Chris runs ultras

The SVP100 is a 103-kilometer trail race that follows the Stour Valley Path in Suffolk, located in eastern England. This undulating course features roughly 1,000 meters of elevation gain and consists of approximately 90% trail.

This race is organised by Matthew Hearne at https://svp100.co.uk.

This year’s attempt follows two previous ones. Last year, I had to tap out at 53 kilometers. In 2022, during a particularly hot day, I completed the race in 15 hours and 25 minutes. You can read about that outing here. I also completed the 50km route in 2021.

Here are some saliant thought’s on this years race:

Devil’s Dyke – This is the first trail section of the course just after Newmarket that lasts approximately 3km and is quite technical. This year it was in a bad state. It was completely overgrown with brambles and stinging nettles. It was hard to see the ground in many places. I cut up both of my legs quite badly and I fell over.

I wish the organisers would take more responsibility in preparing the course, especially in this section. This could be by communicating with the council to request that they cut it back, or they could dedicate some time before the race to cut it back properly themselves. It isn’t just a nuisance, it is becoming dangerous to run this section now.

Perhaps it is time to bypass this section altogether?

Nutrition – This went quite well. I went with Tailwind in a 500ml hard flask, PFH and Clif Blok chews, and Coke in a 400ml soft flask between aid stations. The aid stations were around 2 hours apart so I was gradually going into deficit as ideally I should be consuming the above every hour. In future I may go with 2 500ml flasks of Tailwind between aid stations and just drink Coke at the aid stations, but drink more of it. Crucially, I did not “bonk”, like I did last year, at around 43km. I checked-in with myself at this point this year and felt much better, even though the pace was similar (I completed the first marathon in around 4 hours 30 mins).

Runnable – This course is very runnable, which is tough. With just under 1000m of elevation gain, I spent a lot of time running at the same pace, cadence and form. This wore on my body over time and meant I burned a lot more calories than on a course with twice the elevation gain, where I can use the climbs to recover and consume carbs.

Injuries – I fell over in Devil’s Dyke. I didn’t feel any pain, but I landed on my right side and I think this affected me in the later stages of the race.

I rolled my right ankle around 30km into the race. It didn’t feel like a bad one at the time and I was able to keep running and I didn’t take any Paracetamol until much later.

In the later stages my right knee, achilles and ankle were all quite painful. For the first time in a long time I found myself having to slightly hobble the last 10 km. I hope this was because of the ankle roll and fall rather than general wear with all the races I have completed so far this year (this being my 4th 100km completion so far this summer, all following my completion of Marathon des Sables in April).

Overall, I enjoyed completing the race again. I’m very happy with the massive time improvement, but I know I can do better. I will likely run it again and hopefully get under 12 hours.