Escape to Tenerife

I'm not going up that!

So, we're already higher than Snowdon and this mountain looks a lot higher. We were in Tenerife, a few hundred miles off the coast of Africa, we'd left the winter chill of Wales behind us for a few days. At over 12,000 feet Teide counts as the highest mountain in Spain. It's also one of 16 active volcanoes worldwide which are being closely monitored by a UN scientific committee because of their potential for huge destructive eruptions and because lots of people live close by. So we did go further up, what was there to stop us?

They filmed Star Wars up here - no sign of any Jedi this time!

As we approached the tops the lush green forests of Canadian Pine and Australian Eucalyptus ( a weed of a tree here) gave way to a desert landscape. Very little rain falls at this height and very little grows. The various shades of brown consist mostly of volcanic debris - the rusty red brown smudge across the middle of the photo is a lava field. There is a cable car to the crater but we settled for the bumpy road to the foot of the cable car.

Got any nuts?

As I said very little grows here and not much lives here either - then eagle-eyes Vicky spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and camera-ready me got a shot of this furtive little brown thing. Looked just like the meadow pipits that we see fluttering over the Denbigh moors and, after a bit of research, found out that this is a cousin - Bertholet's Pipit, (it has a bigger head than the Meadow Pipit!) Sabin Bertholet was a local naturalist who spotted one of these in the eighteenth century. Most folk who travel to Tenerife go to the sunny south where there are dozens of big beach side hotels and night clubs - not our scene I'm afraid and we stayed in the delightful capital Santa Cruz in the greener north of the island.

Worked hard for that lot.

And of course no trip is complete without a little run. I did the Tenerife half marathon in fairly warm conditions coming 2nd V65 in 1:36:41. Vicky, three hours later with an 11:30 start was really running in the heat and finished the 8K race in a superb 49:05. We didn't win the sunglasses in the picture - they're just there to add to the flavour. The only downside to Tenerife is the lack of decent beer in the very pleasant bars downtown - we tried the Alhambra, Estrella Galicia (according to the European beer guide website: "one for the sink."), the Mahou, the Cruzcampo - all tasted the same - sticky lagers the lot of them. Locally brewed Dorada was the most refreshing - I suspect that was because it's fresh and unpasteurised. Which worked well after 22K!

Sunglasses are just for effect.

A cold day in Abergele

Let me get my hands on it!

Well we're right in the thick of the racing season with plenty of cross countrys and road races of various forms taking place in the region. Here's a photo of a delighted Vicky taking the North Wales 5 mile championship gold award in her age group on a chilly and blustery Abergele seafront. A great turnout from Denbigh Harriers with plenty of prize winners - don't quite know how Sali (in the green t-shirt) didn't freeze to death.
I thought I'd blown it until the last few hundred yards - I'd got off to a good start but then faltered between three and four miles. But then I spotted my arch rival starting to flag ahead of me. This sequence of photos shows what happened when Dally (in the thick black coat) gave me a few words of encouragement.

'There he is - by gum he's slowing down!''

'Or am I speeding up?'

'Gotcha!'

Relay running

Looking good so far!

The FRA Relays - this is the annual coming together of fell runners where nearly 200 teams of six runners from Wales, England and Scotland (and occasionally Ireland) compete with the best. This year Denbigh Harriers put together a mixed team and a men's team and this is me on the first leg starting off for the mixed team up the road towards the Welsh mountain Moel Eilio (nearly 2200 feet of climbing!) On my left in the blue is sister Mary - whereas I've been coming to the relays since 2000, and just missed two events, this was Mary's first running for Glossopdale Dahlings. My preferred option is to get the first leg over and done with and then I can relax and watch the rest of day's events unfold secure in the knowledge that I've got things of to a brilliant start! And after my modest placing after the first leg our team spotted round and went home - very surprised to find out later on that we'd finished in 3rd place in the mixed category!

Here's the map of the course - Moel Eilio is actually only around 1600 feet high but the extra climbing comes from a nasty sting in the tail which took many competitors unawares. You'll spot this from the profile of the route in the box at the bottom. So those runners who had nothing left in the tank were in trouble!

You can't get beer from a stone - or can you?

Well here's a bit of a beer story. Stone's was a very traditional Sheffield based brewery which made a lovely bitter. This was very popular with the steel workers - it sold in buckets! I can remember the taste to this day - it was hoppy but sweet with a definite hint of tangerine citrus and at less than 4% it was very quaffable. And what happened - Bass Charrington bought the brewery, closed it down and started manufacturing an inferior version elsewhere. It's gone - the Stones beer of the 1970's is no more.

Escondido to Berlin

Stone Brewery on the other hand, is a wonderful Californian based microbrewery that's no longer micro sized. It's been voted the 'All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth' and we came across some rather hoppy strong IPA's on our travels in the US - very tasty! So where did we get these little tinnies from ? Why Asda of course, Stone has opened a brewery in Germany and ships it's beer around Europe - aren't we lucky?

Es ist ein gas!

Here's a photo of the Stone Brewery in a converted gas works in Berlin - quite a building eh? Not sure if they've got round to brewing some of the more esoteric beers that emerge from the Escondido brewery such as Arrogant Bastard and Punk in Drubblic, but they do brew their famous 7.7 percent Ruination - not sure if Asda will get round to stocking this one yet!

Ruined again!

Parkrun Cafes

Before the run - would look a bit different after!

Here's a right pair of parkrunners. This was taken just before Wepre Parkrun near Connah's Quay which is one of the hilliest Parkruns in the UK (457th out of 458) it's off road as well so it just about qualifies as a fell race. And Vicky got a PB thanks to Skip the valiant running dog. Vicky has her red 50 Parkrun t-shirt on and she's well on her way to getting her black 100 Parkrun t-shirt (ooh look who's got one of those?) Our other closest Parkrun is at Conwy but we tend to avoid that in the winter because a) it's by the sea and is usually windy and b) it's on tarmac all the way (and flat) but they do have a nice RSPB cafe. Talking of post Parkrun cafes the best has to be at Dolgellau.

Welsh Cakes anyone?

TH Roberts is in the middle of town opposite the Royal Ship Hotel and has the best cakes going. We had mixed fruit slices to go with our tea/coffee and sat with other park runners waiting for our results to appear on our mobiles. In fact the very friendly organisers were in the far corner using their laptops to compile results! We've only been down there for this Parkrun once cos it's quite an early start but I'm sure we'll go again. In fact all the Welsh Parkruns we've been to are associated with nice post run cafes, another one to recommend is the cafe that's actually right by the start in the castle at Penrhyn!

A bit more running!

A church, a cathedral? No it's the crem!

We drove past Manchester's Southern Cemetary on Sunday. The schoolboy joke that I remember was that this is the dead centre of Manchester! The Crematorium was looking particularly impressive - this is a springtime photo which is the best time to look at it. This was the second crematorium in the country and was designed by Edward Salmons and A Steinthal (the first was built in Woking in 1885 where the first successful cremation was carried out on the body of a horse).

So, to the running,  we were on our way to and from the Stretford Parkrun. Pouring with rain it was! But it's a nice flat course and Vicky got her Parkrun all time PB of 31.26 - maybe Skip was anxious to get back out of the rain, but he pulled her through. I equalled this year's best of 19.51 so we were all happy. And a bottle of wine was thrust into my hand at the Cyrn Y Brain fell race the following day at the Horseshoe Pass. Harriers were there in force (well three of us were) and a certain symmetry applied as Vic and Emma won the over 55 prizes and I won the over 65 prize; the link was that in each case we beat the over 50's and over 60's! And here's technology for you - a Strava map of my progress round the park - the red line represents two circuits starting with the green circle, round the oval running track on the bottom right and two plus round the park finishing at the chequered flag (circle!)

The green shoes go quite nicely don't they.

And here's me in a red vest - I bet that's got you fooled! It was the first fixture of the Borders League series and, seeing as Denbigh do not participate in this seven race winter series, I run for Prestatyn. I haven't done any Borders League races for about 5 years but it was good to be back - apart from the fact that I just couldn't quite catch George (also of Prestatyn) who managed to win the V65 age group. I was gaining on him all the time but was a measly 5 seconds short at the end - another 100 metres and I'd have got him (I think!) You can see Autumn is drawing in as the leaves come tumbling down - a bit slippy in places.

100 up!

Not Phoenix Park in Dublin, a bit less glamorous but a nice little hilly park nonetheless. This one is in Runcorn in an area of land where nature has taken over from the post industrial mess. The Parkrun goes twice round the park and along the towpath of the Bridgwater Canal and as you can see this was my 100th so I should be getting a t-shirt at some point. Quite pleased with 4th place in 21.29.

Nice party venue!

The parkrun website instructed me to park in the grounds of Norton Priory Museum which I did being a good citizen. It was a wet morning and I parked up and jogged down to the start. On the way back the rain was pelting down so I jumped in the car and was off, barely taking a glance at the entrance to the museum. But return we must as this is home to what are described as the most extensive monastic remains in Northern Britain, not to mention the extensive 18th century walled garden. All of this history on Merseyside - who'd have thought it? This picture is of the Norman undercroft of the medieval abbey. It seems that this site was chosen as it was at the location where people regularly crossed the River Mersey (before the Runcorn bridge was built of course.) And I bet they charged a toll!!