Yorkshire Trod 100km 2021 - my first DNF

 This is the first time this race has been included in the Runfurther series. We had some discussions about the route and rules, and Karen agreed a route with Mel to ensure the 'minimum road' rule was complied with. I looked at the route ahead of time and thought it was pretty good.

I was really looking forward to this one. It's my favourite part of the Dales, and the route looked fantastic. The night before I drove up to Grassington and registered, then found a quiet place to settle in the van for the night.

It wasn't ever so warm in the van overnight, and I had a rather disturbed nights sleep. I got out of bed rather drowsy at 5.30, got my kit sorted and drove down to the National Park car park.

I reached the start point with 10 minutes to spare and had a quick chat with Karen, who was no more sure of having recovered from Rotherham injury than I was. On the stroke of 7 we set out in the dark through the centre of Grassington, heading up towards Threshfield.

The pack thinned out quickly, and I chatted with a few different people as we crossed the road, passed Threshfield quarry then headed out on Moor Road. My GPS took a long time to wake up, although I was reasonably confident about the route as far as CP3 anyway (although a couple of other runners gave me a better route to Boss Moor than I'd have chosen myself). By the time we were climbing up towards Boss Moor I was settled into a pace and going OK.

A quick clip at CP1, the gate overlooking Winterburn res, then double back to the footbridge and the long climb up to Weets Top. At Weets Top I dropped down to the road and turned right up the road heading for Malham Tarn.

Looking back from the climb up Weets Top

As I got towards the end of Mastiles Lane my left glute was starting to grumble, but nothing really bothersome. CP2, a quick chat with the marshal and I was off across the rough grass towards Arncliffe. The two guys ahead of me had taken a longer route and I was keen to see if the shorter route would gain me any time.

As I reached the farm track and started up towards the Monks Road path my glute was getting rapidly worse and I was already having to walk quite a bit. In spite of this, I caught up with the two who'd taken the longer route at the point where they joined up.

This was the beginning of the end for me. Less than fifteen miles in, with well over forty five to go and I was struggling already. I decided Arncliffe was as far as I was going.

During the run down into Arncliffe I was talking to another runner who struggles with the same gastric problems as me, and was able to make some suggestions for things to try.

Limping slowly into Arncliffe CP, I let them know I was retiring and settled down with a very welcome cup of tea. Soon afterwards a large number of runners, mostly from the 50k came through the CP, then (Debbie? Sorry, I'm awful with names) kindly transported me back to Grassington. I turned in my tracker, chatted with Mel and the volunteer looking after CP9 (Grassington) for a bit, then headed home rather disappointed and upset.

Retiring had felt like a pragmatic and sensible choice, but I was totally unprepared for the emotional effects. My inner psychologist found it fascinating and took careful notes while I crashed horribly.

There were three things that I really noticed:

1. I kept thinking "I could probably have gone on, I gave up too easily"
2. It felt like a massive blow to my self confidence. That capability to run long distances is important to me, it makes me feel self sufficient and in control.
3. This was the worst: I felt left out. The race was carrying on, but I wasn't a part of it any more. It was exactly like the feeling you get as a child when you don't get invited to something.

In truth, I could easily have gone on, but I would have had maybe 14 hours of painful, miserable running and possibly done damage that would take longer to heal.

I realised as I neared home that I could have handled number 3 better by changing into clean clothes and volunteering to help (if possible). A lesson for next time.

That's probably my last race for this year. I'm entered for the White Rose but very much doubt I'll be recovered. Time to see the physio, concentrate on building strength and better form (probably what caused the injury), and work on other important skills like navigation and prep. Although Mel did mention a race in January...

Thanks again to Mel & everyone who cheered me up at Arncliffe & Grassington, and to the Runfurther sponsors for providing prizes & goodies.

Runfurther sponsors: Tentmeals, Ultimate Direction, IceBug, Injinji, Mountain Fuel and Romney Mint cake

Kit list

On

• Full length Omm flash
• long sleeved hi viz base layer
• short sleeved hi viz base layer
• montane cap
• buff
• drymax  socks
• inov8 terraultra 370

Carry

• montane prism hat 
• ZL H600 torch & spare battery
• ZL H53 backup torch
• Garmin 20x GPS
• Ti mug
• BMC Dales map
• compass
• ron hill gloves
• buffalo mittens
• omm ultra 15 pack
• Montane Prism jacket
• OMM waterproof
• spare batteries for gps
• small fak
• regatta waterproof trousers
• whistle
• sol bag
• spork

Food

• two squeasy snackers of mash/tartex/walnut oil
• mini cheeses
• mini malt loaves
• one cheese and onion pasty
• 120g romneys kendal mint cake

Round Rotherham 21 - not quite according to plan

Ultra count: 18 by the standards agreed with Sarah on the 2020 Spire (Incl: recognised challenge rounds; not incl: DNFs or training runs), 17 races.

Faffing with my GPS before dibbing - picture courtesy of Darren Bristow

Friday night I finished work early and loaded up the van, and got down to Rotherham around 5.30. I had some Runfurther flags in the van that needed putting up, and met Karen, Bob & Nick at the event HQ. Just as we were setting off to get something to eat, Nick noticed that my front offside tyre was almost flat, it had a damn great nail in it.

Sharing my living space with a portaloo and an alloy wheel...

That set the tone for the rest of my RRR21 really.

After dinner we got back to Manvers lake and I discovered that by a happy fluke I'd parked right by a floodlight, which made changing the wheel in the dark a lot easier. Once that was done I rolled (on a distinctly low but just-about-useable spare) round to the car park. I parked on the end of the row of vans (this was a bad move), opened a beer and sorted out my kit for the morning.

Somewhere around 3.30am people started to arrive. Being on the end of the row I think there was a car park marshal pretty close to my window and of course every car coming in stopped and talked, so I didn't sleep too well for a while. Eventually I got sufficiently used to it to filter it out and slept until 5.45 when my alarm went off.

I'd forgotten to put the filter coffee container back in the van, so I made a cup of tea and had some breakfast. There had been some question over whether there would be any crisps on the CPs, so I guzzled down a couple of packets along with my yoghurt & nuts.

Just before 7 I headed up to registration. It was light enough not to need a torch, and I waved to Sarah and Karen as they passed. Ian was at registration just ahead of me, although he ended up starting a few minutes after. I got my dibber, sorted out the GPS and got going.

I very quickly settled into a 6min/km pace which was faster than I planned, and it felt OK so I kept it up. Both glutes were a little bit stiff, they have been since I did two big climb weekends in the Lakes and Snowdonia recently. The right eased off during the course of the morning but the left didn't. That was to be a problem.

You can't fool me, that's a bloody canal. Disused, but still a canal.

Somewhere around 2 hours in I passed Karen. This is a very rare occurrence and usually a bad sign. Sure enough she was struggling with injury and in a lot of pain. Characteristically she was still moving at a fairly rapid pace.

Catching up with Sarah at CP3, I said 'hi' and kept going as I was just about to knock 20 mins or so off my marathon time. Then came the freshly ploughed fields. So freshly that the tractors were still harrowing as we went through. That slowed me a bit, but not too much. At this point my left hip was starting to feel a bit sore.

I hit the marathon distance in 4:21, a bit quicker than my previous, and started to slacken off. Sarah caught me up shortly after, and we had enough time for a bit of a natter before reaching CP4. I kept going at this point, Sarah caught me up and overtook soon after as I was starting to slow badly.

From here onwards it got a lot worse. I'd tried to make my vest a bit more comfortable by eating the various packets of crisps I was carrying fairly early on, instead of maintaining my usual food routine. By the time I reached Maltby I was getting stomach cramps and my hip was properly painful. The volunteers at Maltby cheered me up a bit and offered me food (unfortunately my dietary limitations ruled it all out), and encouraged me as I left.

Once I reached the top of the hill at Maltby I was quickly reduced to a walk. Another runner had been helping me with the positive talk on the way up, but I was struggling badly and it took me a full 2 hours to do the 8.5km to Hooton Roberts. Throughout this leg I was alternating between stubbornly wanting to go on, and worrying about the damage I might be doing. With 2 weeks to the Yorkshire Trod and 4 to the White Rose 100 I didn't want to get a problematic injury. I was passed on this stretch by what seemed like everyone in the race, but memorably Colin Williams and Karen who was moving slower than she had been earlier, but still a decent pace considering. By this time my blood sugar was low and so was my mood, and the pain was stopping me from talking myself back up. I think I was also making the problem worse by slouching. I didn't expect to finish and said so to a few people.

At Hooton Roberts I limped into the CP and said I didn't expect to carry on. Thankfully the lovely volunteers at the CP convinced me to rest, eat, sit down. I did a little bit of stretching, chatted a bit, ate some malt loaf and a couple of sandwiches and drank a very welcome cup of tea. After maybe 20 minutes I started to feel like I might as well just battle on.

Leaving Hooton Roberts I found that if I stood bolt upright I could walk, or even run, with much less pain. So much so that I made a decent pace for the last 5 miles. As I joined the canal I could see Ian and a few others just ahead, and caught them up just as we joined the main road to Manvers. Shortly after I caught up with Nick for the second time that day, who was also having a rough run.

I finally crossed the line with tears in my eyes and a finish time of 10.17, around half an hour slower than 2019 rather than the 60 minute or more faster I was aiming for. But at least I finished. Food, chat, reinflating the spare tyre to a decent pressure and taking down the sponsors flags added another hour or so, by which time I was able to drive home fairly comfortably.

Karen had finished about an hour ahead of me, Sarah somewhat earlier. Nick and Ian both appeared shortly after I'd returned.

The next day my hip was stiff, but I was able to walk & cycle more or less OK. The week ahead will feature stretching, swimming, and very little running.

The RRR is an interesting race. I'm not used to the relatively flat trail stuff and Rotherham is a chance to do 50 miles much quicker than I normally would. There's some scenic stuff, and quite a lot of urban/suburban. It's fantastically well organised and supported, and it's the people involved who make it what it is. Thanks to all of them: friendly and good humoured volunteers, runners, and local residents.

Lessons

• Treat CP food as a bonus - my unusual dietary issues limit what I can eat.
• Malt loaf causes me fewer problems than I'd expect
• Actual proper pain is a new ingredient in the low mood, learn to deal with it
• Stand up straight (currently working on form anyway)

 Kit list

On

• OMM shorts
• short sleeve base layer
• hat
• number belt
• Fenix 6s

Carry

• Montane Gecko vest
• 2 buffs 
• gloves
• long sleeve base layer
• waterproof (Montane minimus)
• water bottles (one empty in my pack)
• mash bottle
• face mask
• Garmin 20x GPS
• ZL H53 torch
• Phone

Food

• mini cheeses
• mini malt loaves
• 4? packets of crisps
• couple of packets of mini cheddars
• cheese sandwich, more malt loaf
• mash/tartex/oil mix (only ate about half)

Thanks to the organisers and volunteers (especially at Maltby & Hooton Roberts where I really needed the help), and to the Runfurther sponsors for providing prizes & goodies.

Runfurther sponsors: Tentmeals, Ultimate Direction, IceBug, Injinji, Mountain Fuel and Romney Mint cake

https://www.strava.com/activities/6088267697