The Road to Endorphia - Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

Writer/Performer Joe Donnachie Prepares for
Edinburgh Festival by Running from
John O’Groats to Lands End

The Road to Endorphia
Devised and performed by Joe Donnachie

In June 2009 writer and performer Joe Donnachie will run from John O'Groats to Lands End. A thousand miles or so should get him in the right mood for his running related one man show, The Road to Endorphia, which premieres at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Joe Donnachie currently specialises in producing running related works.
2003 Various Dates - Beat the Bus - Joe races a London Bus along its entire route
2008 Edinburgh Festival - Run Man Show - solo show based on various runs undertaken in summer 2008 including Glasgow to Inverness and Inverness to Glasgow
2009 Edinburgh Festival - The Road to Endorphia - solo show largely based on a run from John O'Groats to Lands End to take place in June 2009
The Edinburgh Festival promises to be another marathon for Joe. In 22 days he will perform his show 36 times and plans to jog between his venues on the Royal Mile and in Leith.

Royal Mile Tavern, 127 High Street,
Starts 1.30pm (running time 55mins)
Daily from August 8 – 29
also at
Cruz, 14 The Shore, Leith
Starts 6pm (running time 55mins)
10 – 13, 16 – 20, 23 – 27 August

www.joedonnachie.com

(photos and blog about preparation and execution of John O’Groats to Lands End run)

Contact Joe Donnachie 07709 588 531 joedonnachie@hotmail.com

John O'Groats to Lands End Calorie Binge and Press Release

My mirrored fizzog has been looking back at me in a rather wan and gaunt manner of late. So yesterday I took the day off from running and tried to ingest as many calories as possible while expending the absolute minimum of energy. I need to put on a few spare pounds before setting off from John O'Groats.

A late breakfast of eggs, sausages, bubble, tomatoes and a couple of slices of toast was followed by chocolate chip pudding and ice cream.

And this was the sunny afternoon that Glenn decided to inaugurate his new Weber Grill so lunch was a beefy barbecue excess. With another gooey pudding.

I'm usually strictly an H2O guy but today I invested in a couple of litres of a fizzy orange abomination whose brand name shall get no oxygen of publicity from me. And I guzzled and guzzled and guzzled.

In the evening I spent some time sluggishly working on the press release for Edinburgh while dunking chocolate digestives.

I was invited to a second barbecue sitting but couldn't face it.

This morning I don't feel a gram heavier. Ho hum.

But today I am as excited as I have been for months. I read my own press release with growing wonder. An unexpected email from a friend I haven't seen in ages tells me that she will be performing at the Gilded Balloon in August.

And once again the Edinburgh Festival begins to exert that peculiar artistic gravity which pulls all the spare creative energy of the planet to its heart.

I'm heading out for a ten miler now and when I get back I am going to practice packing the bag I will take with me on the Big Run. I need to check I have everything I need. I'll pitch the tent to make sure all it's poles and pegs are present and intact. I'll take a walk to the pharmacy to stock up on bug spray (midgies) and micropore tape and sun block.

I have to do route planning and trawl the internet for sources of GPS waypoints. I have to work on my press list. Oh yeah, and I must I must I must finish designing the flyer for the show and get it print ready soon soon soon.

John O'Groats to Lands End - Five Weeks To Go

Only five weeks to go before the start of the Big Run. Last minute nerves.

I'm working full time Monday to Friday up until then so that makes it harder to fit in the miles. It will make things more sorted financially, so that's good.

After a big mileage week (130) the week before last, last week I only managed 50 miles. This weeks total will be 90.

So I'm getting the fear that I'm not doing enough miles to be fit enough for the run.

But I don't want to push the mileage too hard because I'm afraid of overtraining at this point. I'm also afraid of developing some kind of overuse injury. My achilles tendons feel absolutely fine now after some problems earlier on.

Now my worry is a tenderness that I feel along the front of my shins after a run. It reminds me of the shin splints I developed a few years ago. That put me out of the game for months.

So, on balance, I'd rather start the run somewhat undertrained but injury free and with my enthusiasm intact.

I do feel fantastically fit, though.

Months ago on weekends I was running 18 milers and the occasional 25 or 30 mile run. Then I thought, wait a minute I want to be running 35 maybe 40 miles a day but I'm not going to be running that all in one hit. I'm going to be running it in chunks. So I stopped doing the big long runs and started running 10 milers, but often doing two or three a day. I thought that made more sense.

But I did the 10 milers relatively fast, without a break and running all the hills. Usually eight and a half to nine minute miles. That's quite hard running if you're doing three in a day. I was thinking, train hard, run easy.

In June, when I'll be doing the run, each day will have about 16 and a half hours of daylight. That's a lot of running time. So I can afford to run more slowly than I have been in training. It takes less energy to run the same miles if you run more slowly. And I don't have to run the really tough hills. I can take a walk break whenever I want. I can take it easy. It's not a race. As long as a I do the miles.

My goal is a pretty loose kind of goal. I'm going to travel from John O'Groats to Lands End on my own two feet, running most of the time, off road most of the time, carrying my own gear, refueling with food and water as I go. The distance should be something like 1,150 miles and I'd like to do it in not too much more than a month.

35 days at 35 miles a day ought to about do it.

Put like that it doesn't sound too hard. And I honestly believe it isn't. It's what I was born to do. OK I've been running fairly seriously for a few years now and training specifically to do this for several months but my physiology has been in preparation for this kind of thing for a couple of million years.

You know something, I'm going to stop worrying about it. Right this minute I'm going to get up and go out for another run. Richmond Park will be beautiful in the sunshine. And I'll have some porridge and banana when I get back.

Then I'll finish off the press release for the The Road to Endorphia and get it off to some people. The Edinburgh Festival is only about 13 weeks away.

Hey Ho! Lets Go.

John O'Groats to Lands End - Training Ups and Downs

Last week I ran 130 miles. That's 13 ten mile runs. I ran once on one day, twice on three days, three times on two days and I had one day off. I took the day off before the last day so I was relatively fresh for that last day of running. That was one of the days when I ran three times. I was feeling so good that I ran all three of my runs really fast. I mean each of those three runs might have been faster than any other run that week. I ran hard and fast that day. All in all it was a good week.

This week in five days so far I have run 30 miles. I thought, that's OK, I've been working this week. I'll make it up at the weekend.

I couldn't get out of bed this morning (Saturday). I eventually dragged myself round the corner for a big breakfast just after noon. I had the sausage, egg, bubble, beans, tomato, toast and tea then did some shopping. I got a few things from the nearby Tesco Metro rather than getting the bus to the big Sainsbury's. That was a measure of my lethargy. Another sign of low energy might have been when I was stood in the aisle almost blubbering because they didn't have "proper" porridge.

I got home around two and unpacked my paltry stock of groceries. Then I went upstairs. Without thinking I lay down on the bed. I barely got my shoes off before I fell asleep in my jacket. I woke up at four.

I ran in the rain yesterday morning but this afternoon, after what must be about fourteen hours sleep in all, the sunshine can't tempt me outside. I'm sitting in bed typing this.

Still, my appetite seems to be fine and I'm getting some admin e-mails done. I've organised a second venue for the Edinburgh Festival. Well, I should say Peter Buckley Hill, of PBH's Free Fringe, organised the venue. All I have to do is take him up on the offer. It means I'll now be doing a total of 36 performances of The Road to Endorphia in Edinburgh. I need to update the Fringe Programme listing with the new venue details.

I also need to get photographs done, a press release written, a flyer and poster designed and made print ready. I need to study and plan the route from John O'Groats to Lands End. I need to plan and book transport - how I am I going to get to the top of Scotland? and how am I going to get back from the extreme southwest of England? I need to write a show. I need to write a show that is funny and interesting. And I need to get up off my arse and run upwards of a hundred miles a week for the next three weeks so that I will be fit enough to do the run or the fact that Tesco Metro in Mortlake doesn't have "proper" porridge will be the least of my troubles.

Anyway, in the eternal words of Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about that tomorrow.

Right now I'm going to get up and have some microwave lasagne with a couple of baked potatoes. Yeah, the appetite is still working.

Edinburgh Festival 2009 Programme Copy Deadline

Out the door at 7.45 this morning for a thoroughly enjoyable ten miler. Feeling fit and fast and utterly fearless.

Honeyed porridge is followed by a shower, a two hour nap and a second breakfast of the two eggs, sausage, tomato and toast variety.

I decide to forgo a second run in favour of getting my Programme Copy Form completed in time for the Edinburgh Fringe Society discount deadline. The deadline is this Friday and the discount is considerable.

I find I haven't got all the venue details I need and after spending some time searching through old messages decide to email Peter Buckley Hill. PBH runs the Free Fringe through which I'm getting my Edinburgh venue. He's a busy man at this time of the year so I approach him reluctantly. He gets back to me with the info I need within twenty minutes. Many thanks, Peter.

You are allowed 40 words of copy in the Fringe Programme and this includes the show title. I thought I was ready but I've now decided to change the title from "Endorphia" to "The Road to Endorphia" because I feel that makes the idea of a journey clearer. Now I've got to lose three words from the show description. In fact, four words because I've decided to include my website address as part of the show description and that counts as one word.

This is what I end up with:

Running from John O'Groats to Lands End Joe found his Thousand Mile Journey taking him via the mythical land of Endorphia. How real is Runner's High? How high is it? Did Joe reach Lands End? www.joedonnachie.com

Ho hum.

Well, you can make changes after submission right up till it all goes to the printer so it's not the final word. I'm pretty pleased with it though. I think.

What This Blog Is About

This blog is about a run from John O'Groats to Lands End I plan to do in June 2009. It is about the planning and preparation, the execution, the aftermath. It is also about the one man show partly based on the run which I will be performing at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2009.

The run will be unsupported which means I won't have a van and a backup team. I'll be on my own. I also want to run mostly cross-country rather than on road. And that means the total distance covered will be upwards of a thousand miles.

Just now, ten weeks before the start of the big run, I'm feeling OK about my physical fitness. Last week I ran 120 miles, two ten milers a day for six days. My resting heart rate is usually around 40 beats per minute and all last week when I took my pulse first thing in the morning it was always in the low forties. That means my cardiovascular fitness is looking pretty good. About four weeks ago I had to take a week off running because both of my achilles tendons were swollen and hurting. Now, after a week of heavy running, other than a slight twinge in my left achilles tendon and general muscle soreness in my thighs, my joints, connective tissues and muscles feel pretty robust.

In terms of logistical preparation I know roughly what I will be carrying with me. I have my lightweight tent and sleeping bag I used on last summer's run from Inverness to Glasgow.

Because of weight considerations I won't be carrying with me the maps which a walker would consider essential. I still have to research and make a decision about GPS technology.

I haven't planned the route in detail. But I do know some things. For a number of reasons I have decided to start at John O'Groats. This is mainly because I know the route between Inverness and Glasgow very well. I have walked and ran that route, both northwards and southwards, a number of times and at different dates between April and July so that's 170 miles I feel confident about. Getting from John O'Groats to Inverness shouldn't be difficult and south of Glasgow I plan to follow the 40 miles of the Clyde Walkway as far as New Lanark. I haven't walked that route but I do know the area; it's where I grew up. So if I start at the top I feel relatively confident about not getting too far lost for the first 250 miles or so. That's about a quarter of the whole run so a good chunk to start with.

Food is a big challenge. If you want to run you can't carry very much. I had a rule on the Inverness Glasgow run last year not to carry more than two tins of food at a time. That meant relying a lot on finding food along the road in shops and pubs and so on. Very often I couldn't find the kind of food I wanted or needed and had to make do with whatever was available. There's a huge difference between a breakfast of porridge and a breakfast of sausages if you plan to run fifteen miles before lunch. I didn't carry a camping stove last summer because of the weight but I may do this year. Again I haven't decided yet.

So far I've been training without a pack. I'm going to have to start carrying one soon. I need a new bag but I don't know how big or how much I want to spend. I saw one I wanted in a shop today but managed to stop myself making an impulse purchase. I have a strong feeling I'm going to get it this week.

Anyway, there's a whole bunch of stuff to think about and prepare. In part, the blog is about having a space where I can think out loud about how the preparation is going. I welcome comments and observations, by the way. I have done a fair amount of trekking and running in some fairly rugged places but this is by far the biggest thing I have attempted so I'm open to suggestions. And questions.

That's it for the moment. More later. I'll go into some of the issues I've mentioned briefly above in more detail.