THAMES PATH 100 REPORT 2018
Thames path 100, my 1st attempt at a 100.
In September 2016 i completed the 73 mile Cumbria Way Ultra with 10,000 ft of climbing. I finished it but was in a bad state afterwards, could hardly walk for days after. I said then, never again, i know my limits and no further distance of 50 miles for me. BUT... i mainly run because i don't want to go back to the old pre running me of nearly 5 years ago , so i continue. To do so, i need to keep challenging myself to do something i haven't achieved. So the logical thing next for me after i did 10 marathons in 10 in 10 days was to take on a 100 mile event. Due to how much i suffered at the Cumbria way i wanted to pick a technically easier route, im not good with rocky slopes etc. So the Centurion Thames Path 100 was the one for me.
Just before i move on, i must add, im doing Cumbria way ultra again in September, obviously havent learnt my lesson.
The training plan for this one started on January 1st with a marathon and the whole plan went extremely well, only missed one run with a chest infection. Other than that it couldn't of gone better and i was as ready as i could be for this challenge. During this time, Pukie was introduced to the world as my fundraiser, mainly because he's far more interesting than me and he turned out to do a sterling job, more of him later.
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Due to the fact i cant remember some things in order, i need to categorise them in my head and here.
PRE EVENT
The few days run up to this went perfectly. A bit to perfect really because something normally goes wrong, forget something, get a cold, cant park etc, something normally happens. But not for this one.
We drove to Didcot near Oxford to drop molly at a friends house and wouldn't see her again till the finish. Then sharon & I went to a hotel in Hounslow which was fine. I slept ok and woke at a reasonable time. On the Friday i was filled up after a visit to the eat all you like chinese buffet. On the Saturday morning we had a short drive to the start, met my elder brother, registered and just chatted to each other, a few people we've met at other events and of course Bi & Alan, Alan also running. At 9:45 we were called to the start for the race director's briefings.
Now when i say all has gone well, there was one exception, the weather. The weather we had was the worse weather i could ever of wished for. Besides that though, i was relaxed and ready to tackle the task ahead of me.
TACTICS & AIMS
The number one aim had to be to finish, that was the most important. Second aim was to get a sub 24 hour time. The tactics were to run for a few hours then start a run/walk stratergy. This i did, but in training i thought the run / walk plan will work better than it did. I knew tiredness will get me sooner or later, which it did but i thought I'd run / walk better than I did. The constant heat put paid to any faster work. I ran for 13 miles, nice and steady and was feeling good. A few of those miles were with Alan but i knew i had to back off and let him go on his merry way. Then i started the run / walk which was all going ok except slower than i wanted or had trained at. At 30 to 35 miles, after a relentless battering from the sun i knew the sub 24 is out of the question. In some ways it was nice to have that aim lifted from me. Nothing i could do, so now concentrate on the finish. The other aim was to get to 50 miles in as best shape as possible.
THE WEATHER
It was apparently the hottest day of the year apparently. I hate the heat, i dont like it anytime, no matter while attempting a 100 mile run. From the moment i got to the start line, i knew i was in for one long torturous day. I was right. The heat was the main reason for the slower paces in the first 50. Due to my newly shaved head i had to start straight away with a buff, also had on the prescription sunglasses but that was mainly for fly avoidence. But the heat was a killer and all we heard all day was how many people were dropping out due to the heat, i have no idea why i wasnt one of them. I was so looking forward to the night time weather, around 6pm it started getting cooler and was nice and cool till 7 or 8 am sunday morning. At some point i put on an extra layer, but then took of the original running top, so in the night it was still only 1 top, albeit with sleeves. Near the end i reverted back to the top i started in. But the worse thing of this entire episode was the sun. What was as bad was i saw other runners heading for ice cream vans, so at a crewing station i asked Sharon for some money. Just my luck, i never saw an ice cream van again. Typical. On top of that, i got a tad sunburnt but not to bad, the worse bit was my right shoulder / neck area and my rest vest strap was rubbing, a liberal pasting of Vaseline saw the discomfort go.
I never normally were buff & glasses
KIT
Had on my running Pukie shirt, shorts, socks and trail shoes, the race vest holding all the compulsory kit. I dont do drop boxes, we were allowed 2 of them on this run, at 51 & 70 mile i believe. I like to finish in what i started with though, but i did take a few spare pare of socks. At the 51 mile point i did change the socks.
FUELING
In my race vest pockets i had a bag of sweets and a bag of savoury, in this case it was cocktail sausages, baby bel cheese and American hard gums. The vest also carries the water bladder. I also had a soft water flask because my plan was to use the bladder for the first 2 checkpoints, up to mile 22. Then checkpoints are more frequent and I'll just use the soft bottle as that will save carrying the weight of the water. That plan went straight away as was dictated by the heat. So all throughout, the bladder and bottle used, and i needed all that water big time.
At the checkpoints, 14 of them, i restocked the food bags with much of the same as i started with. I also took extra food and ate them when leaving checkpoints, ham, peanut butter, jam sandwiches. Melon, cake. At the 51 mile checkpoint i had pasta, tomato sauce and cheese, the first and last hot food of the run. I think all the fuelling went very well, i had none of the tailwind or gels that were on offer, just normal everyday food.
THE ROUTE
As mentioned, the reason i chose this event was because its not technical under foot, just straight forward path with a few connecting pavements and road, mainly when crossing bridges. The path was in excellent condition, it really was a case of one foot in front of the other. Till tiredness crept in when the evil tree roots had to contended with. Its also very flat, around miles 65 to 75 there were a few climbs which at any other point wouldn't get a mention but when at night and tired they felt troublesome. Your obviously alongside the river Thames all the time and though being far to hot, it did bring out the best of the route. The river looked very tempting, the want to just take a dip was huge. There was never any danger of getting lost, i did start with a map on the watch but handed it back to sharon in the early part of the run. It was clearly marked throughout, the people at Centurion did a superb job marking the route up.
Various paths on the route
CHECKPOINTS
14 of them and they were all superb. Spaced very well despite Garmin telling me they should be closer. They were stocked with everything we needed and every person at each checkpoint couldnt do enough for us. Though run wise i used too much time at checkpoints, 50 mins ish i couldnt help it. You know in your head its get in and out as quick as possible, but when in the checkpoint its such a relief to have a break from moving. Luckily though, besides one loo stop, i never sat down, had i of, especially in the later stages, i would of fell asleep.
PHYSICAL
At the start i was in as good a shape as i could be. Bit thinner would of been nice but other than that, in good condition, no niggles. For the first 50 the only thing wrong was the heat, that was having a big affect on me, but other than starting to feel 50 miles in the legs i was ok, i wasn't even going to bother changing socks, but i did, just for a treat for the feet. As the run went on into the night i was getting more and more tired, but still no niggle that would cause concern. The last 20 miles though, the feet were aching big time, i was exhausted in those last 20, paced dropped and it was hard to avoid walk after walk. The bridges we crossed, i was hauling myself up with the handrails. I am sure that had i of stood still at any point in the last 20, i would of fell asleep. It felt like tiredness wanted to make my eyes pop out and release, im pretty sure I've never been that tired before. By the end, i was exhausted and just ached all over, not niggle ache, exhausted ache. I do have a healthy blister under each foot though, making me walk a tad funny, but that will soon go.
MENTALLY
I wasn't stressed about this beforehand, i had trained for it so now needed to execute that plan. The head was always in the right place, never any doubt in my mind i wouldn't complete the distance. Thats till the last few hours, but even then, it wasn't so much the normal mental demons i get I knew it was was tired demons in the head. I do believe though, had sharon not been there, it could of been a different story. Overall though, I'm pleased with how i coped with it all.
CREW & PACER
My crew and pacer was wife Sharon. It could be said, she had a tougher day than me. Doing the supporting role is not easy, your constantly on your feet or driving to the next crewing point. Its very tiring. She did a great job though, turning up at the crew points and making sure i had everything i needed and giving the moral support.
We then met again at the mile 51 checkpoint were she would swap from crew to pacer. Unfortunately for feet hating Sharon, this coincided with my change of socks. Taking my shoes of, the stinking socks, then applying Vaseline and putting on my clean socks, i wish I'd taken a picture. Then it was time for pacing duties for the last 49 miles. Turns out she didn't really have to do a quicker pace because as the night went on i could only go at what pace could, no geeing up was going to change that. For where Sharon is with her running, this would be the easiest a 50 could get for her, even though the crewing duties would have taken its toll. There were times when i was told to up the walking pace but by that time i was putting everything into just keeping moving. Besides having someone to run with throughout the night the best thing was without telling her so at the time, she was keeping me moving. I took a walk break, by this time it was run or more trot for 1.5 mile and walk for 0.5 mile. But my body was so exhausted in the last 20 i wanted the walk bits to last forever, but she was in front of me, i couldnt let her down by walking it all or giving up. The act of making myself start running again was mainly down to sharon being in front of me. Though this was also great time on feet training for Sharon, and she got plenty of time on feet. But like i said earlier, the ending could of been different had she not been there. Mrs S, you know what it means to me x.
THE FINISH.
Lets go back to 20 miles to go. Its roughly 5 am. The night was leaving, it was misty in places and i was exhausted, i needed to go the best i could but it was getting tougher. It may also be at this time i had my only mishap and kicked a tree root, had it of been in the firt 20 miles I'd of laughed it off, but by this time, oh my, the shooting pain was so bad, i wanted to chop my toes off to rid me of the pain, it went after a while. The morning was nice, cold and misty for a few hours but soon got hot again. We plodded on though and unless i seriously injured myself then i would finish. The closer you got though, still felt like a million miles away. Then at mile 91 we arrived at the checkpoint just to be told its mile 85 checkpoint, i could of cried, that means 15 more miles not 9. Next bad thing was passing a member of the public who told us the finish was only half a mile away, it may well of been but it didn't feel like it, i was cursing him for telling me that.
The finish though, finally arrived, you turn left into a field. 2 things happened then, 1, sharon went a different way and 2, i see molly. Its then a 100 yards to the actual line. I've seen Molly's pictures, i look as tired as i felt, sorry, exhausted as i felt. Then you cross the line, lots of people clapping and cheering you on but instead of celebration in my mind, its just pure relief, relief its over.
Once over the line,you see your friends and family, so molly was there, our friends Jane and Jacques who looked after molly and Suzanne from the NSPKU who i had been fundraising for. I'd never met Suzanne before so its really nice that someone goes out of their way for you. Suzanne also handed over a fine supply of sweets for us, pku friendly of course.
I was also reunited with sharon obviously, she gets no official recognition of her exploits, but she was probably the most important part of the 2 days. Thank you mrs S. X
HOW DO I FEEL NOW
Well, this is a funny one, as i said, it was hard to feel celebratory at the end as i was so tired, sorry, exhausted. I turned up to do a job and did it. Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet but i dont feel any different as before i started. I dont ever really get excited with completing an event i just try to get it done and move on to the next one.
One thing i do know though, is I'd definitely do this one again and i probably will next year. To do it better. I'm chuffed that i come away from it better than i did the cumbria way ultra. I did the best i could, I'm happy with that.
My celebration to myself was a huge plate of sausage mash & beans, my fav dinner. Demolished.
THANKS
Lots of people had a big role this. Was great having brother David at the start, he's not a monk brother, a proper brother. Everyone on the bug for your continued support, you all hopefully get the same support so you know what it means. The people at NSPKU, they have all done so much in support and helping me fundraise, Caroline, Suzanne and everyone else at NSPKU i thank you all. To everyone who donated, folks from the bug, people from the PKU world you've all helped a great cause. To Jane & Jacques, you helped so much and made our life so much easier, thank you very much. A huge thank you has to go to someone called Rachael who is an ex boss but still a friend. She lives near Reading where i used to live before this life. I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen but outside the Oracle shopping centre at 11:30 pm pitch black, there she is with her son. Totally unexpected but such a huge boost, if your reading this Rachael and Archie, you have no idea how much that support went.
With Rachel & Archie.
And of course, the coach, crew person, pacer and putter up of Meldrew, Mrs S. Without you and what you do, I'd still be at mile 5. Your a much loved superstar.
