2012 North Downs Way 100 miler and 50 miler

Ben Davies 15

Andrew Smith

Which check point were you at out of curiosity?

[Deleted User]

Andrew Smith was at Botley Hill

He has a very nice tattoo which he insisted on showing me!

AndrewSmith

Yes as veggie says I was at Botley and he begged to see my tattoo!

Fido2Dogs

Well done Ben!
So... back to training at the end of October then? (Leaves plenty of time for the Down Run...)

Ben Davies 15

I will have to see what the doctor says tomorrow in terms of when I can resume training. 

Think the down run should be doable however!

helly d

Hi Ho Silva - are you Jan? Lucy ( and Gill who I ran with for a while, great direction finding) said to look out for you as I knew I'd prefer company through the night. 

[Deleted User]

If anyone is interested, race report can be found here (with apologies to AndrewSmith)

 http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=80804

Ultra AJH

Great report Veggieboy

AndrewSmith

Nice report vegetable, the inov8 bladders you were talking about are they the same as the ones that go in the inov8 bumbag pack thing?

Hi Ho Silva

Hi Helly d, yes Hi Ho Silva thats me, Jan. Did I run with you - which bit,  Its all a blur now and feels liek I dreamt it all  

 Lucy came back out at 6am and ran a few miles with me into Puttenham - amazing!!

Mimi

Congratulations to everyone who finished, I thoroughly enjoyed cheering everyone in and meeting people I Seeing the race from the other side was an eye opener, the logistics not just during the race put before hand are mind bloggling.

Hope you all recover well and hopefully meet up with you at another race.

Ben Davies 15

There is a site on facebook trying to get together photo's of every 100 mile buckle out there. 

 I supplied them with a picture of the NDW100 one of course. 

emdee

Hi all.. What a bonkers race. Glad I did it and finished in one piece but the night was very tough for me. Marc kept me company for most of the last 30 miles or so (as well as another Mark and Dips as support runners) and I managed to get us lost - sorry mate!

Well done everyone - that was epic.

emdee

my blog - http://mattdunn.me.uk/?p=96

[Deleted User]

Veggieboy,

Good race report (makes me glad I didn't have to turn round at Knockholt!) - I couldn't be bothered to sign up for TriTalk just so I could post there, so in response to the implied question ' can you tape for blisters on the ball of the foot, just behind the toes?' the answer is yes!

it looks something like this http://fixingyourfeet.com/blog/ (a brief pause to salute Lisa Bliss's achievement while were at it!)  and the definative work is 'Fixing Your Feet'; see this online http://fixingyourfeet.com/Taping-for-Blisters.html.

Good Luck!

[Deleted User]

Thanks OldAndCreaky

 I ordered the book from Amazon this morning

helly d

Hi Ho - I saw you at the finish but didn't make the connection with who Lucy was talking about because my brain was fried. I'll say hello next time.

Met (and talked at) so many people this race, probably because the 50s and the 100s started together .I know what you mean about the dream thing, your mind just blanks out hours of misery after the event and gets you all ready to sign up for next year.

Cracking performance on your first 100.

ETA Many thanks to the anonymous person who left a large container of water and a help yourself note tethered to a bit of red and white tape on the return stretch between Botley Hill and Reigate Hill. You're a star

Rosemary Close 4

This sounds like a great race!  I have entry to the 50-miler for 2012 on my Christmas list.  Hope Santa's good to me...

Ben Davies 15

Rosemary

If Santa should favour you with a place in this race, then perhaps he might consider getting you a pair of debris gaiters as well. 

I got a lot of sand in my shoes, and will probably use gaiters if I run this event again. 

Rosemary Close 4

Thanks for the suggestion, Ben, I will see if he thinks he can run to both!

[Deleted User]

Ben, where on the course is the sand? I know the first 15 miles or so quite well, and while its a little sandy, Ive never got a shoe full I'm not showing off, just trying to get an idea of how much worse it gets than St Marthas

Ben Davies 15

Going from memory here, but much of the first half of the 50 mile route, consisted of trails covered with sand.  The desert runners decidedly had the edge over the other runners on these portions.  I didn't get that much sand in my shoes, but it got everywhere in them, and likely aggravated the blistering. 

[Deleted User]

IfI recall correctly, the real issue was 2 short hills where the tracks were freshly covered in new deep sand which was the stuff that really got in your shoes, rather than the earlier flatter sandy paths 

Rosemary Close 4

Either sounds bad, so will definitely be investing in some gaiters.  Any recommendations?  The Inov-8 ones look good.

emdee

St Marthas was really the only area which had/has deep sand. I wore hilly trail socks and inov8 roclite 295s and got no sand in my shoes or blisters

Rosemary Close 4

I thought as there are a few of us doing the 50 and 100 miler, it would be worth pinging this thread.   I LOVE the Wannabe thread, but can't keep up with the volume of posts .

I am doing the 50 miler and am looking forward to it!  My training is going OK so far, although I am only two weeks in.  My brother is doing crew duties, including organising my husband to get him from place to place..

How is everyone else's training for NDW going?

loulabell

Hi Rosemary! hows you?..yes those boys over on ultra thread are really keeping us girls busy trying to keep up!! i am onto my ultra plan as of this week too...and B2B this weekend-yayyyy!!!

Rosemary Close 4

Hi Loula, 

I'm well, hope you are too. 'Wannabe' thread is excellent, love reading it - the costume discussion is hilarious.   

I also have a B2B this weekend. I'm trying to do all my weekend runs on trails to get some practice in, which means quite muddy trail shoes.  Supposed to be doing 14 and 6, but we have the local Colchester half tomorrow, so am doing 7 and 13.  Step up week next week, have a marathon on Saturday, so no B2B.

I bought a pocket guide book for NDW with maps etc, it's very exciting to read about some of the sights we'll be passing! 

 Good luck with your B2B this weekend. 

loulabell

hi rosemary, yes ive been looking at pics of NDW50 frm last year , looks amazing and i really cant wait. hope we get decent weather too......oh yes, i will def be wearing a union jack somewhere...i havnt got a map yet but found a harveys map on web which i will get soon. did you like the discussion about hills and boxhill on the ultra thread lol...very funny...im so gonna get WIB back..bless him...

Rosemary Close 4

No, must have missed it - when was it, I'll look back over the thread. 

I've got a Union Jack Buff, but I've been put off wearing it as my brother said it looked like a cravat in my London Ultra piccies