Never too old to learn - Horton-in-Ribblesdale

As we approached Horton in Ribblesdale the clouds began to recede and I didn't feel quite so silly with my sunglasses perched optinistically on my head. It was time to meet school number 2 , Horton in Ribbkesdale primary school, nestled at the foot of mighty Pen-y-Ghent.

It must be hard to be anything but a runner when you study in a village like this. Surely the children must be born with the legs of mountain goats! It is certainly an inspirational place to be. You can't help but be drawn into adventure with surroundings like this.

As we walked in I could see eager faces peering round corners and a hushed whispering of, 'Its that Andy man - the runner man'!  The school itself is a colourful place, full of artwork and photos and again, as at Kirkby Malham school, the enthusiasm of the teachers is everywhere.

The classroom  rapidly filled up with the small and not so small and the excitement was infectious.   As I filmed Andy's presentation, I found myself giggling along with the children as Andy dressed Ryan up as a Spine race runner - layers and more layers of clothes topped off with a dinosaur hat, a headtorch  and he even had his own ball of ice on his shoe ( for those not familiar check out image to the right of the shoe of last years winner!!).

All the children we have met so far have thrown themselves into Andy's challenge, with no doubts or fears just an extraordinary degree of confidence, which, I don't think I'll be alone in saying, I wish I could do too!
It was heart-warming (is that too corny?! I can't think of any other way to describe it), to see them all getting stuck in - the older ones holding the hands of the younger ones, the cheers from the teachers, the faster one waiting for the slower.  With no need of coaxing, the school was already acting like a team and thinking like a team.

There is a lot to learn from these young'uns. It can be easy as an adult to maybe not give the children the attention they deserve or to take them as seriously as we should, I am certainly guilty, but I was certainly taught a lesson by the end of our day.
Amid breathless laughing and talking,  Andy asked them for advice they would give to other children who are finding the running difficult, so when you are next out on your training run and starting to struggle have a think on these gems...

'Even when its really difficult just think how great you'll feel when you finish'
'Pace yourself, don't use up all your energy, find a pace'
'When you can't run, you can walk a bit but never stop, because once you stop its much harder to start'
'Think of all the cake you can eat at the end!'

And so it is to Edale we go tomorrow!

 If you can help us reach our target to make this film please have a look at all the lovely rewards we can offer in return!

Update and School Visits!

Time is quickly passing with our Kickstarter appeal.  With only 14 days to go we have now reached 25% of our target amount needed to  continue making the film.  People are asking us what is going to happen if we don't reach the full amount - well sadly with Kickstarter, if we don't get the full amount we get nothing, but we still have a few things up our sleeve to tempt people to pledge, so we still think we will get there.   We are still positive!
We are working on contingency plans though...the great thing about this is that whatever the outcome we have learnt a huge amount and we have managed to get the word out to a huge audience all the way around the world.  

So it is business as usual until further notice!

We are heading off to Horton-in-Ribblesdale school, at the foot of the mighty Pen-y-Ghent, on Monday with Andy to film him giving the children the challenge to run the 268miles, and if there are any parents/friends etc out there who would like to be involved or go along then please get in touch with Andy!

Horton-in-Ribblesdale

The excitement of the kids is contagious, we are really looking forward to it, and they are great to film - they are so enthusiastic and love being part of the project.    

Next Tuesday, it is an about turn back to the Peak District where we will be filming at Edale primary school at the very beginning of The Pennine Way, and we will also be meeting a National Park Ranger - to interview and discuss the Pennine Way in more detail and get a real insiders view on life on and around the Pennine Way. 

So watch this space for some more mini school films, competitions, and even maybe some goodies to be given away.

September 30th Q&A session with Andy

Cracking the Spine

September 30

Let the Questions Begin! Please comment them on this post!

Scott Gilmour How will your approach differ from last year's attempt?

Cracking the Spine I'll do some training! And get my head round the whole damn thing instead of the first third. And be positive rather than crapping it. And do detail rather than big picture. And nail the 'what' & 'why' bit. And have oceans of leverage in place. And be focused on me. And be cool with the scenario that even my best efforts may not be enough. So no, Scott - not much different at all..!?!

Scott Gilmour Well I believe your meticulous approach will pay dividend Andy! You WILL complete!


Kevin Watkins How do we get our local school involved in CTS?

Cracking the Spine Kevin, please email me directly andy@doingbigandscary.com so we set up a call time tomorrow.

Kevin Watkins Will do.

Benjamin Gardner-Hall Hi Andy who takes the best photos Matt or Ellie ? lol

Cracking the Spine oi you! but now you mention it - it's a bit like the pesto question if its good mine, if its not matts . Ta Ellie

Cracking the Spine Asking me to drive a wedge into the heart of our working relationship at this early stage is abit harsh dontcha think??


Andrew Bernie Bernard How many calories will you need every day Andy?

What supplements will you be taking?

Cracking the Spine More than I think. One of the lessons of this year was that I was eating and drinking less than I needed (energy for forward locomotion AND heat generation) - so something has to change. One of the leads this project has thrown up is the chance to work with a nutritionist which means I may well be get all scientific with the calorie stuff.


Cracking the Spine Oops - forgot to answer the 'supplement' thing: I don't as a rule. Just not comfortable with it. The only thing I've ever done is multi-vitamins. Given the possibility that we might be going all science-based on the fuel front I am, as they say, girding myself to practice the skills of being open-minded on the subject...Quite a task for a 40 something bloke who knows what he likes.


Andrew Bernie Bernard How much sleep do you expect to get?


Cracking the Spine Dunno. More interested in how much sleep I'll need 'cos this bit is uncharted waters: Do I plan it in advance expedition-style or just go till I drop runner style? Really haven't got that figured yet.

Sarah Gardner-hall Andy what's your biggest motivation to keep going when the going gets tough ?


Cracking the Spine Varies race to race, Sarah. I figure out the 'what' and 'why' for a biggie race each time. Common denominator since becoming a Dad has been our boys: See Dad finishing something he starts and enjoying the process etc...


Pete Harris Hi there . Whats the route.and what time do you.start ??

Cracking the Spine Pennine Way south to north 8am start saturday Jan 11th Pete


Kevin Watkins Andy how do you balance training time, racing and having a family?

Cracking the Spine Sometimes I get close to some sort of balance, sometimes I'm hopeless and every so often we (Charlotte and I) nail it. That's been a key: Practicing the skills of talking and sharing - now there's a concept. I'm better than I was but then priorities do shift when small people arrive. Sometimes of course if endurance stuff is our bag I think it is helpful to put ourselves out of balance, uncomfortable, hurting - as long as you can choose to come out of that and re-charge and our Significant Others have been fore-warned and have signed off on it. It's all still a work in progress tho'

Kevin Watkins Great reply Andy will let my wife read this!


Sarah Gardner-hall Do you think as I do in ultras that so much of it is mental rather than physical & if u can get your head around the distance & event that anything is then possible.?

Cracking the Spine IF you can keep your feet intact, manage your mood and find your way, then yes Sarah - I agree


Pete Harris What is the starting point

Cracking the Spine Middle of Edale village. Follow the nervous laughter - it'll be us.

Thanks to Andy for taking the time to answer all the questions.

If anyone can help us in our mission to raise money for the project please follow the link to the Cracking The Spine Kickstarter Page

Gym Knickers and Rain

So, Kirkby Malham was a resounding success all round, and we are all buoyed up and ready to head off to Edale primary school next.   It's not just for the younger generations of pupils though, we are in talks with getting some secondary schools involved too.

I distinctly remember being a teenager at a school near Casterton and being told to run up and down the Cumbrian fells in torrential rain in horrific P.E knickers (at this point i'll just point out that it's Ellie writing not Matt or Andy,  i don't think they have ever worn gym knickers...!), I'm sure it was character building or something similar.
Either way I don't remember being all too enthused about the idea.  It would be fantastic to get teenagers hooked on running, and turning it from something you dread to something you look forward to and you never know where it will take you.
One of the most inspiring points of Andy's presentation yesterday at Kirkby Malham was when he brought out his 'Beginners' swimming certificate, which he was awarded when he was 8, for swimming  10 yards.  Everybody starts somewhere and Andy went on to swim the English Channel, at this point I heard jaws hit the floor.

Dreams can happen if you work hard enough at them and want them badly enough, and I think it's so important to make young people believe that.  We should be out there encouraging them  to think big and exciting.  And here the lecture endeth ;)

The PROJECT is LIVE!

So finally the day has come, we have had the green light from Kickstarter and it's now time to turn our ramblings into a reality!

Please have a look at our proposal and we hope you like the film we have put together.   Our aim is to submit this documentary to all Adventure Film festivals in 2015.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR KICKSTARTER PAGE!!

I thought it would be useful for anyone tuning in late in the day to refresh you guys on what exactly we are going to be getting up to, and the purpose of Cracking The Spine.

Back in June, ultra runner, coach and author Andy Mouncey approached us here at Summit Fever Outdoor Sports Media with an immense idea, this idea is Cracking The Spine Film.  

Andy wants to return to finish what he started, with a little bit of help from local schools and youth groups.  

Let me explain a little more...

In January 2013 he took part in The Spine Race, the most brutal winter non-stop 268 mile foot race the UK has to offer. After just over 100 miles Andy had to stop. In January 2014 Andy will be back, more prepared, fitter and ready to face a challenge of epic proportions.

Part of the project is to get kids moving too, as a father, Andy knows the importance of ensuring the people of tomorrow have the skills to make it a bright, shiny place. Schools and youth groups all the way along the UK’s Pennine Way will be running and walking the 268 miles as classes and teams over winter to raise money for Sports Relief and to show them that impossible is just a made up word grown-ups use when they think they can't.  

They will be keeping video diaries to document the ups and downs they encounter and to show how they overcome these challenges.  This footage will be put into the documentary.

Andy’s aim?  To inspire and motivate children through running, to show them the benefits of a life full of exercise, to teach them to think and act like athletes, to show them the importance of making and sticking to a pledge, and how all these skills can be applied to each aspect of their lives.

We, here at Summit Fever, are going to be making a film of Andy's progress, and medical stats, in the lead up to the race, and during the race, as well as the progress that is made in the schools and how running is changing the lives of the children who are taking part.  We need to get them all to the finish!

Cracking The Spine project is designed to engage YOU. Everyone's lives would be a little brighter, a little more fun if they took the courage to take that step so we're giving you the shoes and the push to get you out there and face the impossible. Funded via Kickstarter (our page is now live!) which is a crowd funding website you will be able to contribute to the creation of the film, in return there will be a whole host of things on offer! 

Everyone that watches this film will walk away feeling empowered to try the thing they never thought they could. It's time to show the world what running can do, so please, if you can, join Summit Fever and Andy Mouncey on a journey of a lifetime.

Ghostly goings on... A mini selection of ghost stories we have dug out

The Pennine Way and a few ghostly goings on!

After lots of talking about the route we have realised that for those who aren't maybe as familiar with the UK - You might be thinking - what on earth is The Pennine Way?!  

The Pennine Way as you can see below is a route that winds it way up the 'Spine' of England, taking in the bleakest moors and most beautiful if remote areas of the UK.   It starts at our local 'The Nags Head' pub in Edale (good pint and blazing fires) and heads North, up and over the Peak District national park, the Yorkshire Dales, the Northumberland National Park and finishes in the small Scottish Hamlet of Kirk Yetholm (in the pub - British obsession).

Pennine Way Route

We have done a bit of digging around and have come up with a few ghost stories and myths and legends, which surround sections of The Pennine Way... 

Not that you should still be on the Kinder Scout section of the The Spine Race route come Easter (unless you really have gone the wrong way!),  watch out for the water spirit of Mermaid's Pool, which can be seen far below you as you pass Kinder Downfall waterfall early on the route.  This little critter manifests itself on the Eve of Easter and either promises long life or drags you down into the watery depths.  Take your pick!

Kinder Downfall, geography.org.uk

When you cross Bleaklow in the Peak District, watch out for ghostly legionnaires.  In 1932 four climbers near Hope Cross saw an entire Roman legion go by (was this post pub or pre pub?! - referring to the climbers not the ghosts!).  Apparently it has such renown for ghostly goings on that it is speculated that an undiscovered Roman road once cut over Bleaklow linking Snake's Pass with Longdendale.  Legend has it that an entire Roman legion were attacked and buried in the bogs on Bleaklow by local tribes.  The area was certainly well used by Roman legions and a Roman fort stands at Castleshaw.

Bleaklow - geograph.org.uk

And if you fancy partaking in a well earned beverage at the highest pub in England, the renowned Tan Hill inn, double check who is propping up the bar.  Ghost sightings have led to a team of ghost investigators making a film at the pub.  Don't panic unduly though sounds like a harmless ghosty who likes a puff on his pipe, however if you are thinking of taking an hour's kip in the bunkhouse watch out for a ghost of a boy who pops up to say hello to weary travellers. 

Tan Hill Inn, picture by The Observer

Cauldron Snout the wonderfully named waterfall is said to haunted by a ghost called 'The Singing lady', and on cold moonlit nights she can be seen sitting on a rock near the falls, where she laments the loss of her loved one.

Cauldron Snout

Cross Fell is the highest point on the Pennine Way at 2930ft.  Back in the mists of time this was called Fiend's Fell and devil's were said to inhabit the fell.  The name 'Cross Fell' is said (depending on your source!) to originate from the 7th century and given it by Paulinus an early Christian missionary, or the more dramatic version is that it refers to the 'cross' or 'angry' fiends that lived there.

Cross Fell

And on that note...Good Night!

British Preoccupation with Weather

Well I don't know about what it's like where all you readers are based but here in the Peaks it's a little soggy.  As in torrential downpour soggy!  That probably comes as no surprise to everybody who is familiar with the UK, especially those in the North of the country.
In fact it is pretty much a worldwide joke that the UK is a very soggy place to live - we should have been born with gills,  I wonder if in thousands of years time, evolution will take control and we will begin to sprout gills... By the way interesting fact for those who aren't familiar with the start of the Pennine Way in the Peak District, over 350 million years ago the Peak District lay under a shallow subterranean sea as a coral reef - maybe I'm not quite so off the mark with my evolution theory!

It's not just the British preoccupation with the weather that is provoking this mini-rant - in a very round about way this brings me back to The Spine Race.  One of the huge difficulties with The Spine Race, in my mind (as a mere mortal working on the race), is the weather.
The problem is that you don't have the guarantee of snow like you do with Arctic ultras, or the scorching dry heat of the MdS, there is no way of knowing what you will have to contend with on the course.  How on earth do you prepare? It could be waist deep snow, or mild, raining and misty.

This makes packing your gear very complicated - do you want to travel light and fast?  Or heavy and prepared, or can you be light and just as fully prepared?.  This is one question I will be certainly putting to Andy Mouncey in his Q&A session tomorrow night.  This seems to be sparking quite a bit of debate at the moment, especially following the recent rescue of Kilian Journet and Emilie Forsberg by the MRT, who were caught out a little unprepared in the mountains.

Having the Peak District and the Lake District as our playgrounds here at Cracking The Spine it certainly makes us very aware of the dangers of the British weather, which I believe can be underestimated.

Photo kindly provided by John Bamber, photographer and helps with the running of The Spine Race  -
The Spine Race fount of knowledge.  The photo was taken of his checkpoint just below Pen-y-Ghent in January 2013

So what could the competitors be faced with ?  Here are the opinions from Matt Green, our tame ultra runner, from his experiences of Winter running in the UK:

1. It's very rarely a dry cold, it's mostly a wet cold so it will cut through the most fancy of technical jackets, gloves and covering that you choose to adorn yourself with.

2. When you're fighting your way over large expanses of peat and moorland a thin layer of ice is all that stops you from getting wet, muddy feet and legs.

3. If you're lucky it will snow, if you're not it will rain... heat sapping droplets will cling to you and your kit like a slug munching away at your energy.

4. If a freezing mist sets in you're in for a treat, not only will you get increasingly damp inexplicably quickly but every direction will look the same.  Moorland stretches out for miles in every direction, the path that was so clear a minute ago vanishes.  The exquisitely carved peaks that you've been using to navigate become a hallucination and the moss grows on each side of the trees. Even the most experienced of navigators struggles, as anyone that follows the Mountain Rescue Teams on Facebook will know!

If you have similar questions for Andy, then please check in to Cracking The Spine Facebook tomorrow night at 2000hrs GMT.  The more the merrier!

The First Step

Filming for Cracking The Spine officially began on Monday 9th September.
Here at Summit Fever we met up with Andy and Charlotte in the iconic Pen-y-Ghent cafe to do an interview with the husband and wife team.  If you have never been go and check it out.  We inadvertently managed to take over half the cafe, but the owners couldn't have been kinder and more welcoming, and the locals looked on at us with bemusement as they sign languaged their order over the  counter.

To me Pen-y-Ghent is one of the greatest mountains in the area.  It may not have the height of it's Alpine counterparts but in every way it charms the pants off people.  I am not digressing into a travelogue expounding the rural attractions of northern England, it is on The Pennine Way and quite a significant landmark on the route being at around the 90 miles mark.

The Spine Race 2013 -Pen-y-Ghent in the background

With England, the big danger of the outdoors and our national parks is to underestimate them.  Oh it's only England you may say, what the worst that can happen?! We quite easily forget that out there we still have wildernesses untouched by phone signal, uninhabited moorland stretching for miles in every direction, treacherous peat bogs and mist that can descend in seconds leaving you  blind on a featureless landscape - and this is the Summer! Bring Winter along and it adds a completely different and very scary dimension.  Oh, and it does snow properly, as everyone who lives North of the M25 can testify following the antics of the weather gods March 2013.

It seemed an apt place to begin filming Cracking The Spine, as it was close to the place that Andy called it a day earlier this year, when he attempted the Spine Race 2013.  Not that we are mean or provocative, but with Pen-Y-Ghent looming in the distance it was hard to forget the challenge that lies ahead for Andy. (Yes we are mean)

It became evident as the interview progressed that not only and obviously do you have to be incredibly fit to even contemplate loading the race website onto your browser, you have to be mentally strong, maybe more so than physically.  There are not many people out there who can cope with putting their bodies through hours and days of pain, but being the social creatures we are, to be alone in the cold and the dark and in the wild takes a very different type of mentality.   This is not only Andy we are talking about - when you take in Charlotte's extraordinary support and wall of strength you see an unbeatable team before you.

One aspect we will explore in the making of the Cracking The Spine film will be the effects that this kind of extreme undertaking has on the body but more interestingly and perhaps more difficult to pinpoint, the mental effects it has on the brain.  What is it that Andy has up there that pushes him on when everything should be telling him to stop?

One person who is familiar with this kind of punishing behaviour is the race director and brainchild behind The Spine Race - Scott Gilmour.   Scott practices what he preaches and took part in the Yukon Arctic Ultra before he began organising the Spine Race.  He is certainly no stranger to the risks and obstacles that lie ahead.

Scott Gilmour - www.weatherised.com

Scott is, as well as being a race director of extreme events, a film maker.  Here is a link to the film he made of The Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra

It is with huge thanks to Scott Gilmour and Phil Hayday-Brown that we are able to start this project.