Distance

Five gels, two bottles of 500mls of electrolyte drinks, an energy bar, two sausage rolls, and a secret weapon for a boost at twenty miles. As I left my house at 6am to attempt to run a marathon distance as part of my ultra training, I felt less of a runner and more of a mobile vending machine.

The night before, when I had been describing to my wife what I was taking with me, she had likened me to one of the ice cream sellers that you see in the interval when you go to the theatre. Personally, I was just glad I had enough pockets between my shorts and my waterproof jacket to store all the stuff as I think running with the kind of tray that they carry when selling the treats might have inhibited my running aerodynamics a little bit.

“final glory lap”

I have run six marathons before, but they have all been the culmination of months of effort; the final glory lap of an intense period of training. This was different. This was just another step on the way to the ultra – now just three weeks away – where the distance I need to cover is thirty three miles. this was just part of the build up to that.

I began preparations for this specific run a couple of days before. Eating and drinking more, making sure that my hydration stayed topped up, particularly the day before. Hydration is not just about what you drink during the run, it is about making sure that you start in a good place too. I was planning to get out early, even for me, so I set my alarm for 5.25am in order to get out the door by 6am. A couple of friends had offered to run parts of the route with me, and I had to make it to certain places by a certain time in order for that to work, so an early start it was.

“too many thoughts swirling round my head”

While my eating and drinking had gone to plan – lots of carbs on Friday, big bowl of pasta for dinner – my sleeping did not. Like my other marathons, too many thoughts swirling round my head the night before about how things would go, how I would feel, whether I would get through it, led to a restless night, but I would just need to deal with that.

I had planned my route – as I always do for my longest runs – so I knew what lay ahead of me. The route was broadly flat – similar to what the ultra is, if you can call almost one thousand feet of elevation broadly flat – but that does not lessen the distance. Twenty six point two miles is a long way, regardless of how hilly it may be.

“would never eat it through choice”

Breakfast was my running staple, two sachets of instant golden syrup flavoured porridge, though I did bolster it by also having a slice of toast, and a glass of orange juice. I am really not a fan of porridge and would never eat it through choice, but I have found it works for my when I am running, and so while by the end of it, I was chewing it down, I knew it would be doing me good. One thing about the end of a marathon cycle is looking forward to not eating porridge for a while!

Anyway, porridge down, food loaded, running pack on, I headed out into the darkness again -I am struggling now to recall a run when I left the house and it was daylight – at six am. My route was easy to start, downhill for the first few miles and an opportunity to get into a rhythm and set the pace. Like my run last week, I was aiming for around eleven minute miles. My cold and cough have still not cleared up, so I do not feel up to any kind of distance running quicker than this right now. As I got down to Aberdeen beach, the first embers of daylight were beginning to flicker through the clouds offshore.

Daylight begins to emerge

I was heading towards five miles by this point, so the start of the fueling. I nibbled on my energy bar, stopped beside a bin to take my first gel – I use Torq gels, raspberry ripple flavour – and I took a drink. I drink regularly while I am running, having got used to my bottles from my running backpack. I knew the next section would be challenging as it featured a long uphill section. It was fairly gentle, but it stretched out for a couple of miles so this was just about maintaining the pace, relaxing and not pushing too hard.

“ten second rule”

As I pushed on towards eight miles, I thought about my half marathon run only a few weeks ago where, by the time I was at eight miles I was already done in. I felt good, giving me confidence about how my training had paid off, despite the illness. Then a bit of a blow, I took out my energy bar to take another nibble and promptly dropped it. Yes, I know all about the ten second rule, but I did not want to stop to pick it up, plus, as a mobile vending machine, I had plenty of other snacks to keep me going.

I had arranged to meet my friend Susan at about twelve miles and to run around 10km with her and her dog Scout. It is amazing what a boost it gives you when friends join you on the run. While I am comfortable running on my own, just having someone else there really takes your mind off what you are going through, particularly in these long runs.

The route took us out an old railway line – not the one we will be running in a few weeks time for the ultra – and this was the only part of the run which was off road. I had worn by road running shoes for this one – though will use my trail shoes for the actually event as parts of the course will be muddy.

“a major difference”

As I got towards eighteen miles, I was still feeling ok. This was a major difference to the last time where Susan and I had run together, where she met me around thirteen miles as I tried to get to seventeen, and spent a fair part of the run having to take walking breaks or stopping. Again, progress as I said goodbye to Susan and Scout with a nibble of a sausage roll, and a treat for Scout as I gave him the final mouthful (I had another sausage roll in my other pocket).

Leaving Susan at around eighteen miles

The next few miles were flat and downhill, and this might sound a bit odd, but steep downhill sections are not great at this point of a race. My thighs were beginning to burn a bit and the effort of trying not to go too quick through this section was quite tough on them. My toes were also beginning to hurt, a reminder that I need to cut my toenails before the big day.

I was meeting my other friend, Maxine, at around the twenty mile mark, and now it was time to deploy the secret weapon. As I got to twenty miles I stopped on a bridge and brought out a buttered fruit scone. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!! Talk about something hitting the spot. I had about half of it, keeping more of it for a later boost, had my fourth gel, kept on drinking and met up with Maxine.

Last weekend, we ran together as I got up to twenty two miles. By that point I was done in. This week – while I would not say that I breezed past twenty two, it certainly barely registered as I was able to maintain a conversation and we ran on towards Seaton Park. Our plan was to loop round there then head back to where she had parked her car.

I was still feeling good as we got to twenty three miles, only a parkrun to go! But at twenty three miles, it is the hardest parkrun of your life. Now I began to feel like I was struggling, getting beyond twenty four, then twenty five. Another bite of the fruit scone was deployed. We kept going.

“distance never comes easy”

By this point, looking at my watch was too regular a feature of the run. Distance never comes easy, and the less you look at your watch the better, but I had fallen into the trap of checking it. Then checking it. Then checking it again. I was thinking, “What do you mean I have only run point two of a mile since I last looked at you, I must have gone further than that”. But of course I had not. Twenty six point two was firmly in my head now and it was hard to think of anything else.

On the route back to the car, there is a small bridge which, for some reason, has wellington boots attached to it. I began to realise that this, after an uphill section, would be where I would get to the marathon distance. Trying to keep my head up, rather than looking down, I began to zero in on this. We came over a small rise, then heading gently downhill towards the bridge. I found some energy from somewhere and for the last fifty metres broke into what felt like a sprint to get there. I had done it, twenty six point three miles under my belt, with a running time of just under five hours. My total time was more than that of course as I had stopped a few times but all of that is important as it is just time on my feet.

With Maxine on the “welly bridge”

So what do I take from all of this? A huge amount of confidence and a bit of faith. Faith that perhaps I do have it in me to get through this ultra. I know I still have another seven miles beyond what I ran this weekend to get to the finish. I know that this is going to be really tough, but I also see the progress I have made since the dark days of January where I was struggling to get beyond eight miles.

“get the big miles in”

There is no mystery to long distance running in my mind, it is all about training. If you do the training, you can do the distance. I have not had a perfect training block, far from it, and I have had to make many adaptations along the way just to get to this point. But while I have not been able to do the midweek runs I would have planned, I have managed to get the big miles in, and that is what really matters.

Back home, it was about recovery. Drinking a lot, making sure I replaced all of the calories I lost during the run. Ensuring that I do my best to get prepared for running again this week. So it was rolls with lorne sausage, a cup of tea and a can of Irn Bru, followed by lots of soft drinks through the day, home made soup and a big dinner.

This was polished off in an instant

That is my final really long run of the training, from now it is about winding things down over the last few weeks and preparing for the ultra. Next weekend, my wife and I are away, so I will try and run a bit more during the week than I have been doing to compensate for that. Then the weekend after it will be probably around ten or eleven miles. When you are at this point of long distance training, eleven miles feels like a hop, skip and a jump.

This is not over, not over by a long, long way, and I am in no way minimising what lies ahead. But after last week and this week, I think I have finally got my head around what I need to do to get through the ultra. But I will not know that for certain until the day itself.