XNRG Druids Ultra 2016
This was it, this was the first big race, and one that would tell me roughly where I was in terms of fitness. Druids is a 3-day race., each day longer than a marathon. Since my wake-up call of not finishing the Portsmouth Coastal I had done a few half marathon races and one trail marathon, Fort William in Scotland. The half marathons showed me that I was definitely quicker and that trail marathon showed me I was moving in the right direction. I felt stronger and I had some confidence back. The Druids, though, was a different beast - 3 days of back-to-back running, in November, trying to understand nutrition, fuelling and pacing. It was also the first time that Gaz, Mike and I raced together. We said we would run every step of the Marathon des Sables together, so we intended to do this together. We all had different backgrounds: Gaz was already a multiple Ironman and had done numerous middle distance triathlons, Mike had done a lot of marathons, had a PB around 3 hours 20, and had done a few ultras already. Mike and I did Kilimanjaro together, but this was different. This was 3 days, an ultra a day. To say we were apprehensive was an understatement.
We turned up at the start a little bewildered. We had all overpacked - our overnight bags had so much gear in. We were wearing our MDS backpacks, but would not be a full weight. I had a few kilograms in, but nothing more. We registered and were taken by coach to the start at Ivanhoe beacon.
I was taken aback as we got off the coach. I'm not a prude - having served in the British Army for 7 years I have seen many things, but as we were climbing down the steps of the coach, a lady walked no more than 5 paces from the door, not really into cover or bushes and crouched and relieved herself right there. I was a bit surprised, there was a hedge line not 10 meters away. Even the girls in the Army would have used that. I would have maybe been a bit shocked had a man done it in the place she did. Was she trying not to take too many steps or was I now dealing with a different breed of athlete where thing like this were just second nature?
We walked up the hill to the beacon where we would start the race. Today was also 11th November so as we hit the top we stopped for a minute's silence. At this point I was still unsure what to wear and I had my bag emptied and stood for the silence. Pretty much as soon as that was done we were off. I had kit everywhere. I lost my phone, it was handed back to me, and we were dead last leaving the hill as Gaz and Mike waited for me to sort my shit out.
For us this wasn't a race - we weren't looking to compete. Sure we could have done this another way at home and gone out for three days on the trot, but we wanted to understand how this worked: packing, albeit not very lightly, but having to live with what we brought, following a route with limited checkpoints and water being rationed. So we were off, day 1 we had 30 miles to do and my start wasn't the best. Still we got into a rhythm and started working our way though the back markers, always checking pace and always aware we had two more days of this. As we started day 1 later than day 2 and 3 we were also expecting to finish in the dark, wearing head torches. Although I had done this many times on hills, this would be the first trail run since the Lakeland50 under headlights.
Day 1
This weekend for us was all about learning, and we learnt a lot. I learnt that preparation was key. We had done a lot of prep, taping feet, watching YouTube videos from Rory Colman. We had been to a talk where we first came across Elisabet and Colin Barnes, Susie Chan (Marsden) and Shaun Marsden, the two ladies being Marathon des Sables royalty, but for different reasons; Eli for the fact she had won it and Susie for her social media presence. The two partners are also ultra runners in their own right, Colin for completing the Thames Path 100 miler a number of times and Shaun for winning the Arctic Marathon. They spoke, we listened.
What I took away from this seminar was that a goal to finish the MDS was good as a backup, but I should have a realistic goal about pacing, time to finish and placing. This was what I wanted to get out of Druids - an idea of what I could do day after day, and, as we planned to run as trio, what could we all do day after day. I was unsure of what the dynamic would be too.
As it turned out, we bonded. We all got on great. Mike had the total inability to run in a straight line. His spatial awareness was shocking - he would run in front of you, cut you up, trip you. At first this annoyed the crap out of me, but as the days passed, I realised he wasn't changing so I had two choices. I chose to laugh at him, but not without ripping him every time he did it. We finished day one and we felt comfortable. The first thing that Gaz and I did was go for recovery drinks. Mike looked at us confused. As I had said before, none of us were established ultra runners, me the least of all, but I knew from the sessions we had done that recovery was the most important thing for performing. Every advantage you could give yourself would be invaluable. I had 33shakes. I realised that they really could do we being ground up with a blender, but I poured the contents of the pack into a bottle and sat and drank. There was a computer table near where we were sitting, and I wandered over and took a look. It was a timing booth and I took a print out of my day one .
As it turned out, we weren't doing too badly. There were a few hundred people doing the 3-day race and we were currently around 39th. A theme was starting to form - one that would plague me on our journey of 3, but not something that would really start to bug me until a few months later. Gaz and Mike were placed in front of me. But for today, I was very happy with 39th. We gathered our gear and headed to the gym where we set up beds, showered in luke warm showers and headed for dinner. As we ate we started up conversations. It turned out we were sitting amongst a number of people who were on the same journey as us. We ate dinner and conversed, then headed off to bed. Day 2 loomed and the weather looked pretty bad for it.
Day 2
We were now in foreign territory. This was getting up and doing it again. As we started out of the school and headed back up to the Ridgeway it was like the Ministry of Funny Walks, but slowly muscles became warm and we got back into our stride. Our average pace was slightly quicker than yesterday's - we were still sticking to the plan. The main goal was finishing this.
Today was wetter. Drizzle stayed with us most of the morning. By the time we hit a beautiful town called Goring, Gaz had an issue. We passed over the River Thames and stopped on the benches outside The Swan while Gaz did some repairs to his feet. We stopped for maybe five minutes when out of the pub came a gentleman. Initially I thought he was about to eject us from his property, but he had 3 coffees for us, black, no milk, as he thought that milk wouldn't be stomached well. He asked us about our run. I can't tell you the morale boost that this brought to us. Pure human kindness - it was only a cup of coffee, but it's something that sticks with me. We continued on our way carrying our coffee cups with us. As it happened the next stage was uphill.
Every self-respecting ultra runner will tell you, "Walk the hills". Who were we to argue? The only thing that the three of us argued about was what constituted a hill. Mike, by the end of day 1 was convinced that the flat was actually a hill. We've run the route again and he has since conceded that he 'may have been wrong'.
We set off up the hill and drank our coffee. This was by far the longest road section we had done and it did seem to go on for a long time before we hit the trail again. At the end of day 2 it happened that an England rugby game was on. We weren't under house arrest, though to me it felt as though it was an army exercise, so leaving 'barracks' seemed a bit odd. We got a taxi to a local pub and got chatting to a few other people. As we sat around the table ordering masses of food, we realised we were having a pint with the current race leader. We were also sat with Lizzie Currie and her husband. Turned out they were doing MDS too. After a few beers we got a taxi home and got into sleeping bags Today's accommodation we were on a stage at a school hall.
By the end of day two we were still doing respectably. There were some really fast people out there, but there were also a lot of people who were in a similar boat to us, training for some sort of multi-day event. This was the first time that I'd heard of another race, the Grand to Grand. The g2g, as it's known, is a similar yet much smaller race across Utah and Nevada in America. The race is a very similar format to the MDS, but slightly longer. Everyone who has done it will tell you it's harder. From what I currently understand, it's slightly different in terms of altitude, and temperate. As I write this I am planning on doing it in a few months. So hopefully there will be a write-up on that.
Day 3
The day was glorious. We were transferred by minibus from the accommodation to the start, where we had finished on the Ridgeway the night before. As on the previous day, the elite runners started last, which is why our timing printouts didn't reflect our positions at the end of the day. We started with the masses. As Neil Thurbron gave the days briefing, it dawned on me that he had to be a soldier, or at least have served. He spoke as if giving a briefing to a troop or platoon heading into battle. Today now felt a bit like second nature. I knew the first few kilometres would be painful as my body adapted to yet another day of torture, but I also knew we would get over it. We worked harder today. We knew the end was coming and we didn't have another day of running. We looked after each other, we told each other to keep drinking and eating. We all had highs and lows today, but we also knew, bar any injuries, we had cracked it. This was my first multi-day event and I absolutely loved it. We had met people along the way that we would meet again on the journey to MDS and indeed on MDS. We had a few tent mates, Wendy and Alison, who also ran and trained together and were very good. Things felt to me as though they were coming together. We were 5 months away from the the MDS start line, but I was a lot more confident about my physical condition. Yes there were things I had yet to understand - heat, hydration, salt, food, cooking in the desert, but with the military background, I was used to roughing it a bit so I was happy to eat dehydrated food. Today was a big day for me.
As we came off the Ridgeway and joined a road that would lead to the finish, I started to wonder if I would be emotional as I had been all those years ago at the Lakeland50. The second I crossed the finish line there I cried. Today I didn't, and I've never had that emotion since like that. Maybe my total lack of preparation for that race was what caught me out. But today as the three of us crossed the line I knew that the MDS was doable. Sure there were more days to do in MDS, but I knew that I could get up tomorrow and do another. My first Great South Run that I did, I couldn't walk afterwards, but I had just done the Ridgeway, 84 miles over three days, and I was buzzing. Because we had worked a bit harder than I had expected, we were ahead of where I had arranged for Sam to pick me up. She missed us cross the line.
I was slightly disappointed, as this was the biggest thing I had done to date as far as running was concerned. Our finishing positions were: Mike in 47th, Gaz in 48th and me obviously in 49th. 105 people made the end of the race. I was more than happy to be in the top half, in fact I was ecstatic. In under a year my fitness far exceeded what I had hoped and my weight was 20 kgs less that it was when I pulled out of the Portsmouth Coastal. I had a lot to learn in terms of training, but this was the race that definitely changed my view. I had been apprehensive beforehand and when I spoke about it to people it dawned on me that a lot of people would train for this to be the challenge. We had used it like many others did as preparation for a bigger one. That's where the race positioned itself, as an MDS training race. But the race came with UTMB points - it was a toughy. I hadn't thought of it like that until I'd contemplated what we had done. What we had done together.
