Thames Path Challenge 100km Continuous

Saturday 7th September, I was finally standing in Bishops Park, near Putney Bridge, about to start my challenge of running 100km continuously along the River Thames path. This is not just a day that I had been looking forward to since November when I entered the event, but for the last 4 years since I first learnt about it. That year (2015) I ran my first marathon and was looking for something else to take on while I was fit. Over the last few years I had taken to running a little stretch of the Thames Path every time I went to visit my parents (from the midlands to Berkshire), and it had become a little bit of a tradition for me to piece the segments together. One day I‘d seen a sign for a race on the path and looked it up, and the top results on Google was the Thames Path Challenge, a 100km event from Putney Bridge to Henley, which you could do as the full challenge or in half or quarters. The Thames Path Challenge is predominantly run as a charity event though and I had just done one of those so it wasn’t fair to ask friends for sponsorship again so soon and I left it to the next year. The next 2 years though I was overweight and under-trained and it simply wasn’t an option. In 2018 I spent the summer living in Pembrokeshire which inspired me to run regularly on the coastal path and I started to get back in shape again but not in time to train and enter. By November I was as fit as I ever had been so at long last I submitted my entry for 2019. When I first discovered the race I had considered perhaps the 50km, but over the 4 years my sights had widened. I have a couple of friends who are ultra runners who run 100 mile events, and although I have never been a good runner I do enjoy it, and distances suit me much more than speed, so the seed was planted in my brain and it grew. This wasn’t 100 miles, but it was 100 something! I threw myself into my training: I moved to Devon in December, keeping up a base level of running over the winter and as soon as the evenings got lighter I realised what a fantastic part of the world this was for running so I explored the coast path, the estuaries and the moors as often as I could (sometimes when I couldn't too). Now here I was at the start line!

Action challenge make a big deal of you at the start, and actually throughout the entire event. There are dozens of banners; plenty of smiling, attentive staff that process you through the registration quickly; tea coffee and snacks to get you started; a charismatic compere; a keep fit warm-up; and a spacious starting pen full of other participants in varying states of enthusiasm. I was in the first start wave with the other runners, there is one wave every 10 minutes without about 150 in each one – there were 3000 people doing the event in total!

All this meant the start was far from an anti-climax, not that it would have been when I’d been waiting so long for it. I love running along the Thames, it’s so majestic. I spent the first several miles with a big grin on my face, enjoying the views and unable to believe what I was doing. I’m not even sure when I stopped smiling, it definitely faded later on but the novelty never wore off and I loved it all. As well as the man-made sights nearly the whole way was accompanied by the squawks of parakeets, and I caught the bright blue flash of two kingfishers too. I made sure to remember my grandparents while enjoying the views, since I was fundraising for Royal Osteopororis which my grandma had suffered from. She really enjoyed hiking with my grandad, so I wanted to remember all my grandparents on this journey.

Despite the wonder I was still concentrating on the running mechanics. There are many strategies you can employ for an ultra: one is to walk the uphills and run the downs, but that was no good here as it’s pretty flat the whole way! Another is to do a run/walk combination and I had tried various of these in training but they are a bit intense and I a more relaxed approach on event day. Another is to run to heart-rate which is the one I decided on. Since it’s a flat route I wanted to try to stick to a heart rate cap of 141 which is what I’d done a large portion of my training WG, especially for the first half but I couldn’t bring my blasted heartrate down, it was sticking around the 160 mark even after testing a walking break. I wasn’t running fast, so I put this down to the energetic Action Challenge warmup, the early start, and the excitement of the event... but it’s important to not set off too fast in long races, and even more so since my right calf (which I have previously had problems with) tightened right up after only the first 100 yards. I figured I would give my heart rate 12 minutes to settle down which is the time I usually give my body to warm up… I looked at my watch and 32 minutes had passed already, wow! It makes such a different when you’re caught up in race-day vibe in a throng of runners. Just in case I didn’t believe it, I passed the 4km sign a moment later. I forced myself to try and get it down then, losing the people around me who I had been speaking to. I went slower and slower until it dropped below 150 but I couldn’t comfortably run any slower without walking, so I settled at that. Most of the 6:50 start group had passed me by this point but I ended up running next to a girl called Laura, who I stayed alongside for a good while and we had a nice chat. She had entered as a jogger (same as a runner but not expecting to finish within 16 hours) and had just done one marathon before. Unfortunately I didn’t get her surname so I can’t look her up to see how she got on. It was nice to have company, we only parted because I needed to go to the loo. This, as ever, was the theme of the early part of the race for me, I had to go for a no. 2 7 times by the time I got to the second rest stop including begging the use of the facilities at one of the numerous rowing club that line the river! Thankfully it settled down after that. Apart from the bowels I’m usually okay with eating on a race, but I’ve never run more than 58km before so this is new territory for me. I ate way too much at the first rest stop, which was breakfast pastries and snacks, as I hadn’t realise they had my favourite pastry so I went back for seconds. This wasn’t really something to worry about though, I can eat if I feel sick, I am a chocolate addict and I love eating whether I’m hungry or not!

At 9:23, 18km in, we merged with a steady stream of runners coming in from a track on the left – Kingston Parkrun! It amused me that I’ve only ever been to 12 park runs as I never get up in time on a Saturday, and yet here I was already 2 ½ hours into a race after a 1 hour drive and a warm up. Shortly after that was the first rest stop, then we passed Richmond, on the edge of which we passed a field of Belted Galloways – cows, right into the centre of London! We ran right past Hampton Court Palace too which was impressive with its golden gates round the gardens. So many sights one after another. A friend of mine Debbie had entered the challenge on the 2-day walkers’ version and started half an hour after me, and was taking time to photograph all the sites so it was interesting to see her facebook posts as she followed along in my footsteps, it felt like we were sharing the experience though not actually side by side. The second rest stop came quickly - sandwiches, cookies and snacks - and I indulged myself with a sock change - not something I usually do but everybody seems to recommend it and it seemed like sage advice.

There was a certain amount of distance-watching going on for me, I was conscious that my calf was still tight and I hadn’t even covered a marathon yet, and there were still so many unknowns given this was my first 100km event. I noticed that I reached the 30km marker exactly 5 hours after the starting countdown, my watch showed time on feet as 4:22 so I was spending about 20 minutes at each rest stop. 4km later I was still enjoying the scenery and all was going well except for my tight calf, but I had a sudden flare up of my SI joint problem. My left hip joint is locked back from two falls (1999 and 2011) and in runs of over 10 miles the muscle above it (the pirofirmis) tires, and impinges on my sciatic nerve, which causes shooting pain and a lottery of issues down my left side. Half way into my training I had had a problem with my left foot, which I strengthened. Then my hamstring, then my glute. My sports therapist got to the route of the problem, my SI joint, but although I sorted the subsidiary issues I didn’t managed to solve the root problem and it has got worse of late, so I saw a chiropractor twice just before event day and went armed with ibuprofen for the race. It got the better of me though and here at 34km it hit me in my left knee via my back. I could only run for 30 seconds at a time before the knee twinged, thankfully I only had to walk it off for 10 seconds before I could repeat the process. Not planned for, and very short repeats, but it was still forward progress. The third rest stop  was at 37km and I took the opportunity to visit the medic tent and take advantage of all they had to offer – freeze spray, paracetamol and more ibuprofen to replace some I had lost, and I stretched out and taped up my knee. The medics said the only thing I could do was to keep it mobilised so every few walks I also held onto something and swung my leg side to side in front of my body, which definitely hit the spot. Every time I did this I had a few sweeties to keep my fuel up – the third rest stop was pic’n’mix only which I usually love but wasn’t ready for as I was still feeling sick from over-eating earlier, so I had pocketed them to take with me. Between all of those treatments something started to work as about 43km I was able to run for longer stretches before my knee twinged, and soon after I was running properly again.

We were leaving the grandeur of London now but there were still plenty of sights – Chertsey Weir where I went kayaking age 19, sculptures in Staines, passing the M25 (although I didn’t twig what the big bridges were until later), and finally Runnymede of Magna Carta fame where the half way rest stop was. Half way, wow! There was a good party vibe going on here as this was the finish for those doing the first half. I had left a shoe change here which I was looking forward to trying as I think the extra cushioning in my road shoes may have contributed to my sciatica problems. My trail shoes felt really clunky though and I really wasn’t sure, so I decided to try them but cram my road shoes in my pack as my parents were meeting me a little way on at Windsor Bridge and I could give them whichever pair I didn’t want.

After the half way point I got into a rhythm. I didn't have to worry about pacing as I couldn’t go fast, as fast as I could go was as fast as I needed to. The pain had also totally gone and I was niggle-free. Phase one had been finding the pace, phase two the injury phase, and phases three here was the sweet spot. I caught up with Laura again who had hit the wall and was walking though it, it was nice to say hi again then I pressed on. This stretch wound across fields and commons, not so much to see, but still notable as before I got to Windsor I went past 58k which is the furthest I’ve ever run before – into new territory now! I was passed by two pairs of joggers, who were doing a bit of a walk-run and I started playing yo-yo with them as they shot past on a run and I swung back past every time they had a walking phase. I discovered that all 4 of them were together - one had moved away to Australia, decided to take on an ultra this year and had roped some friends into doing it with him. It was lovely that they were all running together and supporting each other, and when they did running phases they were quick!

It was a great to see my parents on the bridge, to get a hug, a photo and some trousers for my pack, change back into my road shoes and lighten my load. My parents had given me wonderful support for this, not least of which getting up at 4am to drive Debbie and I to the event, which involved driving in central London which is never fun, and here they were again... just for me. As I sat changing my shoes my new friends ran past and heckled about my extra provisions! Then it was only 3km to the next rest stop, a fairly quiet section through urban fields. I caught up with the group of 4 about half a km before and we all ran in together and chatted over the ubiquitous Freddos. Sitting at a chair I looked at my timings to see if I could make it to the finish in under 16 hours now I was running well. I hadn’t set myself a time objective knowing that that was just tempting fate and injury, I just knew that my total running time was likely to be about 12 hours and with rest stops I could be up to 16. Action Challenge request that if you enter as a runner you should be able to complete within 16 hours otherwise it’s best to enter as a jogger. Due to my injury I was behind pace for 16 hours and I felt guilty that I wasn't meeting their recommendation. I worked out that if I carried on as I had been doing I would be 40-50 minutes over, so it didn’t seem too difficult to shave that off now I was moving well again. I waved adieu to the 4 and set off with renewed vigour. I felt better about my progress as I started to pass the joggers again, not because I was competing with them but because I didn't have to feel guity about the free bag transfer that is afforded to runners but not joggers.

I was really in a sweet spot now, no longer taking so many photos, purely absorbed in the running. I ran the 15km to the 78km rest stop without a pause, and not only that it was at a pace the same if not faster than I would do on a regular training run (11 minute miles), and it felt great. I started to tire at 74km but I kept on pushing as I wanted to see if I could do it, really challenging myself and my body here but in a good way. What's more is that just before 40 miles/64km I had a realisation that I would definitely finish no matter what. Some kind of subconscious assessment had processed all the parameters - the journey so far, the section left, and the motion of my legs - and told me that beyond all doubt I could continue putting one foot in front of another to get to the end. (Incidentally I think the part of me that did that calculation is the same part of me that, when the alarm goes off in the morning, knows that I can put my alarm on snooze one more time and still *just* be on time, despite me being convinced the night before that I had to be up 10 minutes earlier. It's the in-the-moment-necessity calculator!). The part of the river after Maidenhead was really beautiful too, even more so as it was the golden hour with the sun sinking towards the horizon – it was very quiet, tree lined on both sides, with single boats on the far bank giving a splash of colour to the stunning reflections of the near-autumnal trees in the water. I could see a National Trust sign on an island on the far bank but I couldn’t make out the name, only that it started with ‘C’. I thought it might be Cookham as we weren’t far from there but the day after I realised it was Cliveden which is where I was born! How delightful to get that experience of it. I came out of the trees to run across a field that was open to my left just as the sun set, and I got to see a vivid band of red at the bottom of the darkened sky, another sight to remember. I arrived at the rest stop just before I needed to get my headtorch out, perfectly timed.

Here was the moment of truth – 22km to go, it was just after 8pm, could I finish before 22:50? Instead of working out what time I would get there from existing average pace I needed to know what pace I would now need to keep up to make it, but I didn’t have the time or the mental capacity to calculate it, so I sent the maths request out to a friend on facebook and got the feet moving ASAP. I had read that after dark on a Action Challenge event you’re not allowed to leave the rest stops without being in a group led by a Trek Master, and I was wondering how this would work for the runners. It’s a nice idea for safety but not something I would benefit from as I needed to be able to go at my own pace. Thankfully they had a different system for us, they gave us a glow torch each and we were allowed to go!

I was surprised and even gleeful by how well the route was lit up for us in the dark. There were flashing lights on gate posts, glowtorches on every marker, and the text on all of the pink-arrow markers (of which there is always one in sight anyway) was glowing in the dark! There was no worry about getting lost, I was following a line of beacons of which I could see at least 3 at any one time. My friend replied to say I would need to maintain just under 11 minute miles to finish within 16 hours. This was a lot faster than I had previously calculated. I was a little dissapointed as I knew I couldn't maintain the pace I had just done, but as I ran on from the rest stop I was actually making this pace and I had a burst of optimism. I felt really at one with the moment running in the dark. There were bats flitting around me and the river was at ground level to my right, wisps of mist laying on it in a regular pattern - long, low walls of mist in a grid, lit by my head torch. On my own running across a field I saw a couple of mice, less than an inch wide: one of them bounded away from me in arcs as high as they were tall and many times taller than the mouse was, I didn't know they could do that. The wonders of the night. I caught up with some people at a gate, one lady had white-reflective flashes on her jacket, pack and trousers that in the day wouldn't have stood out at all but in the dark made her look like Tron. I also passed a man in army green shorts and jumper who had started the same time as me and walked the whole way, he said that I looked like a Christmas tree from the back, at the time I couldn't process that but I guess my pack had reflectors on too.

Pain started to return, but these were normal pains brought on by the simple repetitive impact of running such a long distance, and I didn't have the brain capacity to acknowledge them so they weren't a problem. This was a fourth and final phase - the just-keep-going phase.  I know the top of my quads were tight; my was left knee was sore too as I had strapped up my left arch as it was fatiguing and hurting - that helped the arch, but I had done it too tight and my knee was taking the brunt. I didn't have time to stop to fix it so I just tried to over-pronate as I landed to squash the tape. I'm not really sure what else was hurting but in hindsight it was the outside edge of my right foot. This is where it might have been an idea to pay more attention, as the day after this pain was quite crippling. Or maybe not. Depends on whether I wanted to finish at all costs. In second hindsight I think that I experienced what you are meant to experience, a mind-numbed determination to continue, and I am glad that I succumbed to it.

At 20:42 I messaged my parents to say I expected to finish about 22:50. Just 10 minutes later I messaged again to say my legs were slowing, and I realised I wouldn't make the 16 hour target. It didn't mean I gave up, that wasn't an option that even crossed my mind in this phase, it just meant I reassessed my objective to maybe finish in 17 hours instead. I would just keep trying and see how it went.

At 21:05 I went over a little humpback bridge and in the dark I didn't see how steep the ramp down was and I stumbled suddenly and pulled my groin. I didn't think much of it, I just wanted to carry on but over the next few steps I realised how bad it was - agonisingly painful. I couldn't walk. I hobbled on and looked at my new pace on my watch and worked out it would now take me 3 1/2 hours to finish, double ouch. A couple of people passed me and kindly stopped to see if they could help but there wasn't much they could do so I sent them on, and the green man passed too. I was less worried about me, these things happen and I would be happy to just finish, but I was worried about inconveniencing my parents. They had had a really early start that morning to take me and Debbie to the start in London, they'd also driven back to Windsor later to see me, and this meant they would have to come and pick me up in the early hours of the morning, and I felt really guilty. I desperately wanted to pick up the pace again although I knew I shouldn’t. A couple of friends online shared some stretches with me and these really helped. I was nearly due another dose of ibuprofen so I took one and this helped too. By half past I was running again (of a sort), the last couple of km to the final rest stop where I went straight to the medic tent and lay down, doing stretches and putting freeze gel down my shorts.

On the next stretch I was able to run on the grass and gravel but not on the tarmac, and there was quite a lot of that here. After a while we passed back into a large park slightly away from the river, with a flat field to a gate and then a grass path leading off left through the centre of another field which was on a a slight incline. I wondered if this was the one hill that was shown on the route elevation - not really a hill at all, the elevation of the whole 100km is only 100m so the smallest rise stands out as a big blip. I hadn't seen anybody for ages but there were two people glowing up ahead and I slowly gained and then passed. There was some incongruously loud music pervading across the field and they didn't know what it was either, we all commented it would be nice if that was the finish but we doubted it given we still had 9km to go. It took me ages to discover what it was but eventually I turned right onto Aston Ferry Road and it was just some people having a party in a posh house, unaware of me passing by them. There was a slight downhill here after the up, and the tarmac combined with the gradient was very hard on my sore feet so I slowed back to a walk. There were three people standing by a white van up ahead and they definitely weren't unaware of me, they started whooping and cheering and I felt quite emotional. I was no idea who they were, they weren't in high-vis or Action Challenge livery, and I walked up to the first one and fell onto her with a hug. The other two came over and hugged me too, while I blinded them with my torch. They enthusiastically willed me on my way and asked if I could run again so I did, away to the left on another footpath. I was immensely grateful for their support at the toughest point.

I hadn't been paying attention to the km markers for a while but they suddenly seemed important now I was inside the last 10km. I saw the 92km marker but didn't see 93km even when I was really sure I had been more than 1km and I was going to be seriously sad if it suddenly appeared but thankfully I saw the 94km sign next. I can't remember the next 3 but rounding the corner I could see lights up ahead - Henley, wow.  

Suddenly my gut turned and I felt sick, maybe because my brain knew it was nearly over, I'm not sure. I checked the last party hadn't caught me up - no I was safe behind and up ahead, alone in the dark. I went into a field by a sole tree, I just had to go. Back on the path I got a sudden build up of acid in my throat and threw up too, just a little but it got it out of my system and I was ready for the last 3km. Then the last 2km. I can't remember if was before or after being sick but I remember that I ought to eat to stop my body aching, I had spent more time in the medic tent than the snack bar at the last stop but I had pocketed some items. I had tried the peanuts earlier and they didn't taste right for the moment so I tucked into a box of toffee poppets. Another bad choice, far too hard, and in my effort to chomp down on them my teeth clashed and I chipped my bottom tooth. This hurt a surprising amount but it probably distracted me from my other pains.

I was so close to Henley now I could see the bridge, beautifully lit up across the arches. Mum met me on the bridge. As with all the other slight inclined I walked up it but ran down, a lady in a car stopped for me to cross and the guy behind got annoyed and overtook and nearly mowed down mum behind me. I ran to the finish, Mum ran with me for a bit. As I saw the finish banner I checked my watch and it was 2 minutes to midnight, I crossed the line at 23:59. Despite my recent troubles with food there was one thing I knew I wanted - the promised prosecco! This was the fourth of the finish lines, the quarter and half finishers had their prosecco at the earlier ones and now it was my turn.

My official time 17:09:28. I spent 2:24:24 at the 7 rest stops, that’s a known value as I stopped my watch at each one to charge it. Strava says I spent an additional 3:28:36 resting which means 11:16:28 total running time but Strava is known to be a little funny with moving time due to GPS glitches, and I had my GPS accuracy turned right down to save battery so I don’t trust this so much.

The results are done by challenge (the 100km continuous is different to the 100km 2 day) but combine the walkers, joggers and runners together. Overall I came 194/794, and I was 52nd woman out of 352.

Neither the results nor the time matter to me though, it was all about the distance. I’m not fast, worse than that every time I do any speedwork I get injured, it took me many years to realise this and I couldn’t even do a half marathon until I made up my own training plan and ignored much of the common advice. I don’t find running easy and due to mild hypermobility I get inquired easily too. Over the years I have grown to love it though, and I really wanted to take on this distance challenge - and now I have achieved it. The fundraising was another feel-good result, I have raised over £1400 for Royal Osteoporosis, way more than I expected.

I am very keen to do another 100km run in the future, it was the perfect level of challenge for me to push myself to my limits. I still need to recover first though, it’s now a week later and I still have pains, although they have subsided to dull aches.

Well done to all the other challenges, there were a lot of personal journeys being developed that day, and thank you to all the wonderful staff who were full or support the whole way.