Firstly I better explain the Sunrise to Sunset challenge, it is two races in one an Ultra (race longer than a marathon) and a marathon. The course is a loop of about 0.8 miles, set on pleasant country lanes south of Telford and hosted but Denzil and Lucy. The idea of the ultra is to see how far you can run between the race start 8:20am (sunrise) and 4:00pm (sunset). The marathon is simple to complete 31.5 loops of the course. This is controlled by giving each runner a set of 31 elastic bands at the start of the race and they remove one after each lap. For the marathon runners once you have run out of bands you then do a short half lap to finish. For the ultra runners they then start to collect bands until they have to finish at 4pm.
Obviously, I entered the marathon. It’s not an easy course in fact is quite hard. There are 2 hills in the course, the larger one is fairly steep, the other one a gradual climb so for the marathon you have to run 62 hills and for the ultra, well it depends how fast you are!
I had woken that morning full of a cold and a thick head and didn’t feel like I wanted to get out of bed. But I dragged myself out, got ready and left later than planned. The further I travelled to Telford the worse the weather got, the rain got heavier and heavier and I realised that I had left too late and was going to miss the start. I finally arrived at the lane where I had been instructed to park my car which was about a quarter of a mile from the start. Quickly got into my running stuff and ran to the start (Denzil and Lucy’s house). I was greeted by Lucy and her welcoming smile. I registered, got my set of 31 elastic bands (tied together in two bundles of 15 and 16), race number and wrote an emergency contact number on the back. I legged it to the start and joined into the race some 9 minutes late.
Only after about 10 laps did I realise I had left my race number with Lucy, ooops! Hope they don’t disqualify me!
The weather for the first half of the race was awful with heavy rain. Normally in such conditions I would simply keep my hands in my cagoule so they stayed warm and dry but each lap I had to get an elastic band out and my hands soon became very wet and cold. I started off well and was soon lapping other runners and making up for my late start. But by about 11 miles I was feeling very cold and was slowing down fast, could this be the effects of my cold? I was not even half way and doubts came into my mind, could I finish the race today feeling this bad? I finished my first set of elastic bands but when I came round to untying the 2nd bundle my hands were that cold I couldn’t undo them. I must give a big thank you to Julie for helping me, at probably my lowest point of the race and untying them for me. If it wasn’t for Julie I would probably still be there! At 13 miles I stopped at the start/finish removed my soaking gloves, tried to dry my hands a bit, had my first energy gel, drink and composed myself. Do I carry on or go home for a warm bath? I think this is the closest point I’ve ever been to DNFing. I decided to try a few more slow steady laps.
The water on the course was significant, with puddles everywhere, some which resembled small lakes. At the bottom of the steeper hill, a pond on the left was flooding over the path and we had to run through what seemed like a stream, as the rain persisted we were seeing the stream get deeper each lap. On the other hill the there was swath of water running down the road and it was like running up a river.
For the second half of the race thankfully the weather improved and the rain finally stopped. I kept my hands inside my cagoule and they started to warm up. For about 20 minutes the sun even came out. I kept digging in and grinding out the laps. I wasn’t bothered about my time, this was all about finishing and nothing else. Another 5 bands gone and a second energy gel and I started to feel a bit better. With less than 10 laps to go my hands stopped being num. With 5 laps left I could taste the finish and even started to speed up. This was all mind over matter. The legs were fine and could definitely handle the distance and the hilly course, it was all about beating my cold and the lack of energy I had in my body. 2 Laps to go, I even started to smile, the end was in sight and one of the hardest worked for medals of the year.
I eventually finished with an official time of 4 hours 18 minutes 7 seconds but my Garmin time was 4 Hours 9 minutes 10 seconds. An awful time for me but sometimes to simply finish a race that is more testing for whatever the reason, is more satisfying than a fast one that goes to plan.
Thanks to Denzil and Lucy for putting on a great friendly event and Julie for helping me with those elastic bands.
Merry Christmas and all the best for 2013.
