Written by Luke Elliott - https://boardshortsandblack.wordpress.com/
What is it?
An EXTREME test of mental and physical strength.
Its simple, you have 48 hours to run 160 miles. This is 55 times up and down The Hill (part of Shining Tor), one of the highest hills in the peak district.
One up and down stretch of The Hill is exactly 2.9 miles.
The Hill Ultra has an elevation of +/- 6380m, which is like climbing to the summit of Everest from basecamp and back down, almost twice!
www.thehillultra.com/
Why on Earth did I enter?
I’m easily lead… Fergy asked if I wanted to up my ultra game knowing full well I’d say yes. I signed up and then re-read the description and thought what the hell have I signed up to. My reason for ultramarathon running is the adventure, you see a hell of a lot in a relatively short space of time! Where the hell is the adventure in the same Hill 55 times?This was 70% mental strength over physical, but hell its something different!
The Run Up…
…to the race! In the weeks before I had a few foam rolling sessions with Chris Prowse (Pro Fitness Plymouth) to get me relaxed and ready… if you thought foam rolling was bad… get someone else to do it to you, bloody hurts but come race day I felt ready! The weekend before I spent with my parents in Somerset chilling! Made a load of energy ball mix ready for the race and set up a charity page… I said I was going to give fundraising a miss for a year or so after 2014/15 but this seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. So I created a page asking for £1.60 per person as the odds really were against me; only 4 had completed the race in the previous 2 years.
How did it go…
Started at 8pm and within a couple of hours I had confirmed my first thoughts, this was going to be an incredibly dull experience, but kept a smile on my face (I think!) and ploughed on through the night. When sunrise eventually occurred peoples spirits were instantly lifted and the whole thing strangely became a bit of a laugh, high fives, some great conversation and at no point could I see a reason to call it a day! Unfortunately despite being very high spirited on approaching the 90mile mark my ankle began to say no… paracetamol and ibrufen for the next lap. It just got worse so I walked the next two to attempt to walk it off. The swelling had got worse so I made use of my 30min maximum break (I think I was about 28) to raise and ice it. The next lap was my last resort, a can of the black stuff… you guessed it, although it tasted great that didn’t work either. During lap 35 I was reduced to a hobble but so close to the 100mile mark, I reached the down before ‘The Hill’ and my knee too no longer wanted to play. At that point I knew I couldn’t continue but had to complete this lap as I was closer to half way than the beginning!
Gutted the bastard hill beat me… My Hill journey ended at 30hr20min, 20 laps short. First DNF… Don’t want to go making a habit of that now!!
What did I learn?
Decent kit makes your life so much easier during a race with hideous conditions… We had gusts of 80-90mph. Coming through the wind tunnel (probably the flattest section of the course), we were thrown by it on the way out making every attempt not to fall and break something. Blown into the bank at one point lead to a great commando role, at least I’ll believe it was, no one else witnessed it! Battling against it on the return leg made the whole thing a little more difficult than it already was. Despite all this I remained nice and toasty and relatively high spirited after the first night!
The importance of strength training… my ankle and subsequent knee injury wasn’t a twist as a result of a dodgy foot placement. It was deemed a repetitive strain injury (RSI). Proving although mentally I was still in the game my body was not trained to cope with the repetition… noted for 2016!
Don’t keep going in the Pub… it’s pointless, you’re not even allowed to buy a Guinness! (Glad I bought some with me!) Even though at no point did I have an issue with going back outside into the storm, the amount of times I went inside probably equated to at least another lap due to the little extra mileage you had to do each time! Next time… Box of treats can sit outside, only clothes remain inside!
Chocolate covered coffee beans are the future… Going into the second night (I think, could have been earlier) Carl found me falling asleep on my feet, handed me a couple and theyt little buzz woke me right up. This may have something to do with me not drinking coffee. Cheers Carl, I’ll be getting these for future long races!!
Last thought…
Although this was an unsupported race I had a mate, Nick, pop up pre race and Dad and M during the race and what a boost. If you are nearby a race that you have a friend in, go give them a cheer… It worked well for my mental well being anyway.
