The Druid Challenge - Day Three

I was looking forward to the final day of the Druid Challenge. I thought I would be looking forward to it after Day One, just because it then would be almost over but in fact my reasons for looking forward were much more positive.

The most important thing was it had stopped raining and was shaping up to be a really nice day. Also Day Three is in some ways the easiest day as it has no tricky navigation and a fairly good running surface for most of its length. The down sides are the slightly unpleasant road section around Wansborough Plain and the literally down side of the hill from Barbary Castle where we leave the Ridgeway to the finish. After 82+ miles a steep descent on tarmac does nothing to ease the legs!

Anyway, I was approaching Day Three in a very positive manner, I felt good and was determined to continue my tradition (started the year before) of running the whole of the stage, no walking up the hills for me today. We were taken back to our finish point from the previous day and observed a minutes silence for Remembrance Day before setting off for the last time.

The first 16.5 miles is a wide chalky path and very easy to follow. There are many and varied paths adjoining it, but its fairly hard to go wrong and - as I fancied an easy day rather than a hard one - I didn't. The first checkpoint was after 8 miles and I arrived feeling good so after a quick drink and a few nibbles I was off again.

The remaining 8.5 miles of the 16.5 to Checkpoint Two were also relatively straightforward. I say relatively because, for those that have never been along it, the characteristic surface of the Ridgeway is chalk. Some sections are more obviously chalk than others but the typical wide chalk path is what constitutes most of the first two sections of Day Three. Running on it is fine until it slopes downwards when it becomes a tricky balancing act - literally - between free-wheeling down the hill and being very aware of the wet chalk/wet leaves combination underfoot and trying to make sure verticality is maintained at all times. As I have hinted Day Three was going very well, slips and trips were avoided and base and apex were kept in the correct alignment at all times.

Directly after CP2 came the 'very DANGEROUS ROAD SECTION' as it said on the route card. It isn't a very major road but the traffic along it does move very fast. I don't usually like to use my blog to moan but there is room on the verge for a footway, it's a national trail which undoubtedly brings people to the area so why doesn't the council invest some money in a footpath? Anyway rant over, on with the run...

After the road section the news doesn't get much better as on leaving the road the path almost immediately starts to climb up to the top of Liddington Hill. However we are not at home to Mr. Walk today so I carry on running - albeit at little more than walking pace but I'm still running nonetheless. However there are no more major gradients until the drop into the valley of the River Og and CP3. A few miles before CP3 I was overtaken by Nathan. This is good as it's almost a mile later than the point he overtook me on Day Two. Obviously I'm never going to be able to actually race Nathan but its nice to have a bit of a benchmark for my progress. He is his usual friendly self and we pass with each of us enthusiastically congratulating the other.

After crossing the A346 its a climb out of the river valley back onto the ridge - Smeathe's Ridge in fact - to Barbary Castle. At Barbary Castle we say farewell to the Ridgeway and drop down a very steep hill for the final two miles along the road to the finish line at Overtown.

I crossed the finish line and collected my medal and congratulations from Neil, the race director, head of Extreme Energy and all-round top bloke. Then I looked at my watch - under five hours! 4 hours 54 minutes was the official time, over 35 minutes faster than 2013 and easily my fastest time all weekend. Sarah crossed the line a few minutes later to complete a good weekend for her too.

So what did I learn from the weekend? Well although I was disappointed at the time I think Day One did me good. To be honest this last year of running has generally gone well and so it was probably about time I was reminded that ultra-running has its lows as well as its high points and that actually I've been very lucky to have had mainly highs. It also reiterated what I always tell people, on any run it's not where you are at the start it's where you finish that counts. Although I finished a few places lower than last year I did take 46 minutes off my total time so overall I think it was a positive result. I also learned that perhaps three ultras and a marathon - 216.5 miles of competitive running - is perhaps too much in 6 weeks, although I was lucky enough to meet Robert Young - Marathon Man UK - who ran marathons 224 and 225 of his 367 marathons in 365 days challenge. Also Sir Ranulph Fiennes ran Day Two and he's 70 so perhaps I shouldn't try and use 'too many miles' as an excuse.

The least surprising thing about the weekend was that once again the event was superbly organised and all the Extreme Energy crew made me feel very welcome. Food, encouragement and a real happiness about the event seem to be standard for Neil and his team and so after thoroughly enjoying myself at Druids I'm looking forward to meeting them again at the end of January for the Pilgrim Challenge!

The Druid Challenge - Day Two

So Day One didn't go as well as I would have liked but it was time to forget that and try and have a good Day Two. I felt OK in the morning, even better after a couple of Weetabix and so was prepared to get out there and go for it.

'Going for it' didn't mean setting off at stupid miles per hour and falling apart after a dozen miles or so a la Day One, it meant starting steadily and keeping a steady pace to the end. Day Two starts with a short road section back to the Ridgeway so I used this to establish my pace and settle into my running before it all got uppy and downy again.

The seven and a half miles to Checkpoint One passed fairly uneventfully, the golf course crossing was accomplished without any need to dodge errant golf balls and everything was generally going well. I had a few cocktail sausages and cups of squash, more sausages, and continued on.

My Day One blog was fairly introverted and concentrated quite a lot on what went wrong and as a result did miss a couple of important good things that happened every day, so this seems a good point to rectify that error and mention one of those good points. The Druid Challenge has three start times each day, each one an hour later than the previous one. The first start is for the walkers, the second for the average paced runners and the third for the faster runners. I always start in the middle group. This means I start to pass the walkers from about mile 7 onwards. The walkers are always a very cheerful supportive bunch and none more so than Su, one of my fellow 2014 MDSers. On Day One I caught up with Su at CP1 and she tried very hard to motivate me, which was appreciated and did work for a short while but by then I was already in trouble. Today I passed Su somewhere along the Thames and once again she urged me on and today I made a bit more of an effort and pushed on to Checkpoint Two.

After CP2 the route continues along the Thames path to Streatley where it crosses the Thames and starts to climb away from the river. I mentioned earlier that I generally caught up with the walkers at about seven miles in but about ten to twelve miles after that it's my turn to be caught by the fast runners. I mentioned how supportive the walkers were, well so are the top guys too. Nathan, last years winner and an absolutely awe inspiring runner, was unfailing every day with words of encouragement which I naturally returned. I'm OK at this ultra running stuff, I don't exactly trouble the record keepers but generally my times are reasonable. However when someone like Nathan comes storming past me I can only admire his speed and technique and wish him well as he rapidly disappears into the distance.

I got to the final checkpoint of the day, CP3, in fair time and was feeling quite good. I had a chat with the marshal who had encouraged me at CP3 on Day One, explained I was feeling much better today and he wished me luck as set off on the last leg...just as the heavens opened. Fortunately the last section of Day Two requires no navigation and so it was just a head down charge to the finish. It actually reminded me of the Saltmarsh 75 as it was a similar sort of wind driven rain and was even hitting me from the same side. About half a mile from the finish another of the fast runners caught me up and I was aware that some of my start group were not far behind either. As a result I picked up the pace and flew into the finish some 20 minutes faster than I had been the previous year. One of the runners 'chasing the poppy' as she put it was Sarah who finished no more than minute behind me. In case anyone is now thinking that Sarah was snorting heroin to help her along I should mention that as the final day of Druids was on Remembrance Sunday  I had attached a large poppy to the back of my hydration vest for the event.

Day Two finishes on the Ridgeway so a minibus took us to the Wantage leisure centre where the lucky ones (me) got a warm shower and no-one slept on the crash mats, honestly Mr. Leisure Centre Manager, if you happen to read this. A good day was rounded off with a very pleasant chat with Colin and Elisabet of Racekit who had come over at the last minute to give an excellent lecture on the MDS, assisted by Stig, their huge and very affectionate Great Dane.

What a difference a day makes. 24 hours previously I was just hoping to survive Druids and not DNF. Now I was re-energised and planning a really storming finish. Was this going to happen or would I lapse into Day One territory? All will be revealed in the final instalment...

The Druid Challenge - Day One

After my success on the Saltmarsh 75, I was hoping for a reasonable placing at the Druid Challenge. I wasn't expecting to take three hours off my time again but perhaps 20 minutes a day faster was possible. Of course last year I went from Saltmarsh to Druids without a marathon and an ultra in between. I'd been resting quite a lot after the Stort 30 as I was aware that my epic year of running was starting to take its toll on my body - however I was still hopeful.

Day One of Druids doesn't start until eleven 'o' clock  and so it can be easily travelled to on the Friday morning. I didn't even have to get up much earlier than usual, an extra 20 minutes to eat porridge and Austrian honey was fine. As I knew I'd arrive in plenty of time I decided I didn't need to travel in my running kit as there would be plenty of time to change...

I arrived at Euston at around eight and was trying to decide whether to get the 8:07 and arrive really early or hang around for the 8:34 which was the train I'd planned on getting. While I was debating a very muffled announcement informed me that the choice had been made for me  as the 8:07 had been cancelled due to signalling problems. OK the 8:34 is fine, it was a bit late leaving but that's fine. It's got two extra stops due to the 8:07 being cancelled but this is still all fine. I should be at Tring well before ten, plenty of time to get the mini bus to registration, register, change, put my number on, fill my bottles, drink my beetroot, hear the briefing and get on the mini bus to the start. Everything was still fine - until we got to Queen's Park...

At Queen's Park we stopped - not a scheduled stop, one of those soul destroying, journey ruining, red light type stops. After a few minutes we are told the reason for our stop - the train ahead has failed and is blocking the line. 'Fine' was getting a bit less certain by now. A bit over 45 minutes later when said failed train pulled itself together and got out of the way 'fine' was history. The fallback would be the 12 'o' clock elite start - however this would involve me finishing in the dark and having to watch around 50 proper runners disappearing over the horizon about 200 yards from Ivinghoe Beacon. As it was XNRG were as always brilliant and told us not to worry there was plenty of time (not 100% true but there was enough) and I listened to about 30 seconds of the briefing (sorry Neil, but I did pay attention last year), got changed and pinned my number on, guzzled the beetroot, filled my bottles and got on the bus.

Whilst walking up the Beacon to the start - one of the peculiarities of Druids is that you walk up to the top of Ivinghoe Beacon to run back down it again - things finally started to look up. I found Sarah, my MDS tent mate. We met at Druids in 2013 and were doing 2014 as our mini-reunion. I had a very quick chat with her, took a selfie of us at the start and waited for the signal.

We were off! I was off way too fast trying to keep up with people that could either run much faster than me or who were going to have a really bad time later. As I obviously can't run much faster than me it doesn't take much to work out which camp I was headed for...

Day One is the longest and possibly hardest day of Druids. It starts of with some fairly lethal wet chalk slopes, goes through Tring, through some quite nice woods and after around 11 miles I reached Checkpoint One. I'd made it to CP1 in about an hour and fifty minutes, which would have been great if I had felt even slightly like I could maintain anywhere near that pace for another 18 miles - even 18 kilometres were out of the question, maybe 18 yards, possibly metres if I pushed really hard.

One thing I tell everyone is that when things get tough you can sit and cry if you like but after sitting and crying you'll be exactly where you were and it will be a bit nearer to getting dark - so you might as well just get on with it. Occasionally I take my own advice and this is one piece I do try and stick to so I left CP1 And headed through Wendover and on up to the Coombe Hill Monument. The monument was erected in 1904, by public subscription, in memory of 148 men from Buckinghamshire who died during the Second Boer War. It was almost totally destroyed by lightning in 1938 and was rebuilt in the same year. The original bronze plaque and decorations were stolen in 1972 and replaced with a stone plaque and iron flag. The new stone plaque was also inscribed with the additional names of nine men believed to have been missing on the original. The monument was again badly damaged by a lightning strike in the early 1990s and spent several months in repair. It is now equipped with conductors to prevent the mishap happening again (thanks Wikipedia).

After Coombe Hill its down through the woods, past Chequers and finally to Checkpoint Two. To be honest my memory of CP2 is a bit hazy. Things weren't going well, I was seriously doubting whether I would be able to finish all three days and there was still 12 miles to go.

However, I've started so I'll finish, Day One at least. All I remember of the run to Checkpoint Three is crossing the railway line. One thing that it is terribly important to emphasise about all the XNRG volunteers, marshals and staff is that they are all brilliant. I had a short chat with a marshal who's name I unfortunately don't know but he was definitely giving me some encouragement when an angel appeared. Well, technically it was Sarah but as far as I was concerned it was a 24 carat, 100% genuine, fully fledged angel. I've mentioned 'ultra karma' before, it's the things we do where you help and encourage others, even if it adds a bit to your time, because you hope someone will be there for you when you need it. I felt very guilty about Sarah dragging me the last seven miles to the finish because I knew she was in better shape than me and was sacrificing her time to make sure I finished. However I didn't feel as bad as I could have done because I would probably have done the same for anyone I met if I was in her position - and obviously absolutely so for her, MDS tent mates and all that.

With Sarah dragging me on and it being the final leg, I bucked my ideas up and whilst I wasn't running as fast as I would have liked I was averaging a full minute a mile faster than the previous two legs. With a strange sense of deja vu we finished Day One of 2014 exactly as we had finished Day One of 2013, hurtling into Icknield College at Watlington side by side, albeit 12 minutes later.

So why was Day One so bad? I don't like to blame things which in truth have no direct bearing on events but the train delays didn't help. I wasn't rushed in terms of time to get myself ready but I hadn't had time to relax and take a few deep breaths and plan my race before I started. I think I was too near the front and so got a false impression of how fast people were running but I knew my heart rate was too high and so I should have taken responsibility for myself and slowed down. Interestingly by the time I did slow down at CP1 the damage was done, my heart rate didn't drop back to a sensible sustained level for the rest of the day. However the winner of the day was 11 minutes slower than his previous years time so maybe my performance wasn't quite as bad as I judged it to be, although there is no doubt I didn't run a good race regardless.

I went and showered and got changed. Whilst changing I discovered I had been a bit more rushed at the start than I thought as I'd pinned my number through my shorts and to my underpants. After that I set up my bed, crashed out for a while and received a few kind words from Sharon and some of my Facebook friends.  Time to put Day One behind me and prepare for a better Day Two...