But I can't help myself, I need to tell you about this one. An Ultra-marathon! 40 Miles!
Yes, I'm a little excited about it. So, here's how it started. When I ran the Edinburgh marathon, I met up with Chan, who ran her first. She did it faster than me, but we finished together (there was a staggered start). I'll lay money on us both having a slight competitive spirit that got us both to the end faster than we'd have achieved if we hadn't have spotted each other. But that's another story. Anyway, having noted that I'm an easy mark, very suggestible and slightly insane, she approached me when she needed help getting together a team.
Having a team of six was a necessary requirement to enter the Keswick to Barrow 40 mile event. I say event because it's open for walkers and runners. I thought I'd see how I did, but it turned out you had to say if you were going to run. I pulled in a couple of other likely suspects - Running Dave and moustachioed Chris - and Chris agreed to run with me, but everyone else in our team said they were going to walk. I thought about it, really I did, but the thing was - I didn't see how I could walk it in less than 12 hours, and probably more... and that's a long time to be on your feet! So I figured I could knock up to 4 hours off if I ran. Even, really really slowly. So that's what I decided to do.
It all tied in anyway. Another thing you missed - it was my 40th birthday just recently. So, 40 years, 40 miles. It all seemed to make sense.
I didn't really know much about training for an Ultra, but I have a friend who's run the Marathon de Sables, so I asked for his advice. He said, the important thing about training is to go out all day, doesn't matter if you run all day or not, just run and walk, but keep on your feet. He also said that the race was in the mind - you had to believe you could do it. After the first 20 miles, you've spent your physical strength, it's all about your belief in yourself that will get you over the finish-line.
So in training, I ran 24 miles around Rutland Water. I went with moustachioed Chris, and running Dave set off ahead of us, only he transformed to walking Dave, because he was practising walking. We figured we'd catch him up. We didn't. He walked 24 miles in 5 hours, which was the same time I ran it in. This made me very nervous that he'd actually beat me, walking. Also, by the end of that, my pelvis was bloody killing. I brought some peanut-butter and jam sandwiches for energy, and I ate them at some point, and they SAT on my stomach and made me feel uncomfortable. They were not the endurance running food I thought. After we'd finished, though, I sat and drank tea for 15 minutes, and did some stretches. Weirdly, I felt a lot better after the break than I had for the previous hour. But it wasn't the time to be running again!
After that, I ran around Ashdown Forest, which is a beautiful place to, er, get slightly lost in. And I ran around Castor Hanglands and Southey Woods. I couldn't get rid of the feeling that 18, 19 miles was really not comfortable. That forty miles sounded like a lot. That I really didn't know if I could do it or not. And that, like an idiot, I'd not planned work very well, and had a meeting in Norfolk the day before.
The last run I did was 18 miles round Castor. I walked quite a bit because it was a lovely day, and because I felt like it. I set off at 6:30 to help get used to the getting up early thing (The race started at 5:30). I planned to get back home before 10 because I was going to do 13 miles. But then I ended up doing 18, and taking 5 hours. I changed my goal to being a long time on my feet. My pelvis started to really hurt again before I got back. And I realised I didn't know what to eat, because it really wasn't going to be sandwiches... There was only one thing for it. I emailed Sal.
She recommended a can of cold spaghetti, or pastries. I packed bananas, flapjacks, spaghetti, kendal mint cake, and energy gels. I took 5 in my bottle, and put another heap in the spare bag. I picked up some croissant on the way up to Penrith. I had no idea if I'd be able to eat that stuff. I got told off by Sal for not trialling it first. All I knew is that I couldn't eat peanut butter sandwiches, and my pelvis was hurting on long runs.
Oh, and my ankle was hurting on short runs. The GP said it was tenosynovitis, which is a form of RSI (something I also get in my wrist). I asked the GP if I shouldn't do the ultra (hopefully), but he said no, I should be fine. I should use voltarol gel on the ankle if it started hurting, and if necessary on events, take ibuprofen, but be sure to always take it on a full stomach and with plenty of water.
So basically, mostly what was going through my mind the week before was, I literally don't know if I can do this.
And that made it really exciting.
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