Written by Alistair Flowers - http://alistairflowers.com/

After finishing my first ultra I can definitely tell you that it was one of the hardest things I have ever done but also one of the most enjoyable. I don’t think I had really quite grasped just how far 40 miles was until I got to about the 50k mark! I went through a lot out on the course – mainly mental which was a surprise, I thought my mind was stronger than it turned out to be but I was glad my body turned out to be more than capable.

I’m happy, and proud, to say I finished the 40 miles in 8th place with a time of 7:24:19. At the very least I wanted to finish in the top 10 and I’ll admit that before the start I had harboured ideas of a podium place – I continued to hold onto this idea until I was passed and dropped into 3rd at mile 18! It was at this point I realised I had underestimated the task at hand and gone off far too quickly but I’ll write more about that in the lap breakdowns below.

One of the biggest problems facing almost everybody on the day was the heat and humidity – I for one could not get enough water all day and because of this I feel more proud of my top 10 finish because of the climatic conditions than I would have if it had been cool. I finished the race dehydrated and depleted of salt; if I run in similar conditions again I’ve learned I’m going to need to add more Nuun tablets to my water and I’m going to need to carry two handhelds instead of the one I used this time around.

To round off my summary and introduction I would just like to say a MASSIVE thank you to the amazing crew and pacing support of a Miss Gabrielle Lee who was on hand at the end of every lap with supportive words, quick water/electrolyte refills and the nous to change up the food in my lap bags to something I could handle after the end of the second lap. A big credit to her as well because she paced me out at the start of my second lap which was not part of the race plan at all!

Before

We set off for Grimsthorpe on the afternoon of Thursday 31st July. It’s a two hour journey and the sun had been shining all day long! Everything was prepared and ready to go all we had to do was find our hotel, check in and then head up to the race area to set up the crew tent.

Shortly after arriving at our hotel though the weather abruptly changed! The humidity peaked and then the clouds burst for about two and a half hours of torrential rain. My heart began to sink at this point as my research of previous year’s events told me that The Grim Reaper would be a very, very muddy course if enough rain fell for long enough. I tried to blank these thoughts from  my mind and set to making up my lap bags for the race. Each bag contained one energy gel, an Anzac biscuit and 6 Haribo Tangfastics – as you will read, the content of the bags changed drastically after mile 20!

Once all the final preparations had been made Gabrielle and I set off for Grimsthorpe Castle to set up the tent and to say hello to other competitors, the Race Director and crew and to get a feel for the place. Miraculously it stopped raining almost as soon as we began the 6 mile drive and the heat and humidity began to build again! This cheered me up no end and when we arrived at the race area I was heartened to feel that the ground underfoot had not turned to bog and mud. After setting up the tent and sharing a few words with various people Gabrielle and I retreated back to our hotel in the village of Little Bytham for dinner and an ale or two.

Lap 1 – 16k/10 miles (1:16:40 – 2nd at end of lap)

There is a first time for everything and as this was my first ultra I thought I’d go for another first and start from the front row. In my mind I was thinking about a top 3 finish and I thought I wouldn’t harm my chance by starting with the front runners! The plan was to knock off every kilometre between 4:50 and 4:58 pace for this lap…that plan soon went out of the window when the hooter sounded and we were set loose on the course! Over the next 16km I ran an average of about 4:40 or thereabouts. Granted, I was feeling strong and confident and I was really enjoying being out at the front of a race for the first time in my life – it was strange seeing just one other person in front of me for almost the entire way. He slipped from my view around the 13km mark and I never saw him again!

I was conscious that I’d abandoned my race plan at around 14km when the Race Director shouted the guy in front was about a thousand yards ahead and I was looking strong. I ran on by with a thank you and listened out for him shouting out to whoever might be behind me and when I heard nothing over about 100m I broke one of my cardinal race rules – I looked back and saw not a soul! I’ll be honest, I can’t remember now whether that scared me or whether that spurred me on but I reckon it was probably a mixture of both. I ran on oblivious to anything for the next 2km with a smile on my face and enjoying the feeling of running a race pretty much stranded between the leader and the rest of the field!

I ran into the aid station at mile 10 to see Gabby already waiting to refill my handheld with 500ml of water and a Nuun tablet. We didn’t say much to each other and I just remember grinning as one of the race crew told me the leader was about five or six minutes ahead of me. I already had my pre-prepared lap bag in my waist pouch so after about a minute of information gathering and water refilling I set off again in a bid to close the gap on the leader and to create a gap between myself and the rest of the field!

Lap 2 – 32k/20 miles (1:32:14 – 4th at end of lap)

After stopping very briefly at the end of my first lap I set off full of vigour and had decided to settle into my plan having abandoned it during the previous 10 miles! Lap 2’s plan had called for an average of 5:35 per kilometre and so I slowed to this pace and was feeling very comfortable now that I knew what to expect from the course seeing as it was a ten mile loop. I was rolling along with a smile on my face and not feeling particularly taxed all the way to the half way point of the lap – for some reason my cardinal rule of never looking behind in a race was broken again and I allowed myself a peek down the switchback as I came out of a wooded area onto a long stretch of road section. I saw nobody and so I thought my plan was working! I had a feeling I wouldn’t be catching the guy in first but I also felt as though nobody was going to be chasing me down anytime soon either.

I believe this was a mistake on my part – over confidence led me to rely on my plan too much and I zoned out of the race for a while. With 15 miles gone my mind switched off and I didn’t hear the guy who, at that time, was in 3rd creeping up behind me! If I had been more attuned to the situation then I might have been able to press on a little and hold onto my position but at around mile 18 he glided past me with a friendly word and asked if I knew how far the leader was out front. I replied as far as I knew the guy was maybe seven or eight minutes ahead and without another word off he ran! This blew my mind because as I watched him increase the gap I saw him eating and I realised then that I’d made a big mistake – I had not touched a morsel of food at this point and I’d been fuelling myself on a bowl of muesli and just under a litre of water. So it was that I pulled my waist pouch around and pulled out an Anzac biscuit – I had vowed that the gels were for emergencies only as I really wanted to complete the 40 miles on real food.

I took one bite of the Anzac and realised it was going to take some effort to chew, swallow and digest it – not only that it was also going to require me to take on more fluid just to keep my mouth from drying up. My splits from Strava tell the tale of this section of the race! At 28 klicks I’d been on my pace plan running merrily along at 5:30 and then I was overtaken, dropping into 3rd. At 29km I started to struggle with eating and slowed to 6:17 for that kilometre and was again unexpectedly overtaken by the eventual winner of the race, dropping into 4th. At kilometre 30 I was struggling with digestion and so had slowed to 7:00! Between kilometre 30 and 31 I was battling with my mind fiercely. I was arguing with myself about the stupidity of my food choices, berating myself for blowing it so early into the race and feeling generally annoyed that I was finding it tough before I’d even got to the marathon mark, it was then that I noticed I was about a kilometre from the end of the lap and still very much in the game for a podium spot if I could salvage my pace! So it was that I ran into the aid station at mile 20 trying to look strong.

All pretense of strength collapsed the minute I got to my cool box and Gabrielle. I think Gabs was pretty shocked to see my mental game had gone out of the window so early on! The plan at this point had called for her to force me to eat a banana and a handful of rice but that too went out of the window – as soon as banana touched my tongue I wanted to throw up so I spat it out before even chewing it and when I threw some rice into my mouth it felt like I was chewing gravel so I spat that out too! So, for the next four minutes Gabs tried valiantly to buoy me up and to feed me Haribo, water and orange pieces whilst at the same time emptying out my pre-prepared lap bag and filling it with orange slices and more Haribo whilst quietly jettisoning the Anzac biscuit that I had, before the race, felt to be my secret nutritional weapon!

Leaving the aid station on this lap was the hardest point of the race for me even though I hadn’t even gone marathon distance! It was so hot and humid, my race/hydration/nutrition plan had gone out of the window and I knew that I had only just got to the halfway point. Another 20 miles of constantly changing terrain with very little by way of shade awaited!! The plan was for Gabrielle to run out with me at mile 30 for 5km to keep my spirits up but she adapted to the situation and, although wearing a dress and a normal bra instead of her sports bra and running shorts she laced up her Mizuno and paced me out from the aid station – I will be completely honest, I think if I’d have been on my own at this point I’d have probably stayed in the aid station a lot longer, dropped a few more places and might not even have finished!

Lap 3 – 48k/30 miles (2:08:08 – 7th at end of lap)

I know there is no shame in walking during ultras but it took me a bit of time to get that into my brain during this lap. Gabrielle constantly had to gee me up for the first 5 klicks before she peeled off and headed back up to the aid station. We walked a little, we ran a little, we walked a little, we ran a little and then at about 3km into the lap I finally picked up my spirits and my pace and ran 2km before bidding farewell to Gabs.

I don’t really remember too much about the first seven miles or so of this lap. The main thing I recall is repeating to myself over and over “Hike the ups, run the downs” and so this is what I did – on the flat sections I also ran 500m and then hiked 500m regardless of terrain. The Grim Reaper course is difficult, in my opinion, because of the changing terrain – it’s made up of around 50% pavement, 15% grass and 35% crushed limestone. Normally I like to run on road and I love running on gravel, limestone and other hardpack trail surfaces but, equally, I hate running on grass because it saps all the energy from the legs! Therefore I found three particular sections of the course very hard going.

At around the 6km mark after a short uphill section through some woods you find yourself on a long stretch of flat grass – I think it was probably just over a kilometre long which meant it just wasn’t feasible to hike the whole section if I didn’t want to lose places but having said that I dropped from 4th to 5th at this point even with the run/walk strategy in full swing! Then, with about 2.5 miles to go you find yourself going from a largely downhill pavement section into an open, very hot and very humid wheat field. I could find no discernible trail on the field at all and so on every lap apart from the first I hiked three quarters of the field and ran the last bit as it swung around to a gentle rolling downhill limestone trail section. I ran out of water at this point on the second lap and also the third because I just felt the need to hydrate because of the heat in the field! Finally, with just over a kilometre to go you transfer from limestone hardpack to the final grassy field. Although this field is eminently more runable than either of the fields preceding it, because it’s at the end of the lap I found myself struggling with the idea of running it even though I knew at the end of it was a 500m limestone/hard pack trail followed by the final 500m stretch of pavement to the aid station!

Anyway, I digress! The reason I don’t remember much about the first seven miles or so of this lap is because at around this point I was awakened from my mantra of “Hike the ups, run the downs” by a rather large herd of cows straddling the course. Now, at the best of times I’m pretty scared of the bovine species and as this could not be described as the best of times I was feeling pretty petrified! The worst part was that I noticed them just as I was about to pick up my pace from power hike to run but stopped dead in my tracks instead. Because the cows had calves with them I thought they posed an even greater threat than had they just been adult cows on their own. I looked behind to see that the guy behind me was also looking pretty lost for words and the guy behind him suggested we all run through together. As the three of us began the cows started to pick up their pace too and ended up running by us and we ran through the middle of them! Looking back, this was where I lost my 5th place and dropped to 6th. I ran and hiked the next two miles shoulder to shoulder with the guy in 7th – he confided that his hamstring was giving him hell and he’d need a big push to get out of the aid station at mile 30. He had no idea he was in the top 10 until I told him! I thought it would help him out but although surprised and happy with the news he urged me to carry on to the end and so I pushed on from here.

I got the aid station feeling pretty pleased that I had only one lap to go! My shoulders at this point were killing me but my legs felt quite strong so to keep them that way I took the time to put on my compression socks, eat some orange and drink some water. All the while Gabs was filling a lap bag with orange pieces and more Haribo. I asked the race crew which position I was in when I arrived at the station and they told me I was in 7th so I decided I’d wait for the guy who was behind me who I’d run with to see if I could persuade him to come out on the last lap! I spent about 10 minutes at the aid station and he came in just as I was planning on getting a move on – he was still in 8th at this point but couldn’t get over the cramping in his forearms and legs. It was sad to see him pull out at such a late stage but he gave me encouragement and told me to get a move on!

Lap 4 – 64k/40 miles (2:13:43 – 8th Place)

Gabs paced me out again on this lap and joined me for about 6km, we went with the run/walk strategy again and found ourselves next to the guy who had just taken 8th for most of the first 5km of the final lap! Once Gabrielle peeled off at the 6km mark I bunny-hopped between 7th and 8th until about the 8km mark at which point I picked it up a little and headed out for the last five miles determined not to drop out of position again!

My strategy was firmly entrenched at this point: power hike 500m and run 500m on the flat, hike the ups and run the downs – no matter how difficult! And boy was the last push difficult! My friend William who was running the 100 miler caught up with me just after Gabs had peeled off to return to the start and we hiked and chatted for a short while – his indomitable will spurred me on a lot during the last ten miles as he was never really too far in front of me. We ran a few sections and hiked a few sections together and I took solace from the fact he was looking so strong and hadn’t even got halfway through his own race and his first ultra! (He finished in 17th place, 24:43:11 and it seems he hobbled the last 30 miles on a broken ankle!!)

Again, I digress, largely because at this point I was feeling slightly confused and a bit emotional as I was nearing the end of my first ultra! Just like the previous lap I can’t remember much detail about this one. All I know is that on the final downhill pavement section with about 4 klicks to go I found myself running with the second placed lady in the 40 and eventual 9th place overall finisher. We exchanged a few kind words and encouraged each other to keep on keeping on – the next time I saw Jessica was as she crossed the finishing line looking happy, tired and very surprised when they told her she’d finished as 2nd female!

Another thing that sticks out about this lap is losing my 7th place with about 1.2km to go! A guy who I thought was running the 70 was gaining on me and as he approached I asked how he was doing, he told me he’d had a tough lap and wasn’t feeling so great – I told him he should take solace from the fact that although he might not feel strong he was looking it…and then I asked which race he was in. We made eye contact, both smiled and then both said we were in the 40 and then I remember him saying “Well, I guess that means we’re racing to the end!” and then somehow he managed to pick up his pace! I tried to cover the move but as we came off the limestone and hard pack trail onto the final field I broke into a walk and he carried on relentlessly towards the finish – in any other race to date I would have relished the prospect of a racing finish but I was just too happy to feel the finish getting closer. I really didn’t want to risk upping the pace and potentially imploding and having to power hike the finishing straight and possibly losing my position in the top 10!

The best thing was that instead of giving up after losing out on 7th so late in the race I looked up and saw Gabrielle jogging towards me! I broke into a run for a little bit until we were shoulder to shoulder and then power hiked it to the final gravel path section that leads into the 500m finishing straight. Being an amazing pacer, Gabs could see I was feeling dejected about losing my 7th place so she told me I was being chased down by some other runners in the 40 and as I got onto the final path I started to run again! The truth of the matter was that there were runners behind me but they were by no means chasing me down, nor were they running the 40 miler but I cannot begin to explain how important it was for my morale and my race to be told that at this point. Gabs took one final photograph of me on the gravel path and then ran up to the finish line to get a shot of me coming in to complete my first ultra!

About a hundred metres out Jennifer (a lady from the winning 100 mile relay team) and Gabs shouted out for a sprint finish! I grinned to myself and thought I’d give it a go and, I have no idea how, I managed to pick up my pace significantly and sprinted those last hundred metres like my life depended on it!

Afterwards

Yeah, I’ve finished my first ultra in 8th place. Yeah, I’ve finished it with just one blister. Yeah, my pacer and crew member was totally amazing over the preceding 7 hours 24 minutes and 19 seconds. But when I’d finished and sat down I felt like the happiest man in the world because Gabrielle gave me a yellow Jelly Baby thus proving that ultras do crazy things to your mind and your appetite! Another bit of proof to support this fact is that I craved tea almost as soon as I got my medal around my neck – I haven’t drank tea, or milk, for well over a year but I went straight to the kettle and brewed up with milk and two sugars. I had another two after that as well!

It took a long time for me to feel settled once I’d finished. Gabs kept the Jelly Babies coming and kept plying me with water but for some reason I could not face eating anything other than Jelly Babies. After leaving the aid station area and heading back to my own crew tent I stripped down to my shorts, threw myself on the ground and asked Gabrielle to pour a litre of water all over my body from head to toe – once she’d poured it over my back I turned around and urged her to pour another litre over my front! Shortly after this I got some pretty bad cramping in my calf muscles and rushed to get my compression socks back on. We had a laugh about this for almost an hour as my calf muscles kept forming into very random shapes and making my legs involuntarily spasm – in between severe spasms they just danced their own merry dance.

After a short lie down and some phone calls we took the tent down, I put on some non-running clothes, grabbed an ale from the cool box and then did the rounds of the campsite/crew area to say congratulations to 40 mile finishers and good luck to those 70 and 100 mile runners that were still around. It was awesome to meet so many new people and to see a few people I knew at the race. The sense of camaraderie, fun and encouragement is something completely different from anything I’ve experienced at any other race and I hope my next ultra will be just the same in terms of atmosphere.

So, that’s it! The longest race I’ve competed in so far and the longest race report I’ve ever written!! I hope you’ve enjoyed the read 

One two buckle my shoe, three four knock on the door, five six pickup sticks” I chanted away to my daughters favourite song the only thing I knew to help keep some rhythm as I trudged along, the distinct crunch of snow under foot and the cold burn of thin air in my lungs…here it was…the “Death March”…the one that Ice Trail Tarentaise is known to induce. Now 42km and some 4000+ vertical meters into the race and I was concerned about one thing…legitimately concerned…. only about one thing..….survival!

The Ice Trail Tarentaise is a 65km/5000m+ Sky race set in the stunning mountain town of Valdisere France. It is billeted as one of the hardest Sky races, kilometre for kilometre, around and for good reason! Combining extreme altitude with anywhere between 40-60% of ice and snow covered trail, 60 of the 65km held at above 2000m, 2 mountain summits above 3300m, temperatures that can range anywhere between 20deg and -15 and a mandatory kit that includes CRAMPON’s (albeit running ones). It’s a complete monster!

Valdisere itself is surrounded by sheer walls of vertical rock and high alpine forest, it is one hell of an inspiring place to stay. As soon as we drove into the town it put a smile on my face and made Chamonix even look a little douche grade!

After a few days hiking and “jogging” the town came alive and it was race weekend. I got the pleasure of watching my wife Tymeka push the limit on the vertical km, so steep was its terrain that Tymeka (despite not taking poles) was forced to pick up a stick and half a discarded broken ski pole to help haul herself up the slippery, wet and steep slopes that made up the VK course! It was INSANE!

Before long it was race morning and I was lucky enough to have another awesome crew of ANZAC’s (Aussie and NZLers) to stand shoulder to shoulder with against the Europeans again. This time I was joined by Matt Cooper, Vlad Ixel and Scott Hawker.

The weather was dubious on the day and we had been warned of rain, low cloud and maybe snow on the summits. I donned my usual race kit but opted for a buff instead of the visor and headed for the start line.

Before long the crowd assembled and we were off! The start was fast, I mean real fast for this type of race clocking off sub 4min/km’s for the only few flat km’s we would see that day. I settled in somewhere in the top 10 with Vlad and Scott close behind and Matt just ahead.

It was here in the opening few kilometres of the race that I nearly lost my life!! We ran along some tight single trail and in the light of my headlamp I noticed some horses in a paddock just meters away, I thought nothing of it and kept running. However about 100m down the trail I heard some very heavy footsteps coming up from behind….I had thought it was just someone sprinting up to take positions early but when Vlad behind me screamed “WATCH OUT” I knew something was terribly wrong.

I spun around and just as I did caught the eyes of a stampeding scared horse in my head lamp, he was right there less than half a meter from me and he was on track to take me out!!! I froze in complete shock (and little bit of fear) and at the last second he darted off to the right of me and into the bushes I assume scared by my bright light!! My heart was racing…but there was a race to run so I spun back around tripping and wobbly trying to process what just happened and took back off after Matt.

The course basically climbs straight up from Valdiere to the summit of the Grand Motte Glacier at 3600m covering 1850 vertical meters in about 15km. For much of the initial climb I was running with Matt and Vlad with Scott not too far behind and I was feeling good. I had a goal of finishing top 10 and if I was holding no fatigue from Worlds then top 5 was maybe on the cards. The field at Ice Trail was deep however and included both Luis Alberto Hernado (Sky running world champ) and François d’Haene (2nd Sky champs) as well as IAU Trail Champion Tom Owens amongst a swag of other elite Europeans.

Before long the landscape started to change as we pushed further and further upwards into the sky. Softer trails studded with trees quickly gave way to rocky treeless alpine access roads and then finally to snow, ice and blue alpine sky. A quick stop for crampons and a jacket and I was back off through the 1st check point and still running…well kind of…towards the summit .

Its here that the full force of the first and biggest climb is felt as we turned up on the final kick to the summit. The course took us directly up a ski run that would have had to be 40-50% as we broke through the 3300m altitude barrier. I was bent over like a pocket knife hands on knees, breathing like a pack a day asthmatic and with a cadence that resembled a drunk stagger as opposed to a running race.

Matt was right beside me and we worked together to push further upwards chasing the leaders that we could now see further up the icey slope, but I was starting to falter. I could feel the deep fatigue in my legs from the sky champs and my hamstrings and glutes where working overtime, thankfully some encouragement from Matt helped me crest the summit with my dignity in tact.

The view from atop the Grande Motte can really only be likened to that of the summit of Everest. Cloud hung low below us like a sea of white with just a few 4000m mountain peaks breaking though in the distance, we were certainly on top of the world!

We where still in the top 10 at this stage and was I really looking forward to the 1000m+ descent that was about to come. However the down hill was a wolf in sheep’s clothing! We had to return back down the 50% Ice slope! The slope was about 800m long and had recently had a grooming machine over it so there was not a soft spot to be found. Pounding down the icy ground feet slapping everywhere was a horribly painful jarring experience. There was no were to hide on this section, no rock to bound off no berm or twist to change your gait….just pure painful pounding and I would compare it exactly to running down a 50% grade of concrete for 800m at full tilt.

It was no surprise then that soon after this punishing section of the descent my quads had packed their bags and headed home and it was only 20km in! The rest of the descent was much nicer but I was unable to really enjoy it for what it was on my shaking quivering mess of legs.

We rolled down maintaining our positions towards the 30km checkpoint. I had arranged for Tymeka to crew me so was looking forward to seeing her and Indie and picking up some much needed energy and spirit. As we came in Tymeka was nowhere to be found, dam it I thought. I stood there for a second to think about my options but realised there was only one. Push on without fuel.

The next section was more runnable than I had thought with a few ups and down before a long climb up towards the Co de lIseran. I was out of fuel and starting to bonk having to walk sections I sure my mum could run up. However all despair aside I somehow crept away from Matt (turns out his back packed it in on the descent too) and started to reel in a couple of Euros who where using poles in front.

Basically for the next 15km a YoYo battle would ensue between myself and these two other runners. On the runnable uphill I would reel them in and then on the super steep stuff they would power away with their poles, on the down hill I would reel them in and then we would do it all over again.

Finally the course burst out onto the only road section for the 2km run up to the restaurant on the Co de lIseran. I was in full walk/run mode unable to go more than 200m running without a break and making goals out of the Altispeed runners who had joined the course a few kms back.

At last I hit the restaurant at the Co de lIseran and to my utter surprise Tymeka was there! And just in time as well. I grabbed some much needed gels, water and punched as much Red Bull into me as I could. I learnt that Vlad was just ahead and Matt and Scott where both a way back with issues.

I set out of the checkpoint to what would be the hardest few hours of my running life. Although I felt better than before my legs were now nothing but unresponsive lumps of meat dangling from my hips. As soon as the steep upward grind kicked in I slowed to a despicable pace. My mind started to wonder thinking about all kinds of random things and begging for escape… and it began, the Ice Trail Death March.

I blocked out everything around me and focused on only survival, a genuine concern about my ability to make it to the finish had crept into my mind and for the next few hours my world was reduced to the next 30cm in front of my feet and a horribly catchy children’s rhyming song.

The climb up to the summit of the Co de lIseran was far harder than I could have imagined. It was filled with false summits, loose scree rock, snow, ice and the thin air of 3300m..again. It sapped all energy from me and turned the screws of fatigue so deep I doubted I would ever run again.

I finally made it to the summit and didn’t dwell, knowing full well there was nothing but cold death waiting for me if I stopped up there. I began the ginger descent and it took 10 or more minutes for my legs to come around and start working.

I burst into the checkpoint at 55km, exhausted, ruined but above all still alive. I learnt from Tymeka that Luis Alberto had dropped and some of the front runners where looking very rough. I was now in about 17th after losing many places on the shuffle up the last summit. Tymeka gave me a kiss and promptly kicked my ass back out onto the course….got to love a supportive wife.

There was just one more up hill to go and as I shuffled upwards again on loose scree and snow I heard the familiar voice of Ian Coreless as he snapped away some pictures of me well and truly inside the hurt locker. Maybe it was this little pick me up from Ian or the 8km of down hill that now lay before me, but a smile cracked across my weary face, my eyes brightened a little and I shouted….. “This is Sky RUNNING”!!! Then threw myself down the mountain like a racehorse with my jockeys whip cracking behind me.

I ran…no I flew down that descent faster than I have ever moved before and left many other runners in my wake. It had everything fast twisting single-track, deep snow, technical forest trail, scree the lot…. it was a down hill runners dream!

I ran myself from 17th to 13th in those last few km’s including another finish line sprint, I closed the gap on Vlad who I hadn’t seen for hours from 10min to just 60sec! I was done and I loved it!

Ice Trail really was a beautifully punishing race that will grind you into dust if you show but the slightest weakness. For me I had my lowest of lows and my highest of highs at Ice Trail, it was far from my perfect race but it taught me a lot about myself and racing in the mountains. While perhaps my worse result on paper it is for me among my greatest achievements and I can’t wait to do it again!

Kit Used
Shoes: La Sportiva Anakonda
Top: Compressport Trail Singlet + Compressport Arm Warmers
Bottom: Ron Hill Advanced Racer shorts
Compression: Compressport Trail Quads and R2 Calf Sleeves

Nutrition:
Endura Gels
Red Bull
Anything I could get from the check point when I ran out of gels.

Written by Paul Ali - http://ultraavon.com/

This is probably the longest blog I’ve written but I suppose it’s fitting for the longest running event in which I have participated. Be warned, you may need to be an experienced Ultra-endurance blogger to make it through to the end of this report. I’ve tried to add names, times and details as best I can remember but this may not be 100% accurate especially after 30-40 hours of no sleep. Anyway, read, divulge, enjoy and feel free to comment.

Pre-Race

I’ve written up the pre-race thoughts in a previous blog so I won’t repeat that information here.

For those that haven’t read it the brief summary is that we had just about hobbled home in 2010 GUCR, had trained a bit harder for the 2011 GUCR and had a sub 40 hr target in mind with a 38-40hr race plan agreed with the crew. To be honest, I was pretty confident that we were going to make the sub-40 target as it seemed to be a fairly modest goal.

Stouty (Fetch: Stouty), Shane Benzie (another GUCR entrant) and I travelled up by car on Friday from Reading to Birmingham. Stouty’s mate Paul Reed (so that’s another Paul) drove us up and was going to provide crew support for Stouty and I (Shane was an unsupported entrant) Saturday morning. The rest of the crew; Alan, Matt B (Fetch: Cheeky Conswala) and Matt C (Fetch: Cogs1) were travelling up Saturday lunchtime and were going crew the remainder of the race. In addition, Stouty had also organised some buddy runners (Harris, Nina and EJ) for a bit of company after the allowed 65 mile point.

We arrived in Birmingham at around 6pm and went direct to the Travelodge to register and collect our numbers. I checked in there and Stouty and Shane went to check in at their hotel which was a few minutes to drive away. There was some pre-race talk of meeting in O’Neills with other runners/crew and we decided to meet there and get something to eat.

Stouty and Shane took a bit longer to arrive than I had expected and I was hanging around in the pub surreptitiously trying to spot a GUCR t-shirt on someone. However, a short while later Ogee turned up with Firemannotsam and soon there was a small group of us having a chat, drink and something to eat. It was good to put a few names to faces at last. I didn’t get a chance to speak to everyone but a quick hello and name check to Rajeev, Claire, Jerry, George, James, Jany, Paul W, Mike, Dino, Allan, Lindley, Sue and Neil (apologies if I missed anyone at the table). Stouty (who I introduced as “The Wife” as we run all these events together) and Shane turned up shortly afterwards and also had something to eat.

The mood was generally positive with a little bit of apprehension (Claire!). The cold hard reality was that 50% off us probably wouldn’t finish the race that weekend which was a sobering thought. Ogee was feeling a little disappointed he wasn’t actually doing the race anymore following his withdrawal a few weeks earlier but a decision had been made and Firemannotsam was now relying on him to crew. It was a really enjoyable couple of hours and gave people a chance to meet and talk beforehand which sort of bonded everyone together, a pre-race meet the night before should be made a compulsory part of the race agenda in future.

I had something to eat and headed back to the hotel at about 9.30pm to get my kit and equipment ready for the next day. I had my camelbak packed, clothing laid out and even put some compeeds on the heels in preparation before I drifted off to sleep at about 10.30pm armed with ear plugs in to negate the street noise from outside.

Race Day

Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep fantastically well and awoke at 2am to the sound of my stopwatch going off every hour. I was still awake at 3am as the stopwatch was thrown across the room but eventually drifted off and dozed to about 4.45am when I got up. Despite missing the comforts of your own bed, I was paranoid about oversleeping especially as Stouty and Shane were staying elsewhere and I think this accounted for my poor sleep pattern. As a contingency, Stouty and I had agreed to call each other in the morning to check we were both up.

I had a cup of tea and a pot of blueberry porridge for breakfast, looked out the window to see a late night reveller worse for wear struggling to walk around a bollard and got changed into my gear. To avoid chaffing, I applied a liberal amount of sudacream to the usual spots (including my feet), this worked really well as I did not suffer from any chaffing at any point during the race. I find sudacream a better option than Vaseline in these situations. I also used one of the tri-belts (available for purchase pre race at £2) for displaying my number which was easy to clip on/clip off when you changed clothes. I had my tri-belt from last year and had my spare number pinned on this in case I needed to use this.

I walked to the start of the race with a couple of other runners and waited for Stouty, Shane and Paul R to turn up so I could handover my overnight bag. The weather was cool and overcast with plenty of grey clouds in the sky, it looked like we might have some rain in the morning. Stouty and the others arrived at about 5.45am, we got a quick picture before I bumped into distinctive Ex-Pat Scot very briefly but didn’t have time to chat as we made our way down to the start.

We spotted Lurker and give her a quick hug before we took our usual position somewhere near the back of the group. Lurker had been Stouty’s saviour last year as she looked after the mess called his feet midway through the race, we were rather hoping with better preparation that we wouldn’t have a repeat this year. 

@UltraKent had an early incident when he cut his hand on a bench to the cries of “man down” and the joked threat of the earliest withdrawal ever but he continued on. Stouty and I jogged together with Firemannotsam and chatted casually as we headed towards Checkpoint 1.

The race plan was to complete the first 50 in about 10 hours or so and with Checkpoint 4 being 53.1 that was our target to hit in about 11 hours at a comfortable pace, we then aimed to run what we could in the light before fast walking the night leg and aiming to get to Grand Junction Arms by breakfast leaving us with the rest of the Sunday to complete the last 45 miles.

A couple of miles in there was an instruction to turn left and “do not cross the bridge”. However about 10-15 runners went across the bridge but were called back to some small amusement as I had done the same thing last year. With the threat of rain, some runners had put on waterproof jackets but a few miles into the race, we see one or two people taking them off as they were too warm with the extra layer.

The 38-40 hr race plan had predicted a Checkpoint 1 arrival at 7.47 – 7.57 and we had planned a 10 min stop to eat some pre-made sausage sandwiches at that point. Stouty and I had been debating whether to eat at Checkpoint 1 or not but came to a decision to follow a pattern of eating little and often even if we didn’t quite fancy it (which we didn’t at the time).

We arrived at 7.47, spot on the timetable but literally a minute before Paul Reed arrived and we decided to press on to the next Checkpoint. However, as soon as the opportunity to eat the sandwiches had passed I started to hunger for the sandwiches. 

Checkpoint 1 to Checkpoint 2 (Hatton Locks 22.5m)

We ran along with another runner Bob for a little while and had an unfortunate incident when a startled rabbit jumped into my path. I stopped to let it run back but it panicked and then leapt straight into the canal and probably didn’t get out, I felt bad at that point. We also seemed to be playing leap-frog with a short dark haired lady (Helen?) for a lot of the morning who was making really good progress but she eventually drifted off ahead of us as the run progressed.

Checkpoint 3 to Checkpoint 4 (The Heart of England Pub 53.1 miles)

Again making sure to thank the marshals, we set out from Birdingbury Bridge towards Checkpoint 4. At that point the weather took a turn for the worse and it started to rain lightly and then got heavier and so we stopped briefly to put our matching “his and her” rain jackets (yes we have the same jacket but different colours I’ll have you know) at which point Dino Ilaria passed us looking quite strong. We continued along a grassy narrow part of the bank for several minutes before the rain eased off and we stopped to pack our jackets away. I had tightly wrapped my rain jacket in my bag and secured this together with some elastic bands but after 20 minutes wear and some rain it was a lot more difficult to fit it snugly back in to my backpack.

I had tweeted that some videos had been added to YouTube but had a message back they someone couldn’t view them. Thinking there was some problem uploading them I didn’t bother to add any more, so apologies if you were expecting to see some more live updates. I think what had happened is that my uploaded videos were still processing so couldn’t be seen at that time as I checked after the race and they were ok. I guess that means you will see these videos for the first time now.

However, partly due to a combination of us being at the fast end of the schedule (relatively speaking of course) and partly due to travel/traffic/diversion issues, it wasn’t clear whether the guys would meet us in time. Matt C (Cogs) had access to my location via a phone app and had been monitoring our progress. It was agreed that they would go onto Buckby Top Lock and meet us there instead with Paul Reed meeting us briefly at Braunston.

We left Paul R and continued on to Buckby Lock where we met the crew at the pub opposite the lock, it was now starting to feel like a warm summers day. Matt B had brought some freshly made pasta for “lunch” and we had planned a longer stop to consume some food and change into new socks. I ate a few mouthfuls of pasta but didn’t really fancy much more and swigged down some full fat rocket fuel coca-cola (well recommended for sugar and caffeine content). I was feeling a little sick to be honest and blamed it on the jelly babies, I made a mental note to switch to wine gums from this point onwards. I also changed socks, checked my feet which looked ok but decided to change into my old comfortable but not too beat up trainers as my current pair were a little damp. With hindsight this may have been a slight error of judgement but we’ll cover that later. I thought I felt a slight blister on my little toes so as an extra precaution put a gel toe-cap on each little toe for extra protection.

We walked a little first before jog/walking the next 4-5 miles to Checkpoint 4 at Weedon.

We got to Checkpoint 4 and stopped briefly to refill hydration packs, said our goodbyes to Lurker who had kindly been following our progress and messaging us via twitter and left at 16.45. The race plan had predicted a 16.50 a 17.36 arrival time so we were a few minutes ahead of schedule. We had made our target of Checkpoint 4 by 11 hours, had no real injury issues barring tired aching legs and a couple of minor niggles to knee and calf and felt as if we were in a good position.

Our next planned meeting point with the crew was at Stoke Brueme’s Bridge at 65 miles. This was the point when buddy runners were allowed and we were going to be supplied with one each as Matt C was going to run a leg and as a bonus Stoutys neighbours were visiting friends in the area and Harris was going to join us for a leg.

Stouty and I were continuing our run/walk strategy of a 2 mile run followed by 1/2 mile walk and we seemed to be on track when we met the crew. However, I do recall us slowing down when we met the crew. We were running low on water but didn’t have too far to go. We did pass another runners crew who kindly offered us some water but we had just enough to continue and knew the crew weren’t too far ahead.

I would comment that I found it noticeable this year how the crews really got into the spirit of the event and offered support or supplies to other runners, more so than in my previous experience (which was absolutely fine). At a few points, people offered us support as our crew reciprocated this offer to other runners.

Matt and Harris joined us and we started jogging/walking to Navigation Bridge although we had started to slow. However, wWe were still in good spirits as we were 3 hrs ahead of last years time already and we actually got to Navigation Bridge in the light! The predicted arrival time was 21.03 to 22.07 and we got there at 21.00 so again pretty much on plan.

Speaking of the plan, I had devised an excel spreadsheet with a rough pace guide which predicted checkpoint arrival times. I had used our 50 mile Thames Trot run as a template for the first 50 miles and then made an allowance for a reduced pace the further the race wore on including a planned brisk walk during the night leg. The crew were armed with copies and I had carried a mini (laminated of course) version of the plan marked with checkpoint meet times, locations and distances. Coupled with the Garmin, this gave us a pretty much exact picture of our progress against plan during the race. (Happy to share the document with anyone who wishes to use it in the future – just add a faster pace than me and you’ll be fine).

Stouty had refused to wear his Garmin and just wanted to run and then ask me questions about how we were doing, how far to the next Checkpoint etc. I was at the opposite end of the spectrum (i.e. a control freak) and wanted precise plans, times, distances etc. That little race plan I carried was brilliant, it told me everything I needed to know to answer Stoutys questions. The only difficulty came when the first Garmin started to run out of battery life at 12 hrs from a full charge (Garmin 305) at about 57 miles (2 hrs better than the advertised 10 hrs though). We started the second Garmin at that point but then had to keep adding 57 miles to the distance, no mean feat during the darkest hours when you’ve been on your feet for 12 hrs +! I think we grabbed our head torches at this meeting point in case it got dark earlier then expected and Matt C also carried a portal power unit and charged my phone so I had a full battery for the night leg.

Checkpoint 5 to Checkpoint 6 Bridge 99 (84.5 miles)

We had a cup of tea at Navigation Bridge and saw another runner there with large frizzy hair (Rob?) before we moved on. By this point I had a continuous thirst and was finding myself urinating frequently. I put this down to a lack of food inside me to absorb the water I was drinking as I had not really eaten much by this point and was still feeling a little sick, nothing major but just not feeling 100% right.

The crew had a small gas stove with them and we asked for some hot food at our next meeting point at new Bradwell. This was to be our last crew meet for the night as once again we had planned to walk the night shift at a quick pace, conserve some energy, give the crew some rest and then see how we fared in the morning. We also had two official Checkpoints before we had intended to meet the crew so we could get a hot drink there and refill hydration packs as required.

It was about 4 miles to our meeting point at New Bradwell Bridge by which time Harris had departed and it had started to get dark. Matt C had the Champions League Final game on an internet radio station and we listened to Barcelona dominating United and eventually winning. I don’t recall us doing a lot of running at this point but we had factored in a reduced pace at this point.

We met the entire crew there as Paul Reed had returned with buddy runners EJ and Nina. Matt B and Alan had got the gas stove working and we had half a tin of sausages and beans each aswell as a few snacks along with a pint of Orange Juice and Lemonade from a nearby pub. I felt a little better after the food which was probably the most I had eaten all day and we got our night gear on (leggings, hat, gloves and a warm top) before we said our goodbyes for the night and carried on. This was one of our longest stops and slightly longer than I hoped but it was necessary. A small handful of runners came past us at this point including Firemannotsam who was still running well at this point.

Our crew were on standby during the night but we were only going to call them in a real emergency to be honest.

We started our brisk walk but were both feeling sore and had both started to get blistered feet. Last year I had worn compeeds around areas of my heels prior to the race start as this was the point I often blistered. This had worked fine last year but I had really suffered bad blistering on the toes where my taping effort was insufficient. After last year I had blisters on every toe and my little toes were two red stumps being stripped clean of all skin and the toe nail.

I thought I had all the bases covered, in fact I didn’t suffer any chaffing at all, had no blisters on the toes so far but my bloody heels were killing me! I was a little annoyed that despite taking exactly the same precautions as last year, the gods were conspiring against me to put another obstacle in my path.

We shot a couple of late night videos which can be seen here:

By this point Stouty had a large blister on his heel and so we hobbled towards Checkpoint 6 and arrived at around 1.30. This 10 mile leg from the crew meeting point had seemed pretty long, especially as we had been walking and we weren’t covering the miles as quickly as we had during the day.

I checked my feet, drained a blister on my left heel to relieve the pressure and put some more compeeds on them. However, my left heel was really sensitive and it hurt to walk on it. I spoke to Andrew Smith the marshal there who kindly dug out a bid of lint cloth which I used as padding on my heel, we were patched up but still hurting a little. There were a few people at the Checkpoint when we arrived but I can’t recall names or faces I’m afraid.

Checkpoint 6 to Checkpoint 7 Grand Junction Arms (99.8 miles)

I just had my wits about myself to recognise this and grabbed one hand on Stoutys backpack as he led me through parts of the route. This is where the benefit of having a buddy runner or teaming up with someone is clear, left to my own devices I could have easily fallen into the canal or bush or even a canal-bush if I let my guard down for a few seconds and I’m thankful to Stouty for getting me through that part of the night. I did take a couple of pro-plus tablets at this point which also seemed to help.

Iveagh was kind enough to let me borrow his portable charger as I had forgotten to pick up the spare Garmin at the last crew meet and the current Garmin was unlikely to last until the next crew meet. At this point, the weather felt a little breezy and there may have been some light drizzle which I found helpful in keeping myself awake. I perked up a bit and  marched to the front of our little group and then upped the pace to marching speed as we passed the Tesco Store in Leighton Buzzard.

However, the tiredness seems to hit you in phases and as we started to see the first signs of light my body started to shut down. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced “hitting the wall” during a race before but this felt like it. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, my limbs we feeling heavy and the mind was starting to wander. I decided to use the 1 emergency energy gel I was carrying to give me a kick. That proved to be a mistake as soon as a started to swallow the goo like gel substance my body rejected it and I spewed the entire contents back up. I sipped some water and carried on but wasn’t feeling too great.

Most of the night time conversation was with Iveagh as Stouty followed us a few yards behind but Iveagh continued on ahead when it got a bit lighter as Stouty and I stopped for a few mins around Slapton Lock to check our feet which were feeling more and more uncomfortable.

I also had my first “sit down” (nudge nudge wink wink) here. My advice is to use wet wipes as you can also wash your hands with a clean one and bring a couple of sandwich bags to carry the used wipes with you until you find a bin.

We were about 5 miles from the Grand Junction Arms which is a great point to reach at nearly 100 miles and we plodded on with sore feet for over an hour until we arrived there at 6.15, the race plan had predicted 5.56 – 7.29 so we were closer to the 38 hr time now. Despite the various niggling injuries we were in a great position, 100 miles done in just over 24 hrs, the tough night leg out of the way. Once we met the crew, had breakfast and sorted out our feet I felt we could make some real gains on our schedule. We had 14-16 hours left to cover 45 miles so even a 3mph walk would get us home. If we could run/walk parts of this and exceed this pace then I genuinely felt at that point we had a chance of coming in at around 37 hrs and exceed our expectations.

Just before the Checkpoint, we captured another video clip in which Stouty describes our feelings and emotions. It wasn’t a high point of the race and Stouty looks visibly tired in the eyes.

Crew Tips

I think the guys had also settled into different roles during the weekend. Matt B (who had crewed for me last year) appeared to be the team organisor. Alan (again another 2010 crew veteran) was our nominated driver and spent most of his time at checkpoints running back to the car when we asked for something else we had forgotten and Matt C was more hands-on with his first aid skills coming into use when attending to injuries/sore feet. So I think the team worked pretty well. EJ and Nina were also going to meet us at the next point and act as buddy runners for most of Sunday, in fact they ended up accompanying us to the end so Stouty and I had someone else to talk to for a while.

I was also carrying an iPhone and had given Matt C (another iPhone user) access to the “Find My Phone” application. With this facility, he could track my phones location remotely on a map application without me having to constantly run an application on the phone (I think it must just ping my phones location even when it is in standby mode) as opposed to me transmitting a constant GPS update which kills the battery life. In fact, my wife also used the application to track my progress at home. It was extremely useful and accurate but does involve giving someone access to your iTunes Account details (I had recently changed my credit card on the account and the old one wouldn’t have accepted payment which gave me some comfort over Matt going mad and downloading hundreds of pounds worth of apps or music!)

The other crew tip was to have all your kit, food and equipment neatly organised for easy reach and access. I had packed all the food and equipment into two plastic containers. This allows you to see what’s in the box easily and the container can easily be carried in and out of the boot of a car. In addition, if the weather is wet then it will protect the contents. Within the kit box, I had various sub boxes of items (i.e. plasters, batteries, spray etc) all labelled again for easy access. I had produced a detailed list of every item in each box but it was fairly easy to see and pull out what we needed. The only supplies the team had to purchase on route were some extra compeed blister plasters (we had other cheaper blister plasters but these were simply not as good) and some extra strapping for Stouty’s ankles.

In terms of food, we had lots. My love of Monster Munch crisps has been well documented but the rest of the list included; tinned food (sausage and beans, meatballs, spagehetti), tinned fruit (pear, peaches), mars bars and jaffa cakes (usually a favourite but I didn’t touch anything chocolate as I had been feeling queasy), snack bars, porridge pots (well recommended and you can just add water), bananas (didn’t touch), satsumas (went down very well), wine gums (lovely taste and you can chew them), jelly babies (made me feel sick and won’t touch again), biscuits (didn’t touch), pot noodles (went for Sainsbury’s basic and they were – spat out the contents of these at one point), flapjack (good) and a large box of home made welsh cakes from my Mum (awesome). Matt B has also made some fresh pasta on the Saturday morning which we added to the menu. We also had a few energy gels and powders but had only planned to use these if needed.

I bought enough food for the crew to snack on and still had loads left over. The guys found café’s or pubs to eat their main meals and then snacked on other items as needed. There are a couple of Tesco’s on route and if they needed anything else they could have easily acquired it on the day.

Our spare kit was carried in a sports bag and then we had assorted bottles of water, sports drinks and coke (again well recommended for the sugar/caffeine content) packed into the car. It isn’t necessary to bring all the water out each time so the guys could grab a small supply for each checkpoint.

Overall, the crew were well organised and we have no complaints over the service we received. Great job team!

The following information was passed onto my by the crew, I’ll repeat it here but make no further comment upon it as we don’t know the exact circumstances of the incident and I didn’t witness these events firsthand.

Early on the Sunday morning, a white van pulled up and appeared to drop off a runner who appeared to be taking part in the race. The runner was described as male, wearing a fluorescent yellow t-shirt, shades and a hat and he ran off quite quickly. Unfortunately, the crew didn’t get a glimpse of the runners number but they thought it most strange that they had been at the canal bank quite some time waiting for us and never saw this person run past them, the crew considered this behaviour a bit odd.

Checkpoint 7 to Checkpoint 8 (Springwell Lock 120 miles)

After the Grand Junction Arms stop, Cowroast Lock was only 2.5 miles ahead and it wasn’t long before we met the crew under the Bridge. This was going to be a major stop as we both needed running repairs on our feet and we had planned to refuel with some hot pots of porridge.

We both sat down on the canal bank just after the bridge as Alan brought out the porridge all made and ready to eat. The checkpoint meetings and crew organisation was absolutely spot on now with a quick text being sent a mile or so before the planned meet with a list of requirements and the crew having everything ready when we got there.

We ate some food and Matt C tried to pad Stoutys heels which were suffering from blisters.

I sorted out my own feet and drained the blisters on my heel and then padded my running shoes as best I could with animal wool. My feet were uncomfortable but runnable and I decided to take some ibuprofen (I had resisted taking these until I felt I absolutely needed to).

As we were eating breakfast, a small group of runners passed us. Matt C asked if they wanted anything but they seemed ok and carried on.

After a longish stop, we were ready to carry on and had about 6 miles to go until the next meeting point at Boxmoor where EJ and Nina were going to meet us to run. In addition, my Dad (Baz) was going to meet us and give us some morale support.

After this stop we immediately got a bit of a run going and we made reasonably quick progress towards Boxmoor. However, with a mile or so before the checkpoint Stouty pulled up a bit. We had a quick chat and agreed that I could run to the next meeting point and wait for him there. I didn’t want us to tarry too long at the next checkpoint as we had just had a major stop but with the weather coming out warm I wanted to change out of my night gear into some fresh clothes and have a quick chat with Baz so I was hoping to run ahead and gain a few extra minutes to do this before Stouty caught up.

I ran ahead by myself until I could see the crew ahead. Baz captured this on film and I looked pretty ok at this point.

I had a complete change of clothes here (including shorts) which to be honest smelt and ate a bag of monster munch crisps.

The weather was really nice at this point as we jogged a bit and walked a bit towards the next Checkpoint. It was good to have some different company to talk to (no offence Stouty) to take your mind off the run. I was still finding myself diving into the bushes far more frequently than a supposedly fit guy should but put this down to plenty of water (I still had a feeling of thirst I couldn’t shake but was drinking plenty) and a lack of food to absorb it. My calf was also feeling pretty sore at this point.

I think we slowed down a bit on this leg as we arrived at Springwell Lock at around 1pm (predicted time 11.32 – 13.25) so we were closer to a 39.30 finish now but had some contingency in the plan for the last 25 miles.

When we arrived at Springwell we stayed on the right hand side of the river as our crew were there but called in our numbers. We got news from the crew that Shane was still going and only about 10-15 miles behind us, so he had exceeded his effort from last year (got to 80 odd miles and fell asleep on a park bench!).

Stouty wasn’t feeling great at this point and Baz leapt in with some morale support by thrusting a video camera in his face and demanding he announce his retirement from Ultra races at this point and we have the video clip of Stouty saying “Never, never again”.  It was then my turn for the Spanish inquisition (which was all well intentioned and amusing to play back later) but I shook my head, refused and can even be heard saying “We could do better” so I think I was starting to realise that the pace was slowing due to the various accumulated injuries. The rest of the body felt ok and I had definitely woken up from my night time slumber but the legs and feet were feeling the affects of the race now which is pretty relentless with mile after mile of canal path.

The crew had acquired some extra tape/strapping and Matt C tended to Stoutys ankles and strapped them up at this point.

The good news was that we had less than a marathon to go, the bad news is that this was now looking like it was going to take us about 8 hours to finish. If we hadn’t been suffering as much, this would have been the point where could have gained some time. The race plan allowed plenty of contingency time (which we eventually used) but this also afforded us the opportunity to make some gains, based on our current progress we wouldn’t be making any gains.

Checking my phone, I also picked up the messages that Claire (Ultratigger) was close to our had just won the womens race in about 30 hrs which was an absolutely amazing effort.

Checkpoint 8 to Checkpoint 9 Hamborough Tavern (133 miles)

With a mile to go, our buddies ran ahead to the end to await us coming in and Stouty and I marched in together. It was still light, we were under 39 hours and we were nearly home, the mood was good! I spoke to my wife and daughter who wanted to be on the line when we finished and so I put the phone “on speaker” and gave the girls a running walking commentary for the last few minutes.

As we passed the park on the right and followed the angle of the canal around a slight bend to the left we saw the fantastic sight of the finish sign and a small crowd of people who started to give us a wave and a cheer. I jokingly asked Stouty whether he wanted to complete yesterdays suggested finishing pose (he had offered to carry me on his shoulders as we crossed the line if we finished in the light – although this may be grounds for disqualification for receiving a lift?) but he didn’t rise to the bait.

There was some encouragement from the finishing crew to jog the last 50 yards which I nearly fell for but Stouty resisted and I recall Stouty raising our arms up in a victory pose and I gave him a bit of hug on the shoulders as we walked the last few yards to the finish home. Looking back at a few pictures, I definitely caught the sun as I was looking a bit tanned, unshaven and well a bit dirty.

Stouty was happy as the aim this year was to get some applause at the end of the race, previously we had finished so late (1.30am in the morning) that a barge owner had complained about the noise and we had received a welcome but muted celebration.

As we crossed the line, it was great to see the entire crew there giving us some applause and cheers along with a few other finishers, supporters and marshals. Dick was waiting on the line with a couple of medals for “the local boys” (we don’t live very far away from him) which he placed around our necks and gave us the usual firm handshake and congratulations.

We spoke to a few other people who congratulated us (name checks and thanks to Binks, Winelegs, Springypanther and a few others including a couple of marshals). We spoke to Ogee, Firemannotsam and Iveagh our Irish buddy from the night leg aswell and sat down on the side of the canal with a can of Stella each just to take in these last moments of the race.

It was great to finish in the light with a few people around and receive some support and congratulations from other people and crews, it felt pretty good at that moment. We saw our names being added to the board together in a final finish time of 38hrs 52mins.

I was happy to have achieved the original goal but I had that immediate feeling that we should have done a little better. The last 25 miles took us maybe 8 hours, so that’s where we could knock off a couple of hours (I was going to say “easily” but stopped myself there) next time. Still, it was a new Personal Best time and you shouldn’t ever be disappointed with that.

Aftermath

I actually felt much much better than I had the previous year. My knee and calf were injured (the calf more so), my heels were blistered but I could hobble around. I had a cold bath (not quite ice cold) and soaked in there to see if that would give me any benefit and had a lazy day with the family but did sleep again that afternoon for about 3 hours.

Summary

However this year, largely thanks to Fetch we had a few more acquaintances and some other external support. It was a really great feeling to see people you didn’t really know encouraging you via Twitter or Fetch and willing you along to the finish. In addition a few crews recognised us as along the way and gave us some encouragement which was fantastic. I guess it’s nice to feel part of the running community.

Would we do anything different? Probably not, the planning and organisation was spot on really and nothing went wrong as such. We may well have benefited from getting the crew to provide more support during the night or even having a buddy runner during the night but our plan was to fast walk this leg. We did our level best to avoid blistering and this was much improved from last year but I guess can be worked on further (if anyone has any further tips we would love to hear them) and injuries on the run are just a matter of luck really. Overall, I’m happy with the planning and organisation and we did improve on certain areas so our GUCR race experience and know-how seems to have improved.

Next time? Well I may be back another year to tackle it unsupported for a different experience. Will “The Wife” (Stouty) return? Well he did declare his intention to retire from the GUCR several times over the weekend but you never know, let’s put it down as a maybe.

Thanks to Dick and his team including all the people who make the effort to put on the race, it is a special race and one which I am delighted to have completed again.

Thanks to my family, Sal and Annabelle for supporting me before, during and after the race and thanks in advance for letting me do the race again in the future…

Finally, thanks to the running (Fetch / Runners World / GUCR Facebook) community for all your support, tweets and messages. It was really good to put a few names to faces and I hope to see some of you again at future events.

Written by Neil Bryant - www.ultrarunninglife.com

Ok, they’re not so bad now and it’s only the Tuesday after the UTLD, but, my god did this race wreck them like I’ve never seen or felt before!
I’ve been really excited about doing this race since I entered which was the first day you could. I knew that 11 weeks between the end of JOGLE and this should be enough for recovery and a little training. I underestimated JOGLE’s aftereffects on my feet which as I think I’ve already mentioned in a previous post left me with no training at three weeks to go and my feet were still sore! It was do or die. I was determined to have a go at this race this year so I planned a medium mileage week followed by a fairly heavy week, a week off then the race. Two weeks of training for a tough off-road 100 miler seemed a little silly but made it all seem a little more uncertain, more of a challenge. There was a pretty high chance that I wouldn’t finish this one which seemed to make it all the more exciting. The course is actually 104 miles in length and includes a pretty hefty 6971 metres of ascent. I’ve recceed most of the course earlier in the year so knew what a beast this was going to be. I also knew what a stunning course this is. To see so much of the Lakes in such a short time by foot is an incredible feeling.
I made my way to the train station after work on the Thursday and caught the train to Birmingham, where I was met by Drew, Nick and Steve who was driving. I squashed my bags in then we set off for the 3 hour drive to the hills. I was pretty relaxed and could already start to feel the adrenalin begining to pump. All four of us were signed up for the 100. we wondered What the journey back would be like – who would finish (if any) and who would not. We finally arrived at the Youth Hostel that Drew had sorted for us. We signed in and made our way up to our 4 man room. Bunk beds! Brilliant! I think we were all far too awake to get the nice early night we should have had, but eventually relaxed nicely and slept. In the morning I awoke and looked out the window. The Hostel was around 20 metres from the shore of lake Windermere. It was perfectly still and the sky was clear. A goose dragged its feet across the glass like surface of the lake as it lazily took off. This was going to be a special weekend I thought. We decided to get breakfast at the Hostel, so made our way down stairs and stuffed our bellies for the day ahead (even though the start wasn’t till 1730), while looking out across the lake. I felt pretty relaxed. I felt good. I felt I knew what was coming. JOGLE taught me that I can take a fair amount of pain and keep going so I had a little bit of confidence I’d complete. 
After breakfast, we packed up and left for Coniston school which was the race HQ for the weekend. We arrived just after 0930 and went straight in for registration. I think we were the first through! They checked I had everthing in my pack, issued me my map and road book, T-shirt and finally my dibber which I attached around my wrist. The dibber is an electronic id device that records you at each check point. This information would instantaneously update the website so that friends and family can keep a tab on your progress. A nice touch that should prevent lots of worry (especially Mum!). After this we parked up in the almost empty school field and erected our tents ready for us to crash out in once we’ve (hopefully) finished. It was thankfully a beautiful day as we had around 6 hours till the briefing! We wandered into Coniston and grabbed a coffee and walked up the first mile or so of the course. We then went back to race HQ and got some food from the temporary cafe that had been set up for the duration of the event.> 
Finally after much lazing around we had the brief, which was all very straight forward, then we had a special guest in the form of Joss Naylor the legendary hard man Fell runner. He gave us some good humoured advice then we were done till the start in one hour.
I got changed into my race kit and made some final adjustments to my bag, then walked over to the start line and waited for the off.
Finally Joss started the race and we began. Stuart Mills shot of like he was in a 10k and would probably never be seen again, while the rest of us made our way through Coniston and began the first of many hills and much walking! I tried to stay at a sensible pace, but was soon finding myself leaving behind Drew and Steve which got me a little concerned that I was overdoing it. My pace felt sensible so I carried on. I made my way up with Colin which is always a pleasure. After just over an hour we crested the hill and began the first major downhill. Pretty steep in places and quite difficult footing meant that this was a fairly slow affair for a poor descender like myself. My feet were killing already, but I just blanked them out and took one step at a time. I made the bottom of the hill and ran down a tarmacked road to the first cp at Seathwaite. I grabbed some food, dibbed in (checked in with my electronic dibber), then ran on trying not to waste any time. We made our way along a valley floor before turning up a decent little climb. The gradient eased as we passed a farm and headed into a plantation on very boggy ground. My feet were soaked through almost straight away.The path was slow, wet and rocky but eventually I came out onto open fell and headed down hill at a sensible pace. A sharp downhill into Eskdale before heading into Boot for the next cp. All was going ok, but as I kept reminding myself – these were early days!
I waited at Boot for a few minutes for Steve and Drew to catch up. They were a little further back than anticipated. We left together and I took off straight away. A small group of us stuck together up the hill and across the moorland past the tarn (mountain lake) and dropped down into Wasdale for the next cp. There was soup and bread in here but I just had some jelly babies, some cake and pushed on, knowing there was a long walk ahead up and over Black Sail Pass where I could eat. The sun was dropping fast now. I thought it’d be nice if I could get down the other side in light as it’s a pretty dangerous descent and I didn’t fancy it in the dark! As I made my way up, I starting chatting to a couple of guys, Allan and Simon. We stuck together on the climb and as we reached the top, we realised that it was time to mount the headtorches. We nearly made it! Allan lived relatively local and spent a fair bit of time in the Lakes and it showed with his descending as he dropped down the hill like a stone in comparison to Simon and my relatively slow and cautious descent. As we made our way along the flat at the bottom past the coolest youth hostel we turned right to start the next ascent. We started passing a few people and eventually caught Allan again. We dropped down towards a lake and took the amazingly good path that skirts aro> und it for a couple km, then headed to Buttermere, the next cp. We decided that the 3 of us were going to stick together for the hours of darkness as this was good for moral, we could keep our eye on the pace better and not let it slacken off and there was less chance of getting lost. We seemed to be fairly well matched on the pacing side of things too which obviously helps. Next stop was Braithwaite which I hadn’t been to yet as this was the point where Drew and I got lost on the recce in the dark. I was a little nervous about missing the trail again but there were a few people ahead and Alan seemed pretty confident with the course. Cool. We climbed for quite a way crossing over 3 tributuaries before taking the ‘obvious’ path heading very steeply up. I was happy now. This was the path we missed. It was very steep and I was dripping with sweat. I kept drinking as often as I co> uld, which wasn’t quite enough in these early stages!
Eventually we went over the top of this monster and began the slightly hairy descent down into Braithwaite. There was a very steep drop on the left, the path was pretty narrow and slighly off camber! I was pretty cautious coming down here! Soon we arrived at the cp. We stopped here for a 15-20 minute feed. I ate loads of pasta and rice pudding followed by loads of bicuits. Yummy Jummy Dodgers seemed to be going down well!
We pushed off from here knowing that there was a fair bit of flat road coming up. This was a relief for the feet and the concentration levels too. It’s always suprising how much I have to concentrate on my footing in the dark when running in the dark. It can be very consuming, especially when tired! 
We eventually got back to the hills and started climbing till we got around half way up then started contouring all the way around a side valley which enabled us too look across and see how many were ahead. We only saw about 3 lights so the very front guys must have been miles ahead! We turned round the head of the valley the headed back on the other side for a relatively speedy approach to the next cp at Blencarthre. We were here very briefly before shooting off down hill. My feet were really starting to feel hot around the balls, a sure sign of blisters! I never suffer from blisters! Oh dear, this adds a new challenge to the whole thing! Still a long way to go and they’re only going to get worse! Oh well, I’ll just have to do my best at ignoring it and try not to dwell on it.
We were starting to see day light now. Always good for moral. Soon we’d be able to remove the headtorches which would be such a relief! We ran along a rail track for a few k before heading up a short climb to access the coach track, a decent undulating track that bought you all the way to the next cp at Dockray. We topped up our water and rushed off. My feet were deteriorating fast and giving me hell on the down hills. One step at a time. That was the only way to proceed in my head. We were not quite half way yet! 
The next section to Dalemain was one of the longest at 15.9 miles. The weather was stunning and I had simply sweated since I’d left the start! I must keep drinking I thought. I must be losing so much fluid! We had stunning views and this seemed to really help fight the pain that was really hurting me now. When we arrived at Dalemain, Alan said he’d be stopping to do something to his feet as he was suffering from blisters too. I chose to just leave mine. I stuffed my face with pasta again, and sit down and rest them till Allan was done. I felt pretty good other than my feet. This really suprised me considering the small amount of training that I’d managed over the last 3 months. I felt pretty positive.
When Allan was done we moved off. We soon passed Pooley Bridge and then I was on the part of the course that I had n> ever seen. Thanks god for Allan and his excellent knowledge and confidence with the route! after a steady climb we had fairly decent trail down to the next cp at Howtown. Whilst we were dropping down we could see some dark cloud cover up on the higher ground. There had been a little rain forecast from around 12 onwards. Would the jackets have to come out? Another pretty fast stop at the cp and we were off for the next big climb! The climb up High Kop was long and very steep in places. Simon and I were unsure of Allan at this point and kept checking and rechecking the map and road book. We ended up following him up and eventually discovered he’d been correct all along! Don’t know why we ever doubted him! This was the highest part of the course. We went from High Kop to Low Kop before dropping down all the way to Haweswater where we joined a pretty good path that followed around the edge of the lake before coming to the next cp at Mardale Head. The clouds were gathering above us. My feet were in a right state at this point and nothing felt ok. Uphills, downhills, flat and even the few stretches of road were agonising. I was still feeling > great in every other way. You get straight into the next climb as you depart the cp. Gatesgarth pass had a howling wind coming down it into our faces as we began to climb. We decided that now would be a good time to don our jackets as when we got to the top the wind and rain would be terrible. The higher we climbed, the more we realised that we were correct and had made the right decision. As we came over the top it was blowing a gale and the rain was heavy. I found this quite envigorating though was aware that we really needed to keep moving and get off the top as we would chill very fast! I found it especially nice to have the rain wash away all the salt that was covering my head leaving me feel really refreshed!
The downhill was long and very, very painful. My poor feet were destroyed. I could feel blisters all over now. Quite a bit of the down hill had slate put across it with one edge in the ground whilst the other edge was projected upwards presumadely to add traction for 4×4′s on the way up. For my poor feet though this was pretty hellish. Each footstrike felt like it was ripping open the blisters! We finally passed this section and arrived at Kentmere, the next cp. They had smoothies here which went down very well indeed. I also had yet more pasta before We hobbled off on our way towards Ambleside. Soon we were back on the course that I’d recce’d previously. This felt good as I knew what was left. Just before we got to Ambleside, Allan went ahead to see if he could get his feet looked at. Allan was very determined to try and break 28hrs and his feet didn’t seem to be affecting him as bad as mine, so I was expecting him to go it alone now. We were down to 2 now. I felt good in all other ways, but my feet were really slowing me now. When we got to Ableside, Allan was laid up getting his feet done. As soon as he was done, we wished him luck, he got up and shot off. A quick round of soup and bread and we were off ourselves. Just 17 miles left now. I was sure that I could grit and bear it, but it was going to pretty awful! One step at a time.
Knowing the course really was helping me along my way here. I felt positive and knew I’d complete. The pain was nearly unbearable. I kept telling myself that it was just damage to my skin. It’d be fine in a week or two. The next cp was at Chapel Stile in the entrance way to a school. We sat down to rest for a minute. By this stage a few of the 50 milers had passed us looking remarkebly fresh. As we sat and relaxed, a 50 miler ran up and threw some orders at the crew before running off in a flash. Simon and I found it all very amusing just how much of a difference there was between the rather relaxed 100 milers and the rather twitchy 50′s. We pushed on knowing there was only one last cp. I used my knowledge to take us fairly confidently to the final cp at Tilberthwaite, which was the back of a van run by some squaddies. A mere 3.5 miles left. Easy, except that the final 1.5 miles was a pretty bad downhill into the finish. Normally this would be fine, but my feet were going to make this a pretty torturous descent!
We were near the top when a thick blanket of cloud surrounded us. We needed to find a small tree! We could see about 5 feet in front and it was now dark again! I was sure we were on the right track, but Simon wasn’t convinced. We stood trying to work out what to do, when miraculously the wind just blew the cloud cover away, exposing the tree we were after. Just the descent left now!
This was more painful than I thought it’d be. I had to stop and sit down twice as I’d trod on a stone awkwardly which in turn had burst some blisters which had sent waves of pain through me. After 30 seconds of sitting down the waves would have eased off enough to put my body weight on my battered feet again. Finally we made it down to the tarmac. We went as fast as we could as we had 6 minutes left to drop below 30 hrs. It’d be close! We both dibbed in in 30hrs 00mins 35secs! Oh well, never mind. I finished in 12th position! I couldn’t believe it. Way higher than what I expected, and had my feet held up a bit better, it would have been lot’s better, but it’s rare that nothing goes wrong at these distances! I tried to eat my meal at the end but my appetite completely deserted me. I wanted a shower but the thought of standing on my feet any more was too much. So I crawled to my tent and passed out.
When I awoke I had a shower and hobbled into the hall. Some people were still coming in so I cheered them in. My feet were really messed up, and walking was painful and slow. I discovered that of the 4 of us that travelled up, only Steve and I had finished. It’s a tough race! The journey home was long, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t manage the walk home from the station so got a cab. Home at 8. I got ready for work, then staright to bed. Somehow I managed to get up at 5:10 and ride my bike into work and do the whole day! Not quite sure how I stayed awake!
So a total success. I write this a week later, and my feet are nearly fully recovered. I’ll take a further week off before getting stuck into 4 weeks of training before flying out to Spartathlon in Greece. Then that’s it for the year for me.
I’ll sign off now as this has been a bit of a monster posting, and I doubt if too many people have made it this far.
Will probably write soon to let you know how Spartathlon training is going.
Happy running,
Neil.

Written by Gemma Carter - https://ultratrailsandtribulations.wordpress.com/

The lakes:

The Lake District. 885 square miles of fells and incredible countryside. To a Londoner in me, this felt like some kind of mythical place the first time I visited, driving up the M6 some 3 months ago. I had heard so much about it but had never been. Now that I have, I understand why people love it.

It’s beauty and vastness are the main attraction, with unrelenting weather at times that shows you Mother Nature is always boss and views that will take your breath away. It had me hooked.

This was the main reason behind choosing to run the Lakeland 50, my first taster session in running in this beautiful landscape. It was also announced this year that the race was nominated by UKA to be the British Trail Championships this year which made it even more tempting. The opportunity to race amongst the best in Britain, with elites who had and were representing GB, was not to be missed.

With my championship entry place I was excited. But first I had to visit the place, and herein lies the start of this story. Driving up to the lakes for my first time, ready to explore and recce the race route.

Fast forward 2.5 months and again I found myself on that same long stretch of motorway pulling off before Birmingham for some breakfast. 6 hours is a long drive.

It was Friday. The day before the race and I was on my way up, crew in toe, ready for an exciting weekend of racing ahead. The weather was extraordinarily hot (I mean seriously un-British hot!) at 27 degrees and all I could think about was my last experience at the NDW 50 in May where I suffered heat stroke, spending half the race wobbling across the path and vomiting up anything and everything for the next 25 miles. This was not going to happen again!

Walking out the service station I was taken by surprise as I bumped into the ever present gang of Claire Shelley, James Adams and Drew Sheffield. Experienced and talented runners in their own right, however this weekend they were coming to support the race but also James Elson (RD of Centurion Running) on his Bob Graham attempt. It felt like the whole of the ultra community were going!

The Lakeland 50/100:

To say that the Montane Lakeland 50/100 is a large affair is to put it mildly. Arriving in Coniston (race HQ and also finish line of the 50 route) we were marshalled with precision into a massive field of hundred of tents and thousands of cars. Runners were absolutely everywhere. If I didn’t know better I would have mistaken it for a festival. The race’s popularity is shown by it’s size with 400 runners in the 100 option and 600 runners starting in the 50. Far more than most ultras in the UK.

The 100 mile race was starting this evening at 6pm so hoping to watch them off we took perch at the top of the first road where they led out. It was incredible to see. Not only the enthusiasm of the runners themselves but the spirit of the supporters. Crew, marshals and even random locals alike were all line the streets ready for the parade. The noise was loud and the atmosphere electric. Again I was understanding why people love this race so much.

After a relax night at the hotel, I bedded down ready for my turn in the morning.

Unlike most ultras I have run, this 50 started at 11:30am, making me feel odd rising at a relaxed hour instead of the usual crack of dawn. The race started at Dalemain (the half way check point for the 100 milers) and we were to be taken by convoy of bus from Coniston ready for the start.

Arriving in Dalemain, runners swarmed around doing last minute checks, loos stops and saying goodbyes to support crews. It was also starting to get a little hot for my liking. As I glanced around watching people sunbathe, I thought of the route before me, hoping I would fair well.

They’re off!:

Suddenly we were gathering in the start chute and the countdown commenced. 3,2,1 and we were off! A 4 miles lap of farmland fields awaited us around the Dalemain estate before we shot off towards Pooley Bridge.

I was roasting, I mean ROAST-ING. The small top and shorts I was wearing felt too much and I wished I didn’t have to carry such a heavy laden camel back full of extra kit, feeling sweat pour off me.

The first few miles of the route proper are leisurely and flat as we progressed through Pooley Bridge village up to the first minor fell and then down to check point 1, Howtown.

My strategy was to go out steady keeping my heart rate low so I didn’t burn up in the heat and so far it was working. I was enjoying the pace, taking in the views and smiling at the sporadic bunches of supporters who would pop up at random places to cheer you on. It especially helped having a name on your number as the morale boost of someone cheering you on by name personally works a treat. 10 miles in and I was having a great time. Maybe this race will go well I thought ;)

I had chosen to wear road shoes today. The trail shoes I had been testing out for the race had been giving me blister issues and coupled with the fact it was so dry and hot I thought this was a wise choice. I turned out to be right and didn’t get one blister the whole day, good stuff!

Howtown:

Decending into Howtown I was greeted by check point staff thrusting a dibber station at me. The race was recorded my SportsIdent the dibbers we were wearing around our wrists automatically tracked out progress and updated our positions online for friends to see- a good addition to the race.

Howtown was a lovely oasis of a check point but made even lovelier by the presence of a friendly face- James Adams. As I refilled my bottles and got race staff to drown my head in cold water, James took the opportunity to catch me at my finest moment! (See photo). Thanks James! ;)

Feeling completely refreshed, flapjack and jelly babies stuffed in my ‘hamster pouch’ mouth, I shot off ready to battle with the first monster of the course- Fusedale Beck. It really is a beast.

The temperatures were now climbing to there highest of the day, and now in the beck the hot air gathered. I believe one runner’s watch recorded 91 degrees!

The climb up out of Fusedale was slow and arduous. There were a few runnable sections interspersed along the way but mainly just a long hike. It is one of those climbs which is utterly deceiving. You think you have reached the top only for more of it to reveal itself. However, reach it I did and before I knew it I was descending towards Hawsmere Reservoir and with it the next check point.

The path the runs anti clockwise around the reservoir is flat but technical with slate and rocks littering the way. At the tip, far in the distance the check point’s tent stuck out and slowly began bigger and bigger the nearer I got.

Mardale Head:

Another welcome relief. Dibbing in first, I then grabbed coke, cake and biscuits having my bottles already taken care of by the ever helpful volunteers. I downed my head under a bucket of water and ran on, packet of crisps stuff in my top to boot!!

I knew what was coming. Anyone who knew this course knew what to expect and probably just wanted to get this bit out of the way. It’s a long steep twisting climb up Gatesgarth Path and as I glanced up and then behind me back down I could see the slumped- postured steady hike of the runners and they battled the incline. It wasn’t to be run, but a purposeful hike, at times with hands on knees, eyes gazed solely at the patch of ground in front.

About now I was struggling with stomach issues. I was bloated with sloshing water in my stomach and feeling sick. I knew it was the heat that was getting to me making me unable to get anymore liquid or calories in with them coming straight back up however the problem I was trying to solve was whether I was feeling this way because I was dehydrated, lacking salts or in fact too hydrated?? My mind struggled to decide on the back course of action to claw my stomach back to normality (and in fact prevent my race from finishing early!) I decided if in doubt, just leave it be- better to be a little more dehydrated for a while than the opposite!

On I went, relief at finally reaching the top. I didn’t even turn back to see how far I had come and look at those still climbing, I was too focused on getting back down and onwards to Sadgill.

The decent was sharp but my quads, strengthened from my race in Chamonix seemed to hold up well and before I knew it I was running smoothly and solidly on to Kentmere and the next wonderful pit stop.

However, I was still struggling with my stomach, whenever I tried to up the pace my stomach stabbed with aches and pains. The cramps were bad but I just hoped they would ease soon as I sipped mouthfuls of water bit by bit. I also managed to roll my ankle here, a momentary lapse of concentration which led to some hobbling.

Kentmere village is a quant village tucked up against two mountain sides. Anyone who has driven to it also knows it takes an age to get to making it a quiet and serene town.

Kentmere:

The check point was utterly delightful, manned by a great morale boosting team who catered for everything I needed. Bottles refilled- check, bag full of sweets and nuts to take away?- check and a banana to boot. The even had a smoothly maker for runners so you could request what fruit you wanted and get your own smoothie made! Tempting yes but I was cautious of my delicate stomach.

Next up was the last major climb risng out of Kentmere towards Troutbeck Village after a sharp decent over a slate ridden path. It was here I caught my ankle with a sharp piece of algae causing me to scream in pain clutching my ankle watching blood ooze out. That stuff is sharp! I wasn’t so much bothered by the blood but whether I had damaged my ankle. Seeming to be working fine I ran on ignoring the sting of my foot.

All I was doing now was counting down the miles until Ambleside, the next major check point but also the next point I would see my crew.

Running down past the forest into town I was suddenly hit by the noise of it all. The peaceful paths through countryside and woodland were now replaced by roads and people. It awoke my senses and my excitement built as I received such a welcome. The streets were littered with people clapping me past and shouting encouragement. These weren’t just supporters, they were random locals. Their support was so warm I was incredibly touched. It boosted my spirits and my pace as I sped towards the check point.

In the distance I spotted him- Sam, my crew for the day waiting on the other side of the road. I ran up to him as I continued towards the check point and before anything blurted out ‘Jesus Christ, it’s so bloody hot!!!!’

Continuing round the bend, crew never number two, my delightful mother was ‘manning the road’. It seems she had taken it upon herself to be the traffic warden for the day, stopped traffic to let runners zip through. Oh mum how I love you ;)

Ambleside:

Ambleside check point. Delightful. Running in to the lane I was greeted by whoops and cheers, loud claps and positive words. Everyone was so friendly and really boosted me on. A quick pit stop for some cola to settle my stomach, bag of crisps stuffed in my top (I was getting quite a collection now) and on I went, waving to James Adams who seemed to get getting everywhere today!

My pack must have been rubbing some what as glancing down at my sides and feeling my back, I noticed I was bleeding and realised the back, ladder with weight and pulled so tight, had rubbed my exposed skin raw. So much for chaffing, it had taken the skin right off! Not much I could do about it now other than try and manage the pain so off I shot into the distance.

Further up the path I caught up with another lady who was going strong up the climb, Joanna Rae. Seizing the opportunity to chat to someone (anyone who’s knows me knows I like a good chat!), I struck up conversation and we ran on together. The miles flew by in the delightful presence of Jo. We talked about all subjects and I discovered she is a talented runner aiming for The Spine race next year. Wish you lots of luck Jo!

Chapel Style:

It didn’t feel long at all before we were dropping in to the next check point, second to last, Chapel Style. The volunteers were catering well for the 100 milers. These guys had been going since 6pm the day before! Already having been through one night and many of then about to go through another. I was simply impressed. You could see the pain and fatigue in their face, yet there’s one thing I’ve discovered about 100 milers- the hardly ever complain! They could be tired beyond belief, blisters everywhere and in agony but ask them how they are and you’ll get ‘I’m doing ok’.

Wanting to get on quickly, I turned briefly to one of the volunteers and asked if I could take the bowl of crisps that was out if she has plenty more. She probably thought I meant a handful but the look on her face as I folded the paper bowl in half and slid the whole bowl of crisps into my mouth at once was priceless. Jaw open for an age and as I ran on trying to dissolve them with any saliva I had left she shouted ‘Ha! Well you definitely went to eticate… school!’ I turned, remembering my ‘schooling’ and curtesied. Oooh such a lady!!

The route from here took a thin path round a large feel curving round anticlockwise before descending down to a road on the other side of a boggy field. Jo and I were running strong passing a few runners ahead.

Once locating the ‘compulsory check point’ and unmanned dibber- station we took off down the road towards Tiberthwaite. I was feeling really strong and with my pace rapidly quickening I bid Jo farewell and shot off ahead hoping to catch up on some time with the flat more runnable section.

Ahead was a group of runners and a female runner who turned out to be Izzie Wykes. I know her well from her GUCR exploits so ran up to join her for a chat. Ever the chatty girl herself we shot off ahead gossiping like a bunch of school girls! Izzie not knowing the route was grateful for my route guidance and company and me, enjoying the conversation was grateful for hers.

I must say at times I think she doubted my confidence screaming ‘Gemma!! This isn’t funny anymore! Is this the right way??’ ‘Are you sure you’re sure??’. It was like running with myself!

Tiberthwaite and the Finish:

We bolted down the road that lead into the last check point before the final climb. The rain had now well and truly started and the heavens opened.

I was reluctant to put on my waterproof, so close to the finish, thinking maybe I could hold out but soon I was absolutely soaking and not only that, now getting cold. It was getting dark and with visibility down I took the decision to stop, take out my waterproof and headlamp to save risking a bit blind fall on the decent.

Izzie and myself was storming, eager to home and finish this beast. With a few other runners we caught up in toe we descended down towards Coniston and the finish line.

We made a good team, Izzie glad to tag on for directions and myself glad for her floodlight of a headlamp shinning the way making my feeble excuse for a torch seen very inadequate. It worked a treat!

Before I knew it the cobbled road came into view and I was ready to sprint the last mile. I shot off, speed gathering, turning right into town and blasting past the pubs with cheers of support either side. I could hear Izzie somewhere behind but all I could think of was that finish line. How sweet it would feel to cross it!

Spotting the school I went up a gear further and took off. With one final turn I had made it and crossed the finish line. The relief and joy was immense but then suddenly people were shouting at me to dib in! Blimey I had forgotten that! By now Izzie had finished also so we ran over together an dibbed in side by side. A good ending to a great day making new friends I like!

Joint 6th lady in the British Champs, not bad at all. 10:40:24, my final time.

I went over and hugged my two trusty supporters before making my way in to the hall to receive my medal.

Jo Meek, First Lady and this British Champion came in in a incredible 8:43:14 proving she is a force to be reckoned with in the future. Congrats Jo!

In the men’s race, Kim Collison took the win in 7:48:01. A jaw dropping time considering the immense heat of the day and very well deserved.

For me, I see this as a stepping stone towards things to come. I know it’s a race I need to ‘learn’ how to run before I can do it justice. The heat definitely slowed me but I think also my inexperience at fells and the general terrain of the lakes. Hey, maybe next year sub 9! ;)

On a recce a few weeks before

At the start line!

James Adam capturing me at my finest moment!!

The final climb!

Celebrations!

Written by Robbie Britton - http://robbiebritton.co.uk/

It's midday on Saturday 26th April and 38 people are running around Crawley Athletic track at the K2 Leisure Centre and we are watching something special happening, although none of us actually know it is happening. A British record is in the process of being broken, smashed even. 

The Crawley 6 & 12 Hour races organised by Pam Storey have been running since 2006 but this year sees the strongest field yet, with the Team GB 24 hour squad organising their team to coincide with the event and give some of their athletes a chance to prove that all the hard work over winter is paying off.

The 12 hour race sets off at 07:00 and the tall figure of Marco Consani is soon gliding along out in the front, clocking up his laps with a smile on his face and relative ease in his stride. Marco's better half, Debbie Martin-Consani, is moving steadily too, with fellow GB athlete Karen Hathaway in close proximity.

It is not the front runners who are the most inspiring at Crawley today though as Keith Scrivener, a regular at the event, is moving steadily around the track, a bit slower than others but with all the grit and determination in the world. It is only 8 months since Keith suffered a stroke which greatly limited his movements but, an owner of a 100 marathon club vest, Keith is powering through and showing the others what it truly means to push to your limits.

ImageThe 6 hour race starts at 10:00 and more runners are unleashed onto the track, with Adam Holland flying off at 6 minute pace, evidently with records in his mind. The fantastic trio of Emily Gelder, Sharon Law and Fionna Ross set off at a more reasonable pace, bearing in mind it is a 6 hour race.

Time passed and the crowd, consisting of family, friends, former World Champions, Spartathlon winners (although one of them was racing too) and lap counters, got to see the excitement of the turnaround at 1:00 pm, when everyone starts running in the opposite direction to prevent them leaning over too much!

Adam Holland has slowed dramatically from the start and Emily Gelder is burning up the track in pursuit, showing a brilliant display of pacing that you would expect from a 24hr racer. Fionna and Sharon are not too far behind but the question is will there be enough time for Emily to catch Adam or will his early burst have been enough?

Keith has clocked a commendable 17.6km (10 miles 1648 yards) and he will go from strength to strength in the future with his brilliant work effort towards recovery. The Scottish husband and wife team are still going strong in the 12 hour race and Debbie is on to break the Scottish record, whilst Marco wastes half his energy waving and thanking everyone for their support each lap and still he is on for the course record.

ImageAdam (72.9km/ 45 miles 520 yards)) grits himself to keep moving forward towards the end and follows in the footsteps of Debbie for the final couple of hours to just about hold Emily (70.9km/ 44 miles 520 yards)) off but it was merely a matter of time before she would have caught him. The longer the race the better the ladies are at beating us hot-headed chaps who shoot off too fast!

It's not until the final hour that one of the Team GB crew decides to check what the British record for 12 hours is and, seeing as the current holder, Eleanor Robinson, has just gone home, there is some excitement when we realise Debbie is on course to take it! All day something fantastic has been happening and nobody even knew!

ImageIt goes down to the wire, one of Debbie's toenails protests and causes some issues and Marco tries to help with some distant pacing just ahead, but Debbie is strong and moves well past the 128.4km record and runs 129.171km/80 miles 463 yards before collapsing to the track as any true runner should! Karen Hathaway isn't far behind with 127.304km/79 miles 181 yards.

Marco looks really comfortable after his 145.570km/ 90 miles 797 yards effort, enough for 2nd in the World this year and making him a really great prospect for the World Championships in Soochow in December.

ImageIt's a great day for team GB and for everyone at Crawley with solid performances throughout the field. To keep moving for 6 or 12 hours around a track takes great mental and physical strength and this was shown in abundance. Pam Storey is devoted to seeing British ultra running go from strength to strength and to see such strong performances at one of her events is fitting to the effort Pam puts into organising races.

If anyone wants an even greater challenge Pam is organising the Gloucester 24 hour track place which is taking place on the 14th of June. We could do with a couple more gents for Team GB if you can make the qualifying standards! 


Entries can be made via the race website www.gloucester24hourtrackrace.com

Robbie Britton