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Thanks to all of you that read this blog over the last few years.

The webmasters over at Centurion Running have moved this blog including all old posts over to a new location. Click here for the new blog. All new posts will go straight on there and that way I don't keep having to write everything twice. Thanks for watching and please check in now and again at the new address.

James

Weekly Summary: Dec 5-11

Monday: zippo
Tuesday: 3.5 miles 0h33
Wednesday: 14.3 miles 2h27
Thursday: 14.3 miles 2h23
Friday: 14.3 miles 1h59
Saturday: zippo
Sunday: 13.1 miles 1h46
Total: 59 miles 9h09

Not sure what to make of that week really. I was convinced on Tuesday that I wasn't going to be able to run for another few days at least due to a chest infection lingering on for a couple of weeks. Then I went to see the doc and his diagnosis of asthma (??!!!) meant I could resume training straight away albeit with the aid of inhalers. I always intended for base training through December in time for the usual early season main event, Country to Capital 'if you're not there, you're nowhere'. So as per the last post, I selected my route and then put in three days of grafting. The incredible difficulty I had in breathing on Wednesday and Thursday scared me somewhat and I was left feeling like I was in trouble even running 10 minute miles on fairly moderate trails.

Anyway, Fridays effort was better and didn't feel too difficult. Saturday I rested up and Sunday I paced a friend at the Bedford Half Marathon. His aim was to run 8:20 miles for a 1h50 effort and stayed nicely on pace until the final three mile stretch where he stepped it up to 7:30s. I felt ok, easy enough to make conversation at that pace but any climb and I coughed and spluttered my way up the hill. I tried to pull him along a little bit quicker than 7s at the end and felt fine doing that. My legs were great, absolutely no grumbling whatsoever but my lungs are really a big issue. Whatever the case I am absolutely miles off where I need to be at this stage but I am ready for a lot of hard work and long slow miles on the trails over Christmas to get the base fitness I need going in to the new year and a bit more tempo/ hill stuff.

Staying fit and healthy is the number one priority and shaking this asthmatic chest is more than important.

This past week saw three of the four major US 100 mile lotteries drawn - and I was ofer three as they say over there. Hardrock had 720 applicants (some with up to 7 tickets each) for 100 places. Western States had 1960 applicants (some with up to 3 tickets each) for 273 slots. Massanutten had around 400 for 200 places. So I am on to plan B for the first 7 months of the year and I am equally excited about what I have lined up. For once I am not trying to over-reach and run a crazy early season race. The only time I built up slowly was in 2010 and I had my best season ever so that's exciting. My 'a' races are the Thames Trot 50 in Feb and then Comrades and the WHW race in June. What comes after will be down to the UTMB lottery. It will either be that or Sparta. Either way I am excited about the potential of all of those races.

Base Training

I am trying to put together a string of consistent daily training runs. My chest infection has cleared but it has left a case of pretty bad asthma behind for which I am on prednisone and two inhalers. First time I've suffered with asthma since I was a kid and it is debilitating to say the least.

I really didn't expect to be back running this soon. I called our fatass 100 off just recently because almost all of our signees dropped out but also because I figured I wouldn't be able to even get out and mark out the circa 16 mile loop. So I am delighted that for now the worst of my problems is a coughing fit every time I crest a hill....

Anyway so the loop I have set out as a daily run is a 14.3 mile excursion which takes me in an almost perfect loop out from our house. 95% of it is on trail which is at times pretty muddy but it has enough of everything to keep me honest including some small rollers but no significant climbs unfortunately. The 14ish miles has about 1200 feet of climbing, not really enough but as good as I am going to get around northern Hertfordshire.

Having seen the doc on Tuesday afternoon, he gave me the go ahead to resume training, advising me to take an inhaler on route. On Wednesday I head out for the first time in almost 2 weeks and purposefully didn't look at my watch, walked every hill and just enjoyed being out in the fresh air. I have vowed to myself that this period of base training is about time on my feet, not as much about the watch, I am just grateful to be on my feet right now. I got back to the house in 2:27, the slowest I've done that route in by over 15 minutes in 10 plus goes. Yesterday I got around in 2:23 and felt totally out of puff on the hills, to me they were un-runnable. The good news was that my legs felt great, no sign of aches, pains of muscle stiffness. Tonight I did decide to got out and push a tempo effort. I took the ventolin before I went out and ran all but one of the climbs, with only minor bouts of coughing fits. I got back to the house in a somewhat forced 1:59:53 as I blasted the last bit of track to get in under 2 hours. It's not perfect but I'll take it.

So I am looking to continue this streak. Sure it's not going to be possible to get out of the house for 2 plus hours every day but whenever I can I plan to bank the same miles and build it in consistently. Most of the sessions will be at 10 minute mile pace, walking plenty and getting everything used to being out again, trying to avoid picking up injuries. If I can throw in the odd 2 hour tempo effort I will. Incidentally 14.3 miles x 7 happens to be.... insignificant really but intriguing nonetheless.

I have been listening to the ultrarunner podcasts while I've been out each time and they are fantastic. If you get the chance to download them and take them out, do it. In particular the interviews with Sunny Blende on nutrition are massively helpful for ultrarunners of all abilities and experience. My own personal favourite is the Frank Bozanich interview but I've been over that before.....

Happy running.

PS Good luck to everyone in the WS lottery tomorrow afternoon. I am in there too....

721

That's the number of people in the Hardrock lottery today - for 104 slots. That represents (according to somebody else) a 9% of chance for those with one ticket, getting in. I need something to brighten my week as I have been totally wiped out by a chest infection which seems to be doing the rounds. It seems that when it rains it pours! When I shake it off it will be back to heavy base training until the end of the month.

The Thames Path aid station list is now up over on the website. There is also a special edition one for volunteers with more information that will go out a little nearer race date.It feels good to have the locations officially sanctioned and permitted, it is a lot of work finding the right spot at the right mileage on the course, then finding the contact details and asking them to let us use their land/ hall/ boat house all night one weekend in March - but we're just about there!

Week Ending 27th November

On the way back, very very slowly. One day at a time, one run at a time. First week back with regular running for 6 weeks or so which is good. All on trails as usual, some hills. Nice slow run with Drew on Sunday to cap it off. If I can get rid of the chest infection I might speed up a bit.

Monday: 5 miles 0:45
Tuesday: 8 miles 1:10
Wednesday: 5 miles 0:42
Thursday: 14 miles 2:10
Friday: zippo
Saturday: 8 miles 1:05
Sunday: 11 miles 1:50

Total: 51 miles 7:42

Great resource on the relative difficulty of US ultras, something close to my heart. 40 miles at Barkley ranks as hard as finishing Western States.....?

Hardrock lottery is Sunday 4th and Western States the weekend after. We hear on West Highland Way Race soon as well, I think, so 2012 might start to look a little busier in a fortnights time. Either that or it's back to the drawing board....

http://www.RealEndurance.com/FinishTimeList.php

The Unbridled Joy of Running

On Sunday I went out and jogged a few very slow miles and felt no pain at all in my shin or knee. On Monday I did the same, again nothing. I started to get excited that things were actually starting to look up after so many weeks and months of wishing away pain. Tuesday I hit the trails just as the light was fading and ran multiple mini loops on the trails immediately around the house, just in case I felt anything at all and needed to get back quickly. I covered about 8 miles and felt dreadfully out of breath but again no pain. Wednesday I ran a few miles in the evening later on and yesterday I went out on my regular 14 mile loop for the first time in ages. I've been carrying a chest infection so my lungs about fell apart and I am seriously out of shape but 2 hours and 10 minutes later I arrived back home in one piece, with no pain, not even a glimmer of tightness in my knee. There was a moment there about 12.5 miles in, running down the trail in the sunshine when I could almost physically feel the depression of not being able to run leaving my body. It will take a long time to get back to where I once was fitness wise and I might get injured again tomorrow, who knows, but for now - it's all good.

Patience

Back in January Mark Wooley wrote an epilogue to being injured, sharing with everybody a little nugget of advice which I should have heeded a long time ago. Quite simply he said if you dedicate 100% of your energy into injury recovery, listen to the healthcare experts and wait until you are completely healed you will get better much more quickly and completely. Halfway measures just prolong the injury.

As I've mentioned numerous times, I have forced myself through month after month of painful training through debilitating injuries this year. The main reason I did so was because I had committed so much time and money to certain big 2011 ultras in late 2010 - letting them all pass me by was not an option I wanted to take financially and I didn't want to find myself waiting another 5 years to get a spot at Western States. Did this end up causing longer term problems? Yes. Was it worth all the pain in the lead up to and during the race, just to finish? Yes. Most people would say it was a pretty stupid decision to race three 100 milers on chronic fractures. I would do the same over again in a heartbeat. The races were too important to me and I knew upfront I was in for a long lay off period if I could get through them. To me that was worth it. It has if anything only served to make me a stronger person psychologically. Certainly the next time I run a 100 miler fit and healthy I will be thinking, hang on you got through a harder race than this on zero running for 2 months so guess what, you'll be ok.

Subsequent to the summer I had time to let my bones heal a little and my body and mind to get some respite from the constant nagging stress of being undertrained for upcoming races. Then I crashed my bike, ran 50 miles on a bad knee the following day and set myself out for another 4 weeks. Was this a stupid decision? Absolutely, I should have waited to find out what the knee damage was. I tried coming back to training/ racing prematurely so many times this year and it's taken until now to learn properly from that.

This past 2 weeks I did absolutely nothing. I have tried to shake out the knee, shin, hamstring and any other minor niggles and wait with patience until I was 100% ready to try again. Almost a month of no running means lost fitness which eats away at you each day.

Three things I've learned this year. If you don't let your injury heal 100%, you will just exacerbate the problem - maybe not straight away but certainly in the short to medium term and you will be out for much much longer than if you wait that extra week to make sure you are 100% ready. Two, you will get your previous fitness back much quicker than you think. Knowing what it is like to be in good shape is 80% of the battle. Three, don't take for granted your being able to step out of the door and on to the road or trails for that precious few miles. There are people out there who cannot train and some who will never run again. If you are sick or have a minor niggle, don't complain about it just wait and make sure you are ok before you take it up again. Treat it as an enforced rest period. It will help re-ignite your hunger for running and cost you almost nothing in overall fitness.

Tonight's 5 mile pain free run was maybe the sweetest 5 miles I have ever logged. 5 miles!!! Last year I would have considered that borderline pointless. Baby steps right now....

What a performance from Hal Koerner this past weekend at Javelina. He executes everything he does with a level of class you rarely see nowadays. Forget the results, you get the impression he would be the same guy if he were a mid to back of the packer. Inspirational stuff. His report is here. Take a chance to look at 102 mile by mile split times....

Streaking

I always intended to have a race I went back to year after year. It is after all great to stick with an event and support it from the outset. The trouble with streaking is you never really know if that event might one year cease to exist, leaving you hanging...

Really long streaks of super hard events do exist. At the race briefing for Badwater, Chris Kostman the RD makes everybody who has finished the race stand up. He then asks who has finished twice and those with only one finish sit back down, and so on until there is only one man left standing - Marshall Ulrich with 17 official finishes since 1990, there are a couple of DNFs in there. Does that mean it doesn't count? Then there was the chap at Leadville this past year who stood up to be recognised in the pre race briefing, having started and finished the last 28 Leadville 100's missing just the first ever race. Feet in the Clouds, which if you haven't read, you should, is full of stories of people like Eddie Campbell with 40 - 50 year streaks in fell races like Ben Nevis.

I wonder what the greatest race streak of all time is. Meaningful race that is, not park runs etc.

Today I will head out of the door for a run for the first time in almost two weeks. My knee feels a lot stronger, I guess I'll find out how strong later tonight. It would be nice to be able to blog about running for a change rather than various other subjects.

Finally the trailer for this looks great, I can't wait to see the full thing. There are a lot more Brits in the WS100 lottery this year already. Hopefully we can have as good a showing as 2011 and an even better result at the front end of the field than Nick Clark's 3rd and Ian Sharman's 10th. I would expect we will see both of those super talented runners to go better at the very least.

Ultra Growth

This is a subject that deserves looking in to in a lot more detail but this week a few things really started to ring through just how much our sport is growing.

When I started running in 2005, we entered the Marathon Des Sables for 2006 about 9 months before race day. Jim and I had plenty of time to make a decision, about 180 of the 200 UK places had been taken by the time we applied but there was no pressure to place the deposit down to secure the place. At that time Western States still operated a two time loser policy in the lottery and the UTMB had no lottery at all being only a few years old.

Bear in mind I talk about the above like it was a different era, this was only 6 years ago! On Saturday at about 7am UK time, the Western States lottery opened and currently, 1411 people are registered. That's an average of 18 people per hour so far and there are 11 days left to apply for a place. This doesn't sound like huge numbers compared with some of the big city marathon fields, but Western States is restricted to a 5 year average of 369 starters. About 70 of the places are taken by Montrail Ultra Cup winners, top 10 finishers for both sexes and sponsors. With one ticket in the lottery last year, the chances of getting a place were about 10%. This year, it is going to be way way down on that. They have got to do something about their qualification criteria ie. make it compulsory for someone to have finished another 100 before being eligible to apply. That way you boost the start up races plus you allow runners to gain experience at running 100 miles before they launch themselves into 41000 feet of elevation change and some extremes in temperatures all inside 30 hours. Western States is not the hardest run out there but it isn't toward the easy end of the spectrum either.

Hardrock, traditionally the hardest 100 out there had 427 people applied for 100ish places by November 5th. The projection is that they will have 800 applicants for those slots - and many of those will have more than one ticket. My chances of getting a spot? Way less than the 10% last year. And this is a race for which you may only apply if you have finished one of the 'mountain 100s' on their list!

UTMB are going to be forced into changing their policy next year because if they continue to allow all those who fail to get a place in the preceding year, a guaranteed slot the following year, they like Western States will find that in a years time, their field is full before the previous race is even run due to the number of lottery applicants. Their points system is sensible and they are lucky that they can cope with a massive starting field but the numbers wanting to and eligible to compete are growing exponentially. Selfishly I hope they don't change that policy until 2013 so that I can at least be sure of a place in the next 2 years to avenge 2010's abandonment at St Gervais following the avalanche.....

Lakeland 100/ 50 sold 850 places in under a month. This is a race which started in 2008 and had 12 100 mile finishers and about 40 50 miler finishers. 

Dick Kearn who organises the Grand Union Canal Run which has become arguably the most prestigious UK ultra, had to turn as many people away as he let in through the lottery this year.

And finally our little old races. Brand new, no real heritage but I hope they appear reasonably well put together.... Astonishingly in the first 48 hours of the SDW100 being open, we had 31 applicants. Our Thames Path 100 which has never been staged before, sold out to 250 applicants 7 months before race day. I still can't get my head around that.

It is quite clear that there is heartbreak occurring all over the ultra world at the moment with people missing out year after year from gaining places in their dream races. I think more and more race directors are going to have to wake up to the necessity for more stringent qualification standards and staggered starts WITHOUT inflating the costs. The latter will only serve to form the beginning of the end of what ultra running is all about. Increases are acceptable but there is a limit. When I look at the entry costs for Ironman these days, it blows my mind and it quite obviously alienates those unable to afford the financial commitment that traveling to and from a race entails, let alone paying £400 for a one day race.

There is a poll on the website at the moment which I hope will give us some idea of how long those who stumble upon our page have been running ultras. I am expecting to find that the numbers have ballooned since 2009. A quick glance at the first 40 votes shows that this is likely to form the outcome.

Last but not least it's important to recognise that this is ALL POSITIVE!!!! More and more people are getting out on their feet and experiencing what it feels like to go long on the road or the trail. It is wonderful to see the races that began as small not for profit enterprises are starting to see some reward for their hard work and commitment. Who could possible begrudge them that? Too many great races died before this boom began: The Thames Meander, The SDW80, London to Brighton Road Race to name but a few. They all ended prematurely because they couldn't make ends meet financially or couldn't get the volunteer support needed to ensure safe running of the event. It is all of our duty as runners to give something back and so many more are now doing so. As a race director I know for sure we couldn't stage any of our races without that generosity of spirit.

SDW80

After launching the SDW100 entries yesterday, we had the usual initial flurry of quick fire registrations. One of the pre-requisites on the entry forms is declaration of previous running experience. One of our earliest entrants yesterday listed SDW80 as one of his preceding ultra finishes. 

It is a big goal of mine to create races with a real pedigree for quality and a real depth of history. What I mean by that is, I haven't set up these three races as one time opportunities. I would dearly love to be sitting here in 30/40/50 years time with each one still going strong. If we continue to put as much love and effort into them as we have for the past year (Centurion was born 12 months ago this month) then I think we can sustain and even grow from where we are. 

The Thames Path and North Downs Way have had many races staged on them, past and present. The same is true of the South Downs Way with one major difference. The core of the race we have created is not our own. 

I am deeply interested in the South Downs Way 80, a race organised for many years up until the late 1990s. I was made aware of it a good few months ago in conversation with Dick Kearn. Dick and I both sit on the trail running association committee and I used last night's post meeting dinner to pick his brains a little more about it. The race was organised by Harry Townsend and existed for 16 years attracting up to 600 runners, eventually coming to a close in the late 1990s due to lack of funding. The course itself travelled 80 miles from Queen Elizabeth Country Park to finish at Eastbourne Rugby Club.

Dick is too modest to talk about it in much detail but in 1993 he won the race and has fond memories of it, as do most of the people I talk to about it. The over-riding sentiment is that you could count on Harry to deliver a proper race day experience. Things that were raised were the depth of medical support, the regularity and size of some of the aid stations, particularly at the barn on Truleigh Hill and the care and attention of the volunteers. A lot of this, in fact arguably the framework of it has been picked up by Oxfam Trailwalker and there was conversation of Harry having passed on a lot of information relevant to the formation of that event which attracts massive numbers each year to the 100km course.

The similarities between our race and Harry's cannot yet be made. Certainly in terms of a course, ours is 20 miles longer and will take a slightly different route into the finish. The athletics track where we will end the SDW100 literally backs on to the rugby club which was the finish point of the SDW80 which is, I think, rather poignant. 

I only hope we can build as successful, well executed and most importantly, much loved a race as Harry's. I have asked Dick to try to contact him and see if he would perhaps like to be a part of it in 2012. Whether that will happen or not I don't know but I sincerely hope we can continue the legacy of long distance trail running events on the South Downs Way. 

SDW100 2012

Entries are now live for the South Downs Way 100, 'the big dance'. 200 places for 200 lucky runners....

Here are the details. The course is the finest in the land (biased opinion). And you get to finish on the running track at Eastbourne....

Early Morning Lotto Application

I wasn't going to do it, then I was, then I wasn't. In the end I threw my name in there. With such a slim hope of getting a place the worst that can happen is that I get an extra ticket for next year. The best that can happen is that I go back and come home with a shiny silver one this time....

50 names already in the hat and it's still nightime on the West Coast. People are predicting 2500 entries by the close of the 2 week window. For 250ish places.

HRH Lottery

Lottery season is in full swing and the big ones are all filling up fast. It seems that the sport really is reaching peak levels now. AJW eulogises on the Hardrock lottery here. Hardrock is right at the top of my list but this will be my first time with a ticket in the hat so I have pretty much no shot. 

I have my name in for West Highland Way too and will be doing the same for UTMB and Western States. 

This is what I meant in my last post by having no idea how the year will pan out. The only dead cert so far is Comrades. I'd like to add Sparta to that but I'm not sure if the registration criteria will change. At the moment I think I can get in to that just by paying up (Badwater is my qualifier, the only race I've done over 220km's non-stop which is one of the three standards to achieve).

So many permutations from the set of races that all cloud my potentials calender at the moment. Perhaps the worst outcome will be if I get waitlisted for Hardrock and only find out I am in a few weeks before race day... I'd take it. 

A New Leaf

It is definitely time I turned over a new leaf. For a long time I've been wallowing in the depths of debilitating injuries, constantly assessing the level of severity of my shin, knee, achilles etc and worrying about trying to stay fit enough to simply make it through some of the big expensive events I signed myself up for towards the end of 2010.

The crash was just the latest in a long series of unfortunate events this past year, ultimately keeping me off of the trails for weeks and months at a time, in order to have a shot at hobbling around some of the great races I had yet to run.

Now that I'm through that period, it's time I took a step back to assess what it is I am trying to achieve.

There are still a number of unfulfilled goals on my bucket list but the real danger with having a list is that the items on it risk becoming boxes that need to be ticked rather than experiences to be enjoyed. The best example of this was the pressure I put on myself to start Western States this year, despite being chronically injured, unsure of whether I could even crest Emmigrant Pass successfully, let alone make it to Auburn. Of course I wouldn't take back my finish there for anything but my enjoyment of it was maybe 50% of what it should have been because of my state of physical disrepair. I guess we are all becoming victim a little to having to commit to races so far in advance and worse, to take the opportunities to race when we are presented them because that opportunity may not arise for a long time/ ever in the case of Western States.

I have always gotten the most out of my training by having one significant goal to aim for. There's nothing better than immersing yourself in a proper training routine and finding out what you're capable of as a runner. This past year I've forgotten a lot of what that is about.

So instead of rushing back on this latest knee injury I am going to sit it out a while and keep my head down. It's important now to relieve myself of the stress of fighting to get fit too fast and just let it happen. It's not about a few weeks good training or even a couple of months, I want to get back to a place where I can train for 18 months/ 2 years without significant issues arising. Racing is a part of that too for sure, I enjoy the races equally to great training sessions and I've missed out there too. There will always be another injury/ minor set back and maybe the next one isn't too far away but I intend to maximise my enjoyment of simply running in the meantime. One thing is for sure, I no longer take being able to step out of the door and on to the trails for granted.

So here's to an attempt at turning over a new leaf. Not being pressured into big mileage weeks and rushing back on injuries to make races that will always be there in the future.

Regards 2012 a lot of us are now sat around waiting for the big lotteries to open/ be drawn for 2012. I like many others have my name in a few, unlikely to get a place in some and almost certainly not in others. My year could take a very definite road slant, or mountain trail slant. I'm kind of intrigued to see how it pans out, highly likely a mixture of both I would guess....

'If you want to win, first you have to know how to lose' Frank Bozanich.

I've had a lot of help and support this week from different people regards the latest injury. I mentioned at the beginning of the last post, that following the bike crash and severe pain at Caesars Camp 50, that I had moved from a self-diagnosis of inflamed itb and bruised soft tissue - to physio diagnosis of torn lateral meniscus. I'm pleased to say that I am now back at the former which is huge news for me. I am yet to have the scan as I wait to hear from the NHS, but the knee problems have improved daily and fingers crossed they will continue to do so.

I exchanged a few e mails with another experienced ultra runner who happens also to be a GP, Mark Fresch. He read that last post and has helped clarify a few things for me. It's acts of generosity like this that make the ultrarunning community what it is. Together with Mondays physio work and the improved movement, I am now fairly sure that it was/ is my itb that's causing problems.

On Thursday I had no issues locking my leg in a straight position and was able to move up and down the stairs without pain. I set out of the door for 2 miles alternate running and walking on flat trails on instruction from the physio. It didn't end well and I was in pain almost from the word go. On Friday I ran/ walked a mile. It was incredibly slow but I got it done without any discomfort whatsoever. On Saturday I ran 3 miles and today 5. Little progressions each day coupled with a bucket load of icing and stretching but it feels like I am inching my way slowly back. The knee still feels a little sore at times and there is a tingling sensation much of the time I am running but by dropping in walking breaks it immediately goes away. More physio in the morning, taking it one step at a time. I will feel extremely lucky despite everything this year, if I am able to avoid anything more than a few weeks off of running with bruised soft tissue out of all of this.

On a totally separate note I've got a new hero. Frank Bozanich. Quick Facts:

Out of 100 ultras, he's won 44
His 50 mile PB is 5:05
He's won races in his 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s
He says it like it is

There is an awesome podcast up now at www.ultrarunnerpodcast.com which is well worth a listen.

My favourite Frank Bozanich quotes:

'I don't use dropbags, I just put my shoes on and let's go!'
'I have to laugh at these people wanting to do forefoot running and stuff here today'
'I see these people with these backpacks all loaded up. Go back to being simple. Running is a very simple process, just put one foot in front of the other. Do your training and you'll be fine'
'I used to train 200 miles a week and most of that was sub 7, a lot of it 6 minute pace'
'I can remember running Old Dominion in 1980, 10 days after running the 100k in Biel, in 15:18. The whole race I ate nothing and drank de-fizzed coke and water'

He is right, there are an awful lot of people out there now offering advice and recommendations as to how you should run, what you should carry, how often you should race etc etc. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it, unless you get yourself a coach. Somebody that can help you is this guy, he knows what he is doing.... link

New Injury?

When I came off my bike 10 days ago potentially caused a much graver issue than my assumed 'inflamed ITB' self-diagnosis. I will say one thing for being injured, you learn an awful lot about parts of your body.

Obviously running 50 miles on a badly bruised knee wasn't the smart mans move, but I was convinced I was dealing with moderate bruising rather than something more serious. After Caesars Camp I was in a significant amount of pain, to the extent that I had real trouble getting down the stairs on Sunday. My right quad was sore where I'd over-compensated for the left knee but the rest of my muscles felt fine. My knee was inflamed and I couldn't lock it straight. Every time I put pressure on it, it felt like it was going to give way. 

Anybody reading this who has had a lateral meniscus tear will know that these symptoms point straight to that problem. Basically the meniscus is a piece of cartilage within the knee, which comes in two parts, the medial on the inside of the knee and the lateral on the outside. The meniscus form a tissue that sits between the tibia and the femur and provides strength under torsion/ tension, dispersing friction and impact through the bones. 

Either one of the meniscus' can be torn during trauma to the knee and or over-rotation. Obviously when I came off of my bike, I landed with the full force of my body and bike on the outside of the left knee, turned on to my back and slid along the ground with the frame of the bike getting caught over the leg and wrenching my knee way beyond it's usual angle of rotation. Needless to say everything adds up to the meniscus being torn. 

I went to see my good friend Joe, the physio, on Wednesday in a lot of pain. The knee was still badly inflamed/ bruised but he did a number of tests on my leg to find out what was going on. After a few minutes he stated I was exhibting 3 of the 4 signs of a classic lateral meniscus tear. 

This is pretty bad news. The meniscus has exceedingly poor blood supply and therefore depending on where it is torn, heals either incredible slowly or doesn't heal at all. The answer is to get a scan to determine the type of tear and have that tear either sewn or the trimmed off completely if unrepairable. The meniscus doesn't grow back which means if you have it trimmed you are effectively on a count down to longer term problems with osteo arthritis if you keep running, given that the bones end up pushing against one another rather than the meniscus, eroding the ends. I know this part because good friend Mark Cockbain has recently announced retirement from ultra running after a glittering career, on account of two meniscus trims and associated osteoarthritis. 

Anyway I was pretty damn miserable when I found this out and I resigned to waiting to be referred for a scan. Each passing day the pain subsided just a bit, I found I could straighten my leg a little more each day until Monday when I discovered I could lock the leg straight although painfully. On Monday things had improved again as the swelling from the bruise caused by the crash subsided. I went for a sports massage and went through the leg rotations and movements again. This time I felt no pain. His diagnosis? No way is there a tear and if there is it certainly doesn't need operating on as it will appear to be minor only. 

So here I am, waiting for a scan. It is 12 days after the crash and 11 after the race. I have no pain in my knee and can lock my leg straight with very little pain at all. Walking is now fine and putting pressure on the outside of the knee generates almost no pain at all.

Either I could be back running by this weekend, or I could require an op that would put me out for 3-4 months and potentially affect my running for life. I am loathed to get too carried away until I see the scans.... 

Caesars Camp 50 mile Report: Crash, Hobble, Crash

Friday morning I got up with a spring in my step, anticipating a pretty exciting weekend. The schedule I had in mind included recce-ing the Windsor to Marlow section of the Thames Path 100 course on Friday, heading to Caesars Camp to help Henk set up on Saturday plus maybe run a few miles, then head down to the Greensands marathon on Sunday to catch up with a few friends and maybe run too. Things turned out very differently...

Things started to go wrong during the TP recce which, given the potential mileage that the weekend held, I attempted to do on a bike rather than on foot. The Thames Path is flat, but unfortunately there are still a lot of stiles/ gates to negotiate and plenty of stretches which ban bikes completely. It took me ages to get the 16 mile route done, particularly as LOCOG have shut off the Dorney Lake path whilst they make changes to the area in preparation for the Olympic rowing events which will be held there. It looks like they will be done before the race so hopefully no re-route will be necessary on the day. 

Anyway by the time I got back to Windsor I was late so I stepped on the bike and gave it some to get back to the car parked a couple of miles away. As I crested a bump in the road I felt the front wheel slip right, underneath the bike and before I knew it had landed on the road with that sickening smack on the outside of my left knee and elbow, before flipping on to my back and sliding along the road with the grinding sound of metal on pavement. At some point during that slide my left leg got trapped inside the frame and with the bike traveling in the opposite direction, my left knee was wrenched out of place. I lay on the ground for about 3 or 4 minutes just trying to breathe. After I did a check I found nothing obviously broken but I was sweating profusely from the pain in my leg and was pretty sure I had done a fair amount of damage to the bike. Typically, people in cars just ignored the fact that a cyclist was laying flat on the ground with the bike in a mangled mess about 15 feet away, so eventually I got up, straightened out the handlebars, took off the brakes and pushed the bike the mile or so back to the car. 

By the time I had got home my leg had seized pretty badly but wasn't too painful.

I woke up on Saturday and drove down to help Henk and the crew set up for the long weekend ahead. In this it's 6th year, Henk again had the 50, 100 and midnight 30 mile courses going and as usual had everything well in hand by the time I arrived with a few extra chairs and a box of food and gels. He even had time to stroll the car park with a coffee admiring the pre race rituals of the 120 odd starters. I had a chance to chat to Paul Navesey who I've helped at a couple of races with before and mentioned to him that the 50 mile record was well within reach if he could stay strong. He almost did....

Just before the 12 noon kick off Robbie Britton, winner of our inaugural NDW100 turned up wearing his finishers shirt (nice) so he and I set off together letting a dozen or so runners get ahead. I had no idea whether I'd be turning around inside a mile and hobbling back to the start but I thought I'd enjoy it while I could. Straight away the downhills hurt but there is enough short sharp elevation change at Caesars that I got away without battering it too long in any one stretch. We cruised around to Dicks aid station at mile 5ish said hi and pushed back on the start finish. Before we came in I saw Paul headed back out 2 miles up inside 11 miles and he looked like he was flying. I couldn't believe even at our benign pace that he'd got that much ground on us but he looked ok so I crossed my fingers for him. Lap 1: 1:33. Lap 2 was uneventful. We continued the pattern and came in around 3:16 so still under 10 mins per mile for the first 20 with around 1500 feet of gain per lap. Slow for a 50, very good for a 100 ie. Robbie. Lap 3 was still plain sailing but my knee began to play up and the ibuprofen from lap 1 had worn off. Rookie error. We got back in around 5:40 and bumped into Drew who had come down to support for a while. I grabbed my headlamp and chatted to him about 'the smart man dropping at this point' but to be honest with 20 miles left to go I figured if nothing else I'd just walk around chatting to people until the end.... which is pretty much what I did. I discovered here that Paul had dropped at 30 after falling earlier in the day. He will be back to take it next year. I let Robbie go after the second steep descent on the open heathland as my knee just couldn't take it any more. Whether the pain was detracting from my muscles, or I genuinely was fine, my legs didn't hurt and I had loads of energy (Gu's every 40 minutes - genius) so I did my bit encouraging other runners I came across to keep moving and stay strong as the light began to fade. I met one guy who was canning it at the next aid station but who eventually finished so good job. Final lap was dark so I sped up as much as I could to get back in half reasonable time and ended up coming across Keith Godden so we ran in the last 4 or 5 miles together which was great. 10:29, 27 minutes slower than the first 50 miles of my 100 there last year!!!

Needless to say by the time I'd hung around and helped and driven home (4am) I wasn't in the mood for Greensands. My knee was shot and actually since then it's been extremely inflamed making it painful to walk. I think the bruising should subside to leave just an inflamed ITB but fingers crossed that's what it is.....

Icing on the cake? I pulled my front tooth out again tearing the top off of a gel pack with my teetch at mile 22. Busted knee, busted bike, missing tooth. Loved every minute of it!!!!

Thames Path 100 Recces

Yesterdays recce took me from Hampton Court Palace (mile 7.47) to Windsor Castle (mile 28.3). I've seen this part of the Thames quite a few times in the past, both in other races (albeit coming from the other direction) and in the previous recces and training runs which led to the creation of the race - but every time I go back the river looks different. It seems to be affected more by the seasons than other trails. It is also absolutely, incredibly pan flat.

I know that sounds pretty obvious, but to put it in perspective, here is yesterdays Garmin readout. You'd have to be on a track to get any flatter. The website lists 2500 feet of climb for the 100 miles, in actual fact it is considerably less than that.

Definitely becoming better at the recce routine - train in to one destination - set up with a front pack armed with camera, gels, water, pen all at the ready and map in hand - train out the other end. It takes a whole day to do a stage like yesterday because of traveling time and stopping so often to take pictures and record distances/ potential aid station locations, but intricate course knowledge is so important for those phone calls in the middle of the night during race weekend asking how to get back on course. 

Walton on Thames

Chertsey

Laleham

Three Ducks and a Chicken

Week in Training 9th October

Monday 5 miles 0:45: Slow local run after bigger week last week

Tuesday 14 miles 2:45: Recce of Hollingbourne to Wye - The last 14 miles of the 2012 NDW100 course before meeting with local parish to agree on a finishing point.

Wednesday off: Rested shin

Thursday 14 miles 1:54 : Felt no pain so pushed the pace a little more around my now regular 14 mile loop. Having a regular run where I can monitor my splits is really paying off. No significant pain and averaged just over 8 minute miles. Awful compared to a year ago but a significant improvement on where I'm coming from.

Friday 4 miles 0:32: Got my Hoka One One Bondi Bs from Ian Corless and tested them out a little with Lisa, who has entered her first half marathon for December. Excitement.

Saturday 4.5 miles 0:37: Short local loop as shin sore.

Sunday 21 miles 3:12: Easy warm up for a few miles with Lisa and then out on to the 14 mile loop again. Died after 7/ 8 miles of the loop (15 total) and had to put back three Gu Gels before I could resume running. Awful awful run, my first longer one in the Hokas which were great. Definitely cushioning my shin better although I hate the huge sole dragging on ground where I have been used to NB minimus with almost no drop recently. These things are going to take a long time to get used too, I can't see myself wearing them on shorter runs but anything 14 and up and the benefits of extra cushion on a sorry shin are going to pay dividends.

Total 62.5 miles 9:55(+5000ft)

Overall it was a pretty poor week of running apart from a good loop on Thursday. It felt pretty easy to keep an 8 minute pace despite hills and quite a few miles in my legs from increased mileage.

One stat that really stands out is how my running mileage for the year breaks down ignoring the only races I have done this year which all happened to be 100 milers. Scary reading....

1/1 - 1/2: 216 miles. Injured for much of it in the run up to RR100.
6/2 - 18/9: 160 miles (so in 7.5 months I ran 160 miles in training and 257 miles in 3 races)
Last 2 weeks: 145 miles

I might be tempting fate here, but I think I am turning a corner away from these persistent shin issues. The Hokas, running 99% of the time on trails and a more sensible approach with loads of icing and physio is  going to come good. I have a ton of 'races' coming up but plan to 'race' precisely none of them. Each will be an exercise in getting a longer weekend run in, all are local between marathon and 50km and I am just looking forward to getting back out and socialising a little more. The only racing I've done since last July has been: Badwater, CC100, Gatliff 50km (which I ended up running alone), C2C45 (very good and enjoyable run with loads of great people), RR100, WS100, V100 and LT100. Too many crazy 100 milers and not enough trotting around having a good old chat. I love both but I'm looking forward to giving the former a break for a while.

NDW/ Volunteer/ TP links

Lots of updates to the Centurion Site tonight:

2012 NDW50/100 mile races are now open for registrations, limited to first 150 entrants in each distance: Click here for link. These were a long time in the making as we have revised the 100 mile course for 2012, building it as a point to point as discussed in recent entries. No marathon for next year though as it just didn't work with timings and aid station set ups. There are already some great marathon distance events on the NDW, however so I don't think it will be too sorely missed.

I got around to updating the Location, Transport and Accommodation tabs as well as lots of FAQs on the Thames Path 100. Click here for links.

Finally we launched a volunteer area with a place to sign up officially to help out in the future which can be found if you click here. 

It's been a long week what with work and doing all of the above plus a little running thrown in but it will hopefully pay off.

Final NDW100 2012 recce and conf. of course/ date

It's official. In 2012 the NDW100 will run 100 miles point to point from Farnham in the West to the village of Wye in the East. The NDW50 course will remain the same as 2011 but there will be no marathon distance run in 2012. The date for the races is the 11th/ 12th August 2012. Once again the courses will be marked, aid stations fully stocked and medical support extremely prevalent.

In one other change the 50/ 100 mile will have one additional checkpoint in 2012, in Mersham between the 31.8 mile Reigate Hill aid and the 43 mile Botley Hill aid. This has been put in to break up the 11.2 mile stretch which is just a little too far in the August heat for a race designed with an emphasis on supporting runners.

The total number of aid stations will be 7 for the 50 including the finish and 14 for the 100 again including the finish, with both therefore averaging around 7 miles between each aid station. That is getting closer to my magic number of 16 aid stations for our 100s.

I ran the final stretch of the NDW100 course today, from Hollingbourne to Wye, before meeting with the parish clerk to go over our finish line details. At the moment we have two possible finish areas under discussion for the 100, both within 500 yards of one another in the centre of Wye and the exact location will be announced following the Ashford Borough Councils decision.

I was delighted to find the last 14 miles of the 100 mile, very much easier going than the preceeding 86. There are sections of single track trail, paths carving through open fields, through woods and even orchards/ strawberry fields plus a few short stretches of road. But the over-riding fact is that the majority of the climb and descent is over by the time you hit Hollingbourne at mile 86.

In my honest opinion? I think the 2012 course will be a little faster than the 2011 course. The difficult stretch from Otford to Hollingbourne, especially in the heat, will be a lot for some to take, but make it to the mid 80s and you are (relatively) home and dry.... Final stats on total climb will be published with registration.

There is one final permission we are awaiting from Knockholt Pound Parish Council tomorrow, to be able to use the Common once again for a 50 mile aid station and finish point, but otherwise registrations will go live by Friday 7th October.

My apologies to those marathon runners disappointed in that particular event being dropped, however logistically it tied my hands as a race director too tight this year. It also stretched our medical team and aid station crews who were static for a very long time during the race, indeed Henk and his crew at Puttenham were in situ for 31 hours in the end. It will mean we are able to focus our efforts entirely on the 50 and 100 mile runners and that has always been my main intention. That is not to say the marathon will not be back in the future, but for now it is taking a leave of absence. There are many other excellent marathon distance choices on the NDW at other times throughout the year for those hungry for more.

Questions about the course, timings etc can be sent to me but all should be answered on the new webpages that will go live with registrations this week. Hopefully see you on the NDW in 2012!

Some of todays shots:

Climb out of Detling Mile 82

A reminder of how far runners have come

Flat and Fast. A nice way to finish the last 14 miles

Typical English Countryside Views along the course

Week in Training 2nd October

A couple of weeks ago I started running again for the first time after Leadville, breaking out with three 8 milers in the space of a week or so. A week later I increased a couple of those runs to 10 miles. My shin felt ok but my fitness, did not. It is amazing how quickly you can lose some of the hard work you have put in if you don't maintain it but there is definitely a balance to be struck between having a good rest period, allowing your body to fully recover and not letting your fitness drop too low. I feel like I have a  figurative mountain to climb to get back to anywhere near my best.

I took four whole weeks off and then two bringing it back slowly. This past week I needed to get out and recce the North Downs Way 2012 100 mile course. My intention has always been to put on point to point races where possible and whilst the 2011 course made sense in our first year, out and back is going to inevitably become slightly less of an attraction than point to point in the long term. My plan is therefore to leave our starting point where it is, in Farnham at the western origin of the NDW trail, but send runners on to a finishing point another 50 miles further east. I needed to see for myself that the NDW continued to be as varied and scenic as that first 50 miles and I am happy to report that in every way, it is. 

On Tuesday I ran the stretch from Knockholt to Cuxton and was amazed at a couple of the short sharp climbs back out of villages, where the trail drops in to say hello before exiting back into solid English countryside. The climb out of Oxted in particular lasts only a mile or so but will be enough to get runners breathing hard. The stretch around Holly Hill is simply beautiful. Thursday I went back and ran from Cuxton across the Medway Bridge and on to Hollingbourne. The stretch I had been most concerned about from Cuxton across the Medway Bridge turned out to be a relatively uninteresting but very fast and flat 2 mile stretch. It is somewhat offset by the 4 mile steady climb back up the other side however.

NDW100 2012 ridge miles 60 - 69 as seen from mile 73

The scenery and terrain around Detling and beyond is superb, the views out across to the South and West are truly stunning but in 30 degree heat, it was seriously hard work for someone lacking a little in the fitness department. I power hiked long stretches and took my time marking off the maps and taking photos. 

Past Detling Village mile 83 NDW100 2012

My shin has felt shaky this last couple of days but the pain is from shin splints down around the ankle area which a physio session and sports massage will help with tomorrow. As long as the fracture area remains strong and the bone doesn't start with the dull ache again then I'll continue with the mileage. 

Monday: 8 miles 1:05

Tuesday: 17.2 miles 3:17

Wednesday: 5 miles 0:45

Thursday: 18.3 miles 3:31

Friday: 15.9 miles 2:41

Saturday: 5 miles 0:55

Sunday: 14.2 miles 2:03

Total: 83.6 miles 14:18 +9000ft 

I have entered a bunch of late season marathons and short ultras starting in late October to try to keep things ticking along but I doubt at any point my mileage will grow beyond that of this week. They are all very slow miles on trails but I can already feel the small benefits creeping in. I would like to think I have time now for a consistent 2 hour daily run exactly like tonight's, covering off about 14/ 15 miles. As winter sets in, some of the trails are going to get harder to negotiate but right now they are a joy to run.

Very excited about finally getting my hands on a pair of Hoka One One Bondi B's later this week. They should give my shin the break and the active recovery period it still needs. 

Hope Pass Garmin Read Out

Back out again for an hour last night and still no pain. Three days in a row now on my feet.

Starting to look at a few things in November as a gentle return to longer running, a few marathons and Gatliff 50km again. Trying to resist the temptation of entering anything before hand is hard.

I finally managed to get my Garmin working again and had a scroll through some of my logs from Leadville.

This is the climb from the bottom of Hope Pass inbound over the top of the pass and down into Hopeless Aid Station, miles 52 - 55.5. This was absolutely the hardest section of the course but I guess 30 minute miles tells the story http://connect.garmin.com/activity/116404274

Slowly but Surely

Tonight I finally landed back on my feet. I am not going to get carried away and claim that I am 100% fit but it was awesome to be out the door and not in pain for the first time since February 5th.

I said I was going to enforce a lay off after Leadville and I did. Even after I had decided I was ok to resume running, I gave it another 10 days and fingers crossed it feels like it's helped.

Where we live now in Gustard Wood, North Hertfordshire, we are out of reach of shops, restaurants, people, even roads. There is a local pub but you need a headtorch to get there after dark (which I quite like).

All this plus we actually live ON a trail. It is almost too much to take in right now after living in London for 9 years, that I can turn right or left out of the front door and be on trails. Anyway I ran an hour tonight, just an easy tempo hour through fields, woodland trails and back country roads and in all that time saw 1 person and zero cars. I don't care what anybody says, that is pretty great. The trails aren't exactly going to scare mountain runners away but there are some lumps and bumps so all in all it blows running round Battersea Park out of the water (I still love you Battersea).

I decided to change it up a little on the gear front so I bought a pair of NB Minimus and some drymax socks and it feels great. I think road running in the Minimus is a disaster waiting to happen, but for shorter runs on springy grass and woodland trail man do they feel fast. They should do at 6oz.

I am going to go the other way too and buy a pair of Hoka's. With all my injury problems this year it makes sense to me to have a pair of shoes that offer the maximum protection from the kind of injuries I have sustained. That and the old faithful Asics GT's and I'm good to go.

Ready to launch the North Downs Way 2012 races this weekend which I am excited about. It's great having the experience of the first race under our belts, so much to improve upon with just a few tweaks here and there - nothing major. I am looking at point to point for the 100 mile runners though.... I think the journey makes a lot more sense that way.

The South Downs Way Race is a few weeks behind it, we still need to do some recce-ing down on the course before we can launch it but we'll be good to go inside October too for next years edition of the pre-existing race. Good times.

Videos

A couple of things that have really got me excited recently.

Here is Jared Campbell previous Hardrock 100 winner running the most insane slope I think I've ever seen - the West Slabs of Olympus. Ryan Brown found this and sent it round after storming through Wasatch 100 with his wife Nicole who had a few weeks previous finished the NDW100. Awesome job from those guys.



This is a great video of this years UTMB in English, only the commentator manages to get pretty much everyone's name wrong. I think 'the Hornet' might catch on for Killian.

Anyway enjoy and happy running.

UTMB 2011 by Eurosport - in English by UltraTrailMontBlanc

Return to Running

I haven't run a step yet since Leadville, I just wanted to give it a proper rest for a while and get some of the hunger back - and it's worked. That's 23 days without running which is the longest break I've ever taken (well since I gave up being fat anyway). My leg is pain free which is a good sign. I feel much stronger I have done for a long time. Having no massive races looming for which I am untrained and out of shape helps too.

Since returning from Colorado we have finally made our move out into the English countryside. It is a far cry from London, returning home each night via a 10 minute commute to total silence and most importantly, trails running right out of our front doorstep. That should make for some improved running, in time. I am going to just turn the legs over a little later tonight and see how my shin feels. If it all goes to plan I am still going to take the rest of the week off completely and start very slowly again from next week. My aim is to build up more slowly and steadily than I ever have done before and regain some strength for the start of 2012. I have entries left in races for this year which got mailed months and months ago (Round Rotherham 50, CCER 50, Luton Marathon) so I might pick one or two of them but otherwise I'm going to take a back seat until fatass.

The problem with having more time from less running is that I end up spending more and more time looking at races for next year. Im trying so hard to hold back but.....

Centurion Stuff is extremely time consuming right now as we go through trying to finalise the aid station positions for the Thames Path 100 in March, relaunch the North Downs Way 50/100 for August 2012 and decide on a final date for South Downs Way 100 2012. I've been lucky enough this past week to meet with Dick Kearn (GUCR/ Thames Ring/ Compton) and Henk Van Der Beek (Caesars Camp) to go over some plans for the future. There is no substitute for experience and it is a huge benefit to me to have their ear for our plans in 2012.

I had to shut the waitlist for the Thames Path yesterday when we had filled the available places and had a waiting list of 50 behind them. I can't quite get my head around it but it is so great to see. This sport is certainly growing fast....

Here is a pretty well shot video of Ryan Sandes' winning run at Leadville. Gives an idea of the terrain and just how strength sapping some of the climbs are, particularly when he nears the end

North Downs Way Report, Photos and Results

All of the above are now live at on our website

It feels good to finally close a chapter on our first race and move on with the plans for the next.

I have (what I think) are some pretty cool ideas for all 3 races next year and I'm looking forward to seeing what is possible whilst keeping the core values the same at all of the races.

A final word for my friend Hully who was badly burned in the Kimberleys during an RTP event last Friday. The incident has been posted all over Australian news but I don't think we've heard the whole story as yet. Hully had recently finished the NDW100 and had flown with me the following week to Leadville where he crewed me to my own 100 mile finish. Just a fortnight later he was off and running the RTP100 event when disaster struck and he was trapped in a gorge with 3 other competitors and an advancing bush fire. Having tried to out run it, they ended up scaling the side of the gorge to get out of the thick spinifex grass that was burning so quickly. In the end they couldn't escape far enough and were forced to run back THROUGH the fire to safety on the other side. Obviously the horrific burns that Hully and particularly the two girls he was with sustained, came about as a result of that. I'm not going to say any more for now other than that I am relieved that Hully is relatively ok. With burns to 20% of his body he will be in compression burn bandages for weeks if not months. The two girls were not so lucky and remain in a critical condition. All thoughts are with them and hoping that they pull through it.

Year to Date: Some lessons learned

I have learned a lot this year. I always expected that it would take me a long time to understand the fundamentals of ultrarunning and the way the body reacts to it, but I am always surprised at how much more there is to get to grips with. My biggest learnings this year revolved around injury and illness pre/ during and post race. I hope anything I can share will help someone somewhere to avoid venturing down the same path.

I should add before I start that a lot of people have told me during and subsequent to events unfolding that I set myself up for a fall this year by entering too much in too short a space of time. I still disagree with this assessment. My race schedule was full but achievable on a healthy body - if 2011 were taken on 2010's training, I have no doubt I would be sitting here with 5 successful 100s and Comrades under my belt rather than a very mixed set of race results and 2 x DNS's.

I can see now that this year was a write off from even before Rocky Raccoon in Feb. During Badwater last year I pushed my body beyond it's natural limits for such an extended period of time that I didn't recover for a couple of months. Things just didn't feel right. Apart from the usual night sweats and general lack of sleep in the immediate aftermath of a massive race where your body is pushing the crap generated during it back out of you, I felt totally out of whack with my usual self. General symptoms included lethargy, lack of motivation to run, loss of appetite. The elation at finishing was tainted with a feeling of heavy fatigue. We went on holiday, came back and, as what now appears to me to be a blessing in disguise, UTMB got cancelled just a few hours in to the run. I didn't feel myself until late September and very quickly after on very little training, ran Caesars Camp 100 which is a pretty hard race. Once again I had a very bad time of it there with similar issues to Badwater (chaffing) and finished in a lengthy 27 hours.

What I realise now is that during Badwater I had stressed my muscles to the max but also my endocrine system. The endocrine system is the body's mechanism for producing hormones that help maintain normal bodily function. Recently a bit more has come to light about ultrarunning causing stress on the endocrine system and depletion of it is a by-product of massive training mileage or over stressing it during very long races. Reading the list of symptoms in articles like this and problems resulting from such stresses it has become obvious to me that I have been suffering the longer lasting after effects of over stressing my body over long periods of time. 18 - 20 marathons/ ultras in the first 6 months of 2010 left me feeling as strong and as fit as ever. Badwater totally wiped me out, Caesars Camp came at a time when I was just pulling myself back out of the hole I'd dug and I started training properly for Rocky Raccoon shortly after. Osteoperosis is one of the longer term symptoms of endocrine depletion. The diagnosis we finally reached regarding my two stress fractures pointed clearly to the fact that my body has not been generating bone properly for a long period of time. In short I have been putting little in for the level of output I am demanding of it - particularly in races.

So almost 14 months after Badwater 2010 I am only now able to properly rebuild. If I had stopped racing and training hard for a decent period of time I could have rebuilt a successful year in 2011, but I over shot my bodies ability to recover. As each year of my running career has passed I have taken on more racing and many of those are longer in both distance and duration. It is easy to look at somebody like Mike Wardian who races a large amount, never tapers, never heeds recovery too greatly and yet wins almost everything he enters from 5k to 135 miles - and think that it is normal to be able to achieve that. It isn't. My good friend David Snipes is another example. This year 'Sniper' will go on to complete 10 x 100 milers including the Last Great Race when he finishes at Wasatch next weekend. In between times he has raced a bunch of other ultras. The difference between the above 2 examples and somebody relatively new to ultras like me is purely and simply - experience. By experience I refer to two factors - knowing how your body responds during races and being able to manage it to finish as you started. More importantly your body's experience with handling physical stress, these guys having developed running over decades, not years and thereby equipping their systems with the ability to function better on the run.

None of this is scientific, in fact it's almost all my own personal conjecture and therefore could be deemed irrelevant but when you look at a lot of the fall out from UTMB this past weekend, arguably the last major race of the summer, some of my own experiences begin to crop up in others, be it elite or back of the pack runners. Many of the lead guys have spent the spring racing hard over 50 miles/ 100k, followed by mountain 100s (at least 1 or more), before taking on UTMB, a 100 miler which ended up having a total accumulated elevation change of 70,000 feet (source: Scott Jaime's altimeter). However good you feel coming in to a race and however well your training has gone, you cannot underestimate the longer term effects that the previous race/ races have had on your body. It isn't to say that everytime you back 100 or even 50 milers into one another you will find things starting to unravel as the race drags on, but eventually it is extremely likely it will catch up with you and a race like UTMB will take no prisoners.

Some of my advice following a hard year is this:

- Rest and recover for longer than you think you may need. When you have finished a long race (100 miles) and have experienced heavy training in the lead up to it, take it easy for at least 3 - 4 weeks post run. It is tempting to jump back on the horse and use the extra fitness to drive on harder and faster. There is no need to be sedate for that period of time but it is important to let, not just your muscles, but your endocrine and immune systems to recover properly.

- Give your injury every chance to heal. If you are injured in the lead up to the race, particularly with a stress fracture, and cannot run train, don't panic. If you are able to ride a bike and protect the injury whilst keeping your CV up you CAN get through the race in question. It will be a very long day and a tough one at that but if you can stay strong mentally then should your injury hold up, you will get there.

- Be realistic. If you are injured going in to a long day then don't schedule anything else for a while afterwards. The major problem you are going to have is that your muscles will not be used to running and your muscles which are out of practice will take a battering. You need to manage your hydration and nutrition even more carefully than normal during a race or you are likely to end up with muscle breakdown quickly, which can lead to rhabdomyolisis and in extreme cases - kidney failure. My own experience at Vermont was a steep learning curve. The breakdown of my muscles at Western States was severe leaving me largely immobile. Three weeks was not enough time for things to repair, meaning that as soon as I started running my muscular-skeleto system began collapsing even faster, releasing myoglobin into my blood stream and clogging up my kidneys. Dark urine and lower back pain (plus passing out if you really do it properly) are all symptoms to be aware of and however much a DNF hurt, with 43 additional miles to go in that condition it was highly likely I was headed for the ER. The race will be there next year, and the year after. There is no need to put yourself in hospital, however much others would encourage you to believe that it's unacceptable to drop unless you are hauled off the course in an ambulance (as a race director please heed this advice).

Some runners more experienced than I will rubbish some of what has been said here but if you train big miles, hard miles and race often, it is highly likely at some stage that you will fall off the horse. The only thing I can say is take it easy, pick and choose the races you want to do well at and focus on them 100% and you WILL get through them. This is a great sport and sometimes it is hard to look on but you KNOW when you should and shouldn't be joining in the fun yourself. Take your time and you will benefit in the long term.

2012 Plans

Albeit I'm at the start of a long road to recovery, the 2012 season begins here really, with the opening up of entry and lotteries to next years races.

After the experiences of this year I am headed into less travelling and less racing in an attempt to put myself in with a chance of finishing those that I enter in better shape and staying injury free.

I had a bucket list a long time ago that I have slowly been working my way through. My intention was always to do as much traveling as I could early on in my 'career' so that I could focus on some of the great races we have on home soil in later years when it might perhaps not be as easy or fair to make long and expensive international trips.

Having worked through the desert/ multi stage races, I stumbled into trail racing and have been lucky enough to run a few good trail 100s now. This year was the first time I tried my hand at mountain 100s and thankfully I got through Western States and Leadville despite being injured all year and running very little.

I saw those two as a right of passage really. I have always considered Hardrock to be the ultimate 100 and their entry criteria is very selective. I applied last year but felt I was doing so too soon in my running lifetime and knew that I should take more experience in before I committed to it, so I withdrew my entry.

Having finished 2 mountain 100s, albeit 'easier' ones, this year I think I am ready to at least put my name in the hat and see what happens. The chances of coming out with a place through the lottery is slim to none, about 11% based on last years figures and therefore similar to Western States. Crazy but what can you do.

I will go back to Comrades again, this time to run and I can't wait to line up on that startline. I will set myself some pretty hard targets there and try to stick to them. I am still hopeful a good group of Brits will travel out for that one.

Having been cut off at St Gervais in the 2010 UTMB when we were all pulled due to a landslide, that is again on the list but lottery dependent.

So with the North Pole, Comrades, Hardrock and UTMB - I am in danger of going over board once again. The reality is though that they are well spaced out and the chances of getting in to both Hardrock and UTMB are so slim that I'm not really worried about that.

If Hardrock falls through then I will go back to Vermont. If UTMB falls through well then I may just slip a late entry in to the one bucket list race that would be left for now, a little 153 miler in Greece.

Exciting times ahead and hopefully a bit more success than this year....

North Downs Way Race Report

The inaugural North Downs Way Races took place over the weekend of the 13th/ 14th August 2011. As with other Centurion Running events, the series was designed to offer runners the opportunity of racing full supported, marked courses on some of the UK's most scenic and beautiful trails.

A full report will be up on the website this weekend and a link posted here.

UTMB

A very hectic week since we returned from Leadville. I landed Tuesday lunch time and then moved house that afternoon, with a family wedding at the weekend it has been non-stop.

I have had time today to reflect a little more on the North Downs Way and begin writing a race report chronicling some of the outstanding stories amongst many that we had over race weekend. I look forward to posting that, as well as the full results and the photos later this week.

On another note I was a little saddened to see the response some of the US/ UK elite runners received in the aftermath of a whole raft of DNFs at the UTMB over the weekend.

The race was clearly as epic as ever with storms and course changes causing more havoc after the destruction of last years abandoned race. From my point of view the communication from the race management was lacking last year, but it is extremely hard to react efficiently and quickly to the volume of runners they have competing. People say 'well have less runners then' but then there would be a Western States style backlog of people desperate, but not able to run.

This year I have got to see ultras from a very different perspective, that of a true back of the packer. Let me tell you that in a head to head of racing to a fast finish and having the stress of position and splits preying on you throughout Vs fighting to make the cut at the back and being out for 150% to 200% of the leaders time, being at the back sucks way harder than being at the front. To grind out Western in a time close to the final cut, was one of the hardest things I've ever done, whereas to compete for a podium spot in one of the desert races felt psychologically much easier because you know what, if you fail to achieve your very best, you can always slow it up and bring it in for a finish.

I have received a few e mails from experience ultra runners in the last few days expressing disappointment at the failure of the top guys to finish. I have to agree with them but with a few caveats. When someone with Nick Clarks skill drops after 20 hours of running and with relatively so little of the race to eek out for a finish (let alone being in 9th position at the time) it is kind of perplexing. Surely finishing farther down the field is better than not finishing at all? Mike Woolfe fell off of the pace considerably but pushed on to the finish line. Hal Koerner went 'one better' and blew up much earlier and took what should have been a top 10 spot at the very least for a runner of his calibre, out to a 38 hour finish!!!! I have a lot of respect for him for doing that as well as for Jorge Pacheco one of the finest ultra runners in the US who will always grind out an appalling (for him) finish time rather than drop out if he can possibly avoid it. Having said all of that, I also cannot understand people who go on to the blogs of runners like Nick Clark and start ranting at him. Nicks decisions during his races are none of their business. Criticising a runner of that ilk for dropping, when he backed a sub 16 hour Western States into a podium finish at Hardrock inside of 12 days, is so pointless it defies belief. It wouldn't even be worth commenting on, except that there are quite a few people who have decided to take a pop at him following the outcome of the UTMB. Secondly and most importantly, general public/ ultrarunners have to remember that the top guys are competing at the very top in a handful of races. Winning one of them is enough to secure a sponsorship deal and we are not talking about people sitting on amassed fortunes here, most elite runners have families to look after and bills to pay just like the rest of us. If they can save it for a day when they can fly at their best again rather than taking a 2 - 3 month recovery period after a 12 hours slog just to finish then they will. Most of us aren't aware of having that decision to make. Still for me, it does make me smile thinking that it isn't just us slower guys who have bad days....

Let's be honest, UTMB is not the hardest race out there, but it is very close to it. With the international depth of field and calibre of finisher once again this year, it is obvious that no US or other European race is able to keep pace with it as a 'World Cup' of trail running. It will be interesting to see how many of the top guys make the trip again next year but I sincerely hope they all continue to do so and that their sponsors back them in to it. Killian and Lizzy as winners together are world class in all respects. However so are all of the other top guys and the Europeans creating things like this http://i.imgur.com/umsH2.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/umsH2.jpgshould really hold back because as with every other sport, it will only be a matter of time before someone from across the pond comes over and wins it just like Jez did last year!!!!!!


It's great to finally be back in the UK for a while and looking forward to seeing other people battle their demons out on UK ultra courses over the next few months.

Leadville 100 Race Report

Leadville had always been high up on my list of dream races. As it was we flew out to the mountains, the Tuesday before the race and I was beaten up from a weekend of high stress and almost no sleep at our NDW races. I had finished sweeping the course in darkness on the Monday night having run the last 17 miles with a pack and a pair of scissors clearing everything from the trail, but I was ready to lay it on the line again for another buckle!!!



A good friend of mine, Hully, who had come over to London from Sydney to run the NDW, was flying out also to crew for me through Leadville After a 10 hour flight, we touched down in Denver and he drove us the 4 hours up in to the mountains. Our accommodation for this one was a huge house situated just off of the main street, which we were sharing with Drew Sheffield and Tim Adams, two British ultra runners with bags of experience. When we arrived we hit the sack almost immediately in our designated room, a huge children’s bedroom up in the loft space complete with 4 separate single beds, some kids desks, a VHS player and an 80s TV.



Leadville, Colorado, prides itself as being the highest incorporated city in America at 10,152 feet above sea level - to be honest there isn't a lot more to say about it other than that. I’d been to the Rockies twice before and struggled both times to breath during sleep the first couple of nights. This time was no different and I woke up a few times gasping for breath. It sounds dramatic but it is pretty disconcerting waking up and having to think about breathing… Hully drove Tim, Drew and I over to Twin Lakes the following day and we spent some time messing about on the stretch that serves as mile 40 – 43 and 57 – 60 on the out and back route. This section is the lowest point on the course at 9000 feet above sea level, but in the midday heat it felt very hard to get moving. Running at altitude was clearly going to be a major issue and we hadn't really left time to acclimatise properly so it was all about just going for it with everything we had. All of the pre race literature suggested coming out to Leadville for 3 weeks prior to the race but that just isn't feasible for normal humans. Out on the trails we took it really easy, made our way over and back through the knee high river crossing, as we would do on race day, and aborted the climb up Hope Pass after all of 200 yards. Thank god we didn’t go any higher as if I’d gone back to Leadville knowing what was actually in store for us on race day I would maybe have had a panic attack. After an hour or so messing about on the trails we drove up to 12,000 feet and lazed about (Drew didn’t – he hiked up to 13,000 feet) to try and help speed up the acclimatisation process.



Thursday we hit registration and weighed in, then attended a pasta dinner at which the legend that is Marshall Ulrich gave us a quick talk through some of his Leadville experiences and his book 'Running on Empty'. Marshall's most outstandingly insane feat was having completed Leadville in 21 hours, before driving to Pike's Peak to run the Marathon there the same day.  Drew managed to get him to give James Adams, a friend of ours currently just 4 days from completing the LA to NY footrace, a call on his mobile. That left only the pre race briefing for Friday which was, as usual with US 100s, way too long and overblown but gave me a chance to catch up with a few people from the Grand Slam.


It was awesome to finally be traveling to a big race with a good group of guys once again. It’s been a couple of years since we finished the 4Deserts as a team of 5 and in the interim I have travelled to the States 7 times to run 100s, mostly on my own. At each race I meet up with US runners whom I’ve got to know over the years, but sharing a big house made the whole pre race preamble that much more enjoyable.


Race morning came around and we got up at 3am. I like to leave the house at the last possible minute and was delighted to find that Tim and Drew were happy to do the same. I’m not overexagerrating when I say that we locked the front door ar 3:57am, 3 minutes before race start. We jogged to the back of the crowd, the shot gun blast came and off we went without pause. No time to get cold!


Tim shot off pretty much straight away, I don’t mind admitting that I did fear he would go too hard too early in his first 100 but he went on to totally blitz the course in an incredible debut. I knew that Drew and I would be there or there abouts all day and although we hadn’t spoken about running together we started off at a similar pace. With the help of some early bathroom breaks, we got split up within that first 13.5 mile section and cruised in to Aid Station 1: Mayqueen, just a minute or so apart. The three of us wouldn’t be more than an hour apart for the next 25 – quite incredible in a race of this length.


Those who read my Western States blog will know that I found it incredibly tough because I thrashed my quads to pieces inside the first 20 miles. On a 100 mile course with a net downhill of 23000 feet in total, that isn’t good planning. The first 13 miles of Leadville were downhill and flat but on a low grade, making time disappear. I left Mayqueen at 13.5 in about 2:25 and made my way up Sugarloaf mountain with Micah True, otherwise known as Caballo Blanco from the book ‘Born to Run’. He had a steady gait, running the hills but pacing only as fast as I could power hike. For a guy who is pushing the years now he is in great shape but man he did not smell good and after an hour or so of running with him I had to push on. A lot of people ran past me at the bottom of Sugarloaf giving me the ‘Jeez dude you’re walking NOW, there is NO WAY you will finish if you are walking here!!!!’ kind of look. Well I’m finally becoming a bit more experienced at 100 mile races (this was my 8^th)  and I trusted my judgement.


Sure enough in the 4 mile climb I ate back the crowd that came past me lower down who were forced into a walk by the later stages. The descent down powerline the other side is a steep and rocky/ rutted trail but I flew down it. The confidence in my downhill running was slowly returning, it’s always been the best part of my game and is the reason I have managed my better results in steeper trail races. I cruised down into the Fish Hatchery aid station at mile 23.5 in good shape and hully met me there with some more gels and a bag of cheese cubes - pure gold. I was still eating and drinking well out on to the 4 mile stretch of road to Half Pipe Aid Station and cruised all the way into Twin Lakes at mile 39.5 after a long grinding climb and an awesome quick 3 mile descent.

Down the Hill into Twin Lakes

The first 40 miles of the course had been forgiving, straight forward running in reasonable temperatures and with the help of Hully crewing me at each place, I had kept on top of nutrition and hydration. I realised I was finally starting to have a good 100 mile race, I had never had one before and I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.


I came down the iconic little bit of rocky trail into Twin Lakes outbound, had a quick pitstop to eat a bagel, some bananas, coke and crammed my pockets full of gels, crisps and sandwiches for the climb up Hope Pass. I also grabbed my poles. I wasn’t sure that I’d need them but in the end they were a big help in the section before I ditched them again at mile 60. On route to Hope Pass there are three water crossings and once significant river pass which soaked sore feet and left debris in our shoes. I pushed on and began the ascent of Hope which runs from 9000 – 12,600 feet in the space of 4 miles or so. Up and down is where I do best and I was immediately disappointed to find that on a stretch that everyone was forced to power hike, I lost ground to the dozen or so people around me. I couldn’t work out what was going wrong but I think on reflection that the altitude was finally starting to bite me a bit. The climb up Hope begins in the woods before breaking out into Mountain meadows at the top as you creep above the treeline and I knew I was nearing the aid station ‘Hopeless’ just shy of the summit, when I saw a runaway llama, used for fast packing the aid equipment up to the summit being chased by a volunteer. I came into the aid station and grabbed the same level of food as I had at Twin Lakes and moved straight on up the grinding last 600 feet to the top of the pass. Up here were just scree slopes and falling grass. Everything looked exactly as the photos of Hardrock do and it made me realise how much I want to run that race. The altitude really came in to play up here though and it was noticeably even harder to breath up there than down at the Lakes.


Just before I crested the mountain Ryan Sandes the men’s leader and eventual winner cruised back down the hill, paced by Anna Frost and we made way for them as they streamed away from us. Roughly 9 very hilly miles up on me by then it was actually a much better situation than I’d expected on no training. The descent into Winfield was totally unexpected and brutal. The pitch of the slope that side of Hope is something people don’t warn you about. It drops hard and fast and is pretty technical in places. At the bottom we were spat out on to the road for a 2 mile dusty run into Winfield Aid Station at mile 50, which I reached in around 11 hours. A great foundation to build on.

Winfield Mile 50: More Cheese

To think as I weighed in at that point, that I had to travel back to the point at which I’d started wasn’t anywhere near as horrendous as I’d anticipated and preapared for. I felt shitty for sure but I had a good feed, visited the gents, ate two more bananas, headed out onto the road and began the run back down to where we came off of the mountain. Leadville’s sting in the tail is the fact that it is an out and back and the climb back up the near side of Hope was twice as severe as the front side, made worse by the fact that it had begun to rain and I was getting cold. I was passing a lot of people still headed towards Winfield at this stage. The cut off to get there was 14 hours and some were cutting it fine.


The climb broke me twice on the way back up the mountain. I pushed as hard as I could without red lining but it was almost impossible to stay under the threshold and keep moving at any kind of pace. I wasn’t in a hurry but I didn’t want to labour up something that would slow burn my reserves. I did reach a balance but whether psychological or otherwise, I was struggling to get my breathing rate down by the top of the pass. Down the other side once again I pushed straight through Hopeless and ran most of the way down the back side of Hope towards the rivers and Twin Lakes once again, this time at Mile 60.


I came in to Twin Lakes in significantly worse shape than when I’d left it earlier but was still eating and drinking well and felt like I had gas in the tank for the last 40 miles. My one issue was that I was without a pacer and ideally wanted one for the long night ahead. As soon as I began climbing the short rocky ascent out of Twin Lakes, a huge bearded runner in a chequered shirt stormed up behind me with a pacer bib on. I asked him where his runner was and he mentioned he didn’t have one so was just headed off on his own accord. I asked him if he’d perhaps want to stick with me and to my utter delight he responded yes. The guys name was Brian Ricketts and he’d just come off a finish at Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and wanted a long training run before Wasatch in 3 weeks time. I’d struck gold much as I did with my pacer Jeff at Western States in that Brian had paced here before. We climbed up out of Twin Lakes and burned at a great pace all the way down to Half Pipe and Mile 70. I had to take a pit stop on route but other than that we ran pretty much the whole thing and I felt great.


Things only started to unravel once we hit Half Pipe, I quite quickly fell nauseous and just as we pulled in to the mile long stretch of people parked up watching runners come through, I started hurling. I puked most of the stretch whilst continuing to walk, silencing a lot of the clapping and cheering, but once I’d finished I said sorry to everyone and got a huge cheer which was pretty nice.


Brian and I ground out the 4 mile road section into Fish Hatchery Mile 76.5 and dropped the mile or so to the base of Power Line, the final climb in the story. Power Line is a brute of a hill, it is steep, rutted, uneven and worst of all has 4 false summits pushing you on higher every time you think you’ve finished the climbing. At the top I felt ropey and it was with a grimace that we shuffled down the other side. I noticed at this point that Brian was easily able to keep up with my running pace by walking but I stuck it out, tried not to look across at him and kept up the ultra shuffle. We then hit the single track and dropped down to May queen with just 13.5 left to go. I was very cold by this stage and knew that I had to get my core temperature up otherwise I may just manage to mess all the hard work up in the final throws. I grabbed some blankets and a chair and hully got me massive plate of pancakes and syrup and some hot coffee. I knew I had no hope of busting 25 hours at that point but also that I’d finish in good time so I spent about 20 minutes there getting back on track. I don’t think I’ve ever been at an aid station for as long (without being held back medically) so it felt weird and wrong but so good at the same time.

Pancakes at May Queen. The stuff of dreams.

Brian and I pushed on around Turqouise Lake which seemed to be neverending in the dark. When we finally came back out on to the road we could see a trail of headlamps back 6 miles behind us. We hit a steep descent where inexplicably the organisers had a photographer out at 5am in the pitch black shooting us coming through, and then began the slow climb from the 95 mile marker up to the finish, ascending all the way on dirt roads that we’d left town on 26 hours ago. We crested the final summit and could see the finish line back on the main street of the town ahead. I was trying to look out for Hully at that point so that we could finish the three of us together, but he was nowhere to be seen. It turns out we ran straight past him and he waited an hour and a half after I’d finished before coming back to the house to find us there. Whoops. Brian and I crossed the line in 26 hours 29 minutes to a small crowd and a very loud speaker. Finally done and a good race in the bag.


I loved this race – but primarily because I felt so good for 71% of it ( I can be precise because the nausea and vomiting came on very suddenly and undid everything as usual!). Much like Western it is a runners course and the 30 hour cut is a tough one to meet. In the end I finished 114^th out of about 627 starters. Only 50 finished for a 56% finisher rate and 100 of them were in the final hour. Drew and Tim both squeezed in under the 25 hour barrier for a three from three.


I owe this one to Hully, Brian and Tim and Drew, a great trip and thoroughly recommended. One word of warning though, we had blue skies almost throughout. If it had rained, this race would have gone from very hard to almost impossible. This isn’t Western States or Vermont, this is a mountain race and the weather can turn fast. All through the night preceeding the race we were in a huge thunderstorm with driving rain and freezing temps. Thank the lord we raced Saturday instead of Friday….


In case anyone is wondering, I would say on edge that Western States is slightly harder than Leadville, but there is very little to choose.....


For now that's it for my racing season. I have been injured for 8 months and need to give my body a decent recovery period so that I can get back on track for 2012. I would like to say it has been a total disaster of a year, but being able to finish both WS and Leadville in one summer is as much as I could have hoped for given two stress fractures and almost zero run training. It has been a year to remember in as much as I have learned a lot once again but am very grateful for being able to do what I have this year despite everything.