The land of the ultra-runner

Today I had my first experience of the land of the ultrarunner. That place beyond 26.2 miles which I'd never previously seen before.

The Plan

Simple - run three ten mile loops from my house. The race I'm training for, the Clyde Stride, is split into four segments of 10 miles each with a drop bag at each. So the idea was to test out the food ideas for these drop bags as well as my ability to do the distance and give me a better idea of pacing. I'd selected a mixed loop of trail and road to try and match the race itself, and tried to mirror the terrain as best I could. My fairly ill informed guess before setting off was that each loop should take about 1h 30, and a time between 4h 30 and 5h would be a good result.

What happened

It all went scarily like clockwork, I struggled a little to get going and was a little daunted by the distance to go. The first time my garmin beeped it was quite sobering to think I would hear the thing beep 29 more times before I stopped. I also felt a bit full running so soon after breakfast. But this all passed in about three miles and I settled down into my stride. I ran nine minute miles at first which felt about right and I speeded up slightly as I got into things.

The first lap passed easily after that, and after a quick pit stop I grabbed my headphones and tuned out to a mixture of music and podcasts for the second lap which also felt fairly smooth.

I started the third lap at a similar speed to the first and still felt strong. The marathon passed in 4h 05, and I passed into the mythical land of the ultra. It felt much the same, my legs were still getting a bit sore and I was ready for the end. Although I was pleased that I felt better than I did at 24 miles in the marathon. The last 3 miles I began to slow a bit and I was glad to stop. But overall I felt I ran fairly smoothly.

0 to 10 miles - 1h 33
10 to 20 miles - 1h 33
20 to 30 miles - 1h 36

Total 4h 42

Food

On 1st leg

• 2 slices malt loaf with butter (right at start)
• 2/3 ninebar (around 30mins)
• Energy gel (around 1h)

At first stop

• 2 slices malt loaf with butter

On 2nd leg

• 1/2 bounty (around 2h)
• Energy gel (2h 30)

At second stop

• 1/2 scotch egg
• 1/2 bottle flat(ish) coke

On 3rd leg

• 1/2 bounty (3h30)
• Energy gel (4h)

This all worked pretty well, there was nothing that made be feel bad, although I didn't want things in quite the same volume as I has envisaged - the idea of a whole scotch egg appalled me.

The other thing I learned was that if you put coke in the bottle for my bottle belt, and it isn't totally flat. Then the pressure will build up as you run and the drink fizzes, until it shoots out a fountain of coke onto you elbow - much stickiness. To be honest I think having one bottle of coke and one of water left me short on water and feeling thirsty - not sure I'll do this again.

I took the gels on the move, but walked up a nasty little hill while eating foot on the run.

Animals

Buzzard (again), baby deer (took me ages to work out what they were), baby bird that couldn't fly marooned on the forest floor, hare, mouse.

Conclusion

I was ready to stop by the end, but I think your body gets used to the idea of what it is doing and had I being doing 40 it would have gone on, albeit maybe a bit slower. I'm pretty sure I can do the 40 mile distance and that I have a sensible food strategy worked out, but you never know how it will go on the day. I need to have a bit more of a think about pacing though...