12 Hour Night Run

Friday June 6th 6.50pm. This was the time I parked up at Milton Country Park to ensure that I was on site before the car park gate was locked at 7pm. I then had over an hour to kill before I was due to start my run. I did think that I would probably walk over to the Tesco cafe for tea and cake, but I just wasn't feeling hungry at that time as I hadn't long stuffed myself with pasta salad. So I killed the time by sitting in my car meditating and wishing that I'd packed a book to read.

Just before 8pm - ready to start my 'little' run.

At 8pm on the dot I started my 12 hour run. I decided to begin by running around the familiar Parkrun course and exploring some of the other paths that go through the Country Park that aren't part of the weekly 5k run. This allowed me to do some running without having to bother with carrying a pack. However, after just 25 minutes I decided it was time to get the pack on and go a little further afield. So I left the Country Park, headed towards the River Cam and followed the tow path to Cambridge, where I crossed the river at the Green Dragon Footbridge. This is just a little over 3 miles from the park. I then headed back towards Milton via the village of Fen Ditton, and crossed the river again at Bates Bite Lock. From here I continued along the tow path to Waterbeach, another 2 miles along the river. 

Bates Bite Lock moments before sunset.

Sunset over Milton

As I followed the river north east away from Cambridge the sun was setting and the bugs were out in force. Huge swarms of insects formed clouds all along the tow path, many met their end by either drowning in the tears in my eyes or from being swallowed. I hoped that their end was as horrible for them as it was for me. I tried to run by making my eyes as narrow as possible and only breathing through my nose. And now that the thought has occurred to me, maybe I should use this as the excuse for my pace being slower than normal.

9.40pm and almost time for the head torch

I continued on past Waterbeach to the Bottisham Lock crossing. It was now 9.45pm and starting to get dark, so I stopped to put my head torch on. I ran back to Waterbeach in the near dark and only switched on my head torch once I was back on the tow path and heading back to the Country Park.

I got back to my car at about 10.30pm, having run 17 miles in 2.5 hours. Just as I turned the last corner towards my car I spotted two figures in front of me. 'How odd for two people to be walking through the park at this time', I thought to myself. Then a second later I recognised the 'odd' couple as Chris and Suzy, who had come out to greet me with coffee. It gave me a massive boost to see two friends, unfortunately I don't drink coffee (please note for future reference should anyone wish to bring me a hot beverage, I only drink tea), but their good intentions were very much appreciated. The two then did a couple of laps of the Parkrun course with me before they disappeared off to home and bed.

The lovely Chris and Suzy

Once Chris and Suzy had left I headed back towards the river and once again headed towards Waterbeach. My plan had been to then stick to this part of the river all night, but as soon as I found myself coughing and spluttering and swallowing dead insects, as well as wiping them from my eyes, I questioned whether there was a better route. However, I'm quite stubborn once I've made a plan so I did continue all the way to Waterbeach and past The Bridge pub, which seemed to be in the process of kicking out time. It was about 11.30pm and I had covered 22.5 miles. This was the only time I felt quite conspicuous. I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself and felt a desire to turn back from the pub and get back to the Country Park. I coughed and spluttered some more as I headed back towards Cambridge. When I got to the turn for the Country Park I decided to carry on a short way to see if the stretch of river towards Cambridge had less bug life. It seemed that it did, so I decided on my next jaunt away from the park that I'd head south west instead.

When I got back to my car it was almost bang on midnight and I had covered 27 miles in 4 hours. A very slow marathon by my usual standards. I was starting to feel knackered already, and was beginning to realise how hard it would be to stay motivated by myself. Chris and Suzy had given me a real boost, but I knew I wouldn't see another human being for many hours now.

After a short stop for a bite to eat and to refill my water bottles I headed away from the park again and along the river towards Cambridge. I only went about 2.5 miles each way. This was probably the hardest part of the whole run. On the one hand I was enjoying the fact that the stretch of river towards Cambridge did seem to have fewer insects, I was also admiring the half moon suspended over Cambridge and reflecting in the motionless River Cam. I also felt slightly priviledged to be out there enjoying the peace and quite all by myself. But on the other hand I was already feeling a little tired, my legs were starting to ache and I felt lonely. I had one of those moments when I really questioned why I was doing what I was doing. The obvious answer was to train for both the 24 hour Thunder Run and 119km TDS race around Mont Blanc, both of which would involve running through the night. But at that moment I also questioned why I wanted to do those two gruelling events. Of course, it was all for the shear challenge. Why stick to just doing runs that I find easy? Life should be about the challenge. Right? Well I was certainly getting my challenge now. 

I was back at the car at about 1am and with 32 miles under my belt. I had some tea and a bite to eat and looked at my sleeping bag that was in the boot of the car for any emergencies. I seriously considered getting into my bag and setting my alarm for 3am. I ate slowly, drank my tea and weighed up my options. 

1am - Feeling knackered and seriously considering a 2 hour kip.

I took so long over this snack break that 35 minutes had passed before I realised it. The realisation of how long I had been sitting down snapped me out of my slumber and forced me to get back on to my feet and get on with the job of running. The problem was that I had been sitting down for so long that my legs had almost completely seized up, so I had to settle for a gentle walk to start with. By the time I was leaving the Country Park again and heading towards the river I was sort of doing an imitation of a run. You could probably say I was actually running by the time I was going past Bates Bite Lock. I made it 3.5 miles from the park and turned around again. It must have been just after 3am by the time I got back to my car. So in two hours I had covered about 7 miles, partly thanks to my long break, but regardless this was the slowest part of the entire 'run'.

I had another good 20 minute break at this stage. I knew that very soon I would be aware of first light. Sure enough, at about 3.15am there was a slight glow in the sky. By 3.30am the birds were starting to stir. Up to that point the only noise was the sound of my breath, the crunch of my feet on the gravel tow path and the constant hum of traffic on the A14. But the sound of birdsong in the early hours was wondrous to my ears. By 4am the sound of birds was almost deafening, but 30 to 40 minutes later they were nearly silent again.

When I next left the park I headed back towards Cambridge, but this time I continued all the way to the Green Dragon bridge, crossed the river and ran back via Fen Ditton for a second time. I spotted two people in Fen Ditton, who I assumed were off to work somewhere. They both seemed a little surprised to see me. I ran a couple of laps around the Fen Ditton sports field, just as something different to do, and to kill some time. I then made it back to my car for about 6am having covered another 12 miles in perhaps 2.5 hours, not much quicker than a fast walking pace.

Sunrise from Fen Ditton Sports Field

To my great surprise I just got back to my car as Mike turned up on his bike. He had said he would try to join me, but I really didn't expect to see him until 7am at the absolute earliest. I was really struggling at this stage and was starting to reconsider how far I wanted to cover. I kind of had three targets in my head. Ideally I wanted to cover more than 60 miles, and this was the target I had been telling people - it's always best to make your goals public. However, I had also told myself that as a worst case scenario 52 miles would be acceptable, i.e. two marathons. Then my intermediate target was 56 miles, the distance of the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, which has a 12 hour cut off time.

As I was running back to my car at 6am and had just reached 51 miles, I clearly knew that I would achieve my minimum target. I also felt fairly confident that I could complete 56 miles, but 60 miles seemed in doubt, especially going by my pace over the last 4 hours. But once I saw Mike I felt that his presence would help rejuvenate my efforts.

For most of the time Mike cycled alongside me. I have no idea now of what we talked about, but we seemed to talk the whole time. This really helped take my mind off the run. We also stuck to running laps around the Country Park, apart from just one occasion when we left the park to head towards Milton High Street to see if there were any signs of life. There wasn't.

At about 7am we were almost at my car when the heavens suddenly erupted and we were caught in a downpour that was accompanied by thunder and lightening. Thankfully it didn't last too long. We both had rain coats, but 10 minutes later it was so hot and sticky that there hadn't seemed any point in putting them on. 

The miles slowly ticked down. At about 7.10am I had reached 57 miles. So all I had to do was a Parkrun in 50 minutes in order to reach 60 miles. So this is what I opted to do with Mike. Mike locked up his bike and we both ran the Parkrun course together. I ditched my back pack and ran holding one water bottle. When we'd covered the 1km loop and the 2km loop once I headed back to the car to ditch my water bottle. It was a good job I did, because at that time Gemma from the Sweaty Betty running club had also arrived to run the last bit with me.

So the three of us set off to run the final 2km Parkrun loop together. I hit 60 miles with 15 minutes to spare. We then finished by giving Gemma a tour of the first 1km Parkrun loop and the finish straight. We then walked back to the car park with a few minutes to spare. At 8am exactly I had covered 61.33 miles and I felt like a very happy bunny. Mike probably still has no idea of how much help he was to me over those last two hours. I feel as if I will always be in his debt. So once again, thank you Mike. And thank you Chris, Suzy and Gemma.

With Mike at 8am having run 61.33 miles in 12 hours.
And looking better than I did at 1am.

I hung around for the next hour so I could fulfill some volunteering duties at Parkrun. I had volunteered for a very simple roll as a means to motivate me towards staying the entire night. It also meant I could bathe in the glory of my achievement with my Parkrun friends. Of course, several people asked the question, "Why?", to which I still have no satisfactory answer other than because I can.