7:27 train this morning from Marylebone out to Wendover from where we would run the 45 mile Country to Capital Trail race back to Little Venice just outside of Paddington Station. This is a well thought out event replacing the original Tring To Town 45 which was my first ultra. In 2006 Jim and I, clueless and inexperienced, ran but mostly walked for 10 and a half hours with very heavy packs simulating 'Marathon Des Sables conditions', Making it to the end in the pitch dark 89th and 90th out of 94 runners respectively.
Go Beyond replaced Tring to Town with the C2C and last year I introduced a friend of mine, Pete, to the world of ultra running on a very wet and windy day. This year, mercifully, the Gods allowed us to cover the distance without once opening the heavens on us. We kicked off at 8:30am and made good time through the first aid station at 7.8 miles and again through the second at 17.5. The ground was thick with mud in places but bearable and didn't slow us down too much. Following on from previous posts, obviously my knee was my primary concern and to be honest f it had taken us 10 hours to get to the finish without knee trouble I would have taken it. We ran a lot of the first two sections with a guy called Ian Holdcroft and Claire Shelley who has signed for the NDW100 in August already. Ian is off to do the Atacama Crossing in March so it was nice to talk about my great experiences of that race through with him and the time went quickly. As a result when we hit the canal at mile 22.5 signaling the end of map reading duties it felt like we'd been out much less than the 3:45 or so on the clock. This was assisted greatly also by the strength I had in my knee.
Time can either drag down the canal or go pretty quick and for me today, it went quick. Pretty soon we were through the marathon point in around 4:20 and to the left turn indicating 13 miles to Paddington at the end, actually only 30 miles in to the race (its been short by 2 miles both times we've run it). Pete came a little unstuck at this point but then we were at least 45 minutes up on the 2010 effort by that stage and the sticky mud through the first 20 miles had undoubtedly created additional fatigue in the legs. We slowed to a walk periodically but I wasn't overly fussed given that all I wanted from today was to get 43 pain free miles in my legs. We went through aid station 4 at 33 miles and 5 at 37, where we hooked up with Hadley, an American runner who placed 2nd woman and 6th overall at last years Sahara Race, obviously a pretty impressive athlete. 6 miles from the end we were back to walking and I admit my heart sank a bit at the thought of another hour and a half on our feet to get to the finish, but as usual Pete came back strong and with 5 miles to go we ran it in finishing in a little over 7 hours. About an hour better off than last year. We capped the day off by meeting up with Drew Sheffield and Tim Adams, both of whom are heading out to Leadville in August with me and by finally meeting Mark Cockbain properly albeit briefly. It seems amazing the number of races we've both been at over the years, not to have met previously.
My nutrition today was horrible. I had a piece of bread for breakfast and followed that with 13 gels and 10 ibuprofen. I challenge anyone to put that lot in the system and feel good. I kept a handle on my hydration and regular gel inhalation because we were moving slower than I usually would have but I still have concerns about my ability to 'get it right' at RR100 and not get too behind in eating/ drinking in the first 50 which I tend to do through laziness. Slowly but surely I seem to be learning my lesson.
My legs tonight are good. No issues either in terms of muscle soreness or ligament pain. Tomorrow morning will be the acid test as to whether I've done any additional damage which 10 ibuprofens probably helped to mask. I do wish I could have a crack at Thames Trot this year as I'm pretty sure at a push I could have put an 1hr to an 1hr10 into todays 43 mile time and potentially take my 50 mile PB to sub 7 hours. The question is whether I can string that together and more to go sub 7:30 at Comrades and get myself into the silver medal bracket. Either way we had a good day out and I am delighted that my knee held up.
So back to it tomorrow, we'll see how it goes but one more decent training week and I'll start to allow my confidence to build a little in anticipation of RR100....
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