The Lakeland 50 2010
I cried at the end of the Lakeland 50. I guess that’s a good place to start.
It was the relief of finishing, of not letting down Gaz and Nick. We said we would ‘run’ it together and the other two were clearly in better shape, better trained, and did a better job of sticking to the plan than me, but we all finished.
The thing that I remember most is getting synchronised cramp with Nick: we both jumped at the same time and both of us ended up with feet pointing directly downwards! Gaz, however, bounded around like a gazelle. To be perfectly honest they both should have cut me loose and they would have gone on to get better times.
For the first half I held my own, but after that, well, pain kicked in. Sheer lack of training and being overweight did not a runner make. I had underestimated this race. A few 30 km runs across the South Downs was not adequate training and this made coming down the mountains agony. I remember that we had less than 5 miles to go and I was at the point of pulling out, but as Nick said, pulling out would still mean I had to get down the mountain. As the terrain eased out, so did my knee. It turned out that going uphill didn’t hurt. Coming down was excruciating.
I should have known that this was going to be another level from anything I had done before when we turned up at registration and they checked for mandatory kit, and did a weigh in. The doctor did double-take the scales, but at this time I honestly didn’t see myself as overweight, I saw myself as ‘a rugby player’. I hadn’t long since hung my boots up and playing at inside centre I was always one for a crash ball.
The Lakeland 50 nearly broke me. 2010 was the year the medal had a spelling mistake, so our finishing award was similar to something you would get from a school sports day. To this day I would rather have had the spelling mistake one than the rubbish that was given out that year, at least it would have had some comedy value, coming from China. Nick has gone on to do the Lakeland twice more, bettering our time of 18:29 hrs to his 12:40. I was relieved just to have finished as many haven’t, but I know I can do it better and I’m finally attempting it again this year. 2018’s race sold out in 3 minutes, showing the increasing popularity of the ultra-marathon. I’m sure there will be entrants who, like me, will have underestimated the enormity of this race. This year, I will not.
The Lakeland 50 is run concurrently with the Lakeland 100, starting 24 hours before. They hold the 50 runners back so everyone finishes ‘around the same time’. Many 100 finishers still finished before me in 2010. Most 50 runners also managed that! Looking at my times now I am confident that I can do better, but I have to back that up with action. Of the 276 finishers that year, we finished 237th, 238th, and 239th. I think it’s only fitting that I was 239.
It took me a few years to get over this race and put my trainers back on. It took a few weeks, but when the pain had gone I was proud to have finished, but knew I could do better. London 2012 would be next. Although in the back of my mind I knew it was a flat road marathon and that I would finish no matter what, I planned to train better for this one, hoping to break the 4 hour mark.
On a side note, I did manage to get a video of Nick getting out of my car once we got back to London...
