Written by Mark Cameron - https://markcameronrunner.wordpress.com

Way back in January, while feeling sorry for myself after injuring my leg and not being able to move off the lounge floor, I started getting down, almost depressed.  I tried to motivate myself by buying god knows how many trainers and running gear, then also started entering races in the hope that one day I would line up on the start line.

Sounds a little over dramatic ? Maybe to some but believe me, i was genuinely worried about never being able to walk again let alone run, i was in that much trouble.

One event i entered was the Peak District Skyrace, totally seduced by awesome photos and videos, the title “Skyrace” , plus watching some really cool pro-athletes taking part in Skyraces around the world.

To cut a long intro short, on August 2nd 2015, 8am, I lined up on the start line………….

The Peak District is around 240 miles away from where i live, I didn’t realise this when i entered as am very much a warm weather traveler – I head South whenever i can.  First problem to tackle was driving “up North”, I had never driven that far before (sad, i know), and similar to my running where i avoid long journeys on concrete, the though of spending 4+ hrs on a motorway filled me with dread.

We traveled up the day before the race, booking into a really nice hotel in Buxton called the Roseleigh hotel for two nights, my trusty 10 year old Ford Fiesta didn’t let me down along the way.  The room was great, no lift though so 55 steps up to the top floor where our room was – fine while i was fresh, not so fine after the race :)

Buxton is a lovely place, a spa town where life is so much more laid back then back home.  We walked around the town, it was filled with tea rooms, pubs and restaurants (the tea rooms excited me most, so many nice cakes and pies), then checked out the location of the start line – literally a few minutes from the hotel, bonus !

The night before the race I had an early dinner, just pasta i’d brought with me, and had a surprisingly good sleep until my alarm woke me at 5am on Sunday.  The owners of the hotel had delivered me a special room service breakfast since i was heading off too early to eat in the restaurant – cereal, bread, jam, egg and cheese.  To avoid the issues of the Chiltern race I had carefully planned my food in advance for the whole week, but as usual had only vaguely stuck to this plan, and when faced with the tray of goodies for breakfast or a pre-prepared bowl of oats, i opted for the goodies.

Sally and I strolled over to the start line around 7:15,  i registered, met a few familiar faces as well as some new ones, and then got myself ready.  A really well run operation meant we had no problems here, plus there was a great atmosphere among the runners, so easy to chat to and pass the time.

At the start line I met a guy called Jason, a more experienced runner than me who was aiming to hit around 6 hours for the race.  As this was the time i naively was also gunning for we agreed to run together, this race was Jason’s 50th birthday present to himself (he joked he couldn’t afford the motorbike her wanted so this was second best), he also said this would be his last Ultra (yeh right, we all say that!).

I won’t give you a step by step account of the race, 50km distance and 2,000 meter ascent would take too long, but to summarise as quick as possible, it was awesome.  You know when you play a console game with open world exploring, you go through all kinds of terrain, well this was similar: hills, bogs, marsh, puddles, bigger puddles, rigdges to race along, mountains to climb, hills to descend, forests to explore, rain, cloud, sun, cold, hot, it had it all.

I will let the photo’s give you a better idea of what i experienced – see the end of the blog for most of them.  Pictures speak louder than words……

Jason and I stuck together throughout the race, my shin meant running downhill was a real pain (literally), getting overtaken by everyone along the way including an older guy (looking at the results I think his name was Steven Jones, an experienced fell runner?) who was like a teenage running downhills so fast and easy, but then I made up for it hiking up the hills which i was pretty strong at.  I only suffered cramp once, a huge improvement vs previous races, staying hydrated and the odd salt tablet really helped, as well as being in much better shape than previous races this year.  I also introduced Jason to the salt tabs at a point when he was in the “difficult zone” – amazed someone with his experience had never tried them before, so glad they worked for him.

Along the way I met up with various other runners i had made friends with on social media, many thanks to Kirsty and Stephanie for the company along much of the route, really nice to meet Billy, Gary, Matt and many others along the way, so nice to share experience like this with others – as the quote goes “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”.

Epic views going up the mountains !

Jason & myself

I knew Sally would be waiting at the finish line and i’d told her i’d finish between 6 and 7 hours, it was getting close to that deadline, in the final mile i had plenty of energy left so put in a final kick.  We missed our 6 hour target, finishing  just under 7 hrs, around 76th place out of about 130 finishers (there were some people who dnf’d, mostly due to the cut off time i think), but I also finished in probably the best condition yet – very little cramp, no injuries, no health scares, i really enjoyed it and felt fresh enough to think i could have carried on further (even Sally was amazed at the condition i ended the race in).  Above all, i finished having made a new friend along the way, that’s the biggest medal anyone can give me – after the top 3 places who received silver plates as prizes, it doesn’t really matter where you finish as you all get the same (medal, t-shirt, and loads and loads of cake).  If you’d asked me a couple of months ago if I had any chance of starting, let alone finishing this race, i’d have said no way, so to finish and enjoy this was my main goal.

Biggest learning point for me on this race, shoes yet again – this time i chose good shoes but then put some gel insoles in them last minute, these slipped about and worked their way out of my shoe, so annoying so i ripped them out and did half the race with no insoles in my shoes, could feel every stone under my feet.

Finishing line sprint !

Would I do the Peak Skyrace again ? It pains me to say no, not because i didn’t enjoy it, it was probably the best race/run of my short running career, but because i want to stick to my rule of not chasing Pb’s and to instead chase new challenges and experiences.  What this has done is encourage me to enter another Skyrace, perhaps one abroad next year, although i appreciate the high standards set by this race are influenced heavily by a great set of race directors (thanks to Forest, Richard and Billy).

We stayed a second night in Buxton, for once i had an appetite so pizza and beer were on the menu followed by a really good sleep.  The next day we loaded the car up, the loaded it up more following a tour of the tea rooms (cake, sausage rolls, pasties!), and took a leisurely drive home.  The following days i suffered a little from tiredness and some aching calf muscles, i really should stretch after a race, but also suffered from knowing i had no more races booked in this year.  I decided to change tactics for a month or so, focus on resting my leg from long runs, enter 5k Parkruns, and train on the shorter/faster distance for a change.  This feels really weird, 30-45 minutes after setting off on a training run i’m back home, so much time to spare – but then again, so much time to do other things like time with Sally and finish off important work in my day job.

Thanks for reading…………….