For as long as Paul Fox can remember he has loved running through the great outdoors, usually with his mad and muddy collie, “Spook”. Now, Paul, a former member of the Tavistock Section of the Dartmoor Rescue Group, offers courses on navigation, compass, map work and hillcraft skills, based on Dartmoor, so that anyone who has ever wanted to go and explore off the beaten track can learn or develop existing navigation skills so they can experience the beauty of Dartmoor and discover its many mysteries for themselves.
Ultra Marathon Training By Paul Fox
into Foxholes to fill my water bottle. Crossing the West Dart and following the enclosure wall to Higher White Tor my route then swings north to Lower White Tor, Wildbanks Hill and on to the appropriately named Flat Tor. This is a place of bogs, big skies and ankle-snaring tussock grass and was heavy going as far as Lynch Tor. On the homeward leg it was on to Cocks Hill, Langstone Moor, Great Mis Tor, Four Winds car park and then along the railway track to Princetown.
THE training countdown to the 2011 Lake District 50 mile race is on! Having run the Dartmoor Discovery Ultramarathon on a number of occasions I felt it was time to see how I would get on at more serious distances over more serious terrain.
I devised two loops of 20 miles each linked at the centre by Princetown. My plan is to include one or other of these loops gradually into my usual weekly running with a view to running them both at least once in the lead up to the event in July. Princetown would then provide a convenient refuelling point with the added luxury of a change of kit.
Parking at the High Moorland Visitors’ Centre the northern loop starts with a warm-up along the railway track to Rundlestone and then a short climb to Little Mis Tor. This being the day after the OMM Dartmoor Mountain Marathon I was following a trail of stud marks winding up the hill- side. Of 1800 competitors, only one pair required the attention of the rescue services despite the less than perfect conditions. I heard (rather unfairly) that they had been rendered senseless by the bland terrain and had taken to running in circles. Despite the numbers the impact on the moor seems to be minimal.
From here my route takes me to the wonderfully named Black Dunghill, Beardown Tor and down
38 Dartmoor will provide the bulk of the training so
The southern loop makes use of the track to the Scout Hut and round to Ditsworthy Warren House ford. Today the Plym looked impassable, although Spook thought otherwise and struck out for the opposite bank, eventually hauling himself out a good 20 yards downstream. Crossing at the Shavercombe confluence proved exciting (although half of me stayed dry) and we followed this stream to its head passing the beautiful little waterfall en route.
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