Are we sitting comfortably? If so, I’ll begin…
Not a great night’s sleep before this one, sleeping in Laura’s van is comfy but my head was whirring and I got hot quick. Nice quiet camping and everyone else seemed to go to bed way before me. I don’t like early starts so getting up before 5am was not great, but I had a good plan and followed it all (get dressed, boil kettle, fry a bagel, lube everything, tape feet whilst eating fried bagel etc.). I was determined to not be the last one on the last bus this year so got my toilet activity in at 3 minutes to 6am, then ran back to the van to collect my stuff, then back to the bus… which left 10 mins late! Ha. Banana on the bus. We had ~8 mins at the start before the event organisers arrived so I did some stretches, went for a wee on a tree and got strapped in and took a gel. Nice and cool, but not cold. Beautiful morning in fact. They set us off a few minutes late but it was nice and relaxed, everyone was cheery and respectful. I was in the 2nd row at the narrow start and set off at the right pace (~5:45), we hit the first hill 500m in, about a dozen of us all together. I let a load of people go past me early on, I wasn’t racing (yet). We had some big downhills followed by the highest climb soon after, I ran mostly except the hills. Surface was good and they had cleared the pathways really well for us (phew). By this point I was chatting non-stop to friend No.1 which was nice, and at points it felt like I was on a group run not a race as we were all together. We bunched right up at the top of the first huge hill as I went a little wrong so had to backtrack ~100m or so. I slowly lost the group but my buddy caught up and we took some cool long steep downhill sections together at a sensible but decent pace. CP1 came up ~13km in, I just dibbed and shot off straight away, left everyone else behind including ~3/4 people who had been ahead of me. Boom.
Passed on other guy soon after, he’s recently shit himself so the smell wasn’t nice… I was quite keen to get past this chap! Then I was alone for ages keeping the pace steady, there were another 3 big hills – walked all of these and felt pretty good. Had no idea how many were still in front but knew it wasn’t many. Ran straight into a surprise bog and got shitted up to my knee almost, ha! The 3rd of these huge hills was a bugger but the other side was really nice fast country lanes into a village then along a main road into CP2 at Petworth. Grabbed a few sarnies and filled my 2nd (empty) hydration fluid flask and set off quick, as I left the person behind me was coming in… didn’t help me going off in the wrong direction momentarily but I found the right path eventually and a huge uphill field. Sarnies went down very well thankfully. After this final big climb things started to look familiar as I was then on the 50k route, that was nicely reassuring and it wasn’t long before I started catching the tail end of the 1st 50k wave. People were nice and supportive and moved out of my way, some even clapped me going past which was a nice lift. I threw two fingers at the point where I went wrong last year on the 50k and said “not today, you prick!” haha. I found out there were 2, maybe 3, ahead of me at this point which was cool so motivated me lots.
I overtook someone else (P3) at ~34.3km a bit before the 3rd CP. I only washed my hands at this CP so ran on through pretty quick. I now knew I was at least 3rd which was very motivational. It later transpired that I was 2nd at this point as I asked people along the way and was told “she’s way ahead of you”.
I started feeling pretty tired by now and at around the marathon point I had a minor dizzy spell which sent me a bit wobbly, but I managed it fine and it mostly faded away. Then my achilles suddenly started to twinge, then hurt. I was a bit shocked, never had achilles pain before but I knew what it was. I eased up ever so slightly, it seemed to hurt more on the downhills, or so I thought. I didn’t want to DNF so just took it a bit easy and very gently tested it whilst running. Next CP I stopped for more hydration drink (sachet), some sarnies and to have my hat and hands soaked in water (very nice, it was getting warm by now). Wasn’t feeling great by 50k, but I remembered thinking “I don’t feel quite as shit as last time on the Fox” and my pace was bang on at just under 5 hours – was feeling pretty tired and slightly heady, and a little sick… plus the achilles concern was nagging a bit. The route ahead was tough, very undulating with some awful surfaces (deep sand in places) but no major big hills, I had to walk a few times on the flat as the sand was too hard to run on! The boggy bits were dried out thankfully so didn’t slow me much, was steadily overtaking the 50k racers. At 55k I past the 20k start point and there was a lot of cheering from the runners and crew, I remember someone saying to the race organisers “oh look, another 75k runner” which made me happy. It was mostly packed gravel trails and lanes, then some sandy forest and nice fields after this.
I kept an eye on my watch so when I got to 64.6km I could say to myself “this is now the furthest you’ve run”. That felt good. Soon after, 70k came and went after I chatted to Loyd from Run4Adventure and he filmed me a bit. At the last CP the lady said she was pretty sure I was 2nd and that I should “keep on going” so I did, albeit a little lacklustre – up until ~60k my average pace had been just under 6:00/km but now it was down to 6:02. I was in maintenance mode really and was going to be happy to sail it through casually to the end, knowing I wouldn’t catch P1 and thinking everyone else was way behind me. My achilles had actually stopped niggling by this point, still present but only very slightly.
There was a gate 2.5km from the end, and to my shock I saw P3 lady approaching – she said “hello!” and I said “Oh fuck, no! I didn’t want you to catch me… shit!”. I knew I needed to push now and that 6min kms wasn’t going to keep her behind me, so somehow I found some speed in my legs and raced the last 2.5km, putting in some sub 5min/km sections. I was shocked I was able to keep this up until the end, I was checking over my shoulder every 100m to see where she was… I lost her and luckily managed to put a minute gap between us in that last 2.5km, phew! A nice strong finish across the line and I was so happy with P2, felt a bit unreal. After fantasising about how I could lay down for ages after I crossed the line, when I actually stopped I was fine and didn’t need to sit or anything, I waited for P3 and cheered her through and we high-fived. Felt really surprisingly good, called Laura, went and got a 10min massage, then waiting for the prize-giving.
The achilles pain was definitely a big concern as could have been a race-ender, I also had the usual few niggles in my left leg and my toes were in agony for almost the entire race, I remember running into a tiny stick and that hurting my toes like I’d licked an anvil. Stupid toes. No knee pain this time and the PF didn’t make a proper appearance thankfully. Also my cold/cough decided to take a day off which was nice.
My water pack on my back had 1300ml in and it ran out at ~48km! Went through three 500ml hydration flasks too plus an extra 500ml of water, I was soaked in sweat. I think I only took 6 or 7 gels on the course, also had a tiny bit of banana, 4 little sarnies and a handful of crisps plus 1 chew bar. In the last 15k eating was really not something I wanted to do, it felt dreadful. All in all, happy with that, very much. I took most of it pretty easy and only had to push right at the end. I could have gone quicker.
