Often as a coach I’m confident of a runner’s success heading into an event based on the training they’ve done. This weekend could not have been further from that truth.

Not because I didn’t have confidence in Anna herself, but due to the circumstances which had impacted her build up to the North Downs Way 50.

Late last year progress was going smoothly until a quite nasty foot injury cropped up, which we agreed, was probably down to an experiment of doing too many miles in minimalist shoes. If you ever try that approach, always build up slowly.

That was followed by an unfortunate bicycle accident where Anna slipped on some ice and broke her collar bone. I’m a gambling man and had you asked me at that moment in time, with Anna barely able to walk or move her shoulder, I’d have probably given you 25/1 on her even reaching the start line of the North Downs Way 50 Miler, let alone completing the race.

Anna was able to resume training early February but that only left 15 weeks to build up from almost scratch to being able to run 50 miles. Normally you’d need a lot more time so you can build your mileage slower and then peak at around 50k in training. We just didn’t have that time.

So the longest weekend run Anna did was 4 hours. But that did come on the same weekend as a 2 hour run. So 6 hours over the space of 24 hours. As with marathons and capping a long run at 20 miles, if you push any further it simple takes too long to recover and will have a negative impact on your training. Hence why almost all training plans only go up as high as 20 miles.

What that leaves is a lot of uncertainty on the day, and whether your body will hold up to the extra demands. Not only the 50 miles but the 1,700 metres of elevation.

During the race I received regular updates from Anna every 10k, and she even left me a voice message on WhatsApp which was great. This allowed me the opportunity to communicate with her during the race and hopefully lift her spirits and keep her going.

As the gap between messages slowly increased (only by a few minutes), the nerves grew, but I think once 60k was complete, I just couldn’t envisage a scenario in which Anna wouldn’t push on to the finish line.

It turned out the course was 51.3 miles by the time she reached the finish line, in a time of 11:29:43. It’s mind boggling having done a marathon earlier this year in 3:36, that someone could keep running for another 8 hours.

Ultra running has definitely become fashionable and a few of the recent additions to Team Orange are building up to big races. My advice is just take everything in small steps. Don’t sign up to an ultra if you’ve never done a marathon. Don’t sign up to a 50 miler if you’re never done a 50k.

The further you run, the higher the risk of injury, so just be wary before you splash your cash on a big goal!!

We had a great turnout at the Rye 10 Miler on Sunday. A very challenging route with hills from the word go. Once again I was very proud of the effort you put in to complete such a tough course.

I won’t mention everyone, but just a few shout outs. Eric Hardwick was taking bets as to whether Mark Dunn could beat the 2 hours mark. I should have gone big myself as Mark crushed it, coming storming down the finishing straight to cross the line in 1:52.

He was shortly followed by Louise Weatherly who ran side by side with him for much of the race. Lou’s time of 1:54 was a 15 minute improvement on 2023.

New member Jake Stewart landed a 10 mile PB of 1:12. He’s building up towards a 100K Ultra in September and his response to Anna’s time was simply “Incredible”.

There were significant improvements on last years time by Sue Mann (6 minutes quicker in 1:52), Michael Norris (2 minutes quicker in 1:18) and Sue Wilkinson clocked a course PB of 1:41.

Also well done to the rest of the team for tackling this difficult route for the first time or returning for another attempt :- Paul Lambert (1:05); George Marshall (1:11); Simon Linklater (1:14); Neil Jeffries (1:19); Jo French (1:37); Jacqueline Scott (1:42); Klare Beecroft (1:46); Su Sparkes (1:50); Ellie Miller (2:03); Rebecca Richardson (2:04) and Debbie Clark (2:06)

Keep training hard, as there are some big races coming up, including the Hastings 5 Miler and the Alan Corke (more hills, brilliant).