London Ultra 50k 2011

'It's often said that if you want the biggest cheer in a marathon, finish last.' - anon

Well guess what.....

Pre-race
In some ways, Friday and Saturday were harder than Sunday!  It was hard to relax during Saturday day, thinking about the challenge ahead.  How hard would it be?  Would I be able to cope?  And there were other, more basic questions, like would I be safe?  As Saturday day turned into night, I was able to chill at my mates Stueys, eating good food, drinking good water and feeling much better.  We even jogged to the local pub, humming the Rocky tune!  I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep much the night before, but I'd made sure I slept well on Thursday and Friday night.

Waking up on Sunday morning, I felt a real sense of energy and adrenaline.  'Baby we were born to run!' sings Bruce Springsteen.  How right he is!  Finally, I would be able to get some actual miles under my belt, after thinking about the race all week.

0 miles to 7 miles: Pure unadulturated fun
After feeling nervous and anxious for about 48 hours, it was a
genuine relief and pleasure to be running.  All I remember was that the initial running was so fun, so pleasurable.  I didn't allow myself to think any further ahead than the first six miles of the race.  I quickly learned that the event, as well as being an endurance event, also needed some orienteering skills.  You needed to follow the Capital Ring signs to be going the right way.  Although to be honest, following the person in front was the lazier, easier option.  7 miles was run, and I had reached the first aid station.  The jelly babies and haribos went down well!

7 miles to 13 miles: Head down and getting on with it
iPhones are great.  The GPS feature can be used to tell you when you've passed every mile, how fast you're going, and how far it is to go.  The first problem of the race was realising that my phone wouldn't have enough charge to do this for the whole race.  From 12 miles to 26 miles, I would have to guess how far I'd run by feel alone.  I'm usually quite good at this, but to not know exactly how much ground I'd covered at any point in the race was something I wasn't used to.  As I left the second aid station at 13 miles, being told that I was almost in last place wasn't a great feeling.

13 miles to 19.5 miles: Don't think about it too much, or you'll break down
This part was hard.  Feeling tired, and still having a long, long way to go wasn't good.  At times I was emotionally raw.  A text at a certain point, or a certain thought, would give me goosebumps and a big lump in my throat.  Running this far seems to strip you down to your bare self.  It was a comforting feeling to reach the third aid station.

19.5 miles to 25.5 miles: Keep those feet moving
I was running with pain now, but I knew that I only had 3 or so hours to go.  Whatever happened at this point, the vast majority of it all, the training, the pre-race prep and 20 miles had been run.  It would, relatively speaking, be over soon.  I remember quite vividly getting to 23 miles, and realising that I was gonna be able to do it.  I also knew that when I'd got to the last aid station at 25.5 miles, that I'd run a marathon, that I could switch on the GPS to track every mile from then on.  Furthermore, I had boxes of chocolate-covered espresso beans to eat to give me a boost.  When the volunteer at the last aid station told me there were 5.5 miles to go, that didn't sound like much at all.

25.5 miles to 31 miles: Knowing I was safe, knowing I would get to the end

I now knew I was going to finish.  My GPS was now telling me when every single half mile was covered, and I was counting down the miles.  Some of the most ridiculous conditions were near the end!  After running for 28 miles straight, the last thing you want is inches of thick mud.  But there I was, barely able to stand at points, let alone run!  It pays dividends to have a sense of humour at times like this;  I'd called my grand challenge 'Running 1000 miles in 2011'.  I wonder how you'd describe the way I was now moving?  More like 'Hobbling like a crazy fool in 2011'.

'It's often said that if you want the biggest cheer in a marathon, finish last.' - anon

Well guess what.....with 15 non-finishers, 30-40 non-starters, I finished 212th out of 212!  I ran the last part of the race with one of the backmarkers, who told me he was training for the Western States 100, a 100 mile race in the states!  He'd also set the Guiness World Record at last year's London Marathon, for the fastest cartoon character to run a marathon!

Next race..........Sunday 6th March 2011.........
.........Lancaster Trimpell 20 miler.....www.justgiving.com/runclimbmather