get your knee sorted as soon as possible....the thread has been really great over the past 24 hours i can hardly keep up...welcome home dt!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I could leave you a trail of jelly babiesQuote:
Originally Posted by Hes
to the summit up the scree
I'll be hitting the top much earlier
probably around 3 :eek::eek:
Freckle's Navigational Woes.
Hoorah, Hoorah for the canny lass,
Freckle wants a navigation class,
Sort out on your compass and map what is true north,
Then with confidence you can go forward step forth,
You must find time to master these skills,
Or we will lose you in the hills,
It doesn't help your not very tall,
We won't find you because your cute and small.
By Herakles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emmilou
How cute and how utterly cool :cool: in awe :cool:
Well, what can I say...your too kindQuote:
Originally Posted by Herakles
Oh...and don't be fooled by my cuteness and smallness...i am really a deugar in disguise!...Raaaaaaaaaaaaaar!
Bottomless Pit
Here i cling for dear life,
The pit beckons, welcoming,
Hang on, things left to do.
OK i'll bring an extra bag of 'em...Quote:
Originally Posted by emmilou
Looking forward to supporting you Emma on those two first legs
Perhaps your round will inspire some more BGR poetry?
a fell runner trueQuote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
you can scramble up those slopes
just head for the light
Hang in there Merry.
...now i know that can't be true....:)Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
determination
Tuesday's fell race at Ilkley
or foolhardiness!
Just blasted to Dick Hudson's and back at a BOFRA race. Knee held up till the last descent...Fairfield could be tricky but really enjoyed the evening.
Funny how you see places differently when you're mid-way round the BGR?! Time to add Dunmail to Martcrag, Broad Stand and Yewbarrow to the list of BGR poems written in Costa watching the world go by... Hope it resonates with people because this is how I now see this pivotal spot. It's written from the point of view of the contender and the road supporters, all of which see Dunmail with fresh eyes after a round.
Dunmail
A pass to most
A halt to us
A raise to most
A depth to us
North-south to most
East-west to us
Remote to most
Hubbub to us
Passed by to most
Absorbed by us
A verge to most
Parking to us
Unknown to most
Dear to us
A road to most
Dunmail to us
Thanks Hes, all the very best to you and your knee.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
Sometimes I get the urge to just transport myself somewhere else....somewhere a bit dreamy.....and otherwordly.....
following on the Thomas Hardy theme...this is long but stick with it....!
Under the Waterfall
'Whenever I plunge my arm, like this,
In a basin of water, I never miss
The sweet sharp sense of a fugitive day
Fetched back from its thickening shroud of gray.
Hence the only prime
And real love-rhyme
That I know by heart,
And that leaves no smart,
Is the purl of a little valley fall
About three spans wide and two spans tall
Over a table of solid rock,
And into a scoop of the self-same block;
The purl of a runlet that never ceases
In stir of kingdoms, in wars, in peaces;
With a hollow boiling voice it speaks
And has spoken since hills were turfless peaks.'
'And why gives this the only prime
Idea to you of a real love-rhyme?
And why does plunging your arm in a bowl
Full of spring water, bring throbs to your soul?'
'Well, under the fall, in a crease of the stone,
Though where precisely none ever has known,
Jammed darkly, nothing to show how prized,
And by now with its smoothness opalized,
Is a drinking-glass:
For, down that pass
My lover and I
Walked under a sky
Of blue with a leaf-wove awning of green,
In the burn of August, to paint the scene,
And we placed our basket of fruit and winethe runlet's rim, where we sat to dine;
And when we had drunk from the glass together,
Arched by the oak-copse from the weather,
I held the vessel to rinse in the fall,
Where it slipped, and sank, and was past recall,
Though we stooped and plumbed the little abyss
With long bared arms. There the glass still is.
And, as said, if I thrust my arm below
Cold water in basin or bowl, a throe
From the past awakens a sense of that time,
And the glass both used, and the cascade's rhyme.
The basin seems the pool, and its edge
The hard smooth face of the brook-side ledge,
And the leafy pattern of china-ware
The hanging plants that were bathing there.
'By night, by day, when it shines or lours,
There lies intact that chalice of ours,
And its presence adds to the rhyme of love
Persistently sung by the fall above.
No lip has touched it since his and mine
In turns therefrom sipped lovers' wine.'
This is excellent One Off! I can't pretend to understand it like a BGR er but I like the way it is constructed and the sentiment!.......now I do hope that a poet of your calibre will be attending the armitage gig!Quote:
Originally Posted by OneOffPoet
Very Good One Off, I can agree with the flow and sentiment as one that it is written about.Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
for merry.......Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0
Thanks for the comments, and the invitation to the Armitage gig. Does it matter that a newbie to poetry like me doesn;t know who Armitage is? Sorry....
When and where is it again?
Of course, i'll have to 'out' myself from my OOP alter-ego if i do go. I genuinely never thought I'd write more than one poem and given that it was my first, i was reluctant to share it amongst people who are long time poetry fans for risk of embarassment. Hence the OOP guise.
Kind of like having a little secret hiding place but if I can make the gig I'll come as me, as it were!
THanks again for the support which is the reason there was a second poem. I'm really enjoying them now - a new hobby:)
OOP
i think only a trip to the simonside fells heralds the answer!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by IanDarkpeak
its the 15th July at Dufton a lovely little village in North Yorks we will post more details nearer the time be great to see you there...keep up the poetry!Quote:
Originally Posted by OneOffPoet
Mmmmm i reckon its getting a bit too freckly around here....so here is my last post for the evening.....
dedicated to the pang of seperation......and the constancy of love
I carry your heart
E E Cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
Thanks forkind comments Stevie, Derby Tup, Harry Howgill and everyone on this forum. You are great!Quote:
Originally Posted by woodlander
By the way, my favourite poem about running is 'The Song of the Ungirt Runners'. I haven't checked but it MUST be on the blog and on this thread too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodlander
Morning all...thanks woodlander for this great resource I just had a quick look and found this lovely poem....
Dream Variations by Langston Hughes
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me--
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,Dance!
Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
It's good to have a "real" poet in our midst. I don't think the poem you mention has been posted on this forum so here it is:Quote:
Originally Posted by woodlander
The Song of Ungirt Runners
We swing ungirded hips,
And lightened are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must
Through the great wide air.
The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree-tops ask it why?
So we run without a cause
'Neath the big bare sky.
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And scatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad bright land.
Charles Hamilton Sorley
I was interested to read on Wikipedia that cross country running in the rain was a favourite activity of Sorley.