The South Downs and Brighton were the sort of places you'd like to visit... if it was just a little warmer. Under an ominous sky, we were turned back on a planned walk along the South Down Way near the Jack and Jill windmills by horizontal rain.
OK, we should have just turned around and put on rain gear, but we decided to go to the pub instead... as you do.

And a lovely pub it was - the Dog and Shepherd. Geoff, the publican said we could stay in the car park, next to the garden with a stream gurgling all night.

The 6 mi walk the next morning up onto the Downs was a bit of a trudge with limited visibility and a cold wind, so we headed into Brighton to explore. Out on Brighton pier, the Brits proved to be a sturdy lot. The cold wind did not deter families and packs of teenagers from having a fun day out. We arrived back in the Nat Park at the remote Devils Dyke car park at dusk.

The walkers cars left one by one, and we popped the top to settle in for the night. Then the strange visits began... cars would drive in, stay only for a minute and leave. We began to recognise some - a flash BMW and a big brown van. All men and they sat in their cars and did not greet each other. So we went to bed, and listened to the comings and goings until midnight when Billy climbed down to try to figure out what was going on. He was pretty spooked when he looked out the window and saw a huge man looking in.... and then another man at the other window! He described zombie like men all milling around the car... ARG! "Toni hand me my clothes!" So we got out of there in a hurry. Not sure what we were witness to, but it was not a cool place to camp wild. We were both pretty shaken and didn't get much sleep when we found a safe pub carpark. Sorry, no photos of the scene, but I'm not sure we would have gotten out alive had we taken their pictures!


I enjoyed telling Adam Tinkoff all about it as we ran together again (without Nigel, again!) around Hyde Park, where Adam seems quite at home.

I'm finally back to running again after the chest cold that wiped me out when I visited Mom in Seattle. My sister came too. Linnie had a shoulder injury from karate, so the two of us lounged around and had Mom take care of us. We loved every minute of it! I forgot the camera at home, so sadly no photos. It was great to see both of them.

Met up with Adam Tinkoff and a fellow Burning Twenty listener, Duncan, for another run around Hyde Park. What a character Adam is! He truly wanted Duncan to follow his dream and write... breaking free of perceived barriers. And he gave us a summary of Chi running. I'm not sure I really get it, but it proved a great distraction to the running and we carried on until after dark.

The next day Billy and I headed off for a long weekend in Exmoor on the north Devon coast. Beautiful area, if a bit blustery. It was hard to sleep at night with gale force winds buffeting the campervan. Finally the second night we moved at dawn down into the public carpark in Lynmouth, popped the top and crawled back into bed to sleep...just in time for noisy cranes to arrive to move sailboats!

How to I equate hiking miles to running? We took a beautiful walk along the coastal path and into the National Trust Watersmeet river basin one day and the next we started near Cloud Farm, the site that inspired J.D. Blackmoor to write Lorna Doone, which led to at least ten movies and miniseries, and the biscuits (I didn't remember the book, but I did remember the cookie!). We got lost up on the moors... everything looks the same!

Anyway, I've translated my walking miles on buckeyeoutdoors.com as 50% running miles? Surely one can't be expected to run after a 10 mile hike up and down the moors! The last day we started at at a great pub, Hunter's Inn, and walked the coastal path down to Woody Bay. We're going to have to come back when its warmer!

After a night in a monstrosity of trailer park in Brean (but blissfully quiet!), we walked on the beach and out to the National Trust point. We took Ali out for lunch on the way home in Bristol. She's broke, smashed up the Polo, but is happy. So back to work again and a resolution to run further and faster!

Travels with Emily (the GPS navigator's voice)

We've lived in the UK 15 years now and we've never seen Hadrian's wall or the Eden Project or even Blackpool! So that's all to change now when we start exploring on alternate weekends in the new campervan. Here she is on a frosty morning where we spent the night in a Forestry Commission carpark near Battle(as in ..of Hastings) after walking through the low hills where in 1066 the sound of clashing arms rang out as Norman and English soldiers met in battle to decide the fate of England. Billy's supposed ancestor, William the Conqueror, and his Norman invaders killed King Harold (as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry), and now we live near Chesham Bois.

The weekend before we found ourselves in 40mph horizontal freezing rain in the carpark of the Brecon Beacons National Park visitor centre in Wales (seen in the clump of trees in the back of the photo) trying to get the training miles in. My feet were totally soaked! And the campervan smelled like a wet dog all weekend. Fool hardy? Perhaps a mite bit...

The weather is not looking good for the planned walk in the Cotswolds this weekend... we've had over 6 inches of snow, which is the most that Billy and I can remember ever having! It was pretty chilly working in the studio while Billy wandered over to Roughwood Lane to see the farm. I'm lucky I had planned to work from home today, commuting into London would have been a nightmare! Nick and I went out to feed the horses some parsnips (well. we were out of carrots...I hope that parsnips are OK for horses?) and they were as excited as we were about playing in the snow.

Wow, I got to meet one of my heroes today - Adam Tinkoff of the Burning Twenty podcast!

It was initially a bit strange. I know so much about him, yet I'm just a lowly fan, but he was incredibly warm and engaging and soon we were chatting like old friends meeting up after a long absence!

On a beautiful cool sunny day, we ran for a hour stopping off to do the tourist thing at the Albert Memorial and Diana Fountain in Hyde Park... but I barely noticed the 5 miles.

Adam has boundless energy but approaches life/running/business with a very relaxed and human view, his optimistic outlook was infectious and I understand why people perk up when he's around or they listen to his podcast. A very genuine guy.

Happy New Year!

Well, its that time again. Resolutions....

1) Train for the White Peak Swift Half Marathon in Matlock on 19 May 2007.

Copying Steve Runner from Phedippidations podcast, I'm trying a modified Hanson training plan, which has over 500 miles to run over the next 20 weeks. Starting at 6 mi/week and peaking at 37 mi/week in week 17. It is an ambitious plan, with almost twice the weekly mileage of the WWH plan we used last Oct, so I'm going to allow myself to miss one session per week....but just one.

2) Make sure I use my leave time for adventures.

Billy is keen on purchasing a camper-van, so I need to stop using my leave to putter around the house and the pottery studio.

3) Eat sensibly to lose 10 pounds.

Hopefully, with all the running, I can skip rigorous dieting, but I still need to watch portion size, skip Hagen-Daz and avoid refined carbs and sugar. (Now 125 lbs and BMI 23. Target 115.)

Pindari Glacier Trek India October 2006

We arrived in Delhi in high spirits. Billy and I wanted to share our impressions from our Rajasthan visit last January with Nick and Ali - the chaos of the roads, the striking of colors of the saris, the culture shock of SO many people.

We were looking forward to meeting Tagore, the architect of our trip, and his family. Through hundreds of emails we had exchanged, Tagore had become a friend and confidante... he knew all the answers to my questions, solved all the logistical problems, and counseled me on cultural issues. I walked right past him in the lobby when we met and felt like the victim of online dating.... who is this stranger who knows too much about me? But once I adjusted to real-time interaction the Tagore I knew merged with the man I met and we picked up like old friends! Saro, his wife was as warm as Tagore described and her sister Glory and husband Christopher had fascinating insight about their re-adjustment to living in India after years in the UK. The dessert buffet at the Shangri-la was fantastic and Tagore's sons , Vivek and Arun chuckled with Nick and Ali - who could try more puddings? The whole family was accompanying Vivek to his wedding on 3 Nov in Madras, so we were fortunate to meet!

Billy and Nick did the cultural tour of Red Fort but Ali and I made it no further than the shopping arcade... five pairs of earrings for £1??? Then we made the mistake of taking our taxi driver's recommendation for shopping and wasted the afternoon at a huge but very overpriced shop (where we later found he got a finder's fee!) Finally, we headed to the train station and fended off aggressive porters and beggars as the platform became more and more crowded. Once on board, we discovered that three families had tickets for the same sleeper beds! Nick and Ali lost all confidence in my trip planning, but Billy and the sharp eyes of a bystander saved us from being thrown off the train by the conductor.... we had been upgraded to 1st class!

The train pulled into Kathgodam at 6am and we were met by Mahesh, our translator and Tagore's neighbor, and Reis the taxi driver. Feeling a bit shattered after two nights travelling, we stopped in Bhimtal at Mahesh's house to drop off the bags we did not need on the trek and had breakfast at the Country Inn where we had our timeshare exchange for the following week. Ali and I made a BIG MISTAKE... we had cereal with milk, before continuing on to Almora for the night at the fancy Kalmatia Sangam Eagle's Nest Lodge, with our first views of the Himalayas.

Food poisoning hit me mid-afternoon and I fell violently ill. Ali knew what was to come when she started feeling ill about 3 hours later. Fortunately the memory is fading now, but it was a truly gruesome experience and I wondered if I was lying when I assured Nick that I wasn't going to die..... About 12 hours later I could finally keep a bit of water down and we started to assess our position. Mahesh was really our lifeline here - able to arrange for the porters (more of Tagore's neighbors, Satis and Doormud) and Reis, our driver, to wait another day to begin the trek. I'm sure we would have had to drop out if we had been signed up for a commercially guided trek! Fortunately the nice managers at the resort found room for us to stay another night, and Ali and I were grateful that we were sick with such a luxurious bathroom!

The next day we slept on and off during the long journey on twisty roads to the start of the trek, until the road became truly a jeep trail at Loharket. A very dim light bulb helped us to see the dal and potatoes with chapatis which would be our staples for the trip. Mahesh found that it was not safe to leave the taxi waiting for our return because vandalism to non-local vehicles was common. Reis slept in the taxi and then headed back to Song where a garage was found to house the taxi safely. We assembled in the morning to start the trek - over Dhakuri pass to Khati,. 20 km was no problem, but the climb was daunting, 3871 m to the top of the pass.

The shade in the rhododendron and pine forest made the climb easier, but we did not anticipate the amount of water that I would need. I ran out far from the top and struggled to keep up. Mahesh kept me distracted, answering questions and he offered me his water - but I was only too aware of the dangers of drinking his unfiltered water! Finally Billy waited for us and shared his remaining water and we climbed the last 1000 m together. The 9 km down to Khati were easy and we stopped at at little chai stop which was was full of children who played with Ali. A smoky dinner and back into sleeping bags by 7 pm.

The next day we climbed beside the raging Pindari river and were met by flocks of goats and sheep coming down from the mountains. By Dwali after 11 km I was tired, but we decided to press ahead another 12km to Phurkia and a climb of 3410 m so that we could make the ascent to the glacier early the next morning.I really struggled up the last few kms and Billy stayed behind me to make sure I didn't fall off the edge. Nick left Ali to carry both packs and he came back to carry mine and lead me up the last climb. I was ashamed to feel so weak, but very grateful to climb into my sleeping bag! I elected to skip the 1280 m climb to the glacier the next day, and snuggled back into my sleeping bag with tea when the others got up at 5am to make the ascent.

They came back with stories of bracing cold and a sadhu holy man in the shrine wearing only sandals. Mahesh and the porters climbed the highest before the cold turned them back too. It did not take anyone long to decend, and we started the walk back to Dwali in the early morning.

Finally, I got to enjoy some of the fantastic scenery and Nick pointed out where he was sure he had seen a big cat on a cliff on the way up. We saw only monkeys. Back at Dwali, the rain started but the hut keeper, chanting nonsense words (chinky-chinky-pinky?), built a campfire to dry the late arriving trekkers, including two guys with fascinating tales of their travels in Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.

The next day was a 20 km walk, down past Khati and back up 2395 m to Dhakuri and it felt pretty easy. I guess I was finally feeling better! We stopped for chai tea and they asked if we could help a boy with a cut foot. Dr Harvey to the rescue! Billy loved taking care of the fellow; steri-strips, antiseptic and a stern lecture about staying off the foot. Later we had Maggi noodles in a courtyard dhaba, where the locals were as fascinated by us as we were by them. The sun came out late in the afternoon and we brought out sleeping bags outdside the rest house to lay on the grass and read. Ali cried when she finished Phillip Pullman's Amber Spyglass and Nick made progress on the mammoth Game of Thrones he carried throughout the trek.

We packed up early the next morning to go up the pass again and begin the long decent to Song - 4527 m over 15 km. Billy worried about his knees, but he was fine. Perhaps the promise of beer in Bageshwar kept him motivated. We greeted Reis with cheers when he met us with the taxi in Song.

A day at back in Bhimtal lounging around the Country Inn hotel - glorious hot showers, soft beds and shiny bathrooms, but the construction noise drove us crazy.

Mahesh offered to guide again and we were off to Nanital, to buy scarves, wooden boxes and the pizza we had craved on the trek. Negotiations were always more successful under his eye, but he never approved of what we would consider a reasonable tip for food or taxis and kept giving us our money back! Mahesh gave us cultural insight into India that we'd never recognise on our own and we missed his company when we explored on our own. I hope we will get him to visit us in the UK on a break from his Business Administration degree.

At first, Nick and Ali were pretty uncomfortable on the streets. They were terrified of the beggars and just did not know how to respond to strangers touching them. They were conscious that people were always looking at them and felt it was intrusive for them to wander through the village looking at people, so they avoided meeting anyone's eyes.

But after a while, they recognised the stares were just curiousity and most everyone would return a smile or "Namaste". We met people on the lake in Bhimtal and Sattal that asked Nick and Ali to pose for photographs with their families, and school children chatted to us on the walk to and from the village - testing out their English.

This was a trip to remember!

For more photos see Billy's blog www.billharvey.blogspot.com

or Nick's webpage http://web.mac.com/loring.harvey

Phidippidation World Wide Half Marathon - Henley 9 October 2006

We made it!!
Nick and I finished the 13 miles in 2hr 5min and 2hr 9min (respectively) . Ali ran the 6 mi with her friend Tanya in 1hr5 min.

The 6 mi race with Ali and Tanya started first and it took a good while for Nick and I to catch up to them! Then Nick and I carried ahead running together for about 6 more miles, passing Billy with the camera. As the big hill of the race approached, Nick struck out ahead... and I struggled up the hill.

The mile-and-a-half-long hill was brutal but it felt like I could fly coming down the other side. I fell in behind a man with a London Marathon t-shirt for the last few miles (I figured he knew what he was doing) and the faster pace than I usually run felt great. But my legs felt like limp spaghetti once I crossed the finish. I can't imagine how people run 26 miles in about the same time - or 26 miles at all, for that matter!