The road is long

This time in a week I will be in Greece preparing to run one of the most iconic ultra races in the world - The Spartathlon. As we all know (hashtag sarcasm), the Greek messenger Pheidippides ran 26.2 miles, told everybody in Athens that the Greek's had won the battle of Marathon, then dropped down dead (hence how we know that 26.2 miles is the precise limit of human endurance). However, other historical accounts have him running a little further than this - about 500 Km from Athens to Sparta and back again. The Spartathlon aims to recreate this epic journey (well, half of it at least - only crazy people like Mimi Anderson would think of heading back again) by following the route as closely as possible. Runners therefore have to head from the Acropolis in Athens to the statue of King Leonidas (AKA Gerard Butler) in Sparta about 153 miles away.

After my run at the Grand Union Canal Race a few months ago, I was starting to get a little worried that I wouldn't even make the start line. I developed some issues with my foot that didn't seem to be responding to physio. My worry was that there could be something like a stress fracture underlying everything, but after 2 months of no improvement, a last minute post-work trip to Profeet proved to be very fruitful (except for the bit where my bike got nicked, but that's a story for another time). After a bit of jiggery-pokery, my fears were assuaged and they were pretty confident that with a bit more rehab I would be good to go. True to their word, after another week of strength exercises, I felt I could run again and have been steadily building back up over the past few weeks.

Halfway to a String Quartet

Well that came around fast! Tomorrow morning I embark once again to try and find the length of a Piece of String. The brain child of Messrs. Adams and Elson, the Piece of String Fun Run - The Most Pointless Race in the World (TM) - is an odd little race. There are 5 potential routes of differing length - anywhere from 1000 meters to 1000 miles. Nobody but the race organisers (and I guess some of the volunteers) know the exact route, and runners basically run until they either die, or are told they have finished.

The idea is to make it kind of a mind-fuck; if you don't know how far you've got to go, how do you pace it? How do you cope mentally when you can't say, "Only 50 miles left"? Depending on how you look at it, it may be the most fiendishly demonic race ever created (mwa ha ha etc), or the most pure form of racing imaginable.

Just run.

No pacing charts, no nutrition plans, no worrying about other competitors - just run.

Last year, I was one of only two people who successfully completed the inaugural event. The second person was Wouter Hamelinck, who I think everybody would agree was the winner - mainly due to his amazing navigational skills (mine; not so great!). Some people claimed it was clear proof of the benefit of ultra beards over ultra sideburns, but I will just point out that I believe our tally is currently 3-1 wins in my favour. Not that I'm counting of course...

Nobody is quite sure how far we ran last year. Not even the RDs. With heavy rain in the weeks preceding the event, the River Thames burst it's banks and much of the Thames Path became impassable. Well, if you're particularly precious about getting your feet wet. And knees. And thighs. And bollocks. It's health and safety gone mad I tell ya! But I was running for about 36 hours or so. Estimates of 120ish miles are probably not far off, although don't take into account all of the dicking about going the wrong way.

So having survived once, why in the name of Satan's gonads would I come back again?! Glutton for punishment?!

Honestly no. I thoroughly enjoyed the race last year. I have genuinely fond memories of the event, and I'm really looking forward to hopefully seeing some of the same trails again. It was just so simple. I stuck my headphones on, looked at the map, and was off. The psychology of it wasn't too bad because I was doing what I call "running stupid"; not thinking about goals, and not worrying about what was going on. Just enjoying a good audiobook (Game of Thrones) and seeing some new areas if the UK.

Okay, there were a couple of things that I didn't enjoy.

First of all I was absolutely shattered. I hadn't slept well the night before, and the race didn't start until midnight. I was knackered before we started. By the time I got towards my third sunrise in a row, I was a bit of a zombie. Luckily, a quick nap in a car on the middle of the Ridgeway at Paul Rowlinson and Luke Carmichael's checkpoint saw me to the end (which annoyingly was only about 10 miles later). This year though, the race starts at a nice leisurely 9:45am. With a baby that doesn't sleep and having not sleep more than a couple of hours at a time for the last 9 months, I plan on sleeping like a baby tonight!

Well, not my baby, but you get the idea.

The second thing that I didn't enjoy was the conditions. It rained a lot! I actually don't mind rain at all. Running in the rain is one of my favourite pastimes. What I don't love is when the mud is so thick and sloppy that you literally can't run. Trudging through the rain in November after 30 hours of running is far less fun than running through it at a snails pace, just getting colder and wetter. That was the closest I came to dropping last year, as my map had turned into papier mâché (I had one suggestion for James this year - buy a laminator!) and I couldn't move fast enough to get my core temperature up. But James gave me a good talking to and I stuck it out - and actually really enjoyed the next section.

This year, however, the weather appears to be far more conducive to running. I'm not sure what deal with the Devil James Elson has done to cause this new trend in perfect conditions at his races, but it should be a very different beast this year. Frankly I think this year's batch has it easy!

And then there's the distance. How far will it be? We won't know until later this weekend. I've either come woefully underprepared for a 300 miler, or this is going to be the most well-stocked 5K of my life! It may even be a completely different format to last year. I wouldn't be surprised to be bundled in the back of a van and driven out to the wilderness!

I'm just not thinking about it. I'm going to turn up, run and have fun. Of course this year hasn't been the best, training-wise, what with my gorgeous daughter being born, and various injuries along the way, so it will likely be a very different run to last year. So if you see me crying in a ditch somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, you have my permission to tell me "I told you so"!

So how long is a piece of string? I dunno - let's find out!

North Downs Way Preview

Just a quickie today. This weekend is the North Downs Way 100 miler, another Centurion Running event following along the North Downs Way from Farnham to Wye. I helped out James at this race last year, so got to see just how tough it actually is. Whilst the vertical ascent is less than the South Downs Way (9,930 ft vs 12,700 ft), most people that have done both agree that the NDW is the tougher of the two. It doesn't have as many rolling hills, but it does have lots of steep and punishing climbs and generally much tougher terrain.

I have unfortunately been suffering from injuries, essentially since Transvulcania in May. Since attempting the South Downs Way in June, I have been pretty much unable to run at all, so my training has not been - shall we say - ideal. The main problem has been my right knee, but this has thrown all sorts of things out of whack with my gait, leading to issues along my left tibialis anterior and also some plantar fasciitis which I haven't really been able to shift. When it rains it pours! But the main thing is that it doesn't appear to be anything serious, so I have just been sensible and stuck to running no more than a few miles at a time. Plenty of cycling should hopefully have kept my fitness levels up.

Whilst I'm not really feeling my most prepared, I am going to start the race but with no real expectations. I'm just going to run whatever I can, and if the injuries flair up I will just pull out and help out at some of the aid stations for the rest of the race. Hopefully that won't happen of course, and I'll still be able to get a great race in, but whatever happens I'm out to have a fun weekend! These events are always a bit of an ultra-party, so it's going to be great fun catching up with everybody.

See you out there - if you see the sideburns, say hi!

Transvulcania Preview

Last year, a little race in the Canary Islands caught the attention of the entire ultra running community. Taking place on the stunning volcanic island of La Palma ("Isla Bonita", or "beautiful island"), Transvulcania offered both an inspiring backdrop and also an incredible field of the top runners from around the world. It was an amazing race to follow, with course records smashed by Anna Frost (8:11:30) and Dakota Jones (6:59:07).


And of course, everybody wanted a piece of it for 2013! So a small group of hardy individuals (I believe "idiots" is the colloquial term) signed up, including Martin Wilcock, Chris Baynham-Hughes, Richard Brown, and me. We head out on Friday to attempt the unbelievably complex task of making it to the island, before getting about an hours' sleep prior to the race start at 6 am on Saturday. Acclimatisation shmacclimatisation!

The race itself is 83.3 Km, with a rather frightening 8,525 m of elevation change (about 4,500 m of ascent). The course profile appears relatively simple - a very long very steep hill for the first 20 Km, a "relatively" flat section with a short but bloody steep hill in the middle, a similarly steep 15 Km descent, then a final hill in the last few Kms just to add a little sting in the tail. Simples.

This year, the list of starters is a veritable who's who of ultra running, with many of the top names from around the world confirmed. Ian Corless has a list of confirmed elites that make for an amazing field. This is certainly going to be one helluva race!

So where do I fit in? Frankly I have no idea. I figure if I can survive that first hill (not my greatest strength what with training in Cambridge) then I can put my foot down (then my other foot - ho ho ho) and push as hard as I can for the finish. This might work and I could get a good time (sub 10 hours maybe?), or it could fail miserably! Either way, I'm just going to have fun out there, being in those surroundings, and being a part of such an amazing event.

I will be flying the flag for Team X-Bionic as an "honorary member", having been sent a bunch of kit to try out by Simon Robinson (the UK rep). Seeing as I kept him waiting around for hours at the end of the Viking Way (where he came to see me finish) it only seemed fair! This will be my first real test of the kit, so full review afterwards. It's exciting to be part of a team like this, amongst stalwart runners like 2012 UK Ultra Runner Award winners Mimi Anderson (who has win more races than I have taken part in) and Terry Conway (holder of the rather astonishing Lakeland 100 course record, and just getting faster!), even if it is only temporary.

I haven't quite decided on the rest of my kit yet, but will probably use my Salomon Sense Mantras as my shoe of choice. For hydration I am still undecided between the trusty Salomon 5L vest (well tested but maybe a bit warm) or my UltrAspire Impulse belt (better for warmer conditions, but untested for racing). I probably won't make up my mind until we're about to leave for the start line!

I have set up my Twitter and Facebook accounts to update as I run, so you can see how far ahead of Kilian I am. If at any point it appears that he is hours ahead if me, rest assured that I am either biding my time to take him down at the end of the race (with flower at the ready...), or decided to do another lap and am close to lapping him.

Well a guy can dream...