Report on the South Downs Way 100: Self Supported

I blogged about this journey a couple of times in the lead up to it. I was probably the most excited I've been all year to get out and run.

On Saturday morning after our TRA AGM in Swindon, I scooped up Neil Bryant from the station and drove down to Eastbourne. Neil and I didn't know each other particularly well, in fact we'd only properly met once - at our NDW100 last year where he finished 2nd - but as he remarked during the course of the run, what an amazing community the ultra running one is that we could just hook up and tackle an experience like this together. Neil was looking to 'trailblaze' the SDW in it's entirety, checking in at little dibber boxes which record your time and journey at roughly 10 mile intervals along the trail. He had previously run the first 88 miles of it in his first attempt and was back to finish it in one go. 

We managed to park within 10 yards of the trail head which was ideal and after about 5 minutes of getting our gear together, we were off on our journey to Winchester.

The idea was to run the trail self-supported. Now I don't want any 'purists' coming down on us for using that turn of phrase! We weren't being picky and minimalist, it's just that we were pretty happy going about things at our own pace, without any time pressures at all. When you haven't got a crew, an ETA or any onward journey plans, you can totally switch off from everything and just enjoy running for runnings sake. As it turned out we relied almost entirely on what we had in our packs from the start, with the exception of pit stops at Alfriston, Pyecombe and a farm near Exton. 

The first section of the SDW runs across the 7 sisters up to Alfriston. Having never run together before there was always a chance that we were going to struggle to find that magic 100 mile pace - where you hold enough in the tank to be able to run the same speed all the way through, but without being too slow over the initial sections where you feel great. Neil is a phenomenally talented runner having probably his best season ever and I was well aware that if anything, I would be slowing him down rather than the other way around. That being said I was hopeful that I could stay within about 10% of Neil's pace and therefore that we wouldn't have any major issues sticking together. 

As we got going through Seven Sisters park, the hills and hours just seemed to fly by. The sun was out and it was warm but not too hot and the views, as always, were just stunning. 

White Horse above Littlington

We made great time right from the off and reached Alfriston at mile 12ish pretty quickly. Knowing that the next chance to get any supplemental food would be Pyecombe 20 miles further on at best, I scooped up a mars bar and ate it on the move. Neil, on the other hand, was running his own little nutritional experiment which I got a great deal of enjoyment from witnessing. My pack contained 30 gels. Neils contained bags of nuts, cheese, chorizo and olives. He was making a go of running 100 miles on protein alone. Our two strategies could not have possibly been any different but it seemed to make no odds at all.

We departed Alfriston and made our way up to the radio masts overlooking Newhaven to the South and the Weald to the north, the hills bustling with paragliders making the most of the weather. We dropped down the other side into Southease at mile 19ish, re-stocked our water and pushed straight on to Housedean Farm (mile 25ish) and the next tap. In that regard, I can't think of a better trail to have a go at running self-supported than the SDW. I wasn't 100% sure on all the tap locations and distances, but I was fairly sure on them and honestly, there are enough out there not to worry about anything else. I would guess you can get access to water every 6 - 11 miles on average and we did pretty much just that, never stopping for more than a minute to fill up and re-pack the bags before pressing on.

The running was just incredible. I wanted to get out there and connect with the trail. That sounds a bit strange but I did want to make it more of a journey than one dictated around pace, splits, positions and schedules. I think we both got that in spades over the course of the run. 

After Housedean there is a gradual climb up to the ridge connecting to Ditchling Beacon and we ran the whole trail. I think we'd both found our stride and were making really good progress. Nothing super quick, just steady progress and a nice conversational pace, probably about 5mph without fail. We hiked the steeper grades but otherwise seemed to run uninhibited the rest of the trail.

After Ditchling I hit a little bit of a low patch energy wise and my hamstrings began to talk to me but I knew that was just a dip in calories and salt. As we dropped down in to Pyecombe at mile 32ish, we made the decision to leg it across the A23 to the M&S in the service station down the road. This is where our team work came in. I knew where all the taps were and could navigate without maps the first 65 miles of the trail and Neil had the experience of his previous SDW trailblaze run behind him. He knew that the garage would be the last point we could get our hands on anything, probably until morning or even the end of the run so the extra half a mile or so and flirting with the traffic well worth it. We stood in the garage for about 20 minutes as I ate a bowl of pasta with three packets of salt mixed in & Neil ate 8 chicken kebab skewers and bought some scotch eggs. The only thing we had in common diets wise at this stage is that we both bought a load of cheese and devoured that too. 

Out of Pyecombe we climbed up and over the hill down to Saddlescombe Farm, re-filled with water and then climbed up to Devils Dyke at mile 36. The sun began to set at this point and it was incredible to watch it die out from yellow to brilliant orange to red and then fade away to leave us in total darkness. 

Sun goes down over Ditchling Beacon

We couldn't believe it but not only did we not have a good moon to light the way, we had NO moon. It later appeared at about 3am absolutely HUGE directly behind us and bright orange. It was one of the weirder moments of the run....

At this point we were on the Three Forts Marathon course from last weekend and it was definitely still a little more churned up than elsewhere. It was also strange being back on the same trail just 6 days later for such a different sort of run. We finally succumbed to the dark just after Botolphs at mile 38ish and switched our headlamps on, restricted to that all too familiar bubble of light for the next 7 or so hours. 

We made our way to Washington (mile 46), over to Amberley (mile 52) and up to Bignor Hill (mile 58) all completely uneventfully and at a really good clip. We hadn't slowed down at all so our 2 hour first 10 miles had quickly become not much more than a 12.5 hour 100km which was great. By this stage my stomach was all over the place and I had to stop 3 times in quick succession for pit stops, but Neil just walked on down the trail, I caught him up again and we carried on running. It was like we'd run long distance as a team 1000 times before. At around 2am we could hear a free party going on in the woods not too far away, ran through a field of waist high bright yellow rape crop and saw a heard of deer running across the top of Harting Downs - all of which were pretty surreal moments. As we came through Harting Downs and the light started to come up I asked Neil what the giant obelisk on the side of the hill directly across from us was all about. Pretty sure it was just a small hallucination but a pretty good one nonetheless.

Neil in the fields

As the sun came up we were met with clouds of freezing fog but only in the lower reaches of the trail. We'd run along the ridge above and to the side of it and then drop down into the patches that were covered in it where the temperature was a good few degrees cooler. 

Low Lying Clouds coming through Harting Downs

From Harting Downs I knew it was about a marathon to go and we were still moving really well, no enforced walking breaks at any unnecessary points (ie. where it wasn't at least quite a long or steep climb, relatively!) and no stops for anything at all. My energy reserves were low though at this stage as I'd been rationing my gels unnecessarily tightly and I did hope that as we came in to QEC Park with around 22 miles to go, that we'd find the cafe open. At 5:40am we cruised down towards the visitor centre and saw the first other people anywhere for the last 50 or so miles and they were cooking bacon and egg sandwiches on a barbeque. I couldn't believe it. We wandered over and asked them if they would sell us something and to my disappointment they said we'd have to wait a half an hour to see what was left from when the rambling club had come through and taken their share. No way we were doing that, so instead we ran on to the visitor centre and sat down for 5 minutes where we had a scotch egg each. The stuff of dreams.

Scotch Egg at Mile 80

The sun was really coming up as we crested Butser Hill with around 20 miles to go and it was finally time to shed lights and jackets and get the job done. We pushed on to Exton and ran almost everything, I knew though that I was marginally slower than Neil would have been on his own at some points at this stage. For 80 miles in to a run, I felt good, just that little bit less quick than Neil but it didn't really seem to make any difference. We both just got on with the job at hand and cracked on to Exton. Just before the village, we came upon a farm selling tea, coffee and brownies at about 7am for some fishermen - it's amazing what you can find out on the trail - so we went in and treated ourselves. Neil got some fresh milk which seemed to make him pretty happy and I got some sugar which made me equally so. 

As we came in to Exton we were met by a good friend of mine, Paul Bennett, who'd got up early to meet us at QECP. We'd blown our estimated times so far out of the water by this stage, however, that he met us 10 miles closer to home than he'd intended. He about turned, we made it through the last trailblaze dibber point and climbed a steep pitch up out of Exton to the final 10 mile section of trail. 

With the sun up, Paul's company and some energy inside, I think we both felt tired but happy that the job was done and we reveled in the last section. We ran a good deal of it but were less fussy about how steep a hill had to be to warrant hiking. That being said we didn't let up too much and we crested the final hill overlooking Winchester at around 11am or 21 hours after we'd started. 

Running Down into Winchester

The final few miles

Scaring some horses at mile 98

We wound our way down and across the M3 and in to Winchester town centre where the trail peters out and found King Alfreds Statue where we stood around trying to locate the final trailblaze dibber point but alas it had been torn off of the waymark post. That was it, our journey was over.

At the statue in the centre of Winchester

All in all Neils Suunto ambit came up with around 3855m of climbing for the 100ish miles in a total time of 21 hours 27 minutes - all in one clean push. I'm pretty proud of that and particularly in how well we handled everything.

Blessed with brilliant sunshine, a cold but not frigid night, great company and good footing for the most part this was an experience I will never forget in almost perfect conditions. I would thoroughly recommend 'journey' type runs like this to anybody willing to give it a go. I think I knew deep down that I was ready to tackle 100 or so miles of trail without any specific reason to do so, but I wouldn't have been ready to do that a couple of years ago. Packing for the run took no time at all, it was just basics really but in poor weather and with less access to water, I'd have needed more. 

I can see myself doing this kind of thing more often, perhaps with the intention of doing one trail in it's entirety each year. 

So after 3 ultras in three weeks it's two weeks of downtime until we fly to South Africa for Comrades. I can't wait to get stuck in to something so completely different from this weekend. I guess that's what this crazy but incredible sport is all about.

Tomorrow

So it looks like we've been lucky with the weather. To be honest I don't really care either way but when it's warm and dry up on the downs, that's when they're at their most glorious.

Going to find it hard to concentrate during tonights Trail Running Association AGM but i'm looking forward to having a good catch up with Dick Kearn.

Everything is packed now and the kit is light and as minimal as I could make it I think.

30 Gu Gels
20 S! Caps
North Face Endura Boa Pack
1.5l bladder
Shit Kit (toilet roll in a ziplock)
Silva Compass
North Face Jacket with hood
2 x Petzl Headtorches
T Shirt
Moeben Sleeves
Shorts
Drymax Socks
Montrail Mountain Masochists
£20 cash

I last posted a music video about a year ago. It seems the done thing though if you want to be considered as a real runners blog. Or if you want to look back on things in a decades time and see what you were listening to then.... I'm finding the Maccabees incredibly inspirational right now....

Running the South Downs Way: Self-Supported

Things have been going well the last few weeks. A fortnight ago we had a great weekend away at the Highland Fling, then this past Sunday I was fortunate enough to be able to pace a coaching client of ours and a tremendous athlete - Tracey Horne, to a 3rd place finish at the Three Forts Marathon.

The South Downs Way was a boggy quagmire which slowed everybody down somewhat, but that's part of the fun. With my unbeatable combination of Montrail Mountain Masochists and Drymax socks I have suffered zero blisters during the past fortnight of significant mileage.

That is good news because this weekend, Neil Bryant and I are going to attempt to run from Eastbourne to Winchester on the South Downs Way.

I can't begin to describe how excited I am about this run. There is something so inherently appealing to me right now about leaving the watch and the world behind, setting off on an adventure which involves doing only something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other until we reach the other end. Nobody to count us in, no pressure to reach a certain point at a certain time and freedom to move uninterrupted and as a team over what I truly believe is the most outstanding trail in Southern England.

All in all the South Downs Way footpath is just over 100 miles in length. I would dearly love to reach the far side in one unbroken and continuous forward movement having relied on nothing other than ourselves and a few local shops on route.

Neil came up with the idea as part of his continued efforts on the trailblaze scheme. Just a few weeks ago he found himself at Exton, 88 miles in, forced to withdraw due to a confluence of circumstances out of his control. So he emailed me afterwards and asked if I wanted to have a crack at it with him. Yes I did.

Neil is fast becoming one of the most talented ultrarunners we've got. Not only have his 2012 results been fantastic, he is I believe the most prolific high performing ultrarunner in the UK right now. Can I think of anyone better equipped to be doing this with? I really can't.

Even as little as a year ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of dropping a run like this in to the calendar, especially so close to the big summer racing season. Since we've moved out of London and I've had more time to do things at my own pace, I've noticed my focus has changed a little. When I started running I quickly built up a tick list, as most runners seem to do, and started working through it one at a time. A good number of races off of that original list have been finished. A few are still to come, but whereas that was all I was in to 5 years ago, right now I'm just enjoying running for pure running sake. The goals have changed, in fact, with a lot of races packed in to a short period of time, I find myself resenting the calendar for not allowing me to get out on my usual local trails as much.

So this weekend is an experiment in so many ways. There are a lot of unanswered questions. Will we make it? Are we going to run out of food or water during any stretch, particularly overnight? How are we going to function as a team? How muddy is it really going to be? I can honestly say I haven't bothered to worry or even try to answer those questions. I don't see the point. This is probably the most simple task I've given myself in running terms this year. If you don't have to worry about logistics, what is there left to think about? If we don't make it, run out of food or water, get stuck in horrendous mud, it doesn't matter. It's all just part of the adventure. And if I find myself hankering for a finish line, well I'll only have to wait another 3 weeks to be standing in Durban on the other side of one.

Afterwards it will be back to the rigid structure of recovery, training, taper, race, repeat as I try and negotiate the hurdles of Comrades, The West Highland Way Race, UTMB and Spartathlon but if this summer goes well, I am left with just three of the original races I had listed out*. I hope this journey has a longer lasting impact on where I decide to take my running however....

* Incidentally the only races still left to run off of my original bucket list are: Hardrock, GUCR and the Iditarod Invitational.

Highland Fling 2012

I'd heard a lot about 'the fling', but mostly from Drew Sheffield who kept telling me the race was the best of the best so after years of leaving it off the calender I decided that along with the West Highland Way Race, 2012 was the year for it.

With respect to my old favourite Country to Capital, London to Brighton (trail) and a few other smaller, regional events, I hadn't ever raced a top level UK ultra. By top level I mean in terms of depth of field and history. Keeping an eye on the start list the past couple of months, it was obvious that the race was attracting a lot of high calibre runners from both north and south of the border, as well as a few from the continent with Hoka on board as chief sponsor. It is always nice to be part of a race that stretches away at the front and gives you an opportunity to see, albeit fleetingly, some truly classy runners negotiating the trails.

The Fling begins in Milngavie, a suburb of Glasgow and wends its way 53 miles almost directly north to Tyndrum. Milngavie is where the West Highland Way trail begins, with a huge fixed kite banner just off of the high street leading you out of the town and straight on to trails up in to the hills. The WHW ends up in Fort William, 95 miles away and 42 miles further on than Tyndrum, so the Fling makes use of the first 'half' of the waymarked route.

A little group of us travelled up on the train on the Friday morning and arrived in to Glasgow just before lunchtime. Alex Pearson, Claire Shelley, Drew Sheffield and Clive Steffen. Race start was Saturday morning at 6am for the ladies, 7am for the Male Vets and 8am for the Men so that the trails weren't too crowded.

From the off, the pace was really hot at the front. Whilst we hadn't spoken in depth about it pre-race I think Drew and I both knew that we were going to stick together and see how the day worked out. For me, that came with the added bonus that Drew has run the course numerous times as part of this race and the full WHW. It seemed like he knew where pretty much every stone on the course was so all I had to do was run around enjoying the scenery which was spectacular with snow capping the higher peaks dropping down to the trail.

To begin with we were trailing just behind Richie Cunningham. Richie has won the WHW and regularly posts 8 hour times on the fling. Smart running? Nope. But it felt ok pace-wise so we went with it. It turns out Richie has got one pace - fast. A big group of guys cruised away at the start making up 30 secs per mile or so on Richie and by the time he was done he'd put an hour back in to them (at least). Incredible. As he came past us at about mile 7 I said to him, this is too easy for you!, his reply? 'Aye it's a piece of piss'. Somehow you knew he wasn't joking or being arrogant - it genuinely was. The first 12.5 miles to Drymax aid station were pretty flat and fast, a mix of trail, tarmac and crushed gravel but quite quickly we got into a section of gates. How Terry Conway and Ludo Pommeret, eventual 2nd and 3rd Place finishers got to 12.5 in 1:22 with all that stopping is beyond me.

Anyway as we rolled in to Drymax we didn't break stride pushing straight through in 1:37. We carried on up the trail through some de-forested woods and then hit more rocky and slightly technical trail which led us up to the base of Conich Hill. Everyone kept talking about this climb/ descent in pre-race conversation and we took it very sensibly up and even more sensibly down. The rocky trail was pretty slippery so it made better sense to veer off in to the thicker grass to the side, and once we were down we hit a great stretch of downhill woodland trail, easily the best of the day and came barreling in to Balmaha at mile 20 in about 3:07.

The aid stations at the fling only stock water, so everything else is laid out in drop bags that you hand in at the start. My sole nutrition for the race, as usual, was GU. 20 gels allowing for a 10 hour finish. We grabbed our bags and pushed straight through the car park having stopped for maybe 30 seconds - so far everything was working seemlessly. It didn't feel like we were working too hard at any stage, just rolling along at a good pace and I was having a ball. It was on the section to Rowardennen here that the sun got a little higher and inevitably things became a little harder. The trail was still pretty quick as it began to wind its way down the side of Loch Lomond. There were some steeper short sections but nothing that lasted too long. At about 24ish miles, Drew hit a low patch and I pushed on ahead by a few minutes still feeling pretty good. When I reached Rowardennen, mile 27, there were people everywhere. It looked like some were resting, some were taking on food and some were done for the day, certainly a few earlier starters were taking more time here to re-stock which was pretty sensible.

Again I motored on through without stopping and began what turned out to be a pretty steady climb for a couple of miles on gravel road. Once through there the trail returned again along the side of the loch and rolled its way down into Inverglas at mile 34. At mile 31 I hit a huge bonk and felt shocking. I had still been hitting the downs pretty hard and hiking the ups but I my one bottle strategy seemed light. I ended up getting in to the loch to scoop handfuls of water over my head in order to bring my temperature down as I wasn't drinking enough. Coming in to Inverglas I was pretty spaced out but I thought I could turn it around with a couple of gels and some S! caps. If I'd known what the next few miles were like I would have thought better of that.

Once you pass the hotel it's six miles or so on to Beinglas, but the first 3 miles or so are over a pretty slippery, rocky and rooty trail with some not insignificant drops. Whilst it doesn't last forever and certainly isn't a race breaker, it is extremely technical and only the nimblest could consider running it - mid bonk there was no hope for me and i ended up spiraling deeper in to the hole. I hadn't felt like we'd gone fast during the morning but on reflection I was probably 75Kcals per hour short of what I should have eaten and a good litre or two of water down. Out of the other side of the boulders I fell on the trail and rolled on to the side and once I'd picked myself up, Drew suddenly appeared behind me having come back to life. As he came past I knew it was a good moment to MTFU and hang on to him in to the next aid station.

Following Drew down the hill into Beinglas Mile 40

I managed it and took on as much food and fluid as I could carry out of Beinglas with 12 miles to go.

In the end it took me a bottle of coke, 3 gels, half a litre of water and some S! Caps to pull out of it, and at about mile 48 started feeling great again. Typical. By that stage we were within a few miles of the finish and Drew had some pretty serious cramping issues and from the the amount of salt on his shirt it was pretty obvious he was running short. We knew we had a sub 10 hour in the bag and didn't feel any undue pressure to race it in so we continued pushing along at a steady pace and eventually rolled over the line in a very controlled 9:45.

Finally feeling good again. Just in time to finish. (note drews 'cramping' face)

I can safely say that I felt better at 53 than I had done since mile 31, which goes to show that however long you may be in bonk hell, you can pull out of it and your fortunes will change again at some stage. That I took so long to come around was purely bad race management, but as with all ultras I am dead against carrying more than I need. Sometimes dipping slightly below the right level is better than carrying too much, but at the weekend I played that fine line a little too close. It was certainly excellent prep for the WHW race and with some very small adjustments I'm sure I can have a good race there.

The Fling is an excellent race. Great value, incredible trails, glorious sunshine (only an hour or so of gloom and hail), good competition and great company made this a truly awesome race. I can't wait to get back in June and run the whole trail!