I kept it a bit quiet, but I was inspired to look for a 24 hour event after a friend (Emma) posted on Facebook about one she'd done in June - it sounded like a challenge I wanted to take up. The only one accessible to me this year was the Cotswold 24 Hour Race organised by 100 Mile Run, so I signed up. I'll be honest, I didn't do any particular training except for continuing to train for my marathon. The laps were 9km (around 5.6 miles), so my aim was to complete 5 laps over the 24 hours which is 28 miles (just over a marathon). In retrospect, this may have been a little ambitious as I'd never completed more than 13.6 miles in training. The campsite opened on the Friday evening, but I couldn't arrive until Saturday morning. I got to Cirencester Park around 9.15am and was directed to the camping fields. Dave had taught me to pitch the 2 man tent a couple of weekends before and I don't think I did a bad job! Setting up was much faster than I'd anticipated, so I had over an hour to spare after I'd set up the tent and arranged my stuff. I went to the desk to collect my race number etc and went back to the tent for a cookie and a little lie down (!!!). Before long, we had a quick race briefing explaining the "rules" (not many of them, luckily!), then 15, 10 and 5 minute shout-outs before we started. Given the fact that the forecast had been awful all week, by the time we started at 12 noon, there hadn't been more than a brief, light shower. My first lap I took at a leisurely jog with a few short walks including the one steep uphill between 1-2km (which I will be referring to again!), although this was largely because the course was quite crowded with it being the first lap and most people who started near the back were walking up it. There was a water station at around the half way point (4.5km) at the top of a glorious 1km downhill that would keep me going through many of the laps to come! Lap 2 saw the first signs of rain, with a light shower between 5-6km, but other than this it was fairly uneventful. I took a conservative run-walk-run approach, with 0.5 miles running then 0.25 miles walking (at least to start with). Back to the campsite to refuel/comfort break then I braved lap 3. By this time it was pouring with rain and nothing seemed quite so rosy! The hill between 1-2km had become a sloppy, slippery mess and without any trail shoes, it was pretty treacherous. My legs were aching and I was starting to question the sanity of my decision to do this event at all! When I got back to the campsite this time, I decided on a full change of clothes except trainers (I figured there was no point in getting my second pair wet since it was still raining). My original plan (in so far as I had one) was to stop at three laps on day 1, but it was still pretty early, so I headed out again. This lap turned out to be the hardest one I did over the whole weekend. My legs and feet were protesting and by the time I got to "that hill" I was firmly of the opinion that I had made a mistake. But hey! I was out there on the course, so in the words of Dory "just keep swimming" (or running in this case). At around the 5km mark, I met a lovely guy from Wolverhampton (on his 5th lap) who was similarly suffering (although unlike me he was planning to carry on after this lap). We ran together and chatted for the next kilometre and it really lifted my spirits. I walked a fair amount on this lap, especially between 6-7km, but finally the last km marker appeared and I pushed on through to the finish.
I eventually managed to get to sleep just after 11pm (the headline band went on for half an hour after the event curfew of 10.30, which surprised me), and woke up around 5am feeling remarkably less bad than I was expecting! My only real pain was in one of the toes on my left foot - my toenail was a little too long and every step was bruising the toe underneath it. Unfortunately I hadn't taken any nail clippers so had to tough it out. After a quick snack and some lucozade sport, I decided to see how my body was actually doing and hit the trail for lap 5. As it was, it was pretty good. I adopted a run-walk-run tactic of 0.5 miles jogging then 0.25 miles walking. The sunrise over the church was a glorious start to the day and put a smile on my face. When I got back to the campsite, I was chuffed as I'd completed the 5 laps I'd set out to do. I grabbed myself a bacon and egg roll and savoured every bite, then I was back on the course. This time I adopted a different approach and set the interval timer on my FitBit to 2 minutes "move" and 2 minutes "rest" (equating to run-walk). This worked perfectly for my 6th lap and I finished feeling like I had one more lap in me. I reset my intervals to 3:2 (in retrospect I should have stuck with the 2:2, but I managed it) and, having changed my socks and trainers, set off for what would be my final (7th) circuit. On day 1, I hadn't used my headphones at all and had just run, but I employed the help of Zombies, Run! on day 2 and a combination of that and my playlist got me through. I passed through the finish for the final time and immediately removed my trainers - my feet thanked me! I also realised that this was day 60 of my running streak... I took my timing chip and exchanged it for my medal. I was done! 7 laps, 63km, 39.2 miles (that's 1.5 marathons) in 22 hours. I considered a shower, but it was starting to drizzle so I decided to pack up and shower at home. As I headed back to the tent I wondered whether I should have squeezed in one final lap, even if I'd walked it. As it was, I wasn't able to get my car near the tent, so had to ferry my belongings a fair distance and as I was folding the tent, the rain came down in earnest. I drove to the exit of Cirencester Park and the rain became Biblical! I'd made the right decision and felt very sorry for this still completing their final laps. |
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May 2018
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