Chris runs ultras

The weather was great. It was overcast and about 12 degress celcius when we started at 8:30am, it got up to about 16 degrees in the early afternoon.

I didn’t give myself enough time to prepare. As a result I forgot to pack my preferred running belt. I wanted to use this instead of a running vest and bladder. Ironically, I had packed my running vest as an emergency backup. I had been training with the belt and felt much more comfortable with it during the training block leading up to the race. The reason for choosing the belt was because in my previous race (the SVP50) I used a vest which had a 2 letre bladder and 2 700ml soft bottle on the front, this was just uncomfortable after a few hours of running. After 6 hours of running, it becamse painful. During this run I was using 2 handheld bottles, and no water bladder in my vest, so it was very light, as I was only carrying mandatory kit in it.

I started off too quickly. I didnt’t plan to; I had planned to do the first 10k at 5:30/km. Instead, I ran the first 10k at about 5 minutes per kilometer. For some reason I toed the line and ran off the start line with all the quickest marathon runners.

After the initial 10k I averaged about 5:15/km up until kilometer 39. This was when I took a toilet break, and walked for a bit, and just didn’t recover. I’m not sure why I couldn’t run at 5:15 again after this, I struggled to maintain any pace. I think I just hit “the wall”. I was tired and my lower back and hips were aching. At the end of the race I had average 6 minutes per kilometer. I must start the next race slower and build up to a faster pace. I might aswell have just run at 6 minutes the entire time, and plodded around comfortably. 

I felt fit and healthy for the majority of the race, I didn’t feel sick at all, and only felt abit uncomfortable around 39km when I stopped for the toilet.

I had a concentrated 4 scoop tailwind 700ml bottle in one hand, and just water in the other hand. Both in hard bottles, this worked well, and my hands were comfortable throughout the entire race. I think I’ll try this setup again. The Tailwind was obviously not enough on it’s own, even though I consumed 1400ml with 8 scoops over a 5 hour period. I think I will try a couple of gels around the 35k mark, maybe 1 every 30 minutes or something. I will see if the gels agree with me during the next training block.

I think the aching hips and lower back were due to the lack of strength training in the 6 week training block leading up to the race. In the next 5 week training block I will focus much more on squats, leg curls and climbing hills and the stair master in the gym. My cardio fitness was excellent.

Staying overnight at a hotel was actually quite comfortable. This was the first time I had ever done this. I didn’t feel to tired waking up, even though the sleep was on and off through out the night. We stayed in a hotel that was 30 minutes away. We could improve this by staying in the same village in future, but apparently all hotels more local were booked up. Still it was better than the 2 drive from home it would have taken.

Running on the beach wasn’t too bad. I quickly learned to stick to the edges of the paths where the sand was less thick and so it was easier to run on. The beach stretch only lasted about 2 kilometers. This was followed by about 5 kilometers of single narrows track that was very uneven and overgrown, so it was difficult to see where I was stepping. I had to slow down during this section and I slightly rolled my ankles, enough to cause irritation but not enough to stop me running.

I clipped a very solid, low hanging branch which cut my head open quite deep, and about 2 inches long. I didn’t realise this until I arrived home later that day and felt my head. We stuck it together with some super glue and it has healed up fine. 

I tripped up twise. This was very annoying. I tripped over basically nothing. Just tiny branches in the middle of a clear trail. Very annoying. I was clearly tired and not paying attention. I wasn’t picking my legs up enough. Completely avoidable.