‘It's crazy... but other than that, it's kind of fun’...GUCR 145 miler, a huge mish-mashed ramble

 

Note: This blog has taken me so long to write & I’m still not happy with it. There are just too many emotions, too many feelings, too much which happened during this race for me to sum it all up in writing and narrow down into a ramble.  Some of what is written will be accurate, such as the flavour of my pot noodle or something along those lines, but for a lot of it, it really is so hard to sum up in words, so I guess you’ll just have to give this race a go yourself…. ;-)

"If you have to ask, you'll never understand"

I’m not sure when or how I decided that running/ walking /crawling (if I had to) 145 miles non-stop seemed like a good thing to do. I think it was during the Compton Downland Challenge 40 miler in 2010 when I got speaking to a man in his GUCR t-shirt. I think this convinced me that it was a great idea & I vowed that I would definitely have a go at entering when the time felt right. What we will do for a good bit of bling and a t-shirt eh…? ;-)

Funnily enough, for the last few years I have had this weird notion about the GUCR; I have wanted nothing more than to be a part of it and yet, at the same time ideas of being next to a canal for THAT long have filled me with dread. I have reasoned with myself that although I may find the canal network so damn frustrating that somehow this would equate to an even greater challenge for myself.  I have reassured those who have looked at me like I am mad by saying ‘Oh, don’t worry, I doubt I’ll enjoy it…after all I’m next to a canal for 145 miles…I know I am going to find this tough, so don’t worry I KNOW…it’s a silly thing to want to do but the challenge would be amazing.’ So,  I have downplayed all enthusiasm for this event and hyped up the difficulties I may face, because I guess as some sort of defence mechanism I was setting myself up for failure…I liked letting people know  how bad I’d probably find it which equates to how bad I might do which equates to a good excuse strategy…right?



Yup, my psychology has been pretty messed up over this event. So why did I want to do it if I was dreading aspects of it, i.e. the canal network? After all, I’ve done plenty of marathons with canal sections in them and even take part in ULTRA race’s double 45 miler in January from Northampton to Tring 3 years in a row which covers a good bit of this GUCR route and I have to say, it’s not always exciting…I’ve done a lot more hillier events and off-road adventures and enjoyed parts of them much more than any flat surface. But something has always drawn me in about this one. When I entered the ballot I truly did hope my name got pulled out and yet I was terrified by the prospect that this would now be set in stone. I think it was one of the best decisions I have ever made entering the ballot. And I got in. And then I tried to get my head around the prospect of running 145 miles non-stop and I still don’t think I’ve got my head around that prospect and it’s almost two months after the actual race!

Where to begin?

I roped in two lovely and amazing fellow runners who had very kindly offered to be my support crew, Sarah and Jon Aston. They were absolutely amazing. I stayed at theirs in Telford the night before where I ate a lot of pizza and garlic bread and we were up at 3ish am on the Saturday morning to drive across to Birmingham for the 6am race start.  Now, the weeks leading up to the race had been immersed in sunshine. The British weather had been phenomenal and very sunny. As Sod’s Law would have it this was not the case on race weekend. In fact that weather couldn’t have been more different. It was pouring down. I was very nervous with the impending distance to run, but the rain was creating new tension and I didn’t like it.  Normally I have my very trusty OMM Kamleika jacket which never fails me in wet and windy conditions. I have worn it up in the hills, in horrendous conditions on the Yorkshire moors and basically, whenever it rains. The water just runs off it and it doesn’t take up much space when not needed. It’s a very useful piece of kit. So it obviously came as a HUGE annoyance when packing for the GUCR that I could not find it ANYWHERE. I literally turned the house upside down and I couldn’t find it anywhere.  Just my luck. 

I was so angry and I kept looking but I never did find it in time. Friends tried to reassure me and get rid of my nerves by telling me that the weather would likely be fine and dry. This was far from the case. In the end I did my best with borrowed windbreaker-style jackets and extra layers from my crew. In the end everyone was soaked through…but obviously it would have been better with my OMM. I think the lack of kit definitely affected my mindset from the beginning. It made me more nervous and looking around at the fellow runners on the start line I felt like a child on a school trip who had rubbish clothes and the other kids were all in the designer labels. The dropout rate for this event is high and the last thing I wanted was for the weather conditions and my lack of cover to contribute to a DNF. I am still carrying with me the emotional scars of the Thames Path 100 which I guess was on similar terrain, wherein the weather suddenly turned and became icy and windy and torrential. During the Thames Path I had my good kit and still the race got pulled 5 miles from the finish and I failed to reach that finish line, with so many runners out there suffering from the elements. I didn’t want a similar scenario during this event. I guess I just forced myself to push it to the back of my mind. There was nothing I could do about it. Time to focus. And before I knew it, Dick Kearn the race director had done his speech and we were off. It all seemed so surreal.

The First Bit

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting.”

The first 10 miles went by pretty fast. I was chatting to another runner for most of that bit and it was really nice to meet some new people. I barely noticed the canal. I needn’t have worried; there was plenty of time to take it in later on… Before I knew it I had come upon Jon and Sarah and their crewing skills were excellent from the outset. They had a bag of goodies with them and I took a few handfuls of salted popcorn. As it turns out, salted popcorn was a really good fuel choice and very easy to eat. I needed to make sure I was eating early. After all, I had awoken at 3ish am and eaten breakfast early. I thoroughly believe that eating often and early was a really excellent decision. Talking of eating and refuelling: throughout the day and the next day there were two really nice guys called Stuart and Jim I believe who would meet their crew and pull up a chair and take time to eat and then bolt off again. It seemed like a most excellent strategy and always made me giggle because they really took it in their stride and had a little picnic and they were really friendly too.

Clocking up the miles

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old Time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying.” – Robert Herrick

Although it doesn’t always seem like it at the time…well mainly it doesn’t seem like time is going all that fast in the latter stages when you sometimes want it to end faster because of any discomfort you may be feeling, BUT time does indeed fly by. Before I knew it I had lopped off the 45 miles added to that 100 miles and had a mere 100 miles to go. Now, that sounds like a much rounder number! Actually this is a very scary realisation. It’s odd when you get to the 45 mile mark, because this is a reasonably challenging ultra distance normally, I guess, but not in this instance. It is still the beginning and who knows what will transpire later on? Still, I was comforted by the prospect of having company to run with after the 65ish mile mark.

Feeeeed me Seymour

“He who goes to bed hungry dreams of pancakes.”

In no particular order, the following things were eaten or sort of eaten/ drunk: Salted popcorn, trail mix, Bevita breakfast biscuits, monster munch, chunky chicken soup, noodles, pot noodle, coffee, coca cola, cheese and ham sandwiches, MacDonald’s cheese burger and fries, tuna sandwich, more monster munch, sausage roll, more coke, chocolate bar….I think this is the majority of the feast that was eaten, but I bet there’s some that was left out. Anyway, it definitely helped and I never once felt ill like I have before on ultras where I haven’t fuelled properly…so there you go; a successful experiment indeed. Just treat it like a huge eating contest, ‘Runner vs. Food’ and all will be well.

Familiar

"Right now I'm having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time." – Steven Wright

I was quite familiar with some parts of the route, mainly owing to the fact that I have done Ultra Race’s double 45 miler which takes place each January for 3 years in a row. I guess I don’t really dislike canals. I am really grateful for being familiar with parts such as the bit by Blisworth Tunnel. At this point you have to head onto the road, as the towpath disappears and so you head up though a forested track and up onto the road. It can seem like quite a long time on the road and it is over a mile I believe; so you can get a bit paranoid that you’re going off-track. Fortunately, I knew this bit well and my paranoia was non-existent. It was nice to be on a slightly undulating bit of road for a bit, it breaks the monotony of the canal up nicely. It was comforting. And yet the experience of covering this section this time around was so different to the last time I had been there. Last time, the race mileage was nearly over, this time there was a long way to go.

Sleepy eyelids, dreaming awake & getting drenched

"Tonight I'm tangled in my blanket of clouds, dreaming aloud" – Foo Fighters

On the Saturday night, the rain got so bad. It was really bad. I don’t mind rain, but the implications of such torrential freezing rain whilst having to stay awake and responsive and active for so long whilst getting absolutely drenched are not good. Your mind doesn’t want to go there and even worse than that, you don’t want to have to go there literally. It is a frightening and annoying thought that a little bit of water falling from the sky might derail a dream that you have had for so long. It was certainly made all the worse by the fact that I was minus my very treasured waterproof OMM jacket. It made me cold and sleepy and forgetting the rain for a moment, the darkness and magnitude of the distance that had to be covered made me downright sleepy. My eyes began to lull and my eyelids got heavy. I was doing my lazy, stumbling, falling-asleep run. I literally had to screw my face up, talk to myself, and jolt myself back to reality and to the here and now.

I had to stay awake. But it was so miserable and the temperature had dropped so much. I saw so many people around me being affected by this darn weather. Some looked particularly miserable and they were far more kitted out than me and it worried me somewhat. But you have to push these fears to the back of your head and keep moving forwards. Most importantly, you have to keep moving. I think this was some peoples undoing during the night section. It was just so chilly and the weather was so awful, it was so tempting and easier to slow down, but you had no choice but to keep up as good of a pace as you could manage to ward off the weather and the sleepiness. It was particularly nice to sit under a bridge out of the rain for a little bit and have a nice cup of hot coffee; a massive thank you to my crew. It gave me some much needed warmth and caffeine kick, as well as a little mental boost. 

Into the light

"Gotta kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight." – Bare Naked Ladies

As morning breaks, it brings with it the most optimistic feeling in the world. It’s great to make it through the night and into the daylight. You can begin to look forward to the day ahead and ultimately – although still a long way off – that finish line. In the morning I had a cup of noodles, another hot drink and some nibbles. We had also managed to run through Milton Keynes during the middle of the night, which was a really good thing for me. Normally, when I have run this bit of the canal, it attracts quite a lot of dog walkers, but because it was the middle of the night, not one was about. As such, I was able to get on with the task at hand without feeling my usual anxious self around dogs. Phew! We ran quite well during this night section if I do say so myself. Earlier in the race I had talked to other runners about how they intended to tackle bits and a lot said they would run as much as possible in the daylight and then just walk a lot and wind down during the night section. However, because the weather was so horrendous, this was a bad idea. You really needed to keep as much body warmth as possible and those who slowed down too much during the night section really seemed to suffer. I was really glad of my crew.

I think during this event I learnt the true meaning of what it feels like to do whatever it takes to make it to that finish line. I would have done anything. I mean, I donned a bin bag and it wasn’t for the fashion statement haha ;-)

Much later on and nearing the end

'Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens’.

I had slowed down considerably because my feet were killing me. They had been pretty wet for over 40 hours and pretty shrivelled. All this slow moving was really eating up my time and I don’t know how but soon enough I was worrying about making that 45 hour cut-off. Anything really can go wrong during these things, but there was no way I had battled through everything I had to not make that finish line. From somewhere I managed to leggit ad I really picked up the pace. I was pretty surprised with myself. It was so exciting running the last bit. There were bigger, modern buildings starting to emerge and there was a great anticipation and then in the distance I saw the lights.

There were orange lights set up and I just knew they were ours; there had been identical lights at one of the check points the previous night. Nothing else mattered and I sprinted towards them and past the 3 other last runners who were also on the home straight. I didn’t barge past them, but I definitely wanted to cross that finish line with a bit of a jog-on. And after just over 44 hours, I was done. It was all over and suddenly the tiredness was gone. It did come back a few hours later, but I just couldn’t believe I finished it. And that is precisely one of the things I love about ultra running: accomplishing something that seems downright crazy on paper and all on your own two feet. You can’t buy the feeling of satisfaction, it can only be earned, but it sure helps to have a little help from your friends. I cannot thank my lovely crew Sarah and Jon Aston enough and I don’t think I ever will be able to tell them just how much they helped me.

Going into this event there is no doubt that I could have trained more, being the disorganised person that I am. However, this time around I just wanted to be amongst the finishers. And there will be a next time, because I absolutely loved this event. The funny thing is I never thought I truly would thoroughly enjoy it. After all, 145 miles is bloody hard work. But I really loved it. My impulsive decision to enter this wonderful event paid off and I can’t wait for the next adventure.

A week later I went back to Brum and the start line. This time was more of a relaxing night out...tWas a surreal experience....

"To those who know, no explanation is necessary.... To those who do not know, no explanation will suffice."

Hills, adventure & ponderings

An ultra adventure and lots of thoughts from the last couple of weeks.

A year has passed…. *sniffles*

It seems surreal that an entire year has passed since I took on my biggest challenge to date: Brathay Challenge of 10 marathons in 10 days around one of the toughest road marathon courses in the UK. The Brathay Windermere Marathon course is beautiful and inspiring and I love the Lake District. But it is tough and hilly and emotional and the uniqueness of this challenge and what makes it so challenging is that you must face your demons every day. If you grow to dislike a part of the course then you must face that enemy every day and it becomes a huge mental battle as well as a tremendous challenge of physical endurance. I must admit, I have felt all week that a part of me is there somehow. Last Friday when this year’s class of 2012 commenced their magnificent journey I thought of them intensely and recalled me drive up to Windermere the day before I started mine. I recalled the emotions, my hopes and my fears and how it all played out as the days rolled by. This event becomes a part of you and I don’t think it ever leaves but I think those memories have often lain dormant until now, reading this year’s blogs and feeling the raw emotion detailed within the words therein. I feel quite emotional and I intend to venture to Windermere for Sunday for Day 10 and the annual Windermere Marathon. It’ll be 3 years to the day since my very first marathon at Windermere and its going to be an emotional one. But it’ll also be a proud one and a happy day of celebration for the runners of 2012 and their magnificent achievement. 

My biggest challenge of late was heading back to the Malvern Hills Ultra to conquer my demons and a lot of unfinished business left over from a DNF at 45 miles in 2010. It was certainly very hilly and most definitely a big challenge…

Malvern Hills Ultra – 53+ miler, Saturday 5^th May 2012

Now, the course was really very different from when I last attempted this ultra in 2010, but the hills remained the same. I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the course has changed since 2010 anyway, however significant rainfall in the weeks leading up to this event made the route uncertain until the week before this year’s event. The River Severn had experienced serious flooding and consequently the route had to be drastically altered. Normally we would be heading out towards the Malvern Hills and looping back around to the start at Holt Castle. However, as it turns out, the amended version of this route was to prove even hillier…we were to run out-and-back. Navigating towards and over the Malvern Hills, we then needed to retrace our steps. Navigationally, this seemed easier but –achy-leg wise all I could think was, ‘I wonder which way around the hills are going to hurt the most?’ The answer was to be conclusive: no matter which way you tackle these hills and even the lesser hills on the course, hills will still be hills and legs will still be achy going up them and therefore, every way hurts the most ;-)

So, with a 4am wake up call to make it to the start line for 7ish am we headed towards Malvern and of course, despite leaving early we were late. Well, when I say late I mean we got lost and our satnav couldn’t quite work out the entrance to the start. Fortunately with a bit of guesswork and a turnaround we managed to outsmart the satnav and reached the start line. Leaping out of the car and scrambling for my map-case (to be used for keeping things dry rather than mappage…I am the most useless person with a map, but I did have some written instructions…), bag and banana I jogged over towards race HQ and got my number, attempted to listen to the brief whilst fiddling with my bag and number and ultimately did the most important thing and got to the front of the loo queue…I always worry about this because there is nothing worse than starting an event when you are bursting to go to the loo and when your mind should be on the task at hand but is instead whirring with uncomfortable thoughts of how you can go for a pee…well, it is just distracting.

 
 
Luckily there wasn’t a long queue and I had a few minutes to spare as I made my way outside and turned on my Garmin. I was really doubtful that my Garmin would behave itself because it has been temperamental for months upon months and the screen will often become a mass of random pixels or blank and stop working. However I can’t afford to do anything about it right now so I just have to wing it and hope it plays along.

Ultimately I was to be extremely fortunate that my Garmin did decide to play the game. I had uploaded the course to it the night before and with its participation it was able to point us in a lot of correct directions when we very nearly went in a lot of wrong ones. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we did go in some very varied directions also…just not as many as we would have done. This was a very good day for my technology to be working.

I gather that because the route had to be amended in a hurry that some of the written directions weren’t so spot on or as detailed as they might have been. This caused us to get confused at a few tricky junctions. At certain parts of the course there existed ‘Punch Points’ at which we were required to punch a tally card. Failure to reach these punch points and return these cards on the way out and back would result in a 10 minute time penalty added to our official recorded finishing time. I guess this only hugely mattered if you were trying to race and win this event. For us mere mortals we reasoned that if a Punch Point were to be hard to find and take us longer than the 10 minute penalty that we would incur for missing it, then it was probably better to incur that time penalty, because spending a lot of time looking for it would cost us even more time. Fortunately, we were quite adept at finding these points. The last one was tricky, but we found it.

Hills, feeling nauseous and fuelling

The main things that will stay with me with regards to this event are most poignantly the hills! I never facebook or tweet or anything normally during an ultra, but I felt I had to facebook how hilly these hills are. And I’ve done quite a few hilly things.  For some reason they can really zap all the energy out of your legs… I really suffered on this one with a lack of energy and feelings of nausea. Hills can do that to you with regards to nausea. I find that they can affect your breathing which adds to feelings of sickness. However, I also knew that my nutrition strategy for the day wasn’t going so great. I think sometimes it’s fair to say that I almost feel self conscious for eating so early on in an event. I tend to feel quite self aware and question whether I need to eat so early on. I’m good at going for ages without eating a lot or taking on fuel during events. This is probably a better strategy to adopt in training to make you stronger rather than when you’re actually taking part in an event and NEED the fuel. I’m the same with taking on water. In the end this can have a really detrimental effect on your energy levels. I’ve experienced it before and I should know to do so by now: always eat early on…fuel up early and avoid any feelings of nausea. I think there was a stretch of around 15 miles during this ultra where I felt rag-doll like and ill. We eventually stopped at a pub for a refreshing coke, which worked wonders with my packet of prawn and cocktail crisps. I then started to take on a bit more fuel at the remaining check points in the form of peanut butter sandwiches and I really started to feel much fuller of energy and happier. I felt more raring to go at the end of what would ultimately end up to be pretty close to 54 miles that I did about 30 miles earlier. It’s strange how these things turn out. It’s all so unpredictable. I guess that’s what makes it exciting.

Dark fields, climbing gates and getting lost

 

I was really lucky on this one to come across a familiar running friend and fellow 10in10'er Noel and for him to let me and my nausea tag along really. He is much faster than me, but he provided excellent company. Sometimes these things can be lonely and with some complicated navigationally difficult bits it was nice to have that company and reassurance of going the correct way…sometimes when we weren’t…but it is a whole lot worse to be in that situation alone and not have a clue where you are, with no one to ask. I was also kept amused on route by a new running buddy, Ellie. It was lovely to meet her and I hope to see her on a lot more of these crazy off-road things. Ellie is currently undertaking ‘The Memorial Mile Challenge’ and is running a mile in official races for every service person that has been killed in Afghanistan in Op Herrick. So, needless to say I had lovely and very inspiring company on this adventure.

At some points we took wrong turns and my Garmin would beep that we were ‘off course’, but we managed to get back on the right path together. I can be pretty rubbish with maps so it was nice to have reassurance from two other people. We ended up in a few fields that were pretty hard to navigate once it had gotten dark, but we just kept moving forward and climbed any gates we had to. Climbing gates was a bit of struggle in the latter stages. You really do stiffen up. However, in the latter stages I actually did feel better in myself other that the usual creaky stiffening of muscles. I no longer felt ill and I think the fuel I had been taking on had finally reached my system and made me feel better. All was good and definitely a bit of the route that we had covered some 50 miles earlier was beginning to look familiar. Then, with only a few miles left to go, I thought I could see a figure just in front of us. We hadn’t seen another runner for absolutely hours, but sure enough here was someone just ahead of us.

   

As it would turn out, there were actually 4 people just in front of us. They had gotten lost some miles earlier and phoned the Race Directors for some guidance. But we now knew we were on the right track and together we all ran to the finish, as the race director came out to greet us. This was the moment we had been working for all day and we were here, at the finish. Hurrah! I LOVE this feeling. I love it. Honestly, there is nothing more satisfying than reaching the finish line and feeling really pleased with it, having overcome obstacles and worked hard out there all day to make it happen. Whenever I get down with the world I think of these moments and treasure them. If I could bottle these moments I would, but then you just can’t buy them. They can only be earned ;-)

As far as finishing venues go, and starting ones for that matter (although it was even better at the finish and I got to explore the venue more) this was great. Holt Castle is lovely and we were given a HUGE medal. There was also loads of tea, coffee, nibbles and food laid on. I had a lovely pasta bake and a cup of homemade soup which was just what I needed. I was even allowed to have a shower and let me tell you, the bathroom was fantastic! The shower was amazing!

 

Elevation Gain: 6,212 ft. Elevation Loss: 6, 228 ft. Min Elevation: 89 ft. Max Elevation: 1, 363 ft.

All in all I had a brilliant day and I will definitely recommend Ultrarunning ltd …they do everything to get you to the end. They stock their check points with such a variety of food and such friendly people and they just really know their running. You can’t really ask for more than a brilliant ultra event managed by brilliant runners. It was fantastic to go back and settle some unfinished business and this time there was no rain or cows…just LOTS of hills ;-)