This run is different. This run was to be my nemesis after my first and to date only DNF in my last attempt at the distance (UTSW). I want to record the memories while every high and low is still seared across my frontal cortex!
I'd been feeling pretty dodgy the whole week before the race having completed the Dart 10k swim the weekend before and picked up something nasty in the water in the process. Squeezing guts, bad heart burn...was this going to be my undoing? As soon as we started running everything seemed to settle. And the start of this race was far gentler than the UTSW. No barging, no pushing the pace in the first 10. Just a lot of nice people out for a gentle bimble together. I soon settled into that lovely, leg-swinging easy-breathing 'keep it up all day' rhythm. I spent the first 10 or so miles with a chap from Scotland, before hitting the first of the bigger hills. It was only on the SDW50 that I realised ultra runners seem to be happy walking up hills then running down the other side. I'm the complete opposite, as the downhill stretches play merry hell with my hips, and so I soon lost my early race buddies up the long uphill stretches.
By the first checkpoint I was feeling a bit sad. Jeez, it's only a half marathon distance so far, and already my knees are hurting and I'm knackered! Maybe I'd been overdoing the distance during training? I stopped at this point to strip off some of the layers I'd been wearing, and this actually made me feel a hell of a lot better. Phew, it's not fatigue, I was just overheating!
From the first checkpoint we bimbled our way through some beautiful countryside before climbing up towards Cleeve Hill. As we ran up over downland with views across the whole of Worcestershire, the Malverns in the distance, the clear sky and smell of autumn in the air 'Helden' by Apocolyptica came onto my iPod...this was a Moment, and I felt like I could run forever.
The second checkpoint came quite quickly, and after a brief stop to fill up on water I set off into my second marathon. I was still reveling in the wonderful easy running feeling when 'BAM', searing pain in my thigh, followed a couple of seconds later by another in my backside. I looked down and..shiiiiiiiit, Hornets!! And the little bastards were chasing me!! UPHILL!!! Probably the fastest speed I achieved in the whole race. Initially the pain from the stings actually helped me as it distracted from the ache that was developing in my left hip. Later on in the night though the sting became a flipping nuisance.
About 5 miles from checkpoint 3 I caught up with a bunch of guys only to discover that they were the lead pack. Oh crap, I thought, this pace is going to come back and bite me later. I ran with them on to the next checkpoint at Birdlip. I lingered here a bit to stuff down some sandwiches, and most of the lads had left before I got underway again. At this point night was starting to fall, and as we headed into the trees the two other guys I was running with pulled away from me as my pace took a drop, and I had a massive slump in mood. The next 10 miles are a blur of pain and sadness. A pretty heavy fog had come down, and I was worrying a bit about whether I was even still on the right path, when I noticed lights behind me and the sensation of relief coupled with 'balls, I'm slowing down and being caught up from behind' washed over me. I stopped to let them catch me, and then realised it was the same guys I'd been running with before the previous checkpoint! They'd taken a wrong turn, and caught me up from behind. I fell back into pace with them and began to feel much more cheerful about things again.
A short while after I had hooked up the the other guys we split into 2 groups, with three of them pulling away from us, leaving myself with Robbie, Rob and Ben. We didn't discuss carrying on as a group, but by general unspoken consensus and fortune matching us pretty well pace-wise (which was bloody amazing to me after I learned that Rob puts in a 2.45 marathon!) we continued as 4 for the rest of the race. At the 53 mile checkpoint we were told we were in first place which was a bit of a surprise, and down to the fact that the other 3 lads had gone wrong again and were now around 20 minutes behind us again. Jason, who was meeting me at each checkpoint, was over the moon that I was running as a group, and encouraged me to keep up the pace to stick with these guys despite his earlier warnings of keeping a gentle pace throughout. 'Aw, bless' I thought, he's getting all competative for me. Not the case. Turns out that the checkpoint guys had come across an inordinate number of doggers in several locations along the route, and Jase was terrified about me running on my own as a result! Obviously not much else to do in Worcestershire on a saturday night. Still, thanks to the fog we were spared from too many graphic scenes!
Now I don't run with a garmin. In fact, I hate the damn things, which is a source of some guilt to me as mine was a birthday present from Jase and I know how much the bloody thing cost. Oh, I'll use it on the rare occasions I do speed work, but generally I find it completely ruins my longer runs as I lack the discipline not to constantly look to see how I'm doing. I like to get lost in a run, which is exactly what happened during the second half of this race. As we headed into the small hours and the fog got thicker I started to suffer more and more from overwhelming sleepiness. I began to feel drunk. And not good drunk. Arsey, grumpy and slightly vomitey drunk. In truth I think this experience only lasted for around an hour, but time became quite distorted in my mind and when I finally snapped out of the feeling I felt so guilty for subjecting my fellow runners to my mood. But then I noticed that each of us in turn was suffering from the grumps. Things became a bit tense when the guys who had been behind overtook us. At first none of us mentioned it, but then Robbie brought it up and once we'd all had a chance to vent our disappointment things became much better, and we pushed on.
Checkpoints make ultra distance so much more manageable mentally, as they allow you to break the run into do-able chunks. The other, and of course far more significant thing about them are the wonderful people you meet on each one. They give you the mental equivalent of a hot bath and a nap, and provide a fantastic selection of snacks to keep you going despite your stomach trying to reject anything you put near it. For me all the night checkpoints have rolled into a blur of lights, tastes and jokes in my head. By the time we'd passed the 63 checkpoint, the 'manageable' distance of 15 miles to the next one seemed like an insurmountable task. In truth, I don't even remember checkpoint 78. However checkpoint 87 will stick in my mind forever because....what's that smell....? OH YES! It's BACON SANDWICHES!! Food of the gods!
From point 78 we pushed on, with the end in sight, but also seeming such a massive distance away! We'd been reduced to a kind of run-shuffle, expending as little energy as possible whilst trying to maintain maximum possible pace. Somewhere between checkpoints 93 and 99 we were stopped by a woman with a tractor who wanted help unhitching a grass-cutter from it. The looks on our faces must have been priceless! She seemed less than amused that these fine strapping lads were too weak to help. We tried to explain why, made our apologies, and shuffled away as fast as our weary legs would take us.
Not long before the finish was due we crested the brow of a hill and...there was Bath! And, oh my god it still looked such a long way! If I'm honest I have no idea how I ran these last few miles. I trailed behind the guys, who seemed to have found a new lease of life with the impending finish. Just before we got to the end we were met by a marshall who ran us through the main street of Bath, clearing pedestrians from our path. We were frankly too tired to have coped with dodging and weaving in a busy shopping centre! As we rounded the corner and saw the abbey there in front of us, we threw our arms around each other shoulders and.....
...Finished!
The whole run was an amazing experience, but what I will take from it the most is the friendship of those guys through the night.
