I can't believe it has been over 4 months since my last Blog post! Ouch - sorry... it's all been a bit busy!!! My last post was the end of April and things started to get busy in May so here's a quick round-up of the Summer... The Hope 24: This was a new race on my radar this year (it's only been going a couple of years) and so I wasn't sure what to expect but what I didn't expect was the absolute rollercoaster ride it provided. It is a wonderfully organised event with a proper festival feel to the campsite. As is often the way with 24 hr races, the main race ran from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, but there was a children's race at 10am on Saturday which served as Eleanor's first ever proper running race. It was 1.5 miles long, and covered a small portion of the main event's route. She loved it, she ran really well, posted a great time, had a great time and immediately wanted to come back next year to do it all again.
How about my run? Well, it is a beautifully brutal course - about 5 miles per lap with about 680 feet of ascent/descent each lap. On the whole there was very little flat ground to run, just ups and downs, either shallow or steep. My impression on the first lap was 'Oh Lord this is going to be tough!!' and it didn't disappoint. Throughout the afternoon on Saturday I was actually running better than I had expected and was ahead of my anticipated schedule. I was eating and drinking well and feeling good. Shortly before 10pm, with just under 40 miles in my legs though, something started to feel 'not quite right'. There was a long section of off-camber downhill about 3.5 miles into the loop and my left shin was starting to twinge coming down there. It's not an area I have ever suffered any niggles let alone an injury so my alarm bells rang straight away. When I got back to camp I had a change of footwear to something a little more cushioned to see if that would help, and advised Ian that I would be taking the next lap or two slowly to see how things went. Although I was able to keep running, the front of the shin tightened further and so, with 50 miles and 12 hours of running completed, I peeled back my calf guards to reveal a swollen-looking shin, and made the tough decision to pull out. And so it was Hope 12 for me rather than Hope 24. All I could hope for at that point was that there was no lingering damage as it was only 13 days until London to Brighton. I said at the time that I would probably be back to do battle with those hills again some time and, true to form, I signed up for it again for next year as soon as registration opened! London to Brighton: This was a celebration of friendship as much as a date in my running diary. We hadn't expected the weather to be quite as hot as it was (scorchio!!) or there to be quite so many uphill sections (!!!) so it was every bit the challenge it should have been. We got ourselves to Brighton in time for breakfast on Sunday then spent the rest of the day sunbathing on the beach!!! A social Ultra or Two: Despite being a very accomplished marathon runner (sub 3 hrs anyone?) Ian had never run an Ultra. 2016 was the year to change that!! In June, we were due to go and run the Malvern Midsummer Marathon with the LDWA, but due to family illnesses creating doubt over our childcare arrangements, we left it til the last minute to enter, then found that the event was full. Never mind, we had done it before so it wasn't that big a loss. Enter plan B... how about we go and run the route I previously planned for Ben Smith for his 2 local marathons in December and April, says I? Good idea, says the hubby and away we go. We were about 8 miles into the run when I broached with Ian whether or not he felt me may be able to make the run 50km, rather than 42.5? He decided to go for it, and with a couple of pub stops for lunch and afternoon 'refreshments' (OK, half a cider!!), made it to the finish back home in pretty good shape. A couple of weeks later, I found myself at the testing ground of the Beer Ultra - a concept thought up by the rather bonkers Barefoot Aleks involving 10 x 5km loops with a half pint of beer at the start of each loop and one to finish. What should have been carnage, actually resorted in being a really really fun day out - we all got slightly merry in the first few laps and then remained that way for the rest of the day! Another week, and Ian's first 'official' ultra was the Hallow 12 Parishes 40 Mile Challenge. We did the marathon distance on this one last year and enjoyed it, so it seemed logical to give the longer distance a try. Surprisingly, we both felt better this year during the latter stages (with 14 more miles in the legs) than we did last year... #defyingtheageingprocess. The Cotswold 24 However I think about this weekend, I struggle to come up with much in the way of positives. I love 24 hour races - there is something about them that evokes a trenches mentality, and the support is fab because you go past the same spectators time and time again... but this one just didn't do it for me. The RD's had brought in students to staff the event and they were frankly quite useless. Whatever you asked of them, they didn't know the answers, they were lacklustre at checkpoints (many playing on the phones rather than watching the race and some of the nightwatchmen actually fell asleep!), and they just didn't 'get' that a lot of us were out there for a whole 24 hrs. The organisation was very poor for soloists, who were camped away from the course necessitating checking out from the course to fetch food, drink or a change of clothes; there was no water point on the start/finish straight meaning we had to come off course to fill water bottles, and even the WCs were away from the course requiring 'checking out' of the race to pay a visit! After 69 miles at 4.15am I decided I had just about had enough and retired from the race. I wasn't alone, a number of other soloists camped around me did likewise. When advising the 'officials' that my race was done, I was given my medal, still in its plastic bag... not even a 'well done'. I won't be returning to this one in the future, nor any of their other events! Runstock 2016 This was a late addition to my 2016 schedule. It attracted me because both Ian and Ellie could take part as well, and it formed part of a festival-like weekend of fun. To say it exceeded expectations is an understatement! The run format was a 5km loop, with optional obstacles, both natural and man-made, with 8 hours to complete as few or as many laps as we saw fit. With Ian having stepped up to Ultra distance this year, the decision was made to prioritise his run to see if he could get hold of the special 50km medal. For my part, I was to go round with Ellie for one to one and a half laps at a time, whilst Ian did about 2 to 3 solo ones, and then we would swap over and I would get in a lap and a half solo before switching back over again, hopefully therefore not wearing Ellie out but getting as much out of the event as we all could. The result? Ian got his 50km, I managed to squeeze in 45km just before the 8 hrs and Ellie... well she did an amazing 30km! Not bad for a 7 yr old!!!! The evening entertainment on Saturday night was headlined by the Bootleg Beatles and it was a truly fabulous weekend. The event was organised by Rat Race and the slickness of the organisation sold me on their events. I have therefore bought a season pass to their events for next year and will be rising to the Challenge of some pretty extreme stuff in 2017!!! Joust 2016 I love this event. It holds a special place in my running heart. This year it fell at the end of a very busy running season and would serve as either the pinnacle of my year, or the swansong. Either way, it was getting everything I had got!! But first, it was time for mother nature to throw in her two-penneth!!! The Joust has had a lucky run with weather, albeit often a little too warm if we are going to be picky. This year proved a little different, with the heavens opening just before the start time and the course turning into something of a quagmire in places. It did dry somewhat throughout the 24 hrs, and Sunday morning was rather pleasant but I am still bemused as to where my tan lines appeared from!!! I am a very non-competitive competitor with these races - only ever going out to push myself not to race others. A lot of other ultra-runners are the same. As a consequence of which I rarely check on my positioning during a run, and if I do, it will have no bearing on my race plan - I can only go as well as I can go, there is no point burning myself out chasing another competitor who may or may not sustain the run they are currently having. As it happens,during this run, I did find out in the early hours of the morning that I was sitting in 4th place. This is about my normal position in the Joust, so I was quite pleased, as I knew that the conditions and being a bit race-weary, meant that I was a little slower than previous races up to the 50 mile point. Those early hours of the second day in a 24 hr race are always tough and this time was no better. Ian was accompanying me through the night as both my buddy runner and the third leg of a relay team and the poor chap was left in no doubt whatsoever how much I can hate myself for entering these events when the body clock is screaming for sleep! Despite all of my mutterings, however, I managed to push on through and surprised myself by coming out the other end with a total of just over 94 miles in 23hrs and 37mins. A personal best over a 24 hour race period and enough to secure a second place on the podium. A great end to my season despite discovering once the initial pain subsided at the end of the day that I appear to have incurred a stress fracture on my fifth metatarsal!!! Hey ho, that will heal in time and doesn't in any way mar the memory of another great Joust. Sadly I won't be there next year as, courtesy of Rat Race, I have a date that weekend with a mountain and a lake in Snowdonia ... eeek!!!!
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