Pewsey Downsaround 2018

Race information

What? Pewsey Downsaround
When? April 22nd, 2018
How far? 36.14 miles
Where? Pewsey, UK
Website: https://www.ldwa.org.uk/Wiltshire/W/5380/pewsey-downsaround-2018-information.html
Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/1526416771

Goals

Goal Description 
A Survive - PASS!
B Complete sub 7 hours - FAIL!

Pictures

Saved story at here

Training

This is where the red flags fly! I the weeks leading up the the race, my entire family went down ill, including myself. During this time I managed a total of 6 miles in the three weeks leading up to the race...which is not good! This and having a severely stressed central nervous system are not a good thing to have going into an ultramarathon! So, training was severely lacking.

Pre-race

I felt really good on the morning. Sleep the night before was ok, I had a good breakfast and I was highly confident in the day. I had a wonderful journey up and a good chat about how I was going to hit it and my plans for the run. I had no nerves and no inclination that everything was going to go south...

Race

The first two hours went perfectly. I felt comfortable, had a great pace on and was relaxed and easing into the run. It was shortly after this time (which was shortly after the first food stop) that something wasn't right. I began feeling ill, wierdly sick like I had eaten something bad. I do not know what this was, but I assume that it was an sloppy egg/potato quiche thing at the first check point. This feeling was carried through the entire rest of the run, which severely limited my want and ability to take on board fuel for the rest of the run. In fact, after CP 2 (roughly 18 miles in) I had nothing to eat but a handful of Haribos.

During a downhill section around the 3 hour mark, I blew my knee out. My knee was injured coming into a run due to a grappling incident a few weeks previous. As you can imagine, this really limited my ability to move at pace and became incredibly difficult and painful to move up and down hills also...something that this entire run had in excess!

For the remaining 5 hours, I spent my time split between walking and swearing under my breath, shuffling and swearing under my breath and sitting on turnstiles swearing under my breath. As with any endevour I undertake, I believe that ego is what got me through the day, as I refused to quit at any point as I continued to move forward, whilst swearing under my breath. The biggest problem was getting from a walk up to a running speed time and again. With all the stiles to climb, gates to open and move through and slight navigation problems, it felt like everytime I was just getting up to a good running pace (for the condition I was in at least) I would have to stop.

My finishing times was 8 hours and 26 minutes, a good 2 hours longer than I had expected.

Post-race

When I got to the finishing hut, my good buddy was waiting for me to take me home. She had been waiting 3 hours for me as she finished a shorter route much, much earlier! I grabbed a bowl of cheese and chilli and got into the car.

On the way home I whined, I suggested I was never running again and that included the rest of my ultra schedule for the year. Thankfully, retrospect, statistics and race read outs have since whipped that thought from my mind and I am raring to get into the next ultra. I am on a new training plan, I am already lifting weights to rehab and strengthen my knee, getting my distance running plan dialed in ready for the next race.

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.