The Stort 30

October has been a busy month for me running wise. After the Saltmarsh 75 - the subject of my previous two entries -  I had two weeks until the Chelmsford Marathon followed by the Stort 30 a week later. It's the latter event that forms the subject of this blog - although if you've read the title you will suspect that to be the case already.

The Stort 30 is another event in the calendar of Challenge Running (www.challenge-running.co.uk). As some of you will know I tackled their St. Peter's Way event in the run up to the MDS and more recently the extremely tough Saffron Trail event. As a result of this I knew that the Stort 30 was likely to be impeccably organised and very friendly - the perfect event for a first time ultra runner in fact. It was also a couple of days after my wedding anniversary so what better present to buy Sharon than entry to the Stort 30? I should add I did also arrange for us to stay at a very nice hotel not far from Bishop's Stortford for the weekend and as our actual anniversary was on the Friday we were able to celebrate before being good on Saturday in preparation for the actual event.

We had run the course from Bishop's Stortford to Rye House a few months earlier and on the Saturday we'd been out to find the start, check out where we could park and have a little look at a short section of the route. Sharon is obviously a good influence on me as usually I have no idea where I'm running from or to until I actually start - which may explain why I so often end up making up my own route...

There were several familiar faces at the start, Ian was there although in trainers not sandals - which was surprising as at least two people did run in sandals. Perhaps that was it, sandals are now too mainstream for Ian, who knows. Anyway it was nice to seem him back after a long term injury had curtailed his running for a while. Local running legends Bob and Darren were also at the start.  I'd last seen Bob at the Saltmarsh and I suspect Darren was, like me, looking forward to not getting lost. Last but certainly not least was Baz. I met Baz on the Saffron Trail where he went from being almost timed out on the first half to finishing over 30 minutes ahead of me.

I was going to run the race with Sharon, partly to help her through her first ultra but mainly because I thought it would be nice to have a shared running experience for once. We'd trained together quite a bit for this event and I'd made her practise eating and drinking every 5 miles as that was the approximate spacing of the checkpoints. I often describe ultras as a jog between picnics but getting used to eating and drinking during a run can be quite difficult and something that is worth practising. Getting cold,wet and lost is not worth practising  - for me it comes naturally...

Fortunately the weather forecast was good (14 degrees and cloudy) and getting lost difficult since as Lindley pointed out in the pre-race briefing 'If you are more than 20 metres from the river you've gone the wrong way'. After said briefing it was outside to the start and two laps of the sports field before heading off down to the river.

Despite rain earlier in the week the path by the river wasn't too muddy and we settled down into a nice steady pace. We were going a little faster than I had planned but no faster than in training so after checking with Sharon what her heart rate was (slightly below that of a hamster) and making sure I could keep up we carried on.

As I said navigation was fairly straightforward but shortly before the first checkpoint the route went across the road but also crossed the river on the road bridge. A couple of runners crossed the road and the river but didn't see the entrance to the next section of the path and started heading into Sawbridgeworth until we called them back. Apart from that we reached the first checkpoint without any drama having overtaken a few people but not trying to push ourselves too hard. Stopping at intermediate checkpoints wasn't compulsory, only at the turn round point (CP3) and we saw a few runners carry on past. We had planned on stopping at all the checkpoints as that was how we had trained so we had a quick drink and a snack and ran on but not before Sharon had demanded to know where the wine was - she was promised it would be there on the way back...

We quickly caught up with small group that had run past the checkpoint and passed them. On an ultra everyone has their own strategy so it's not unusual pass and obviously be passed by the same people more than once, especially near the start. After CP1 the path progressively improved until it became a very solid packed sand/gravel path on the outskirts of Harlow. We were enthusiastically greeted at CP2 by Dean, someone I had at that point only 'met' through Facebook. He couldn't run due to sciatica and so had volunteered to help out at CP2/4. I'd given him our race numbers earlier in the day and asked him to encourage Sharon which he did brilliantly - even if she was a little confused as to how someone she had never met knew her name! Also a big thank you to Elaine for getting a great picture of us coming into the checkpoint.

Shortly after CP2 is some of the artwork along the Stort. The sculpture from which the medals are copied and the steel and glass bridge provide a welcome distraction, even more so on the way back. Shortly after these we started to see runners coming back towards us. The leaders were about five miles ahead of us but still had breath to exchange 'well dones' with us. One of the things I really like about ultra running is the fact that everyone supports everyone else. We continued on towards Rye House power station and crossed over to the River Lea for the last stretch to the turn round point, CP3, opposite the Rye House pub. I'm almost certain that the runners we saw going into the pub only wanted to use the loo... It had taken us 2 hours and 35 minutes to get this far, we were making really good time and way ahead of schedule for a five and a half hour time. We had a slightly longer pause here to make sure we were ready for the return leg and then we were off.

Now of course we were the returning runners taking the congratulations of those that still had to reach half way. I think Sharon's fears of coming last were starting to recede and we continued to run strongly. As we approached Roydon we met Ian coming the other way. He was in high spirits, possibly due to the fact he was running with a couple of women and much whooping and high-fiving ensued. A few miles further on we caught up with Baz, he wasn't having such a good time. He had been struggling with an ankle injury picked upon the Saffron Trail and had left his painkillers at the start. Fortunately I have a small 'emergency kit' of painkillers, toilet paper and an anti-chafing wipe which goes on all ultras with me so I was able to help him out. Some of you may recall my 'chafing incident' on Druids' last year which Sarah helped with by supplying Vaseline so I am a firm believer in 'Ultra Karma' and know that he would have done the same for me if the situation was reversed. We carried on past the artworks and into CP4 - which had been CP2 on the way out and hence we met up with Dean again.

Another quick nibble and a drink later we were into the final third. I told Sharon that if we kept up our steady pace she might be surprised to see how many people we could catch and pass. Sure enough we passed a couple of people on our way to CP5.

At CP5 - which had been CP1 - Sharon enquired where her wine was. She was heartbroken to be told she was too late and it had all been drunk - nothing for it, we would just have to get to the finish and go back to the hotel for wine. We passed the marathon point after 4 hours 34 minutes but I knew the final few miles were going to be very tough for Sharon. Still we kept going and I persuaded Sharon she didn't need to walk. I think she was re-energised a little by catching some more people that were walking. I kept telling her how well she was doing and tried to make the final miles seem insignificant 'Only a parkrun left', '20 minutes to the finish', 'you've done 95 percent, only 5 percent left', all that sort of stuff. However the last mile was going to be tough as we left the river, ran up the railway bridge, a short shallow up slope  and finally turned onto the hill that is Beldams Lane. Sharon was struggling quite badly and feeling sick - I was now torn, we were so close to the end but  obviously I didn't want to push her to collapse. Fortunately we had done so well we could have a very short (about 20 yard) walk up the hill until we saw the Challenge Running flag at the entrance to the finish, without being overtaken.

The short walk and the sight of the finish revived Sharon enough to get us  up and running and we entered the field to the applause and cheers of other runners, their friends, family and of course the marshals. I ran ahead a bit to get a picture of Sharon on her final lap and we crossed the finish line hand-in-hand, 5 hours and 18 minutes after we started. We collected our medals and t-shirts and collapsed in the club house for a while.

As I said at the beginning, this was my third Challenge Running event and they've all been special for different reasons. St. Peter's Way was my longest single stage at the time and my practise for the MDS long day. The Saffron Trail was just incredible - see blog entry for details. However The Stort 30 was the first event I've run with Sharon and I was (and still am) so proud of her performance. I wouldn't have been too disappointed with 5:18 if I'd been running on my own. The fact we ran just about all of it and overtook people that had been up to 3 miles ahead of us at the turn round point shows that if you can keep a steady running place you can do surprisingly well in an ultra, it also showed Sharon that she is capable of far more than she realised - and to be honest, slightly more than I realised.

While on the subject of Challenge Running, once again the organisation, friendliness and checkpoint food was awesome. If anyone is looking for a first ultra the Stort 30 should be very high on your list - the medal is pretty cool too! 

Now she can walk again I think Sharon enjoyed it - she's (rightly) very proud of her medal. Now I've just got to persuade her to do St. Peter's Way next year...