Getting bollocked off Garmin

Getting back to running after Covid wasn't too bad but unfortunately it put me back by about a fortnight. The Garmin coach Amy said yesterday was a 6 mile easy run but for me an easy run means walking all the time because my heart rate goes too high. I decided to bin her off to a certain degree and just run comfortably, ignore heart rate and if I needed to walk because of the hills I would do so. I wasn't expecting much... I haven't ran 6 miles without a walk break for 12 years.... Shocking as that is, I had a plan before and that worked for me but now I want to change it all!!!! The run was absolutely great. I felt comfortable throughout like I could hold a full conversation without pausing for breath. My breathing was slightly laboured going up one of the hills but nothing that could be classed as too strenuous. Now bear in mind, I was slow. Very slow... but I came back feeling good with no walk breaks and I didn't feel like I needed to lie down in a dark room to recover! Garmin wasn't impressed! Despite feeling like it was more or less a walk in the park, Garmin said I had overtrained, done a VO2 max run, had moved into unproductive training status, the run gave me "Room to grow" (not good!) and Amy had lost confidence in me. I wasn't discouraged. I've chosen to do things my way for a reason. So today was a 3 mile easy run. I chose to do a trail run (which I'm never ever really very good at) and for the purpose of actually trying to get fitter, I did chose to do this one to heart rate. To my surprise I was averaging 130's when I'm normally fighting to keep in under 140's, 120 downhill reducing to 111 and despite being trail, it wasn't until I got to 2.6 miles that I had to walk due to too high a heart rate. Maybe I am getting better after all. Garmin is still whingeing at me I've done too much but I'm pleased with how it's going so far!

It really has started…

Well, unfortunately due to Covid, Graeme and I couldn't go to Athens for my birthday. To say I'm gutted is an understatement! At the end of the day though, it is what it is. We had to cancel our trip to St. Lucia in February and on Saturday rebooked it for this June on one hell of a deal, and it all suddenly felt meant to be it was cancelled in the first place. Whilst wallowing in self pity, I started googling half marathons in August and full marathons for November. I was disappointed to see Bath half was moved to later in the year. It looks a good race! While looking through I happened to notice Athens Marathon in November... around the time I need to do one. I asked Graeme if he fancied it and it was a definite yes, I found Sports Tours have a great priced trip there (we have used them before) so we booked it straight away and paid half the money up front. It feels meant to be. So, it was very difficult in previous years to change my training completely. I had always trained and had in my head I was in it for the long haul. Determined, slow, but I'd get there in the end. Unfortunately that meant "fast" or "tight cut off" races were out of bounds to me and I had no confidence I could do them. I would give up on heart rate training because I felt I was getting nowhere. I would walk just as much as I would run (sometimes walking more than running) and felt a complete fraud calling myself a runner. Last week that hopefully started to change as I picked a tougher half marathon training which doesn't incorporate the run/walk method per se. Already my Garmin is telling me I'm productive and massively affecting my aerobic capacity. Maybe a few years off running is what I needed to wipe the slate clean and start again on a new footing? The Athens marathon is a tough one... the website says one of the tougher ones in the world. There is 19KM of uphill running followed by 11KM downhill in 21 degree heat. It's tough and scary, but it's perfect training for Comrades!

What am I thinking?

I can't stop thinking about it. It's consumed my thoughts for weeks. I thought I was done with running but there's a challenge I always wanted to do and the need to do it has never gone away. If I do this however, it means training in a way I've never trained before. It will be extremely tough, plus I will be training myself and there will be no coach to help this time. I've started with a half marathon training programme on Garmin to get me into the swing of things. I might look in shape as I'm only a size 8 dress size these days but I assure you I'm far from being in shape and did 6 miles today at a very slow pace because "easy" meant my heart rate was too high to run it all. I've got a long way to go!!!!

Beyond knackered!

I've had a really good week of training. I started the week with the goal of getting 3 training PBs by Sunday and I'm happy to say I got 6 instead. I managed to do better at most of my training sessions, including hang cleans, squats and deadlifts. It was a pure accident with the deadlift PB as I hadn't planned on it at all. I accidentally put an extra 2.5KG on the bar for my 3 sets of 15 reps with approx 50% of my 1 rep max PB. I called myself a few names wondering why I was struggling so much until I moved the weight off the bar at the end! Doh!

I attempted my "fastest ever" 1.5 miles on Saturday (with a back that ached like hell I may add!) and did it in 11.49. Now, I know that isn't so fast for some people but when I was 20 I had to pass this in the navy at a time of 13 minutes 30 seconds and literally scraped it by a few seconds. So... Not all people slow down with age ;-)

Today I planned my 15 mile (quite hilly) route and was gutted that there was 20mph winds. I wore 4KG of XL and was delighted to get a PB by 2 minutes and 40 seconds. My PB on this route without XL is now only 1 minute and 50 seconds faster... So, that should be achievable to break I think.

I got home afterwards however and could barely move. Not only is my back really sore with DOMS but my stomach and whole core is aching like hell too. After a 5 mile walk with the dogs I can confirm I'm beyond knackered and have had to miss my last exercise of the day (farmers walk). Thank god tomorrow is a rest day!!!!

Kit and kaboodle

I've learnt a lot during the 3 days at the fair race, and I've learnt a lot since.
Turns out I may not be "as" terrible in heat as originally thought and the glare of the sun may also be quite a big factor. After answering a few questions William emailed to me, I realised that sometimes if it is hot but dull weather I'm not as affected by it as much as I am if the sun comes out.

So, with this in mind, I have bought a couple of caps with a neck shield, I am considering also getting a wide brimmed hat for the same reason. I've got a long sleeved loose fitting white tech top and I've also tried out a skort today (first impressions were ok, I'm trying to avoid the irritating knicker line that shorts have).

I joined Strava (so I can log the longer type runs as Fetch doesn't really accommodate this facility as much) and I've finally looked properly at the stats of my race. I think getting faster isn't as much a priority... Becoming more consistent is more important. I need to stick to my run/walk ratios longer than I do. I know I can do this, it will just take practice and perseverance!

I did an interview with Runners for Life in India and it was emailed to me today. Feels very weird doing an interview... I don't quite feel worthy of it all. Makes me want to do better next time!!!
I went on my first run since the race today and it felt good apart from the last part which was uphill into a headwind. My feet are mostly back to being fine but I have issues with the big blister on the ball of my foot and the skin it has left. I've been lucky though as I know a lot of people have had foot pain after the race and mine went away very quickly. I've started reading "Fixing your feet" again and now that I know callused feet don't work I'm going to try the super soft feet... We shall see how I get on!

Constant dripping hollows out a stone (3 Days at the Fair race report 2015)

Last weekend was the 72 hour race, '3 Days at the Fair'. I had entered it a year ago after completing a 100 mile race and it had seemed a good idea at the time. As I walked through Grand Central Station in New York and thought about how I would cope with sleep deprivation, hotter days than I'm used to and generally keeping my body moving for that long, I came across an inscription on the wall which said, "Constant dripping hollows out a stone" I found this very apt considering what I was about to do and decided to keep this quote in mind for when the going gets tough. Before leaving the UK I had received a card form Kerry and Terry wishing me luck. The always send me a card and are two of the most thoughtful people I know. Every time I do anything "Big" they send me well wishes and I am always grateful they (as well as a lot of other people) have me in their thoughts

We drove an RV from New York to New Jersey and it was one of the most hair raising experiences of my life as my dads outdated sat nav took us through the centre of New York City. I was literally shaking inside at some of the close calls with other motorists and Graeme looked stressed to death. Once across the George Washington Bridge we were finally able to relax and I joked that the race would be a breeze compared to having to go through that again! We arrived at the Sussex Fairgrounds, the race venue in Augusta, and met Rick, the RD. He directed us to different places we could park the RV and as we looked around we saw the RVs we could have got but chose not to as we would have also needed to hire a car. Mental note for next time... get an RV there and drive normal car! We had quite a good sleep in the RV after buying some food supplies and meeting a few other runners who had popped over to set up tents and the like. We spoke to Fran and Tom, a lovely couple who have done this race a few times. They were staying at the hotel. We had booked the hotel for Sunday night as I thought a nice bed and big bath would be in order.

The next morning I was far more relaxed than I normally am at a race. We had breakfast and looked out of the window at the front of the RV and watched all of the runners congregating at the race start. I left it quite late to go down and register to get my bib. You didn't have to wear the bib if you didn't want to, as you had an ankle chip which was very comfortable to wear. I chose to wear the bib initially until I got to know a few other runners.

9am came and we were off on our 72 hour adventure. I did my 3 minutes run and 1.30 minute walk right from the off and tried to settle into a comfortable pace. I wore a jacket for the first loop until I warmed up and then discarded it, putting it on the chair where Graeme sat by the RV. This was to become my general dumping ground for the remainder of the race.
Normally this early on in a race I hate it if people talk to me as I am trying to get into a rhythm, however I slowed down or walked and chatted to other runners when they spoke to me as 72 hours is a long time to get into a rhythm and I decided not to get hung up on mile splits or anything like that at all. I ran behind a young lad called Jack and spoke to him and his mam Darlene. I asked Jack how far he wanted to run today and Darlene said he had high hopes for the weekend. I thought it was great that so many kids were tackling some serious distances and thought that they were amazing.

The miles ticked by, which I was glad about. I absolutely hate the first 20 miles of a race... You're doing a run/walk and everyone looks at you like you're a freak because you should be on much higher mileage by now. Fortunately it wasn't the case today as lots of people were run/walking and the first time I looked at the board I was 5th placed female (out of 20) and already on 16 miles. That makes a change... I'm normally 20th out of 20 at this stage!

It was about now that the sun started to make me feel really uncomfortable. I'm not good in the heat and although I try to do a bit of heat training prior to a race just in case it gets hot, I never put my heart and soul into this side of my training and often bail out of it. People had said it would be about 23 degrees today (which I felt I could cope with) but this felt hotter....

At was around this point I saw Joe running around the course. he was doing the "Beer 100".... Drink a beer, run a mile... repeat 100 times. He had 23 of the 100 drink bottles ticked off on the back of his t-shirt and he was in high spirits, laughing and joking with everyone on the course. He ran with a friend wearing sandals and was telling him he had asked his girlfriend to support him and come run 72 hours with him. He said she told him, "I fucking hate running man!", but he'd got her to agree anyway.

I ran past Graeme who had cracked open a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale... home from home! He was sitting in a deck chair listening to music and enjoying the heat. I put more factor 45 suncream on and carried on. I took my mind off things by people watching. There were some very impressive outfits on the route... matching gaitors and shorts, matching tops shorts and calf guards, matching caps and shorts... and that was just the men! The women looked amazing and there were some really lovely running skirts. One girl doing the 24 hour race even had diamante bits on her skirt. I felt like the poor relation from across the pond. Nothing on me matched... it was a case of, that feels ok... I'll put that on! Actually, I tell a lie, my first outfit matched as it was red shorts white vest and red cap... unfortunately the shorts got completely on my nerves around the knicker line so I changed into some black ones instead. I was really suffering in the heat now and looked on as I saw people with quite bad sunburn already. There was one very slim girl and the whole of the backs of her knees and calves were bright red. Some men ran shirtless and their shoulders were red raw. I noticed a lot of people wore caps with a sort of material guard to protect their necks from the sun. Others wore big floppy style hats which did the same job. I had put a lot of suncream on the back of my neck and I hoped this would have the desired effect.

It wasn't long before I needed to take a break and sit down. The sun was killing me and I needed to get out of it for a while. I sat in the RV with the air con on and had a freezing cold glass of coconut water. This was probably one of the wisest decisions I made, as when I got back out of the RV the sun had gone in and it was all of a sudden much cooler. It felt amazing to actually be able to run again and I ran along feeling quite comfortable. A few people who had stayed out trudged along still looking uncomfortable. The only person I noticed who looked amazing was Darlene. She had ran relentlessly throughout the afternoon and she was still running like the wind. She made it look comfortable and easy. I saw "Beer Joe" again and he was now on 26 beers. He told me he had cut his head and didn't know how. His girlfriend rolled her eyes and asked, "Does it matter how you did it?" He would pause and after a minute or two tell someone else he had cut his head and he didn't know how. His friend in the sandals listened patiently to him and about half a mile later when Joe told him yet again he had cut his head he looked at him totally shocked and said, "No way man...how did you do that?" It made me laugh out loud. I caught up with Fran who said she was having a tough time in the heat and was a little way behind her plan at the moment. Like me, she was hoping for a 200 mile belt buckle. I didn't have a clue if I even had it in me to get it, but it was my "A" plan on arriving here. Frans "B" plan was to get to 500 lifetime miles with NJ Trail Series, which meant she needed at least 178 miles by Sunday. I didn't really have a "B" plan... I suppose anything over 104 miles would be a distance PB for me, so I'd have to think about a plan "B" should the moment arise. At about 10 hours I was just over 41 miles and was starting to feel good as night time started to draw in. On previous races the night section had been my favourite part and I had prayed all day that it would be the same again. As time ticked by, it was proving to be my best time. It started to feel very cold however, as the sky was very clear with no cloud cover at all. I went through the start line and saw "Beer Joe" passed out and I chuckled again.

Graeme was flapping a bit and telling me I didn't want to get caught out freezing cold around the route, so I agreed to put on my X-Bionic warm jacket for now and a running hat, despite not feeling that cold yet. he was right though, and within about an hour I was frozen and had to put on a long sleeved top and another jacket. I also grabbed a pair of gloves. Graeme said he was going to have an hour sleep and did I have everything. I told him I would get any food or drinks I needed from the aid station and to take as long as he needed. I ran for quite a while trying to keep warm. A few other people commented on the drastic change in temperature and I said I thought it was because it had been so warm throughout the day and then a night without cloud cover had made it feel so much worse. I felt too cold and so went back into the RV for another warm top to put on top of everything else. Graeme slept right through it all, which I was glad of. I continued on for about another hour until I couldn't cope anymore and needed a hot cup of coffee. Graeme had been asleep for nearly 3.5 hours and couldn't believe he had slept so long and made me a coffee and put the heater on in the RV while I did another lap. Every lap I did I would continue around the out and back section before going to the van. This way, psychologically it felt great that I had already done the first 1/4 of a mile when I had finished my break. The coffee and sit down in the warm was very welcome and rejuvenated me. It wasn't long before I was on my way again. Constant dripping hollows out a stone... I thought about the quote and got my head back into it again.

I walked with a man called Pablo for a while and he was telling me about how people had made mistakes today by running shirtless when they should have worn loose long sleeved tops for a better effect. He told me about the hats that people were wearing with the section to ward off the sun from their necks and said they worked excellently ... mental note... buy one when I get home! We discussed taking breaks and he was of the opinion that around 6 to 9am was a good time to get a shower and relax ready for the next day. I said I was going to take a break during the hottest part of the day for day 2 and said I would do this between 2 and 4pm. He shook his head and said the only reason I had found that the hardest time was because I had already pushed my body through 12 to 2pm which was the very hottest part of the day and that is the time I should take. I thanked him for his advice and decided I would take it. At 5.30am I decided to take my first sleep break. The plan was to have 15 minutes to eat and drink something, sleep for 1 and a half hours and then have 15 minutes to get ready and get back out... total time, if all went well, would be 2 hours! I went into the RV, had a carton of chocolate coconut milk and some chicken flavoured noodles (a bit like a pot noodle) and I put my alarm on for 1.5 hours time. Graeme left the RV and went outside to support the other runners and I lay down and raised my feet. I had been getting a few blisters (which don't normally bother me) and although I was still fine running through them, felt them throb in sync with my heartbeat as I lay there. Exactly one hour later and I was wide awake. I had expected to feel terrible after a sleep but felt quite the opposite. I still took the remainder of the 2 hour break and enjoyed a cup of coffee, a sit down and a chat with Graeme. Before long it was time to get back outside and get my 24 hour target of 80 miles. I can't remember what mileage I was on at this point but I remember knowing it was doable with 1.5 hours to do it in. At 23 hours and 56 minutes I was on 81 miles... Day 1 target achieved... check! It was at about this point I went into the second place female spot too, however with so long to go and now moving into daylight and possibly sunny hot weather again, this wasn't something I was looking too much into!

Day 2 turned into a bit of a nightmare for me. It seemed very slow going and I often felt like I was running backwards. The heat started again after a promising start whereby we thought we were going to get away with a cooler day. Pablo had told me during the night that it had been 28 degrees yesterday and there was a threat it would only be slightly cooler today. I was dying. I was running out of coconut water too and Graeme took the decision to drive the RV back to the shop and get me some more, along with more Gatorade. I had drank some of the electrolyte drink the organisers provided called "Heed" however I didn't like it as much as the Gatorade or coconut water. He seemed to be gone for absolutely ages and I felt terrible and too hot. I had looked out for Pablo all morning but hadn't seen him at all. I hoped he was OK. I saw "Beer Joe" again, this time he was sober. He was walking along with his girlfriend and had given up on the beers. He said his head hurt! I spoke to Darlene who had done a fantastic 100 miles in just over 22 hours and was firmly in first place. I was back into third again and we talked about the second placed female and how fast she was during the heat. She really was quite phenomenal however she had lost time by having around a 5 hour break during the night. A lot of people had big breaks during the night but I had come here with the sole intention of sleeping as little as possible. I'm not a fast runner, so I needed to stay awake!...Constant dripping hollows out a stone!

I was most relieved to see the RV back after a couple of more loops and immediately went inside for a break and another sleep. I had done a pitiful 17 miles throughout the day and felt I needed a bit of a pick me up. To my delight Graeme had bought ice lollies and vegan chocolate ice cream. I sat down and ate some ice cream and really enjoyed it. What a blessing!

I had another break here and although I put my alarm on again for 1.5 hours, I awoke again after an hour so got up and got ready to go again. My shorts had been getting on my nerves and I took a pair of scissors to the pant lining and cut the elastic. It's funny how you can put up with something for a whole day, but over 72 hours you can't put up with it anymore. On the previous night I had totally massacred my 2XU tights and had cut the waist band to the point the tights are now knackered. I didn't care though, and I didn't care about the shorts either. I just wanted to be comfortable. Graeme told me I had taken the break at the perfect time as it was now much cooler. I left the RV with an ice lolly and the promise to Graeme that I would walk the first mile and then start building up the running sections.

I wasn't out very long when the desire to run hit and I started running all of the usual sections. The 72ers seemed to run most of the same bits of the course... the long out and back section with the cooling breeze, the slight downhill section past my house (RV), we all walked the very small uphill section and then ran the long slight downhill, then it was run/walk the flat bits (often picking points like running from the tree to the bird ornaments in the grass), walk the slight uphill and start jogging the dirt track bit. Then it was a flat section onto an incline where the startline was. I was feeling good, comfortable and was enjoying the running. At 33.5 hours I hit my all time distance PB of 105 miles and was encouraged by Graeme to ring the bell for a photo opportunity. I'll be honest, I'd never have rang it normally.

I felt a bit stupid but did it anyway. The bell was there for everyone to ring if they got a PB, whether that was by time, distance or whatever. Wherever you were on the course you could hear the bell being rang by someone and you often wondered what it was being rung for. As we were halfway through the second day you heard it much more often now. The night section was coming now and I was looking forward to it.

It was a much nicer night than the night before and I didn't wear any warm clothing. I was amazed that I was able to run through the night without a jacket. It seemed no time at all and I was at 121 miles and back in second place again with the other lady now resting. I had started to have a couple of hallucinations which surprised me as I didn't believe it would happen to me. I saw a penguin and when I got close realised it was a bin in the shape of a bottle. I also at one point saw the way ahead was blocked with a corrugated steel barrier. I was wondering where on earth to go but as I got closer I found it was just the colours of the path lit up by street lights that made it look like a corrugated barrier. At 130 miles I went for my morning sleep after persuading Darlene to do the same. She looked absolutely shattered and I told her it would do her the world of good. She was worried she wouldn't wake up but I promised her I would wake her... when I'd overtaken her!!! We had a laugh about it and I promised faithfully I would make sure she was up. She told me there were some big hitters here and they would all pull it out of the bag in the last day so we couldn't afford to drop our guard. My feet were very badly blistered by this point and the impact of landing on the soles of my feet were causing me some grief. I had taken painkillers to try and help but they hadn't worked at all. It was quite annoying that no part of my body hurt barring my feet. The rest of me was in great shape so it was frustrating that my feet were letting me down. I had put compeed plasters on all of the hot spots but the blisters still grew beneath them. I was at a loss what to do. For my 1 hour sleep I raised my feet again and dozed off to the feeling of my heartbeat pulsing though the blisters...

When I awoke I suddenly felt absolutely minging. I hadn't took a shower as had decided I wouldn't do this and waste time however I really felt the need for one now. I went into the shower and it felt absolutely amazing. It was worth the 10 or 15 minutes it took and I was very glad I had done it. I had a cup of coffee with Graeme whinging in my ear to hurry up and get back out running and so to shut him up I left half of the cup and hobbled out of the RV because my feet were in so much pain. The second I stepped out, number 2 female ran past and saw me hobbling about. DAMMIT!!!! She wasn't there long however and went in for a break. I was back in third again but within only 3 miles was back in second place. I'd been to wake Darlene up on my first lap but couldn't find her. I presumed she must definitely be out running and at some point found her on the route. She had been concerned she couldn't find me either and was worried I'd think she had gone off to get ahead without me. I finally saw Pablo again. He had been very ill for the whole day and had to keep going to lie down. He thought the heat from the first day had affected him. He was walking now and still didn't look 100%.
By 49 and a half hours I was just over 141 miles and sat in the RV having a break. Graeme had told me 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th female were all on 131 miles and I had pretty much given up the idea of placing anywhere at all. I had also given up the idea of getting to 200 miles as day 2 had resulted in only 54 miles when my target was 60. I would have to do 65 miles today to get the 200 mile belt buckle and I didn't think my feet were capable of carrying me that far and that fast. They were in complete agony and I had had a brainwave and wondered if icing my feet might make them feel better. The blisters were horrendous and all over the place but the impact of the landing of each footfall was really taking it's toll and was way more painful than the actual blisters. However, there was a very large blister on the ball of my left foot and although it was compeeded up, walking or running on it had been almost unbearable. I was still wearing the same pair of Hokas (Bondi B 4) that I started the race in but despite trying on 2 other pairs, found they were not as comfortable so I remained in the same pair.

I had managed to get all the medical stuff I needed into a wash bag and I felt like I was forever going into it for more compeed plasters or Sudocream for chaffing. I made the mistake of buying a travel size tube of the Sudocream and it was thin and runny and didn't really do the job like the original version does. Another mistake made!! As it was my last day, I didn't want to sleep much so decided to have only half an hour after icing my feet and raising them up. This again was a good move as I woke up feeling much more refreshed and my feet felt much better also. I changed my socks and as I hobbled out of the RV, number 2 lady ran past. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Graeme urged me to get running again as soon as I was capable. He knew I had resigned myself to getting "close" to 200 miles and that I genuinely wasn't bothered about getting in the top three female places but he kept saying he still thought it was possible.

Within a mile I felt great again and was already running. I genuinely can't remember much detail about this part, only that I felt quite good and ran more than I thought would be possible. The 157th mile was done in 11.02 and I couldn't quite believe I was capable of doing that speed this far into the race. I know that is relatively slow for a lot of people but for me it was fast! By 6.30pm I was on 160 miles and closing the gap again on 2nd place. Second place female now had a name. She was called Sarah and Graeme would give me updates on how she looked, how she was running, how fast she was, how far ahead she was. The woman was relentless though and would just keep going. I am not normally very competitive in races (to be honest I normally don't have cause to be being so far down the pack) but being this close to getting on the leader board made me very competitive. A massive thunderstorm came and the downpour was huge. I was drenched and ran a whole mile in it before coming into the RV. I had to take my t-shirt off outside as I would have soaked the RV floor and when I finally got inside my shoes were squelching to the point that when I took them off I had to pour water out of them. Graeme took my orthotics out and stood them next to the heater and packed my trainers with paper towels from the campsite bathroom to try and dry them out as best as he could. My feet were back to being in agonising pain again, obviously the wet had affected them badly. I tried icing them again but it was almost like they were past the point of being helped. The downpour stopped and I reluctantly put the damp trainers back on. I put on a pair of tights seeing as night time was coming and a long sleeved thin Gore top. I had to put a jacket on as it was still raining on and off but the temperature with what I was wearing was comfortable. I inched my way out of the RV and just rolled my eyes to see Sarah running past... it's like she was waiting to see how crap I looked!

By the time I had hobbled around to the screen at the start line I saw she was a long way ahead of me... about 7 miles or so. If she decided to forgo her nights sleep I would never catch her up! It took a long time to get myself pulled around at this point. My feet were not my friend! I spoke to Josh who was in first place and told him about my feet. He acknowledged the pain and said when he had done his 6 day race he had numb feet for a week afterwards. He ran with a shuffling motion, scraping his shoes along the floor with every step. This had initially annoyed me but I was now seeing the relevance. He, alike a lot of others, had put duct tape on the soles of his feet. Darlene said she swore by it and it worked a treat. I think I'd have been worried I would put it on wrong with a slight kink in it and cause more damage. It definitely made me think it was worth trying during a training run however.

I was in the mid 160's when Graeme said Rick had told him Sarah had gone for a rest. Graeme also decided to go for a break at this point and have a sleep, so he put clothes I might need by the door so I would find them easily if they were needed. I was back to running again and although my feet were very sore, I remembered what Josh had said and thought that the pain I was feeling was just normal and maybe I should just put up and shut up. I was only stopped in my tracks once when suddenly I felt like a needle had been pushed through my little toe... I knew what it was... a blister had burst. It really was bloody painful and it took about a mile for the pain to subside. I was at 173 miles when I realised I was back in second place. I was surprised and over the moon. I ran with Darlene for a while and she was on 194 miles and drinking a beer. We would run past Sarah's tent and I would jokingly sing softly "Rock a bye baby on the tree top..." I needed her to stay asleep for a long as possible. If anyone shouted over to Darlene or myself I would wince and hope and pray the noise wouldn't wake her up. After a while I ran on ahead as I wanted to create as big a space as possible between Sarah and myself. I also was now on to get my 200 mile belt buckle.

The night was very comfortable to run in and I felt about as good as you can with only 4 hours sleep this far into a 72 hour race. There had been a rodeo on and I was glad it was now over and all of the cars and trucks and people were gone. It had been quite disorientating trying to run around vehicles getting in your way. The rain was on and off for a few hours, sometimes heavy and sometimes really light but sometime around midnight it stopped totally and I was back to running in a long sleeved top again without the jacket. My first ache of the race (barring my feet of course) was a piriformis type pain on the left side. During Espoo 24 hour race, Jyri had shown Graeme how to deal with this if it happened again. I really wasn't convinced that a quick tutorial would result in him being great at suddenly becoming a physiotherapist but he did an absolutely brilliant job and fixed me up well enough to get me back out again and running relatively pain free.

I was on about 188 miles when my heart sank... Sarah was up and she was awake far earlier than she would normally be. Gutted. I ran past Graeme and he told me I had 4 hours and 45 minutes to keep her at bay and I was 15 miles ahead of her. I was off like a shot and ran a 12mm only to be told by Graeme to slow down and stop panicking. All I had to do was just keep moving forward and I'd stay ahead of her and not to go too fast. She was like lightning though and I was panicking. I ran past Darlenes tent and asked Jack where she was. She was out running... phew! I caught up with her on the following lap and as we passed each other on the out and back we said in unison, "She's up". Darlene added, "And she's fucking flying". As I ran up to Darlene on the downhill I motioned her to come with me but she said she couldn't run and I should come back and see her when I had used up some of that energy. I spent the next few hours watching her get closer and closer to me on the lap. It was taking her longer to lap me than I thought which gave me some confidence. I think I'd been out there quite some time before she overtook me and so was 14 miles behind now. This still didn't make me feel totally comfortable though but I did relax and started running my own race again.

Graeme was now out and about and watching the screen all of the time. Now it was all about getting to 200 miles. At around 7.30am I passed the 200 miles and was ushered up again to ring the bell. With Sarah on 188 miles now, she would have needed to run about 7.30 minute miles to catch me so I knew I had second place also. An all round great feeling! Graeme said I could just go and chill out now but I said no way... I hadn't entered a 70.5 hour race, I'd entered a 72! I walked for a mile with Darlene and we laughed and joked about the British words I came out with. She found the word "loo" hilarious and by the end of the lap I had her saying "arse". Proud moment! ;-) She was hell bent on getting to 218 miles and said I needed to "Move my arse" but I literally had absolutely nothing left. Suddenly every part of my body hurt like hell and I could barely put a foot on the floor without being in sheer agony. I persuaded her to go and get her 218 miles and I would do a lap with Graeme. That last lap for 202 miles was excruciating and when I got to the end of it I was so relieved it was over. With half an hour left to the end of the race I finally retired and went for a shower. By the time I got changed into normal clothes and flip flops they were putting tables out for the awards. I walked down to see Darlene talking to Sarah. Graeme brought some beers down and him and Darlene had one whilst Sarah and myself had a non alcoholic version. It tasted lovely. Sarah was from South Carolina (which probably explained how good she ran in the heat) and was running in memory of her dog who had recently died. She finished on 195 miles which was the furthest she had also ever ran. Darlene got her 218, Jack did a phenomenal 25 miles and Josh won the race with a course record of 293 miles... AMAZING. Fran got her 500 mile lifetime coin and so did her husband Tom, which I was really pleased about.
I also have to mention at this point a fabulous well done to a lady called Penny who was determined to get a 101 mile buckle and did so and another lady doing the 50K (I didn't know her name) who also showed great grit and determination. It was a fantastic weekend and one I would love to repeat again. Thank you to Jen, Rick and all of the volunteers for a fantastic race and great organisation. I hope it isn't too long before I'm back again to see you all. Also, a hugely massive thank you to Graeme for being his usual awesome supporter self and thank you to all of the people at home who followed my progress on Facebook and gave me fantastic encouragement. It was often your words that got me through the tough bits. :-)
And, I've been very fortunate in that I haven't ached at all since finishing the race. In some ways I question did I actually really do it, although my feet are definitely testament to the fact I did. Apart from the odd needle like pain in a muscle here and there while at rest, I haven't been in any discomfort. Just shows the training works!!! Now I need to go away and deal with my heat issues and try and learn to run faster!

All done

So, I finally did my training camp weekend. I did 20 miles on Friday evening, 40 miles on Saturday and 30 miles on Sunday. I was feeling all smug with myself thinking how I've never done 90 miles outside of a race before and I was looking forward to a taper until I got an email from Shaun saying my next weekend would certainly shock my body. Shock my body?? Had I not just done that?

So this weekend I was told to do a very intense squat session (which involved doing 500 partial squats as part of it... amongst other things) then I had to do an hour on Saturday wearing weight but very fast intervals, then Sunday involved 2 runs... one on the morning wearing weight and faster than race pace and the other on the afternoon without weight but faster and a sprint at the end.

The weights went well and I lifted (partials) 35 metric tons overall. The run on Saturday was absolutely exhausting but I managed to get up to 6.15mm for the 1 minute fast section of the running (which is a PB, I have never run that fast for a second never mind a minute). When I woke up on Sunday I felt absolutely fine and totally underestimated how hard the running was going to be. I doubled the weight from the day before and within about 4 minutes of running I felt absolutely terrible. At the end of the hour I promptly came into the house and immediately threw up. This is something training has never made me do. I've come close but that's the first time it has happened. I felt pretty awful for a few hours and wasn't convinced the second run would go very well at all. In truth it was a lot better. I ran faster than the morning session, didn't feel sick however despite feeling like I was flying, I could not get below 8mm on the sprint part. When I got home I felt absolutely fine and had got myself a new VO2 Max!!!

I emailed Shaun and he said I should be really happy with my conditioning and determination as not many people could have done it. I'm really happy and ready for my taper now. Hopefully I will get some heat training done (apparently it is going to be approx. 21 degrees over there) but overall I'm going to get some lovely R&R done!