My first Ultra Marathon
What do you do after running a Marathon?
There are a number of options ranging from hanging up your running shoes at one extreme to taking on a bigger challenge at the other. I opted to push myself further and signed up for an Ultra Marathon.
Ultra denotes any distance longer than the traditional 26.2 miles of a full marathon. The one I chose was taking place just outside Northampton starting and finishing at Lamport Hall. The Shires and Spires Ultra is a 35 mile route across the north-west of the County through rolling countryside taking in a number of picturesque villages.
I arrived at the venue just before 7:30am giving me an hour to register and warm up. The sky was completely clear and the sun was already warm. Marshals directed me to the car park at the rear of the stately home. Registration was on the front lawn where a number of gazebos had been put up. Here I was able to pick up my number, map book, technical t-shirt and timing tag. The staff were friendly and it was good to see some familiar faces from Parkrun.
Once I had pinned my number to my top I munched down a banana, some raisins and a muesli bar and washed them down with a bottle of sports drink. It was now getting hot and I knew I would need to stay hydrated. I'd made the mistake of not bringing a hat which with my haircut was a bad move on a sunny summer's day but I lathered in some factor 25 sunscreen as a precaution.
At 8:25 we assembled at the start line for a race briefing. I felt way out of my depth as I sized up the other competitors. Everyone looked so professional in all their kit. I was running with a 2 litre camelback and a waist belt with two 300ml bottles. This was more weight than I was used to but gave me ample water supplies and storage for my phone, compass and some snacks.
Right on the stroke of 8:30 we set off to a big cheer. You couldn't have asked for a more picturesque scene as we jogged towards the classical front of the Hall and then passed beneath the windows and out of the grounds.
Our first challenge was to cross the busy A508. The race officials closed the road for just 45 seconds during which all 200 of us managed to hurry over. Now we were heading across country. I was roughly in the middle of the pack as I aimed to take it steady having never tackled such a long distance before. The temptation to run faster was one that I kept having to fight as I felt fresh and the adrenaline was pumping around my bloodstream.
We filed down a steep slope along the side of a field filled with bemused cattle. It was a beautiful sight seeing all the bright colours of the runners outfits against the vivid green grass and bright blue sky. The sun shone down and I felt great. If only you could bottle those moments.
The first few miles passed quickly. I enjoyed the slower pace and opportunity to chat with people. Some had travelled from Essex, Norfolk and Hertfordshire to be there and I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only Ultra virgin.
The terrain took some getting used to. All my previous runs except the OCR events have been on roads. My hips, knees and ankles were all having to adjust to stony, rutted soil and I found myself concentrating hard on where I placed my feet as I sought to avoid any holes.
We were soon at the first checkpoint in Cottesbrooke with four miles completed. The map book we had been provided with contained seven pages of directions but I hadn't needed to use it at this point as there were plenty of people either side of me. We were nearly through page one and I looked forward to turning each page as I progressed.
This was one of the many mental games I played throughout the day. Another was breaking the distance down into manageable chunks i.e. 3x10 and 1x5 or 2x4, 3x7 and 1x6 for the checkpoints or 2 halfs, a 10k and a Parkrun. Depending on where I was in the race I would think up a way to make it seem manageable.
After scanning my tag on the marker point I indulged in pretzels and delicious fruit cake washed down with a bottle of water. The volunteers really did us proud with their welcoming smiles and tasty food. The scenery was breathtaking with a number of people commenting that they would consider moving to live in Northamptonshire and hadn't known it was so picturesque. To my shame neither had I as I explored parts of my own County I had never seen before.
The next stage was back on tarmac but we encountered the first steep hill of the day up to Haselbech, an 80m ascent. The photographer was sat beside the road so we all powered past him to look good for the photos before walking to the top. The big difference between a marathon and an Ultra is the walking. In an Ultra walking in expected and accepted especially up hills. This was a relief and meant that I conserved energy for later in the day.
A few miles further on we arrived in Naesby, mile eight and our second checkpoint. I was making good progress and sticking closely to my ten minute mile target. A quick refuel and we were off again. A long, straight road took us across page three and into Thornby where we then transferred back to the off road terrain. We criss-crossed a number of fields and clambered over countless stiles. It was a wonderful feeling to be out in nature, actually running through fields of wheat and barley, listening to the skylarks cheering us on as they hovered above our heads.
After checkpoint two the distance between food stations was lengthened to eight miles which meant that we clocked in at 16 miles just after the village of West Haddon. I encouraged myself that I was feeling strong and I was only just over the ten minute mile pace although the hills, fields and stiles were making it harder than I had anticipated. The question still hung over me whether I could do the distance even if it were a road race. But in just a mile and a half I would be half way and on page 4.
By now it was approaching midday and was getting really hot. The clouds that I had hoped would emerge as the day wore on had failed to materialise. The map gave me some shade but it wasn't possible to hold it above my head and run comfortably. Instead I just made sure that I was drinking plenty of water and isotonics. At each station I would drink a bottle of water and fill the bottles on my waistband which were always empty when I got to the next one. I must have got through over ten litres during the race.
The next stage of the race took us through Long Buckby where I had been warned it was easy to get lost. I managed to tag on the back of a group, they were moving faster than I wanted to but I stuck with them and I'm glad I did as one of them had run the course before and guided us through a complicated section involving a gate and dog leg. At various points on the course a man on a bike would appear and point the way. Always with a smile and a wave. I began to imagine that he was an angel sent to help me get round.
Another killer hill reduced us all to a slow walk/crawl but then we were back on the roads. The next few miles was one of the highlights of the day for me. We were between the 20 and 23 mile stage and my body was getting very tired by now. I could feel blisters appearing on the ends of my toes and the soles of my feet were sore.
However this was a point in the event when I came alongside a couple of other competitors and was able to share a part of the journey with them. They had both travelled a fair distance to be there, one from Essex and the other from Hertfordshire. The guy from Essex had taken part in a number of events before while the other was new to Ultras. We compared stories and discussed the route as we jogged down a long straight road, over the train line and arrived at Althorp House.
This was the site of the penultimate checkpoint at mile 23. As we refueled we were able to take in the home of Earl Spencer and resting place of Princess Diana. It looked stunning in the midday sunshine with the mature trees in full leaf. A number of people were there to greet us as they enjoyed picnics on the grass.
My next goal was to get to 26.3 miles. I would then be in unknown territory and could call myself an Ultra distance runner. It was from this point on that time seemed to slow down. The miles that had been flying past now crawled by. I was checking my Garmin more frequently and becoming discouraged but the battery finally died 0.1 miles short of a marathon which was probably not a bad thing. I had managed to complete 26.2 miles in 4:45, an hour and a quarter slower than my PB but given the nine miles still to go, the terrain and heat I was pleased.
I was pushing my body beyond its previous limits. To my surprise I still felt fresh and my thighs were not aching as much as I expected. We soon arrived in the village of Harlestone which I know well. It was good to be on familiar territory but I knew that I was only a couple of miles from my house. For a moment I was tempted to turn off and head for home but I dismissed the thought and continued to follow the map.
At this point we crossed a golf course and another steep hill. This one was covered in golf balls and as I walked towards the top I could hear a whizzing sound as shots flew by me. That certainly caused me to pick up the pace.
We now headed for Holdenby and once more we were in open fields running through long grass. I started day dreaming about stopping and laying on the grass that looked like a soft mattress and again had to snap myself out of it, my mind was starting to wander as it tired. As we passed the village I turned onto page six and noticed the final checkpoint was located at the next village of Teeton.
To get there we had a fierce 40m climb. Now I was starting to feel the pain and shuffled up to the food station. I thought we were at mile 29 and was telling myself that there was just two Parkruns to go when I was informed it was only mile 28. They may as well have told me it was mile 2 the way the news hit me. I had to give myself a talking to and remember that I only had a fifth of the distance left; one more mile and then I could count the miles on one hand.
With that I moved on only to receive a second shock as I rounded the corner and viewed the mother of all hills. The road dropped away beneath me and then rose up to the village of Creaton like a rollercoaster track. It was a 30m descent followed by another 50m ascent. As it turned out it was more painful to go down than it was to go up the other side. I was now pacing at over 11 minutes a mile and my sub 6 hour target had gone out to sub 7 hours.
I reached the summit of Mount Creaton alone and with no flag to stick in the ground picked up jogging again. I turned to the last page of my map book. For the first time I was relying on my own map reading skills as my angel hadn't appeared. The next few miles are a blur until I was about two miles from the finish and I could see Lamport Hall on the hill in the distance. This gave me a boost and I began to push myself forward.
Before long I was on the Brampton Valley Way, a disused train line that I have run many times that runs along the base of the final climb up to the finish. By now my legs were pleading for me to stop and walk so I began to bargain with them. We agreed that if I walked the flat I would have to jog up the hill but if I jogged the flat I would allow my legs to walk to the finish. It's strange how you can have arguments between your own mind and body and even trick yourself. I carried on jogging and then walked back up the same hill we had gone down at 8:30 that morning before sprinting to the finish.
It felt great to be back where we had started and to know that I had made it to the end and without injury. I was an Ultra Marathoner. After stretching and picking up my medal I checked the times that were pinned to a noticeboard. My finish time was 6 hours 20 minutes and I had finished 44/188.
Despite the fact that a few times during the day I had regretted ever signing up I knew that I was ready for my next challenge. In three weeks I take on back to back Ultras in the 68 mile Round the Isle of Wight race.
There are a number of options ranging from hanging up your running shoes at one extreme to taking on a bigger challenge at the other. I opted to push myself further and signed up for an Ultra Marathon.
Ultra denotes any distance longer than the traditional 26.2 miles of a full marathon. The one I chose was taking place just outside Northampton starting and finishing at Lamport Hall. The Shires and Spires Ultra is a 35 mile route across the north-west of the County through rolling countryside taking in a number of picturesque villages.
I arrived at the venue just before 7:30am giving me an hour to register and warm up. The sky was completely clear and the sun was already warm. Marshals directed me to the car park at the rear of the stately home. Registration was on the front lawn where a number of gazebos had been put up. Here I was able to pick up my number, map book, technical t-shirt and timing tag. The staff were friendly and it was good to see some familiar faces from Parkrun.
 |
| Lamport Hall |
Right on the stroke of 8:30 we set off to a big cheer. You couldn't have asked for a more picturesque scene as we jogged towards the classical front of the Hall and then passed beneath the windows and out of the grounds.
 |
| And they're off....(That's me in the black) |
We filed down a steep slope along the side of a field filled with bemused cattle. It was a beautiful sight seeing all the bright colours of the runners outfits against the vivid green grass and bright blue sky. The sun shone down and I felt great. If only you could bottle those moments.
 |
| 35 miles to go |
The terrain took some getting used to. All my previous runs except the OCR events have been on roads. My hips, knees and ankles were all having to adjust to stony, rutted soil and I found myself concentrating hard on where I placed my feet as I sought to avoid any holes.
We were soon at the first checkpoint in Cottesbrooke with four miles completed. The map book we had been provided with contained seven pages of directions but I hadn't needed to use it at this point as there were plenty of people either side of me. We were nearly through page one and I looked forward to turning each page as I progressed.
This was one of the many mental games I played throughout the day. Another was breaking the distance down into manageable chunks i.e. 3x10 and 1x5 or 2x4, 3x7 and 1x6 for the checkpoints or 2 halfs, a 10k and a Parkrun. Depending on where I was in the race I would think up a way to make it seem manageable.
After scanning my tag on the marker point I indulged in pretzels and delicious fruit cake washed down with a bottle of water. The volunteers really did us proud with their welcoming smiles and tasty food. The scenery was breathtaking with a number of people commenting that they would consider moving to live in Northamptonshire and hadn't known it was so picturesque. To my shame neither had I as I explored parts of my own County I had never seen before.
The next stage was back on tarmac but we encountered the first steep hill of the day up to Haselbech, an 80m ascent. The photographer was sat beside the road so we all powered past him to look good for the photos before walking to the top. The big difference between a marathon and an Ultra is the walking. In an Ultra walking in expected and accepted especially up hills. This was a relief and meant that I conserved energy for later in the day.
A few miles further on we arrived in Naesby, mile eight and our second checkpoint. I was making good progress and sticking closely to my ten minute mile target. A quick refuel and we were off again. A long, straight road took us across page three and into Thornby where we then transferred back to the off road terrain. We criss-crossed a number of fields and clambered over countless stiles. It was a wonderful feeling to be out in nature, actually running through fields of wheat and barley, listening to the skylarks cheering us on as they hovered above our heads.
After checkpoint two the distance between food stations was lengthened to eight miles which meant that we clocked in at 16 miles just after the village of West Haddon. I encouraged myself that I was feeling strong and I was only just over the ten minute mile pace although the hills, fields and stiles were making it harder than I had anticipated. The question still hung over me whether I could do the distance even if it were a road race. But in just a mile and a half I would be half way and on page 4.
By now it was approaching midday and was getting really hot. The clouds that I had hoped would emerge as the day wore on had failed to materialise. The map gave me some shade but it wasn't possible to hold it above my head and run comfortably. Instead I just made sure that I was drinking plenty of water and isotonics. At each station I would drink a bottle of water and fill the bottles on my waistband which were always empty when I got to the next one. I must have got through over ten litres during the race.
The next stage of the race took us through Long Buckby where I had been warned it was easy to get lost. I managed to tag on the back of a group, they were moving faster than I wanted to but I stuck with them and I'm glad I did as one of them had run the course before and guided us through a complicated section involving a gate and dog leg. At various points on the course a man on a bike would appear and point the way. Always with a smile and a wave. I began to imagine that he was an angel sent to help me get round.
Another killer hill reduced us all to a slow walk/crawl but then we were back on the roads. The next few miles was one of the highlights of the day for me. We were between the 20 and 23 mile stage and my body was getting very tired by now. I could feel blisters appearing on the ends of my toes and the soles of my feet were sore.
However this was a point in the event when I came alongside a couple of other competitors and was able to share a part of the journey with them. They had both travelled a fair distance to be there, one from Essex and the other from Hertfordshire. The guy from Essex had taken part in a number of events before while the other was new to Ultras. We compared stories and discussed the route as we jogged down a long straight road, over the train line and arrived at Althorp House.
This was the site of the penultimate checkpoint at mile 23. As we refueled we were able to take in the home of Earl Spencer and resting place of Princess Diana. It looked stunning in the midday sunshine with the mature trees in full leaf. A number of people were there to greet us as they enjoyed picnics on the grass.
My next goal was to get to 26.3 miles. I would then be in unknown territory and could call myself an Ultra distance runner. It was from this point on that time seemed to slow down. The miles that had been flying past now crawled by. I was checking my Garmin more frequently and becoming discouraged but the battery finally died 0.1 miles short of a marathon which was probably not a bad thing. I had managed to complete 26.2 miles in 4:45, an hour and a quarter slower than my PB but given the nine miles still to go, the terrain and heat I was pleased.
I was pushing my body beyond its previous limits. To my surprise I still felt fresh and my thighs were not aching as much as I expected. We soon arrived in the village of Harlestone which I know well. It was good to be on familiar territory but I knew that I was only a couple of miles from my house. For a moment I was tempted to turn off and head for home but I dismissed the thought and continued to follow the map.
At this point we crossed a golf course and another steep hill. This one was covered in golf balls and as I walked towards the top I could hear a whizzing sound as shots flew by me. That certainly caused me to pick up the pace.
We now headed for Holdenby and once more we were in open fields running through long grass. I started day dreaming about stopping and laying on the grass that looked like a soft mattress and again had to snap myself out of it, my mind was starting to wander as it tired. As we passed the village I turned onto page six and noticed the final checkpoint was located at the next village of Teeton.
To get there we had a fierce 40m climb. Now I was starting to feel the pain and shuffled up to the food station. I thought we were at mile 29 and was telling myself that there was just two Parkruns to go when I was informed it was only mile 28. They may as well have told me it was mile 2 the way the news hit me. I had to give myself a talking to and remember that I only had a fifth of the distance left; one more mile and then I could count the miles on one hand.
With that I moved on only to receive a second shock as I rounded the corner and viewed the mother of all hills. The road dropped away beneath me and then rose up to the village of Creaton like a rollercoaster track. It was a 30m descent followed by another 50m ascent. As it turned out it was more painful to go down than it was to go up the other side. I was now pacing at over 11 minutes a mile and my sub 6 hour target had gone out to sub 7 hours.
I reached the summit of Mount Creaton alone and with no flag to stick in the ground picked up jogging again. I turned to the last page of my map book. For the first time I was relying on my own map reading skills as my angel hadn't appeared. The next few miles are a blur until I was about two miles from the finish and I could see Lamport Hall on the hill in the distance. This gave me a boost and I began to push myself forward.
Before long I was on the Brampton Valley Way, a disused train line that I have run many times that runs along the base of the final climb up to the finish. By now my legs were pleading for me to stop and walk so I began to bargain with them. We agreed that if I walked the flat I would have to jog up the hill but if I jogged the flat I would allow my legs to walk to the finish. It's strange how you can have arguments between your own mind and body and even trick yourself. I carried on jogging and then walked back up the same hill we had gone down at 8:30 that morning before sprinting to the finish.
It felt great to be back where we had started and to know that I had made it to the end and without injury. I was an Ultra Marathoner. After stretching and picking up my medal I checked the times that were pinned to a noticeboard. My finish time was 6 hours 20 minutes and I had finished 44/188.
Despite the fact that a few times during the day I had regretted ever signing up I knew that I was ready for my next challenge. In three weeks I take on back to back Ultras in the 68 mile Round the Isle of Wight race.
