Inspired by Banff film festival and after a touch of tequila, Emma and I thought she should run from the west coast of Africa to the east. This is our story of dreaming up the idea, researching it, planning, training and running the distance.
My name is Mike, the ‘third wheel’ of the Head Over Heels team. I was lucky to meet Emma at the start of last summer whilst climbing at my local crag in the peak district and we started climbing together through the summer. Climbing quickly builds trust in a person and with our common passion for the sport we soon became good friends. When Emma mentioned she needed a support team for the challenge, I jumped at the chance!
I’m currently in the Austrian Alps and writing this blog after a good day snowboarding! I’m spending 2months here in the Alps with friends, exploring the mountains & pushing myself to progress with the sport. I suppose this sums me up pretty well; I love to be outside, whether it be climbing, snowboarding, surfing, running, biking…you name it, i’ll have a go at it. To explore new places with good friends and overcome the challenges that come with sport and travel, that’s what keeps me ticking.
So hopefully this stands me in good stead to be on the team. I have plenty to learn in the build up to Africa. As Emma’s main bike support I will be carrying supplies whilst she’s running and setting up camp. Fortunately for the others I brew a good coffee too, even if I say so! I will also be learning some new skills for the trip such as sports massage and using fancy filming equipment to document the journey!
Training out here in the Alps with snow underfoot is far from what awaits us in Africa but it’s good early preparation and I can’t wait to get stuck into some training with the rest of the team when I return to the UK!
This is the first time I’ve really hung out with Emma and its great to discover she is one of the nicest people you can meet and she has as daft a sense of humour as me.
En route with enough stuff to last us 3 months
On Friday, we fitted in an 8 mile run round Richmond park in the dark.
Angelic EmmaBouncy Emma
It was peaceful and companionable. When the deer start to run across the road in front of us, we decided if a stag attacked us, we’d use the bicycle as a shield and hoped it wouldn’t wander off with the bike hooked on its antlers.
Deer in the darkZombie Emmacold Emma, time for shower and dinner
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The adventure travel show, on Saturday and Sunday, was loads of fun. We met lots of experts in their field, passionate about their countries and jobs and technological developments. It’s a travel geek’s heaven. I’ll go into detail in later posts but inspired by the VBA I decided to give out awards:
Most supportive people award goes to Travel Africa. One of my favourite memories was walking up to the Travel Africa stall and the lady on the stall totally jumping on the story, wanting Emma to write an article and maybe some updates, and then they were incredibly helpful with advice and encouragement.
The most helpful person: frustratingly, we missed Doug McDonald’s presentation on Zimbabwe as the room was packed, so we went back the next day to speak to him. Doug, who runs a safari business, talked us through everything: which roads would be driveable; where we could camp; who we need to get permission from; and where wildlife will be a danger – in areas where elephants are hunted and shot, the elephants become fearful and will either run away or charge and kill us. When Doug said he would liaise with officials to get permission to go through certain areas, I nearly hugged him. And he had advice on how we might work with schools along the way.
Most eco-friendly product:Incognito – developed by a biochemist. It has every eco award going and it is clinically proven to be effective at deterring mosquitoes. We shall test it against midges in the summer before we go.
Most useful local titbit: goes to Drive Botswana for knowing that a particular side road in Zimbabwe is very rocky, we will get at least two punctures and its almost impossible to rescue a car if it needs towing out.
Best banter goes to Travel Pharm
Most interesting stall that had nothing to do with us: Pangaea Exploration. These guys work in marine conservation, documenting levels of plastic in the ocean. They take volunteers if you are interested.
Most freaky piece of information: came from Charlie McGrath, from Objective Travel Safety, who told us to watch out when we pack up our tents in the morning, as snakes will slide under the ground sheet to curl up beside you for your body warmth. I’ll be honest, I didn’t believe him, but my aunt tells me that my grandfather (or somebody like that) woke up to find a cobra wrapped round his feet. I can’t imagine the fear that will shoot through me if I wake up to find a snake cuddled up with me and really hope I don’t find out.
Most encouraging talk:Leon McCarron, for a talk that was honest about the mistakes they made, which made me feel a lot better about the mistakes I will make and have made. It’s all part of the adventure. I liked his comment, “once you relinquish control, that’s where it gets really exciting.”
At the Globetrotters Club, which has already asked Emma for a talk on her return – now that’s belief in us!
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Here they are
Then Monday morning we were up and off to Hills Balfour for a meeting with their PR team and Namibia experts. They were great. Providing us with advice and information and offering to put us in contact with the relevant people. Most of all though, it gave me the idea that I would love to make a little computer game of Emma running across africa, jumping over crocodiles and heading down dead ends. If anyone knows how to do this that would be amazing.
Afterwards, we popped into the Zimbabwe tourist board but they had gone to lunch so happily it was time to go home:
Sleepy Emma (a rare find)
A special thank you has to go to my lovely sister-in-law for letting us dump our stuff and shower after the run, Black and Blue waterloo for delicious free food, wine and cocktails (definitely recommend them), Emma and Ross for having us to stay in their living room and cooking us a delicious roast dinner, and my nieces and nephew for hugs and love.
Total cost: including train tickets, bus and tube travel, food, show entry and accommodation (free), approximately £120 each!
Train tickets booked, show tickets bought, 10 mile run in London for Emma planned, adventure travel show programme studied and talks put in the itinerary, (yes, clearly, I’m the geek. Happily, that is my role). Potential sponsor/partner researched. They are amazing. We’re meeting them Monday morning. … so excited.
The fabulous Psyren has nominated the blog for the Versatile Bloggers Award. Thank you. I’m particularly chuffed, as Psyren is one of the few blogs I read, when I should be doing something else. She draws brilliant comedy sketches, which I would rip off and put in here if I had any artistic skill. The VBA is essentially a big star from someone who likes your blog. It’s particularly encouraging to get it from someone who lives on the other side of the world who we have never met. (I have great difficulty believing my friends when they say they like the blog. I think it shows what nice, encouraging people they are.) The rules of the VBA are that you should thank your nominee, include a link to their site (tick, tick) and detail 7 things about yourself. As the blog is now by Emma and me, here is some info about each of us, (I think its pretty easy to guess which is whose):
In 2012 I took up pole dancing. It’s an incredible sport where you can have a good old proper laugh with lovely people and it’s incredibly good for you, I actually gained a six-pack when training regularly. I even managed to come second in the Miss Pole Dance UK amateur competition.
My favourite colour is yellow. It’s so warming and happiness promoting. I love anything yellow!
I believe if you work hard at anything you can achieve it. But you have to work really hard. I’m not an intelligent person but if I want to be good at something or understand something then I’ll work as hard as I can to get it. Anybody can!
I like to be silly, and I like people that are comfortable being silly too. It’s great!
My ideal saturday morning is playing touch rugby in the sun: sprinting, catching, dodging round people, scoring tries, working as a team, laughing at moments of complete ineptitude and coming home covered in mud.
I like to do yoga. My body feels happier afterwards.
My favourite animal is a hippo. Hippos are fantastic, they are loyal (I saw a documentary where the hippos fought off hyenas from a dead hippo), vegan, not to be messed with and mostly sit around in the mud making harrumphing noises.
And then we are meant to nominate 15 other bloggers. 15! There are lots of intelligent, funny, informative blogs that I could spend my life reading so having attempted to reach 15 and decide who should be in and who shouldn’t and who doesn’t already have a VBA. I have chosen only a few who spring to mind immediately.
Blogs that …
Make me laugh:
I am going to nominate Psyren, I’m not sure if I can tag back but her blog is funny and I love it.
Then there is, Hacker. Ninja. Hooker. Spy, I am uncertain if Aussa Lorens is for real but frankly nobody could make up her stories so I think they must be true.
People seem to be interested in how you train to do such a big run so I thought I’d give a little insight into my intentions and previous experience.
When I was training for the freedom run in 2011 I had a lot of other stuff going on in my life and had to squeeze in the mileage anywhere I could. That meant that most of my training was done on the canal right beside my house. A lot of the runs were pretty monotonous but pleasant at the same time as the canals are beautiful. The downfall to this was that there was little training on hills and it would appear that South Africa is not flat! The main concept behind my training was to gradually increase my distance on a daily and weekly basis until my final few weeks when I was running 100miles a week. This was pretty tough considering that six months before the start of the run I got tendinitis in my knee and had to start from running one mile at a time, if I could manage that. Overall this theory did the job and I managed to complete the run pretty unscathed. I do however feel that I overdid the training a bit and could have done less damage to my knees if I trained slightly differently. Which is what I hope to do this time.
My intentions…
This is my aim but it is only an aim. Of course I need to gradually increase my mileage as I did before but this time I hope to focus more on quality not quantity. I have less demands on my life this time so hope to get out to the Peak District more and do more full days running on trails and over hills. I’m going to try and replicate the lifestyle I will have in Africa at least once a week. I will still need to be doing my flat out and back runs along the canal which is good rough terrain training but hopefully not so much that I recognise every leaf on every tree!
Also my intentions are to try and get a yoga class in each week as I’m not so young and flexible anymore. Trying my best to look after my old body!! Also going to get more hours in on my bike. I suppose the aim overall is to not hammer the miles so much but to spend a lot of time being exposed to the elements while training.
Arrgh! My attempt to interview Emma is a disaster, well not a disaster, but its not good. Being interviewer and camera person when you’re an absolute beginner is a bad idea.
The lovely Zoe lent us a proper camera and I was pleased with myself for switching it on and clipping it onto the tripod, ready for when Emma arrived. The battery going dead is only a minor hitch, as there is a spare one. More importantly, after we do a practice interview, I can’t figure out how to download it to my computer. We ditch the camera and try an ipad and then an iphone. None of them are mine. I don’t know how to use them.
The next day, I did figure out how to download the first film. There are lots of basic errors, which I would tell you about, but I can’t imagine anyone trying to do this who is as ignorant as me. Now, I have the interview on 3 different formats. After many hours of trying to stitch this together, my test audience suggests, tactfully, that we redo it. But, as I promised some of you an introduction to Emma, here is a mini clip and a couple of special effects to show off my new skills. I am particularly pleased with the ridiculously dramatic music (although it is completely off message and not the look we are going for).
Entry into the ‘spot the mistakes’ competition is open to everyone and the person who points out the most mistakes, wins a prize. Double points for any I haven’t already noticed.
The Running Show is full of clothes, shoes, nutritional supplements, physiotherapists, sports therapists, compression tights, future marathon events and runners (there’s a 10k on the morning I go.) It’s a little overwhelming. Happily, clothes, shoes and training are Emma’s area of expertise.
There are freebies, mostly nutritional supplements. (This is lucky for me as the only dairy free food I can find, at the venue, are average tasting chips).
For a bargain £15, I sign up for 6 months of Runner’s World and get a free camelbak. I don’t need a camelback, I only run for 20 minutes at a time. But it seems too good a deal to miss. And you never know.
I’m seeing how I feel
Amidst all the clothing, I find some techy stuff. There’s an awesome machine, Ithlete, that can tell you whether it’s a good day to train or not. I’m tempted by it, although it would ruin my standard excuse for laziness: “I think I’m coming down with something”. Then again, it would be hugely motivating to be told that today is a perfect day for training. Emma, to my surprise, is interested in the product too.
I am also delighted to find Lessbounce. If you’re a woman and into sports you must know about this shop. I first discovered Lessbounce just over ten years ago and it changed my life. Specifically, Panache Sports Bra, changed my life. Since then, sports bras have improved a lot, and now, there are many different effective brands in many different sizes. If you’re not comfy, seriously, get to Lessbounce.
“If it’s a faff, you won’t bother”. It’s another snippet of advice that I pick up from ultra runner, Andy Mouncey. This advice is for people who are racing. I’m not sure it’s so relevant to a journey of 120 days. We will have more opportunity for faffing. But I like it as a general concept. Make things simple: keep them simple.
Finally, I have nice long chat with Run247.com who are interested in a press release. (Another skill to learn.)
On the whole, I thought the running show was pretty good, especially for its first year.
Next stop: the Adventure Travel Show in January @ Olympia– anyone else going? £10 entry.
For the benefit of my snake phobic friends and family
Snakes are a bit of a risk in Sub-Saharan Africa. They’re a risk in most countries except sleepy UK. Not a total risk, there are still lots of people alive in Africa so I think our chances are good, but about 1.5 million people a year are bitten by snakes in the region, and that’s enough for me to consider and investigate what to do, as we won’t normally be near a hospital.
I’ve come across snakes a few times in my life. I wouldn’t want to be placed in a pit of them but, in my experience, they are harmless. Back many years ago, walking in the Kenyan bush, the person in front of me stepped off the path and almost onto a snake. Startled, the black spitting cobra fled in my direction, its head reared up ready to attack. To be fair to the cobra, it was fleeing from a fat foot landing on it during its afternoon nap. Luckily, as I was dawdling a few metres back, I had time to leap out the way and the cobra carried on gliding past and dived into the undergrowth as swiftly as possible. This is my understanding of snakes, leave them alone when they are sleeping, get out their way when they’re scared, make lots of noise so they hear you coming and they’ll not bother you.
However, Emma almost sat on a puff adder in South Africa. Puff adders are well camouflaged, apparently like to lie on roads and paths for warmth and, unlike most snakes, don’t move when they hear you coming. This ‘can’t be arsed to move but don’t step on me or you die’ attitude, makes them a hazard for Emma and whoever is cycling with her at the time. I realise I am anthropomorphising and that adders possibly stay still because it would ruin their camouflage. But then, I suggest, if you’re really good at blending into the background you shouldn’t get angry when someone steps on you. Take it as a compliment. They and black mambas have a bad reputation. I consider anti-venom for each of them.
Searching for information on anti-venom on the Internet, I discover that humans can have a fatal reaction to it. I guess it has to be powerful stuff to counteract the snake’s poison. I also learn that snakes often bite without adding poison. It’d be tragic, if the snake didn’t put enough poison in, only for the anti-venom to cause anaphylactic shock. It seems anti-venom is not stuff for a first aider to administer.
Happily, I also read that most people survive snake bites as long as you stay calm and keep your pulse rate slow, http://www.thesafariguide.net/safari-guide/snakes. Keeping your pulse rate slow will give you longer to get to the hospital. If you’re scared of snakes practice keeping calm. Which means rock or indoor climbing is not only a source of fun, it’s training for controlling our fear. I might learn to meditate too.
In the unlikely event of being snacked on by a python, we should keep a bottle of alcohol with us. Apparently, they don’t like it in their eyes or up their nose. I think a nice strong spirit, like, say, tequila (gold).
And finally, here are a couple of cute photos of snakes, I don’t know if they’re deadly, but they are pretty:
A fine looking trail in Mozambique doubling up as a quality road. Photo courtesy of Fred Hoogervorst
(I’ll admit I put this photo here because, I think it is beautiful and I thought you might like it too but really, it belongs later on in the post.)
If you have a crazy idea, Kendal Mountain Festival is definitely the place to go to get support and advice. Its inspiring hearing about the limits that other people have pushed themselves to. To hear them speak about their adventures with absolute joy and talk about the emotional and physical challenges they went through. It was a huge learning experience for me.
Jez Bragg gave a presentation about his 3000km run, along the length of New Zealand, on the Te Araroa Trail. It was an honest portrayal. The three main points I took away are:
Shoes: It’s pretty obvious but shoes are incredibly important. Jez Bragg has lots of shoes, lots and lots. He keeps his shoes dry and sand free. Emma is running through the desert and into the rainy season. We’ll need gaiters to keep the sand out, lots of shoes and a method of drying them. I am about to test a drying/desmelling method, I shall let you know if it works.
Trail runners like to run on trails: Jez talked about loving being on trails and off roads. It brings home to me Emma’s dislike of roads. We’ll have to find a solution and enable her to go on tracks as much as it’s safe.
Perhaps no solo trail running here … (Zimbabwe)
Although if the roads are as enticing as the one in the photo at the top of this post, finding trails where Emma can find that runner’s peace, won’t be a concern.
Celebrating: After running 3054km Jez Bragg asked the question, “How do you celebrate running that distance?” That’s a good question. How do you? How would you celebrate running 4000km across 4 countries? But maybe its too early to think about that.
My name is Mike, the ‘third wheel’ of the Head Over Heels team. I was lucky to meet Emma at the start of last summer whilst climbing at my local crag in the peak district and we started climbing together through the summer. Climbing quickly builds trust in a person and with our common passion for the sport we soon became good friends. When Emma mentioned she needed a support team for the challenge, I jumped at the chance! 
So hopefully this stands me in good stead to be on the team. I have plenty to learn in the build up to Africa. As Emma’s main bike support I will be carrying supplies whilst she’s running and setting up camp. Fortunately for the others I brew a good coffee too, even if I say so! I will also be learning some new skills for the trip such as sports massage and using fancy filming equipment to document the journey! 
Head over Heels 2014 