The Spine Challenger 2014 - Part 1: Where's a chiropractor when you need one?

I first heard of the Spine Race last January, when social networks were ablaze with stories of woe and suffering from the hardy soles taking part in this 268 mile jaunt along the Pennine Way. The route starts in Edale in the Peak Distract, and makes it's way north through the more interesting bumpy parts of the Yorkshire Dales, Lake District and southern Scotland. Being January, and being Britain, the weather is normally wet, cold and miserable. Add to that the fact that you have to be pretty much self-sufficient, with checkpoints spaced up to 60 miles apart, and this is one tough proposition. Sign me up!

One for James Adams there

As the race approached, I realised that I was woefully underprepared. I hadn't even looked at what I needed to get for my kit (apparently shorts and t-shirt weren't going to cut it), had done no form of recce of any description, hadn't tried running yet with the sort of heavy pack I was going to need for all of the required gear, and hadn't really run any long distances at all due to an injury earlier in the year. I wasn't really relishing the idea of being away from my family for a week either, so decided to split the difference and do the easy version instead - the Spine Challenger.

Sorry - "easy" version.

The Spine Challenger is 108 miles, and is essentially identical in all things (required kit, start time, support on the course), except that you finish at the second checkpoint in Hawes.

2013 Review (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run)

Well that was 2013. From a personal perspective it has been an amazing year, with the birth of my gorgeous baby girl in February being the absolute highlight of my life so far. Watching her grow over the last 10 months has been incredible, and she is now a little person with her own (incredibly cheeky) personality. I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us over the years to come!

But from a running perspective? Meh.

It's been okay, but not the year I was hoping for. My training through last winter was great, and I came into 2013 feeling stronger and faster than ever before. My diet (by which I mean "what I was eating in general", and not that I was only eating a stick a stick of celery every day) was pretty good, so I was in pretty good shape.

But obviously with a baby on the way, this was interrupted somewhat to concentrate on the more important aspects of my life. That being said, I was still able to get a fair bit of running in, which is largely due to having such an amazing and understanding wife, and also due to being an early morning runner and getting a lot of miles in through commuting.

Since we didn't really know what to expect from the first few months of parenthood, my first race wasn't until the Viking Way at Easter. As it happens, the first few months were relatively easy, other than a severe lack of sleep. Obviously this affected how much I was able to get out for long runs, but since a lot of my running is done as commuting to work this was unaffected.

I hit the start line feeling pretty good, with a good finish in my sights. It started well, with Mark Cockbain telling me off for getting to the Aid Stations too quickly for them. Unfortunately some issues with navigation left me making some serious cock ups resulting in finishing second despite being over 2 hours ahead at one point. C'est la vie. You live and learn. That being said the race itself went brilliantly for me, and in particular was the furthest I had ever run. I recovered quickly and was back running a couple of days later which was a great sign for my conditioning.

Hoax email and website on "how to avoid cancer"

This is nothing to do with running, but I feel like the following is worth highlighting.

I was a bit disappointed yesterday to see this blog post being posted around Facebook from some of my friends. The blog purports to discuss new research from Johns Hopkins that essentially says that eating healthily and exercising is an effective alternative treatment for cancer than chemotherapy and radiotherapy. To quote:

"AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY…"

There then follows a point by point description of why cutting out sugar, milk and meat from your diet and exercising can replace nasty cancer treatments like surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 

Now believe me - I hate cancer. Like many of you out there, it has touched my life on a personal level, so much so that I actually moved fields while studying for my PhD to enter into the field of cancer genetics to try and help find a solution. And that is why articles like this really piss me off.

To be clear - this article IS A HOAX.

It is not just wrong advice. It is dangerous advice. Your first point of call, and the advice that should trump all others, is that from a medical professional. However, it is inevitably an incredibly difficult time, and of course anything that you can do to help is obviously encouraged. Complementary treatments are used by many people. But these should always be in addition to and never instead of medical treatment. 

One thing to remember is that a lot of research and testing has gone into chemotherapy drugs and the like, whereas alternative medicines have essentially zero regulation, and sometimes no credible research either. Research that is published in some back-woods journal that nobody has heard of might cut it in a relatively underfunded field like sports science, but I'm afraid that in this field any radical conclusions had better be based on research in a high impact journal.

This particular article is based on a hoax email that has been doing the rounds, and Johns Hopkins have released a press release specifically to combat the false claims made in this article. This rebuttal is very clear and succinct, so if you want a full run-down on everything that is wrong with this article (almost every single one of the "facts" is incorrect), then please read it. 

But I found myself making my own list of corrections for one of my friends when he was genuinely interested to find out what was wrong. I have copied and pasted my post below, which was written in haste to just cover some of the basic points to clearly show why you should not trust this information. There are probably some errors here, but I haven't bothered to correct it because I feel like there is a good lesson to be learnt here:

Please do not take medical advice from a blog!!!

First of all their interpretation of what a cancer cell is is very naive. Cells show mutations all the time, due to mistakes in the DNA replication machinery, or brought on by environmental factors like UV radiation, smoking, etc. But the body has an amazing system in place to check for errors and either correct them or remove them. If something happens that prevents these checkpoints from working correctly, cells can grow unchecked which leads to tumours. What we call "cancer" typically is a tumour which has also developed the ability to spread to other sites in the body by a process known as metastasis, where cells break away into the blood stream or lymphatic system. This is why it is so difficult to fight because they are not localised to one place, so chemotherapy is used to attack the cells throughout the blood/lymph system. So this idea that "cancer cells occur 6-10 times in your life" is erroneous. Mutations occur millions of times but generally don't do anything. This article follows the very basic idea that cancer is a thing. Cancer is a catch-all term for many, many diseases that result in uncontrolled proliferation of cells. 

The immune system is not really involved in fighting cancer - it's nothing to do with how strong it is. Cancer cells are not detected by the immune system because they are not invading cells. That's kind of the point - they bypass the intrinsic checkpoints so the body can't detect that there is a problem. 

Whilst diet is a risk factor for cancer, and obviously eating healthily is a good idea, there's no evidence that "when a person has cancer it indicates multiple nutritional deficiencies". 

Whilst it's true that chemo and radiotherapy can also damage healthy cells (that's why you feel terrible and have issues like hair falling out), they are actually incredibly specific in their action. But improving recognition of the malignant cells in one of many areas of research in the field. 

I've never heard of surgery causing cancer to spread - I believe that this is entirely untrue. 

The idea that cancer cells respond in any way to the foods that you eat is ridiculous. What you eat can act as a risk factor to whether you get cancer in the first place, but the micro-environment of the cells themselves is not dependent on how much sugar you put into your body. 

Addendum: Whilst the idea of generally eating healthier having an effect on the micro-environment for cancer growth (as seems to be the point of the email) is largely bunk, a few studies that do show how diet can be used as effective cancer treatments have been brought to my attention by Andrew Jordan in the comments below. Whilst these are much more extreme dietary changes than simply not eating cakes, they are very interesting. A couple of examples are the works of Valter Longo et al who show that fasting can lead to cellular changes that protect them from the damaging effects of chemotherapy, and the work of Adrienne Scheck et al who show that switching to a ketogenic diet (almost cutting out carbs entirely and increasing fat intake so that ketones are utilised instead) can be used to treat some neurological conditions (e.g. epilepsy and brain cancers) since ketones are not metabolised as efficiently as carbs in the aberrant cells. 

Cancer does not "feed on mucus". 

It's "Johns Hopkins", not John Hopkins. 

It's "dimensions" not dimmentions. 

Again, exercise is good for you, but not because it makes you breathe more. You can breathe as much as you like but you're not going to create an oxygenated environment that will prevent growth of cancer cells. 

Believe me, I hate cancer as much as the next person, and it was my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer that made me focus my research on cancer research. I now work in one of the top epigenetics labs in the world trying to do what I can to help in the fight against cancer. But articles like this are not just unhelpful, they are downright dangerous. This is very very bad advice, that will unfortunately be taken at face value by some people.

Two-Time Piece of String Finisher? I'm a Frayed Knot.

Blimey, what a day! Another year, another edition of the World's Most Pointless Race (TM) as 13 hardy souls (aka idiots) turned up on a Friday morning in Streatley to run the Piece of String Fun Run. Last year was the inaugural race and was brilliant despite a few teething problems (mostly due to the horrendous weather). But this year they were going all out!

After a brief race briefing ("please don't die") it was left to one of the runners to decide the fate of the group - an "honour" which I was bestowed with last year for paying my £1.47 donation to the RSPCA by internet transfer rather than by postal order (a far more embarrassing prospect, particularly when it costs £1.50 to get the order made up and you're holding up an entire room full of people waiting to cash in their giros). Ian Brazier was punished this year for forgetting to pay his entry fee, and picked one of the 5 pieces of string - which ended up being about 6 feet long. Did that mean anything?! Who the hell knew! But our fates had been sealed. With that, we were rather unceremoniously sent on our way out along the Thames Path, and were told that we would be intercepted somewhere along the way. And we were...

A bunch of stringers. Photo curtesy of Nici Griffin.

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!

Too much running will kill you, just as sure as none at all (or so the Telegraph says anyway...)

Once again, we see another worrying study indicating that "running is bad for you". In this case, it is a story in the Telegraph with the title "Too much exercise as bad as too little". Ignoring for a moment the syntactic tautological verisimilitude of this statement, is there anything to this claim? Or is it a case of the media leaping on a piece of research and blowing it out of all proportions for a good byline?

The paper in question is this study in the journal Archive of Disease in Children, titled "Weekly sport practice and adolescent well-being". The study took a cohort of 1,245 adolescents (aged 16-20) and asked them to fill in an online survey asking them various questions about their exercise habits, socio-economic background, height, weight, and questions on their "well-being" (more on exactly what this means in a second). They split the individuals up into a number of groups based on whether they took part in:

• A low amount of weekly sport (0-3.5 hours)


• An average amount of weekly sport - the recommended 7 hours (3.6 - 10.5 hours)


• A high amount of weekly sport - around double the recommended (10.6 - 17.5 hours)


• A very high amount of weekly sport (> 17.5 hours)

They then show that, when compared against the recommended amount, doing a higher level of sport resulted in individuals being "healthier", whilst doing less resulted in individuals being "unhealthier" (as you might expect). However, when they did the same for those individuals who did a very high amount of weekly sport, they found that they were in fact "unhealthier". So not only are there diminishing returns to your health by increasing the amount of exercise that you do, but doing too much can actually result in a negative effect on your health. Hence the tag line of "too much exercise as bad as too little".

"Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!" (to quote every ska band ever...)

I really enjoyed my run at the Stort30 this past weekend. It is a beautiful route, and it was really nice to see so many people out enjoying the fine weather. The fishermen on the river were probably wondering what in the hell we were doing, spending our morning running along a muddy river bank. But frankly I think the same thing about their hobby. So, y'know, horses for courses and all that.

But one thing that disappointed me was the number if discarded gel wrappers I found on my return journey. Littering is one of my bugbears, and I like to try and do my part to help when I can. I once really annoyed my wife by picking up and carrying a bin bag full of beer cans that some bugger had dumped in a bush. Sure I looked like a massive alcoholic (the dishevelled beard didn't help matters), but for the sake of a few minutes searching for a bin I was happy to act the bum.

But it seriously annoys me when people just dump their rubbish while they run. Sure, sometimes it is an accident; things can fall out of your bag. It may also not be due to other runners at all, as other people use the route as well, including cyclists. However the packets weren't there on the way out, and mysteriously appeared on the return journey.

I wasn't too worried about my time, so I picked up all of the ones that I saw. One in particular was half full, which was lovely to deal with. But I just dumped then in a pocket and got on with it.

If you've got room to carry a gel, you've got room to carry the wrapper. It doesn't take any extra time really to shove a rolled up wrapper in a pocket on your pack. If you're worried about the mess, just carry a little sandwich bag or something with you. At UTMB, they gave everybody a little pouch which could be clipped on to your bag somewhere convenient. The same effect can be achieved with a little plastic bag. Hell, the checkpoints were so close together in this race (about 5 miles), it really wouldn't be difficult to just hold onto it until the end. There really is no excuse.

Some people have suggested that the problem comes from road runners who are used to races where rubbish is cleaned up afterwards. But come on people. We're all grown ups. It must surely occur to these people that it's not nice for others (particularly people just out for a Sunday stroll) to see this kind of mess. It gives us all a bad name.

And it can potentially be very bad for the future of running events, never mind the environment and local flora and fauna. Permission has to be obtained to hold races on these trails, so if people are complaining about the mess being made by the runners then they may simply not allow it to go ahead the next year. All for the sake of shaving 5 seconds off of your 100 km time.

I put a post (or more aptly a "rant") up on Facebook about this, and it was great to see that generally people were also saddened by it. Some people thought instant disqualification was even the way to go. Too harsh?Maybe not. I'm certainly not the first person to talk about this problem, and there are various initiatives to help promote conscientious trail use, such as the RunTidy initiative in Wales. Please take the time to show your support and help keep our trails beautiful. There was even an article in the Guardian where Jeremy Paxman asked why more people don't challenge litter bugs.

Many problems in this world could be solved by people just not being dicks, and thinking about others. Litter is also one of those things that builds - if one person litters then others will be more likely to do the same. So I'm going to try and make it my business to keep the trails clean and tidy, and try to pick up any rubbish that I see while out and about. I hope that you'll join me. Let's start small and build up to world peace, eh?!

Stort30 Race Report - 27th October 2013

Last weekend I was all set to run the Caesar's Camp 100 miler. Caesar's is somewhat of a UK ultra running institution, and is one of the tougher events on the calendar - largely due to the Race Director, Henk, who likes to make things difficult for his runners. I worked with Henk at the North Downs Way 100 last year, and we had slightly different perspectives on how to run an Aid Station; I felt that we should be aiding the runners, whereas he thought we should be calling them all c*nts and kicking them out. Both perfectly valid techniques! But as we approached the race I was shitting myself.

Unfortunately, I don't mean that figuratively.

About two days before the race, I came down with a pretty nasty gastro-enteritis bug. Very unpleasant, and very much not the ideal way to prepare for running 100 miles. In the end, I couldn't even leave the house to go and watch and cheer other people on. The timing was impeccable, so chalk that up as another one in the "man, this year has sucked running-wise" column. Sigh.

There's a river somewhere, honest. Photo care of Karen Webber.

Determined to actually run something, I signed up for the Stort30; a 30 mile Challenge Running event organised by Lindley Chambers not too far from my house. The race is a 15 mile out and back route following along the River Stort Navigation Channel in Hertfordshire. Navigation is pretty simple (if you're not in danger of falling in the water, you've probably gone wrong somewhere), but temporary arrows had been painted on the floor at any point where you needed to do something other than "keep going straight", so navigation certainly shouldn't be an issue - a dangerous claim for me.

Stand and Deliver

In many ways I am a man of extremes. If I'm not running for hours out in the middle of nowhere, I'm collapsed on our sofa, vegging in front of the XBox. In this day and age, I just don't understand how people live without a recline function on their sofa! But the one thing that always bugged me is that my chosen career (computer geek) leaves me slumped in a chair in front of a computer screen all day. Since my wife won't let me quit to become a tree surgeon (I like chainsaws), the next best thing was to have a go at this "standing desk" malarky. 

There have been various articles of late about how sitting down all day takes years off your life, and more and more office workers are making a switch to using a standing desk to limit time on their arse.  In fact, I was surprised to find out how many of my friends were already on this bandwagon. So I thought hey, why not give it a go. 

A quick word with my boss and I was good to go. I eschewed the "stick the monitor on a cardboard box" approach in favour of the more tech geeky "buy a giant monstrosity of a computer stand which has all sorts of bells and whistles" approach. Luckily this Ergotron (great name...) sit-stand workstation was available through my work's suppliers for a very reasonable price. It is incredibly versatile, and has the added benefit of easily moving up and down if I decide that I want to sit down and work for a bit.

Next step is to fit a treadmill underneath

Stour Valley Path - September 2013

It's no secret that I've been struggling with injury for the last few months since Transvulcania. I have been rehabbing like crazy, and things have gradually been getting better, suggesting at least that it was nothing serious. But with two big DNFs under my belt at the SDW100 and NDW100, and being unable to run longer than 10k without things starting to ache, I was starting to go a bit crazy. But with some help from my physio Chelsea Harding, September proved to be a good month. I had a whole week of "proper running", including some exploring down on the Monarch's Way and SDW near my parents. My first 70+ mile week in a long time - and it felt great!

So the following week, I hit the start line of the Stour Valley Path 100 km race (SVP100) with not a single niggle. No spasming calves, no painful knee, no plantar fasciitis. I was finally starting a race without worrying about something going wrong.

Okay, that's not entirely true. James Adams and Gemma Greenwood were helping out at the race and had come to stay with us since the race starts not far from my house. Since they would be there throughout the day, I had stored a bag of clothes in their car "just in case". But despite this I was going in with a positive mental attitude, determined to get a good finish in before the end of the year.

My previous 100k time was 9:57:26 at the Norfolk Ultra last year, so I figured that somewhere between 9 and 9.5 hours was doable. But I wasn't going to worry about pace, instead focussing on running to feel. At the end of the day, my main focus for the day was finishing and having a good time.

Every photo of me at the start has me checking my watch. Turns out I needn't have worried about pacing!

Does Green Eggs and Ham represent a suitable nutrition strategy?

So this year I decided to go two for two, and step up to the plate once more for another crack at the Piece of String Fun Run in November. Well, it was a lot of fun last year, so why the hell not. The 17 (un)lucky runners selected to run have just been announced, and I am in there. Huzzah! So here is a little poem that I wrote to describe this race. I think that perhaps I have been reading a little too much Dr. Seuss recently. Bloody kids! Anyway, enjoy!

I am Sam. 

Sam I am. 

I would like to run a race,

But I need to know what pace

To run it so I do not die

Or burn out early and start to cry. 

Ultramarathon Running Research Project - Thames Path 100 2013

This year, I have continued the project that I started last year with James Elson from Centurion Running, looking at various aspects of ultra running and how these relate to a runner's ability to complete the race. I still think that there is lots of interesting information to be mined from these data, and hopefully more people will take part in the surveys for the next few races. Anyway, below is the report that I produced for the 2013 Thames Path 100 mile race in its entirety. As ever, these are merely my own interpretations of the data, but I would love to hear from anyone that might have any alternative ideas. I hope that you find it interesting!

Introduction

Following on from last year's pilot project at the South Downs Way 100 mile race (SDW100) last year, we have now upgraded the analysis to look at all four of the Centurion Running 100 mile events in 2013. The current state of research into the factors that may affect a runner's ability to complete a 100 mile event is still very open, with several key studies beginning to delve into the key factors essential for all runners to consider.

The research of Martin Hoffman and the rest of the Western States Endurance Run Research Committee has produced several key papers, analysing both the effects of running 100 miles on the body, as well as the demographics of the runners who choose to run such events. Recently, the Ultrarunners Longitudinal TRAcking (ULTRA) study from Stanford University (which I recommend everybody takes part in if they haven't already by going to https://stanfordmedicine.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_aY1e47DdzVRjHKI) has begun to track a wide range of information for ultrarunners, which will then be tracked over the coming years with the hope of monitoring training styles and observing how these relate to injury rates.

Recently, more and more researchers have aligned themselves with race directors in order to obtain data on ultrarunners in the field. For many races, this may allow the study not only of runners' preferences and training styles, but also the study of the changes in physiology brought about as a result of running 100 miles. These studies will undoubtedly direct our current understanding of "optimum" training methods in order to ensure that running styles are tailored to specific physiological needs. Whilst I personally do not believe that there is such a thing as "the right way to train" (it is likely highly dependent on individuals), there are certainly universal truths that we can all benefit from fully understanding.

Our own study was a fairly simple yet powerful approach. We asked runners of the SDW100 to complete a pre-race survey (focussing on information on the runners themselves and normal training strategies) and a post-race survey (focussing on their approach to the race and how the race itself went for them), and combined these data with split times throughout the race. There were several goals with these data, but the main goals were to understand what sort of people typically take part in such events, what sort of training strategies are typically used, and how these relate to race-day performance.

In 2013, we will be performing these analyses on all four of the Centurion Running 100 mile races; the Thames Path 100, the South Downs Way 100, the North Downs Way 100, and the Winter 100. At the end of the year, we will combine these data into a single analysis to get a view of how runners have approached the different races through the year. These analyses are only possible because of volunteers choosing to take part in the surveys. But the more people who take part, the more interesting the findings will be. I hope that these results will encourage people to take part in the future studies and that we will soon have a deep pool of data to mine for interesting results.

On a personal note, my time for performing these analyses has been drastically reduced due to the birth of my gorgeous little girl. She's strong on her feet already so I'm sure she'll be a runner like Daddy! But unfortunately she also seems to have my lung capacity and ability to cope with no sleep... But I hope that you find what I have managed to cobble together between feeds interesting! These are entire my own opinions, but if you have any thoughts or comments feel free to contact me through my blog at constantforwardmotion.blogspot.com. As ever, all the best to everybody with your running, and I'll see you out on the trails!

Guest Blog: Confessions of an Ultra Running Widow

Well bless her cottons! My lovely wife Jen has decided to write a little blog post about what it's like living with an insufferable idiot. Enjoy!

I am a runner. Correction; I was a runner, back in my teenage years. But I was a proper runner; a fast runner; a sprinter. My favoured distance was 200 meters. I was once encouraged to try my hand at long distance and step up to the 400 meters, but as my dad often likes to remind me and my husband I replied with "why would any one be stupid enough to run more than 200 meters?". How interesting that I now consider a 'short run' to be anything under 26 miles. Not for myself you must understand, that's when Sam does it. I got sore shins for 3 days when I 'jogged' 1/4 mile home to save Sam from our screaming child the other evening.

I have tried to find a piece of the enthusiasm that Sam so obviously has for running. I downloaded an app which proclaimed to be able to get anyone running 5k. I decided I would do the training and surprise Sam by entering us both in a 5k race. So I used to take our dog Max for a walk up to the field that is near our house. I would put on my iPod and listen to the little voice encouraging me along the path from fat to fit. I didn't make it. I got bored. Running just isn't my thing. If the race isn't over in less than 30 seconds I'm not interested in competing. (And I don't believe for a second that I could cover 200m in less than that now.)

I must admit I like the idea of being involved in a sport with the tight knit community that Ultra Running seems to have. Sam is forever on Twitter or Facebook chatting to some runner from somewhere that he knows through someone who he once chatted to at an aid station for 2 minutes. Otherwise he is crunching numbers and stats about races or running. Or compiling a blog post. How wonderful to enjoy something so much that you want to eat, breathe and sleep it?

What Sam sometimes fails to remember is that not everyone shares this all encompassing infatuation. You probably don't understand this concept either as you are currently reading a blog about Ultra Running. But if we didn't discuss running I'm not sure what we would talk about. My day at present is full of baby and to be honest she is only just starting to get interesting at six months of age. Even when I was at work our jobs are so different there is no common ground, except moaning about our bosses. Maybe that's a bit unfair - we do have other interests in common and things to discuss. But Sam's enthusiasm for running often means it's a primary topic of conversation.

I have learnt to love Ultra Running from afar. Sometimes I have the mad idea of getting more involved, coming to a race, making a weekend of it. I hear Sam talk of other WAGs that dutifully drive their partners to races and crew for them, finally cheering them on at the finish line. I have crewed for Sam before. When he 'ran home' after the 2011 London Marathon I was in the car meeting up with him every 8 miles, restocking his bag, giving him words of encouragement. It resulted in me throwing up at the side of the road in a little village in the early hours of the morning as the lack of sleep and the feelings of worry got to me. I won't be repeating that experience anytime soon thank you very much. 

I do think that I should really get involved in the scene more though. Now we have Lottie I think I should at least come to a finish line sometime so she can cheer her daddy through the line. The last time we tried that it resulted in us standing in the centre of Oakham on Easter Sunday evening for the best part of 6 hours waiting for Sam to come in for his first race win at the 2013 Viking Way. Unfortunately his 'Sam Nav' went wrong and he ended up coming in second, but at least we were there. Now Sam just has to actually finish another race and I might consider standing around a bit more. 


Harsh but fair I guess... For more amusing insults of her doting husband (*sniff*) you can follow Jen on Twitter @JimjamjenR

To D(NF) or not to D(NF); that is the question

To many people, DNF is a four letter word. Clearly those people need to work on their 'rithmetic, but still I understand the point. To get a DNF (Did Not Finish) in a race is seen by many people as the worst possible way to end their attempt, beaten only by never making the start line in the first place (DNS). But is it really something to get so worked up about?

Now don't get me wrong; I am a stubborn little bastard. I will (and have) push myself through a lot of shit to get to the finishing line of a race. But I have also DNF'd (yes, DNF is a verb) from a number of races in the short time that I have been running for. For lots of people, not having a single DNF to their name is a badge of honour. Do I care that I can no longer say, "I have finished every race that I have ever started?" No, not really.

My philosophy is that I think ahead to what Future Me would think of Present Me when he looks back. Would Future Me think I was a pussy? Would he be pissed off, and wonder why I didn't just grit my teeth and man the fuck up? Or would he be glad I was sensible and didn't wreck myself and stop him from getting his run in?

Here are my DNFs to date:

1. Thames Path 100 2012: My first Centurion Running 100 miler, and I was really looking forward to it; only to fall off my bloody bike on some ice the week before. I hit the start line following some pretty aggressive emergency physiotherapy, but my hip went out about 75 miles into the race. I was in fifth, but dropped out to avoid making things worse.
2. Lakeland 100 2012: I entered this race not expecting to get into UTMB. Just my luck, I got offered a place in both. I very nearly didn't even bother turning up, figuring that I didn't want to risk not making the start line for one of the biggest events in the ultra running calendar. In the end, I decided to use it as a training run, planning to just run the first half. I was so paranoid through the whole race, and twisted my ankle 30 miles in. Rather than risk making things work, only to pull out at halfway anyway, I wimped out early. This race is one of the toughest in the UK, and needs to be run with complete focus. I'll return, maybe next year, to see the rest of the course.
3. South Downs Way 100 2013: I injured myself at Transvulcania earlier this year, and started the SDW with my fingers crossed that my knee would last me to the finish line. It didn't. To be honest I probably shouldn't have started, but this was supposed to be my focus race for the year and I was reluctant to miss out on an opportunity to race for the prize money that was up for grabs (babies ain't cheap after all).
4. North Downs Way 100 2013: This was only a month after SDW, and again my knee wasn't quite right. I had been rehabbing it with only small runs and lots of cycling, and one 20 mile run the week before as a test. I started the race expecting to pull out at some point anyway (even going so far as to stash clothes at various points along the route just in case), and stopped before things got bad.

So quite a bumper crop really. Three of these were related to pre-existing injuries, and I probably should never have started in the first place. But as I say, I'm stubborn. In all three cases things felt okay and I was willing to see what happened, but as soon as it became clear that things weren't as they should be I pulled. I was disappointed, of course, but in all cases I was happy that I made the right call. I care more about running day to day than I do about racing, so it's important to me not to destroy myself. And for Lakeland, my eye was on UTMB the whole time.

Here's the thing; I have nothing to prove to anybody but myself. I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't some level of ego involved (blogging isn't exactly the most inconspicuous of pursuits), but honestly I prefer to do these things for my own benefit. Generally speaking I won't risk my health or my ability to run for any race, although there are certain things that might make it more likely for me to slog through to the end.

Firstly I am fine with pain, discomfort, misery, etc. (ordinarily this would necessitate an obligatory "I am married after all, narf narf" comment, but then most people aren't married to my awesome wife!). But there is a difference between the inevitable pain associated with long distance running and an acute injury. The best thing that I ever did to assuage my wife's fears of my crazy passion was to show her that I know the difference by pulling out of the Thames Path last year. She trusts that I will make the sensible decision.

Of course I would be more likely to push through things if I were running a particular race distance for the first time - I would have crawled to complete my first 100 mile finish if I had to. But would I feel the same for my fifth? Or if I was running a particularly high profile race that I am unlikely to get the opportunity to run again. I had a 10K death march at the end of UTMB due to some chaffing on the boys. As it happens, I thoroughly enjoyed the walk; chatting to various people, soaking in the atmosphere, and basking in the sunshine. The only thing that could have improved things was if my balls didn't feel like they were wrapped in sandpaper.

[Edit] Let me be clear - I am not advocating pulling out of a race because things have gotten "a bit hurty" (to paraphrase James Adams). Pain and discomfort are inevitable. A lot of ultra running is mental (in both senses of the word I guess), so being able to push through the bad times is a real skill, and one which I am typically very good at (being an idiot helps not to worry about things too much - I like to call it running stupid). This is how I have finished some of the toughest races in the UK, such as the Viking Way and the Piece of String. But what I am saying is that I don't go in for the "finish or die" mentality. I don't need to prove my resilience to anybody just for the sake of it. If there is a good reason to stop, I will. That way I can come back to play another day. My point is that I don't stress about it. If it was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do. And you'll know if it was the right thing to do a few weeks later when you look back on it all.

In general, I want to finish any race that I start. I moan a lot if I don't, so it's really for my wife's sanity that I do it. But if there is some reason that I feel like the best option is to pull out, I try not to let it get me down. I'm normally too focused on the next one anyway! I actually enjoy running after all - even the more horrific parts of races like the Piece of String. So when you're in a position where you have to make that decision whether to DNF or MTFU, give a thought to your future self and what they may have to say about the matter. My future self is a dick, so I have to be really sure that he won't be pissed at me...

How do you decide whether to push on or pull out? Answers on a postcards!

North Downs Way Race Report (sort of...)

Wow! What a race!

Not from me; I pussied out after about 25 miles...

But the race itself was pretty much dominated by two runners; Ed Catmur and Anthony Forsyth. I have met Ed at several other Centurion events, and he always runs a great race. He led the 2012 NDW100 race to the halfway point, and finished in third in the end. I met Anthony through Facebook, and knew that he was out to push for the win. He had completed the NDW50 earlier this year, and had clocked up some really high mileage out on the course. But this would be his first 100 miler, and many of us know that a 100 mile race is a very different beast to a 50 miler. What would happen when they pushed each other?

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The weeks leading up to the race had been pretty poor for me in terms of training. I was still suffering the effects of my injury from Transvulcania and hadn't been doing much in the way of running. But things were much better, and I had managed a good long run a couple of weeks before with no real issues. So I decided to give the race a shot, knowing that if things got bad I could pull straight out before any serious problems occurred.

As with the SDW100, the start of the NDW100 is close to my parents, so we decided to head down south for the weekend. I left Jen and Lottie in the capable hands of my parents and headed to meet Dan Park in Farnham. Dan attempted this race last year but unfortunately had to pull out early due to problems with his ankles. This year he had a score to settle.

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!

Critical thinking

I think that most of us are savvy enough to realise that we shouldn't take stories in the media at face value, but it occasionally strikes me that not enough people critically evaluate the things that they read. In the running world there are many areas where people hold quite fervent views on what is the "best" way to do something; be it relating to diet (e.g. high carb vs. high fat), running style (e.g. forefoot vs. heel striking), shoe choice (barefoot, minimalist, Hokas, et al.), training methods (speed work or not for ultras?), training aids (does compression gear work?), etc. But one of the big problems that I see cropping up time and again, particularly with social media like Facebook and Twitter, are cases of what is termed confirmation bias - the tendency for people to take more notice of evidence that supports a view that they already hold. How often have you seen an advocate of barefoot running Tweet about the latest paper showing that barefoot running is more efficient? But how often do they Tweet about the latest research showing that no difference was found, or even that heel striking was shown to be preferable?

Let me just be clear; I am in no way commenting on the views themselves. I have my own opinions on all of these facets of running that have been borne out of experience (which is limited in terms of time, but extensive in other ways), as well as reading the limited scientific literature that exists. But I in no way claim that these opinions are correct. If I see compelling evidence that convinces me otherwise, I try things out, use what works for me, and change my opinions (as everybody should). To be honest, my view on a lot of these questions in sports science is that there is no right answer. You do what works for you. 

No; what I am commenting on in this post is the use of dodgy evidence to support these views. 

Western States 2013 - Live

So, being the incredibly cool guy that I am, I am currently spending my Saturday night watching the Western States Endurance Run unfold live overnight with a cold cider. Because I'm just the coolest, I have been playing around with the times to see what the field looks like to get an idea of who might take the win. Yeah.

As it stands, 6 runners have gone through 70 miles (Peachstone), in the following order:

Timothy Olson	10:43
Rob Krar	10:56
Mike Morton	10:58
Dylan Bowman	11:09
Ian Sharman	11:10
Nick Clark	11:22

Timmy Olson has held the lead for most of the race, but Rob Krar has been hot on his heels, Mike Morton has been edging his way up the field, and the rest of the chasing pack are not far behind. The heat is immense in California at the moment, so the question is; who's going to blow first? Can Timmy hold on until the end, or will Mike's pacing win the day?

This is a figure showing the speed between each checkpoint up to Peachstone for each of the 6 runners in the lead pack. Hal Koerner was in there as well, but something seems to have happened to him since Foresthill. I hope everything's okay. Anyway, take a look and see what you think.

My interpretations are as follows:

1. Timmy has been running incredibly strong so far and has built up a great lead. Of course now we need to see if he can hold this amazing pace.
2. The pace of these 6 runners has been fairly consistent, but in the last 20 miles we have really seen the differences start to creep in
3. Mike's pacing may well be the clincher here - he started off as the slower runner, but now his pace seems to be the fastest. He's slowly creeped up the field, and now is able to hold his pace whilst others are dropping theirs.
4. Similarly, Rob is running at a fantastic pace and could hold this to the end now. 
5. Top 5 for Brit Ian Sharman? Go Ian!

As we enter the final 30 miles, the real race begins. Now we see if people have set off too fast, or if the hot weather is going to affect things. My money is on Mike Morton coming through in the final hours as Timothy's pace slips. But I could be completely wrong, and we might see another epic finish from Olson! In particular, will he pick up the pace when Morton and Krar attack? Let's see!

It's looking like we will be seeing a podium of Timmy, Rob and Mike, but as to the order; I couldn't say. Whatever happens, I look forward to seeing the results. Maybe we'll see a sprint finish at the Placer High School track?!

Good luck guys!

Update:
Hal has now been updated as being in 7th through Peachstone. Not sure what happened, but his pace has dropped dramatically on the last section. Also, Olson, Krar and Morton are through the Rucky Chucky river crossing. Olson is still 10 minutes up.

South Downs Way 100 Miler 2013 Race Report

Aw bollocks (spoiler alert...).

Well okay, that didn't quite go to plan. The Centurion Running South Downs Way had always been my focus race for the year, as I had a target time to beat from last year that I felt was ripe for smashing (with a bit of focussed training). And if you had asked me 6 weeks ago how I felt, I would have been incredibly positive. My pace was increasing, my legs felt strong, the training was going well (despite the arrival of my little angel Lottie), and with several particularly long distance races under my belt I was confident in my endurance. In addition, my kit choice and nutrition were proving to be robust, and in particular a recurring stomach problem which slowed me down last year seemed to be under control. 

Beautiful weather for a run! Are you sure this a Centurion Running event?!

Then Transvulcania happened. I had a bit of an issue with cramping in my calves, something that I think may have been lying dormant for a while and only really showed up by running up a volcano. I really don't get any practice at that - there are very few volcanoes in Cambridge.

Putting it all on the line

In just over a week, I will be lining up at the start of the Centurion Running South Downs Way 100 mile race, following the National Trail from Winchester through the South Downs down to Eastbourne. This race holds somewhat of a special place for me, as it was the first proper ultra race that I did way back in the distant summer of 2011. It went quite well and I managed to come 5th in 22:10. Not too shabby for my first 100 miler.

The following year, the race was absorbed into the race calendar of Centurion Running by James Elson, who made a few changes including switching the direction to run West to East (so we could get blown along by the Westerly wind for a nice easy run), avoiding the cliffs and the Seven Sisters at the Eastbourne end (hundreds of fatigued runners piling off a cliff like lemmings probably wouldn't be a great advert for future events), and adding in more aid stations along the way. I ran the updated race last year and smashed my PB, finishing 2nd in 17:23. This year, I will be lining up again to try and smash that time again, and maybe even improve on that position as well. 

Now I'm no statistician (oh wait), but based on the last two years it's looking good for a world record...

Stats don't lie. Statisticians on the other hand... Fox News would be proud.