50 Mile Reccy

I’ve been trying to get this reconnoitre done for a few weeks now. But, with one thing and another it’s not been possible until now. What I wanted to do was check out the route and terrain for my 50 mile for my 50th birthday run along the canals to my home village in Kinver. My pal Graham and I got the same day off work so at short notice we went for it. We were driven to Wolverhampton train station by the missus where we took our bikes on the train to Stoke-On-Trent. This was the nearest station to where the run would start from. We cycled the canal to Trentham where I thought the run would start (wrong – see later) then pressed start on the GPS to start counting the miles. The next town was Stone. Along the route the hedge cutters had been trimming down the bramble bushes that border the tow paths. I remember Nigel from the Running From The Reaper podcast mentioning he pierced one of his running shoes with one of these inch long thorns. At Stone, only five miles in, Graham discovers that he has two punctures, one in each tyre. We repair each puncture easily. But, when I came to inflate one of the tyres, I snapped the end of one of the valves off. No problem. We have spare inner tubes. Unfortunately, the inner tubes we had have the wrong type valves for Grahams bike. A chap we got talking to at the time said there was a bike shop just down the road. Graham ran to the shop only to find that it was shut. The owner was in Iceland and couldn’t get back to the UK because of the volcano eruption. Very kindly the bloke we met (Dave) gave Graham a lift into the next town where Gray was able to buy more inner tubes. We fitted them and got back on our way 2.5 hours later!

After we passed the ten mile mark we were hungry and stopped off at a pub for a pint and some food at Weston Bridge. When we left the pub I found a huge thorn sticking out of my brand new Kevlar front tyre.I decided not to risk it and changed the inner tube for a new gel filled tube. With a belly full of food it gave us the energy to get a wiggle on. We made several stops to photograph, video and make note of the various pubs and places for people to join or leave us on the day of the run. The tow path was terrible in parts to cycle.

Even with Grahams suspended mountain bike and our padded cycle shorts, the bumpy path gave us both sore backsides.

The rain then started and we had to get into wet gear. This was making things uncomfortable. It rained all the way to the half way village of Penkeridge where we stopped at The Boat pub for a cup of tea. For the last five miles I had been very uncomfortable around the ‘Family Jewels’ and feared the worse that I might have a blister down there from the saddle. Here at the pub I had the opportunity to fully investigate my nether regions only to find I had a tiny beetle down my shorts. I liberated him into a near by planter box. I was only too glad that it wasn’t a blister to be bothered about how he got down there.

The next stop was at Cross Green near Coven. I knew now that we were just outside Wolverhampton and didn’t have far to go. The rain came down quite hard from here on so I didn’t get the camera out again until I reached home when the missus got a hold of it and videoed me in the garage. The whole trip of 58 miles took ten hours. That was three hours longer than we accounted for. We knew we were going to make plenty of stops along the way and even expected that one of us may have a puncture. We didn’t expect three punctures or contemplate that to repair them would take nearly three hours.

It was a great day out despite the punctures, sore bottoms and the fact that we were soaked to the skin. It’s given us an insight of what we’re about to undertake. My training isn’t at the stage it should be. My plantar faciitis hasn’t all gone but I think I can suffer it. My wife has become an expert at strapping my foot up. What else came out of the reccy trip was that the original plan was 2.7 miles out. The new start for the run is from Stone, where Graham fixed his punctures.

The worst thing that’s happened to me recently was the sudden loss of my big brother Mike. The news came straight out of the blue and took us all by surprise. Over the past couple of weeks I was given the task of putting all the photographs of him together to play back at his wake and to make up the Order Of Service cards. The thing that affected me most was I that also had the job of putting together a playlist of his favourite music. There is something about music that gives me stronger memories than photographs. I won’t try to elaborate on that because I don’t know how I can explain it.

Two days after receiving the news of Mike I hear that a good friend and old school pal of mine, Karl had also passed away. He left behind two daughters that I had not seen for fifteen years. It was very emotional when I saw them both along with all their aunts and uncles and cousins, all of whom I hadn’t seen for several years.

If there is someone out there that you have been thinking of getting in touch with that you’ve not seen for a while. Do it now! Don’t leave it until it’s too late.