Two years since my last ultra-marathon. With being injured for a year and having a baby, marathon distance was the furthest I had ran since the Frostbite in December 2012.

 

I decided to give Frostbite a go as I know the RO well and it's always good to catch up with Rob and his family and friends. 30 miles also was quite a nice distance, one that has never given me problems in the past, also 9Bar sponsor the event so that is always a good reason to go.

 

I haven't run further than 17 miles since April so I was a somewhat unhappy to learn that the route was actually around 33 miles.....but hey too late now.

 

As always a frosty start with my car saying minus 7, so plenty of warm clothes packed and a 5.30 start. The usual tea, coffee, flapjack and 9bars were on offer and it was great to catch up with lots of people from Trawden who were doing the event and my friend and physio Tim was about to embark on his first Ultra marathon too.

 

I was feeling apprehensive, I faffed about lots at the start and seemed to have forgotten basics like what kit I needed etc. Anyway off we went up into the frost hills on the first 10 mile hilly loop. It was great running along and chatting to people in the early stages and great to meet Sally Fawcett and have a good natter with her, although I knew she would be zooming off into the distance soon. I settled into a pace with A guy called Simon from Dark Peak and another guy who had just completed all the Hardmoors events and we had a good time churning out some miles. It was really nice to find Dave from Sportsunday hiding in the moorland taking super photos of us all and encouraging us along as always.

About 8 miles in we got the sense that we had missed a marker somewhere and we didn’t seem to be quite on course, we looked at the map and also managed to spot a marker down the gully on the other side of the stream where we were meant to be. Encouraged by Simon we did a spot of" heather bashing" to a stile and picked up the right route. When we returned to registration to start the second loop we clocked the distance at 10.7 miles so not too far wrong.

 

We separated at the start of the second loop and started the next 23 miles of the course. There was quite a bit of ice and the tracks were hard packed. At 12 miles Sally appeared from behind me and it appeared they had gone wrong too, so we had a natter and continued on the route. It was cold but the scenery was stunning and the sun was starting to make an appearance. By this point I had eaten a Gel and a few jelly snakes and had started to eat a little bit of a 9bar Breakfast Bar too. I was drinking Biosteel ...I have one weak one and one strong one made up and find that this seems to work well for me,

 

By 15 miles I was struggling with aching hips, due to the hard track and the neuroma in my left foot was giving me grief every step but I just had to ignore it. I would say I honestly struggled from 16 miles in this event. A lovely chap caught up with me at 16 miles and was really nice in helping me crack on as I was honestly thinking about pulling out. When I got to mile 20 though everything started to feel better….more of a mental thing knowing that there is only 13 or so to go. I think it was around this point when I saw Laura from Sportsunday in the mist asking how I was feeling...."Tired!"I think was my response!

The checkpoints were well stocked with 9bars, Jelly babies, Freddo frogs and Jägermeister which I decided to pass on. I was in third position till about 30 miles when I spat my dummy and got really mardy! I didn’t quite cry but had got to whimper stages and was quite fed up. Rob Jarman I was cursing you at this point and wishing it was 30 miles.

 

The track along the ridge was misty and very very cold, I put my jacket on at 16 miles and it never came off. The track heading home from the B and B must be about 3 miles but I hated every step of it. I was grumpy and tired and had been running for over five and a half hours….double what I had done in training.

 

But I had to finish as I need to start getting back to the ultras and they are going to be hard so it was time to put my head down stop moaning and get on with it.

 

I finished on 5.55 and clocked the distance at 34.5miles.

 

I will link to results when they are published.

All the wonderful Photos here were provided by Dave and Laura at Sportsunday www.sportssunday.co.uk so thank you very much for that and for your smiles and encouragement throughout the route.

 

Super well done to Tim Pigott who actually told me he hated me when he finished but after a cup of tea and cake he seemed to forget that! First Ultra for him and I will see what I can talk him into next!

 

Chris Crabtree and the Trawden lot ---Super well done to you especially the Ultra Virgins!

Thanks to Rob for a great event....but please change the name to Frostbite 34!

As always Salomon was my kit of choice...can't beat it!

 

Finally a big thank you to Duncan at www.athletematters.co.uk for taping my ankles so I didn’t roll them and for the general maintenance physio on Wednesday which got me through this.