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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
- 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
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