Goals For 2014

In this blog entry I am making public my goals for 2014.  I have a number of specific goals, but the main aim is to run a total of 26 marathons or ultra marathons in the year, in what I am calling my marathon of marathon runs.  To qualify each run has to be recognised as a single event by the 100 marathon club.  So if I do the three day Druid Challenge again then this will count as three marathons.  But the 24 hour Thunder Run will only count as one event, even though it will be feasible to run one marathon on the Saturday and then another on the Sunday.  Any training runs that are over 26 miles will also not count towards the total.  The following is a list of events that I intend to do right up to July.  The ones in italics haven’t yet been entered, all others are already paid for:

12 January – Cold Christmas to Good Easter Marathon, Essex

1 & 2 February – 2 Day Pilgrim Challenge (33 miles each day), North Downs Way

15 February – Valentines Marathon, Stratford-upon-Avon

16 March – Pitsford Marathon, Northamptonshire

22 March – CTS Coastal Ultra Marathon (34 miles), Sussex

3 & 4 April – The Pony Express (30 miles each day), New Forest

27 April – Shakespeare Marathon, Stratford-upon-Avon

11 May – Halstead Marathon, Essex

17 May – North Downs Way 50 Mile Ultra

21 & 22 June – Isle of Wight 2 Day Ultra (38 miles & 32 miles)

19 July – The Chilterns 50km Ultra (31 miles)

26 July – The 24 Hour Adidas Thunder Run

So that’s a total of 15 events already identified (including 3 two day events).

In addition to the above, I have also pre-registered (as of today) for the 2014 100km trail race around Mont Blanc.  I won’t know if I have a place or not until about mid January.  If I do get a place then I will consider this to be my main event of the year and most of my training will be focused on trying to do well in this race.  I know from experience that training to run in the Alps is very, very difficult when you live in the flat of Cambridgeshire.  The race takes place on 29 August and starts in Courmayer, Italy, passes through Switzerland and ends in Chamonix, France.

I have also challenged myself and some friends and clients to run every single day in January, in what I am calling Runuary.  The rules are simple – you have to run at least one mile each day.  Anyone going on a ski trip can include at least 1 mile of cross country skiing.  So far about 12 people have signed up; we’ll see how many complete the challenge.

Many weeks have passed since I ran the Druid Challenge.  Since then I have been ticking over doing long runs of about 14 to 16 miles at the weekend, which I stepped up to 18 miles last Sunday.  I’m just getting myself ready for that first marathon of the year on 12 January.

Druid Challenge - Day 3

When Sunday morning arrived I was aware that I had managed a few hours sleep. None the less, I was still feeling very sleep deprived. My legs also throbbed in pain, despite having a sports massage the previous evening. I slowly got out of my sleeping bag, gingerly got to my feet and took a few steps like a toddler who had just learnt how to walk. I'm sure I looked pretty pathetic. Others looked like they were struggling to move as much as I was, but there were other runners in the hall who seemed to be moving pain free, I wish I knew their secret.

The weather forecast for the day ahead was good. This at least gave me one thing to be optimistic about. We were also told by Neil, the organiser, that nobody ever gets lost on the last day because the route is very obvious. I was hoping I wouldn't prove him wrong.

There had been some changes to people's start times overnight. Some people had been promoted from the 8am start to the 9am group because they had run well the previous day, but this also meant that some people had been demoted to the earlier start time. There was no change to my start time. 

Because we had to be transported by minibus to the start we had to be ready for 8.30am. This made it seem like we had less time to hang around and fret before getting underway. At the start Neil gave us the final briefing for the day ahead. As it was Remembrance Sunday, we also observed a 1 minute silence in recognition for those who had lost their lives fighting in both world wars, and in other conflicts since. A few of the competitors were in the armed forces, so observing the minute silence whilst being in their company seemed extra poignant.

At the start of Day 3. Neil (left) giving us the final instructions. I'm in the background in my red cap.

Once we were on our way the lead four men again set off at a blistering pace. There was only a small margin between the first and second placed runner overnight, so it seemed that there was going to be a good battle going on ahead for the overall placings. At the one mile mark I was in 6th place, just behind Charlie, the lead female, and I was aware of a couple of runners just behind me. At one point Charlie stopped to adjust her shoes, or some piece of kit, and I went past her. I expected her to catch me very shortly after that, but I never saw her again for a very long time. The two runners who had also been just behind me also seemed to drop away. By this stage the four lead men where nowhere to be seen. This meant I was effectively leading the pack. I felt very nervous about leading the way given my track record for getting lost. I was really hoping Charlie would overtake me so I could just follow her.

I reached the first checkpoint at 7.5 miles and filled up my water bottle. I didn't really feel the need to eat anything, but I grabbed a couple of small pieces of malt loaf anyway. As I was leaving the checkpoint Charlie was just arriving. Over the next section of the course I started to pass people from the walkers group who had left two hours earlier. It is always reassuring when you start to pass the walkers, and I always make sure I give them a cheer, or a clap or at least a wave when I pass them. I have a lot of respect for those who walk these events, after all, they will be out on the trail for a lot longer than the likes of me, and often arrive at the finish after everyone else has eaten.

The second checkpoint was at 14.5 miles. The course had been steadily undulating up to that point. So far I had run it all and reached the checkpoint in a time of 2 hours 15 minutes. I was still just ahead of Charlie, but not for much longer. After the checkpoint we had a 2km uphill section alongside a busy main road. We had to stick to the narrow grass verge. I was reduced to a run/walk routine over this section, and whilst I was on a short walk break Charlie ran past me. When we turned off the road back on to trail we had an even steeper uphill section, perhaps the steepest incline of the day. I was glad to see that even Charlie was reduced to a walk on this bit. By the time I reached the top of that hill Charlie was way out in front of me, never to be seen again. This was a very pretty part of the route, with some fantastic views all around. At this stage I was starting to pass many of the runners from the 8am group. Some of the runners I was passing I had only just caught at the end of the previous day, so I knew that I was running better than the day before. I was actually feeling surprisingly good, but there was still some 10 miles to go.

The final checkpoint was at 22.6 miles, just after a long downhill stretch. I part filled my water bottled and grabbed two chunks of flapjack and continued on my way. I walked whilst eating the flapjack, past a row of the prettiest thatched cottages I've ever seen. Once I'd finished eating I tried to jog, but my legs simply refused. I was then heading uphill again, so I resigned myself to walk for a bit. 

I was now only about 5 miles from the finish. The next 3 miles were almost all uphill. Eventually, I got my legs to run again, but I pretty much ran/walked the uphill section. I thought that this was another really pretty part of the route, up to Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort. From Barbury Castle we turned off the Ridgeway to run the last 2 miles on road to the Alexandra House Hotel in Wroughton. The first section on tarmac was incredibly steep downhill. My quads screamed in agony on the descent. We then had a final mile and a half uphill to the hotel. With the end in sight I was actually able to pick up my pace. There was quite a large crowd of spectators at the finish, which made a change. No doubt friends and family who had come to collect their loved ones.

I managed to hold on to sixth place out of my group of starters, and finished in a time of 4 hours 20 minutes. Charlie was just over 2 minutes ahead of me. One runner, Jez, had managed to sneak into the 8am start, and he also beat me by 2 minutes, so overall on the day I finished in 7th place, a lot better than my 25th and 26th on the previous two days. My overall ranking had also increased from 26th to 15th overall. If I hadn't gone wrong on the first two days I might well have finished in the top ten. Still, I was happy with my overall performance. The whole weekend had been a lot of fun. It was another very well organised event by the Extreme Energy team, and the chance to catch up with some familiar runners that I've come to know over the last few years and to make more new friends. If you are a marathon runner I would strongly recommend giving a multi-day event a try. They are much more fun and more rewarding than your run of the mill road marathon. The camaraderie can not be beat and you will definitely make new friends on the way.

Finishers medal and T-shirt

The Druid Challenge might well be my last event of 2013. I have now reached a grand total of 48 marathons (including ultras). At the start of the year I had intended on reaching 50 by December, but I missed the Malvern Midsummer Marathon in June because I visited a friend instead, and I have pretty much decided not to run the Portsmouth Marathon in December, so that I can have some well earned rest. I never made my target of 50 public at the beginning of the year, if I had things might be different. I am starting to draw up my plans for 2014, and this time I will go public. You'll have to keep an eye on this blog to learn what they are.

Druid Challenge - Day 2

I didn't so much wake up Saturday morning. To have woken up would have required that I had at first been asleep. I found it impossible to sleep in a school sports hall with about 100 other people and with light coming through the slit window of the one door out to the corridor. The corridor light stayed on all night, and every 5 minutes it seemed that someone had to get up and go to the loo.  Whenever they did even more light would flood into the sports hall.  Some people tried to close the door quietly behind them, but some simply allowed it to slam shut after them. The constant movement back and forth across the hall meant sleep was nigh on impossible.

When I made a move to get out of my sleeping bag in the morning my legs made it very clear that they were not to willing to spend another day running. I ached. However, I'd been in this situation before and knew that once I was mobile my legs would loosen up. So I shuffled off to the dining room for breakfast.  I filled my belly with porridge and toast ready for the day ahead.

We had 27 miles ahead of us on day 2.  The walkers were off at 7am, and the first group of runners at 8am. The next hour really seemed to drag whilst the rest of us waited for our start at 9am. When it was time for us to be on our way my legs decided to complain some more. They seemed to be telling me that there wasn't a hope in hell of them making it through another long day of running. It probably took about 3 miles before my legs started to feel just about ok. By about 6 miles I felt in pretty good shape and was optimistic about maintaining a reasonably good pace for the remaining 21 miles.

The start of day 2. I'm wearing the yellow T-shirt and red cap.
No.91 was the overall winner.

Day 2 could be broken down into 4 sections. The first 11 miles were the most undulating and consisted of about 4 or 5 short steep hills. We then had a 7 mile flat section alongside the Thames. From mile 18 to mile 23 we went up and over one big hill, with a total climb of about 140m.  The final 4 miles was a long steady slog on a slight incline to the finish.

Once again, I managed to go on a slight detour at about the halfway point and added another unnecessary 1.5 miles on to my day. My excursion set me back several places and also left me feeling a little demoralised, especially as once I had back tracked and had seen the Ridgeway sign that I had missed I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it. It was so blatant. By the time I reached the big hill after the Thames my legs had pretty much packed in once again. Running uphill proved impossible, so I was reduced to walking all but the slightest of inclines. I did manage to pass a few runners on the last section, which made me feel slightly better about my overall performance.  I finished the day in 26th place in a time of 4 hours 44 minutes.

Thankfully, the weather was a little kinder to us on the second day. We had some rain, but it was mostly just the odd isolated shower. The ground conditions were also a little better, but there was still a fair amount of mud about, so we all pretty much finished the day looking filthy.

We were transported by minibus from the finish to Wantage Leisure Centre, where we would spend the night. The hardest part of the day was trying to extract myself from the minibus, as my muscles had completely seized up on the 25 minute journey and I was welded to the seat. I wasn't the only one in this predicament. Once out of the minibus we all limped towards the leisure centre to collect our bags. Clearly we must have looked like a sorry state of human beings, muddied and walking like the living dead. A young girl was overheard saying, "mummy, why are there a lot of tramps in the sports hall."

Our accommodation at Wantage Leisure Centre

The Druid Challenge - Day 1

Have I really not updated my blog for 3 weeks?  I guess that is because I haven't really been running much in all that time. And despite the lack of training I managed to get through the hardest weekend of running so far this year - the 3 day Druid Challenge along the Ridgeway from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Wroughton in Wiltshire.

Following my last long training runs on 19/20 October I had a weekend on a training course and a long weekend in Venice, hence the lack of any last minute training. As a result, I knew I was going to find the Druid Challenge tough, but I thought I had enough general fitness to get me through in reasonable shape. However, I was pretty appalled by my performance on day 1.

On Friday 8 November I left Cambridge on a 07:45 train for London, to then get a train to Tring. From Tring Station myself and a group of other runners were collected by the Extreme Energy Team and taken to a farm building near the start of the run that would be race HQ for the morning.  I had just under 2 hours to kill before I was due to start.  As with all Extreme Energy events there were three different start times, walkers started at 10am, then the first group of runners at 11am and faster runners at 12 noon.  I was in the fast group.  According to the weather forecast we were due a nice start with rain forecast for the afternoon.  Unfortunately, the rain decided it would dampen the ground a little earlier than expected.

At the top of Ivinghoe Beacon waiting for the start. 

We were taken by minibus to the start of the run on top of Ivinghoe Beacon.  There was a brief lull in the rain as we set off for the 29 mile run on day 1.  The first stretch leading away from Ivinghoe Beacon was on chalky paths that were as slippery as ice after the rain.  The first days running was the hilliest of the three and the muddiest.  I found myself running alone for the first few miles.  The leading 4 men had gone out at an unbelievable pace.  I couldn't believe we were doing the same event.  

And we're off. I'm just behind the lead female.

Over the first few miles I was in about 6th or 7th place, just behind the leading female.  But at about 7 miles the lead female made a wrong turn and I blindly followed her.  I was running down a tarmac road expecting to see a Ridgeway sign off to the right.  The next footpath sign I reached wasn't for the Ridgeway, but the Chiltern Way, so I realised I had gone wrong.  I decided to double back on myself, but I saw no further sign of the lead female.  I can only assume she found a shorter way back to rejoin the Ridgeway.  When I got back to the Ridgeway I found myself running behind runners that I would normally be much faster than.  I was a little demoralised by my detour, but pressed on to try and make up some lost ground.  At that stage in the run I was still feeling pretty good.

The first checkpoint was at 11 miles.  I stopped and ate a few small pieces of malt loaf.  I was no longer too concerned about my time, my goal for the day was simply to finish, so I didn't mind spending a few minutes at the checkpoint.  Replenished, I continued on my way.  In general, it was a hard slog of a run.  I don't think I have ever run through so much mud in all my life.  Being very familiar with all the consistencies of mud from many years attending Glastonbury Festival, I was quite glad that the mud was at the slippery wet stage of it's cycle.  At least it wasn't sticking to our shoes in thick clods.  But it did mean that traction was really difficult. When running uphill your feet would tend to slip backwards every now and again, meaning you would use more energy.  And it was difficult to go flat out downhill, especially on long, steep descents, as it would have been impossible to stay upright.  I was sliding all over the place at slow speeds, and over using my quads for braking.

Checkpoint 2

By checkpoint 2 at 17 miles I was starting to feel the effects of the lack of training and the hard conditions.  I felt as if I'd already run a marathon, but I still had 12 miles to go.  From that point onwards the slightest incline proved a major challenge.  I tried to run as many of the small inclines as possible, but I mostly ran 30 yards or so and then walked 30 yards.  Anything deemed too steep, i.e. more than about a 1 in 10 gradient, was walked.  Fortunately, much of the last 10 miles was downhill, despite the fact that my memory says otherwise.  The last checkpoint was just 7 miles from the finish, which I reached just before sunset. I was determined to run as much as possible without needing to resort to my head torch. It would have been almost impossible to have run in the dark with the ground conditions the way they were.  Thankfully, the last 2 miles were on tarmac. It was well and truly dark as I turned off the Ridgeway, but my eyes had slowly adjusted to the night, so I was able to finish the run without using my torch. It was also a relief to feel some solid ground under my feet for the final stretch of the run.

I reached the school in a time of 5 hours and 1 minute and I had run a total of 30.7 miles.  My detour had cost me an additional 1.7 miles.  I finished in 25th place, which was a little disappointing. What was even more disappointing was discovering the showers were tepid and only offered a mere trickle of water to wash off the day's mud. Still some good food and my fellow runners for company helped to ensure the day ended well. 

Mud caked shoes had to be left at the entrance to the school hall.

My accommodation for the night in the school sports hall.

Weekend of Long Runs

My plan for this weekend was to run two long runs of about 20 miles.  On Saturday I opted to run the loop that takes me east out of Cambridge and through the villages of Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior, then towards the river Cam and following that back to Cambridge.  I plodded along at a nice comfortable pace and hardly passed another person.  It was quite a nice morning, reasonably warm for October with no wind, it seemed strange that others weren't out to take advantage of such a nice day.  Once I was within 4 miles of Cambridge and on the tow path alongside the Cam I encountered a couple of other runners, a few cyclists and there was a number of boat crews warming up for some race that was about to start.  I arrived home feeling quite happy with how the run had gone.  My average pace worked out at 7 minutes 25 seconds per mile, which wasn't bad for a route that was half off road.

Today, by contrast, I felt awful.  It was the only time I've had the opportunity to do two long runs, so it shouldn't have been any surprise to discover that it was going to be tough.  As soon as I set off my legs seemed to be complaining, and willed me to turn around and spend the morning on the sofa.  But I ploughed on.  I told myself that after 20 to 30 minutes I'd be feeling fine, and sure enough my legs did start to loosen up as I pressed on.  My destination this time was the Roman Road that heads south-east out of Cambridge.

It was a beautiful morning.  I was practically running straight towards the rising sun with clear blue skies in front of me.  When I got to about 5 miles from home I felt a few spots of rain.  It didn't seem likely that the rain would turn heavy as it was still a lovely autumn morning, with bright sunshine bearing down on me.  But a short time later the heavens opened and I was soaked by a deluge of rain.  I looked over my shoulder and behind me the sky was as black as night, whilst ahead was still blue sky and sunshine.  I had clearly been running just ahead of a weather front which was now overtaking me.  One minute I was feeling blessed by the great weather, the next I was cursing myself for not checking the weather forecast.  I continued on my way but as I got more and more soaked I started to negotiate with myself for an earlier turnaround point from the one I had planned.  So rather than running to 10 miles from home, I continued until I reached the highest point on the Roman Road and turned back from there, just over 8 miles from home.

On the return run parts of the track had turned into small rivers.  I couldn't remember a time when I'd been on a training run in such bad weather.  I'm sure there must have been, but it must have been a long time ago.  The return leg of the run turned into a long hard trudge, and a battle of wills.  My legs felt terrible and it took a huge amount of will power to keep them turning over at what felt like a slow run.  There was no way of bailing out of the run, but if there had been one I might well have taken it.  I arrived back home feeling knackered, soaked through and cold.  I had run 16.5 miles, and my pace was about 1 minute per mile slower than the previous day. For some reason I felt quite demoralized by this.

Thankfully, we were meeting friends for a Sunday lunch time feast in a village pub, so I didn't spend much time dwelling on my feelings of defeat.  The 89 mile Druid Challenge is now just three weeks away.  I can't really do anymore significant training between now and then, so I will have to just hope that I have done enough to get me through.

Great Eastern And A Wee Run To Ely

Ahh, it felt good to be doing some proper running again.  I've been feeling a little broken over the last two weeks and as a consequence haven't done much running.  But I feel almost on the mend thanks to the healing hands of Mike Power at Cambridge Sports Massage and some diligent foam rolling and foot massage with firm and spiky massage balls.

In four weeks time I hope to run the Druid Challenge along the Ridgeway footpath.  This will involve covering 89 miles in 3 days, so roughly 30 miles a day.  For me to believe I could do this I really needed to do some long runs this weekend to test how my foot/leg was feeling.

Today I ran in the Great Eastern Half Marathon, which turned out to be cold, windy and wet, but I was happy to finish in a time of 1 hour 26 minutes.  I knew many people taking part in the Great Eastern, so it was quite a social occasion. One friend, Viona, had even bought some large chocolate gold coins to award some of us at the finish, which was a nice treat.  Here's a few photos:

About 1 mile from the finish

Me and Jo with our medals

Chris, me, Jo and Sonia with our 'Gold' medals.

Any normal person would rest for at least one day before running a half marathon.  But as I said, I have a multi-day ultra coming up, so I needed to do at least two longish runs this weekend.  So on Saturday I ran just short of 18 miles from home to Ely, mostly following the river Cam.  I'd normally run along the north bank of the river, but decided to stick to the south side for a change.  I discovered that the conditions are a little more rough to the south, as the path is obviously not as well used, so at times the going was quite tough.  I had to plough through sections over grown with nettles and thorns and, even though I had long running trousers on, I now have a slight rash to my legs as a result. Hurmph!

I decided it might be interesting to take a photo at each mile on the route. This slowed me down slightly, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.  I only have photos from mile 2 onwards, as I hadn't come up with this idea at the one mile point.  So here is what every mile on the route to Ely looks like from mile 2 onwards:

Mile 2 - Stourbridge Common

Mile 3 - Fen Ditton

Mile 3 again - view from the King's Head in Fen Ditton

Mile 4 (just after) - Bates Bite Lock, Milton

Mile 5 - 1 mile north of Milton

Mile 6 - approaching the bridge near Waterbeach

Mile 7 - approaching Bottisham Lock

Mile 8 - amongst the long grass

Mile 9 - literally, the middle of nowhere

Mile 10 - yes, it's the Fens!

Mile 11 - a field near Upware - no river to be seen.

Mile 12 - grass track approaching Dimmock's Cote

Mile 13 - the river is definitely to the left somewhere

Mile 14 - there's the river again - Marina near Stretham

Mile 15 - first glimpse of Ely Cathedral. Can you see it?

Mile 16 - and the Cathedral is a little larger

Mile 17 - Cathedral amongst the trees - just less than 1 mile to go

Once I reached Ely I headed straight to the train station where I had a slice of fruit cake and a hot chocolate whilst I waited for the train to Cambridge.  Then I had a final 1.5 miles to run back to my house, which was the hardest 1.5 miles of the weekend.  My legs had completely seized up on the train.

I am certainly feeling the mileage right now, but on the whole I'm feeling pretty good.  I will be aiming to do two longer runs next weekend.

I have one final thing to report for those who aren't too squeamish.  My battered and blood blistered toenail that turned black after the Swiss Mountainman Ultra has finally fallen off, 57 days after the event.  You probably didn't want to know that, but it is part of being an ultra runner so I felt compelled to share it with you.  Be thankful I haven't uploaded a photo.

Go Figure!

How come two weeks ago I ran a marathon pain free and with relative ease, and since then I've cut back on mileage and I suddenly develop an excruciating pain to the top of my foot? Has anyone else had this?  It seems to have come from nowhere.  Wednesday night I was coaching the Sweaty Betty running club and had no issues.  But later that evening my foot started to hurt. By Thursday morning it was really painful.  I decided (perhaps stupidly) to go for a run around Coldham's Common to see if the pain would ease after a mile or so.  It didn't, so I limped home. The crazy thing is that I had also been for a massage on Tuesday.

At home I stretched the top of my foot (very painful) and did lots of foot massage for the underside of my foot with a variety of massage balls (we have a massive selection in my house).  A soft massage ball felt good.  A spiky massage ball was also good.  A very hard ball was torture.  I stuck to the spiky ball.  After a bit of ball massage and stretching things started to feel better.

On Friday I ran with a client and I seemed to get through the session ok.  I, therefore, believed the massage and stretching had worked.  I decided to rest yesterday anyway, just as an extra precaution.  I couldn't sit still all day today so I decided to go for an 8 mile run to test things out (I had originally planned to do about 18 miles today).  It was all pain free for 6 miles, then on the last 2 miles I had some twinging, but no pain.  However, I got home stretched and showered, and then stepping out of the shower it was suddenly excruciatingly painful again.  It was like someone had just turned on a switch to inject a dose of pain directly to the top of my foot.  So how does that happen?  It's beyond me.

Last weekend I had a completely run free weekend.  On Saturday I was fully engaged in accompanying a crew of female rowers on a trip to Portsmouth and watching over them whilst they rowed 26 miles in the Solent from Portsmouth to The Needles on the Isle of Wight.  I've been training the girls and getting them into shape since February.  Originally they should have rowed the Channel in May, but this was postponed due to bad weather.  Then their rescheduled event in June was indefinitely cancelled when the French decided to ban all rows across the Dover Strait.  So instead they did a longer row in the Solent.  They did a fantastic job and set a great time of 4 hours 36 minutes.  You can read more about it on their blog:

http://channelcrew2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Grafham Water Marathon

Today's marathon was my fourth marathon of the year, but the eighth long run, given that I've also run four ultras.  My intention had been to just go along for a nice steady run and to not even think about a target time.  Saying that, I realistically expected to finish in about 3 hours 30 minutes.

The event is in it's second year, and is reasonably low key with a 500 entry limit split across both the marathon and half marathon.  For the marathon itself, there was just 70 or so runners taking part today, quite possibly the smallest field of marathon runners I've ever been a part of. One of those other runners was a close friend, James, taking part in his first ever marathon. I congratulate anyone who signs up for a low key event as their first ever marathon.  It is definitely a lot harder to keep yourself motivated over those last six to eight miles of a marathon with no crowd support and with very few, if any, other runners around you. So well done to all the first timers today.

Me and James at the start surrounded by half marathon runners

The marathon actually started a few minutes earlier than the advertised time, which was fine by me given that it was freezing cold and blowing a gale at the start area, with the wind coming right off of the lake.  The marathon runners were set off about 10 minutes before the half marathon, and as soon as we were away we pretty much settled into a long, thin line of runners.  I found myself running in about seventh place, but still determined to not take things too seriously and to not push myself too hard.

By about four miles it was already feeling like a very lonely run.  I could just see one runner ahead of me, with another not too far behind, but that was it.  The running order didn't change for the first half of the race.  I caught up with the runner ahead and had a little chat with him for a mile or so, but I then had to stop for a loo break.  I didn't see the runner behind me again, I'd obviously pulled a long way clear from him.

The view at about 4 miles - looking ahead. That tiny white speck is another runner.

And looking back towards two marshals and one other runner.

I had expected to be overtaken by some fast half marathon runners before I reached the halfway point, but this never happened.  Clearly the event hadn't attracted fast half marathon runners.  I crossed the halfway line in a time of 1 hour 34 minutes, a lot quicker than I'd intended.  I perhaps should have been concerned that I was running too quick, but at that point I was feeling pretty good.

The route itself only followed the shore of Grafham Water for about 3 or 4 miles in total.  It then deviated away from the lake and ran mostly on footpaths around the edge of farmland, with a few short sections on tarmac road.  It could have easily turned into a quagmire if it had rained hard.  Fortunately for me, I finished just before the rain arrived.

On my second lap I started to catch a few runners that were ahead of me.  At about 15 miles I went past the guy who had been just ahead of me the whole way.  Shortly after that I passed another runner, who seemed to be struggling.  With about 6 miles to go I passed a third runner who appeared to pull up with cramp.  I asked if he was ok and he told me he'd be fine, so I left him to it.

I was feeling really good, so I tried to up my pace a fraction for the last six miles.  With four miles to go I started to overtake some half marathon runners/walkers.  For the last mile and a half we had the wind on our backs pushing us to the finish line, which explains why my last mile was the fastest mile of the day.

I crossed the finish line to a chorus of cheers from a few dozen spectators.  It seemed that some thought that I was the first marathon finisher.  I knew that this couldn't possibly be the case, but was greatly surprised to learn that I was the second person to finish the marathon. Apparently two runners who had been leading up to halfway both had to pull out with an injury. So the runner who should have been third found himself promoted to first, but to be a winner you first have to make it to the finish line.

I was very happy with my day's run.  I'm not sure what my official time is, as I forgot to stop my watch at the finish line, but it was around 3 hours 8 minutes.  I suspect I might be back to give this one another go next year.

At the finish with medal and goody bag

Back to Training

I had my two weeks of almost complete rest following the Mountainman, if you count a couple of easy paced 5 mile runs as rest, and last week it was time to pick up the training again.  On Tuesday I had a rare evening off so I went for a 9 mile run around Cambridge with two old running friends, Suzy and Jamshid.  The two of them picked a couple of long straight sections of road were we picked up the pace for a mile or so.  It felt good to be running fast again and I was pleased with how my legs felt.

Wednesday was Sweaty Betty running club night.  I got the girls to do 8 x 40 second sprints, followed by a relay race where each girl had to run four sprints in a team of three, i.e. girl 1 tags girl 2, who then tags girl 3, who then tags girl 1 again, which is then repeated until each girl has run 4 legs.  I found myself having to take the place of one girl to cover her last leg as she developed a slight muscle pull on her third leg (her third relay leg, she's not  a mutant with three legs!).  The team I had to help out were in 4^th place, but I managed to get them into the lead from my single leg.  I know, I shouldn’t brag.

I had intended on doing about a six mile run on Friday, but got caught up in doing admin.  Plus it wasn’t a particularly nice day, so I didn’t feel too bad about missing a run.  Yesterday I returned to Milton Country Park to run in the Cambridge Parkrun.  It’s been four months since I last ran a 5k Parkrun.  I wasn’t expecting anything too quick, and I deliberately started further back in the pack than usual.  I always get a lot more nervous at the start of a Parkrun than for any other distance I run.  I don’t know why this is.  I’ve thought about it many times and try to tell myself that my nerves are completely irrational, but it never helps.  As soon as we’re off I feel fine.  I focus on settling into a nice steady pace for the first 500m, then I start to pick out a few runners ahead of me and decide who I am going to target to catch – if anyone.

Yesterday I told myself I was just going for a steady run around with the aim of finishing in about 20 minutes.  There was a 20 minute pace maker in the pack, so I thought I’d stick just a little ahead of him.  Of course, as soon as we were running my usual competitive impulses kicked in and I couldn’t help overtaking runners ahead of me.  I was very happy to finish in a time of 18 minutes 33 seconds, ninth place overall out of about 350 runners, and the first man over 40.  My time was a minute slower than my PB, so I need to start working on getting that little bit of speed back.  Hopefully I can now start adding some speed work back into my training.  This has been missing recently as I’ve been mainly focusing on the mileage. 

I have a couple of other runs already booked for the rest of this year, but I won’t be taking either too seriously.  Next weekend I will be running in the Grafham Water marathon.  And in November I’ll be running in the three day Druid Challenge, which covers 89 miles of the Ridgeway Path from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Swindon in Wiltshire.  I will hopefully also run a marathon in October and quite possibly the Portsmouth marathon in December.  Watch this space.

As Grafham Water marathon is just next week I decided to go for an 18 mile run today.  In an ideal world I should have done a long run last weekend, but I didn’t quite feel up to it.  I perhaps didn’t need to do a long run at all.  It could be taken for granted that I have plenty of endurance fitness in the system, given the recent ultras that I’ve run, but I felt like getting one long run in just to test the legs.  Thankfully, my legs felt pretty good.  I’ll be resting tomorrow and then probably doing some fast 1 mile repeats on Tuesday.  I’ve said it, so now I’d better get out and do it.

Reflections on the Mountainman

Three weeks have now passed since the completion of the Swiss Mountainman Ultra.  The week after the ultra was spent mostly relaxing in Luzern.  It took me a good four days before my legs felt anything close to normal.  For three days I hobbled around like an old man, and by the fourth day there was just some mild residual stiffness left in my legs.  Fortunately, Luzern is a pleasant place to kill a few days, with enough interesting museums and galleries to keep Ruth and I occupied, and more than enough cafes to keep my cake stomach replenished.

Of course, now that three weeks have passed my memory of how hard the Swiss Mountainman Ultra was is starting to fade.  I’m starting to think that the 100km CCC race around Mont Blanc shouldn’t be too much of a challenge (one of my goals for next year).  Having done the 80km Swiss equivalent, the extra 20km should just be a formality! Right?  Every now and again I have such thoughts and then I have to remind myself that there were times when I doubted if I’d finish the Swiss Alpine run.  I thought I’d share with you what helped motivate me through those dark passages when my legs and feet throbbed with pain and all I wanted to do was find some form of transport to carry me to the finish.

The thing that kept me going was actually the thought of just how much Ruth has sacrificed so that I could run in this event.  As a runner it is easy to focus on one’s own efforts; the hours of training, the nights of declining drinks from friends, or even not going out at all, the watching what you eat and the early mornings.  It’s easy to forget that our commitment to our hobby has an indirect effect on our partners, i.e. the impact it also has on their social calendar and the not being there to help with household chores.  In Ruth’s case my running obsession meant she was not involved in deciding where we’d spend our summer holiday.  Fortunately, she was more than happy to visit Switzerland.  But once on holiday my race affected what we’d do from one day to the next.  If I hadn’t been running we would have walked more in Grindlewald.  The trip we did to the summit of Pliatus to check out the race finish was pretty much just for my benefit.   Ruth then lost most of one day of her holiday by coming with me to race registration, and then she lost another day by spending several hours on the summit of Pilatus waiting to see me finish. 

Whilst I was suffering on the run I realised just how much I owed to Ruth for me even being there and that if I didn’t finish I would be letting her down as much as myself.  This was my primary motivation that helped me push through the pain barrier and drag my body to the finish line.  If Ruth hadn’t been waiting at the finish I’m not sure I would have made it.  Of course, I have thanked her many times since finishing the run, but I thought I should share these thoughts with you.  And if you also have a partner that puts up with your running obsession (or golf, football, needlework, etc) maybe you should also remember to thank them every now and again.

Swiss Mountainman Race Report

I had intended on writing a brief training update before flying to Switzerland on 11 August, but I simply ran out of time.  I had been tapering since the Thunder Run, so there wasn’t a great deal to write about anyway.

We spent the first 3 days of our holiday in Grindlewald, staying at the Youth Hostel, which had fine views of the Eiger north face.  Youth Hostels in Switzerland are nothing like their British counterparts.  We had a very spacious double room with an en-suite bathroom that was bigger than our bathroom at home.

View of the Eiger from Grindlewald Youth Hostel

We spent our first two days walking.  On day one we took a cable car from Grindlewald at 1060m to First (2166m) and then hiked to the mountain summit of Schwarzhoren at 2928m.  It started as a fairly gentle walk through high alpine pasture land with the sound of cow bells all around, but turned into a hard slog on steep rocky terrain, well above the tree line, over the occasional patch of loose scree and even the odd patch of snow.  But the views from the summit made it all worthwhile.  The weather was stunning, which we had taken for granted until we met two Scottish climbers who informed us that it had been overcast and raining the previous three days.

Ruth on the climb of Schwarzhoren

The summit of Schwarzhoren - Eiger and Jungfrau to right of Ruth

The next day we planned a longer 10 mile hike from Schynige Platte to First.  This involved getting a train to Wilderswil and then transferring onto the cog wheel mountain railway to the start of the walk.  Swiss transport is so joined up and efficient that we had just enough time to buy our tickets at Wilderswil for the cog railway.  There was absolutely no hanging around between trains.  The walk was also fantastic, although the weather wasn’t quite as kind.  To start with the clouds were low in the valley below us, so we had good views of the white peaks of the mountains in the Jungfrau region.  But as we climbed from 1967m to the highest point of the walk on Faulhorn at 2680m the clouds climbed with us and then hung around the peaks for the rest of the day.

The cog railway to Schynige Platte

View from above the clouds

The clouds close in

Descending to below cloud level once more

I had hoped that the two mountainous walks at reasonably high altitude would help acclimatize me to the heights I’d be running at during the Mountainman ultra.  We contemplated a third walk, but decided I needed three rest days before the big run.  So day three at Grindlewald was spent mostly on boats on nearby Lake Thun, where we visited three small towns.  Each town had a castle, which were more stately home than major defensive castles.  I guess the Swiss have never really been a warlike nation.

The next day we took the train to Luzern, which would be our base for the next week.  On arrival in Luzern we took a ferry around the lake to Alpnachstad, where I’d need to go the following day to register for the race.  From Alpnachstad we jumped on the cog railway (the steepest in the world!) to the summit of Pilatus, which was where the ultra marathon would finish.  We walked around the summit with countless other tourists and tried to work out where the finishing route would be.  I spotted a path that made its way to the summit at a fairly gentle gradient just below a ridge line approach from the south.  That doesn’t look too bad, I thought.  But after consulting the finger posts and trying to match the destination names to places I’d be running through I realised it couldn’t be the route that I’d be on.  We walked around and found a finger post with some recognisable place names that were on the route of the run.  The direction arrow pointed down a very steep slope to a valley far below the summit with a steep series of zig-zags connecting the two.  My heart sank at the realisation that I was looking at the final approach to the finish line after spending 80kms crossing a part of the Swiss Alps.  I knew it was going to be tough, but seeing the finish really brought home just how tough it would be.  At that moment I felt very nervous and wished I’d not made the trip to Pilatus.  A few hours later I had managed to convince myself that I’d done all the training I could have possibly have done, that I was ready for the challenge and that I was doing it precisely because it was going to be hard.  It was suppose to be the toughest physical challenge of my life so far, and that is exactly what it was.

The next day Ruth and I returned to Alpnachstad for race registration.  I met just one other Brit, an incredibly cheerful and optimistic member of the British armed forces.  He told me that this was going to be his first ultra marathon and he was confident his army training would get him through.  We didn’t hang around at Alpnachstad, we returned to Luzern to stock up on pasta and for an early night.

Low key event village at Alpnastad

On race day morning my alarm went off at 3:45am, much to Ruth’s horror and consternation.  I was then out of the apartment at 4.20am for the 20 minute walk to Luzern rail station.  Ruth managed to drag herself out of bed to wave goodbye.  It was surprisingly warm and I passed several groups of people who were clearly making their way home after a night out.  Our two worlds seemed poles apart.

At Luzern rail station us crazy runners lined up to jump on a 4.45am bus for a 20 minute journey to a small town outside of Luzern (there were engineering works on the line from Luzern that weekend), we then had about a 45 minute train journey to Engleberg, from where we got a cable car to the start of the race at Truebsee on the lower slopes of Mount Titlis.  Once at the start we had barely 15 minutes before the start of the race at 6.45am.

The start was very low key.  I wasn’t aware of a countdown; there was no starting pistol, not even a start gantry.  We simply congregated just outside the cable car station and at 6.45am precisely we were off on our way.  I didn’t even hear a shout of “go”.  Then again, I don’t know what “go” is in German.  A total of 206 runners set off from Truebsee.  We had a short downhill run, followed by a few hundred metres of flat running around a small lake and then we got stuck into the first major climb of the day.  The first climb took us from 1780m to about 2320m, a climb of 540m over a distance of about 3.5km.  This was the highest point on the route and was quickly followed by the first mountainous descent.

Now, I thought that I had become quite good at descending.  In my trips to the Lake District and to the Peaks I had been practising running downhill fast.  I knew I was pretty good at this because I could tell by the wide mouthed looks of amazement on the faces of the walkers that I passed at high speed.  I discovered that whilst I’m good at Lake and Peak District high speed downhill running, I am useless at Alpine trail downhill running.  No sooner had we started running downhill on a path littered with rocks and boulders that I found myself flying through the air and landing on my right side on a section of rocky path.  I was bounding over a small rock and felt the toe of my Salomon trail running shoe snagging in an overhang of the rock.  My foot and leg came to an abrupt stop whilst my upper body continued to career headlong downhill.  There was no way of finding a soft landing in the circumstances.  My right hand went out and I rolled onto my right side and then onto my back. 

My first thought was to make sure I hadn’t bust either of my two water bottles or my 1.5 litre bladder in my back pack, all seemed fine.  One runner stopped to ask if I was ok.  I said I was fine and then carried on.  Shortly afterwards I looked at my hand and realised I had a stream of blood pouring out of my middle finger.  We’d barely gone 4kms and I had my first injury.  I stopped to clean up my wound and put a plaster on my cut finger.  Loads of people ran past whilst I cleaned myself up.  When I set off again I was a lot more cautious when it came to running downhill.  I didn’t catch any of the runners who passed me until we started going uphill again. 

The next big climb came at the 9km mark and went up for about 4km gaining 250m as it climbed to just over 2200m.  The next section of the trail to the 24km mark was fairly undulating and probably the highlight of the run.  At times we were running along a ridge line with steep drop-offs to either side.  The views all around were simply stunning; craggy mountain tops to our right, snow caped peaks ahead of us and to the left, mountain lakes and lush valleys below.  I was in trail runner’s heaven.

From the 24km mark the next 9km should have been simple as it was all downhill.  This was where we had the longest descent of the day as we dropped from the high mountains at just over 2000m to a valley floor at about 1000m.  The descent itself was on a mix of rocky mountain paths similar to before, gravel access roads, and steep grassy slopes and the odd stretch of tarmac.  By the time I’d reached the 30km mark my feet were in agony from the constant stress of running downhill on reasonably steep gradients.  My legs weren’t doing too badly, but at that moment I kept thinking I couldn’t possibly run another 50km with my feet feeling the way they were.  I was running in my Salomon Speedcross shoes, which Salomon market as the best trail shoes for mountainous runs.  In wet, muddy conditions they are fantastic, but on the hard trails of the Swiss Alps they were crucifying my feet.  Fortunately, we were allowed to drop a bag at race registration which would be waiting for us at 34km with a change of clothing.  I had put an alternative pair of trail shoes in my bag, as well as a complete change of clothing.

It was a great relief to reach the checkpoint, the fifth of the day so far, and find my kit bag.  It had taken me about 4 hours 40 minutes to reach this checkpoint.  I changed from my long running leggings into shorts, and also changed my socks and shoes.  My feet felt better as soon as I slipped them into my Brooks trail shoes.

From the checkpoint we then had the hardest part of the day ahead of us.  Over the next 6km we would climb back up to about the same height we’d just come down from.  The first part of the ascent was on a steep gravel path through pine forest.  The path was so steep that if it had just been a few degrees steeper I would have been on all fours.  I was mighty glad to have walking poles with me.  As we got above the tree line I tried to admire the views.  We were at the eastern end of Lake Brienze.  We could see the whole length of the lake with the snow capped peaks of the Jungfrau region to our left, and Interlaken at the far end of the lake and then Lake Thun beyond.  I tried to admire the view as much as possible whilst slogging up to just over 2000m in the mid day heat.  Every now and again we passed a trough of water that was for the cows to drink.  Each time I dipped my cap into the cool water and put it back on my head to help cool off.

Near the top of the climb, as I approached the 40km mark and half way point of the run I met up with the guy from the British army.  He was looking pretty low.  I asked how he was doing.  His optimising from the previous day had completely gone.  He was struggling on the climb, but had also suffered a serious piece of equipment failure.  His water bladder had burst and he had no other means to carry water.  He was really hoping that when he reached the next checkpoint that they would have a spare water bottle lying around that he could have.  I contemplated giving him one of my bottles.  My strategy had been to start with my bladder full of water, and to have water in one of my bottles and energy drink in the other.  However, I hadn’t intended filling my bladder at any stage, once it was empty I would just use my two bottles.  I wondered if I should give-up one of my 600ml bottles.

We reached the next aid station together, about 6 hours after leaving Truebsee.  It had taken about 80 minutes to complete the 6km of uphill slog from the previous checkpoint.  I went about my usual business of taking on some food; a mix of salty soup, fruit and energy bars, and drinking some water and energy drink, whilst also filling up both bottles.  I saw my fellow Brit asking the volunteers if they had a spare bottle.  I also watched as he tried to figure out if he could fix his bladder.  I then left the aid station whilst he sat down looking quite dejected.  As I started to jog away I once again wondered if I could give him one of my bottles.  Part of me felt that he should have been better prepared with his own backup, part of me also felt that the one 600ml bottle that I could give him wouldn’t be enough, and part of me also felt that I really needed to look after number one and stick to my original plan.  Despite that I felt guilty for not helping out.

I continued on my way.  The doubts I had at the 30km mark about whether I could finish had been left behind.  I was over half-way and had another 10 hours in which to finish the next half of the race, and felt very positive that I could do it in much less than that.

I have to say that much of the next 10km is a bit of a blur.  I’m looking at the route on the map we were given at the start of the race, but find it hard to conjure up any images from that part of the run.  Looking at the map again now, it looks as if it should have been another fairly easy 10km stretch as it was mostly undulating, this is probably why I don’t remember too much about it.  I was at the stage in the race when I just focused on running as much as possible and walking when I had to.  Taking in the views at this stage was a secondary consideration.  I have the odd memory of some of the checkpoints.  At one there was a band playing and one volunteer was sat on a pedal powered shower that I stood under for a few seconds, and there was a small pocket of spectators that cheered me as I continued on my way.  At another checkpoint, when he spotted an approaching runner, a volunteer would ring a huge hand cranked cowbell.  Further on we passed through a largish village which had the biggest crowd of spectators lining the streets to cheer on the runners. 

With 20km to go we reached the next big climb.  Looking at the route profile it doesn’t look like it should have been to challenging.  It went up and over a peak that was below the tree line, we stayed in a forest the whole way.  The gradient on the route map didn't seem so steep, but I found the climb incredibly tiring and also unrewarding for all the hard effort I had to put in.  We reached a ridge line that would have had great views of the surrounding countryside if it wasn’t for the densely packed trees obscuring any potential vistas.  The trees were packed so close together that the trail made lots of very tight twists and turns as it climbed up, then undulated along the top before descending again.  The path was also covered in exposed tree routes.  It was like running through a twisting forest maze with roots ready to trip you at any moment.  Even if I hadn’t been so tired I don’t think I would have covered the 10km of the forest trail particularly quickly.  It was a relief to be out of the forest, back on tarmac and approaching the checkpoint at the 70km mark.  It had taken me about 11 hours 10 minutes to reach the 70km checkpoint, and the previous 10km had taken a little under 2 hours!  From here we had 4km of running downhill on tarmac, before we started heading up to Mount Pilatus, where Ruth was waiting to greet me.

Over the last 10km I ran with a Japanese runner by the name of Jun.  We pretty much ran side-by-side most of the way over the last 10km.  We discovered a lot about each other.  We were the same age, my marathon PB was just 2 minutes quicker than his, he now lives in Munich, but has also lived in the USA, and he is married with two kids and also wants to run the UTMB some time soon.  We gave each other a lot of encouragement over the last 10km, especially for the last 6km ascent of Mount Pilatus.  As we neared the top I spotted three mountain Ibex ahead of me.  They were pretty much the only wildlife I’d seen all day.  They were also completely unconcerned about the steady trickle of runners passing them by.

The last 200m of climbing on the zig-zag of path leading to the top of Pilatus was as horrendously difficult as predicted.  Ruth had spotted me from some way off and was surprised at how much I had to stop to catch my breath every time I reached a switch back in the trail.

Almost...

...there.

Final bound to the finish line.

I gave Ruth a quick wave as I passed her and then bounded up the last few stairs to the finish line.  I crossed the line in a time of 12 hours 53 minutes.  The finish itself felt a little underwhelming.  I expected big crowds of cheering spectators, but Ruth and the race organisers seemed to be the only people there.  I also expected to be greeted with a huge impressive medal and at least a T-shirt.  Instead, the only race memento was a running cap.  I had to undergo a very brief interview at the finish line.  I have no idea what it was or will be used for.  The only question I now remember being asked was what it is like to be able say that I am a Mountain Man.  I was so dazed by this stage that I don’t remember my answer, other than it was just a huge relief to be at the finish line and that I’m really happy to be a Mountain Man.

A few seconds later Jun crossed the line and was subjected to a similar interview.  I thought he gave better answers than me.  We then greeted each other and congratulated ourselves on finishing the race.

Very happy to be Mountain Men

I was then handed a free beer.  I had a few sips and passed it to Ruth to finish off.  After a shower we descended on the cog railway to catch the train back to Luzern.  A baguette I had at breakfast was about the only real food I’d had all day, but the idea of food as we headed home was quite unbearable.  We got back to our apartment at about 10pm; it wasn’t long before I was fast asleep in bed.  Food could wait until the next morning.

I think beer can wait until tomorrow!

Now that I am home I have looked at the race results so that I can give you a few stats.  There were 206 starters at Truebsee: 175 men, 31 women.  44 runners (21%) have the dreaded DNF next to their name (37 men, 7 women), which means they either abandoned at some point or were pulled off the course because they didn’t make one of the time cut-offs.  We were given 16 hours 15 minutes to finish the race.  The winner crossed the line in a staggering 8 hours 30 minutes, the last person crossed in 16 hours 8 minutes.  I finished in 78^th place overall out of the 162 who finished.

I ran the 80km Swiss Mountainman and all I got was one black toenail and this hat.

I might also add a write-up about my recovery in the days that followed the Mountainman Ultra in a few days time.  I do remember telling Ruth to shoot me if I ever mention UTMB ever again.  Of course, I am now thinking of applying for the 100km CCC again for next year (the race that starts in Courmayer in Italy, runs through Champex in Switzerland and finishes in Chamonix in France - hence CCC).  And now that one week has passed since the Swiss ultra my head is once again dreaming of the UTMB.