And so it was on New Year’s Day this year I would keep a promise I made to myself to get back to ultras and entered Race to the Stones, a non-stop 100k (62 miles) run from the town of Lewknor to the stone circle at Avebury along a 5000 year old path. I always remember being told by a seasoned runner that no matter how well you planned, things would go wrong, the trick is not to let it bother you, take it in your stride, and if at all possible, find the positive in the situation (that sounds familiar). As it was, Race to the Stones would give me the opportunity to exercise this!
With that in mind, on the Monday before the race I found my trail shoes which have served me through thick and thin had developed a hole near the ball of my little toe, new shoes weren’t an option, gaffer tape was briefly considered, but then I found ‘Shoe Goo’ which is a type of liquid rubber to seal the hole, which worked a trick.
The day finally got underway at 8 am, I had my radio tuned to Planet Rock and by sheer luck I started the race to one of my favourite songs, ‘Cochise’ by Audioslave. It’s hard to compress the amount of time I spent running into a race report, but I can tell you the first 10 miles slipped by easily, managing my pace over some difficult terrain through Grims Ditch which is littered with roots and small rocks. At bang on 10 miles (or so I thought, and more of that later) I’d land awkwardly on a root and my left ankle would bend through what felt like 90 degrees. My first instinct was to get out of the way of the other runners as we were on a narrow trail, I hobbled for a few hundred metres hoping I could walk it off. A little further down the trail I started a slow jog and slowly tested my ankle out, it was sore but I’d be damned if I was dropping after 10 miles. Another half mile down the road I’d trip on a rock, cutting my hand and elbow pretty badly, I cleaned both with the hand gel I had in my first aid kit and introduced the runners around me to a whole new set of expletives (if you’ve ever used hand gel on a cut you’ll understand).
To be honest the rest of the rest of the day passed in a blur as I ran in ‘autopilot’ trying to ignore the pain. The views were lovely and I spoke with some great people but I could only run when the ground was flat as I would get a bolt of pain from my ankle whenever it didn’t land squarely on the ground. The only thing that really stood out was that my watch was giving me a total distance which just didn’t seem right, I arrived at the 40k aid station where I saw at least 3 people drop out with dehydration. My watch however was telling me I’d run 33k, my gut reaction was to be annoyed, I then figured out it was because I’d set it ‘ultratrac’ which is basically a low power mode giving you a lower accuracy. Bearing in mind my opening comments, I chose to be pleased I’d run 7k further than I thought. I then ran on to the 50k point where I would quite happily stuff my face with pasta and eat the best ice cream you’ve ever eaten!
From that point on I couldn’t trust my watch so based my run on trying to reach the aid stations by certain times which really helped break the race down into manageable chunks. At around 10p.m. the head torch came out and I found myself running through an endless field, I’d of been worried I was lost if I couldn’t see other runners in the distance as I was totally on my own now.
Finally I reached the last aid station where I downed some flat coke and ate some pastries filled with apricot jam while one of the medics filled my water bottles as I was struggling to bend low enough to get to the taps. I set off thinking ‘only 11.7k to go’, whilst I had the distance right the ‘only’ was very wrong!
I headed off across another field in the dark on my own, with nobody behind me. Within a couple of minutes I became aware of a shadow running to my right, I turned to acknowledge them as they passed only to find nobody there, suffice to say I knew my mind was playing tricks on me as this would then keep happening throughout the rest of the run. I eventually left the field to be directed onto a chalk path which just seemed to climb eternally uphill, there was just no way I could run anymore as the road was uneven and my ankle couldn’t stand it. My ‘shadow’ from earlier was now almost a constant (if somewhat creepy) companion and as I was also being passed quite regularly, it was hard to differentiate!
For more information visit the race website.
Steve F