Written by Mark Perkins - http://ultraperk.com
Last year’s inaugural SDW50 was my first ultra-distance race and thanks to some pretty minging weather (which I think I happen to dislike less than a lot of other people!) and a home-turf advantage I managed to take home the win in 6hrs 55mins. Unfortunately that day Sarah ended up DNFing at the Southease aid station - she’d done very little training due to a nasty long-lasting chest infection over the winter and I talked her into starting despite her not wanting to, which was clearly a mistake. I take full responsibility for that one, and was definitely a lesson learnt for me.
This years race however was shaping up to be a pretty different affair. A field stacked full of speedsters were signed up to race and having had a good few weeks with no rain beforehand I knew that the ground would be pretty solid underfoot - fast time weather for sure. I had no doubt whatsoever that my (defacto) course record from last year would take an absolute smashing; I just hoped that I would be somewhere not to far off when the dust settled!
My training for the first part of the year had been fairly hit or miss thanks to a few niggling injuries, but with about 5 weeks to go I was injury free and managed to put together three weeks of the highest back-to-back weekly mileage that i’ve ever done. It was a bit of a high-risk move ramping up my mileage that quickly but I feel it paid definitely paid off - I’m learning that relatively high weekly distance (doing two runs a day where possible) really feels like it helps my running hugely. By the time race day came around I was feeling pretty good to be honest - I knew that being up near the front would be a tough ask but i was certainly ready to give it a good go.
Sarah on the other hand was feeling pretty down about her training since the Thames Trot (where she took joint 1st lady and 5th overall!) - she had just not been able to stick together any decent amount of consecutive weeks of training due to illness and very nearly decided not to do the race at all. I certainly didn’t want to talk her into starting after last year but with about a week to go she was feeling better and decided to just give it a pop, not worry about her time and just see how it went.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the race - lots of others have done that - but overall I was pretty pleased with how I ran and how I managed my race. After running in 4th place for about 30km or so I moved past Paul Sargent and Rich Ashton into second, where I remained until the last climb out of Alfriston. By this point I was suffering from probably the worst cramps I’ve ever had in a race - whether this is down to salts, dehydration or just plain pushing myself too hard I don’t know but I had to suffer the indignity of holding open a gate for Rich as he came powering past while I could barely walk. He didn’t even offer me a impromptu massage! But all credit to him - it was pretty painful to lose out on second place with only about 10km to go but he’s a tough cookie and cramping and dealing with it (or not!) is all part of racing… more hill training needed perhaps. After a little bit of walking the cramps eased up a touch and I tried in vain to reel him in but it was not to be. I ended up hitting the track at the end pretty much as he was going under the finish line, gutting of course but getting to run the last few meters with my little girls was a real highlight as this was the first ultra they have been at the finish of.
Despite getting beaten into 3rd I was pleased to run just over half an hour quicker than my time last year, coming in with a time of 6:24:41. Centurion Running’s Paul Navesey smashed it out the park in first place, laying down a new CR of 6:11:28 - pretty damn tidy.
After a bit of handshaking at the finish and a chat with my excellent crew of Mum, Dad and the girls it was time to wait for Sarah to arrive. Edwina (Sutton) soon came running into the stadium for a first place finish with a quality time of 7:09:21 and then we didn’t have long to wait before Sarah cruised in looking fresh and strong and good for a 7:19:43 second place! Gemma Carter rounded out the top three in 7:32:42. All three had done a pretty good job of demolishing of the previous women’s CR of 8:23:30, albeit one set in terrible weather.
I was so excited for Sarah, a week before the race she was really not sure if she was even going to start so to have had such a good one was a real breakthough for her I think. And to be honest I was also feeling pretty smug as now she’ll have to actually listen to me when I tell her that she has to believe in herself a bit more! God help all the others (me included) if she manages to string together a few months of really solid training and mileage in the future.
So all in all a pretty good day out for the Perkins household. Lots to think about and plenty to work on and improve as always but definitely a great day of racing. As ever James Elson, the whole Centurion crew and their top-notch volunteers showed how to put on a quality race and I’m already looking forward to next year!
Next ‘A’ race for me is the SDW100 which I am seriously excited about - the South Downs Way is just such an iconic trail and one that I love dearly and having the opportunity to run all 100 miles of it is just such a privilege. I’ve got the Three Forts Challenge before that to keep me sharp but it’s definitely not going to be a big focus for me - I certainly won’t be treating it as a training run but I’m not too bothered about how it shakes out really.
Sarah will be entering the open race at the National 100km Champs in Kent in a few weekends time and then has the South Downs Marathon later on in June. Exciting times ahead for sure.