Where has the time gone? I’ve been really rubbish at keeping up to date on this blog this year. I was definitely more diligent with last year’s blog (http://12marathonsin12months.blogspot.co.uk/). I guess I could use the excuse that I’m writing two blogs this year. My other blog: http://ckchannelrow.blogspot.co.uk/ , is all about my training for a cross Channel row, which should take place this coming weekend if the weather is kind. I’m doing this with seven of my kettlebell clients and we have been in training since April.
So what have I been up to since my last entry in July?
Throughout July I only managed a few long runs of up to about 14 miles. August seemed to suddenly arrive from nowhere and my next running challenge was to be the 90 mile Thames Path Ultra starting on 21st September. As I was due to be on a two week holiday in August, with no idea of how much running I’d get done whilst away, time suddenly seemed to be slipping away. I had also planned to see the women’s Olympic marathon on Sunday 5 August and the men’s the following week.
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| Watching the men's olympic marathon with friends |
As I train with the Channel crew on a Saturday morning it meant all long runs would have to be squeezed in to some other time in the week for a couple of weeks. I managed a 14.5 mile run on Friday 3 August, and then 15.5 miles on Thursday 9 August. The following weekend we were at a barbecue at a friend’s house in Longstanton on the Saturday. I was able to drive and get a lift home. This provided the opportunity for an 18 mile run on a different route to normal as a means to collect the car the next day. We must have had the hottest weekend of the year that weekend, and I had chosen to run along the guided busway for the last 4 miles of my run. The footpath alongside the busway is wide and with no shade at all. Heat was being thrown up from the tarmac surface making the air temperature evening hotter. By the time I arrived at my friend’s house on Sunday morning I was dripping head to toe in sweat. Her toddler son stood in the kitchen starring up at me whilst I downed a couple of pints of water and dripped sweat onto the kitchen floor. I don’t think he quite believed that I was the same person who was chasing him around the garden the day before.
The following week we were off to Chamonix for a fortnight’s holiday. Our holiday in Chamonix would coincide with the running of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc race (UTMB). This is a race that I very much want to do at some point. Ruth had booked our holiday not knowing that the race was going on whilst we were there. There are actually four races that take place over several days. The UTMB is the classic 168km race that circumnavigates Mont Blanc starting and finishing in Chamonix and going into Italy and Switzerland Italy , goes through Champex in Switzerland and finishes at Chamonix , hence the name CCC. The TDS is a 112km trail race that also starts in Courmayeur but goes in the opposite direction to the CCC and on a more challenging route than the UTMB. TDS stands for Traces Des Ducs De Savoie. The 112kms includes a total ascent of 7150m, the CCC climbs a total of 5950m and the UTMB 9600m. It’s the climbs that make these races really, really tough. 60% of starters do not finish. If you think that these sound tough then the fourth race, the PTL, is totally mad. PTL stands for Petite Trotte a Leon
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| Start of the UTMB in Chamonix |
I’m hoping to be able to run the CCC next year and the UTMB the following year. However, to enter you first need to get points from other ultra races. I now have enough points for the CCC. Next year I need to do a long ultra run to get an additional 3 points in order to apply for the UTMB in December 2013. Unfortunately, the race is also over subscribed each year so getting the points does not guarantee getting a place.
I knew of someone who would be taking part in the TDS race. Neil Thubron the race director at Extreme Energy (www.xnrg.co.uk) who organised the Isle Of Wight run I did in July, the Thames Path race last weekend and an event I’ll be doing in November with them. Neil had sent out a general email to all his clients saying he’d be in a particular bar on the Sunday after the TDS if anyone happened to be in Chamonix , so I knew he’d be in town at some point. I actually bumped into him and his wife, Anna, whilst I was out for a 9 mile run one morning. I ran a short way with them both and wished Neil luck and said I’d see him in the bar after his race. However, Ruth and I then both bumped into both of them again that evening and had a drink with them.
The TDS started the next morning, just as the weather changed from glorious to damn right miserable. As it wasn’t going to be a day for walking in the mountains Ruth and I decided we’d look into getting to a checkpoint on the TDS route to see if we could see Neil on his run. We managed to get a bus to the 60km point of the race, where we once again bumped into Anna. At least we then knew that Neil hadn’t passed already. Less than an hour later we saw Neil approaching and ran with him briefly just as the weather changed from ok to awful. Neil was looking pretty good considering he’d just run 60km. He had a further 52km ahead of him, which he would mostly be doing through the night. We got back on the bus for the 3 hour journey back to Chamonix .
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| Neil at the half way point of the TDS chatting to Ruth |
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| Moments later and the weather changed for the worse. Neil's wife, Anna, is under the umbrella |
In all the UTMB races the vast majority of runners use walking sticks to help with the climbs and to steady themselves on descents. As I’d never tried running with sticks before I thought I’d give it a go so I’d know what to expect if I do get a place in the CCC next year. So I borrowed Ruth’s walking sticks and went off for a 16 mile run in the Alps . On my run I managed to climb a total of just over 1000m and the 16 miles took just over 2.5 hours. The next day my legs were wrecked. Still, it was a fun run and I really enjoyed hurtling down the mountain paths and using the sticks to help with climbs. I didn’t manage any more runs in Chamonix after that, just lots of walking. Amazingly the weather improved as soon as all the races were over and we had lots of sunshine for the rest of our holiday.
We were back in Cambridge Roman Road
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| Proof that we did have good weather in Chamonix |
So I am now almost up to date. The weekend of 21 to 23 September I took part in the Extreme Energy Toad Challenge or Thames Path Ultra. This was just my third running event of the year, which seems remarkable compared to the 16 marathons I ran last year. As my run didn’t start until 12.30pm on Friday, I travelled down from Cambridge Oxford
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| Day 1 start - The overall winner, Justin, is No.50 |
The first checkpoint was at the 9 mile point in the picturesque town of Abingdon Thames to reach the checkpoint. I passed a large number of runners from the earlier group at this point. Whilst they stopped to take refreshments at the checkpoint I ran straight on through. In my head I had told myself that today’s stage was JUST a marathon and, therefore, I didn’t need food at every checkpoint. This was probably a mistake.
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| Checkpoint 2 - a brief stop for food |
I carried on running well to the second checkpoint at mile 15 and had a little bite to eat. Most of the run on day 1 was on narrow muddy tracks close to the waters edge. It was very similar to a run I occasionally do from Cambridge Thames path went under the bridge. Lots of people made the same mistake, but I don’t think anyone went too far out of their way. I reached the next checkpoint at mile 21 starting to feel knackered, which isn’t good on the first day of a three day run. I stopped to have some food and was soon joined by Luke, who by rights should have been ahead of me. He reckoned he’d gone about 10 minutes off route. He seemed keen to make up for lost time and continued through the checkpoint without hardly stopping. I continued at my own pace.
I started to flag on the last 3 miles. However, I passed Luke who was obviously suffering more than I was. As I made seemingly slow progress over the last 2 miles I kept expecting Luke to catch up with me, but he never did. I crossed the finish line in 3 hours 32 minutes. I had predicted it would take me about 3.5 hours, so I was happy with the time. Luke crossed the line 4 minutes after me, the 4th runner (Ken) was just 6 minutes back and 5th (Ian) 8 minutes after me, closer than I was expecting. The next runner arrived 17 minutes after me. The first lady (Michelle) was the 7th person to finish the stage, 21 minutes after me. The remaining 50 or so runners would continue to arrive over the next 3 hours. Justin had a massive lead of 15 minutes over me going into the second day. I was extremely pleased to be in second place overall and I wondered if I could hold on to it. There was clearly no competition for first place, but second and third could end up going to any one out of me, Luke, Ken and Ian.
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| Stage 1 winner, Justin Montague, and race organiser, Neil Thubron |
Accommodation on the Friday night was in the sports hall of Moulsford School. The dinner ladies cooked us a great evening meal. I rather enjoyed having dinner in a school dinning room and chatting to other runners. The school dinner was definitely better than the ones I remember having when I was at school. I’m sure Jamie Oliver would have approved. The school itself is also very well appointed, right by the Thames with great views of the surrounding countryside. The first floor balcony at the front of the sports hall made it almost feel like an African hunting lodge.
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| Stage 1 finish at Moulsford School |
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| Friday night accommodation |
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| Runners relaxing on the balcony overlooking the Thames |
That night I didn’t sleep a wink. I don’t know why not, I certainly felt tired enough and although there were a few snorers they weren’t that loud. Talking to other runners it seemed that everyone had been as restless as me. The lights to the sports hall were turned on at 6am to wake anyone fortunate enough to have slept. The walkers then had an hour to get themselves ready for their departure at 7am.
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| 7am group of runners/walkers have their daily briefing |
Being in the faster group of runners meant I had plenty of time to get ready. So I lay in my sleeping bag listening to the commotion around me, and then got up to watch the walkers leave. I then had a leisurely breakfast with a group of other runners and watched the 8am group depart. I then had an hour to pack my bag, which was more than enough time, before us fast runners set off at 9am.
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| The 8am group get ready to leave |
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| 9am group ready for the off. Justin (50), Ian to my (47) right and Ken (69) to my left. 1st lady, Michelle, behind Ken. Luke far right. |
The route on day 1 was far more rural than day 2, staying close to the Thames on the border of farmers’ fields. On the second day we passed through a number of villages and towns where the route of the footpath moved away from the river, making it easier to go wrong. Fortunately, there were enough Thames path signs and Neil had also put out some XNRG arrows to also mark the route. But it was still possible to miss a few of these.
The sun shone all day on the Saturday making places like Henley seem particularly lovely. I was with Ken and Ian as we ran through Henley , and we almost went wrong. We hadn’t realised we needed to cross the main town bridge to run on the other side of the Thames . We stayed on the same side of the river but soon suspected that we might be going the wrong way. We asked about 6 people if they knew which side of the river was the Thames path, but everyone seemed to be visiting for the day. An ice cream seller put us back on course, and I’d guess we’d only wasted about 5 or 6 minutes.
From Henley we still had about 10 miles to go to the finish. Ian, Ken and I stayed pretty close to each other for the rest of the day. Sometimes we’d be running side by side, sometimes we were in a long line with maybe 100m separating each other, and the person at the front would constantly change as we each took a short walk break. I tried to keep my walking restricted to any significant inclines, which pretty much meant the ramps up to any bridges, as hills are very rare alongside the Thames . Ian would take a short walk break almost every 2km, and then run fast to catch up with myself and Ken, a strategy that wouldn’t work for me. Ken would stop and walk about mid way between checkpoints to have something to eat, but would then catch up again.
Approaching the 26.2 mile mark I had told myself I would have a short walk whatever happened as a way of ‘celebrating’ reaching marathon distance. Just as I stopped to walk Ian caught up with me and decided to walk with me. Shortly after Ken caught up with the two of us and thought about running on, but he stopped and said, “F**k it, if you two are walking then so am I”. We only walked a couple of minutes together and then ran as a group to the next checkpoint, which was only about a mile away. We stayed very close over the next 3 miles towards the finish in Marlow.
With about 3 miles to go Ken seemed to speed up. I tried to stay at a consistent pace, but also found myself increasing my speed slightly. The path on the approach to Marlow was busy with walkers out enjoying a sunny Autumn Saturday. I think this helped me keep my pace high towards the finish. Coming into the town we passed a statue of Sir Steve Redgrave, which looked nothing like him from a distance. We weaved through the town to finish outside the school that would provide our Saturday night accommodation. Ken had finished 1 minute ahead of me, and Ian came in 1 minute later. Once again Justin finished well ahead of everyone else, 15 minutes ahead of Ken. Runners kept on arriving over the next few hours. The benefit of being a slower runner was that you’d get a louder cheer at the finish as more and more people were on hand at the finish line. A while after I’d finished I met up with Luke. He had to pull out at one of the checkpoints as he had too much pain in one leg to run. He wasn’t going to hang around with an injury, so he wished me luck and we said our goodbyes.
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| Having tea and cake at the finish of day 2. |
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| Michelle finishes with an entourage |
The 33 miles on day 2 took me a total of 4 hours 38 minutes. As it was early afternoon and the sun was shining I decided to have a walk around town. I was joined by Michelle, the first female runner. We had a very pleasant walk and chat, and then found a nice little café to have a big portion of tuna salad. I was walking around thinking of burgers, but a tuna salad packed with vegetables and new potatoes seemed a more sensible choice as recovery food.
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| Saying "hi" to Sir Steve Redgrave |
In the evening we were treated to another school dinner and a talk about the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc from Neil. Afterwards I was sure I’d have a good nights sleep, but still only managed to get about two hours complete sleep. I woke the next day feeling tired, but knew all would be well once I started running.
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| The "elite" group get ready for day 3. Top 6 men at the front from L to R - Justin (1st), Ian (4th), Ken (2nd), Me (3rd), Hammish (5th), Jeremy (6th). Michelle just behind me was 1st lady and 7th overall. |
The starting times on Sunday were the same as the previous day, and the distance would be roughly the same. The route would also get more urban as we got closer to London
There were two outstanding landmarks on the third day of running. The first was Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s railway bridge at Maidenhead. This appeals to the old civil engineering nerd in me. It might not look so unusual today, but it was the first brick arch bridge to be built with a low parabolic arch over such a long span. Engineers at the time scoffed at the design and said it wouldn’t be able to support its own weight let alone the weight of trains going over the top. Brunel proved them wrong and it is still being used as a railway bridge over 150 years later.
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| Isambard Kingdom Brunel's bridge at Maidenhead |
Without any doubt the most impressive view of the day was of the approach into Windsor Windsor
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| View of Windsor Castle from the west along the Thames |
We still had about 15 miles to go from Windsor
Soon after my little pep talk to myself I caught up with Ian again and we ran together for the rest of the day. As the route came increasingly more urban and occasionally deviated away from the river it became easier to make a wrong turn, which we did on a couple of occasions, but we never strayed too far from the course.
As we approached the finish in Walton on Thames it was pouring with rain and we were soaked and getting cold. The final approach to the finish was along a gravel track that had practically turned into a stream. At first I tried to dodge any puddles, but I quickly gave this up as futile and splashed my way through puddles that were a good two inches deep over the last quarter of a mile. I arrived at the finish HQ and gave a loud cheer as I crossed the finish line.
It wasn’t until I was indoors that I realised just how wet and cold I’d become. I couldn’t get my fingers to move to undo my shoe laces. Fortunately, there were plenty of willing volunteers to help me. The first priority was to shower and get on some warm clothes. I met Ken in the changing room. He finished 10 minutes ahead of me, which meant he had overtaken me for second place overall by 5 minutes. I was more than happy to come home with a trophy for third place.
Once showered and dressed I sat around with several other runners having tea, coffee and plenty of cake. Several people complimented me on my running form, including Justin, the overall winner. It’s not something I necessarily think about but the others all said that out of all of them my running form looked just as efficient at the end of the run as it did at the start. I can only put this down to having a rock solid core, which is vindication for all the kettlebell training I do. I tried to convince them that they had to try kettlebells, but most said they were too lazy. How ironic is that? A group of people who had just run 92 miles in 3 days felt they were too lazy to add another exercise regime to their repertoire.
Once refreshed I decided it was time to make a move for home. It would have been nice to hang around to witness everyone finish, but that could take hours. I needed to get a train back to London , get some food on route and then get back to Ruth in Cambridge
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