Day #5 - no ski

The weather today was terrible with low temps, really high winds and heavy snow fall. We all braved the conditions first thing and sking down to the Ski school meet.  The only lifts open were the green and a single blue so I turned around to put the running shoes on. The weather was so bad I wore my long Goretex as well as my ski goggles. Definitely a first!

I ran a short circuit of the town, thought about the road to Val Claret but with the avalanche risk now a whopping 5 out of 5 I thought better of it. Instead I turned around and ran some hill repeats in the thick snow on the path back to the chalet timing it nicely to pick the boys up at 12 and march them back up the hill for hot showers. Ended up with 9ish ks in 60 minutes or so trying not to stack it.

In the afternoon, the weather worsened again with the wind picking up and a full on blizzard enveloping. Never seen anything like it which meant we were confined to the chalet spending dinner with Chev, stunt man Dave, Sarah and Lewis.

I’ve a big decision to make....

Day #4 - Pallafour

Ski school again but the wind and snow were both swirling aggressively right into our faces. The three elder boys braved it first thing with me waiting for the Pallafour lift to open which it duly did around 9.30.

The lift up was a test of mental strength trying to block out the cold. On the website it said temperatures well below zero with a wind chill of -30. It was a white out up top with low visibility.

The worst was standing still as the wind was moving the snow surface which meant when you looked down you thought you were moving. It’s like when the bus next to you moves and you think you’re moving as well. The upshot was that it made you feel very dizzy and sillily fell once whilst standing still.

After countless runs and after each thinking it would be my last I met the boys at 12. Jack and Lukie wanted to head home straight away but Tommy was game for another run.

Jacqui and Ryder got out later in the day with Jacqui parallel skiing nicely now. The afternoon we spent clowning around in town before dinner for Vondu in town. I slipped over falling on my right side AGAIN much to the amusement of the boys.  At dinner Jack had us all in stitches with his impression of an Australian attempting to to speak German. It was very funny.

With snow coming down in the bucket load we headed back home with the boys running and jumping in the now massive snow drifts. Skiing is not looking good for the morning. I’ve never seen so much snow and the avalanche risk is extremely high. Last year there were a number here with 4 people losing their lives. We’ll have to wait and see.

* In the late afternoon I got out for a jog to Val Claret along the road which is avalanche prone. I did brick myself looking up at the large serac overhangs. 7k dead slow. Ribs now worse than they were after the fall.

Day #3 - more of the same

Today was all about getting up in time for J and boys to get to ski school. Tough conditions to start with but followed by glorious sunshine eating a nice lunch just off the piste.

I stacked it on the last run of the day diving head first into the snow bashing my head. The real issue was that one of my sticks wedged under my right rib cage on impact aggravating the broken rib. It’s bloody painful again.

Boys and J are good.

Day #2 - NY’s Eve and perfect conditions

We set the alarm for 9am to get a full days skiing in and make the most of the perfect conditions. As expected, it was brilliant sunshine. I was chomping at the bit to get out.

After a quick brekkie we headed to the ski hire. This is unquestionably my worst hour of the whole trip. It’s always a scrum. Once outside we headed onto a simple blue to reacquaint ourselves before taking the Tovier bubble (car) up high. The views were sensational with the boys and J all skiing well and picking up where they left off.

We then picked up a few runs to take us to the base of the La Grande Motte funicular propelling you to 3,300ms and onto the glacier. Up top we picked out Mont Blanc and all the other neighbouring peaks before booting up again. The blue slope though was closed with only reds and blacks open. I could tell that J was not keen being the first day and all so after a quick team talk we decided that J would take Ryder back down to the valley floor mostly on the funicular with me taking the three elder boys down.

It was a dreamlike ski with no wind, perfect snow with a large moon visible just over the peaks of the vista in front of us where the sun was also going down quickly.  It’s rare you get these conditions at 3,000ms plus and often is a tale tale sign of the calm before the storm. Little did we know.

After a nice dinner with Chev and Disco Dave (Hollywood stunt man, no kidding) at the chalet we headed down to Tignes Le Lac centre which is well known for its outside New Years Eve celebrations with resident DJs entertaining the masses. It was one of the most enjoyable NY’s Eve I’ve had in a long long while with J and I necking Champers and the boys also jumping around to the DJ set capped off with awesome fireworks illuminating the surrounding mountains.

A Magical day despite no sleep - boys didn't moan once and just got on with it, Tommy filming a lot on the GoPro.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1335215010

Day #1 - arrival in the Alps

I was shit scared. Traffic and snow as bad I have seen. The 3 hour transfer to Tignes turned into a 14 hour nightmare. The roads were log jammed and with little food or water. At one stage somewhere near Bourg -Saint-Maurice, the infamous TDF venue, we did not move for 6 hours which meant no toilet stop, no nothing.

After a treacherous drive up to Tignes passing untold broken down cars (primarily those without snow chains) we eventually arrived into the snow battterd resort of Tignes at precisely 3.30 AM.

My boys handled it brilliantly. Am not sure if other kids their age would have coped so well. Indeed others on the coach were letting their tempers get the better of them.

They reckon this is the most snow in the last 21 years and the second most since the Christmas and NY of 1990/91 when I skied here with my parents for 2 weeks. I remember the trip well as on our first night after my dad managed to drive up to the resort (with no snow chains) there was an almighty avalanche that took out one of the main car parks flinging all the cars in its wake. I remember the trip also for 2 weeks of sunshine as well as nearly dying on what was to be the downhill course at the Albertville 1991 Olympic Games 3 weeks later. At the steepest and most treacherous section I fell badly but could not stop my slipping down the ice moving ever closer to a large cliff face. I would have gone over had it not been for the last ditch attempt to dig the tip of my boots into the hill. Not sure who was more relieved, me or my dad’s mate Henley who had decided to take my brother Dave and I down when it was officially closed!

2017 recap

Well November and December are always really busy months in our house. 3 birthdays and the usual Christmas shannigans meant there was no let up.

It also involved a massive landmark for Jacqui too with her turning 40. We held a surprise party for her and it fulfilled expectations. It was a great night, including everyone being there on her arrival, the dinner, Lukie playing MC and the ensuing party.

On the running front I’ve lost my mojo a little in the last couple of months. I do get bored of it after a while - there is simply too much other crap which I enjoy (Messi has also been suffering from the same syndrome).  

One being the bike and on that I fell heavily in late November hitting an icy patch with my front wheel slipping underneath me whilst travelling 35kmh. Thankfully it was a right hand turn and so careered into the pavement instead of the incoming traffic.

With work travel though I could not get it looked at so a week later flying back into London from another business trip I knew the wound was not right so J took me straight to A&E and lo and behold it was infected. No more ill effects am pleased to say but am still nursing a cracked rib which has been purgetry to run with.

Family: our 4 boys are all well (growing up way too quick) and currently writing on the aeroplane to Geneva for our annual skiing recce. They are beside themselves. 

It’s been a big running year running too with 4,450 KMs clocked and plenty of other shit thrown in, at least another 1,000+ KMs on the bike, summer climbing in the Alps as well as skiing. 

I thought Berlin 2.42.14 would be the highlight but it was trumped by Kenya. That was special and extra special for the one on one time with my #1 boy who turned 14 shortly after getting back home.

It will live with him forever:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASy7m6U33v47Tp9w1

Befriending all the elite Kenyan athletes in Kericho will not be surpassed, such as running with Bernard Rotich on the Tuesday with him then going on to win the Dublin marathon the following Sunday. That was bonkers. The charity aspect working with the magnificent 5 Talents charity was equally rewarding if not more. It’s been a successful year too raising money for charities and have raised a sizeable sum over the course of the year.

In the end, Berlin was a let down and with better conditions I think I could have ran 2.40 very close. It was simply too wet and humid.  It’s annoying as I am not sure when work will allow me to train to the extent I did.

I don’t have any excuses for London in April and came up short again running another 2.46. In fact, I managed to run 4 marathons this year if you include the local Hilly Long training run I did with Messi in 3 hours as well as the Kericho marathon in Kenya. There is one noticeable change to all of this and that is I stayed broadly injury free for over 12 months which is a first. 

On the family front, I don’t think we could have done any more than we did. It went something like this:

Australia, Seoul, Jack’s tournament in Berlin, climbing in Zermatt with Stevie and JJ, NYC, Biarritz surfing, Lake District, back to Berlin for the marathon (seeing all the old Sydney HuRTs crew), back to NYC, Kenya and then the week skiing in Tignes / Val D’Isere. Chuck in 5 trips each to Amsterdam and Luxembourg as well meant I was moving around at least twice a month. Jacqui also had trips away in Ibiza, Valencia and Stockholm.

On the work front, it’s been the usual enjoyable chaotic mayhem and have now racked up 17 years with GS. 

Looking forward to the journey ahead and what 2018 will offer.

Jacqui’s big day:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VyvAFa9Xba8otGCt2

Kenya - day 8 - Homeward bound after an astonishing week

Groggy this morning after a couple of beers last night as we all piled into the coach for one final drive to Nairobi. Nerves now acclimatised to the nigh on head-on collision every 5 minutes,time passed quickly chatting mostly with Tim and Martin.

We pit-stopped at the same lunch place we visited on the way there and bumped into Vincent (Kenya’s 2nd most happy person after the ‘fixer’ Elisha). I took a great photo of him and T together earlier in the week. He greeted us with the biggest grin around and asked him how he was? Not surprisingly he responded with the line ‘I am happy’.

Now back at the hotel we said our farewells with people going in a host of different directions: Masai mara, Iten, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Lake Victoria......

Tommy and I hung at the pool after a quick brunch with the Peppers and Corinne/Helen.

So many memories for the week and can honestly say that Tommy and I have made a lot of new friendships. All like minded people with a common bond of varying degrees of social justice, all had a lot of offer.

Enjoyed chatting with Martin Yelling (host of the popular Marathon Talk podcast in the UK) and Tim who was the physio for Eddy Izard’s 26 marathons in 26 days. Both are very knowledgeable and appreciated both their insights. Martin shared his views on Paula/husband, Jo Pavey, Cram, Seb Coe and a heap of others in his running circles. Macca also sharing his insights on Mo who he knows second hand.

I also really enjoyed the company of everyone else. To mention a few: Anne/Keria, Helen/Corinne, the Peppers, Colin/Nelly, Abby, both Alex’s. Everyone was super friendly. Enjoyed the conversations too with the Shegog’s,wacky Sean (who is thinking about coming out here for a 3 month training stint) and Rachel’s parents. Her Mum and I hit it off after she told me she was a German teacher.

Special thanks also goes to the respective teams. Rachel is a stand out and have a huge amount of admiration for her. Articulate and able to present in Swahili she is invaluable to 5 Talents. The Impact Marathon Series team of Nick, Kat and Elijah were also extremely good value. Nick is definitely onto something!

It’s been an intoxicating week and the Impact Marathon Series is an ingenious way of combining marathon running with most importantly the 5 Talents micro finance initiative. Having Martin there was a master stroke too as through his connections we basically made friends with all of the top runners in Kericho. For Tommy and I though the highlight was the youth centre at the Mathare slum (I knew it at the time). Doing this trip on your own accord you would never have the opportunity to taste Kenya and its people in the way we have done - you could literally spend months in Kenya playing tourist and only scratch the surface.

There have been lots of superlatives used for this trip but the best I heard all week was 'simply astonishing'.  The goal and impact of the trip was to enrich the lives of others worse off than ourselves but ultimately it also massively impacted and enriched our lives. It's been so varied.

Finally and most importantly it has been special to share this with my #1 boy Tommy. I love him dearly and the memory will hopefully stay with him for the rest of his life.

THANK YOU TO 5Ts AND IMS FOR MAKING THIS WEEK SO VERY SPECIAL.

#TIA - This is Africa

My 2 takeaways and after thoughts;
1. Really important that the 5-Talent micro finance initiatives give the same opportunities to non church folk as per church folk. There needs to be some sort of covenant to control this. I worry that there is a conflict of interest given the trusts naturally gravitate to the church since they are usually the only buildings where the meetings can take place (I understand the point).  It should not be a case of attracting people to the church so that they can have access to the micro finance

2. Notwithstanding the point that the Kericho athletes are prima facie better off than the poorer rural areas which 5 Talents targets, I do think that there needs to be some sort of scheme for the athletes particularly if we keep going back to Kericho - besides being awkward it is the right thing to do.

Marathon Talk summary - I forgive MY for nicking my photo: )
https://marathontalk.com/shows/episode-409-kericho-marathon-kenya/

My photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASy7m6U33v47Tp9w1

IMS man and true gent Nick and partner Colombia Claudia: