Written by Mark Thornberry - https://thorners.wordpress.com
Ranscombe Summer Challenge – July 11th
With my ‘A’ race set as the Autumn 100 in October (and with one big eye on the Snowdonia Ultra that I am doing in August), I was looking for an event that had a little elevation to contend with but also would allow me to get some rhythm and ‘grind’ out 50 miles or so.
I also had the objectives of running at my hoped for 100 mile pace, hiking the ups a bit more efficiently (and therefore quicker) than I have done recently, and finishing the event with quite a bit still in the tank.
A couple of people I knew from Twitter @naominf and @UltraBoyRuns had written glowing reports of the Spring Challenge – so I duly threw my hat into the ring.
I was not to be disappointed.
The Challenge is put on by Saxons, Normans and Vikings Marathons (http://www.saxon-shore.com/) – run by Traviss and Rachel. They are well respected within the ultrarunning community and anything that comes forth from them about getting through a 100 miler is more than worth listening to.
The format of the event is straight forward – run as many laps of the 3.8 mile route as you like in 12 hours (accepting the wrist band offered at the end of each lap to signify more please or ring the bell to call it a day!) – with your last lap needing to be started before 11 hours 15 minutes had elapsed. And you can come back and do the same the next day! Simples.
Sooo..to the day itself. An easy 45 mile journey eastwards to Cuxton had me arriving at the Nature Reserve just before 6.30am for a 7am kick-off. I registered without fuss – Rachel and all the other volunteers were fab throughout the day – many thanks to her plus Ed, Greg, Janet, Jackie, Dee and Becky and Traviss of course – and then tracked Naomi down to say hi (that girl is a legend…and a great blogger http://www.callmyselfarunner.com).
Ok…about 60/70 of us I guess toed the start line with more to join over the course of the morning. With an undulating route it was more relevant for me to view average pace in terms of per lap as opposed to per individual mile – and I set out with about 41/42 minutes per lap as a target for the first 6/7 laps. I’ve a habit of going off too quickly and suffering later on – so really wanted to get that right.
And it was hot…damned hot.
The course is varied, scenic and quite stunning…with the wild flowers out in force just adding to the rural feel to the run…though the M2 was 2 minutes away! Compact trail, sweeping fields and forested tracks were all on offer and the route (as the profile above suggests) provided one with contrasting ‘halves’. I hiked all the ups from the off and gave it some welly on the downs.
An incredibly friendly bunch of runners had me chatting away from the off and I looked at my watch to find I’d already been out for an hour…felt like 10 minutes. I came into Base Camp after the second lap and felt myself overheating…I guzzled a ton of water and reapplied the Factor 30. I was to fill my waist bottles with electrolytes on pretty much every lap as the salt stains on my t-shirt gave the old moobs further unwelcome definition, and bore witness to the climbing temperature.
The good thing about having to return to the start after each lap was the chance to refuel given the conditions, but as a notorious Aid Station Lurker, I spent far too much time there and on more than one occasion Rachel turned to me to comment ‘are you still here?!!’ A survey of my Garmin stats was to subsequently reveal I spent some eighty odd minutes ‘not moving’. Something to work on…
I got to the marathon mark (end of lap 7), despite the excessive lurkage, in about 4:40 – pretty much on target. But then felt rubbish. One gets to expect these down moments in a race..but I went from totally on it to totally off it. At these times there is only one cure…and I fervently sought out the M&S Iced and Spiced Buns buried in my drop bag at the CP. I got going after a while, albeit walking out for the first time. The more I run the longer stuff, the more that I know that this will (if the mind allows it) pass. Just slow down, drink plenty and get some food down. I decided to walk the lap and take a few photos on my phone.
Yes, that Siren did call out to me – ‘how the f*ck are you going to run 100 miles if you’re bollixed after less than thirty’ – but it was ignored and I was back ‘on it’ before the downhill/flat last 1.5 miles back to camp.
I settled into a steady pace again and found myself through 40 miles with no further issues. I knew I would now do more than 50 miles and reckoned if I kept it going, I’d get to 15 laps. I had a chat with Rachel after 11 laps who let me know that 15 laps would see me cop the most distance for the day (I certainly wouldn’t be the fastest mind!). To be honest this wasn’t a goal (and to be frank I didn’t expect to be in the frame in any case). I did though work out what I needed to do if I wanted to get to the start of lap 15 before the 11h 15 min cut off point…then promptly ran two relatively poor laps…
Lap 14 loomed with a smidge under 50 miles done. I charged my mini bottles up with a coke/water mix..chucked the last of my emergency (and amazing) Lidl’s Salted Caramel Fudge down and resolved that if I was going to stop after the next lap it would be within the last cut-off. I ran the last lap at about 9:30 min/mile pace and sprinted it in. Rock and roll.
Band or bell? I thought about it…I felt strong and Rachel reminded me that I was in time. Nah, job done for the day…53.2 miles, 11:02 time and a nice 5400 ft of ascent that had exercised the pins.
As I cooled down, Mandy finished her run. Her first marathon and she’d been out in the heat for some considerable time. We applauded her over the finish line and I congratulated her on a fantastic achievement. She let on that she hadn’t run for seven weeks having lost her mojo…and had no intention of running a marathon on the day. ‘Look’ she said to me ‘It takes me six hours to do 20 miles in training too…I can’t always handle that’. But she did and more, and the beaming smile was testimony to how the day was more about achieving personal goals than who was fastest or furthest. For her and others (the folk who pushed through to eight laps to their first ultra distance – about 50k, the first time ‘beyond half marathoners’ I shared some miles with)…a big chapeau!
#ThisGirlCan
And finally…a massive thanks to all the SV&N team for just a great day out. To quote that rather be-muscled Austrian actor – “I’ll be back…”
