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...
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