As you can tell, I’m not the most regular blogger on the planet. Like most people I didn’t have too much to write about last year – I only completed one marathon, the Cambridge Boundary Run on 1st March. However, this doesn’t account for my inactivity for the rest of 2018 and 2019. Here’s a very quick summary - I reached my 100th marathon at the XNRG Pony Express on 13th October 2018, which meant I ran the second day of the two day event as a new member of the 100 Marathon Club. My long time goal thus achieved! The aforementioned Cambridge Boundary Run was my 109th official marathon. My favourite race of 2018 was the 50 mile Pennine Barrier organised by GB Ultras. I also highly enjoyed the double May the Fourth Be With You and Revenge of the Fifth marathons in Shropshire that year, which I was the overall winner of! There were only about 30 people running the marathon route each day, but a win is a win.
Back to 2021. In just
over a week I will be taking part in my first actual race since March 2019, and
I can’t wait. For my 110th
official “marathon” I will be taking part in the Hardmoors 110, which is a 110
mile ultra-marathon covering the entire length of the Cleveland Way in
Yorkshire. I hadn’t planned on running
110 miles for my 110th marathon. This is pure serendipity and it’s
all thanks Rachel Hewitt.
Back in November last year Rachel emailed me to say she’d
entered the Hardmoors 110 but had changed her mind and intended to run the
Dales Way 90 instead. Would I like her
place? At the time I thought that I
hadn’t even run a marathon for about 9 months, could I build up to 110 miles by
May? It seemed that entering a 110 mile
race was a stupid idea. So, of course, I
said “Yes”.
From early November I started to increase my weekly
running mileage. I probably increased my
distance a little too quickly and ended up with a minor calf injury. I had a couple of sports massages that seemed
to help. Then for the 25 days of
Christmas, thinking it would be a good idea to step up my training again, I
entered an XNRG virtual race with the intention of running every day for 25
days. My modest aim was to average 10
miles per day, i.e. 250 miles in 25 days.
This sounded very achievable, but in doing so my calf injury flared up
again. I spent a few days simply walking
so that I could continue to add some miles to my total distance. Then on December 22nd I decided to
go for a 9 hour walk/run just to see what I could do. At that point in time I didn’t even feel
ready to run a marathon.
My strategy was to run/jog/walk and to simply focus on one
hour at a time. I told myself I’d really
pay attention to how my body was feeling and to do whatever felt right, rather
than trying to push a particular pace, or to jog when my body was saying
walk. I was amazed and delighted to
complete 47 miles in the 9 hours, which included two short stops at two
different cafés for tea and cake. My
suspected injured calf didn’t complain once.
This was all the proof I needed that 110 miles would be achievable if I
followed the same strategy. It was also
proof that completing an ultra-marathon is very much in your head as much as it
is about your physical fitness. I also
know that the years I’d spent studying the Franklin Method was a great help to
me on that day.
Another consequence of my 47 mile day was that it got me back
on track to complete my targeted 250 miles in 25 days, and I also raised over
£600 for Humanity Direct.
All of my training since December has been 100% focused on
the Hardmoors 110. I have never spent so
much time and energy planning for a single event before. No previous event has
had me studying maps in such detail and thinking about what I’d like to eat and
drink where and when from so long before race day. Spreadsheets have been drawn up, amended and
completely revised. This upcoming race
has occupied my thoughts on almost a daily basis since December.
Another unique aspect about this event, at least as far as
I’m concerned, is that it requires the runner to have a support crew. This requirement almost had me withdraw from
the event as I didn’t think I’d be able to convince anyone to support me. Ruth, my partner, was not interested in the
task. Thankfully, Rachel, who got me
into this in the first place, agreed to crew for me. In return I will crew for Rachel when she
runs her 90 mile Dales Way race later in the year.
I first met Rachel when she became one of my personal
training clients a number of years ago.
At that time she barely ran herself, and now she can also call herself
an ultra-marathon runner. Rachel is one
of those clients who I can now proudly state is also a friend. It remains to be seen if I’ll still consider
her a friend after I’ve run 110 miles! I
hope so. If I can get to the finish
without swearing at her once I will consider that in itself to be a great
achievement.
Other milestones in my training so far this year have
included a 55 mile solo run around the Wimpole Hall estate in April, and
running 38 miles of the Cleveland Way in early May. I ran what I believe should be the hardest
part of the course, which goes from Roseberry Topping (63 miles in) to Sutton
Bank (approximately 100 miles in). I
should find myself running this section during the night and, therefore, in the
dark on the day. Hopefully, the fact
that I’ve run this part of the race in daylight will make my night time
navigation a lot more straight forward. If
I do get lost I shouldn’t have any excuse.
Unless I suffer from hallucinations and start following a magical
unicorn! I have heard of runners who
have hallucinated when taking part in races of 100 miles and over. A friend of
mine once believed he saw a crouched runner by the side of the path and stopped
to convince his fellow runner to get up and to run with him. Another runner appeared and then pointed out
to my mate that he was talking to a rock!
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| Roseberry Topping - the peak is at about 63 miles into the race. |
The trip to Yorkshire to run part of the Cleveland Way was a very valuable learning experience. Not only was it great to recce the part of the route I’d be running during the night time, it also had me completely revise what sort of pace I thought I’d be able to run. I had hoped I could average a speed of 6 miles per hour. But on the training run I only averaged 5 miles per hour, and this was with relatively fresh legs. In reality, on the day itself, with 63 miles already in my legs and running in darkness I believe 4 miles per hour for this part of the route will be the absolute best I can hope for. This, obviously, remains to be seen and it could be that even that assumption is way off.
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| This is the approach to a series of hills known as the three sisters. I will definitely be running this section during the night. |
As this event will be by way the hardest run I have ever done, I have decided to run for two charities. Firstly, I’d like to raise money for cancer research in memory of my dad and a number of friends who have lost their lives way too soon to cancer. But I’d also like to raise money for the UK Sepsis Trust in memory of Laura Hames-Franklin. Laura was the wife of Eric Franklin, founder of the Franklin Method. Shortly after I qualified as a Franklin Method Level III educator in January 2020, Laura lost her life to sepsis. Laura’s death shocked the whole Franklin Method community. She was someone who very much wore her heart on her sleeve. She had a bright soul and was always so very charming to everyone she met. I still can’t quite believe she’s no longer with us.
If you are able to spare a few pounds for either (or both) charities I would be immensely grateful. Your donations will also help to spur me on and help me to dig deep whenever I have moments of doubt, or during difficult stages of the run when I may wish to throw in the towel.
I will next update this blog once I have finished the Hardmoors
110. I definitely won’t leave it so long
until the next installment.
To donate to The UK Sepsis Trust: https://www.justgiving.com/
To donate to Cancer Research UK: https://www.justgiving.com/
