Ridgeway Runner

On the eve of my first Ultra marathon – The Dixons Carphone Race to the Stones 2019, I realised I’ve just gone past my second anniversary of having taken up running. I knew it was about June/July 2017 but I checked back on MapMyRun which I used when I started and realised that my first logged activity was the evening of the 25th June 2017. A 2.11Km run around the park outside my house – one of the motivational aspects of getting me running int he first place.

That first run nearly killed me, looking back it was only 2Km, at a pace of nearly 7min/Km but it was real hard. Now I look at it and thin how things have changed over that two years. I now comfortably run in the sub 5min/Km pace for half marathons, and 5:15min/Km pace for marathons. the idea of trying to run at near 7min/Km pace for me is now something that I simply couldn’t do!

The simple act of reflecting back on that run makes me very proud of what I have been able to achieve. I’ve literally come a long way, I now regularly look at UltraMarathons with a genuine consideration for signing up, I don’t think for long about running a marathon, and I regularly. run more than a half marathon on a Sunday morning for training.

Thats one hell of a world away from early 2017.

I’ve learnt quite a lot in the intervening period. I’ve often been a person that would start a hobby or interest and quickly lose interest. I’ve always liked my sleep and I’m a snacker. I hadn’t run since being at school some 20+ years before. There was no real reason why running would be a success. That, coupled with a 3 hour daily commute to work as a Director in a fast growing Cancer therapy development company in London and having four kids ranging from teen to newborn (back in early 2017) were all good reasons that this flash in the pan idea was doomed to failure.

It gives me great satisfaction and areal sense of achievement to think two years on I am still on the run! I’m still pulling on the trainers and putting the miles in. I have managed to balance my sleep and family time around the work demands and find a way to put up to 7.5 hours of running into a week on a regular basis.

I have a lot to be thankful for. My body has been welcoming to the idea of running – it could quite easily have said no chance – as a youngster I played a good deal of football and had real issue s with my knees. My doctor told me at the age of 14 I had ‘Old Mans Knees!’

So what does the next two years have in sight for me? More of the same with more endurance running I hope. I have truly been bitten by the long run bug. I loved a recent 50Km+ training run! So entering more Ultramarathons is very much part of my plan. I also hope to continue exploring areas such as the South West Coastal Path, The Cotswolds Way, South and North Downs way and also exploring more of the amazing countryside around me in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.

Running has become an integral part of my life and I genuinely cannot envisage a life over the next few years without it. I have to trust that I look after myself and that I am lucky enough to avoid any significant injury or incident that makes this more difficult. But with luck and hopefully some good judgement, I plan to be lacing up my trainers and pounding the footpaths for some time to come.

Achievements:

• London Big Half Marathon, 2018
• 10K Henley Trail, 2018
• Windsor Half Marathon 2018
• Maverick Original Oxfordshire Half Marathon (and a bit) 2018
• 10K Rivermead Reading 2018
• London His Half Marathon, 2019
• Brighton Marathon, 2019
• Henley Trail Half Marathon, 2019
• Hampshire Hoppit Marathon, 2019

Well the nerves have little time to do much damage, but writing this the only song going through my head right now is…

I got home from work today (Friday 5th July) and found my race number had arrived! Well this sh*t just got real! I can’t fool myself into thinking the idea I had actually signed up to this race was just an odd dream! It happened, and I’m now due to set-off on a 100Km run in just over 7 days at 7:55am!!!

In the last week I have really cut back the training and entered the hideous world of the taper. I always thought runners were talking gibberish when discussing tapering. This pre-race period where you cut back the mileage to prepare yourself for the big day, For some it seemed like one of the most difficult, challenging and painful parts of training. Some comparing it to bereavement – c’mon that’s just a bit much isn’t it?

Well yes, maybe that’s a tad too far, but it really is a weird place to be in. Months of training hundreds if not thousands of miles to prepare for a big race, and then a couple of weeks before the big day you grind to a pretty rapid halt, holding yourself protected and building your energy for the go. It makes sense, I get it. It’s not natural to somebody that loves running though, but it does makes sense, really it does (have I convinced myself yet ?)

In the past week I’ve made the final plans and got my kit list sorted. Final shopping for spares, extra this and extra that all done.

Kit List:

Kit Bag containing:

• 2 x 500mL soft flasks
• Spare tailwind sachets
• Spare electrolyte tabs
• flapjacks (just as I can be sure I can eat those on a run)
• rain coat (really – the chances of rain are remote at best – aren’t they?
• Spare top
• Spare socks
• head torch + battery
• phone charger
• collapsible cup
• GoPro
• First Aid bits
• Paracetamol
• Mobile
• Money
• Spare Cap
• Energy gels (I only train with SIS so better take some)
• Buff to soak and use to cool down with if needed

Starting gear:

• T-Shirt
• Cap
• Shorts
• Socks
• Taped feet/Talc
• Garmin (with course route – as I am always paranoid!)
• sun cream (P20)

Halfway Bag:

I plan to have my wife meet me along the route to say hi and wish me luck, I intend to give her a bag of ‘spares’ that I can swap with en-route

• spare shirt/vest
• spare socks
• spare cap
• second pair of shoes
• tape for feet
• additional suncream
• Additional food/electrolyte tabs
• full bladder in case soft flasks have leaked or failed somehow – a bit of overkill, but rather overkill than miss the opportunity to rule out an unlikely risk.
• Knee supports – just in case!!

Writing all that down has really helped!! Never underestimate the stress easing power of a list !!🤣🤣

Getting my head round it!

One thing I’m still stumped with, I simply don’t get how I got to this point. A few days over two years ago, I hadn’t run for 24 years (or thereabouts). I had no intention to, I was around 90 Kg in weight and enjoyed a biscuit or too. I never thought I had time to do any exercise or fitness and didn’t try hard to prove otherwise.

After the penny dropped that I should try this (see my blog: The Best Version of me) things just went stratospheric and the bug had truly bitten me. But even then a 100Km run in a day on undulating terrain, in the summer. A joke, right?

Clearly not, I’m in it for the journey. I have realised I can challenge myself in ways I hadn’t ever thought of. I’ve already achieved a lot, and longer, endurance type running is where my heart is. I can run a 20minute 5Km or a 41min 10Km but I don’t like this as much as a 50Km around Oxfordshire, or a Hampshire hills marathon. I’ve found my space in the running world, and I love it.

There will be some mental challenges in the Stones that I won’t have experienced before, when everything is telling me to stop, but I will use what I have learnt, fall back on my training and know that the mind is a strong organ, it has an amazing ability to bring you through a challenge that is otherwise unattainable!

I recently posted a link to a writeup I found about the mental challenge in Ultrarunning and it’s a good read. You can find it here: https://ridgewayrunner.com/2019/07/03/ultra-running-with-the-brain/

Over the rest of this coming week, there’s a few more short runs for me (5Km ish) and I’ll probably take a bit of time to watch a couple of documentaries about ultra running – I’m a big fan of Gary Robbins and the Ginger Runner (Check them out on Youtube!!). I really find that these can give you a bit of a motivational kick up the arse! and sometimes that helps!

Whatever you are doing on the 13th July 2019, and maybe you’re at the Stones too! Make it a great day. I certainly plan to.

So maybe I was a bit quick to think I needed Help! at the start of this blog, maybe I should have been a bit more optimistic. Come to think of it …