Thames Path 100 Race Report

This weekend saw the inaugural running of the Thames Path 100, the first of four races arranged for this year in the UK by Centurion Running. The race follows the River Thames as it stretches from Richmond in London, all the way over to Oxford. This obviously offers several benefits as far as running 100 miles goes: Firstly, it's flat as hell with a grand total of 2,100 ft of elevation gain (most of which comes from bridges), and secondly, it's easy to follow (just stay as close to the river as possible without getting wet and you'll be fine). However, as we were all about to find out, there is no such thing as an easy 100 miler!

 Ready and raring to go at the start!

With a couple of weeks to go, I was feeling pretty darn good about this race. Despite a few issues, I had had a great run at the Pilgrim's Challenge, and had even gone so far as recceing the route. I had found all of the points where I would likely go wrong during the final 50 miles and had burnt them into my memory, and had another recce planned to check out the first 50 miles later in the week. I was feeling strong! I was feeling prepared! I was feeling like I was going to absolutely smash it!
I was feeling like a complete bloody idiot when, just over a week before the race kicked off, I skidded off my bike and landed heavily on my right hip. Crap.

Watch us recce the mic... Psyche!

I am well known amongst my friends for my navigational prowess. So much so that I have been dubbed "Sam-Nav" by some. Unfortunately, it is my apparently poor navigation and innate lack of direction that have earned me this name, never more apparent than my 120 % coverage of the 35 mile Shires and Spires ultramarathon last year. I maintain that my various navigational misgivings and geographical embarrassments have been a result of bad luck rather than any defunct internal compass, but to be on the safe side I have decided to improve my chances of success this year by recceing some of the routes that I am due to run in the next few months to get a feeling for the points where I am most likely to go wrong.

My first big race for this year is the Thames Path 100 on the first weekend in March, and for me this is my race to shine and get a nice fast 100 mile PB. It's pretty much completely flat, following as it does the River Thames from Richmond to Oxford. I headed out to Henley-on-Thames (the halfway point) at 4:30 am, with an aim to leave the car at the station, run the 50 miles to Oxford, get the train back to Henley, and drive back again afterwards. It was going to be a long day! The weather was pretty much perfect - crisp and icy underfoot, but sunny and clear. Allan Rumbles had been out a few days earlier on the same section and found the mud to be difficult to negotiate. For me, it was nice and firm with the cold wintery temperatures. I got going at about 7:30 am, heading West and following the signs for the Thames Path, as well as the handy map created by James Elson which I had uploaded to my Garmin.

It was a lot colder than this picture may indicate!

Pilgrims' Challenge - February 2012

Despite all of the turkey and other frivolities of the festive season, I have been surprisingly good and kept up with my training. But I was very excited to finally get back down to racing at the Pilgrims' Challenge race, a 2 day event organised by Extreme Energy (XNRG) along the North Downs Way. The race itself is a 33 mile run from Farnham to Merstham on the first day, followed by running back again the following day. With a total height gain of 6,700 ft each day, it was a great way to get a few hills onto the legs. There were three starting groups, and I had been placed into the "elite" group (ha!), starting a little later in the morning. This meant that I got a nice long lie-in until 5am, then drove straight down to the start line.

A festival atmosphere at the start (right down to the dodgy portaloos...)

It was pretty chilly (down to -9 degrees C I believe), and I got some funny looks turning up in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. I wanted to try and limit the amount that I had to carry, so used a handheld bottle and my small Salamon pack with a small amount of water (for backup), my teeny tiny Montane jacket, and a couple of gels. I had downloaded the GPS route onto my Garmin as I was determined to not suffer my usual geographical embarrassment, and was all set to go.

Onwards and upwards (figuratively and literally)

Last year was my first "ultramarathon season", although realistically what that means is that I ran a few ultras in the latter half of the year, along with a bunch of shorter races as well. This year, I have decided to concentrate on longer ultras, and have signed up to some real corkers! I'm really excited to get the ball rolling again in a couple of weeks, and see how my first real season progresses!

So here are the main races that I will be focusing on this year:

Tick tick tick...

I recently wrote a blog post looking at a recently published paper looking at the effects of endurance sports on cardiac function. Or, more specifically, I was looking at the reporting (and unsurprising overhyping) of this story by the media. What struck me while looking through the comments section of the Daily Mail's take on the story was how many people believe in the idea that we are all allocated a certain number of heartbeats in our lives, and so we shouldn't waste them doing stupid things like running marathons. As in example, this is a quote from Bobby from Inverness:

"You are allocated only so many heartbeats for a lifetime - don't waste them up in silly fruitless 'exercise' - live longer, have a nap"

I suspect that this quote was actually written in jest, but it seems that a lot of people think like this and use it as another excuse not to exercise. The theory is that, since when we exercise our heart beats faster, every hour of exercise is using up 2 or 3 hours of your life that you could be sitting on the sofa doing nothing. Now don't get me wrong - I like to lounge on the sofa as much as the next person. In fact, my second biggest hobby is playing on the XBox; an interesting juxtaposition to my favourite hobby of running. But could I really be reducing my lifespan with all of this running?

First of all, let's look at this theory. It's actually quite an interesting premise, and the evidence for it seems to come from the idea that animals with shorter lifespans have quicker heart rates than those with longer lifespans. So if you take the average lifespan of a species (in minutes) and multiply it by the average heartrate (in beats per minute), you get an estimate for the average number of beats of the heart in a lifetime. And this value seems to be similar amongst different species. I was pretty skeptical, so decided to have a look at a few examples for myself:

Hoka One One Review

I recently got a test pair of Hoka One Ones from the kind folk at Castleberg Outdoors, so was interested to see if they could help with my running at all. I'm generally of the opinion that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", and currently I am very happy with my combination of Mizuno Wave Inspire road shoes, and Salomon Speedcross trail shoes. However, I had heard such great things about the Hokas (a Mouri word meaning "time to fly") that I decided to give them a go, and have been testing them out over the past 5 weeks.

For anybody that has not yet heard of these shoes, they are somewhat of a hybrid between minimalist shoe design tenets (e.g. a low 4mm heel drop to encourage good running form), combined with a frankly ludicrously thick sole (roughly 2.5 times the size of a normal shoe midsole) to reduce impact stress on the joints for ultra endurance running. Famous runners currently using (and loving) these shoes include Mimi Anderson, Karl Meltzer, and Dave Mackey. They come in three flavours; the Bondi Bs (for road), the Mafates (for trail) and the Combo XTs (for both). I was expecting a pair of the Combo XTs, but due to a mixup in the pre-Christmas rush I ended up being sent a pair of Bondi Bs. However, I figured they should give me a good sense of how the technology works for me.

My first impressions were that they looked a little like a pair of MBTs (Masai Barefoot Technology), which are designed to be unstable and require activation of your core muscles to stay upright. I was also a little worried that they were going to feel like running in platform shoes. However, straight out of the box they felt absolutely fine, with no feeling of imbalance. I was recommended to go up a size from my usual trail shoes, but even these felt a little tight around the midfoot and the toe box. It is possible that I could have gone up another half size, but they were not uncomfortable. They are also surprisingly light given their appearance, and give an odd springy sensation when you walk in them (although I didn't notice this when running).

Lessons learned

Well, I think that now seems to be as good a time as any for this retrospective of my first season as an ultrarunner. With my final race of the year out of the way, I can look back over my achievements this year and take stock. And cor blimey, what a year it was!

Now I say "year", but really I have only been involved in this ultrarunning malarkey for about 7 months, so I'm not even sure I can legitimately call this a season, but no matter. Just to recap, my descent into the world of ultrarunning began in April, when I ran the Virgin London Marathon, but decided to make it a bit more interesting by tacking on a 90 mile warm-down run at the end. I was attempting to raise more funds for the Epilepsy Society (who helped my Mum when I was first diagnosed with epilepsy myself) and figured something this crazy would get me some additional exposure. Little did I know quite how much exposure it would give me! This was great for the charity, as epilepsy remains somewhat of a taboo subject for some people. It was incredibly odd for me though...

I thought I was being crazy doing something like this, but it turned out that there was a whole sub-culture of athletes out there doing things like this on a regular basis. And I wanted in! I ran my first ultra in June at the Shires and Spires 35 mile ultra in Northamptonshire. Well I say 35 miles. I think I actually ran about 42 miles! It turns out that navigation is not my strong suit... But the true ultras are those of 100 miles or more, and I was interested to see how quickly I could run the distance. It took me 29 hours to cover ~120 miles in April, but that was not done as a race. I wondered if I could do better. At the last minute, I entered the South Downs Way 100 mile Ultra in July, which passes close to my parents' house in Portsmouth (my Dad even came out in the middle of the night to pace me for a section towards to the end). I completed it in 22:04, coming in 5th overall. Not bad, even despite my Dad's best efforts to take me the wrong way - I guess bad navigation is in the genes!

Is marathon running bad for your heart? Sigh...

I spotted a news story on the BBC News website this morning which claims that Marathon training 'may pose a heart risk'. This story has since caused a bit of a buzz on the interwebs, cropping up in various tabloids and on various discussion forums and blogs. Being a runner and a scientist, this of course piqued my interest. Is this something that I should be concerned about, or is this another case of sensationalism by the media? Take a guess...

First things first. The study in question is a paper published yesterday (6th December 2011) in the European Heart Journal by a group in Belgium entitled  "Exercise-induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodelling in endurance athletes". Unfortunately, it requires a subscription, but you can see the abstract here. Being a scientist myself, I have looked over the paper and thought that I would share my thoughts on the implications.

The study measures various aspects of cardiac function for 40 endurance athletes, each a specialist in one of 4 events which are, in order of duration; marathon, endurance triathlon (possibly Olympic length?), alpine cycling, or ultra-triathlon (Ironman distance). Measurements of cardiac function were taken using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) and echocardiograms, as well as analysis of biochemical markers of function such as B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI), both proteins involved with contractions of muscle cells in the heart and hence good predictors of cardiac risk. For each athlete, three measurements were taken; the first was taken as a baseline 2-3 weeks prior to the event, the second was taken within an hour of crossing the finishing line at the event, and the final 'delayed' measurement was taken 6-11 days after the event.

Broadly speaking, they found the following key results:

Proof if proof be need be

I found this story on Ultrarunner Podcast's URP daily feed and have found it to be very interesting. FKT (Fastest Known Time) is an offshoot of ultrarunning aiming to track (unsurprisingly) the fastest known times for completion of popular long distance routes. For instance, one of the most popular routes is the Grand Canyon R2R2R (rim to rim to rim), running 42 miles from the south rim of the canyon to the north rim, then back again. The record is currently held by Dave Mackey in 6:59:56 - yikes! It's all quite informal, and all attempts and potential records are tracked and discussed by runners on the fastest known time forum. There aren't any rules per sé, but the general format is to first announce that you are making an attempt, and then to report your attempt with as much corroborating evidence as possible.

This story concerns an attempt at the FKT record for the John Muir Trail (JMT). The JMT, at 215 miles in length, is one of the longest hiking trails in the USA, running between Mount Whitney and Yosemite National Park. In September 2009 Brett Maune, a relative unknown in the ultrarunning/fastpacking world, set a new record.

There are several impressive things about Brett's record. Firstly, he had already attempted the route only a month before at the previous full moon (I assume for lighting purposes at night). He suffered badly on the first day of this attempt, and had little time to recover for his second successful attempt. Second, he didn't just beat the previous record - he absolutely smashed it by 5 hours and 46 minutes, completing the full distance in 3d 14h 13m! But the third, and most amazing thing is that he did the entire thing unsupported (i.e. he carried all of his supplies with him rather than having help from pacers and a supporting crew). He beat the next best unsupported time by over 19 hours! If you are not sure why this is so damn impressive, consider this; this is a record held and actively contested on a route attempted by many of the top runners in the world, but he was able to complete the route much faster than that while carrying about 27 lbs of gear extra.

Brecon Beacons Ultra - November 2011

Having had a couple of weeks off from racing due to illness, I felt like I hadn't raced for ages. Luckily I still had one race remaining to finish off my first ever ultra marathon season - the Brecon Beacons 45 miler in Wales. This race, now in its fourth year, is organised by Martin and Sue Like from Likeys, a fantastic source for all of your ultra running needs. This was also a very special race as it would be my best friend, Dan Park's, first attempt at running an ultra marathon. He has been running to raise money for St Wilfrid's Hospice, and this was the last challenge in his series of runs.

We headed off for Wales on Friday evening expecting the worst (traffic-wise), yet fortuitously managed to get a clear run all the way through to Talybont-on-Usk. We even managed to get there in time to pick up our registration packs, saving us from an early start the following day.

We made our way over to the Dan Y Wenallt youth hostel and, following some slight navigational misgivings and geographical embarrassment, we finally found it nestled by the Talybont reservoir. Considering that we had a satnav it this stage of affairs, it wasn't a great indictment on my navigational skills... We met a couple of other runners, including our room mates Karl Zeiner and Jonathon Bacon, who were also looking forward to the following day's activities.

After a rather restless night's sleep (due to the incessant heat from the blocked off radiator in the room), we made our way over to the start by the Talybont canal. My original plan had been to run along with Dan, so I had packed a large amount of food to last me the day, along with the large amount of kit that we were required to carry. This meant that I had to use my OMM 15L rucksack rather than my much smaller and more comfortable Salamon Skin S-lab pack. However at the 11th hour we decided to run separately, with me chomping at the bit to see if I could keep up with Karl who seemed to have a similar pace to me, and Dan wanting to continue his streak of doing his challenges on his own. So, with a quick last minute effort to dump half of my bag's contents, I was ready to go.

Ah... Push it... Push it good!

There's a great article at iRunFar.com by Andy Jones-Wilkins regarding Brian Morrison's "winning" finish at Western States in 2006. Brian pushed incredibly hard on this race and came into the Placer High School track at Auburn 12 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor... and promptly collapsed 200 meters from the finish. He was helped across the line by his friends and pacer Scott Jurek to cheers from the crowd, but was unfortunately disqualified for receiving physical assistance. It's heart breaking to watch:

The article itself asks the question "how much is too much?". Brian has apparently admitted that he pushed himself too far for the conditions of the race (it was incredibly hot that day), and says that he was probably out of gas much sooner than this really. Somehow he was able to push himself on by sheer power of will alone but, when he entered the stadium, his brain relaxed and thought he had finished, causing his entire body to finally give it up just before the actual finish line.

This is one of a couple of such articles that I have read recently giving first-hand experiences of runners pushing it too far and suffering for it. Andy himself recounts ending up with acute renal failure following Angeles Crest in 2004, and there are many more comments at the bottom of the article of other runners with their own (often terrifying) tales of post-run issues. James Elson, RD of Centurion Running, discusses the issues that he has had attempting to run a packed 2011 season, including the Grand Slam in America (WS100, Vermont 100, Leadville Trail 100, and Wasatch Front 100), having not allowed himself time to recover from injuries and a tough race in Badwater last year.

Last short run for the year

After running the Great Eastern Run at the start of the month, I felt pretty terrible. I could feel a cold coming on that weekend, and I suspect that the run really helped to drive the cold right through my body, completely overpowering my tired immune system. Bugger. I spent the next week coughing and spluttering and generally being pathetic, culminating in being forbidden from running the Round Rotherham 50 miler the following weekend. I was very disappointed at this, since it was the final run in the Run Further series of ultras and was the second one I had missed (the first being due to impending nuptuals). Unfortunately this means that I was not able to complete the minimum number of races to get a final score, although I did somehow manage to come 76th out of 208 in my age category with only 2 of the required 4 races under my belt... Oh well, this gives me something to aim for next year, where I will be concentrating on ultras.

Even though I am still not feeling 100 % even now (an annoying spluttering cough still creeps up on me when I am running and cycling), I went ahead and ran the BUPA Great South Run which I had actually entered before even running last year's event. This is one of the top 10 milers in the world (an odd distance really), and is held in my old home city of Portsmouth. I ran last year and was annoyingly close to coming in under 7 minutes a mile, coming in only 1 minute and 7 seconds over. This year, my only goal was to crack the 70 minute mark. Even though I don't really do any kind of speed work, I do seem to be able to keep a pretty good pace going, and my increased stamina since last year should allow me to keep up the pace for the entire distance.

As with last year, I ran the race with my dad Jeff and my aunt Liz. My mum had suggested that I run with them rather than heading off to do my own thing, but I'm just too competitive for my own good and instead pushed my way to the front of the 24,000 starters to just behind the good club runners section. The weather was overcast and a little chilly, which was great for running but not great for standing around waiting for the start of the race. The horn was eventually blown by Dame Ellen MacArthur and we were off along the Southsea promenade!

Great Eastern Run 2011 - 9th October 2011

It's strange to think that this time two years ago, I was only just really getting into running. My first race was the New Forest half marathon in 2009, which I ran with my dad in 2:12:02 to raise money for CRUK (who I now work for, so it feels a bit odd to be taking a salary out of the money I raised...). It's really all spiralled out of control since then! My first proper race was a local half marathon, the Great Eastern Run held in Peterborough, a few weeks later. In my first year running it in 2009, I ran it in 1:39:33 - an improvement of over 20 minutes. The next year I ran a 1:38:08 - a slightly less impressive improvement. This year, my running has really moved to another level what with training for 100 milers, so I was looking forward to an opportunity to have a crack at a new PB with my new found endurance. So this weekend, I prepared to have my third go at running the Peterborough course, a nice flat course that is perfect for a PB.

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning not feeling great. My throat felt a little sore, and I had a horrible feeling that a cold was planning on making itself known. Hmm. Oh well, it may be nothing, so I decided to just pull my socks up and get on with it. My aim for today's race was to see if I could break the 90 minute mark. So far I have finished most of my runs with plenty left in the tank, so I decided that I was just going to risk it and have a go to see if I could hold a 6:50 mins/mile pace for the whole distance. In the worst case scenario, I would blow up and have a slow end to the race. No biggy.

The weather this morning was perfect. Overcast but dry. The only negative was a relatively strong wind blowing. As I have constantly found, the wind in the East of England is horrendous. It's so flat that the wind just picks up speed with nothing to break it's relentless progress. Give me hills any day - at least they have a summit! I moved into the starting pens, looking for the 90 minute section. This was quite frighteningly close to the front, with very few people in the 75 minute section. So much so that they moved everybody forward, and I suddenly found myself only a few people behind the elite runners! Erm... I don't think that this is quite right.

Loch Ness Marathon - October 2011

The past few weeks since the Grafham Water marathon have been a bit of a bust in terms of training. I have just about managed to squeeze about 20 miles in, but other than that it has been a run free zone. In my defence, this is due to my recent nuptuals. Yes, I am now a married man (sorry girls...). And how are we spending our first weekend together as man and wife? Well I've buggered off up to Loch Ness, and Jen's getting drunk with her friends! Ah, marriage!

Dan Park, Pete Lefort and I woke up on Saturday bright and early, ready to hit the road at 5am. We were expecting a good 9 or so hours drive up to Inverness, so Dan and I shared the driving, with Pete being in charge of the games of I Spy.

When the sun came up it was clear it was going to be another beautiful day - in fact, it ended up being the hottest day in October for a very long time. Well, in Cambridge at least. As soon as we hit Scotland, the heavens opened and the world turned dark and dank. We spent the day getting very wet, and eating our lunch in the rain. By all accounts, a perfectly typical summer's day out in Scotland...

Dan and Pete sightseeing in Scotland.

Grafham Water Marathon - September 2011

Huh. So that's what it feels like to win a race! Oops, sorry. Spoiler alert...

This weekend I was supposed to be running the High Peaks 40 ultramarathon in Buxton in the Peak District, followed by a local marathon at Grafham Water reservoir, a local dog-walking, cycling and running haunt of mine. This was obviously set to be a pretty hardcore weekend, giving me my third finish in the RunFurther ultra marathon series, and only my second ever marathon finishing time.

However, next weekend I'm getting married to my wonderful (and incredibly understanding...) fiancée Jen, and apparently having me limping around the dance-floor doesn't quite fit into her idea of the perfect wedding. I therefore decided to forego the HP40 and instead stick to "just running the marathon" on Sunday. It still never sits quite right with me that I can use that phrase. Unfortunately this means that I will not have enough finishes to get an official RunFurther score for this year, but there's always next year. Maybe by that point I will have learnt how to read a map...

Long Tour of Bradwell - August 2011

I recently completed the Long Tour of Bradwell, a 33 mile race in and around the Hope Valley. This was my second race in the RunFurther series of races, and was in the "Short" category. It is odd to think that I have gotten to the stage where 33 miles is considered a short run, but it is funny to see that my friends have become completely desensitized to these things. When informed that I was "off up a mountain running a 33 mile race" by my fiancee Jen, her friend responded "oh right, so just a quick run then?". However, whilst the distance was short, the elevation most definitely wasn't. Whilst only a third of the length of the South Downs Way from a few weeks ago, the elevation was almost half that of SDW (~7,000 feet). And SDW was pretty darn hilly. I guess that's why they call it the Peak District...

Whilst I live in Cambridge (sooooo flat!), I was quite surprised at how close the Peak District actually was. I headed up on the Friday evening and crashed at a friend's house who, fortuitously, lives only 20 minutes away from the start of the race. My friend, Colin, was unfortunately away but was kind enough to hide a key for me to use. I hope that my fumbling around in the back garden under the cover of darkness didn't attract too much attention from the neighbours...

I woke up early on Saturday morning and headed towards Bradwell Sports Pavillion, where the organisers from Dark and White were in the process of setting up. The weather was not looking favourable. A heavy downpour had hit on the short journey, so heavy that it was difficult to see the road. When I arrived, I seemed to have outrun the rain, but the clouds were not looking promising. The forecast was suggesting that the rain would hit at about 9am and would last through the day until about 4pm - pretty much exactly the time that I was likely to be running. Things were looking like they were going to get wet! To avoid carrying too much equipment, I decided to wear a warmer top and a winter hat so that I could stay warm whilst up the hills.

It's An Ultra-Marathon, Not a Marathon

It has just occurred to me that I never posted this, and given the amount of hard work that went into it that is unforgivable on my part! In April this year, I made my first foray into ultra-running by adding a 96 mile warm down run onto the end of my first ever marathon which I ran in London (I blogged it as I went, starting from here). This was all in aid of the Epilepsy Society, to help raise as much money as possible, and kind of started off as a joke that spiraled out of control! This was before I really knew anything about ultra-marathon running, or that people do stupid things like running 120 miles non-stop all of the time. As with many people, I've now been well and truly sucked into the sport...

My fantastic friends Dan, Pete, Dave and Zoe, and my wonderful long-suffering fiance (soon to be wife) Jen followed me through the night, driving from village to village and making sure I wasn't eaten by bears on my travels. Pete is an avid film-maker, and spent a lot of time filming proceedings. This is a short version of the film that he has put together, which is frankly fantastic (cinematographically speaking - the running leaves a lot to be desired!).

It was really interesting for me to see events from their point of view. I can't help but feel that they had a worse time of it than I did!

South Downs Way Race - July 2011

This weekend, I ran the South Downs Way race - what a fantastic day! I originally grew up in Portsmouth, and often here hear tales of the fantastic scenery of the South Downs Way from my Dad who runs the sections close to his home. The South Downs Way is (I believe) the longest National Trust trail in the country, and stretches for about 103 miles from Eastbourne on the South Coast, heading inland to Winchester. The race, organised by Jen Jackson, had it's inaugural outing last year, and when I heard that this year's race was just around the corner I signed up!

It's only been 3 months since my last big run, but I felt that I had been back on form recently so I figured I would go for it. The beauty of this race as well is that it is about as well sign-posted as any trail there is, so the chances of getting lost along the way were reduced! My only real plan for this race was that I wanted to beat 24 hours. I came up with a "perfect race" scenario, looking at 10 mins/mile for the first third of the race, 11 mins/mile for the second third, and 12 mins/mile for the final third, with 15 minutes at each checkpoint to get me in at 4:30am the following day. The big unknown here was how the hills would affect me - I knew it was hilly, but had no frame of reference for how hilly. I also wasn't sure how self-sufficient the race was so I picked up a front pack to store some extra food. Plus this has the added benefit of making it easy to get to equipment without having to take the bag off. As it happens, the race was really well catered for, with outstanding food choices available at each of the 7 checkpoints along the way. I ended up carrying way too much stuff, but at least I know for next time! I also finally decided on a pair of trail shoes, picking up a pair of Salomon Speedcross 2 shoes, after umming and awing between these and the Inov8 Roclite 285s.

Well I'm officially an ultramarathoner - just with no sense of direction

Well there we go. I finally broke my cherry and ran my first official ultramarathon. I woke up very excited in the early morning of Sunday 5th June, wolfed down a bowl of porridge, collected my gear, and drove to Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire to take part in my first ultramarathon; a 35 mile jaunt around the grounds and surrounding area of the country park. This event was run by Go Beyond, and is one of the races in the Run Further series of races that make up the UK ultrarunning championships. I have managed to sign up for enough of these races to get a qualifying position, so it will be interesting to see where I stand.

Anyway, I was very excited when I arrived, and was able to chat to lots of other runners. Some were old hands who gave me some good advice, and had some great stories about their race experiences. Others were, like me, running this as their first race, and were as excited as I was.


It was a very different experience than any other races I had been involved with. The start, as seen in the photo, was much more subtle for one thing! About 120 people gathered together ready for the start, clutching their route maps, and waiting for the off. I spotted Andy Mouncey, the ultrarunner that I saw speak at the London Running Show earlier in the year and whose talk helped me make the leap towards long distance running. Before I could say hello however, the shout went up to go (no gun necessary) and we were off!

Now to get stuck in for real

Well, it looks like things have finally settled down so I can get back to running for the sake of running. There are still a few donations trickling in, but the final total (including Gift Aid) appears to be somewhere in the region of £5,200 which is quite frankly astonishing. Thankyou again to everybody for all of your support and donations. It has gone to an amazing cause and I am incredibly proud to have been able to help the Epilepsy Society in their amazing work. There is one final interview coming out as well, which should be in the August edition of the American version of Runners World. How the American version picked it up I have no idea!

Right. Everybody is probably sick of me talking about that run. So onto a different subject; more races!

First up, I have been back to full training for the past few weeks. Running through the middle of nowhere has given me a bit of a taste for it, so I have now gotten into the habit of exploring a bit more. For the past few weeks, I have been exploring the local countryside and found some great trails to run which are a little more exciting than my usual run along the Cambridge guided bus way. Since it looks like they are actually doing some work on it now, this is quite fortuitous timing for me! It does mean that my route to and from work is off limits for the next month or so while they tarmac the cycle path, but once it's done it should make cycling to work a lot easier and less likely to kill me. I usually ride down the bus track, which is very narrow with quite a drop - very difficult to negotiate particularly in the dark and with crazy crosswinds! But now I will have a proper cycle track to cruise down which will be nice! In the meantime, exploring is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of open fields and things around which make it easy to disappear off for a few hours and get a good run in.

Last weekend, I ran my first race since London. This was the Sawston Fun Run, a little ~5 miler in the village that we lived in until moving to St. Ives last year. It has been an oddly long time since I ran such a "short" distance (I realise my perception of distance may be a little skewed...), so I was interested to see what my speed was like. I don't really do much speed work, as I very rarely run less than 12 miles at a time. The weather was pretty much perfect, sunny but with a light breeze. I lined up with the other runners, positioning myself near the front, but nervous to position myself with the "elite" runners. As it turns out, this was a slight mistake as I had to negotiate through a small crowd of people to get into my stride which slowed me down a little bit. As we came out of the college where the start line was held, I found myself in a small pack of runners at the front of the race. The pace was pretty good, at around 6 minutes a mile. I wasn't really sure on pacing for this - it felt like I could push it further but I wasn't sure what I could maintain for 5 miles. Plus the fact that I had run about 42 miles over the previous 2 days made me a bit nervous about pushing it too much... I kept this pace throughout the race, running past my old house (which was a little odd), and along the high street with lots of cheering faces spurring everybody on. I kicked in towards the end, and pushed for a faster finish as we approached the line. I overtook a couple of people, and felt a pang of guilt as I shot past a young kid who had been ahead of me through much of the race. My sprint finish wasn't quite enough to take the final guy, and I crossed the line slightly behind him in a time of 30:03 - not quite the sub 30 mins that I had hoped for, but about 2 minutes faster than last year's efforts. I found out I had actually come 11th overall, so was doubly annoyed that I could have been in the top 10 if I had been a couple of seconds faster. I definitely felt that I could have pushed the pace, so I know now for next time. I had a chat to the guy that won, in a fantastic time of just over 25 minutes. I can safely say that there is no chance of me pushing to this pace! But it is nice to know that I have the speed in me if I need it.

The next week, I started to add a bit of speedwork to my runs, finding a small hill nearby to my house and running a 10 miler followed by 20 minutes of hill sprints. It's probably a good idea to make this a regular thing, so I can push for that top 10 place next time! Jen told me off for being so negative about the race, but I prefer to think of it as planning ahead to do better on my next race!

Speaking of which, my race calendar is looking very full right now! On top of the various marathons, half-marathons and 10 Ks I am signed up for, I have just signed up to a whole heap of ultras as well. My first will be the Shires and Spires 35 miler in Northants in two weeks time, which I am really looking forward to. This will be my first opportunity to test myself against other like minded people. I am really looking forward to taking part in my first official ultra. This race is part of the Run Further UK Ultrarunning Championships, which is a series of 12 races throughout the year of various distances. You run as many as you want, and your top 4 scores (1 from each of the three distance classes, plus 1 more) are used to give you a placing in the championship table. I am signed up to four of these, which is just enough to get a placing. I'm not expecting to be placed particularly highly but I am quite excited to see how I do! The nice thing about this series is that it is organised by ultrarunners for ultrarunners, which is a real testament to the ethos behind the sport. These guys don't do it for fame or for the money, they do it for love of the sport. I had a small taste of fame - and I didn't like it much! Give me running in anonymity with other like-minded nutters, thankyou very much!