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.