I didn't sleep at all. The room was very noisy as there was a wedding downstairs and I'll be honest, I wasn't feeling great. When the alarm went off at 5am I didn't want to get out of bed. I ate the mushrooms, cauliflower and cheese I had brought for breakfast, but had to scrape the cheese off as I felt sick. I just put it down to nerves. I had a bit of an iffy stomach too... probably nerves also!
We got to Carlisle Castle and it didn't seem as organised as it had last year. In fact, I thought the registration the day before wasn't as good either. I couldn't hear the pre race debrief... but I hadn't been able to hear that last year either, so no difference there! I chatted to Steph, a woman who is probably better known as "Booktrunk" and marvelled at how much food she had on her. She said she was trying to get by self sufficient with as little help from the pit stops as possible. I was doing the same, but only out of desperation as they wouldn't cater for vegans... same as last year. Whilst it didn't really bother me as I had a support crew to help me (Graeme and his brother Paul) I couldn't help but feel a tad annoyed at the huge price tag of the event and the fact I was told to bring my own supplies as I had a "Special" diet. (I hasten to add, I had only asked for vegan, not low carb high fat vegan food!).
So, later than billed, we were off at about 2 minutes past 7. I wore shorts and a vest... heeding the warning from Di when I did the 100 miler. It was already warm and I didn't feel even slightly uncomfortable in the cooling breeze. It's a worry when a cooling breeze feels nice at 7am!!! I did my 3:3 run/walk and met a bloke named Nick. He said he quite liked my strategy and kept up with it for 3 or 4 intervals. The scenery was as lovely as I remembered and I was enjoying being outside on such a lovely day. I ran with another person who decided he would quite like to do 3:3 also, but in the end I think it was a tad too slow for him. I would run/walk and regularly pass the same people jogging along as I ran and they would overtake me when I walked. We did this two-ing and fro-ing for some time and I thought it was probably a good sign my pace was good. It was extremely warm and although I had factor 50 suncream on, the right side of my face and my right shoulder was burning. I heard someone say it was too hot and it wasn't even 8.20am. I listened to peoples' stories as I ran by them... talking about other ultras, other runners, kit, food, drinks, shoes and even heard a very interesting story about a bloke pacing for an ultra after doing all of his training on a treadmill in Iraq. Good on him!
The hills started to come into the picture and I remembered meeting Ben last year on the first big hill. I heard people moaning about how steep it was and decided not to tell them that "Officially... this isn't a hill... the hills don't start until after Lanercost" I was feeling sick. It was probably the heat? I drank more than I usually would just in case. I'd had an S cap before starting and was determined not to get dehydrated. I took another S cap 2 hours and 15 minutes in as I was sweating quite a lot. This was more or less in line with the guidelines, but today was all about being a learning curve with food and hydration. My throat was very sore. I had paracetomol on me but I didn't take them.
As I got to about 2 hours 30 minutes, I met a bloke who had been running with a group of others. They were too slow for him and he wasn't impressed with the fact the women were more bothered about chatting than running. He, like others, really liked my 3:3 and whenever my Gymboss beeped, he'd say, "Is that time for us to run now?" We stayed together for a couple of miles until we almost got to Lanercost. I rang Graeme and asked for some almond butter, coconut oil and suncream. I felt quite yukky and my stomach kept cramping every now and again. I didn't mention it though and just said I was about a mile away. It was mostly downhill and a couple of challengers flew past and said hello. They were making great time!
I got into Lanercost and checked in then walked across the heavily trodden long grass to where Paul and Graeme were waiting for me. They hadn't got me any more water (and WHY they weren't mind readers was totally beyond me!) so I went to fill up my water myself, only to find my hands were so greasy I couldn't open the lids of the soft flasks. I was feeling a bit irritable and had to use my vest to prize them open. When I put the flasks back in my race vest, I hadn't tightened them enough and water went all over, which just made me feel even more irritated. I had a small spoon of almond butter and almost yacked and then 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, which was actually quite nice. I felt awful though! I put more suncream on, only realising it was the second time in 3 minutes I'd put some on when Graeme looked at me funny because my face was already covered in it, and then I was off again. I left Lanercost 8 minutes earlier than last year, so that can't be bad considering I'm not feeling at my best, I thought. I also thought about my weight... I was a stone lighter than last year, so that had to account for something!
Leaving lanercost, I remembered a big hill straight away, but there wasn't one. I was intending to walk until I'd reached the top of the hill, but I couldn't see a hill at all. Reluctantly I started to run and then quickly walked again. My stomach was in a mess. I sipped cold water but it didn't help. After a while, I eventually saw the hill and started to walk up it. It was steeper than I remembered and it was much longer than I remembered!!! Two blokes jogged past me as a huge bus negotiated the narrow road. I couldn't believe people were actually running this. Soon after two men power walked past me and talked to each other about the two men running. They couldn't see the point either and said there was no way they would gain much by wasting energy this early.
The hill went on forever... I was sure it was shorter than this last year!
Eventually the road became more flat and I recognised the place to be Birdoswald. There was an aid station here last year and I thought that I would stop and have a slow drink of water and try and pull myself together. I was back onto 3 minutes run and 3 walk but I felt awful. I wondered if it was the heat, the nutrition or a bug. My throat was painfully sore and I couldn't work out why I was feeling so bad. I stopped at the checkpoint and grabbed a plastic cup full of water and sipped it. It made me feel sick and I couldn't finish it so threw it away and binned the cup in the rubbish bag. this really wasn't looking good!
I carried on and came to the point where you run up some steps and there is a photographer at the top. He told me to run for a few steps so it looked good on the photo. I did it, but I couldn't be bothered. Someone mentioned there was a "Nice downhill" coming and as I turned the corner I saw the horrendous steep bank and my thoughts immediately went back to last year when this was the first point where my ITB started to hurt. Luckily, this year, there was no such pain, so all of the training I'd been doing was working well! I was now feeling very ill. The thought of even sipping water made me want to wretch and even the smell of the fields was making me feel sick. Cow pat isn't the loveliest of things, but it has never made me want to vomit at the side of the road before!
I was now walking. The Gymboss kept beeping and I felt like taking it off and flinging it in the field. Instead I tried to negotiate the off button. It took me a while, but I finally silenced the damn thing! The roads seemed never ending and I wasn't enjoying the experience at all. I wanted to sit down and kept looking for a bench to sit on, but there wasn't any. Maybe if I sat down I'd pull myself together. Someone went past me and stopped to ask if I was OK. I said I wasn't feeling well and I thought it best I pull out of the race at the next stop. They were very kind and asked if I wanted them to stay with me, but I ushered them on, saying I would be fine. Quite a few people stopped, so I must have looked as terrible from the back as I did from the front. I finally got to a railway crossing at about 23 miles and told the woman there I was pulling out. I gave her my sportident chip and walked back up the road to wait for my lift off Graeme and Paul, who I rang and advised the race was over.
And the thing is, I felt nothing when I retired from the race... nothing at all. I just wanted to go home, have a bath and go to bed. And that's exactly what I did. I slept all the way home in the car (which isn't like me, I can't just sleep anywhere) and I slept all afternoon. I still have no regrets, if I had carried on, I'd have ended up really ill... or hospitalised! I emailed and checked with Shaun that he didn't think it was a nutrition issue and that's what had caused all of the problems, but he said he thought it sounded more like a virus, so I'm glad about that!
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