Luckily, I had arranged a meal the night before with a few runners and supporters from Runners World, so it was great to meet up with people, have some nice food and a laugh and temporarily take my mind off what lay ahead. Everyone seemed so nice, and it was great to put faces to forum names.
I didn't sleep much, and once 4am came I lay there wide awake until my alarm at 5. I got ready and thought about the race. I was really looking forward to it despite my lack of training. The last month hadn't been great, but I hoped the mileage was already in my legs, and as for the hills... well, if I walked them all and ran the downhills then maybe they wouldn't be too much of an issue either. I lived in hope!
Lots of people milled around the start at Carlisle Castle and I took a bit of videoing with a new camera I had just bought. I thought this race in particular was worth taking some video of, and it would be great to look back and show other people the scenery I was running through. We were ushered into the pen at about 6:45, given a briefing, and it seemed no time at all when they said, "3...2...1..." and we were off!.
Lots of chattering was going on with everyone running along in a park. I remembered the park from YouTube videos I'd seen and was glad that this year the weather was nowhere near as bad. The forecast hadn't been great, but as I ran along I wished I hadn't put a jacket on as I was already sweating. The path narrowed and I ran behind a German man and woman. Graeme had commented at the start that he couldn't believe she had bothered to do her hair. It was a bit spikey and gelled up, and I couldn't help but think it would feel very annoyingly sticky if it got wet. The couple held hands while running which was quite irritating as you couldn't get past them! We went over a little bridge and two men came out of the trees and back onto the path. A bloke behind me asked them had they gone for a number 1 or a number 2, which made me laugh my head off. (It was a number 1... for those of you who may be wondering!) A couple of miles on and my jacket was really getting on my nerves so I took it off while walking and shoved it in my backpack. Unfortunately I also knocked my Camelbak bladder and it rubbed against my back as I was walking along so I had to take it off again and put it right. I had decided to stick to my 3:3 run/walk until I hit some hills then I'd change it to walking uphill and running all downhills. Some people walked the smallest of inclines right from the start, but I didn't feel the need to do that just yet! The signage was really good and the Rat Race arrows were everywhere. It gave me a boost to think that I would hopefully not get lost. The marshals were absolutely brilliant too. Anywhere deemed as awkward or dangerous and the marshals were there in force. Crossing a busy road, there were 2 men warning you there was the road ahead, one on one side of the road, another on the other side and they told you when you could cross. It was on the other side of the road when I met Ben.
Ben seemed a nice chap. He was in shorts and calf guards and I'd noticed him a few times on the previous miles because he'd had poles attached to his rucksack. I asked him about them and he said after looking at the videos on YouTube, he thought they would come in handy, especially on the steep hill coming out of Vindolanda. He had a small plastic bag with details of hills on it which he took out of his pocket when we looked at a hill in front of us. "This isn't a hill, according to this", he said, pointing to his little guide. Apparently there were no hills to speak of until after we hit the first pit stop at Lanercost. As we huffed and puffed our way up, we both wondered what lay ahead if this was deemed to be a 'mild undulation'. Ben and I stayed together for a while, but as I was still sticking to my 3:3, he ran off when I was on a walk break and we said we would probably see each other some time later. I doubted it though. He was off like a shot and I was nowhere near that fast.
It started to rain again but it was quite light. It was actually perfect running weather. I was going downhill when my Gymboss beeped for me to walk but I ignored it and carried on running. At the bottom there was a checkpoint and I ran under the canopy as the rain came down really heavy. Everyone started putting their jackets on and I did the same. I had a couple of cups of water and was surprised to find we didn't need to check in here. We were to do our first proper check in at Lanercost. I quickly left in the pouring rain and ran down the street. I was enjoying this!
After a while, I came to a few kissing gates and the trail sections started to come into the race. I dodged huge cow pats and rang Graeme to tell him I was close. It was all downhill so I ran it all and ignored my beeping telling me to walk. Strangely, my legs felt like they were going to go into cramp. I thought it was probably a good thing the pit stop was close and I could have something to eat, but I also ignored the tightening feeling in my legs as I was sure it was nothing to worry about. I got into the pit stop and that was the first 15 miles done. I checked in, went to the loo, had some potatoes and half a bottle of Gatorade and was straight off. My plan was not to waste time in pit stops and I was in and out with everything done in 7 minutes.
As I was walking out of the area I heard someone shout, "Is that you Cabbey?" I turned around to see Richard, one of the runners I'd had the meal with the night before. He looked very fresh and considering he had started an hour after me, he was going great. He ate a banana, chatted a while and said he was off running again. I wished him luck and was sure he would get a great time if he kept up this speed. I walked round the corner to see a big hill. As I was walking up it, I spoke to a man named John who told me he had not done any training for this at all. His last run had been in January. I was surprised he was taking on the challenge with no training and then thought I probably wasn't one to comment after my poor training over the past few weeks. Johns' plan was to run a bit, walk a bit. Sounded a fair plan! He was also doing the one day "Expert" category. I heard my name again and it was Ben walking up behind me. I was very surprised to see him and presumed he must have spent a lot of time at Lanercost. I asked him if the current hill we were climbing was actually a hill and he laughed and said yes, this was the first hill on his guide. Thank God, I thought, because it was steep as hell.
Ben wasn't around too long before he was off running and I left John to do his thing as I took out my camera and videoed the first part of Hadrians Wall. The strange cramp feeling hadn't come back and I was feeling pretty good. The weather was irritating in that it was raining one minute and then glorious sunshine the next. I wished it would make it's mind up so I could get my wardrobe organised. It seemed like it was jacket on, jacket off, jacket on... I would have just left the jacket off but I get cold very easy and I felt like I had too far to go if I got really wet and cold and couldn't warm back up. The forecast was rain with occasional heavy showers, so I put up with the jacket on! I ran past Birdoswald and remembered a video of last years race where they came past here and it was torrential rain. I was so glad it wasn't like that now. There was a checkpoint here and I drank 2 cups of water. My plan was to drink as much water along the way as I could so I had to fill up my Camelbak as little as possible. There were a few tubs of sweets but being vegan I couldn't have any. They had raisins but I hate them. When I was very young my gran told me that she knew someone who had eaten a raisin only to find it was a curled up spider. Never eaten a raisin since! One of the marshals was on the phone saying a man was retiring from the race at 19.68 miles and his wife was coming to pick him up. I felt gutted for him.
I continued walking uphills and running downhills, but at 22 miles my knee suddenly became quite painful. I recognised the pain immediately as ITB issues. When I had done Loch Ness Marathon I suffered with my ITB for about 8 or 9 months afterwards and I'd always blamed running up the hills. I couldn't blame running uphill now and suddenly realised it was actually the downhill running that was causing it as I attempted to run down an incline and had a sharp pain over the side of my knee. Hmmm... this isn't too good, I thought. So, I walked for a while to see if it would go away. At 23 miles we hit an absolutely massive hill and it seemed to go on forever. I put my hands on my thighs and took it on with big strides. A bloke behind me told me to look to my right and as I did so I saw the hill going off into the distance. Bloody Hell! This was the second biggest hill on the route though, he assured me, the one out of Vindolanda being the steepest. I kept going until I got to the top and was pleased to find my knee pain had gone off. Collecting myself together again, I ran along the flat section only for it to really really hurt again. Over the next mile or so every now and again it would feel like my knee was going to give way and buckle on me. I started to feel very concerned because I had absolutely no intention of giving up. I began to think of ways I could get to the end in one piece!
I can't remember the actual mileage, but at Walltown Quarry there was another checkpoint and supporters were allowed at this one. Graeme gave me a swig of Gatorade and showed me a stretch I could do to ease the ITB. I had to actually check in here with my SPORTIdent card, so I did that and headed off up a hill as the biggest gust of wind brought a very heavy downpour. It was absolutely freezing in the wind but I was beginning to realise that uphills were like instant pain relief for my knee because I felt no pain at all as I went up them. The next part was a lot of trail and we had quite a few cattle grids to cross. They were nasty as you teetered over them gingerly, trying not to misplace a foot. I kept stopping and stretching and a couple of runners asked me if I was OK. I said I was stiffening up with my ITB and got a few sympathetic "OOOOooo"s. I believe that it was during this section where the stiles started too. The first one wasn't bad... a couple of steps over one side then a couple over the other side, but the next two stiles were awful. You literally had to stretch one side of your body over the top and find a footing on the other side and then drag the rest of your body over afterwards. They hurt my knee a lot and the marshal told me there wasn't any more for a while. I was grateful for that! Another downhill on tarmac followed and then we hit a nasty gravel section which was horrible on your feet. My knee kept feeling like it was going to buckle and I decided that when I got to Vindolanda I was going to break the cardinal rule and I would have some painkillers. There was a few small road crossings with marshals to direct you, and then someone said it was 3 miles to Vindolanda. I checked my Garmin and it was more or less perfect according to the distance I had just been told. With a mile to go I rang Graeme. I felt a bit down as I couldn't think how I would manage the next 38 miles on my knee. Graeme asked did I want him to buy a ITB strap because Rat Race sold them at the pit stop. I have never been so delighted in my life and said yes please. I had a bit of hope now and was so pleased. He said he would buy me some salty chips and make me some soup. I asked for a coffee too. The hill into Vindolanda was quite steep too, but at least it wasn't as bad on my knee. I neared the pit stop only to feel quite confused as I was directed up the road instead. And there it was... another bloody stile to get over!
Getting a full upper body change of clothing, a hot cup of coffee and soup was just what the doctor ordered and I began to feel good again. I told Graeme that I was loving the course, the scenery and everything and I was so pleased Rat Race sold ITB straps because I felt like it could save the day. The chips he bought me were manky and cold so I only ate a few. After googleing the correct way to put an ITB strap on, Graeme put it on for me and I was ready for the off. I'd spent 31 minutes here, but it was 31 minutes well spent. I was in a really good optimistic mood, despite knowing the horrible big steep hill was just ahead of me. I had to be shown where to go by the marshals because I didn't have a clue with so many people milling around, and I was off down a big hill which hurt like hell. God I hope this strap works, I thought, because it didn't seem to have any effect at the moment.
The steep drop out of Vindolanda was followed by a steep incline on concrete. All I could do was focus on the huge imposing structure in front of me... it looked immense from down where I was. I got to the top of the incline on the concrete and made my way onto the road. The hill I was about to climb was covered in an array of tiny people, already halfway through their quest to get to the top. I watched people take a few steps, stop, put their hands on their hips, look up and start walking again. Some people tackled the side which was a fair way away from the beacon at the top and others did a sort of zig zag which STILL took them away from the beacon. I got to the stile at the bottom and two marshals asked me how many people were behind me. I didn't have the foggiest, but I suspected from their question that I was close to last. I didn't care. I had left Vindolanda with 3.5 hours to spare for the cut off and I knew not making each cut off ahead wouldn't be an issue. I left the marshals and started to make my way up the hill. I wouldn't exactly call it a path, but there was indentations on the grass where people had walked before me, so I followed them. After a while I felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere and when I looked up and saw the beacon was miles away from where I started I said out loud, "Fuck it" and got on my hands and knees and grabbed onto patches of heather and bracken and went up vertically. It took no time at all and I was at the top. I videoed myself at the top completely out of puff and I laughed at the fact I'd just tackled the hill like Spiderman. So, the toughest part of the route ended up being one of the most fun things to do. My knee felt great. I felt like the strap was working.
The next couple of miles were a nice gentle downhill which was much easier on my knee than I expected. Before long two men called Gav and Matty caught me up and I stayed with them and had a good laugh for a while. They said at the bottom of the hill some woman had passed them and said, "Oh my God, look at that random going up that hill". She had been talking about me and she had apparently looked on in disbelief when they said they were on their way up there too. Gav and Matty's strategy was a simple but effective one... run to that lamppost, walk for a while, run to that tree, walk for a while... After a couple of miles, despite telling them not to feel they should wait for me, they were still there and hadn't ran anything at all. I'd have loved to have stayed in their company for longer but I felt I should consider others in this type of situation and decided to help them make the decision to go and do their own thing. I apologised that I wasn't fast enough to keep to their walking pace anymore because my knee was giving me some awful pain and wished them luck for the rest of the way. Within a minute of me pulling back from them they started to run again. I admit, I felt a bit sad that I was alone again.
A couple of other runners came past me in the next few miles and one man was kind enough to give me 2 Nurofen for my knee. He was taking them for his own knee which was also strapped up. The scenery continued to be inspiring and I probably looked like an idiot as I walked along smiling. Kerry had kept texting me with little sayings like, One foot in front of the other.... Baby steps... Brilliant stuff, you're doing so well ... and they made me laugh sometimes (especially the one where she said she'd tell her grandson that I was climbing hills like Spiderman). Before long, as I was coming into Newbrough, there was a checkpoint. I grabbed a couple of cups of water and gave the marshals a pair of featherlight trousers I'd found on the road which some runner must have dropped. The marshals told me I was at 39 miles and had 6 miles to go to the next pit stop in Hexham. The village afterwards was very nice. There was scarecrows dressed up and in peoples' gardens and on park benches. They do that where I live and it tends to be a speed awareness thing. I wondered if it was the same here as it turned out to be the same week they were doing this at home. I said good afternoon to a man mowing his lawn and then realised it was a scarecrow, and ended up laughing my head off at myself. There was a climb after this which was quite steep. Amazingly I saw three runners ahead of me and I caught all three on this hill. I asked each one how they were and got quite a negative response from each. They all looked in a bad way and I felt so sorry for them. At the top we were back onto trail and I found I was absolutely useless at tackling gates. It took me ages to shut them properly. Sheep adorned every space I walked through and then I saw an absolutely awful DOWNHILL. I was horrified. I started to make my way down and got a searing pain in my knee. I stood for a while wondering how I was going to get down and then it dawned on me that I could maybe go down sideways. I did that, which took me a while, but I got through it ok. Another downhill ensued and it was tackled sideways too. At the bottom of that one two horses blocked the way to the gate, so I had to climb over the wall. Ouch! Seconds later 2 men came running down the hill and literally just clapped their hands and the horses moved for them. Doh... I'll remember that next time. I was now back on trail which wasn't good on my knee. It was very rooty and slightly downhill and it made my knee jar quite a bit so I had to take it slowly. I moved aside for 2 runners who came flying past me. They looked too good to be this far back on the course, I thought. I passed near a railway and the path was tiny and very overgrown with nettles. I felt sorry for anyone in shorts coming past this bit.
So, after what seemed like a long way, I saw a sign saying the pit stop was half a mile ahead. I have to disagree with that though as it was more like 3/4 of a mile. But, that was me through Hexham. I had honestly thought I would reach here in the dark, so to get there in 12 hours with 6 hours before the cut off was great. I had half a tin of soup and a coffee here and I was off again. I saw Matty and Gav sat inside the food tent having a sandwich just before I left and thought it would be fun to talk to them again when they caught me up. I didn't know it at that time, but that was the last time I ever saw them. I climbed up a grass verge and over a bridge and I was on my way. There was a lot of road in this part and just when you thought you were lost you'd see a sign saying, "Runners cross to the left" or "Runners cross to the right". A girl caught up with me here and stopped to chat for a while. Her friend had come down with shin splints and had had to pull out at 30 miles. The route was fairly none descript for a while until I hit a little village. I was wracking my brains trying to work out where it was because I knew I'd been here before. It was only when I saw the sign saying it was Corbridge that I finally clicked I had previously been here for work. People came out of pubs and clapped and said well done and as I was coming up a hill a man said he wouldn't insult me by telling me not long to go, as he knew there was still a hell of a long way.
At 51 miles I got to a checkpoint and was very grateful. I'd been eating salted peanuts and as a result had drank all of my water, so getting 3 cups of water here was a godsend! An Irish chap who I recognised from a YouTube video was here. He had got to 67 miles last year. I asked him how he was feeling this year and he said much better. He looked in good nick, I have to say! So, water done, I made my way to the next section, the marshals telling me there was only 18 miles to go. A few runners ahead stopped and put their head torches on but I thought I'd leave it a bit longer. I got a text from Kerry telling me to put my head torch on too. It was like she was there with me! I still left it... it was very light still. As I walked around the corner of the road I saw two men sat on bollards putting their head torches on and looked in disbelief.... "Ben?" I said, very shocked! He smiled and said, "Ah, hello again Claire" We walked for a while, I told him and his new companion (who was called Giles) about my knee. Giles told me I was doing well because the hill I'd side stepped down they had ran down, so I was doing better for time than I was giving myself credit for. Ben and Giles had teamed up in Vindolanda and had been together ever since. It was great to have company again and it came at the right time as my knee felt very sore. There was a lot of midges in this section and I was flapping around like someone off a cartoon trying to get them away. Ben and Giles just sauntered through them. They said, head down, move quickly and don't breathe. I tried doing that but ended up flaying my arms around like an idiot again. Giles said the only reason he wasn't doing that was because he just didn't have the energy to. That made me laugh. Unfortunately, it was not too much further on when my knee was in agony, so with the same thought on not ruining someone elses race because they had to wait for me, I told Ben and Giles to carry on as I was going to stretch and walk slower. I pulled back and had a couple of stretches. I didn't want to take pain killers as I wanted to save those for the last aid station so my last 7 miles were more comfortable and I didn't want to OD on them and feel sick, so painkillers were out of the question. So, after a while of milling, I walked around a corner to see Ben and Giles, who, bless them, had stopped and waited for me. I told them they shouldn't have, but they insisted it was fine because they had stretched too.
We got to what we thought was a checkpoint, but later realised it wasn't. I think a kind person had put a load of water and cups out and a sign said, "Free drinks for all runners" I drank two cups and to be honest, I'd have been off straight away, but Ben and Giles took their time here. They made phone calls, stretched and chatted to another bloke sat on the grass stretching. They had waited for me, so I sat on the grass and I waited for them. When we were due to go again, the bloke who was sat on the grass didn't move. I told him to come with us, but he said his race was over and he had already phoned the organisers for help.
The next section was the most awful of the route. I hated it. There was midges, chest high grass and reeds with narrow paths to walk across, and the pinnacle of all things undesirable was the stream. An arrow suddenly pointed off the path we were on and sent us down a little side path. Ben and I looked in horror as we saw another arrow pointing down a bank to a stream. I was in pain getting to the bottom of the muddy bank and when I got to the bottom my brain just wouldn't work and I couldn't fathom where to go. Ben pointed out an arrow in the middle of the stream and said we had to go over it. He placed his feet on dry rocks along the way and I watched his every move and followed on afterwards with Giles following me. At the end we had to climb back up another muddy bank. WTF? I was annoyed at such a stupid detour and then remembered another race where I'd got annoyed about something silly and DNF'd. I tried to put it behind me. We trudged along in the darkness with our 3 head torches lighting the way. There were loads of teenagers down here drinking and messing on, and I think I'd have felt a bit nervous if I'd been alone. I have to say though, they were all very polite and they all wished us well for the rest of the race. There were a few people who didn't know what we were doing, and they looked on aghast when we said we'd come from Carlisle. This section ended on a load of steps up to a road with a very narrow bridge. I recognised the bridge straight away and said I thought we must be at Ovingham. Ben said he thought there was a checkpoint here. There was, it was just around the corner. The marshals said everyone had hated the last section. Everyone had whinged about it.
We were there long enough to get water and we were off again. We walked through a park but we were too tired to enjoy it anymore. We all felt like this next few miles went on forever. We all really struggled and would keep stopping to stretch. Giles would do a little shuffling run for a few steps and Ben would copy. I told them if they were able to run they should go for it and I wouldn't be offended. I was given a definite NO WAY. They said they could run for a few steps but that was it, and they said that this was us now... all three of us right to the end. I felt relieved to hear that, I didn't want to be on my own. We saw the red light on the back of someones back pack ahead and it seemed to take us forever to catch up to it. We saw a sign saying we were coming to a country park and Ben assured us this was the pit stop. OH THANK GOD!!! I rang Graeme and told him I thought we might be close and he told me we had to find a cinder path first and we would be just around the corner. We caught up with the red lighted backpack whilst I was on the phone. It was attached to a runner that looked in a very bad way. He leant over a bollard and said he couldn't carry on. We told him he could and grabbed him by the arms. He looked on his last legs and Giles asked did he have painkillers. He didn't. I gave him one to take now and gave him another and ordered him to take it when he got to his hotel in Newcastle. He was so grateful, and I really felt for him. Getting in to the pit stop was just pure relief for us all.
Eventually everyone was ready. We had spent 35 minutes here. We left in the pouring rain and Giles thanked us because he said he wouldn't have carried on if we hadn't been there. I'm sure he would have, but he was having a hard time with the fact that he was needing support from others when HE is normally the motivator and the one who doesn't need help. I told him his next ultra it will be him helping others because he will have been through it before. He said he was feeling amazing, and I told him the next time he does something like this he can tell someone who is flagging that the last section is the easiest and you really do get a second wind from somewhere. We passed the bloke who I'd given painkillers to, he was trudging along and he was back on track. We passed a marshal with a German shepherd dog and I stopped and gave the dog a big kiss.
As we got into town the Rat Race arrows disappeared. The route had been so well posted previously so we presumed people had messed around and took them down. Fortunately I know Newcastle well and I was able to guide us in. The last mile was great. People stopped and clapped and said well done, we were offered a place to stay by a bloke who thought we wouldn't have anything sorted because we had come from Carlisle, and Giles' friend who was staying at the Copthorne Hotel came out and photographed us and told us we had half a mile to go. We approached the Millenium Bridge and we were all on a high. We held hands and went through the finish line in 20:43:29 All in all, it had been a good day!
Congratulations! I also ran the expert category and I'm full of respect for anyone who had to cross that stream in the dark! It was an interesting section! Great race report, it helped me remember a lot of the course that I didn't realise I'd forgotten! Well done again, and I'll see you at UTMB?!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog - the memory of the stiles had just started to fade - they were a bit much.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I got to the river crossing on Day 2 of the Challenger, my knee was bad enough that freezing wet feet were a welcome distraction. :-)
Really well done, you should be properly chuffed.