Fen Drayton 12 Hour Night Run

Last night's 12 hour run is officially the hardest thing I've ever done.  Just before 8pm 39 individual runners and 3 different relay teams gathered in the car park of the RSPB nature reserve at Fen Drayton for the briefest of briefings regarding the 12 hour night run.

Runners gathered for the briefing.

There were a few familiar faces.  Ex-rowing crew mate Richard Youell was there, as were two familiar park runners.  I was greatly surprised to see Ken, an american that I ran with during the 3-day Thames Tow Path run last September.  He was visiting the UK once again and decided to do this run during his visit, quite an amazing coincidence given the size of the field.

The run would take place on a rectangular loop around one of the man made lakes at the nature reserve, with one edge of the rectangle also running alongside the river ouse.  The loop was 2.2 miles long, so we were going to get to know it really well over the next 12 hours.  Every dip, tree root, rabbit hole and over hanging branch would be noted and remembered for all subsequent laps.  Still there was something nice about running around one small loop and experiencing it as the light levels changed.  Running through the night and into the sunrise was quite a magical experience, which I was able to appreciate despite being in pain.

Running in small groups over the first couple of laps.

 

We managed to run for almost 2 hours in daylight before it was time to don head torches for the night run.  This would be the first time that I have ever run completely through the night, and I was looking forward to making it through to sun rise.  I was trying to run very conservatively and by midnight I had just completed my first marathon with 8 hours left to go.  I then had a short break to grab a burger.  My main criticism would be that the food provided by the organisers didn't really match what I'd want to be eating on such an event.  I want cake, fruit, malt loaf any maybe a cheese sandwich.  The burger didn't quite sit well with me.

Sunset over the River Ouse.

Running through the night.

I managed to run reasonably well over the next 2 hours, but I was taking very short walk breaks by this stage.  I was also aware that I hadn't eaten as much as I normally would during an ultra marathon, so I stopped to make myself a peanut butter sandwich in a hot dog roll.  I only managed to eat about a third of it before I started to gag.  Again, it just wasn't working for me.  I decided at that point I'd try to make it through the night eating just the couple of Mars bars I'd brought with me.  I really wish I'd also brought my own malt loaf and bananas.

The next 6 hours were a serious hard slog.  Given that I'd run 26 miles in the first 4 hours, I then did about 12 miles in the next 2 hours and then 17 miles in the last 6 hours (this was with lots of stops and I think the organisers forgot to record one of my laps - I believe I did 57.2 miles in total).  I had to walk large chunks over the last six hours.  In hindsight I suspect I partly struggled because I wasn't eating enough.  I also don't think I'd recovered enough since the North Downs Way 50.

At one point I stopped on a deserted stretch of path and turned my head torch off so I could admire the night sky.  It was a clear night and we rarely get to admire the stars in such a perfectly unlit environment.  On one of my laps I managed to startle a small dear, who stood froze in my head torch as I approached it.  I got to within 6 feet and it just slowly ambled off the path to get out of my way.

At 3am, after 7 hours, my legs felt as if someone had been hitting them with bamboo sticks all night.  The course was pancake flat, which always fatigues my legs way more than an undulating run.  The muscles in the legs are work in exactly the same way hour after hour with no respite.  At least on a hilly course the workload in the different muscle groups changes all the time.  I had to really dig deep and kept on telling myself that my main goal was to make it until sun rise.

Not long until sunrise.

The sky was noticeably brighter just before 4am.  By 4.15am it was bright enough not to need torches.  The sun finally appeared above the horizon at about 5am, just as I started yet another lap of the nature reserve.  This would prove to be the hardest lap of the night for me.  Running was so painful that I decided to walk the whole lap.  Occasionally I'd try to run a few hundred metres just to check how my legs felt, but the pain was too much for me so I quickly returned to walking.  I got to the end of the lap at 5.30am and told one of the organisers that I was thinking of packing it in.  I went off to the field kitchen to make a cup of tea and have a little rest.

Alex with his record of everyone's lap.  I'm sure he missed one of mine!

Whilst drinking my tea I thought about the drive back home and getting into bed.  I decided that Ruth probably wouldn't be too happy with an unwashed runner sneaking into bed with her just after 6am.  With that in mind I decided I might as well at least try for one more lap.  To my great surprise I started running and discovered my legs didn't hurt quite so much as before.  The power of tea!  I then managed to run another 3 laps straight, at a slow speed and with short walk breaks.  This got me to just after 7am, at which point I decided I would walk just one final lap as a kind of cool down, so I eventually finished at about 7.40am.  No one was allowed to start another lap after 7.30am.  Given that I was so close to packing in at 5.30am, I was really pleased that I'd managed to to do an additional 8.8 miles.  

Proper daylight again.

This run reconfirmed to me just how much extensive running on the flat hurts.  However, it was a reassuring test of my resolve.  I've never come so close to giving up during an event.  It was also a good test of equipment.  I'm amazed my head torch survived all night with no noticeable drop in the light output.  I only hope I find the Thunder Run course in July to be more to my liking. Right now I have no idea how I'll survive for 24 hours.

Glad to have made it to the end.