A couple of weeks ago I ran the Evesham Ultra. I wasn’t
meant to. I mean, it wasn’t part of my plans this year.
My plan for this year was thus:
1)
Tackle the Oldham Way – this is my own Ultra-in-the-making.
It was to be my first step up from 50k to 40 miles with plans already made to
run it on June 22nd with a band of merry men;
2)
The main event of the summer was to be the
Lakeland 50 at the end of July; my first step up from 40 miles to 50 miles!
3)
Then finally, I’d finish the year with High Peak
40. That, I thought, would do me for this year… 100k and
100 mile-races can wait until next year!
The spanner in the works came when I went to enter Lakeland
50 only to find that it had sold out! I didn’t think ultrarunning was so
popular! So what should I do? I looked around for an alternative event of a
similar distance at around the same time, but nothing was fitting the bill. I
then came across the Evesham Ultra, which I’d heard a friend on Twitter, Matt
(m8dkn), was doing. Great, I thought. 45 miles was a similar distance and it
seemed to have plenty of hills. It was an opportunity to check out The
Cotswolds and an opportunity to run with Matt too. The only problem was it was
in April – 3 months earlier than I was training for!!
Bugger it, I entered. Then injuries struck. First Matt, who
has suffered a lot with an Achilles problem, had to pull out. Then just as I
thought I was doing OK, I picked up a calf problem, which lingered for a few
weeks, but I recovered in time to run Blackpool Half at the beginning of April.
I then went on a short holiday with little opportunity to run (Rowena was
training on the Ironman course in Mallorca and I was entertaining my son, so I
could only manage a couple of short runs). When I got back it was only a week
until the race.
So how was it? Hard! I had a pacing strategy, but as always
I set off a bit too quick. Then I realised that I would have to continue that
early pace and keep up with the leaders otherwise I’d get lost. The reason for this is that it soon became apparent that some arsehole(s) had been messing with the way
markers, so everybody started getting lost. Luckily a few runners had the route
programmed into their GPS watches and so they soon became everyone’s best
friend.
Thankfully after the first 5 or 10 miles it stopped being an issue and
not long after I started to feel pretty good. It didn’t last long though. By
around mile 18, having already done 3 or 4 big hills, I started to feel tired.
Tired legs mainly. My quads especially could no longer cope with the downhill running
and so I had to slow considerably. As for the up hills, I had to start walking
more and more. No shame in that – those around me were doing the same. It’s a
long way and you need to save your strength, but I was really feeling it.
I struggled on for a long time. I kept waiting to find my
second wind, but it didn’t come until around 15 miles later with 10 to 15 miles
to go, when I started feeling strong again. I finished the race battling it out
with the first two ladies. Towards the end, the leading lady got me out of a
few binds as I went the wrong way and got shouted back. I was then running
alongside her and fell down a rabbit hole. Smooth!
I finished in 18th place, which was a top half
finish and I was pleased with my time of 8:45.
Approaching the finishing line back in Evesham having done a 45-mile circuit of the Cotswolds |
My highlights
1)
Early in the race I stopped to water the hedge and two stags came darting out of the bushes at high speed. They were massive
powerful creatures and came very close to where I was standing (could have been
messy!). An amazing sight!
2)
Meeting, chatting with different people. The
good thing about doing a race on your own is you do mingle, which I enjoyed
3)
The Cotswolds. Very pretty. For me they lack the
rugged awesomeness of The Lakes and The Peaks, but they were still very
beautiful and I can’t think of a better way to see an area of outstanding
beauty!
What did I learn?
Actually, quite a lot!
1)
My pacing was good. I had a plan A (aspirational
target) and a plan B (realistic target) and this worked well for me
2)
Fuel – I experimented with more savoury food.
Taking my inspiration from Scott Durek’s new book Eat and Run, I made tortilla
wraps with houmous and chopped olives and they went down a treat. Sweet stuff
like flapjacks are always available at CPs, so no need to worry too much about
them
3)
Hydration – again, I experimented. I took the
bladder out of my Camelbak and took two small 250ml grip bottles instead. I
usually had one in my hand and I filled them both up at CPs.
4)
I hadn’t trained enough. I need to do more
back-to-back long runs
I’m also thinking about looking into training using a heart
rate monitor, but I need to do my research on that one.
So, it’s back to my own project, the Oldham Ultra, now. Starting yesterday afternoon and continuing
this morning, I completed a full circuit of The Oldham Way in the same 24hr
period - 44.16 miles of running in total across the two runs & 4,648 ft of
that was vertical climbing!
I’m also off to Mallorca again this week to support Rowena with
her Half Ironman quest on Sat 11th May. You can follow the action on twitter where I'll be providing updates using the hashtag: #IronRo
Then we’ll be travelling for a week in the mountain range
that runs across the north of the island – the Serra De Tramuntana - spectacular trail running having tasted it last month. Can’t wait!
Thanks for reading.