Well I made it...just. 50 miles (80k) done in around 8:45 (thats the time on my watch but haven't seen official race results yet). This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I came close to wrapping at 45K and then I wrapped at 65K but somehow found my self running a minute later - this was due to being lied to in order to "motivate" me...got to love that stuff.
First 40k was done in 4 hours and the going was very hard as we were basically on bridal paths where horses had been messing the mud up nicely for us - I never was a huge horse fan! My ankles were very sore pretty quickly as I guess most of my running has been on roads...wont make that mistake again.
I felt a little odd from the start and could tell that things were not going to feel better so just put my head down and ran. 3 of us set off as a team and that was actually one of my problems as our paces didn't fit together and some wanted to walk while others wanted to keep going. At 65k I had to just say sorry, get jogging and keep jogging to then end as I knew that if I stopped it would be en ex for me.
This is me at the start, stupid nervous grin cant be helped I'm afraid:
The guy I am with is my mate who I have to say has the strongest mental attitude I have ever witnessed and he managed to drag me back into the race when I really had had enough! cheers bud.
At the end of this I had stomach cramps, leg cramps and a sore back. But I felt really great as I knew how hard I had just worked.
What did I learn from this? Well, you cant judge a book by its cover as some people at the start did not look like ultra marathon runners! Also, you need to have a focused training plan to deal with this if you want to do anything more than survive...I am not sure I would do one of these again but if I did I would treat it with much more respect! I would plan my nutrition much more carefully!
I met some quite amazing people and was blown away but how helpful and cheerful everyone was. People were still cracking jokes at 75k! There were some hard core supporters who were at every checkpoint! One lady runner stopped and gave my right calf a massage as she could see I was in trouble! not many sports where someone who is racing will do that.
I am still in a word of pain so I will keep this brief but will come back and edit this page and add to it as I remember more and more.
few..thanks god that ones over! now onto the ironman.
PS quick edit, just found out the official time - 9:11...guess my watch was pausing when we lost GPS. oh well never mind.
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