Written by Sheila Rose - http://www.happyowlfitness.co.uk
Finding it a little difficult to write about this race for some reason – its two days after the event and I think the emotional impact has hit me, but here goes.
Firstly, let’s say this was not my chosen race – my husband entered the SVP100 last year and unfortunately had his first ever DNF at 55 miles in, his preparation last year not necessarily physically but mentally was not right mainly due at the time to work commitments – the importance of mental readiness cannot be emphasised enough in preparation for these longer distance events. He was gutted to say the least last year, and the only silver lining was seeing our friend Dean finish his debut 100km – I knew that Russ would want to return to complete the job in 2015, no surprise that he entered shortly after the race opened.
My target race for 2015 was Ultra12 I had hoped to do 50miles in the 12 hour event, however plans changed when on a drive back from Dover the end of May, following one of the Saxon-shore marathons, Russ suggested I defer my Ultra12 place & run the SVP with him in August. We had at that stage run a few Ultra’s together the Green Man in March & the Dukeries in May – however I still thought he was MAD! But 24 hours later what the heck, let’s do it – so I became runner number 126 registered for the SVP100.
My planned training routine was based around events as opposed to long training runs, personally I struggle to motivate myself to do the long runs and find actual events more enjoyable, so 2 half marathons, 3 marathons, 1 30 miler & 2 50K ultra’s later the morning of the SVP100, desperately hoping that along with strength training I’d done enough to compete.
I have to admit to being a complete bag of nerves the days before and apologise for being a grump – but on the actual morning I was quite calm – Russ & I drove to the start in Newmarket with the intention of picking the car up later assuming one of us was capable of driving.
A little bit about the SVP100 - “ The Stour Valley Path is a 100km (62 mile) long footpath in England, which starts in Newmarket (Suffolk) and ends in Cattawade, a village near Manningtree (Essex). The SVP100 covers almost the entire length of the well marked trail, and is one of the longest point to point races in East Anglia.”
The registration was outside The White Lion pub, a quick check of mandatory items in the backpack and we were issued with our numbers - all quick, slick and so far painless. Plenty of loos in the pub especially for the ladies, one thing I notice about the Ultra events, it’s the men who have to wait in line for a free loo, as the ratio of male/female is still vastly different. The race briefing contained no great surprises, after 2 days of rain on and off, part were slippy underfoot and the RD emphasised that the cut off times were strict at each CP station – overall for the 7am start we had 15.5 hours to complete – this may seem a lot but on a tricky terrain and hot weather conditions its actually quite tight.
So 7am start just across the road from the pub, and we kicked off on time – the first ¾ of a mile or so was on a path by the side of the main road, we then turned into Devil’s Dyke – it’s a manmade dyke I believe – we were running along the top of the dyke – this was mainly single file over some very technical terrain – lose stones, tree roots and a left hand dip, which if you slipped you would find yourself disappearing downhill rather rapidly - we emerged from Devil’s Dyke after 7miles approx. into fields & wooded area – more fields.
Eventually our first CP1 Great Thurlow approx. 12 miles in, we were doing good hitting this CP just over 2 hours in.
Onwards & upwards – more fields with beasties this time, and so it went - I cannot recall the entire route and would most likely bore you silly if I could so highlights, successes & failures.
The SVP is a pretty brutal route in parts, the rain the previous two days made the earlier part quite sticky under foot & some fields it was like wearing concrete boots because of the clay sticking to your sandals or trainers – didn’t matter which. The weather in general made for tough going, it started cool and overcast but soon turned humid and then pretty darn baking hot.
CP2 in Clare was 23approx miles in, I remember a cuddle with a man holding a pup Dalmatian, I mean I cuddled the puppy not the man, I remember watermelon never tasting so good – I think I downed 3 cups of coke (I never drink the stuff normally) and if I remember correctly we exited through a wooded area.
We were still very much on track with plan A. 5 Miles per hour in fact we had popped a mile or two in the bank, both still feeling good.
CP3 OK whoever decided to call this place LONG Melford could probably provide a much more actuate description of this route than I can, he/she was most accurate with the long bit, the sodding place went on forever, we seemed to be running down this high street for an eternity – a very surreal experience with “ordinary” people going about their “normal” Saturday afternoon activities, shopping, sitting with lunch, coffee & beer – I did temporarily envy the entire population of Long Melford. Eventually the CP set to the side of a cricket grounds (with a game in progress) this was my favourite CP – fantastic support just when you needed a lift, suddenly I was temporarily in love with the population of Long Melford. More watermelon & coke – felt sorry for the CP volunteers battling with wasps - Russ had a quick change of vest at this one and again we were off. Many thanks to a gentleman with a cracking beard & white tee-shirt who told us we were making it look easy (as if) but his enthusiasm & encouragement was most appreciated - we were 33 approx. miles in and I knew at this point it would only get tougher.
The terrain was pretty much fields, hills, rutted surface what you would expect – it kind of rolls into one to be honest. We managed to sustain 5 miles per hour up to about 35 miles, we were doing great, but you always knew fatigue would set in at some point and it would be necessary to pull back to Plan B, if I’m learnt anything it is that Ultra running is all about management – you have to just manage the fatigue, nutrition, time element & any maintenance required – try not to obsess or panic. We hit the 40 mile on my watch – we were about 8 hour 12 minutes in, Plan B endeavour to hit 4 miles per hour – that would assuming the course came up to 63 miles give us another 6 hours to come in just over 14 hours, now at the time my brain was frazzled and that took some working out!
CP4 Lamarsh 42 miles approx. took us forever to find this one, it was outside a pub – again well stocked with very helpful volunteers, I think this was the one with the lush cakes.
Once again hitting the road as it were – we were heading for Nayland – this was where Russ had to drop out last year, and is the start point for the Stour Valley Marathon which we have run for the last 2 years. Terrain what can I say more of the same – it didn’t get any easier, time wise we were doing good & right on track, a text message from Dean who was a star & crewing for us arrived to say he was in Nayland – we were about 2/3 miles out. As we approached Nayland the scenery became more familiar as it follows the same approach as the SV Marathon, it was lovely to reach CP5 & see Dean cheering us in.
CP5 Nayland 51.5 approx. on my watch – I was feeling a bit dizzy at this point & a bit sick, really good to have someone there who you knew and who knew how you were feeling, Dean having run the race in 2014. I think for Russ this CP was also a high, as time wise compared to 2014 we were well ahead, and I think although we both knew it would be tough any doubts about not finishing were completely gone. Dean walked us out of the CP, you have to climb a set of steps to get to the bridge and on to the High Street, boy that hurt – and seeing the beer festival going on in the pub across the road, well that kind of sucked. I was a bit confused as to where we were going from here, and I remember Dean saying I should know this bit, as we followed the high street then up the Hill – that is in effect the first mile of the SV Marathon. Man I knew it as soon as you turned the corner, it’s a mighty steep hill. We had nearly 8.5 miles to the next CP and they were probably the hardest miles for me – the uphill’s was killers. At about 55 miles – although everything was hurting and fatigued, I realised that the hurt in my derriere was no longer my glute muscles screaming, but FFS my butt cheeks were chaffing and felt like they were on fire – now looking back, we were 55miles in – in a sodding field in the middle of nowhere or so it seems & I’m rubbing glide into my butt cheeks to ease the pain of them rubbing together which is compounded by the sweat dripping down my back - Ultra running is by no stretch of the imagination a glamour sport – but lesson learnt for future events, if it moves, wobbles or shakes FFS glide it up!
I hit a low point somewhere before the next CP, no idea why and in fairness the first low point of the event, wherever it was we were walking through a church yard at the time – I remember just telling myself to snap out and as Russ pointed out just work through it – in 10 minutes you will be fine again, we were still very much on target time wise and despite some wrong turnings were a little ahead.
CP6 Stratford St. Mary 59 miles approx. my watch – Spanish inquisitor to the CP volunteers, how far precisely to the finish???? We really needed to know an accurate distance as this would dictate our pace and how much fluid & nutrition we needed to carry. We were assured 5.5 miles.
The final leg – more of the same but getting a bit dark, we were still ban on target sticking to 4 miles per hour, but we now knew the course would come up long in addition to about ¾ of a mile allowance for wrong turns along the way. We walked quickly a lot and put runs together as we could for that last stretch, the final miles got difficult with rutted terrain again and I guess in darkness, the risk of tripping at this late stage was not worth the extra few minutes. Finally emerging into street light, we were following 3 runners who seemed to know it was about a mile on road to the finish, unfortunately we somehow missed the turning into the sports ground and ended up running through the car park through the finish line, which I think might have added a bit extra.
So officially 14 hours & 27 minutes 65.66 miles on the watch - and one tough mofo!
I have to say on this one I felt under pressure from the off, I knew it would be tough terrain, I knew the cut off would prove tight with little margin for error, I knew the weather would play a part, and most of all I knew that Russ so desperately needed to put the ghost of last year’s DNF to rest (I would feel the very same, in fact now seeing how hard it was I salute him for dragging it out for 55 miles).
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it – just for the above reasons, but then it’s not meant to be easy, I’m proud of our achievement, and of all the things we got right along the way, I’m also crazy enough to be chuffed to make this a qualifying race for the North Downs Way 100 !
I’m really grateful to Dean for being there for us at the end, and understanding how we were feeling, and even bring me a sleeping bag for the journey home.
I smile to myself thinking of the lady I met in the communal showers at the end, we were both in a state trying to wash in cold water and both with the same chaffing issues, I wonder what other sport would you have that sort of conversation with a total stranger – both naked in a cold communal shower – Welcome to Ultra Running!
Lessons:
Tailwind works (although it does appear to give you wind)
Do NOT dawdle at the CP stations – get what you need & move on. We took plastic bags filled the food we needed, and walked out of every CP – we were eating but moving forward at the same time.
Watermelon is King! Babybell cheese is Queen!
FFS if it moves, wobbles, shakes or rattles glide the bugger – trust me on this one!
Maintain your sense of humour
Swear occasionally
There are 26 letters in the alphabet - have a plan for each letter
Luna Leadville Pacers ROCK
When everything hurts – rejoice that you can feel and are alive
Never give up – prepare mentally & physically you are bound to be nervous before hand and occasionally doubt your abilities, but once you start running & hit that trail – believe, believe & believe some more! (this I’m saying in particular to two special ladies)
Hold the Vision – Trust the Process
Thank you SVP100, thank you all the volunteers who make it possible - Happy Running xx