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 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.

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.