Wales, Wales, land of the Hills and the....bogs...

Might Contain Nuts ultramarathon - round 4, the winter edition.

It seemed like a really long time since the Winter 100 when I entered this race! I remember trying to sign up to it last year, but there were no places. This year I was lucky to get in a few weeks in advance.

Since the winter 100 I'd only raced once, the Cornish Marathon which I ran with Rebecca Mingo (we both went into that run whinging about how our hearts weren't in it, and how we just wanted a nice gentle run. We then blasted off the run at a sub 7 min mile pace...something I'm VERY uncomfortable with! These short stubby legs were not designed to reach those speeds!! By 5 miles I was absolutely trashed! But we managed joint third, and got an awesome hamper as a prize!)
 

So, off to the Brecons! I lived in Wales for 3 years during my undergrad degree, but I'd never seen the Brecons. I drove up after work on the friday night and at 11pm arrived at the hostel. The moon was full, the sky was clear and there was minimal light pollution, which made the landscape look otherworldly. The good weather held until the next morning, and throughout the whole of the run.

This was a race of highs and lows. Literally and metaphorically. I've tagged each paragraph as appropriate.

High! - Set of  a little faster than I have been starting ultras this year, knowing that it was 'only' 45 miles. I felt pretty good, and when I hit the first climb I realised the Duncan Oakes was just up ahead of me. That suggested to me that I was going too fast! But I got caught up chatting with Duncan, and kept pace with him for a while. I yoyo'd with some of the front guys for a bit, as I ran up hills (slowly) while they ran past me on the flats and downhills. 
Low. - Pretty soon I started to get pain in my hips (a running injury that I've developed over the year and haven't sorted out.) As usual I hadn't looked at the route map, and so had no idea of distances. It seemed like a very long way between checkpoint on this race. I knew it wasn't, but I was feeling quite lethargic quite early on, and despite the wonderful scenery I really wanted to get the distance covered as quickly as possible.
High! - We hit a flat(ish)setion across completely open moorland, complete with bogs, and one of the movements from Rachmaninov vespers came onto my iPod. I relaxed my stride, let my upper-body go floppy and my hips swing, and strode out feeling wonderful!
Low. - Soon after the moorland stretch, the route changed to forest paths. My legs started to feel quite heavy, and the gravely paths jarred my whole body. I realised I was running low on calories and had under-estimated my needs. 
High! - I resigned myself to feeling shit, and cheered up. Something about accepting the feeling makes it more bearable. And although I had a guy trailing me quite close, and was already struggling to run up gentle slopes after only 25-odd miles, I felt much more relaxed and settled down to enjoy my run.
Low. - I met a runner who had been ahead of me. I said 'so it's only about 10 miles left, yeah?' he said 'No, more like 18, and there's a lot of climb'. Bugger.
High! - I hit the climb. And then remembered that was my strong point. I lost the guy behind me as I powered on upwards, passing some really miserable looking soldiers going in the other direction! I was thirst, so grabbed a handful of snow to eat. Oh, this felt great! Hit the top of thie climb and my legs had loosened off beautifuly. I strode off down the other side!
Low - I came across the checkpoint at the bottom of the decent. I was completely unsure of how far I had covered now, and so asked the question that I knew I really didn't want to know the answer to...how far left? I was told I was at 32 miles. And I'd covered that in 5hrs 45 mins. That was much slower than I wanted. But then they told me The the lead runner was only 10 mins ahead, so maybe I wasn't doing so badly.
Still low: I was really struggling with lack of energy, and had no gels left. I was overtaken by one of the guys who'd been close behind me from the start.
Really low - I puffed and panted my way to the top of a hill, only to realise that there were no more route signs. They had been so consistent so far, that I knew I was lost. I knew I had to turn round and find the last sign. I used a lot of energy as I increased my pace to get back to the previous signpost. 
High(ish) - after what seemed like a lifetime of running, wondering how much further I had to go, I saw a road sign that said 'Talybont-On-Usk - 1 mile'. Oh thank god for that!
Low - I started to feel cold, shivery, weak...hypoglycaemic. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I still couldn't see the village where the finish was. I felt like I was moving through treacle.
High - Suddenly, there it was. The finish. Around a bend and hidden behind a load of trees. I crossed the finish in 3rd place overall, and was met by some wonderful wonderful people. All negative feelings evaporated, I was DONE!

At the race HQ I had the best bacon sandwich I have ever experienced. I chatted to some wonderful people, whose names I'm sorry to say I completely forgot (post-race brain death). The MCN crew were absolutely wonderful. 
Thanks so much to everyone involved in organising/marshalling this race. It was a hell of a way to finish off 2014, and I will definately be back to experience more of what Wales (and MCN) has to offer!

Just for giggles

A lot of the scientific journals publish spoof articles at this time of year. For some of the entertaining medical ones, check out http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-best-of-the-british-medical-journals-goofy-christmas-papers-180948177/?no-ist

So here is my silly xmas blog entry.


I see a lot of links, particularly on facebook, to lists. Silly lists. List like '12 things every girl with a big Butt will know is true', '15 things flat-chested girls will understand' 'Stuff you will understand if you are a curvy girl'. They're not just limited to body shape. I've also seen lists of 'Things you will understand if you are from [insert place name here].' 'Things you will get if you are married to a [insert occupation of spouse here].


Here is my own inane list of stuff...
Things you may just have experienced if you are a female endurance runner!

•  Trouser waistlines that are stupidly baggy whilst the legs only just fit over your massive thighs.

• Not being able to find any summer clothing that suitable hides the chafe marks from your last long run.

• Farting/blowing your nose on your sleeve/describing your bowel movements, then suddenly realising you're not in the company of runners, whilst your collegues/friends look on at you in disgust.

• The embarrasment (and little bit of pride) you feel when changing in a public place, whilst knowing that your body looks like it's recently gone through a heavy S&M session. 

• The look of annoyance on someones face when they ask 'how far did you run today' and you reply 'Oh, only 15 or so miles'. And you just know they're thinking what a smug git you are!

• The idea of a pedicure. Even if you had any toenails left, all the nail polish in the world isn't going to make your leathery feet look any better. 

• Oh, and those fish-pedicure things? Yeah, like those little buggers could handle the rock-solid skin on the soles of your feet!

• Someone saying 'you're so lucky, you can eat what you want and stay thin', without realising that you would probably be morbidly obese if you ate that amount without training the amount you do.

• (For medical runners only...explaining to a patient that they're overweight and need to diet/exercise and them replying 'oh it's alright for you, I bet you eat whatever you want and stay that thin')

• The question 'so how many times do you stop and sleep whan you're doing a hundred mile run?'

• Owning one item of party-wear. And the rest of your wardrobe is taken up with running-gear.

• The isolated feeling of being the only girl queuing for the squat rack in the gym.

• The liberating realisation, (after 80-odd miles, when your legs are so trashed that you can't squat down) that it's not only guys who can pee standing up. 

This list is by no means complete! Please feel free to send me suggestions, and I will add them to the list (properly cited, of course!)

Merry xmas all.