Book Review - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I had seen this movie was coming out in UK, after reading a few previews and reviews the general agreement was that the films was great but even better if you have read the book first. so I ordered the book, and slowly read through it.

The book is more like 6 books, covering six stories, in 6 different timelines, with slight overlaps, coincidences and causality.

I really enjoyed separate story and sometimes the over laps were quite casual and insignificant, each story had good pace and was well written, but the overlaps and the connection between the stories were just far too weak. I would have much preferred bigger twists, more meaningful connections.

The chapter regarding the "crossing" was great, very hard to read due to the style of language, but a great story and possibly the biggest twist about 2 thirds in, well that's when i spotted it anyway.

I'm still looking forward to the film, and if the film wasn't promising so much i would maybe have not enjoyed the book as much.

I may even review the film as an addition to this book review.

Race - The Beast - 24th Feb 2013

Reserving energy by jogging downhill

 After missing my junction on the M1 I got there only 35mins before the starting gun, which gave me time to register nip to the toilets and pin my number on my chest. Once in my race gear of running t-shirt, running vest over the top, along with swimmers with an outer layer of mountain bike shorts, also a thermal beanie, running socks and trail running shoes. I mention my clothing so that you can imagine how under prepared my outfit was when you know that it was 0 degrees with light dusting of snow in the air. most runners where in log sleeves and running tights, lost had gloves too.

Actually smiling whilst running uphill.

I've had a week off my training, due to a snowboarding holiday, which has left my back, legs and ass bruised and very sore. Oh an my liver has taken quite a beating over the last week too. I usually like to start races from close to the front of the pack so I can try and to keep up with the fast runners. But today I was feeling under prepared and sore so I sat at the back of he pack and waited for the countdown. I kept pace with the slower runners for a about a minute before I decided I needed to run faster, and started cutting my way through the pack.

Very very cold water

The cold was numbing and relentless, I couldn't feel my fingers and my forearms where painful, stiff and distracting. the first water feature on the course was a shin deep ford which was cold, but didn't numb my toes or feet, so I was pretty happy. I kept taking my hat off and stuffing my hands inside to try and bring some warmth to them, it did but was only a temporal relief from the biting cold.

power house in full flow

The next water feature was a chest deep pond to wade through, I desperately kept my hands out of the water for fear of getting them even colder. This was a testicle shrinking, breath snatching, nipple hardening freezing dip, constantly fighting for grip on the slippery mud once out of the water it took a while to get the full feeling back into my feet, and calfs so I went pretty gingerly over next couple of horse hurdles. The following water horse feature had shin deep water again, but was infested with 10mm thick ice plates which bashed the lower legs with icy bruises.

I think I landed this leap.

The following horse hurdles and hills were tough going, but my fitness held out enough for me to calmly maintain good running form up the hills. the hills are steep and hard but I managed to pick up a few more places on the uphill sections which was great, and ran ballistic-ally down the hills to maintain the gains. after the fourth water feature of a short waist deep wade, where a male marshal comically warned me that the leading female runner was only a few places behind me and to hurry up so avoid being 'chicked'. This was the kind of motivation I needed to push on over a few more hurdles and hilly run back to the start line ready to complete a second 5mile lap.

Water so cold I was technically in the
running for fastest woman.

The second lap went strongly and managed to fight to over take another 2 or 3 places and fought even hard to maintain this lead. my hands and forearms never warmed up and were incredible stiff and sore by the end, so stiff I could barley hold by post race goody bag or press the button on my car key fob. I jumped into my warn coat, and gloves and pottered back to the finish line to wait for my mate to catch up and cross the line. we celebrated with a well deserved double lamb burger each, before a short chat and then my drive home to warmth and an afternoon nap.

Thanks to the organisers and marshals for a great event and race
www.thebeastrun.co.uk
www.runner-photos.co.uk

Scores (out of 10)
Course: 7
Terrain: 6
Difficulty: 7
Return factor: 9
Overall: 7.5

Race - Xtreme Challenge - 3rd Feb 2013

soaked, coming out of the nipple high water obstacle

My mate and I arrived early as he was registering on the day and we car shared. It only took a couple of minutes to get signed in, so we took the opportunity to look round obstacles at the end of the course and also those just after the start.

We were both impressed by the quantity and density of obstacles and were very happy with the signs and  course markings. We noticed there were no 'stoppers' and none of these obstacles shouldn't stop you, just break your pace.

We grabbed a coffee and headed back to the van to get kitted up and stretch . Once in full race kit we jogged the road back to HQ to avoid the sodden car park, quick pre race pee and we were on the start line.

The race had a little false start when a flash bang went off, but we were quickly herded back behind the line and waited for the countdown. the going was pretty soft and slippery, but i managed to work my way to leading pack of about 20 runners when we hit the first fence and steep hills. The hills thinned out the pack and I was happy to still be in the top group, this group started to thin out too and I wasn't able to keep up with the leaders. we hadn't spotted the 2km or so run round the outer lying fields on our earlier reccy, so they came as a bit of a surprise. i managed to only lose a couple of places through the trail running section, but kept them in my cross hairs.

At the end of the trail run the course changed from open running to a barrage of obstacles, ranging from tire mounds, to water dips, to classing horse trail fences. This is what I was hear for, this is where I pull those lost places from and gain a couple more in the process. At the end of the first lap I've settled into a rhythm moving and picked up running buddy who is sitting on my heels, and making sure I can't slow up and give a position away.

Very happy with 45:51 for a 10km obstacle race

The hills on second climb are tackled with hard walking rather than slow running, this leaves more in the tank so I can run hard down the hills. this ended up with my lying on the floor in slippery mud, but a few curse words and scrambling go me back on my toes. Not only could I not loose my shadow, but I gained a second. three of us now ran at a similar place, occasionally swapping lead into an obstacle or in an open run. as the final field of obstacles approached I maintained the lead of our trio. It was a downhill finish, so I pushed hard to keep off any competition. One of the marshals handing out water suddenly moved too far aside to let me through, which meant I hadn't lost my shadows.
Crap.
Not sure I want to do this.
Sod it.
Hammer down.
Full on sprint finish with one of my shadows we crossed the line neck and neck, the results put me ahead of my shadow, but I think he took me on the line.

I great way to finish a great race, I shook hands with the other 2 guys and thanked them for pushing me hard on the final lap, and ensuring I didn't let up.

Scores (out of 10)
Course: 6
Terrain: 7
Difficulty: 6
Return factor: 9
Overall: 7