One of my first blog post this, although I’m writing this before I’ve even created a blog (currently writing in word). I’m just relaxing while the kids are in bed and researching how to build a damn blog!!
Later blogs will explain my journey up to this event in greater detail, although in short I took a break from ultra running at 35 and after I’d gained some unhealthy drinking habits in the COVID-19 years I decided to give it another go as I turned 40. As dieting and training was going well in the first few months, I started to lay out a plan in which I would start running Ultra’s in a year’s time starting with a 30 miler, then a 55 miler and ultimately and finally attempting the 100 mile distance.
I’d got over a year to train for this event and as I love a good spreadsheet, I’d analysed lots of race data and started to formulate my plan for the race way in advance. There was obviously a big question mark around if I could get fit enough and even if I was fit enough, could I actually complete the race. The Race plan went through various additions and tweaks were made dependant on how I felt training was going or what Race reviews/blogs I’d read that week.
These were from just getting the race done in under the 28 hours time limit to under 20 hours like a friend of mine had managed a few years earlier. Knowing that plans can quickly changed I settled on trying to get the first 50 miles done in around 10 hours and if by some miracle I could keep a decent pace I’d get it done in around 22 hours and well under 24 hours to get the “100 in a day” belt buckle.
Quick look back as preparations up to this race: 30 miler in January wasn’t trained for due to various reasons and was a “just get it done” kind of race. With the 55 miler in March being much better prepared for and better than expected finish time and more importantly a lot of confidence taken ahead of the 100 miler. Solid block of training and plenty of weekend long runs in the bag to give further confidence ahead of race day.
Race Day Arrives!
Queuing for the toilet, while working on my game face…
So personally I try not to get hung up on what doesn’t happen before the race and kind of when I set my mind to something I’m doing it with no gripes about what didn’t go to plan before hand. slight grumble the day before when checking and packing my various bags and finding out I’d lost (left at home) the hat I wanted to wear for the race. 4-6 hours broken sleep, an hour faffing in the morning, an hour in the car and an hour and half waiting for the start of the race.
Normal race briefing, with some nods to people who had race this before, first time attempting a 100 miles and what the day and weather had in store for us. So the red mist starts to descend and I run through in my head what the plan is “concentrate on the next checkpoint in 10.5 miles, remember run the flats, walk any inclines, keep pace on for 10 hours at the 50 mile mark”. 3…2…1… Go! and we’re off, I quickly realise I’ve already taken my eye off the ball and I’m almost at the back of the pack and really don’t want to be here and already start to weave through the hundreds of runners.
We already seem to have run a decent amount and I’m still weaving past a few people, when we join another race. A Parkrun that joins the Thames Path for half a mile or so, a few chats with Parkrun runners and their supporters and then back into the race. I’ve studied the route as much as possible on google maps and street view to ensure I can visualise any of the turns or crossings I need to make so focused on ensuring the first bridge I go under that I get up and over to the other side. This comes and goes and I start to try and settle into a rhythm, but it feels very warm and the drizzle has started to get heavier.
Now I wish i’d written this blog much sooner after the race as a lot of the next 50 miles is a bit of a blur with recollections of small talk with various runners to pass the time, but to surmise:
- First checkpoint comes and goes, no more than 1 minute to fill my Tailwind Bottles
- Second check point a bit of a blur, nothing of note
- Upon reaching the third check point unknown to me I’ve let myself get cold and ultimately causing me to have stomach issues (seems daft, but my thinking is blood is being pushed out of my stomach to other places to keep me warm. ultimately stopping food digesting and putting me in a low energy mode), well that’s my rationale anyways.
- Coat on and 7 miles of painful hell, as I’m fast walking while trying to force food down to gain the energy to start running again (this is when my plan starts to slip).
- Fourth check point reached and I can feel my stomach starting to recover, sat down and had a good feed. One of the lovely marshals could probably see the colour drained from my face and checked if I was ok, I mentioned my stomach and felt I was turning a corner. She asked if I’d got any ginger and if not would I like some, just 2 pieces of crystallised ginger and what a boost (I will be including this in my arsenal for future 100 milers).
- Renewed energy, plenty of food in my belly and I’m able to run again. feels slightly off the pace but can almost feel the pace increasing back to were I felt it should be. then boom the markers disappeared and a runner I was with declared “this doesn’t look right”. No Sh*t Sherlock, we’d missed a bridge crossing, as we back tracked we could see runners on the other side of the river!! Argghh! we’d missed a foot bridge and added about 2 miles to our race….
- I had a moan to myself and put it to bed as I was still running well and before I knew it the blur of this race had me arriving at the halfway mark (Henley 51 miles in). So looking back at my time and I arrived after 10hrs 18mins of running, but I knew I was going to spend some time here changing socks and eating some hot food. So although “only” 18 mins behind the plan, I felt the 22 hours was already gone as the rain had made the path’s muddy and slippery. I knew from previous race blogs I’d read that the second half gets muddier.
So without further ado, off I went onto the next checkpoint. now my game plan beyond the half way point was to run 3 miles, walk 1 mile and so on. This isn’t quite what the legs wanted to do, so it was run 0.9 of a mile and walk 0.3 of a mile. So same ratio, but shorter splits. worked a treat and pretty much did this up until 75 miles I think. So in my pocket I had a slip of laminated paper with the checkpoint times I needed to hit in order to achieve the first 50miles in under 10 hrs and then times for the remainder of the race to keep under 24hrs (23:30 actually, but ultimately wanted to be under 24hrs).
I should mention here I had a great chat and some good teamwork with a guy called Ryan Jarvis, he’d completed 52 marathons the previous year for his 52nd birthday year. Unfortunately I could feel Ryan slipping back as we approach the 77.5 mile mark and hoped he’d catch me up, but I had to press on to keep ahead of the 24 hr schedule. Then come the nightmare, in my schedule that used the websites checkpoint list and distance for each checkpoint on it. The next check point should be 7.5 miles away at 85 miles, now the earlier error had my miles on my watch out of whack so I’d ensured to take note of the mileage at the last checkpoint and when I should hit the next checkpoint.
7.5miles into this section of the race and I’m in the middle of a field with no signs of life other than headtorches ahead of me and headtorches behind me. “Maybe the checkpoint will just pop out around the hedge” I said to myself, but this went on for another 1.5 miles. I was going insane at this point and could feel my plan to get under 24hrs slipping away with every second I didn’t reach the check point. Finally a road appeared and I knew were I was, I walked up the hill and into the checkpoint and checked my schedule 30minutes behind schedule!!!!
My heart sank, lost energy instantly at this point and couldn’t face another cheese sandwich. Ate a little fruit, topped one bottle up with water and another with Pepsi. I grabbed and sandwich and walked outside while trying to eat the sandwich. I sat on a bench just down the road and was trying to get my head around why my schedule was so out of whack and were I’d gone wrong. a stumbled down the road while trying to work out in my sleep deprived mind if I could still make it in under 24hrs. I was at least 30mins behind my schedule that had 30mins float in it (it was possible, but might have to run the last few miles to just duck in under the time required).
Now I’d started to go through various emotional states at this point, the sun was rising and I was getting a little strength from that. I was trying to do more running while racking my brain for the numbers required to get this race completed in under 24hrs. I couldn’t compute it, so just kept pushing on. This leg of the race should be 10 miles and as I hit 9 miles I could see some signs of civilisation in the distance and assumed the next check point would be some way past this area. low and behold suddenly at 9.5miles the checkpoint was here and I’d suddenly got a load of time back (maybe 15mins). I took a lot of energy from this and tried to grab some food I could eat but just ate a little fruit and pushed straight on for the finish.
I left the checkpoint with another runner while the marshals shouted only 5 miles now… “only” I said, “I really want to try and get under 24 hrs” I said to the other runner and he replied “ahh mate, you’ve easy got this now. It’s only 4.5miles, don’t listen to the marshals”. Now don’t get me wrong I was very happy with this, but after the earlier errors I just didn’t want to trust him and would carry on pushing as much as I could to ensure I got under 24 hrs. It should be noted if you’re reading this and this is very important, Wallingford to Clifton Hampden ISN’T a 7.5mile leg. please see bullet points below:
- Wallingford to Clifton Hampden on the Centurion website is a 7.5mile stretch, it’s actually 9/9.5 miles
- Clifton Hampden to Lower Radley on the Centurion website is a 10 mile stretch, it’s actually 9.5miles
- Lower Radley to the Finish line on the Centurion website is a 5 mile stretch, it’s actually 4.5miles.
If like me you put a bit of work into the analysis of the checkpoints etc. I encourage you to do your own checks
So now knowing the above, I realise were my schedule had me all panicked and why. future note to myself for these longer races and the ones I’d like to do well on. do your own checks on the distance for the schedules to avoid the panic in the latter stages of a race. Back to the race, I’m now running toward the finish line, still can’t get my head around the distance to the finish line and if I can make. I pull my phone out of my bag and load up the tracker for the race, I can see exactly were I am on the map and the pretty much a northward line to the finish up the Thames Path. it’s roughly 3km blocks on the map so I just call it 2 miles. I check the watch and I’ve got an hour left to make it.
Knowing I’ve got an hour to cover 2 miles, I pretty much instantly feel that I’ve done it. A surge of emotion hits me and I reflect on the journey I’ve taken over these last 16/17 months. I’d gone T-total and stopped all consumption of alcohol, my youngest child had been taken into hospital just before Christmas with a severe chest infection exacerbated by COVID-19, my Mum had fallen ill and taken into hospital. I couldn’t visit my Mum as we all had COVID-19 and had to wait for my daughter to be clear and sent home from the hospital and then test negative for COVID-19 to visit my Mum.
Wasn’t the best visit, my brother and sister had informed me “this could be it”. we’d been here a few years ago and my Mum had bounced back, while my brother and sister had pretty much planned the funeral. Me and my Mum laughed about this every time I visited her, not this time. Although I got a brief laugh out of her, I managed to speak to one of the nurses who ask me if I understood why my Mum was on a “do not resuscitate”. If she didn’t bounce back soon, the amount of oxygen she’d been on would mean her organs could fail as they tried to bring her off it.
She passed away pain free in her sleep at the beginning of January, 5 days before my 30 mile race. I mention that because laying in bed 3 hours before the start of that race, things packed down stairs just in case I was still going to run it. everything was telling me to go back to sleep, but a little voice rose up and said “stop being a p***y, get out of bed and turn up for this race. If you don’t do this, you’ll find a reason not to do the 55miler and then you’ll not have done enough prep and you’ll find a reason to either not go or stop mid race of the 100 miler. GET UP!!” and I did.
I ran the 30 miler, I committed to training in the mornings before work and around my wife, kids, work life. I turned up for the 55 miler and continued to train, diet, train, avoid social meet ups with friends to ensure I did my long runs. diet, training, long runs and so on and so on. All the above condensed into a few seconds of thoughts in my mind with tears welling up in my eyes. I’ve never been to emotional about things and only cried about a few things in recent times, one being my wedding day and getting teary as I listened to the minister read out our vows, my first born crowning and then holding her in my arms and then the same instance with our second child.
I was upset knowing my mother had passed, but I had a very positive interaction with her when I visited her in hospital and unlike my brother and sister I was fortunate enough to have not been with her in her final week/s due to COVID-19 and my daughter being in hospital. so again I feel fortunate to have very few sad memories and a lot of happy memories about my mother. As I approach closer to the finish line, one of her many quotes is at the forefront of my mind “Softly, Softly, Catchy Monkey”. This basically means, he who bides his time will reach his goal, win his prize “catch the monkey”.
As I neared the Finish field, which I’d promised myself I’d run over the finish line. I imagined my Mum looking down on me, with a beaming smile and very happy for me, my dad and brother in-law waiting patiently for me to take a picture and for me to embrace my dad with a good solid hug. Selfishly this hug would for me to remember this when he too passes and to tell this story to my children and ensuring I’m at the finish line of any of their life endeavours.
Sadly in a way, I turned the corner and didn’t have it in me to run. I walked and graciously accepted the applause from various strangers, while I took a picture of the time on the finish gantry as I walk past. Confusingly deciphered the question from a marshal at the finish line and he gave me my buckle and a t-shirt, while another lady guided me to the cricket hut were I could get a shower and some food. No hug for my absent father who decided not to come, no picture from the brother in-law still working his way to the finish to pick me up. Just me, very sore, sat in a cricket clubhouse, fighting back the same emotions as I contemplated what I’ve just achieved. Not only in the last 23hrs and 41 minutes, the sacrifice both myself and my family have had to endure over these 17 months.
If you’re a runner and you’ve pushed yourself beyond your current comfort zones before, you know the score of what comes after the race. Elation of completing the distance and more so if you’ve done it in a time you wanted. Job done and something put to bed that should’ve been done in 2018. I’m not sure if this will make the final cut for the blog post, but I hope my children get to read this and are somewhat inspired to undertake some of similar magnitude in their chosen sport/hobby.
Towards the back end of this race and for maybe 30 minutes after I’d talked myself into never running an ultra again. This quickly waned and saner minds prevailed, lots planned for the future now and hopefully lots more blogs and running stories to be told. until the next blog, bye bye from a very happy Son, Husband, Father, Ultra Runner.
Author: Justin Bramall
Passionate about all things ultra running, from tackling epic distances to embracing adventurous challenges. I thrive on pushing limits, exploring new terrain, and sharing the grit and glory of the ultra world.
