Weekend Round Up 6th 7th November
WENDOVER WOODS 50 MILE ULTRA
Having completed the 100 mile track run last weekend, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jay McCardle might want to put his feet up; but as this is Jay we are talking about, he was on the start line for the Wendover 50, a course of five 10 mile loops on forest trails within Wendover Woods in the Chiltern Hills. Stated to be around the best trail running with wide soft trails, smooth descents and runnable climbs. An amazing achievement to complete with Jay explaining his thinking as follows:- .
” My girlfriend and best friend were running Wendover and I had a roll over place from the last one that was cancelled due to covid. I had originally planned to do 2 of the 5 laps then have a sleep in the car but somehow just kept going !!! The last lap wasn’t pretty though as some of the hills were bloody horrific. Chuffed I got it done and bodes well for the next 100 miler in Dorking which includes 10 descents and 10 ascents of the box hill steps !!!
Jay
MAVERICK ADIDAS TERREX FRONTIER SOUTH DOWNS
Nick Bolding & Ollie Strachan were in action at Slindon College for a race starting in Slindon Woods over Glatting Beacon and Sutton Down as well as Upwaltham and Bignor Hill, clocking up over 1000m of vertical ascent. This week’s banner shot is the start at Slindon. Nick has reported in as follows:-
“So… I turned 50 in October and I felt the pressure of expectation to do something foolish – like buy a sports car, or a powerful motorbike I don’t have the skills to ride, or get a tattoo or something… you know – male ‘mid-life crisis’ stuff.
Except… I’ve driven my wife’s sportscars, I’ve had a motorbike for years, got a tattoo a couple of years ago so I needed something different. I’ve been enjoying the 10k trail runs a lot and back in 2019 had my only ‘DNF’ when I only managed 30km of the Rewell Wood Trail Marathon, so it seemed like fate when I found out that there was a multi-distance trail race on the same day as my wife was going to be out celebrating a friend’s birthday.
There were 12, 23, 44 and 53km options – so with the ‘mid-life crisis foolishness’ in the air I opted for the 53km…
Yeah, trail ultramarathon with over 1100m of elevation gain, having only every run regular marathon distance on the road and 30km on trails and not run further than a half marathon in over 2 years and not having trained for it at all… what could possibly go wrong?
Ollie Strachan had also signed up to the Ultra but that was it for the Tuff turnout. Preparation consisted of making sure I had everything on the list of mandatory equipment and mixing up 2 litres of Tailwind the night before.
It was local – start/finish at Slindon College so only half an hour drive from home. Low-key ‘race village’ with a good number of food vans, plenty of parking, well-organised pickup for race number… really good experience and kept the nerves at bay. Got my race backpack on (wow, that’s heavier than I was expecting!) then a couple of minutes milling about in the start pen and then with a tolling of a cowbell we were off!
My plan from the start was to try to keep my pace down so my heart rate stayed in the endurance zone – this was always about ‘completing not competing’. The Long and Ultra runners started together as the courses were the same for about 80% of the route with the first split coming at around 10km with the ‘Long’ runners being told “Keep straight on up the hill” and the ‘Ultras’ “Round to the right” – I felt smug that I wasn’t heading up the hill… but that was probably the only time I was happy to be doing the Ultra not the Long.
Getting to the halfway point was OK, first 10k took around an hour, the second about 1:10 and I was starting to hurt… but not as badly as on the run leg of Cotswold Classic or Outlaw Bowood. The next 7km took another 50min so at around 3hrs I was halfway – I ‘celebrated’ with a pee, some salt tablets, an energy bar and a selfie.
To be honest, from that point onward it became a war of attrition – the climbs hurt, the descents hurt, the flat was only ‘good’ in relative terms. One of the climbs was so steep I thought I was actually going to be on all fours at one point, plus there was a downhill wooded section where the trail was awash with leaves that had filled the deep, flint-filled rain gully so you had no idea what was under your feet. 4hrs in I was at 34km so still basically had a half-marathon to go. Feet were cramping – have another salt tablet & a packet of crisps at the feed station at 35km – they said there was 15km to go but that would only make 50km… I was sure the GPX file had showed 53km – maybe even ‘53 plus change’. Mentally I was going to stick with 18km to go on the basis that if I worked to 15 and then had another 3 I wasn’t sure I could do it.
Jog when you can, walk if you have to… don’t stop. 40km, just under 5hrs, hips hurt, knees hurt… hell everything from the waist down hurt… and so did my back – something in my backpack was hard an had been pressing into my spine for the past 5 hours making it feel bruised.
42km – that’s slain the demon of the DNF for the trail marathon, everything from this point forward is ‘Ultra’… I don’t remember much from the later stages – nearly missing a turn when it pointed across a ploughed filled littered with grapefruit-sized flints (one of the hardest slogs of the whole day), a family of 6 deer bounding past just metres away, finding myself essentially alone for long stretches – no-one in sight ahead and just the echo of my own footfalls behind…
I think it was around 48/49km I was trudging along just trying to will my muscles to relax enough that my legs would actually work when another runner caught up and yelled “Come on! Let’s do this… pick it up!” I grudgingly switched from a zombie-like shuffle to (sort of) a jog, keeping pace with Tim (as he introduced himself at the finish)… we caught up with another runner as we neared 50km and tried to sweep him along with us but it wasn’t to be. 50km 6:30:38 the goal now became finishing in under 7hrs. 3km in 30 minutes? Yeah, we can do that!
The pain eased but I had the ‘thousand yard stare’ and was focussing from one trail marker to the next. It started to rain, which was actually welcome as I was beginning to overheat a little. 51km – 6:38:50, 52km – 6:47:14, 53km – 6:54:44… oh come on! Where’s the finish??? We had no idea if we were 50 or 500m or more from the finish… then through a gate and we were on the road into the college.
I dug deep and pushed as hard as I could… I could see the time board as I approached the finish – it was already showing 7hrs… across the finish, stop the Garmin…
54km (53.96 if you’re splitting hairs) in 7:00:13…
Medal, can of beer, can of coffee, energy bar but what I needed was just to get off my feet… and get my backpack off.
Dumped my stuff in my car, got the dryrobe on and back up to the finish to cheer in a few runners plus grab a coffee an a pastry. A little odd as the people on the shorter courses had already finished, packed up and gone so not many people around.
Did I enjoy it? Honestly… no, it was hard, much harder than I was expecting. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! Would I do another one? Ummm… never say “Never” right?
My main takeaway from the experience is “Don’t run a trail ultra without training adequately (at all) for it” but, it was less expensive than a sportscar, less likely to end in an ambulance ride than a superbike and Mrs B would’ve been really cross if I’d got another tattoo…
Push yourself, don’t be shit… Go Tuff!
Nick
TRIATHLON ENGLAND SOUTH EAST SENIOR SERIES
The South East Senior Series was a series of inter club events at six tris covering Eastbourne, Dartford, Bewl, Southwater, Worthing Aquathlon & Hever Castle across the 2021 season. Whilst Tuff Fitty didn’t specifically target the series this year, the events that saw Tuff attendance produced some strong results. This was particularly so at Worthing Aquathlon when Tuff Fitty scored maximum points – one of only two clubs to attain maximum points at events the whole season. The final results showed good positions in both the gents and ladies league tables with Tuff Fitty 5th in the overall league out of 22 entered South Eastern clubs. This was a great performance considering there was Tuff attendance at just three of the six fixtures.
Thanks to everyone who raced at Eastbourne, Southwater & Worthing. The fixture list is not yet declared for 2022 when we will need to decide if Tuffs are to mount a more concerted challenge.
PARKRUN
Littlehampton parkrun was back after its Bonfire sabbatical & Henry Teague-Smith stormed home 2nd overall in just 17:10 a pb for this course although he has gone below 17 minutes a couple of times at Worthing. Steve Fryer was next – 10th overall in 20:34 and not to be outdone Juliette Reader had a strong run, 2nd female overall in 22:08 – this was a double celebration as Juliette accrued her 50th parkrun. Bob Thomas was next and then Alistair Evans on his 59th run. Not yet a member but Rich Budd has been coming along to track sessions and was present here on his 152nd parkrun in 23:34. Well done to Nick Hartfield and Alistair Evans who were on the organising team.
At Worthing parkrun, there were dedicated runners, as the 6 Tuffs mentioned here have now amassed just short of 500 parkruns between them. James Oram was first Tuff home in 21:44 notching up his 116th parkrun. Ed Lay was next on his 69th parkrun appearance, Les Pearce on his 135th run, Dave Priest on his 43rd, Elaine Rousseau on her 106th, & Sheila Bailey on her 26th parkrun.
Maidenhead parkrun saw Trevor Harvey run on his 35th parkrun
