The Druids' Challenge - Day Three

My previous blog entry left me, at the end of day two, safely tucked up in bed. What I hadn't mentioned was that I was also safely tucked up with a very sore right foot. I wasn't sure if it was my trainers, my calf guards or maybe the fact I'd run 56 miles over the previous two days, but for some reason the top of my right foot was quite painful and causing me some concern...

Anyway Day Three started in much the same fashion as Day Two except that muesli replaced porridge. today would also start with a minibus ride, although at least we weren't going to then be asked to walk up a hill just so we could run back down again. Today, we were assured, was definitely less muddy. It would also see the end of the rain and allow us to finish with glorious blue skies and sunshine, which always helps.

My plan right from the start was simply to get through Day Three. Day Three was as step into the unknown. I'd done two day ultras - ok I'd done a two day ultra - but three days was definitely new territory and I was expecting it to be tough. My foot had recovered a bit overnight but I still decided that the sensible move would be to start near the back and see how things unfolded - following Rory's suggestion from the previous night was definitely not going to happen, run all 28 miles? Not a hope.

As today was Remembrance Sunday we held a minutes silence before setting off - another one of the details of the weekend that XNRG got absolutely right. As I started to shuffle forwards my quads hurt, my knees hurt - to save time just assume that every muscle, joint and tendon from and including my hips downwards, hurt. However after the first mile or two things started to loosen up and actually running didn't feel too bad - or possibly my body had realised pain signals were going to be ignored and had given up. Someone once said the secret to ultra-running is to listen to your body - and ignore it.

After a couple of miles not only were my legs moving, I was overtaking people! What many people don't realise is that the brain and the muscles both rely on the same energy source, i.e. glucose. As a result brain function can be significantly impaired by excessive exercise - at least that's my excuse. I was running with only quite a lot of pain and I was overtaking people, so why not try and keep running? No walking, not even up hills, until the first checkpoint. A combination of blue skies and a lack of glucose to my brain got me to said checkpoint and even after refuelling with some of the excellent goodies available there my brain still decided we were going to continue to run, at least until half way. Half way wasn't far before checkpoint 2 so I decided to keep running at least until there. I had also by this point had my first (and only) 'proper' encounter with Ridgeway mud and was a uniform light brown colour from the knees downwards...

Checkpoint 2 was followed by the least pleasant part of the whole event in terms of a location to run. This was in no way the fault of XNRG but unfortunately the next mile of the Ridgeway followed a fairly main road, however excellent instructions and marshalling allowed us to negotiate it in safety and be rewarded by a return to proper cross country running - up a slope of not insignificant gradient and duration. By now I had 20 miles in my mind as the next point to keep running until, so run up it I did. A pattern was starting to develop, on each uphill stretch my dogged insistence on running meant I overtook three or four runners that chose to walk up - all of whom then instantly overtook me as soon as we started to descend again as my legs wouldn't allow me to run downhill any  quicker than I was running up.

By checkpoint 3 I had run over 22 miles and was going to run at least to 26.2 miles, marathon distance. This was only made possible by the fact that, as on previous days, checkpoint 3 had cocktail sausages. I suspect I could run the MdS perfectly happily on a diet of freeze dried apple pie and cocktail sausages.

The next section was predominantly up but undulated enough that the 'overtake on the ups/get overtaken on the downs' pattern continued. At one point one of the elite runners congratulated me on my efforts in running up the hills whilst politely refraining from pointing out that he was actually going faster than me whilst walking. This might be a good point to mention just how encouraging the elite runners had been every day. On day 2 one of them, unfortunately I'm not sure who, even took the trouble to read my name off my number on my back and shout an encouraging 'Good work Colin!' as he passed me. Ultra runners may be a bit strange to the rest of the world but they are strange in a good way.

As I left the Ridgeway at about marathon distance the sting in the tail of this event revealed itself. Contrary to what  non-runners may believe, downhill can be much harder than up, especially a 1 in 3 downhill, on tarmac after some 82 miles of running. not surprisingly the usual suspects overtook me as I staggered down the hill. Eventually, well after only about half a mile but it felt much longer, the slope flattened out a little and I decided as this was it, the last couple of miles, I would give it all I had to the finish, it wasn't a lot if I'm honest but its the thought that counts, right?

As I came into the last half mile the road climbed again, not much nor for very long but it was enough for me to overtake those that I'd been swapping places with. This, along with my decision to completely ignore my body and run as fast as I could to the end, gave me the impetus to finish actually quite quickly and strongly. OK, it probably wasn't very quick or strong but I'd just run the full 28 miles of day 3, finished my second ultra and I felt great. Neil shook my hand and gave me my medal - fortunately he doesn't model himself on Patrick Bauer (the MdS race director) and so didn't feel the need to kiss me as well.

Very close behind me were the guys I'd been battling with up and down hill, and soon after those finished Sarah, my running partner for the end of day one and the start of day two.

So what had I learned from my second ultra? Well I'm pretty sure I'm a lot fitter than I was before the start of my first ultra, probably due in no small part to my Fuerteventura training trip. I learned that I can run a lot harder than I ever suspected, I would never have believed I would run all of day 3 before I did it. I should have pushed harder on day 2, on reflection I walked far more than I ever needed to that day. Overall I've gained more confidence and learned more in preparation for the MdS 2014.

However the final words are for XRNG. On the MdS, calorie deficit is going to be a fact of life. Unless I take a rucksack the size of a shopping trolley I won't have enough food to replace all the calories I'll consume. On an XNRG event there is no need for calorie deficit, in fact it is probably possible to put on weight during an event.  XRNG really do live up to their promise to look after you from the minute you arrive to the minute you leave. if you enter one of their events all you have to do is run. That's all you have to do but if you don't find yourself smiling as well I'd be very surprised. Thanks to Neil and all the XNRG team, volunteers and support crew - see you at the Pilgrims' Challenge!

The Druids' Challenge - Day Two

Day two of the Druids' Challenge started quite differently from Day One. For one thing I was already at the start and so didn't have a long train journey on which to ponder deep existential questions. It also started with breakfast, which was porridge and toast - a great improvement on the improvised cereal bar 'breakfast' I had eaten between Chelmsford and Tring on day one. 

Another difference was that there would be no minibus trip to the start - this was possibly a good thing as XRNG apparently didn't have a lot of luck with minibuses that weekend, although this never appeared to cause any issues to those of us running. Sarah and me had decided to start together and see how it went - each of us convinced the other was faster. Neil pointed out that the sun was shining at the start - and then pointed out the large black cloud blowing in from the west, more of the same as yesterday was the weather forecast. He also told us there would be less mud. I'm not saying he was wrong but personally the difference between 'a hell of a lot' and just 'a lot' is lost on me so I couldn't honestly say I found the underfoot conditions any better on day two than on day one.

Anyway we retraced our steps for a little over a mile until we were back on the Ridgeway proper. Today's route was relatively flat for quite a long section as we would be following the Thames for around 6 miles of the days running. We would also run across a golf course and through a churchyard - both institutions were less than 5000 years old and could therefore have no complaints about us crossing 'their' land and to be fair neither did.

Long before I got the Thames I started to have some major chafing issues. If I didn't sort them out then it was fairly certain that I would be doing the 'John Wayne' run before very long. I had gone through the first checkpoint oblivious to the impending irritations and mentioned to Sarah that I would have to try and get some Vaseline at checkpoint 2. She told me that not only did she have Vaseline but she was happy for me to have some regardless of where I was going to put it. My discomfort significantly reduced we continued on.

I was becoming aware that, reduced chafing levels regardless, Sarah was in much better shape than me and once we got onto the flatter section by the Thames she started to pull away from me. I caught up with her briefly at checkpoint 2 but the attraction of the sausage rolls was such that I spent nearly 5 minutes stuffing my face by which time she was long gone.

Refuelled I carried on until I crossed the Thames and and turned away from the river and eventually back to the chalk (and mud) pathway that characterises much of the Ridgeway. I spent slightly less time at checkpoint 3 than I had at 2 but only because I filled my pockets with cocktail sausages to eat on the way to the finish rather than simply stopping and eating. Day 2 took me 5 hours and 25 minutes for 27 miles, a slower average pace than the first day, which was slightly disappointing but not unexpected - especially given the high level of consumption of sausage based products at the checkpoints.

Today's finish was actually on the Ridgeway and a minibus took us to our overnight halt at Wantage Leisure centre. Having learned from the first night I got my wet kit over a five-aside football goal to dry and grabbed a gym mat as soon as I arrived. Tonight we would be fed baked potato with chili and again apple pie was my pudding of choice. If anyone knows of a supplier of freeze dried apple pie please let me know as I'm convinced it would be perfect fuel for the MdS.

Saturday night was also the night we were to be entertained by a couple of speakers on the subject of the MdS. The first was Joey Sharma who entertained us with the story of her MdS, completed in the company of Cedric the Blister. The second was 10 times MdS finisher Rory Coleman. Apart from emphasising the importance of intervals and hills, and not being fat, Rory made the ludicrous suggestion that we should 'have a go' on the final day and stop walking up the hills. My plan was simply to complete day 3 and not to countenance anything as foolish as that which was being suggested...

I understand there may have been a party afterwards but after being up at ten to six, running 27 miles and having it all to do again the next day I retired to bed to rest ready for the final day of the 2013 Druids' Challenge...

The Druids' Challenge - Day One

'What am I doing here?' This is the sort of existential question many people have posed themselves, from Aristotle to Bez from the Happy Mondays - although to be more accurate the latter is probably more likely to ask 'How the f*** did I get here?' Anyway its not the sort of question one should be asking oneself while sat on a train on the way to the start of ones second ever ultra marathon - a 3 day, 84 mile epic along the Ridgeway National Trail - The Druids' Challenge. I was nervous to say the least, my first ultra had been a fantastic local event, it was my first time and its first time as well, it was over two days, it was flat. This was a well established (its fifth year), 3 day epic over hills and mud (a lot of mud, I was to discover). It was a long way from my home, it started near Tring - all I knew about Tring came from a leaflet I once picked up at a beer festival and all I could remember from that was that a beer called 'Side Pocket for a Toad' was brewed there, or perhaps that was somewhere else... Oh and I'd be racing (among others) Danny Kendal, the highest placed Briton ever in the MdS. However this fazed me less since in September I had raced a double Olympic champion in the Great North Run so I was used to losing to great athletes.

Anyway as I'd only bought a single I decided against turning round and going home and got into a minibus at Tring station that dropped me at a barn on a farmyard where a lovely lady gave me a number and some safety pins and explained my name was only highlighted in yellow because I was in the 2014 MdS and not because they thought I had the plague.

The changing facilities seemed to be 'find a quiet corner in the barn' so I did and was relieved to find that actually once changed my impersonation of an ultra runner looked quite good, I was blending in nicely. I found a couple of my fellow MdS competitors and was immediately concerned to find one was running with his full MdS pack. I had my MdS pack but it was kind of on the empty side... Anyway at about 10:30 Neil Thubron, the driving force behind XNRG, the organisers of the Druids' Challenge, gave us a combined pep talk, safety briefing and weather forecast - at which point I put on my waterproof, a good move and one I would repeat each day of the challenge. We were then driven to the bottom of Ivinghoe Beacon, where we had to walk to the top just so we could run down again. This was my first introduction to wet chalk as a running surface and my first impression was that greasing it would probably make it less slippery. So at sometime just after 11 we were counted down and sent off, down the Beacon and on our way to Watlington.

One of the 'rules' of the Saltmarsh 75 was that all competitors must occasionally look up and appreciate the countryside. I so wanted to this time too, unfortunately the countryside wanted to kill me and so I had to spend most of my time looking down into the mud and chalk and running through all the wettest, muddiest, slipperiest bits anyway. When we got onto a road and I could look round I saw Tring railway station again... In all seriousness it was a lovely route despite the rain. This was my first time running properly muddy off road and once I gained some confidence I was able to look around and enjoy the scenery. I hadn't really looked at the actual route beyond the elevation profile and so I had a surprise when I suddenly found myself in familiar territory. There is a Highland dance competition held in Wendover each year and so I have visited several of the pubs and shops (mainly pubs if I'm honest) in Wendover and was quite bemused to find myself running down its main street past said pubs and shops.

Sometime after Wendover I found myself being mesmerised by the bright pink flashes on the running tights of a runner some 100m or so in front of me. I followed them in a sort of hypnotic trance for around 20 minutes until she slowed a little and I caught up with her. We had a bit of a chat and I discovered her name was Sarah, she was also doing the 2014 MdS and she was running for Cancer Research UK! This was her first ultra and she was going well. However it was starting to get towards the end of the day and she was worried about being alone in the dark and so decided to stick with me for the rest of the day - to be fair to her she had only just met me and so could be forgiven for assuming this was a good idea and that I had any sort of sense of direction.

Sarah was primarily a road runner, something that became evident as we left the Ridgeway to go into Watlington whereupon she took off like a woman possessed - or perhaps she had just realised the foolishness of linking up with a strange man in the dark - anyway we fairly raced into the finish taking 5 hours 37 minutes for the day. My target had been under 6 hours so I was very pleased with my days work and we headed indoors to take photos of our muddy shoes.

Once I got into the school that was the overnight halt it became clear that there were those that knew the ropes and those that didn't. I didn't and so didn't get a gym mat to sleep on and had to squeeze my wet clothing between everyone else's to dry. However a shower, some pasta and apple pie (not in the same dish, although I would still have eaten it if it was) later the lack of gym mat wasn't a problem as I crawled into my sleeping bag to sleep. Neil proved just what a class outfit XRNG are when he brought round chocolates and ear plugs for everyone just before lights out. Day 1 completed, what would Day 2 bring?

What I did on my holidays

The standard first piece of school work I used to get in an English class after the summer holidays was to write an essay entitled 'What I did on my holidays'. Obviously in those days it was written in chalk on a slate, or as I got older with a quill on a piece of parchment. OK perhaps I'm not quite that ancient but certainly the idea of writing it on a computer was many years in the future. Well here I am, many years in the future, and writing that very essay on my PC.

So less of the nostalgia and more writing I think. The reason I'm writing about this particular holiday on my MdS blog is because the location was chosen to allow me to do some   running and equipment testing for the MdS. The location was Fuerteventura, Corralejo towards the north of the island to be precise. The reason for choosing this particular location was that a) it has sand dunes and b) it was cheap. There was also the possibility to run along various unmade roads, rocky trails and of course beaches.

I won't go into a detailed breakdown of every run I did as that would get a bit tedious and anyway I can't remember the details of every run. The shortest was 3 miles up and down some cliffs and along a beach, the longest a 27 mile round trip to El Cortillo and back. I also did a few runs up and down some beaches and of course across the dunes. After a while the the sight of naked men (and occasionally women) became just part of the background and not as off putting as it was on the first run I did along the beach. It may not be very PC or even very fair but years of watching Eurotrash makes me automatically assume that all men who are naked in public must be German and so I started to think of my beach runs as being signposted with bratwurst...

Anyway away from the Euro-nudists, in Corralejo main street in fact, we came across a poster advertising 'V ½ MARATON INTERNACIONAL “DUNAS DE FUERTEVENTURA” y II CARRERA 8km "EL QUINTILLO"' from which, with our mastery of the Spanish language, we deduced was a half marathon and a 8km race. Even better it was on the 2nd of November, our last full day in Fuerteventura. Obviously we were fated to enter and after some further research we popped into the local sports shop and left with an entry for the half marathon for me and 'El Quintillo' for Sharon. The day before the event we picked up numbers and t-shirts before going along to a briefing on the following days challenge. Either Spanish takes a lot longer to say anything than English or the English translation was heavily summarised, either way at least they took the trouble to translate the key points, mainly how the route was marked, where the two routes diverged and the location of the drinks stations. Many of the attendees appeared to be from a local running club, and everyone there looked quicker than me. I wasn't too bothered by this as I'd covered over 110 miles in the previous 10 days and knew that because of this, and more importantly the sand and heat, it would be my slowest ever half marathon but I was fairly happy I could beat the 3 hour cut off time and would accumulate some valuable experience on the way.

Two hours and eighteen minutes later I'd run the full length of the dunes and back again, was completely drenched in sweat, clutching my finishers shirt and, most importantly, a free glass of ice cold beer. I was utterly spent but had thoroughly enjoyed the experience, the organisation was good, the atmosphere great and the support from everyone from holiday makers to the police was fantastic. Sharon also did very well in 'El Quintillo', finishing in 49 minutes and cheering home all the half marathoners that finished before me.

So how has this advanced my MdS preparation? Well I'm completely happy with my 'stereo bottle' hydration system. Extensive comparison has left me 99% convinced that road shoes are the way forward, and that a compression top is probably better than a loose one. I also think that a suntan might be a good thing to have to reduce the chance of burning - although that may just be an excuse to go back...

All in all a successful two weeks, around 130 miles run, a couple of scuba dives fitted in and some sightseeing. I also completed my second ever International event and my first in daylight.

On Friday I have a complete change when I go to Buckinghamshire to run 84 miles in 3 days in 'The Druid Challenge', watch this space to see how I get on...