A good event, pretty chilled and well-organised. Very nice route with a decent mix of terrain (some proper technical wooded bits, grassland, sandy bridleways, canal pathways and one bastard hill).
Prep was fine, got enough food in me and on me, decent toilet rest before and time for a static warm-up. When we set off I was pretty shocked at how many people went off like a rocket, I got carried along a bit by them (sub 5min kms) but after a km I eased off and tried to find a comfy pace. I worked out I was in about 40th position at that point annoyingly… it was only chatting to a sensible-looking runner that I realised that some of those on a charge were doing the relay race (only 20k each) hence their pace.
We hit the first steep hill after a few km, it was a proper damp wooded hill so quite fun. I did a bit of walking on these early stages but ran slowly the shallower climbs. Quite undulating for the next 13km with a nice mix of wooded sections so my pace was up and down and averaged ~5:30 (I checked frequently), then big bastard hill at 16k which was pretty monstrous. I walked all of it as it was proper steep and it actually wasn’t too bad, I got it done fairly quickly then had some nice gentle descents running ~5min kms. My knee started to throb at ~12km which was worrying and annoying, it didn’t slow me down at first but I found I was running a bit more gently than usual to limit the pain.
Got lost for the first time on the bit after the bit hill, probably added ~500-700m to the route – four of us missed a turning so had to detour and climb an extra hill and run back on ourselves a bit to meet the correct trail.
My aim was to get to the marathon start at ~21km with 2 hours, I got there in 1:55. There was a bit of easy trails before we hit the canal paths which were very flat and easy – I was doing 5:10 – 5:30 min kms here. Stopped for the first time at aid station 3 @ 33km for a fluid top-up and a handful of crisps. Left Laura a video message as per my ultra routine (halfway check-in). Avoided another ‘getting lost incident’ just about at 39km as my watch pinged and I didn’t ignore it, missed a left turn and told the group (at this point I was running with a lot of the marathon runners who had caught up) – probably saved about a dozen people from going the wrong way for too long – phew!
Then the big fuckup at ~40-41km: we were told by a marshall that another marshall would tell us when to leave the road we were entering. My watch told me there was a right turn, but there was no sign, no flags down that lane nor any marshall in sight so we kept on going… at the end of the road we found a group of other runners so we followed them. They were also lost. Great. Annoyingly I knew that we should have turned off but it would have meant turning around and nobody wants to go back on themselves so we found another way back on track around a housing estate and on some main roads causing all sorts of problems… sigh! This probably added about 1.5km to the distance annoyingly, but frustrated as I was it was quite nice being in a group (a rarity for that far into an ultra). We joined the other racers eventually and did some nice wet wooded sections all together. Running in the pack actually sped me ap a little which was helpful. I sailed through checkpoint 4, my comfort pace had slowed to ~5:20s by now.
50km came and went, that was a nice moment especially as I realised I had hit a 50k PB (4:31) and that every step forward was the longest distance I’d run ever…. but it was about then that things started to ache and my energy felt sapped. I started walking before each gate/stile much earlier and took longer to get going after… after one gate I had to walk for 100m just to get a tiny rest. Weirdly by now I noticed my knee stopped aching which was nice, but a lot of other aches and pains started presenting – nothing serious, just a bit of everything all over! Toes were very sore by now.
Didn’t plan to stop at the last aid station (53km) but I needed some more water, and honestly I also just wanted an excuse to stop running for a minute or so! I knew I had longer to go than expected but didn’t know exactly and didn’t want to believe my watch, it turned out it was bang on! I was talking myself into keeping going (“it’s just 2 more parkruns, easy, you got this” etc.) but I knew the final bugger of a hill was coming up. I surprised myself as I approached by not walking straight away – I waited for the actual steep section then took a casual flump up it. When I got to the top I had to (out loud) tell myself to sort my shit out and keep pushing! haha. Must have looked mad, it was next to a busy road section… Unfortunately due to my very sore toes, the downhill sections were not as fun so I had to take them slower than ideal. In the last 5k there were some undulating wooded sections with rotten/broken planks of wood/bridge things with boggy mud all around – this was not ideal and I nearly wobbled into a few bogs! haha.
When the watch told me I had 1km to go I realised I wasn’t going to make it home in under 6 hours unless I sped up from my ~6min km pace. Amazingly I managed to find a bit more pace in my legs and averaged almost a 5 min km to get to the finish line in 5:59:22 (overtaking a marathon runner on a little bridge too). Boom.
I was cooked – it started getting really warm in the latter stages where it was exposed, it also felt really humid so I felt a bit too hot a few times. The start was fine, good temp, the flat sections had a headwind but it was pleasantly cooling rather than slowing me down.
I followed my gel plan (1 at the start. 1 @ 10km, then every 8km so 8 in total I think, plus a bit of banana, a chew bar, some crisps and one bit of a bagel). Didn’t dehydrate, sipped all the way (water and hydration fluid). Shoes (Adidas Terrex) were great, just sore on my toes. They felt quick on the tarmac sections and the grip didn’t let me down on the more technical stuff even in the wet, the cushioning was great, although my heel pain might have been caused by them… not sure.
Didn’t make my target of beating Clair (5.51) but was happy with under 6 hours. Really hoped for a higher position like in the top ten, but the field was much stronger this year. 805m of elevation apparently, so not awful but not ‘flat’. My biggest ever relative effort according to Strava as my heartrate was pretty high throughout (tempo: 153 – 169 for 70% of the time!) averaging 156bpm. Onto the next one….
