Mendip Marauder 2018

Race information

What? Mendip Marauder
When? August 4th, 2010
How far? 50 miles
Where? Frome to Weston-Super-Mare, UK
Website: https://www.albionrunning.org/mendip-marauder
Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/1750018436

Goals

Goal Description 
A Survive - PASS!
B Complete sub 12 hours - FAIL!

Pictures

Saved story at here

Training

Not a lot of specific training was done for this one.  Two weeks earlier I had completed the Race to the Stones event (62 miles) and felt perfectly fine afterwards. I had a few tiny runs in the two weeks between, but mostly just went into this one feeling just fine....bar the poor sleep in the few nights leading up!

Pre-race

Where to start! Nice breakfast, plus coffee and then my step dad picked me up and took me to the start line. Here was the first issue...NO TOILETS! What would I do without my traditional pre-race poop?! We hopped back in the car, found a local supermarket and did the business. Then made our way back to the start where I devoured a pre-made breakfast burrito and got my number plate. 

Race

The race was wonderful. The views and the weather were perhaps the best in any ultra I have run this year. Having never really spent any time in Frome or Wells before, I was astounded how beautiful the towns were.

The first 13 or so miles flew by and I managed to keep a nice, slow pace during this time, around the 10 minute miles. The first check point was seen and it suddenly became quite clear the difference between a local ultra race and a commercial ultra race. No toilets and minimum food choices and no mass sponsorship posters anywhere! It was also at this check point I realized my water bladder had a hole in it!

The entire run can be summed with two things: navigation and lack of mental strength. I added a good 5 plus miles to the day due to going the wrong routes and doubling back! As the race got longer, I refused to double back and started just trying to cut across gardens and forests to get back on what my watch suggested was the correct route. I believe I lost a good two hours with inept navigation on my behalf and pesky locals pulling down the route markers! I was not the only one that had this issue, as many times I was running one way only to see a dozen or so people running towards me who had gone the wrong way!

The mental aspect was huge during this run. My feet took a battering this race, much more than any other race this year. The traditional "wtf am I doing running these races" circulated my mind many, many times and my pace utterly slowed for a good few hours as I turned my run into a more grumpy walk. The last 2-3 miles I was able to work with my grumpiness and get a bit of pace back onto the run, but really the times I was hoping for were already long gone!

This race had it all, huge climbs, technical inner-forest trails and everything in between...finishing on a beach!

Post-race

This is the first time I had any post-race issues. I sit here a week later and I have barely done anything due to leg and foot ache and, to be frank, lack of motivation.

After my step-dad had picked me up and took me home, I hobbled into the house realizing I was several thousand calories out of the hole. So I mustered up some strength and took myself to Miss Millies and ordered what felt like all the chicken, hobbled home and watched Netflix in the bath whilst eating far too 

Looking back at the race, bar the Portland Coastal, this is the race I am most looking forward to running again next year. The route was gorgeous and I really enjoyed the day completely. The un-official check points that sprouted up were amazing, as were so many other aspects of the day.

Charity

As always, I am raising money during this ultra season for the wonderful local charity, Jessie May. Jessie May is a Children's Hospice at Home service caring for local terminally ill children. They provide vital respite care, emotional support, end of life care, and bereavement support alongside family events that help create treasured memories for local families. Jessie May Nurses work throughout Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Wiltshire, Bath & North East Somerset.

If you would like to help, you can donate here or help me get the word out by sharing this blog entry and/or my dedicated instagram page located here which is dedicated to my training and my races that I am running.