17 yards. 70 miles. 10,000 feet of elevation. What a race!
The toughest event that I’ve ever completed, although I’ve run further than that, but there were so many elements of this that made it hard. Starting at 6:00pm, then running 13 hours in the dark is incredibly hard. The muddy, slippy, soft ground was brutal and energy sapping. I ran each yard in anything between 48-53 minutes, so I didn’t have long before starting again. Heart rate was all over the place for the 20-30 miles, with it being up at 160 when I was running 9:30-10 min/miling. Learnt a lot about fuelling, as my body just does not like taking on solid food, so switched to gels, carb mix in water, red bull and coke from yard 7/8 onwards, which really helped. All of this will help, when it comes to the other events that I’m competing in this year. Will definitely do this one again and will enter next year’s as soon as I can afford it. Must make a point of mentioning the training as well…how I performed in this event proves to me that we’ve got the training right. Strength training, stair-stepper, long runs, South Downs runs…they all play their part
So much respect for getting this done. The thought of running through the night is frightening for me but will definitely add to that mental toughness. SDW50 in the daylight should feel easier having done this one now. So pleased you are feeling strong with the training. I think what we are doing right now is helping you progress in a smart way with a real focus on longevity. And I get the impression you’re going to be doing these events for many more years to come. Great work Joe. I’ve tweaked this week to give you more rest. I think that’s important. Plus we got a lot more training points in the bank here than initially planned so we can have a much lighter week now and get you ready for the charity run. Fantastic work.
Coach Simon 🍊
