Category: Crazy thing to do!

For some reason my weekend seemed to blur into one long day… probably because I didn’t make it to bed on Saturday night.  In fact, with the exception of some short intermissions, I was awake for 36 hours straight.

The reason for this long day started  at 7.30pm on Saturday, after a circuit around the London Eye, when 15 of us started running along the Embankment in the direction of… well, the Brighton Eye.

I have been vehement in my absence at any such Ultra events that the other guys have been competing in over the years, but this one was conceived by Cliff and Andy so it seemed rude not to participate… though only after a considerable battle of willpower with myself!

We had two support cars which carried Andy’s spare shoes and most of his running wardrobe, though, to be fair, most of the others also had large kit bags.  This enabled the ensemble to run with micro-packs holding water and emergency supplies only.

Since I was avidly trying to avoid doing the run in the first place, I had not attended the planning sessions and so pitched up with all my gear in my running pack… which weighed about 7kg including 2 litres of water.  Dai tried to persuade me to decant some weight into the support cars but… well, I didn’t, choosing instead to lighten it slowly by consuming all the edibles!

The support cars met up with us at predetermined locations along the route and provided additional snacks, hot cups of tea and, for those that had them, fresh socks, shirts, trainers, legs etc.  This also meant that we could choose which sections we wanted to run, with some people running only a few sections and others running the whole way.

The general idea seemed to be to walk up any hills and run the rest of the time and I had hoped to complete the whole distance by going more slowly.  It quickly became apparent that this was not going to be possible since, in order to maximise the time spent off-road, the route was torturous.  Map-reading never having been my strong suite, I had to keep with the pace or get lost… although keeping up didn’t prevent the group from getting lost on a number of occasions!

As evening turned into night turned into morning, so the differential between my pace and the others’ slowly widened until I would catch up with them only when they stopped to figure out which way to go or at the next refreshment stop.

Eventually, on reaching the support cars at Weir Wood Reservoir at just after 7am , I decided to hang up my sodden shoes… everyone else  having already taken refreshments and continued on.  I had covered more than 43 miles in just under 12 hours.

My legs were tired and my shoulders ached from the pack but I could probably have continued further… but only at a much slower pace.  My mind was also tired though and the lure of an escape was too appealing so I joined the kit bags riding between check points.

The aim was that everybody would at least complete the first and last sections so I was fortunate to have more than six hours to recover until the last of the others had completed the next 18 miles.

I then rejoined the ensemble as we ran the final four miles into Brighton… though run is not the right word in my case and the others had to wait for me to catch up before we ran the final hundred metres together.

The event, which covered more than 65 miles in about 19.5 hours, was topped off by a ride on the Brighton Eye.

The gang of 16 (including Paula, our one permanent driver) were amazing throughout, though my Top Banana award has to go to Nikki who intended to do half but managed to complete the whole distance… and still managed to disappear off ahead of me in the final section!

I didn’t ask for sponsorship, but if anyone would like to donate a little money to charity in recognition of my efforts, then please go to my Just Giving site.  The charity, set up 20 years ago in memory of Big Man Daren’s brother Clive Packham, encourages Scouts to participate in adventurous activities by offsetting some of the costs of travel or training.  I particularly like it because they insist that the Scouts themselves present a formal case for the money they need and then make a final presentation of the event to the Trustees.

Even small donations will be very welcome!

At the end of our run on Monday, there was a short exchange that has set some very particular wheels in motion. Well, legs really. Up until that exchange, Daren had been looking for someone mad enough to run the Tour d’Mont Blanc with. ‘Nuff said?

Bearing in mind that the TMB route is circa 120 miles long, with about 10,000m of height gain and height loss (greater than climbing Everest from sea level), it may seem strange that I wasn’t out on the Downs this morning doing some hill work.

Actually, part of the reason was that I had been edging grass verges yesterday (see England Garden Gang) and also felt as if I’d put on a little weight (more of that later). Rather than get injured in early training, I thought I’d stick to a flat route.

I set out at 8.25am to get the run over before it got too hot and made my way down the road route that I’ve run frequently… down to Wiveslfield Station, along to the London Road and then South towards Hassocks. It’s a good route for thinking about stuff and because I know where the mile markers are, I’m able to gauge my pace to a certain extent.

Despite not feeling as fleet of foot as normal, I made good time and was surprised how consistent my pace was at 9 minute miles. This is not the fastest I’ve run down here (which is an average 7.9 minutes per mile), but more recently I’ve struggled to run it this quickly.

I turned in Hassocks at the four mile marker and ran back to the outskirts of Burgess Hill, before returning to the Hassocks turn point a second time, now six miles. In late February when I first ran this route, the guys from Crawley Community Payback were busy doing the verge edges on the outskirts of Hassocks and it was still really clear the short stretch that they had completed. The balance of the way down the road, the path is getting narrower between the encroaching verge on one side, which is breaking up the pavement, and the encroaching hedge on the other. Bearing in mind this is both a footpath and a well-used cycle path, I think it deserves a little more care, not that people in the Council care what I think!

I retraced my steps back via Wivelsfield Station and up Junction Road making it to the end of the ten-mile run in a shade less than 1.30… 9 minutes per mile or 6.67mph. Despite being pretty red in the face compared to normal, it was a nice run and good timing to boot… rather than getting hotter, it was actually raining lightly as I charged up the road towards the end and within ten minutes of getting back the rain was coming down like stair rods.

But wait a minute… or rather, weight a minute. The reason I felt heavier this morning was because I was wearing a rucsac weighing 10lbs, or 4.5kg and I still ran faster than the last time I did this route! It’s likely that the TMB pack will be more than twice this weight, but I feel reassured… nay, as Phil Stupples would probably say, I feel GOOD, nah, na na, na naaa, I knew that I would now, la, la la, la laaa!