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This blog contains anecdotes about my race, event and adventure experiences - mainly as a means for me to keep track of my results! Find me on Instagram

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Bala Hiking 2016

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By Tasha - January 09, 2016

January 9th 2016 My love affair with hiking in this country continues! This time, to the border of Snowdonia:

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Below are some anecdotes of the open water swims I have done recently. What I love about open water is each location has its own unique character and feel to it. 2019 Dosthill Quarry - January Freshwater - quarry Temp: 5 degrees Swimwear: Skins My first swim of the year was had here. Inched my way in with some encouragement as was pleased to manage a whole 11 minutes. Dosthill quarry is near Cliff Lakes (where I often swim in the summer) and near Tamworth / Kingsbury. The course is only 400m so it's not great for getting distance, but it's a friendly spot that has great opening and fantastic water quality. Divers also frequent the location which provides some company in the middle of winter - apparently there's a plane down there?! West Bay Beach - April 22nd Seawater Temp: 11 degrees (est) Swimwear: Skins An unusually hot Easter weekend had me headed for east beach at West Bay, very near my parent's house in Bridport. I pootled down on my mum'...

Carsington Water Half Marathon 2020

By Tasha Chandler - February 23, 2020

February 23rd 2020 Trail half marathon Puddle-tastic 4 months pregnant - sickness still very present :( Having trained through Storm Ciara, then Storm Dennis, it was no surprise that I woke to a morning of torrential rain and wind. "It can only get better" I thought, and spurred on by the sunny photos on Facebook of Carsington Water by the race organiser, I popped myself in the car and drove the hour or so to the start. It wasn't sunny when I arrived, but it wasn't raining either - happy days! Having received my number in the post, there was no registration to faff with which made everything more efficient, and three loo trips in 15 minutes later (and £5 down on parking, humph) I was at the start. And then it started, pretty much without warning, and we were off. I got fairly stuck on the start as it had effectively been three funnels converging, but two wet feet later I had covered a mile already too quickly, at sub-8-minute miles! I blamed this on the ta...

Marlow Half Marathon 2019

By Tasha Chandler - November 03, 2019

November 3rd 2019 Half Marathon Possibly my last race of the season - I entered this race fairly spontaneously realising it was just 10 minutes away from my aunt's house, where I happened to be staying this weekend. Similar to last weekend, Friday and Saturday had produced very gnarly weather - incredibly strong winds combined with a bit of rain. However, Sunday yet again came around as a beautiful day for racing - circa 10 degrees, no wind and sunny intervals. Perfect! I started in the 1:30 to 1:50 pen, not knowing what to expect but noting that the only pacer I could see (in the whole race) was a 1:40 guy, who soon shot off at the start. With that target gone, I settled into a nice rhythm to climb up the first long hill. A few undulations followed, with steeper downhills than up, which were fairly agonising on my knee. Around about halfway I ran past a marshal calling out the places - "10th lady" she shouted at me. Wow, I was not expecting that, just the motiv...

Hurtwood 50km (II) 2021

By Tasha Chandler - December 06, 2021

December 5th 2021 31 miles trail The Hurtwood 50km race takes place (normally annually) in the Surrey hills - a lovely wooded AONB not far from London. This is the first ultramarathon I've repeated, and I do think that knowing the course stood me quite well. Last time I went at an extremely leisurely pace up to the top of Leith Hill (7 miles in), had a bit of a sprint around the middle loop, then somewhat died in the last four miles back to the start. This time, determined to beat my previous time and also pace it better, I started off a little faster than I'm comfortable with, swept up by the other runners along Dorking high street (which must have been quite a sight at 09:30 on a Sunday morning!). However, I sensibly walked the uphills, jogging if they were gradual and making it to the first checkpoint well ahead of April's time. The next section was a lump 6 miles, with a mixture of wooded trails, and field paths. This passed relatively quickly as there were lots of twis...

CaniX Cannock Chase 2019

By Tasha Chandler - October 22, 2019

October 20th 2019 5km Canicross race (with Lily) Legs feeling a tad lethargic after yesterday's 10k race, I arrived at a beautiful Cannock Chase feeling very excited about the prospect of having a little lady pull me along (rather than the usual alternative of having to push a different little lady around). We were briefed (I started to feel very nervous, everyone else looked like they knew what was going on!) and then I put my harness on ready for Lily.. Once she was attached we had a short warm-up and then we were waiting in our Wave 2 pen. I'm not sure how the waves were done, but I was thankful all the two-dog scenarios appeared to be going in Wave 1 ahead of me... The gap between waves was smaller than anticipated, and whilst I was busy fiddling with my HR monitor and top (easier said than done when you're harnessed in to a very excitable dog) the start gun went off! Lily put on a spurt of speed and hence so did I! The wide and grassy start was welcome, but b...

Dorset Stickler 3 Peaks Race 2019

By Tasha Chandler - October 27, 2019

October 27th 2019 10 mile cross-country As I was staying with my parents for the weekend, I decided to enter this 10km race as a quick Sunday morning jaunt. What I hadn't actually realised until I looked it up was that it was a 10 mile race, with 3 rather large hills in it - oops! It ended up being an all-morning activity, thanks to the late start of 10:30 (which was really 11:30 thanks to the clocks changing...I couldn't explain this to Molly so she had me up at 5am rather than her usual 6am). I arrived to a sea of club vests, which instantly made me feel a bit green as it normally means a fast field. I'm not part of any club so was sporting my SportsWorld pink t-shirt, and probably stood out a fair bit! The start was a little awkward, we were all encouraged into a muddy field through a gate, which turned out to be the start line. As everyone wanted to start near the start, actually getting into the field was hard as as soon as people were through the gate, they ...

Winter Half Tour of Bradwell 2020

By Tasha Chandler - February 08, 2020

February 8th 2020 18 mile fell race The longest "half" of anything I've ever done.... That feeling when you park-up to what you anticipated was a small, local and fairly unknown fell race, and you find Lucy Gossage and Claire Shea-Simmonds parked either side of you :o Oh and then you realise it's a no-GPS race, and you may need to actually use that compass-thing you've been carrying around as mandatory kit for the last few years... This race sure did have some quirks! The above aside, at the start everyone had to put on their waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, hat and gloves, and trudge 500m or so up the road to what appeared to be a playing field. Once checked-off and allowed into the field, everyone proceeded to fairly rapidly strip and repack their carefully packed bags with said kit. Oh how glad I was that I have the sort of waterproof trousers that have long zips and don't require shoe-removal to take-off. All repacked and ready (or s...

Welsh 3000s 2021

By Tasha Chandler - June 26, 2021

June 26th 2021 32 mile ultra with 15,000 ft elevation gain 4 finishers of which I was the first by a good couple of hours. Punishing route! This really was a test, right from starting along Crib Goch at dawn, to each of the huge mountain climbs after the two feed stations, to the arduously protracted and painful downhill at the end. Then waiting for a few hours for transport amongst the midges. Finally cracked Tryfan too, that's been a long while coming - last attempted and failed in November 2018 when 8 months pregnant...... Thank you to my personal navigational guide (even if you did make a few mistakes ha!). A treat is waiting for me at home - a Garmin Fenix 6s! My reward for finishing, so excited to have a) maps and b) battery life that will last me the whole race so I can ditch the double-watch approach. Av pace: 29:35 GAP 18:51 Times Total time: 15:31:12 Standings Gender category: 1/1 50% Overall category: ...

Serpent Trail 2022

By Tasha Chandler - July 02, 2022

July 2nd 2022 50km - woodland trails and road The Serpent Trail 50 km is the second of the three golden trail series races this summer, and after an enjoyable experience at Trail Marathon Wales, I was really looking forward to it! Staying with a friend who lives really nearby was a novelty, normally I travel to races alone, so it was great to see her soon after registering. Saturday morning came soon enough, and after a poor night's sleep I set off for the finish. The start wasn't as early as I'm used to nor as I'd like, but the coach travel was well organise and soon I was being released into a field that was largely being used as a huge urinal....lovely. Some familiar faces on the start line thanks to the series, and soon we were off! The first mile or so was perhaps the muddiest of the race, and I was glad of the grip of my shoes here. Despite its downhill nature though, I just wasn't in "the zone" right from the beginning, immediately feeling fatigue s...

Devon Coast-to-Coast 2016

By Tasha - July 17, 2016

July 16-17th 2016 99 mile ride Gain - 5280 ft For my birthday this year I decided I wanted to tackle the Devon Coast-to-Coast cycle route. This goes from Ilfracombe to Plymouth (or vice-versa) and for us was 99 miles long. The route we used was Sustrans Route 27, with a couple of mini diversions to avoid "Mountain Bike Options". We were a group of four on mainly road bikes, self supported via panniers and pubs! Logistics-wise I organised for us to have a transfer from Plymouth to Ilfracombe on Friday night, enabling us to cycle back to our cars. This, combined with it being the first day of the summer holidays for many, made for quite a late Friday night after a journey totaling 8 hours and numerous cups of coffee (I don't even like coffee)!. Day 1 - Ilfracombe to Okehampton 58 miles After our late night we had a fairly leisurely start on Saturday, leaving at around 9 am. Our legs were shocked into action by a couple of short but extremely steep hills to l...