Tuesday 7th March 2023 Hits you when it's too late

alehouse

Morning!

Lyrics: Hits you when it's too late
Hits you when you're down

Lines three and four of a body related song.
Always reminds me of WP!

Yesterday's were Celine Dion with My Heart Will Go On

What: another run/walk combination

Why: taking it carefully

Currently zero degrees but bright sunshine.

I enjoyed the report, Hazel. The negative split suggests more to come, and warmer weather would help as well! All promising!

HazelnutCH

Thanks Ale, I guess like most I prefer it to be a bit cold than much too hot.   Wrap up well today.

What: some sort of recovery run - maybe in company
Why: need an easy day after a couple of hard ones
Last hard: yesterday's MLR (did slightly more than an HM) - legs weren't overly sore but I was tired in general.
Last rest: 31.10.22

Lyrics: no

chicksta

Great report and a super outcome, Hazel. Negative splitting a 10k is the way to do it. Not that I have much experience of that, mind  

Take it easy today. 

Wild weather here today - super windy and the white stuff is coming down again. Yesterday's had all melted by the afternoon. I'm glad I went first thing when the sun tried to make an appearance. Wouldn't want to be out and about now. 

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and there's a gym in the same building so I made the most of my WellPass app and spent an hour doing s&c. My legs hated me today!

Anyway, 6 miles battled on grumpy legs and a monster wind. 

Wabo

afternoon all
lyrics no
Nice gym work Chick!
hazel enjoy the (company) recovery run
alehouse, hope you are on the mend
what: meeting mate for 5k in forest later
why: she asked,  just hope we manage it all in relatively light conditions!!
last hard: only a mile last night
last rest: 28/12

Dustin

Hiya 
Emz - think I cross posted with you yesterday. Good to hear you survived!
Hazel - great report , sounds like a fun race. Decent time too , especially mid mara training
You asked about marathons, dunno exactly but I'm guessing I've done about 40 over 30 years
Ale - good work keeping the run/walks going
Chick - decent mileage yesterday in poor conditions, and a decent follow up today!
Wabo - enjoy the forest 5! yep, lighter evenings almost upon us!

What - club session 5 x 600 (200) 
Why - VO2 session for the marathon types. Will be around 10 in total with long w/u & c/d
last rest - 12/10
last hard - tonight
lyric - possibly

Question for you all - do you think a track marathon (~105 laps) would attract enough interest to be viable?
Certainly not my cup of tea, but I'm guessing the 100 club or mara aficionados would like it for scarcity value?
Was talking with a couple of pals about possibly putting one on.
At least no road closures!

emzap

Evening.
So here it is. Millennium ultra, 41 miles through the Shropshire and Staffordshire countryside. I signed up as my friend wanted to do it and it was decent value. However my friend got injured skiing and more injured in a run with me so he has to pull out. Meant I did it with another friend instead and her husband and original running friend supported us.

This was a self navigated ultra with 3 checkpoints. I was very glad I was running with someone as in parts I'd have felt very vulnerable if alone.

We had 12 hours to complete the run and our goal was just to finish. I'd worked it out that we needed to do 7km/h for the first 3 hours, 6km/he for the second 3 hours and 5km/h for the last 6 hours to get it done. Bear in mind this was a largely off-road run.

So the start in Newport (Shropshire, not Wales as I originally had thought!), was good. Registration was easy and just a short race briefing. We decided to do run 2km, walk 1km for the first 3 hours which meant we were walking relatively near the start but also ensured we didn't go off to fast on the very flat very straight former railway. I must admit that by the end of the 2km of running I was very ready for a walk, but by the end of the 1km walk I was very ready for a run. Navigation was easy for the first 16km, with only 1 section where we had to consult our map (gpx track so very easy to see if we were on track). We had thought we were at the back, but when we met our support crew at 8 miles, we discovered we were in fact 3 from the back. Very happy with that.

At checkpoint 1 (11 ISH miles) we caught up with 2 people in front of us and overtook them. through Stafford town centre was a bit of a maze, we probably went wrong about 100m in total, but did have to do some thinking! Also took an opportunistic loo stop and got overtaken by someone. Also discovered we'd overtaken 2 others who had gone to a loo stop further off the route. These 2 overtook us again, then went the wrong way again so we overtook them again!

Through Stafford we then ended up on a lovely section of canal, just had to make sure we didn't miss the bridge crossing. Did it fine, then through some fields and a lovely downhill to the bottom of the Shugborough estate. Our support crew had walked up a bit from the camper van, and ran down the hill with us for a bit (injured one waited further down the hill and helped us with bag restocking). They also told us all about their tasty wimpy (didn't know they still existed!).

Tbc

emzap

At Shugborough the hill started. They were joking about this one hill in the race so I assumed it would be an insubstantial thing. Not was I wrong. I struggled to even walk up this hill and I was feeling so sick by the top. We moved down a small hill then I had to walk all the way to checkpoint 2. I did have a gel about 2 miles from the checkpoint which helped but after a good refuel at the checkpoint I was feeling a bit better again. We met up with the girls who got lost here as they'd got lost again but they were run walking a bit faster than us so they overtook again. From the checkpoint we tentatively started our run walk again and I started feeling much better. This stretch was along beautiful canal and then through rugely I think. Our able bodied support crew met us at about 24 miles and ran walked with us to 26 miles where the van was parked. After another few words of encouragement we headed off again. This time through onto the hardest part of the course as this was all very uneven fields and lots of navigating. At this point we met up with the girls again and decided we should all just run together. We found out at some point on this stretch that everyone else behind us had dropped out so we decided we'd all finish last together.

This section was really tough, a field full of cows (I hate cows), long grass and swans (not a fan of swans either), massive potholes from core hooves, another full of slurry. A lot of stiles as well. But we made it to checkpoint 3 where our running club leader was manning the checkpoint 

Tbc

emzap

We got to this checkpoint at about the 9 hour mark, meaning we had 3 hours to do the last 10 miles. We decided to have a proper sit down, cuppa and really refuel at this station and that made the world of distance. Our running club leader then ran with us to restart the trail. This was a mixture of road and fields and we ran walked along the whole of this section. A couple of very wobbly stiles posed a few entertaining moments, but we got to the canal which was the last section of this in the light, just. At this point we were so thankful of being in a 4. The canal was alongside the A38 and it wasn't the nicest of paths so would have felt very very unsafe alone in the dark! Our friends met us 5 miles from the end. We had a short stop as it was at a Starbucks and as we got going again I went flying. Thank goodness my friend was next to me and caught me or I'd have fallen flat on my face or into the canal! From that point I was quite worried about running on the path as it was so dark, we were run walking still, but about 5km from the end I just couldn't any more (path got even worse). So we walked the last 4.6 km still very much on track to finish on time. Our support met us about 500 m from the end and walked with us, and when the finish was in sight we all ran over it together. So we were last but not last! Finished in 11 hours and 10 mins.

Feet are sore, legs are ok. May do a gentle run tomorrow. Would I do another ultra, definitely. Would I do this one again. Maybe. I really really struggled with the dark at the end, and there's no way I'd have done it without my friends helping us. My running buddy was amazing as well and definitely couldn't have done it without her!

alehouse

Brilliant report, Emz! Sounds like a great day out! Now take it easy!

Dustin, I imagine a track marathon has a lot of considerations! How many runners? Do you need a marker for each runner? Why don't you contact a few of the marathon threads and see what they think/advise.

I'm sure everyone knows today's song!