This race was to be my big challenge event for the year. A 12 hour endurance race held overnight from 7pm to 7am. In Hull.
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| A man with a pole in his head stands in front of a big bridge. |
The longest event I've ever done before this lasted a mere 8 hours. So it was with some trepidation that I headed off to Hull a few hours before Hell on the Humber was due to kick off. I'd packed for just about every eventuality, even though it was lovely and hot I thought that as we looped to and fro over the imposing Humber Bridge during the night, the weather could take a significant turn for the worse. Similarly I'd packed a range of food on the grounds that I soon get sick of carb gels even in a normal race. I took a leaf out of Chris Brumby's book and, as well as a variety of carb gels, I had made myself some bacon sandwiches (using veggie Quorn bacon). I'd also packed dates, nuts, dried fruit, bananas, boiled eggs and what turned out to be my masterstroke - a packet of Cheddars biscuits.
The organisers had set aside a patch of land near the race HQ and start/finish line at the Humber Bridge visitor centre where competitors could pitch a tent. I'd got my tent just in case, but as it turned out I managed to park my car about 30 metres from the start so I decided to use that as my food and kit store instead.
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| The moon. And the Humber Bridge. |
As the race start at 7pm approached, the sun was still out in surprising force. Fortunately we knew that it wouldn't last and would soon be out of sight, for a few hours at least. I'd been worried about the weather being bad. The race consists of 4 mile loops over the Humber Bridge, almost all of which is very exposed to the elements. Despite the clement weather at the start, I'd wager every competitor had race kit appropriate for driving rain and ice-cold side winds in their bag somewhere.
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| Night falls. |
I set off planning on adopting a walk/run strategy from the start. The climb up to the bridge at either end proved the ideal points at which to rest the legs, though in actual fact very little of each loop was what you would call flat. Surprisingly the hours seemed to pass quite quickly. After a couple of hours running the sun gradually set to the West of the bridge and darkness quickly set in. The bridge itself was sufficiently well lit so head torches really weren't necessary and the majority of runners had foregone them.
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| How the route looks on Google Maps. |
As you might expect in this kind of event you started to see the same faces over and over again. Cursory nods of the head soon evolved into smiles and then into words of encouragement and conversation. One of the things that has stuck with me the most from this event is the camaraderie amongst the competitors on the Facebook group. This has grown from the friendliness and approachability of Karl the race organiser.
At 1am, Karl had arranged for a local pizza company to delivery to the start line. Advance orders and payment had been taken before the start of the race, and sure enough at 1am a massive pile of pizza boxes duly arrived. £450 worth I was reliably informed! I myself had elected to forego the pizza. I even surprised myself with this decision. I'm not sure running immediately after downing a 12" vegetarian would ever be considered a sensible idea.
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| Still sweating at 4.30am. |
The hours continued to pass as did the laps. The sun was due to rise at 5:47am and I found myself looking forward to this time, despite the race not finishing until 7am. Sure enough the sun eventually poked its head over the Eastern horizon and after a short time greeted us with a spectacular red vista. The race rules state that each competitor must complete a full lap in each quarter of the race and mustn't finish before 6am. As 6am approached I'd settled in my head to run a total of 13 laps. I could have squeezed in another half lap bringing my total up to 54 miles but I just couldn't motivate myself to do it - especially as this would have left me 2 miles away from the finish. So I settled for 52 miles. This was some way off my initial target of 60 miles when I first entered the race, but overall I was pleased to beat my previous mileage record.
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| The sun rises over the Humber. |
At the end of the event we were presented with a voucher for a bacon/sausage or fried egg sandwich and a cup of tea or coffee from the local cafe which was very welcome despite the ropey service. We were also presented with a techinical t-shirt in a bit of a free-for-all scrum. No medal, unfortunately, which I was a bit disappointed with. But overall I left the event with a smile on my face. I'm not sure if I'd run it again or not. Maybe it's time to look for the next challenge, but if you are looking for a challenging (but achievable) event in a unique environment, you would do worse than to consider Hell on the Humber 2013.
More information can be found on the organisers
website.
Mik
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