Robin Hood 100

Although this was my focus race of the year, and my first ever attempt at a 100 miler after two 24 hour races and a number of shorter distance events, I entered race week and the day itself with an amazing calmness for someone who is usually just a little excitable. I felt ready for it and there was certainly no consideration at all that I wouldn’t finish it and with time to spare (30 hour cut off). On first reflection, and I don’t think 60 hours is enough to fully digest everything that happened, I think I was right to have that confidence but the story has so much more to tell. If you just want to know the result I finished in 23 hours and 25 minutes, if you want to know more about the journey read on… Me, Laura, Robert and Caitlin travelled up after work on Friday, a 240 mile journey, and if I had any concerns it was that after the first full week back teaching, which always takes its toll, plus the journey and a possible late arrival at the hotel as we would have to stop for tea on route I may be tired going in to race day. Thankfully though the journey was clear and we were booked into the hotel before 10pm and we were all in bed settled by half past. An early start Saturday morning to get from Rotherham to race HQ in South Wheatley and having eaten my porridge we arrived with 45 minutes to spare which gave me time to meet the RD and my coach, Ronnie, get kitted out, collect tracker etc and listen to the race briefing before we assembled on the start line ready for the off. The first 6 miles of the event were around farmland with some rough churned up terrain which actually suited me fine as I didn’t have to concentrate too hard on keeping my pace down with my first plan being to maintain 5mph for as long as possible which would give me time to play with for a sub 24 result at worst. After the first 6 miles you go through aid station 1 where I grabbed a cup of water but nothing else as I knew what my fueling strategy was and it didn’t involve what was supplied although I must admit it was an ample spread as it was at all stations. Miles 6 to 18 were along the Chesterfield Canal and I must admit that even on the outward leg I found this a little monotonous and uninspiring but there were still enough participants about to keep the mind occupied and I settled into a run 17 minute walk 3 minute strategy and came off the canal, past the third aid station and onto the drop bag station at mile 22 for the for the first of two laps around Sherwood Forest and surrounding areas. The marshalls were most impressed/amused with my Lidl carrier bag with three sandwich bags of energy bars and bottle of undiluted squash in amongst all the other full rucksacks and holdalls. I’m guessing lots of runners didn’t have the benefit of crew on route with spare clothes etc if needed though? Leaving mile 22 and onto the next aid station at 27 miles was a good period as the miles were ticking by easily including running right through pathways made, it seemed just for us, through the very middle of fields of corn. I enjoyed it but was not sure whether I would later if it was dark when I went back through as was all just a little to 1970s horror film for my liking. The other good thing about this section was that I knew it was at mile 27 that I would see my family for the first time which is always nice although I was a little embarrassed by the hero’s welcome from all at the station ;-) The next 13 miles were probably the toughest I had of the race mentally as I suffered a little with the heat, nausea and the ten mile loop from mile 30 to 40 with no aid station but as I arrived at mile 40 with my family waiting again I was still well on sub 20 pace and still feeling comfortable with only ten miles to go until getting back to the drop bags and starting the second half of the race. Apparently in that last ten mile loop I passed The Great Oak of Robin Hood fame and also through the caves of Sherwood Forest, someone correct me if I’m wrong but I noticed neither. Surely I’d have known if I was in a cave? I enjoyed the next ten miles to the drop bags especially the discovery of an unexpected aid station at Creswell Crags where I discovered the delight that was watermelon, very refreshing and something I will consider again in the future. I had lots of nice things through the race, for instance I had a 50 mile love affair with the Sainsbury’s (other supermarkets are available) summer fruits squash that was being supplied at the aid stations but would now be happy if I never encountered it again. I do not feel the same about water melon. More, more, more…. I’ve read and heard a lot over the years about the benefits of course familiarity and doing at least one recce but it was not until leaving the drop bag point for this second time that I began to realise how it would help. Ronnie has said in the briefing that they would try their very best to ensure that the tape moving bastards didn’t put anyone off route but I followed the tape at a left turn 400m past the check point and went about half a mile to a junction before I started questioning my direction and thinking I had missed something. Going back to the turning point I got even more confused as it seemed I had definitely gone the right way according to the tape and was about to return to the check point when a local participant, Malc (more on him later), came past and let me know that the tape must have been moved and pointed my in the right direction. So a quick move of the tape so other runners didn’t make the same mistake and a few expletives aimed at the phantom tape movers and I was on my way again. Over the next twenty miles things were pretty uneventful, because of my dip on the same section on the previous lap I was not particularly looking forward to it but kept on moving forward, despite a few aches and pains in my left foot, right ankle and both hips, but had changed to an 8 minute 2 minute run walk strategy. Leaving the family at the 70 miles aid station I wasn’t planning to see them until the last ten miles and in hindsight I think the unfamiliarity with the course started to take its toll here too as although I didn’t get lost it was tougher mentally in the dark to concentrate on going in the right direction. However there were 30 miles to go after 14.5 hours so if I could maintain pace I was still well under 21 hour pace which in honesty would have been a dream result but I left with full confidence. So I hit the canal again with 15 miles to go and still running happily at the 8-2 strategy as far as I remember but it wasn’t long until for whatever reason that I couldn’t get myself running again. I’m not sure not if it was just mental exhaustion and I should have manned up but the longer it went the more I stiffened up and the more painful my hips became. I was still cracking on at around 4 miles an hour but boy did that canal drag even with the knowledge that I would be seeing my Laura and it seemed to take forever to get to the end and the last aid station. I got to this aid station with 3.5 miles to go and 50 minutes to spare for a 100 mile pb fairly confident that I would be able to get finished in time but things didn’t go to plan. Now I was tired so I’m not going to say I was at fault but I’m convinced that the volunteers, who were all marvellous and undoubtably tired themselves, told me to go left over the bridge and then right at the pub which I obviously did. I’m not certain exactly how far along the road I went before contacting race HQ as I felt it wasn’t right and sure enough I soon had a text to go back the way I had come and by the time I got back to the checkpoint I only had twenty minutes to get through the last 3.5 miles for a PB so it was definitely not going to happen. It was obvious now that if I had just glanced left when crossing the bridge I would have seen the directional tape but such is life. I still had time to go a little off route again in the last 3.5 miles as I was too busy texting Laura to tell her of my woes but I’m actually, in a perverse way, glad these issues occurred as I bumped into Malc again and was happy to return the favour from earlier on as after a fall earlier on he was struggling at this point, was bent double and struggling to stay upright so we moved on together with me leading the way and him holding on to my shoulders so I could bear his weight. To be fair to him he urged me not to sacrifice my race for him but my PB was gone, a sub 24 hour was definitely going to happen which was, apart from just finishing, one of my targets but I would like to think that even it had meant sacrificing a bigger goal that I would have still done the same thing. It was lovely to meet him anyway and he now owes me a beer so all is good ;-) Anyway I was finished in 23 hours and 25 minutes with, thanks to my detours, 104 miles on the clock so all in all a favourable result and a lovely cup of soup and roll waiting for me at race HQ along with my family to help me change. I still can’t pinpoint, apart from the benefit of having course familiarity, how I could have improved my performance on race day as I still don’t think I could have maintained the pace for that last 15 miles so need to look more at my preparation and how that could improve if at all. Reality is that in June 2016 I struggled to do 85 miles in 24 hours at Endure and this June I did 100 miles comfortably at the same event in under 23 hours and I would have beaten that time in a physically and mentally harder event this time without the diversions so it could just be a case of carrying on as I am and the improvements will keep coming. For now I just need to be proud of my achievement, results aren’t out yet but I’m pretty sure I finished in the top 20% of the field pending results, and in the next few weeks have a chat with Ronnie and Laura and between us we will devise a plan to keep progressing in the future. Sorry if is long and boring but it will help me when I look back. Peace x

How I didn't nearly die during a 24 hour race

All I’ve got in my head as I start this race report is to keep it as short as possible, in reality I’m not sure I can though so please feel free to read it in sections, skip to the end or ignore it all together but you are here now so am guessing you must be a tinsy winsy bit interested? The race in question was Endure 24, a 24 hour race around 5 mile loops on mixed terrain with around 380ft of elevation per lap. The event was open to solo runners, pairs and teams. The majority of you reading this are, I’m sure, probably aware that I did the event as a solo runner last year and although I managed 85 miles it was 15 miles short of my goal and is probably important I share just a little information with you as to why I feel I didn’t succeed. In truth at the time I wasn’t overly unhappy, 85 miles is 85 miles right?, but as I have made changes over the last year I’ve come to appreciate that a lot of my preparation was far from ideal. So what did I change that in retrospect contributed to my ‘failure’ last year? Well to start with I am eating much more healthily so am over two stone lighter and not carrying that weight around makes you more efficient immediately? I also, for the first time ever, had a focused running specific strength and mobility routine which I do 5-7 times a week, for anything between 15 and 30 minutes a time. Lastly I put a lot more focus on ensuring my easy and recovery runs were exactly what they said on the tin by concentrating on heart rate zones rather than arbitrarily running to feel. Mileage wise though I had done 950 miles since the start of the year, which was exactly the same as last year in the build up, although the focus of the sessions were different as I had changed coaches. I really enjoyed the training this time around bar the three lost weeks on a treadmill in Beijing (a completely different story and definitely not short). Lots of changes made then and lots of positivity from all the people around me that I was going to ‘smash it’ although they all said the same last year too. I tried to be a little more pragmatic but knew how well I was running in the build-up, through training and the events I have done, since the turn of the year. Those closest to me knew I was hell bent on hitting the magical ‘100’ this year but for a lot of people I refused to divulge my target. First rule of fight club…… I could easily bang on now about the arriving at the campsite, the setting up, the food and drink (although that will be mentioned again later), how I slept in the build up with election fever to deal with as well etc etc but let’s skip to Saturday morning and the race itself. I can almost hear your sigh of relief….. The strategy for race day was to take a little food on every lap and I had a huge choice of paleo and vegan energy bars along with pringles, pot noodles and salami sticks, drink regularly and try to never stop for longer than 20 minutes for food and only do that after laps 8 and 16. I could eat the snack items walking on the hills or have a five minute break at base camp which was, due to our early Friday arrival, at the side of the course. I should have mentioned this previously, when looking back, but last year there was way too much food and stopping, 2 or 3 hours in all, which could obviously have made all the difference and probably contributed to my body shutting down in the way it did which meant I could not have continued even if I had wanted to. Otherwise I set off looking to walk the three steep sections named the hill of no return, little steep and heartbreak hill, and keep my HR in zone 2 for the rest of the time for the first 8 laps in order to ensure I had enough in the tank later on. To be honest I was only really hoping to average one lap an hour for as long as possible, which would give me 4 hours to play with later on so as you can imagine these first 8 lap times were a bonus but still gave me a little concern, although sticking to HR strategy, that I was at risk of burn out. There is a clear slowing down though which was obviously going to happen at same HR effort but they are pretty consistent with lap 8 including a pot noodle stop which was a little over 20 minutes. I felt strong though at this point and my only issue was around the right hip area on both the inside and outside of the leg. I am still convinced that this was partly, if not all, down to a fall I had on lap 5 though as I somehow twisted on the way down and landed on my back on the right hand side, on a tree stump. Still there were reasons to be confident and happy as I was going to set off on lap 9, 40 miles in, in around 7 hours 45 minutes. 1 00:51:36 2 00:51:41 3 00:54:07 4 00:53:11 5 00:54:07 6 00:56:04 7 00:57:38 8 01:28:13 (Pot noodle lap) Now it was at this point heading into the evening and night that I was telling my support team, Laura basically, but also a friend who had to pull out on 30 miles after a fall of his own  that I was going to be doing more walking and I did but I was feeling so strong the laps kept ticking by without needing to walk as much as I feared. After lap 14 I was intent on my support team having some sleep as I was still thinking that from 2 to 6AM I would be walking and they needed some rest but some lovely cups of tea and custard creams seemed to do the job and the pace and amount of time running continued to be pretty consistent although I was having a sit down every lap. 9 01:06:17 10 01:04:21 11 01:05:10 12 01:15:26 13 01:10:51 14 01:17:55 6 laps to go to meet my target and although I was feeling strong physically and mentally heading out on lap 15 my major meltdown was about to begin. Now I was aware that I hadn’t passed water for the duration of the race, and trust me it was warm even over night when we had 4 laps of relatively heavy rain, but I felt that I had been taking on enough fluid, I’d say an average of 500ml per hour whether it be water, cherry pepsi or tea. As I got to the station on lap 15 though and had my cup of water I immediately need a pee. Heading into the bushes and with my headtorch on I was more than a little disturbed to see it was a dark brown, coke like colour. I went straight to the medics at the water station and after a bit of chat they were the first to tell me that I hadn’t drunk enough and needed more electrolytes but said I should go to see the team in the medical centre back at race HQ to be tested for sugar levels etc. They offered me a lift back but said I’d be fine to finish the lap if I wished so I said I would do so. Now in my head this was the end of my race, I’m not good with medical stuff, and I was convinced that my kidneys had given up and I was about to be rushed off to hospital  Like I said I don’t do medical stuff and I had been awake for a long time so wasn’t completely compos mentis. At the medical centre they didn’t even let me in and just told me the same thing as the medics on the course, not drinking enough, need more electrolytes, dehydrated, don’t worry about it. Pfft what did they know? I was dying and they didn’t care  At this point I went back to the tent base and am not quite sure what I did other than mooch around and wonder about waking Laura to explain what was happening. I wish I had to be honest as she would have convinced me all was fine but another friend came through at the end of a lap who had his base with us, someone with no medical expertise as far as I know, and also told me it was just dehydration, to start taking some S-caps man up and go and get those final laps done. Did I listen to him, for sure, although I was still a little freaked out. At no point did it occur to me that the fact that I had passed water meant my kidneys must be working and that I was just dehydrated, if only someone had told me. Anyway all this faffing meant that laps 15 and 16 were my slowest of the race but that I still had 6 hours in which to cover the last 20 miles, worst case scenario to cover 15 miles because as long as I began lap 20 before the 24 hours were up it would still count. Doable? 15 01:19:15 16 01:58:55 The next 4 laps just sort of went, there was a little pain but not too much, I said to Laura that I didn’t want food at the end of lap 18 but still managed to inhale a bowl of frosties with not much convincing but I really had my eyes on finishing as I had been craving an ice cream ever seeing the kids eating one on lap 6. So after 22 hours 51 minutes and 36 seconds I finished lap 20 and had reached my Holy Grail (for now). 25 minutes quicker than I did 85 miles last year. I could have done another two laps possibly but that can wait for another time. 17 01:14:15 18 01:13:00 19 01:07:28 20 01:12:05 After the end of the race I pretty much sat and watched Laura pack everything up, which was lazy of me, and we were about to make our escape when I was told that 100 mile club t-shirts were being presented at the awards ceremony so was happy to wait around for that and have time to have a last bacon bap from the caterers too. Don’t get me wrong completing the sub 24 hour 100 miles is brilliant and I am extremely happy with the consistency of my splits, how I felt despite nearly dying and my recovery, is 48 hours after the race now and I have very few aches or pains but still feel tired you know?, but at the same time is very much a case of job done, what is next? I know I have had the best year I’ve had running since I started in 2009 but feel there are still a lot more improvements to come and look forward to reaching new goals over the next few years. I would tell you what they are but first rule of fight club…. Lastly and possibly unnecessary it is important to me to acknowledge again how important the support I get from my family, friends and coach is in allowing me to do these things to the best of my ability. Certainly in terms of race day I have often said that Laura and the kids have a harder job than me so I am eternally grateful for that and the belief, motivation and advice I get from all quarters. Oh and if anyone wants to sponsor me I still have another two marathons and another 100 miler to go this year before a return to my IAPL challenge next July. More information on my challenges and the cause here http://www.totalgiving.co.uk/mypage/theendurancechallenge Thanks for listening. Peace x