Neal's Yard Remedies: Product Review

Lotions, Potions and Creams:

How to sooth sore limbs

Over the past few months I have been using a few Neal's Yard Remedies {NYR}. One - Arnica - was a freebie to be reviewed, the other two, Foot Balm and Warming Oil, have been presents from my wife, Orla. All have come from Tracey, our friend in Teignmouth. Tracey runs her own NYR franchise, Lavender Fields, as well as a life coaching enterprise, Indigo Lane Consulting.

Tracey and Orla have been very keen for me to try products from NYR that will aid and smooth my tired limbs through my long winter nights of training. Normally, I'm not one for too many creams, but I was willing to give them a go, my legs after all were tired. 

Arnica Salve

Arnica was the first product that was given to me to try. Apparently it 'supports a hard worked body'; just what I needed. Within days of getting this I was laid up for 3 weeks due to a sore ankle [see Things I have Learnt this month]. Not able to use on my sore and tired muscles (due to the fact I had no sore and tired limbs as I wasn't running!), I could at least rub it on my sore ankle. 

Sports muscle rubs is a big market, with varying degrees of claims made by the manufacturers for the effectiveness of their products, but few, I am willing to bet, are as lovely smelling as Arnica. It smells almost good enough to eat. I didn't, as I'm sure it tastes disgusting, but it does feel very good rubbed into your skin. Daily I rubbed it into my ankle, along with using a heat wrap, and it worked rather well.  Within weeks, I was up and running again at The Grizzy , and Arnica played a part in that I'm sure. I used it again yesterday after my 12hr walk on Dartmoor and my leg muscles didn't hurt as much this morning as they did last night. Did arnica cure me? I doubt it, but on these occasions arnica certainly didn't harm the healing process, but it was soothing and I'm sure it was beneficial to my aching muscles. It smells nice, it feels nice, it's organic, it doesn't leave any greasy stains and as part of an all round pampering for sore muscles, why not? 

Comfrey & Mallow Foot Balm

For several months Orla had been questioning why I don't look after my feet. I have books on training for ultra's , nutrition for ultra's, footwear for ultra's, technical clothing, I have sports massages, go to yoga, stretch; but do not look after my feet. Phh, I thought, what does she know. Truth is, who talks about their feet. I couldn't remember reading an article on feet in any of my magazines. Foot care - even for runners- is not high on the list of things we talk about. 

Then Orla gave me this foot cream. It 'revitalises tired and overworked feet', it says. Ok, I'll do some foot research. I am planning on running a couple of marathons and a few ultra's this year after all, so I will be spending a lot of time on my feet. And that's when I discovered John Vonhof and his foot obsession. His book and website are both called Fixing your feet. I now have the book and my foot fetish is developing nicely.

Orla was right. I wasn't taking care of my feet, and apparently neither are many other active people. We have expensive kit, we obsess over said kit, research nutrition, test trainers and, well,  everything else; except feet. Yet in-spite of the months of training, a small - often preventable- foot problem can ruin your race. So by buying my NYR foot balm [from Tracey ], Orla made the biggest contribution to my training regime yet. Hard skin and callouses are out, foot care and soft skin is in. What better way to care for your feet than NYR comfrey and mallow foot balm. It has a hint of marshmallow, is soft and silky on the foot, it feels divine and works on even the harshest of skin. So don't delay, buy some today; it may just save your race season!

Ginger & Juniper Warming Oil

Ginger & Juniper
Warming Oil

A recent addition to my stock, this warming oil was a birthday present from Orla, bought, I suspect, from our friend Tracey at NYR. I have only used it once, but am satisfied it will be used many more times to come! After my long walk on Dartmoor yesterday, I rubbed arnica into my legs and foot cream on my feet. This morning, I felt better and decided to try the warming oil on my legs. Warning: Be careful when you pour this. The lip of the bottle is small, but still big enough for a lot of oil to come out if you are not careful. Thankfully, I was, but it has the potential to be very messy. I considered this warming oil to be a better option for massaging whole legs / larger areas than the arnica. It goes further and is easier to apply; I also feel that this warming oil is more effective on sore and tired legs. I would recommend using the arnica for smaller aches and pains and warming oil on larger areas. I feel this will oil will be used quite frequently.

As I said earlier, I didn't tend to use lotions & potions that much. But after trying the above, and as part of a programme yoga & stretching, I will now. I'm sure my tired feet and legs will thank me for it.

Thank you, once again, to Tracey at NYR for supplying the above products.

The Dark

The Dark: 13 Mud Crew Miles

The year of silly just got sillier:

Running at night in tights, tutu and fairy wings is surprisingly liberating!!

[L-R] Were Chicken, Vamp-bat, Batman,  Psycho Fairy, Glo stick badger, BatWomen 1 & 2

Mud Crew don't do easy. So a trail run, at night, in fancy dress, with beer, to celebrate a friends birthday was an opportunity not be missed. The Dark  is , according to the official blurb, "a 13 mile race by head torch, through Cardinham Woods, following the infamous Beast of Bodmin mountain bike trails. This is a spectacular undulating course that takes runners through the depths of the woods". Add beer and fancy dress, what could possible go wrong?!!

I had been planning my outfit for a while, however I wasn't entirely sure what the finished article would look like. Psychotic -psychedelic- tutu- totting -fairy anyone? I decided that gold wings would look better [of course!] so purchased some glitter gold spray paint, but didn't get around to colouring them prior to the event. Note to self: spray painting fairy wings only an hour before running in them is not a good idea. I was followed around the course by a very strong smell of solvent. Very strong.  

Being a birthday, cake and beer was needed. So BATs, in full fancy dress, headed to the bar. Fairy in a tutu was joined by a Were Chicken [with squeaky beak], a Badger [with glow sticks], Batman [far too serious], 2 Bat Women [Good look girls!] and a genuine vampire bat [with fluorescent fangs]. Ken the Werewolf Hunter [nice fishnets!] also muscled in to the fun.

Pre Race Nutrition

Badger helps BatWomen1 light candles

Birthday Vampire Bat cuts cake
with help from Were Wolf Hunter

Beer & energy gel consumed. Check. Team photo. Check. Costume all in order. Check. Sing Happy Birthday to Sarah. Check. Let's run! 

At the Start!

Our costumes did not go un-noticed; Of a field of 300 or so runners, I believe there was only one other runner in fancy dress. So we stood out a bit, despite the fact it was dark. It was time now to stop posing and get running. And oh what fun we had. River crossings (x3!) , up & down and around and up some more. Zig-zagging and looping round the Cornish hillsides. Through the woods a dazzling line of torches weaved & bobbed there way through the countryside. Twice. Some of the technical sections of the trails were as exhilarating on foot as I imagine them to be on a MTB- and almost as fast. There was a stunning section of open hillside with sweeping switchbacks and jumps, aptly nick-named by Vamp-bat as the human roller coaster section. I have to admit this bit was fun, hurtling down hill, screaming like a banshee, taking off, no idea where you would land lurching left, then right round corners, all the time the wind blowing up my tutu! Running at night in tights, tutu and fairy wings is surprisingly liberating. As much as possible, we stayed as a group for the first lap. Apart from the Irish Werewolf hunter and Batman. They ran off into the dark woods together! 

It really was dark!

Bat Wings

I was really enjoying the run. OK, it was slightly bonkers and our pace wasn't that great, but the conversation & company certainly were interesting. Vamp-bat was overheard having a very detailed chat about the relative culinary merits of different species of road kill, there was debate about who would win in a contest between Count Duckula & WereChicken as well as much musings on the topic of what the offspring between a badger and a bat would be like - or a werewolf hunter and batman! I have been reliably informed since, that a random fellow [non fancy dress] runner was upset by our varied topics of conversations. I don't why. Maybe he swallowed a fly? Maybe it was because we were all in fancy dress, having fun, had enough energy to talk and run, yet were still in front of him. Who knows. Running should be fun- even when it hurts. We do it because we enjoy it, don't we? 

The marshals were many and friendly, and most commented on our outfits [especially my tutu & wings for some reason!] There were surprises to be had in the woods, with zombies, Blair Witches, a haunting Clanad style music drifting through the woods and general all round spooky shenanigans laid on by The Mud Crew. Or at least I hope they were. But then we were in Cornwall, so who knows!

After 3hrs of sweaty joviality and frivolity, we had achieved a half marathon P.W [personal worse]. In fact Sarah, AKA Vamp Bat, runs Marathons in that time, [and also wins Ultra's for Mud Crew] but it was her birthday and she ran with her parent group, Bere Alston Trekkers. And had lots of fun. We salute you Sarah. Even in fancy dress you would have {probably} won this event, but you dressed up, drank beer and ran with us. We enjoyed your company; hope you enjoyed ours as much.   

Beer was very much on my mind as we finished, so it was straight to the bar. Pint for the fairy, pint for the Vamp Bat [WereChicken doesn't drink and we had lost the others on lap two!] Then it was time for a quick change, into something warmer and more comfortable and back for hot food. The veggie chilli was most delicious and most welcome. The beer was also welcome, but if there was one criticism of this event , it was the beer. Kernov Lager is well, a lager. Albeit be a fairly good one. But it is not an Ale. Proper Job? That's a Cornish Ale is it not? Anyway, a minor detail to a very well organised, extremely well marshalled and an all round fun event to run. BATs served there civic duty by taking in a stray Muskie Wereworlf Hunter, whose "friend" had driven off with his bag [clean clothes, money, phone etc..] We took pity on him and cared for him.

By 23.30hrs, the evening was winding down. I was almost falling asleep in my beer. Thank you to Rachel for driving. Up the lane we went, turn left at roundabout onto A38. Except we couldn't. Roadworks. Diversion. That went nowhere. We were trapped in Cornwall. They wouldn't let us back into Devon. There were no signs and we were on our own. Hi tech Sat-Nav was going into meltdown as it wanted us to to go back the way we came. So we turned it off and allowed a Werewolf Hunter in fishnets to guide us through the wild and unlit Cornish countryside to get back home. And get home we did [thanks Ken]. Shattered, but happy. A lot of fun was had but it was now time for bed. Thank you all at Mud Crew and my fellow fancy dress BATs for a great evening. Can't wait for next years event. But better beer next year please!   

[L-R] Batwomen2, Badger, Vamp bat, Werechicken, Batwomen1

The Grizzly 2014: Withering Heights (Featuring Heath and Cliff!)

Sunshine in Seaton
See that cliff; We ran up that!

The Grizzly

It's March, therefore it must be Grizzly Time. The sun was shining and BATs were out in force. We were ready. We were psyched. Let's do this! Except I wasn't sure I was ready. I had been suffering [or at least everyone else had been suffering from me not running!] from a recurrence of of an old injury. I had been sidelined for a few weeks and although I had been told by Alen Sparrow I could run, I was nervous. I knew I could do the distance, as I had been doing 20+miles in training throughout January; I was nervous about how my ankle would hold up. Would I be OK or would my race year be over? If my ankle hadn't healed and I hobbled out of the Grizzly, it would need several weeks, if not months, more rest. I would miss Brighton Marathon and then would probably not have enough time to get miles in my legs for Race to the Stones. My mind was racing with all of these thoughts come race day morning and I babbled nervously and continuously in the car on the journey to Seaton. Sorry Rachel. But I had done all I could. I was rested, I

Arnica Salve
Neil's Yard Organics

had stretched my ankle, I had a few sports massages from Nathan at Kinetic Sports Therapy in Bere Alston and I had been using Arnica, supplied by the lovely Tracey from her holistic consultancy business in Teignmouth.  All that was left now was to run on it!

Right, where were we? Seaton. Race day. And a colony of BATs. Our beloved coach and purveyor of fine

Selfie in Seaton

 cakes, Dotty King , had arranged for us to meet in the same place we always do. Spirits were high, the sun was shining and I had made some rather delicious fruit & nut fudge ,which went down a treat. Once photo'd and fed, 'twas time to head for the sea front for the start. There were thousands of runners at the start, both for the Cub and the full Grizzly. A traditional rousing speech was given by the town crier and then we were off.  

Nervous smile at the start 

Shingle. That's all I can say. After a quick warm up along the shingle beach, it was a loop along the promenade and then up the first hill of many, many, many hills on route. Did I mention the hills? There was lots of running [or walking!] up hills. And down hills. And along beaches, through rivers, bogs, muddy fields and muddy hills. I'm not sure where we went, as I didn't track it or map it- but we did pass through Beer and Branscombe. The weather was great, the mud was deep [very deep; thigh deep!] and the shingle beach an energy sapper like no other. The marshals were, as always, friendly, helpful and encouraging. That's why we love the Grizzly.

I started the race slow, towards the back of the field and kept a steady pace. Walking up some of the earlier hills was not so much a race strategy as a necessity, due to the vast numbers of people on small narrow lanes. But today I didn't mind. By the time we hit the second stretch of beach and the obligatory river feature, I was warming to this run; quite literally really as the weather was hotting up. Bruce {a Greyhound} was there with his BATs vest, cheering us on, with his humans, Heather & Mike. But they didn't have cake this year. Oh well.

By about mile 7 I was feeling good. Very good. My ankle was not causing me pain. I decided I could do this, so I sped up. I started to overtake people. I stopped worrying. Well, stopped worrying about my ankle. I thought I was getting blisters. I wasn't- but I was breaking the cardinal sin of racing by wearing new trail shoes, so I kept worrying that I might get blisters!

New Shoes
Very Good in the Mud!

But I was beginning to enjoy this. Sure, it was wet & muddy underfoot, the hills were steep, my lungs were bursting and my thighs were aching; but I was feeling strong. The weather was good, the scenery spectacular, the marshals splendid and my fellow runners were an amicable bunch.  I was genuinely surprised to catch Ken, a BAT, who thinks he is a Muskie [sorry, in joke], as he has been in such fine form this year having already run both the Anglesey Coastal Marathon, the South Devon Coastal Marathon {both raced in atrocious stormy weather} and the mud of the Steyning Stinger Marathon. But he was wearing his 'other' club vest and not a BATs vest, so I had no qualms about passing him. 

So we battled through bogs, thigh deep in mud, worried we might drown and never be seen again until next March, perfectly preserved. But dead. Slightly melodramatic, but the mud was deep and extra slushy this year. Just how I like it. The haunting melodies from the piper at the edge of dawn could be heard, his tuneful bagpipes rebounding around the hills and valleys, keeping our spirits alive. Last rites were said at the Buddhist temple.  A few more ups and downs and then it was back into civilisation with cheering crowds. Sorry Ruth, I was in the zone by then.  I was focused, I was hurting. I didn't see you. Shame on me.

The beach. Oh the beach. The shingle beach. Oh how I love thee. After 16 gruelling miles, a few hundred metres along a shingle beach is just what I was looking forward to. I was hurting so much , that I was actually relieved to reach the Stairway to Heaven, a welcome reprieve to the shingle torment. Albeit an almost vertical climb up a cliff. But the end was nigh. It was only a few miles to the finish. I stopped at the top of the cliff to have a gel and admire the view. Simply stunning.

Back to the task in hand. A race. The finish was, quite literally, in sight. Only a few more miles. I could do this. But then I got cramp in my right foot. Never had cramp in a race before. It hurts. A shooting pain up my leg every time I put my foot down. I thought I would fall at every step. I gritted my teeth. I swore [silently  as there were children about] and carried on. As I came down the last hill and along the promenade once more, the pain disappeared. The raucous crowd welcomed us runners in, and I sprinted for the line. BATs were massing at the finish and a rousing cheer was a very welcome end to the pain. 

Grizzly 2014 T-Shirt

Water, a banana, a finishing T-Shirt and then a dip in the sea to wash off the mud and cool down, and it was time to slip into something more comfortable. Full results here. BATs, overall , were fab. But that goes without saying.  I had a 9mns P.B and was 100 places better placed from when I last ran the Grizzly in 2012. RESULT.  Best of all for me though, was not the result, but the fact my ankle was OK. I can run again. Now that really made me happy.
  BATs results are as follows:

Grizzly 
Nathan Newton 03.10.22
Paul Williams 03.33.38
Steve Watson 03.33.41
Murray Turrner 03.40.07
Francis Dix 03.51.19
Tracey Oxborough 04.01.38
Derek Hicks 04.15.09
Matt Luckham 04.21.55
Emma James 04.32.51
Rachel Wood 04.48.04
Dotty King 04.48.06
Julian Setterington 04.48.56

BATs @ Finish

Cub
Philip King 01.34.42
Toby Rankin 01.44.15
Grant Lawrence 01.44.36
Frances Morgan 02.00.16
Emma Dooney 02.15.12
Melanie Greaves 02.15.15
Donna Luckham 02.15.44
Paula Lawrence 02.15.47
Alysia Maciejowska 02.15.50
Hilary Head 02.41.24
Martin Head 02.41.59

Congratulations to Nathan for being 1st BAT home in the Grizzly and to Phil for leading the Cubs home. A special well done mention to our very own Sarah Morwood [albeit running for her sponsors, Mud Crew] was third women home overall. To be fair, the distance was a bit short for her!

Following a rather excellent day out in the sun [and mud / shingle / hills / valleys / bogs] of the South Devon Coast, after the last BAT was safely home, there was only one thing left to do- and that was to go to the pub!

BATs in the Pub

BATs in the Pub

              CHEERS!

A Big thank you to Axe Valley Runners for , yet again, putting on a fantastic event.