Written by Mark Perkins - http://ultraperk.com
When I was first getting into ultras about two and a half years ago I was trawling the internet for any ultra running-related reading material when I stumbled across James Adams’ blog. At the time I’d never met or even heard of James but I spent a good few hours reading some of the epic race reports on his site. One of those, and the one which really stuck in my mind at the time, was his report from the 2008 Grand Union Canal race. At the time I couldn’t even get my head around running 100 miles (let alone 145!) and the tale of his emotional ups and downs over the course of his journey from Birmingham to London, running through day and night and back into the day again, left me feeling like this was a scale of challenge that would likely forever be beyond me.
But it’s funny how quickly your perspective can change. I’m a completely different runner now to the runner I was when I first read that report, and just over a week ago I found myself on the GUCR start line not only looking to complete the race but with an ambition to be the first person to run the route in under 24 hours. I’d never run more than 100 miles but my (perhaps naive) assumption was that with a 100 mile PB of 12:04 I should be able to go through the 100 mile point of this race in around 15 hours and I should feel quite comfortable. That would leave me with 9 hours to run 45 miles, which unless the wheels really came off seemed perfectly reasonable. I knew that there were a few other good runners in the race this year, most notably Dan Lawson who recently competed for Team GB at the World 24 hour Champs and who I had once met very briefly when I said hello to him in the middle of his epic 7 day, 521 mile treadmill challenge. But my main focus before the race was really on getting under 24 hours - with the Pat Robbins’ course record set at 25 hours 37 mins I figured that if I could run sub 24 then I’d probably win the race pretty handily anyway.
How wrong I was. 22 hours and 42 minutes later I crossed the finish line at Little Venice, nearly three hours under Pat’s old course record but very firmly in second place to Dan, who had been sitting in his chair for a good 25 minutes by the time I got there.
We’d run much of the first 50 miles together, leapfrogging past each other as we each met our respective crews at different points along the way, until I’d stopped for a pee in the bushes, shouting to Dan to let him know I was stopping and that I’d ‘catch him up later’. I never did. Instead he opened up a lead on me over the next 20 miles or so that remained pretty constant for the rest of the race, despite my best efforts to keep moving as fast as I could whilst simultaneously willing him to slow down.
It was a bit of an odd race for me, and one which was very different to my experiences in the last three 100 milers I’d run. In those races I’d had my fair share of low points, but I’d also had long stretches of feeling inspired, really loving the running and the experience of covering such an epic distance on foot. Even in Crawley, running round a track for 12 hours (and pushing myself so hard that I nearly collapsed) I had real moments of exhilaration and stretches where I was feeling good and strong and generally in control of matters. But right from the start of GUCR I just felt a bit flat - not bad, just not as full of energy as I’d expected to feel. And a no point in the race did I really feel good - I seemed to lack the inspiration and excitement that I’d become accustomed to feeling in previous races. I had expected to get to 100 miles feeling pretty solid (considering I was aiming to hit that mark about 3 hours slower than my 100 mile PB) but by the time I go there I’d been feeling pretty rough since mile 70, with frequent ‘behind-the-bush’ stops and a stomach that just wasn’t really playing ball. I bounced back a bit for a little while, but I just seemed to be unable to find my ‘flow’, that special place where you can occasionally find yourself when everything just melts away and you can truly immerse yourself in the joy of just moving through the landscape, progressing along your personal journey with fluidity and enjoyment. My previous three races had felt like creative acts - like painting a picture when inspiration takes over and the brush moves effortlessly over the canvas. But this felt more like doing a job - like knocking out a replica picture to earn a few quid, harder not because of the extra effort needed but rather because the inspiration factor was lacking.
I’m not sure why this was the case. Maybe because it was my first time at this distance, maybe because I was worried about my groin (which I’d tweaked prior to Crawley and which was still giving me a bit of gip) or maybe it was just one of those days. But what I do know is that I had the best crew on the planet that day - Sarah, my Dad, Drew, Claire and Tim - and without them the race would have been very different indeed. Before the race Drew had said to me that the last 45 miles is really all about your crew and ‘buddy runners’ (no ‘pacers’ allowed at GUCR), and I now know what he means! Obviously you can do this race un-crewed or with a minimal crew, but for a race of this distance having a knowledgeable and experienced group of people like I did really makes all the difference when it comes to posting a fast time. They ran with me, encouraged me, fetched me McDonald’s chips multiple times when it was all my stomach could handle, kept me amused, took my mind off the pain and the feeling of general flatness, helped me not miss the crucial bridge crossings and all in all made it possible for me to get to that finish line in a time that I’m still incredibly happy with.
And that is the funny thing - I am very happy with the outcome and I really don’t want to sound too negative about my day out there on the canal. I’d love to have won, naturally, but Dan’s superior strength and experience over that distance meant he very deservingly took the top spot on the day. I’m extremely pleased to have gone not just sub-24 but sub-23, but the process was just not quite as fulfilling as in other races because I just didn’t feel the ‘x-factor’ was there with me that day. In some ways that is actually quite exciting and has helped to give me confidence that even when I’m not feeling amazing I can still grind out a result that I’m pleased with. And I’m pretty sure if I can find that inspiration (and get the right conditions - we were fortunate to have had really great weather for racing) I can go faster than I did on that course. And yes that does mean that I’m planning on coming back for another crack at it some day!
But for now it’s time to back off the miles for a bit, get into the gym and generally put my body back together again. For a number of reasons Sarah and I have now decided not to do the Lakeland 100 (we were running as a mixed pair), so my next race will likely be Run Rabbit Run 100 in the US in September. I’m hopefully attending a conference for work in Portland the week before so it would seem rude to pass up an opportunity to skip over to Colorado and run a gnarly mountain race a few days afterwards. And I have to say I’m really looking forward to getting out of my comfort zone and getting taken back to school by some of the big boys of US ultra trail racing. So between now and then I’ll be leaving behind the flat road running that I’ve been doing and hitting the trails of the South Downs with a vengeance again. I can’t wait.
Lastly, without sounding too cheesy, I really do want to thank my crew for their tireless efforts over the weekend. Drew’s canal knowledge and advice was invaluable, Claire and Tim kept me moving and distracted through some pretty rough patches, poor Sarah got the worst of my moaning and downright rudeness and Dad once again did a great job of ferrying everyone around, racking up the miles throughout the day and night while Mum was at home doing a cracking job of looking after the kids. And last but not least, a huge thanks to Dawn for lending us her Body Rehab van as a crew vehicle - it really made the whole thing much more enjoyable for my crew and as everyone knows, a happy crew means a happy runner. Thank you!
