Fidget's Adventures: 2021

This race was a bit of a last minute thought, I was taking to the race organisers 4 weeks ago after their last race saying I was considering entering, and only submitted my entry a fortnight ago. I was heavier than is comfortable for me, at 11 1/2 stone, I’d like to be at least a stone less as my body finds it especially hard above about 11, and I’ve been feeling sluggish and uncoordinated lately from excess stress. But I’d like to do a multi-day event in a couple of years, and this would be a good test of what happens if I attempt a long distance when not quite in shape, so that seemed a good enough reason to give it a go, plus this was their inaugural 100-mile event so it felt good to be a part of (even though I was doing the 50 mile option).

We assembled in the dark at Okehampton and saw the stunning dawn from the bus on the way to the start. It was full daylight when we started which was good for the soul, and having seen the dawn we knew we had the full amount of daylight ahead of us. Last weekend I’d realised that my trail shoes have done 650 miles and started to go through at the heel and rub my skin, so I panic-bought a new pair, and standing at the start they were bright and shiny. Although they were the same as the old ones so I knew they’d be comfortable, they were thick and puffy with their new-ness, and I spent the first hour constantly re-tying the laces. If they were too loose they slipped, but if I have laces just a fraction too tight I get shooting pains across my foot.

My aim for the day was to get round with as little muscle fatigue as possible, as close to the cutoffs as possible, but it was quite hard to run that slowly on the road sections at the start, and it only took me 1:19 to do 10k, which felt a bit fast given I was going to be running all day. So I just continued went as slow as I could, as I already felt a wreck. I already had aches and pains too - my right hamstring felt tight, as did my left calf (where I had had an overnight cramp the week before), and I had an intense pain between my shoulder blades which has been building for a fortnight. This didn’t really matter though, I knew I wasn’t super fit, and yet I had still been really looking forward to the event, and it was so beautiful in all the autumnal colours, with so much of the route being along tree-lined tracks or along stream valleys. And the curious cow field at Ashburton was empty to boot! We were blessed with a good day too - the sky cloudy but bright, no rain, and a balmy 9 degrees before dawn rising to about 13 degrees in the afternoon.

There was a steep hill just before the first checkpoint. I had only seen 1 or 2 others at this point, bringing up the rear, but I bumped into two more who had taken a wrong turning and had to backtrack, and we stomped up the hill together. I was surprised to bump into a few other runners at the checkpoint too. I was very well looked after at the checkpoint, I was so incredibly hungry due to limited fat-burn training and carrying more weight, and things appeared without me having to ask for them - a sausage roll, hot soup, a plaster for two of my toes that were running together. I left feeling fit, then the second I started running I got stabbing pains on my foot under the laces, and intermittent problem I’ve had before that no physio can seem to diagnose. Sometimes I can walk it off, sometimes I can’t, but thankfully it was manageable as I walk up to Haytor, then along to Yarner woods, and eventually eased off. This section of the path, all the way to Bovey and then on to the next checkpoint at Manaton was familiar to me, and it was nice to be able to switch off and not have to navigate, through more stunning tracks lined with yellow trees and fallen leaves. It was all too easy to speed up here (about 19 miles in), so I just tried to keep my heart rate under 160 (I would prefer it lower still, but it’s always higher than normal on a race with an early morning start).

I was having some technical issues as well as body aches. My watch has a ‘low power’ setting where it only samples the gps every minute, but there’s a bug with it where it keeps losing gps (it works fine on full power mode) and after a while it fails to find it again altogether. I kept having to stop the track and start a new one, which meant I lost my average pace, which I had planned to use to time my arrival at each aid station. I had anticipated this and was running a second log on Strava on my phone, but my phone tends to zig zag around and log extra mileage, so the pace wasn’t correct there either. I could calculate it from the map against elapsed time if needs be, but I was about an hour inside the cutoff anyway so didn’t really have to worry.

At the second aid station there were even more people, and I stuffed my face as much as I could and set off again. There was a chill in the air so I put on my long sleeved baselayer (having been in a vest and shorts up to now, despite it being mid November), and typically after a few minutes I was roasted again but decided to take the sweaty body over cold skin. I had a company on the next sections, briefly with Claire, then yo-yoing with a chap called Antti who’d left me behind at the start when I re-tied my laces, and running a stretch with another chap called Alan. My GPS went haywire on some shapeless, dark bracken-fields just before Cranbrook rendering my navigation useless, but Alan’s was co-operating, so it was reassuring to have his company then. My left knee started to hurt at the shin tendon on the downhills, but Alan had some aches too so we ran/walked a stretch together, approaching Fingle bridge. We had passed the Bude crowd too - an energetic bunch of 6 or 8 all running as a group, although they passed us again here, then we passed again as they met their support crew for snacks. It was 3.9 miles to the Chagford aid station as I pushed on up the hill taking me high above the Teign gorge. Darkness has fallen now so I couldn’t see the stunning view, but I knew this section and even in the blackness I could sense the deep, v-shaped valley on my left down to the tree-lined river below.

As I descended to the river I began to feel a bit weak and shaky, even though I had just had a cereal bar, and pushing on took a lot of effort here, it was the actual motion of running and bouncing up and down that was making me feel nauseous. As I ran the flat stretch along the river my right quadricep suddenly developed some pain, and I slowed to a walk, which was heartbreaking on such runnable ground, but I didn’t want to sustain an injury that would prevent me from finishing. The remaining 2 miles to the aid station felt like it took 2 hours. I walked in in a state but body seemed to notice, I guess that’s par for the course after 40 miles. This was already the second furthest I’ve ever run and on my longest ultra I also got injured on route and yet finished running strong with no lasting damage, so I didn’t see how this should be any different. I was waited on again, with coke and soup and sandwiches and freeze spray. It was 7pm and the cutoff was quarter past midnight so I had time to walk the rest, but I got going again as soon as I could just in case, although I think I was there for longer than I imagined. After half a mile of walking I was bored of that, especially as I’d looking at the tracker to pass the time while on a road stretch and seen the people I’d passed gradually getting further and further ahead. So I tried a slow shuffle-run and it felt okay, and there weren’t any steep downhills to test my knee, and that was it, suddenly I was fine all the way to the finish, more than fine in fact. I still felt destroyed, and it sounded like somebody was talking to me quietly as I was wheezing on every breathe, but somehow I felt strong at the same time - I was able to dodge rocks and mud. I genuinely raced the last 10 miles, although my pace graph shows I wasn’t any faster than I was at the start, but my pace was incredibly consistent throughout which I guess is a feat when you’re getting progressively more tired. I had no targets regarding finish time or table position, so I set myself an arbitrary aim to catch up with the Bude group again. As we left the road for the trail section I passed the two guys I’d seen before the first checkpoint, then somebody else alongside the roaring river Taw just past Sticklepath. Last time I had looked at the tracker I saw Bude were still 0.36 miles ahead, but I knew they might stop again at one of their popup aid stations, so I kept pushing, even though I felt shaky again now and I couldn’t get any food in this time. I finally saw them just as we reached the hill up to Belstone village, and thankfully accepted a Jaffa cake from their support crew who I passed just before they did. The next section of the route was glorious solo running - first over the final hill with a steepish ascent and a steepish descent that didn’t flare up my knee as it was on grippy grass, then a good track that gradually descended then zagged back to cross the East Okement river, followed by a hellish river track over slippery rock slabs. I am fairly comfortable on rock, and my legs were still pretty mobile, and I passed another small group of runners here who were being more careful. It was pretty much all over then. A friend messaged me to say there was no-one else between me and the finish as I couldn’t check the tracker on this terrain, so all I had to do was run it in, about ready to collapse but ecstatic with my achievement. In the end I finished 34th out of 57, and 9th out of 21 women, despite aiming to plod round, with a finish time of 14:12:44.

I knew I needed to eat then, and was so thankful to find the cafe at the finish line still open, doing chill and rice, it was hard to get down me but I managed the lot before driving myself home.

I couldn’t walk the next day (today), but don’t believe I have hurt anything, just general fatigue and stiffness. I couldn’t sleep well, I had a stomach ache and a sore knee, despite propping it up on the pillow. I had 8 hours of sleep, of which just 2:40 were restful, 1:24 restless and 4 hours awake. There’s time for that though. Second furthest I've ever run, my 9th ultra (6 in events and 3 in personal challenges), and one that went from a real ‘can I even finish?’ to a ‘wow, look what my body did!’

What do you do if you haven’t done much running lately? Call it a taper and go for a long one 😄 I wanted to do a long run today so make up for little running in August but I was thinking more of 18 miles, not double that. On Thursday though, just two days ago, someone posted on the South West Trail Runners group looking for a lift from Ivybridge to Okehampton so they could run across Dartmoor. I had previously plotted a route across Dartmoor on the Two Moors Way, one that I didn’t mind how fast I did it, so despite being a bit out of shape, I figured we could both help each other out, and it worked out well. We met at Ivybridge, I drove David to his start at Okehampton, then found a place to leave my car just north of the A30 near Drewsteignton so I could head into the National park on the Two Moors way. Thankfully it was downhill to start.

It was due to be a warm day so I’d brought 3 litres of drink and my pack was uncomfortably heavy and hurting my back, I felt a small niggle in my knee too from the weight. After just 1 mile I realised this may scupper my plan to go running in Scotland in a week time, even if it did fix the deficit in my August mileage.

The trail passes through Drewsteignton, ascends Piddledown Common then heads west towards Castle Drogo, high above the Teign river with a wonderful view down the valley. After 1 hour I’d done 3.82 miles, giving an Estimated Time to Completion of 9:25. This is a pace I continued.

The path then drops down to the Teign and follows the river for some way, another pretty section, and cooler in the shade too. I saw a chap with secateurs pruning back the nettles by a stile, very socially minded and earned a thank you from me. In the second hour I covered another 3.8 miles. There was then an overgrown section with a narrow boardwalk, which required some care not to fall off the edges; half an hour of that and some fields and I was out onto the heat of the moor.

I had been keeping my heart rate to about 158 max, but I let it rise to 167 here as I was following the right hand side of a nice, broad, gently rising whaleback ridge that was comfortable to run along. Nearing the top there was a group of cows, the first of many, but there were two people sat at a boundary stone by the edge of the group and the cows didn’t seem at all bothered so I decided they were friendly. After 3:12 I was a third of the way in. The route descended the broad, gentle hill, and swung east to head past Birch Tor and over to Hookney Tor. I developed serious stomach cramps here due to the unavoidable time of the month. I took some ibuprofen which usually helps but it made no difference whatsoever. Heading south to Grimspound I had a welcome distraction from 7 or 8 hang-g liders swooping and turning over King Tor. The sun was out and the multicoloured wings looked fantastic against the blue sky.

4 hours had passed now and I’d done an additional 3.65 miles. I wasn’t in good shape: I was heavy (just bordering on overweight again having put a bit back on) and stiff, but I was getting on okay. Next came the familiar Hameldown hill, another broad whaleback ridge. The mainTwo Moors Way does a detour over to Widecombe in the Moor after this but I think this is optional and you can carry straight on and cut the corner off. Unfortunately though the path on the OS map doesn’t exist on the ground and I swing away by accident, so I went back thinking I’d missed it to find it not there, before picking my way through the gorse to reach the road to Jordan. Passing Dockwell farm they were just about to move the cattle but I got lucky and passed through just before.

At 4:46 I was half way through, and after 5 hours I’ve done another 3.85 miles, faster due to the downhill off Hameldown. Out of Ponsworthy there was a steep uphill. I started to get a hotspot on the inside of the ball of my right foot. At least my stomachache had finally gone. I was taking salt tablets every 45 minutes using a countdown timer on my phone, I’m not sure how much they help but they always feel like magic little sweet. From here the route follows the good track of Dr. Blackall’s drive, high above another river valley, the Dart this time, then drops down to Spitchwick where there were two ice cream vans, but despite a sudden craving could not partake if I wanted to claim this as an unsupported FKT. It wouldn’t be a fast time but if I got in first it would still count!

At 16:03, after 6:28 of running I was 2/3 of the way through. The second third has been longer than the first, so I predicted that the final third would be 4 minutes longer again which meant I would finish at 19:23, which was inside 10 hours and well before sunset. I worked this out whilst dropping down into Holne, then oddly I quite enjoyed the big uphill track out of Scorriton. I’d missed the 6 hour stats, but after 7 hours I’d done 25.77 miles, an additional 3.45 miles for each of the last 2 hours. The track led up onto Scorriton Down, a quiet bit of moor. The trail here was really confusing to follow. It was crisscrossed with other tracks that converged and diverged, none of which were on the map, and the correct one was very nondescript and at times overgrown, but I just followed the gps and it was easy enough to head the correct way. Then it flattened off over a featureless stretch of more then along the river Avon. Here I feel like I kept walking when I could have run, I was tired and my head was completely elsewhere, not really aware. I noticed absentmindedly that my hands were swollen and my rings were really tight.

The ground was a little boggy in places for the first time, but it was good to be near water as I had run out of liquid so I filled up with another litre and treated it with some old chlorine tablets. I crossed the Avon on a clapper bridge, said hi to some wild campers, then began the final steep uphill to the Red Lake Tramway, otherwise known at the Puffing Billy. 8 hours came around and I had only added an extra 2.69 miles, very slow but there had been a lot of up, and at 8:04 I reached the Puffing Billy and there was no more up and only 7.7 miles to go. My watch had partly given up here as well as my body and it would no longer tell me my heart rate, but I was relatively steaming along the tramway at 12 minute miles. And I could see the sea from here too! I stopped for the loo with just 3.2 miles to go, and crouching down seemed to be a huge mistake as when I stood back up again the back of my right leg had gone ‘ping’ and I couldn’t straighten it. Could it be all over, this close to the end? I hobbled for a bit and it was really painful, but I soon discovered I could actually still run if I adopted a bent-leg hobble, and I staggered down the final track and road to cross the railway at Ivybridge, arriving at the Dartmoor National Park sign dead on 19:23 as predicted.