Chester Ultra

Chester ultra 2020.

This was meant to be 50 miles but due to flooding it was reduced to 44. Think most of us, if not all were pleased about it. I did this in 2018, it was a total mudfest. This time, it was exactly the same. 

In my near 7 years of running,  I've never had anything dramatic happen to me, until today. Read on to find out what. 

We registered on Friday evening and stayed in a premier inn just 5 minutes away. When leaving at 5:15 I was pleasantly surprised to see the weather was good. No rain or wind and not cold. Though it was still going to be a mudfest. 

We started at 6am, weather still fine. I opted for no headtorch as there was plenty of light from others and it would soon get light anyway. Kit was Hoka Challengers,  base layer, shirt, bag, shorts and gloves. All was good to go. Sharon had dropped me off at the start, I said don't wait and not to bother seeing me till CP4 at 27 miles. This was purely tactical,  meant I would just crack on and get the job done. My aim was to get in the top 100 and get the gold medal. I had enough food on me to last till mile 27, sweets and cocktail sausages.  All I'd need to do was top up the water. Which was good as I had no intention of being a checkpoint lingerer.

Off we all went, was a steady 1st mile as there was lots of people on a narrow path. We all plodded along happily and all felt good. 

The the dramatic moment happened.  2 miles into the run, just 2 miles. I think we had either come of the canal path or had crossed over the canal,  either way we were about to go down a slope, where at the end of it, you went left, under the bridge and carried on. At the top of the slope, someone watching said be careful as its really slippy down there. Now I dont know if I had that in mind or I just didn't see the path go left. I really have no idea what happened except I never slipped and I never went left, I went straight on, straight into the canal. There was no fall, no slip, I just ran straight into it, was almost like I intended to, though obviously I never intended to.  1st thing I know was I hit the water and sunk. Luckily I can swim and never panicked.  Got myself back to the edge where someone lent me their arm to haul myself out. I believe this person was Jez Willis, hope I got that right. I leant against the wall of the bridge, everyone was very helpful and showed concern. A lady gave me her buff to dry my face, I gave it back a short while after, whoever you were, thank you. People were asking if I wanted to go back or walk to CP 1 but as I stood there I thought, I've trained for this run, I'm 2 miles in. Ok I'm soaking like a drowned rat but I would still be soaking if it was raining and our running gear dries out pretty quickly. So I thought, no way, I'm cracking on. Spent the next hour or so running with Christopher Kay and a few others and we all had a laugh about it. Thanks for keeping me company in my drying out period. 

Nearly 7 years I've been running and this is the 1st time I've ever had something really interesting to write about. 

Back to the run. I was even more determined to put in a good run and I just got on with it. Past CP 1, no stopping.  Onto CP 2, quick water fill up and nab some food as all mine was drenched and of no use to me. Never took long to dry out as the weather stayed fine for us. 

I think at this point I was in a group of 4 and one of them slipped over, when discussing this he said, well at least you haven't gone in the canal,  I put him right and told him it was me who had gone in the canal.Turned out it was Jezz, the man who helped me out. 

Got to CP 4. Got rid of waterlogged food and restocked when I met the girls for the 1st time. Told Sharon what happened,  just laughed and called me a muppet.  Was great to see them though and I was feeling good. Up to now I had been keeping an eye on the heart rate and was going along in low zones 1 & 2. It was time to crack on.

I think it was 9 miles to the next checkpoint and I just plodded along. Got to that CP, quick sort out and I happily accepted the 2 chocolate bars from Sharon.  

The last section was the worse of the day, just a long slog on the muddy canal path. I stayed away from the edge. 

Throughout out this run the thing that slowed us down was the mud. Lots of mud. Canalmpaths, fields, lanes, forest, everywhere was mud. Mud glorious mud. I went over once and got covered in it. If you think of wallowing hippos, it was that type of mud. I was caked in mud and now the back of my legs sting like crazy. The only good thing was we knew it would be like this, was no surprise so it was just get on with it. 

Onto the finish,  was so pleased to get off that canal path,  it had really sapped the legs of all energy and was slow going. Got back to the finish though, met by Molly before the finish line and Sharon at the finish line. Ran in and crossed the line.  

Finished in 33rd place in a time of 8:42. Was pretty pleased with that. 

Huge thanks as always to my amazing support crew, they were brilliant.  

Massive thanks to everyone involved in gbultras and all the volunteers,  you were all great and helped create a great day.

And thanks to all of you who were there and helped at my moment of muppetry.