The Pilgrim Challenge - Mud, hills & the North Downs Way

XNRG's Pilgrim Challenge was as much fun as I'd expected. As over a week has now passed since I crossed the finish line, I've forgotten most of the details of the weekend but I do remember how much I enjoyed myself, how beautiful this section of the North Downs Way is, and how friendly everyone was. It was great to meet some facebook and twitter friends in person for the first time too (the awesome Kelvin, Susie, Shaun and Marc) as well as briefly catching up with the incredible Allan Rumbles who was marshalling.

We were lucky to have pretty much perfect conditions (when you consider how atrocious it could have been given recent weather) and on the Saturday morning, we set off across boggy fields, under beautiful blue skies and sunshine, although you could hear everyone laughing or groaning after the first 20 yards as we all got trainers full of water...a sign of things to come! 

The countryside was absolutely stunning, everyone seemed in good spirits, and it was rare that I was running without others at least in sight throughout both days, although even if I had been running solo, there would have been no need to worry about navigating. XNRG are, without a doubt, the best at sorting out an easy to follow route - there were loads of official NDW acorns to follow, but anywhere there was the slightest doubt, there were orange arrows sprayed onto trees or the path. The only time a big group of us went wrong was when one of the many trees that had fallen in the recent storms, had dropped directly over the path at a junction with another path, in such a way that it obscured the correct route and made it seem obviously that we should all take a right, instead of going straight on....On encountering a dead end after about half a mile through the wood, we turned back and soon realised our mistake.

The conditions underfoot were often challenging - there was lots of sections of incredibly deep and squelchy mud, others where it was very slippery, and then there were the bits where we were wading through deep water, but it was all great fun and I think everyone took the conditions in good humour. The XNRG team had to reroute the course on both days to avoid flooding that had happened overnight, and they did so incredibly efficiently, with it barely affecting the overall distance.

I was quite surprised at how cheery everyone still seemed on the second day, as I don't think any of us had an unbroken night's sleep in the school hall in our sleeping bags.  It was certainly not a comfortable night for me, and I was so tired on Sunday morning but the running seemed to wake us all up pretty quickly! I was really pleased that my legs were still co-operating too, with no particular aches or pains. 

The route is incredibly hilly, and felt especially so to me, being used to training in Essex, and my Garmin recorded a total elevation gain of 915m. Clambering up the narrow and very steep chalk path up the side of Box Hill on day one was very hard and I don't think I really recovered my running legs after that. I walked on both days much more than I'd expected to (which I think is why I didn't have any DOMS in the days afterwards) but with the many hills and the mud, I was comfortable with how I was moving forward and just enjoyed myself.

On Sunday, from about mile 18 I surprisingly had a bit of a second wind, that lasted about 10 miles - I just seemed to find a new strength from somewhere and felt that I was flying along, and absolutely loved it. I even discovered a sub 10 minute mile at mile 21 on the second day (so mile 54 of the weekend) whereas I was averaging 12:47min/mile on Saturday and 12:42min/mile on Sunday. 

I finished my 66 miles in the grand old time of 14hrs 6mins. I was 80th overall out of 131 people who ran both days, and was 17th woman out of 41. A decent medal and a t-shirt were the rewards.

I was so glad that I'd been able to take the car and leave it parked at the start/finish. I couldn't have faced carting my rucksack and sleeping bag back into London then out again on the train, and it was nice to have somewhere other than the ground to sit down and recover ;) There were lots of people who did have to take the train though, but with no showers at the finish I felt for them (and the other passengers who would be sharing the carriages with them!) We were all so incredibly muddy! 

I know I walked more than I needed to, doing Pilgrim's, and even stopped to take a few photos, so hope that when I do this again, I'll knock a chunk off my time...it's definitely worth a second attempt, if just for the views!

Photos taken by RichXNRG and reproduced from here and also by Kelvin Gower and subject to © 

Photos from Country to Capital

What a great day I had at Country to Capital a few weeks ago!! :D Feel so lucky to have had my lovely friends come out around the course to support me, made a massive difference...was absolutely brilliant to have them there.

I have a terrible memory so it's great to have some photos to remind me how much fun this running can be :)

All photos reproduced courtesy of Keith Niven or Wavephotography and subject to © 

This weekend's Pilgrim Challenge

This weekend, I'm taking part in the Pilgrim Challenge event – a two day 66 mile ultra, put on by XNRG, running out and back along the first section of the North Down’s Way, with a stop overnight at the half way point.

 

Unfortunately, after a weekend of back to back 18.5 milers, when I was pounding away on the tarmac both days, because I couldn’t face the boggy fields after the storms, and then a night of 10-pin bowling, my legs are aching today. I think it’s the bowling that did it ;-) Definitely not the best taper, but unfortunately at this stage in training for the Thames Path 100, I’m not going to be able to taper for my races – it’s all just about keeping the training going. I really need to approach every race as though it’s just another part of the necessary preparation for my A race of the year!  However, I have got a massage booked on Wednesday which will hopefully go some way to helping my legs repair in time for Saturday, and I’ll be chucking back the beetroot juice this week - although it’s probably all psychological, I like to think it does make a difference!

 

I am really looking forward to the weekend. For some reason, I'd been telling myself the Pilgrim course was going to be pretty flat but having now done a bit of research I realise it's not...this is the elevation profile from the website...and with the state of my legs, I know it’s probably going to be quite painful…oh, and more muddy than anything I’ve experienced before I expect…but that’s all going to be part of the fun!

The only other XNRG event I've done was the Toad Challenge back in 2012, which was 90 miles over 3 days, running along the Thames Path, and I absolutely loved it. I’m expecting more of the same this weekend. It’s doesn’t matter how slow I go – they’re still be a real camaraderie with the other runners, we’ll be well looked after by the brilliant XNRG team, it’s a beautiful route, there’ll be an enormous dinner, I'll be able to spend the whole weekend focused on running…even having to dig out my rucksack and sleeping bag, and kipping overnight on a sports-hall floor wont be a hardship. It makes the whole thing a mini (albeit warm and relatively comfortable) adventure.

 

I’ve started writing lists of all the kit I need to pack, and am starting to buy my provisions. It’s surprising how much stuff you end up needing (or at least, taking) just for a bit of running! I’ve booked Friday off work so I can make sure I’m sorted out in good time, and can relax a bit on Friday evening, and then I’m off work the following week too - a couple of days recovery and then we’re going away for a few days for Franc’s birthday. I can’t wait!

Justifying being a runner...a rant

**Warning** There is nothing constructive in this post. I am quite literally ranting about people who criticise my choice to be a runner.

Last night I went to the pub after work for someone's leaving drinks. As I hadn't managed to get up early enough in the morning to get my run in, I took my kit to work, with the plan to stay at the pub for a few hours and then run home from the station. I usually run at 10pm in the evenings (as I'm rubbish at getting up before work!) and so running after the pub really wasn't much of an issue for me. However, this meant I'd decided not to drink alcohol and was on the sparkling water. I was happy...chatting, laughing and dancing with everyone...except for one thing - my not drinking seemed to really bother people. I had to justify my reason for not getting drunk i.e I wanted to go for a run later that night. No-one liked my reason - everyone clearly thought I was certifiable - and with some people, it also led to an interrogation and having to explain why I run at all.

It made me think about the many conversations I've had with new people over the last couple of years since I started taking part in ultras. What's the common theme if we get onto running? No-one can understand why I run the distances that I do, even more so now if I mention the 100 miler and some people then feel the need to either tell me how bad running is, how much better other sports are, how obsession is unhealthy or that I'm just down right strange. Weirdo.

Thankfully, there are some people who aren't so negative and I'm very lucky that Francis and most of my friends are very supportive even if they can't fathom my reasons behind taking part in endurance running, but I do find having to justify myself and my decision to be a runner, to people I barely know, very frustrating.

Yes, sometimes I lack the motivation to get off the sofa, sometimes runs can be dull, sometimes they're painful, sometimes it's just generally very hard work. However, every run has positives. Maybe the next run will bring me closer to my goals, it might be fun or challenging and rewarding, exhilarating even, or take me out into beautiful countryside or maybe it's just one of those runs I needed to clear my head and keep me sane. But the main point is, running is what I choose to do, it's a massive part of my life and I'm really proud of what I've achieved so far so I'd appreciate it if people could stop being so negative about it.

Absolutely fine if you don't understand why I run, or wouldn't want to do it yourself - I'm not asking you to come with me -  just please stop treating me like a freak for choosing to live my life dedicated to my sport.


There...I feel much better for getting that off my chest.

Country to Capital - my best ultra yet

My last few marathons have been a struggle and I've been disappointed with how I ran. They were hard work and I hurt - I just had to hang on until the end of the race! So you can understand why I was feeling nervous about the weekend's Country to Capital. The race is 45 miles of cross country - starting in Wendover in Buckinghamshire, then up and down across the Chiltern Hills, before the last 20 miles along the Grand Union Canal towpath, finishing in Little Venice in London. It definitely sounded like it was going to be much harder than any of my recent races and I was convinced I was going to be out there for hours in the dark and cold. Making sure the headtorch was fully charged was a key part of my prep! ;)

However, I've been thinking a lot about nutrition and hydration strategies recently, and was determined that I would be disciplined during this race, to see if that could help my performance. The one thing I really remember about the Scott Jurek talk I went to a couple of months ago, was his advice about regularly fuelling during an ultra - a drip feed throughout the race. I knew the aid stations wouldn't be the usual picnic benches they can be at ultras, so I planned to take all my own food, and regularly take on calories.

So 5am on Saturday came, and I managed to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep. Great start! Luckily I had set a second alarm so 10 minutes later I was up and out of bed. Unfortunately I had to run to the train station and spent the rest of the 2hr journey to the start wondering how I was going to run 45 miles when I could barely manage the half a mile I'd just done ;)

The 100 yard dash at the start! Photo from Mark Kleanthous
http://www.ironmate.co.uk/galleries/country-city-c2c-pictures

Anyway, I finally got to the Shoulder of Mutton pub in Wendover and although there were long queues with all of us who'd just arrived from London, it was well managed and we were soon good to go. I had the great surprise of seeing my friends, Steph and Keith (who'd come to support me during the 10in10 too) and Becca and Mark, at the pub, who'd got up stupidly early for a Saturday morning to see the start of the race. Having support makes a world of difference and it was lovely that they were there for me.

The first 20-odd miles of the race are across stunning countryside. Some very muddy countryside, but beautiful nonetheless and the weather was absolutely perfect - cool but dry and sunny. There were a lot of runners, and so we had long queues at the stiles and kissing gates which knocked everyone's average pace right down, and we all marched up the hills in single file, but I'd been worried about having to map read (no route instructions for this course other than an OS map book) and having so many runners around meant that I was very happy to be able to follow the rest of the crowd. Relieved to say we didn't go wrong once!

The mud was shocking in places, particularly  in one field where I managed to lose a shoe - it was so sticky and deep it just pulled my Speedcross right off my foot leaving me balanced on one leg with my shoe stuck in the ground over a meter behind me! Thankfully, a very kind fellow runner came to my aid, and rescued my shoe, but not before my sock had also got covered in mud - a generally very messy affair!

I also managed to slip over once and went right down, but luckily didn't do any damage, and then we had to wade through flood water a few times, but at least that washed the trainers off a bit! All in all, good fun :)

I saw Steph, Keith, Becca and Mark four times in all around the course, and each time it was a massive boost and lovely to stop and chat with them for a bit. A massive thank-you to them all for spending their Saturday traipsing round the countryside trying to work out where I was going to pop up next!

So...my nutrition strategy :-

I was carrying a bottle of water and one of Lucozade Sport, a packet of salted peanuts, flapjack, a bounce ball (one of these), and 6 High-5 gels (3 with caffeine, 3 without) in my excellent UltrAspire revolution race vest. My plan was to have a drink of Lucozade or water every 2 miles, alternating between the two, filling up the water at aid stations. On the miles I drank water, I would also take on either a gel or some real food. When I got to the aid stations I'd drink extra if I wanted it, but wouldn't worry about having any of the food provided, which would be minimal anyway.

I'd also decided I have going to have painkillers after 2 hours, and then again at 6 hours.

Unusually, I stuck to my plan. I ate regularly, drank regularly, and didn't feel hungry at all...or overloaded from binging on the aid station food which often happens!

Anyway, through the first 20 miles I walked all of the uphills and ran pretty much all of the rest and was with a group of other runners which helped keep me going. I had pain in my hamstring from the beginning but it was a niggle rather than anything too problematic and somehow I managed to ignore it the whole way through and so didn't make the mistake of stopping to stretch which is always such a waste of time!

For the last section, on the towpath, I was on my own. I plugged in the ipod, and settled in to finish it off. I couldn't believe how good I was still feeling, but was very pleased. I decided that as there weren't any hills to be walking up, I would try out something different that I'd read about. Rather than waiting until I felt I needed to, I'd walk the first 30 seconds of every mile. Sometimes it was a little longer (if I was having some food, or at one stage when I was trying to use the phone) but generally I was disciplined - I stopped running at the beep of my watch, walked as I counted to 30 and then headed off again.

It worked amazingly.

I felt brilliant. I was in control of my race, my legs were working, I was maintaining a much better pace than I'd ever dreamt of achieving at this stage, and I was loving how it felt. My back didn't hurt - I think because I would concentrate on my posture during every walking section - and I knew I was performing so much better than I've done in any other ultra.

I had expected to finish in about 10 hours, as my time for the St Peter's Way event, the only other 45 miler I've done, was 10:08. Both Country to Capital and St Peter's Way are, in fact, a little short of 45 miles, (I think you only get to 45 miles in either of them if you get lost) and C2C ended up being 43 miles on my Garmin, and although the towpath section of the C2C does make it easier than the SPW, it is hillier so I think they're comparable races.

I suddenly realised that I was looking at a sub 8:30 finish time! I pressed on, started overtaking people, and still felt really strong.

I soon realised that we were near the end. It was starting to get darker, but I didn't need my head torch yet, and was really keen on finishing without using it, which I was sure I could do, as I was still feeling as good as I had done for the last 15 miles. There were a few bridges on the tow path that I walked up, but kept going, and then there were more people lining the route and I realised the finish line must be close.

All of a sudden, I ran under a bridge, and the finish line was there!! Lights, flags, the photographer....and my medal. Done!! 8 hours 10 minutes.

To give you an idea of what other people can achieve, the winner of Country to Capital this year was Ed Catmur, who finished in 4:48, which is an absolutely mind blowing time. I can't begin to imagine how he did it but it's fantastic.

Even though I was nearly 3.5 hours slower than the winner, and in 166th place (out of 315 who started), and 18th in my age group, I still felt great. In fact, absolutely over the moon. I could have quite happily carried on running further down that towpath, which is such a boost as my training for the TP100 really kicks in. I'm putting it down to the regular eating, drinking and walking - doing it all in such a disciplined way gave me control - and the bonus of having support out on the course from my friends.

I'll never be an Ed Catmur but it doesn't matter in the slightest - being an incredible 2 hours faster than I expected has left me on a total high and I absolutely loved it.