I'll apologise from the start, but we are a bit short on the pictures front this week. So, if you only look at the pictures, skip to next week, but you'll be missing a treat, because, even of I do say so myself, this week's a good one!
27 Dec 2021
Righty ho, here's a stupid idea if ever I've had one. Back in the summer I signed up for the Winter Cross Ultra, 50 KM of hilly, muddy, fun, along a stretch of the South Downs Way and a bit of the Meon Valley Trail, a stretch of nice flat disused railway line. Now, I can hear you all saying "that doesn't sound very stupid", but that's the sensible bit. The stupid bit is that a couple of months later I spotted the Full Fat Festive 500 Audax, a jolly jaunt from Bristol to Cambridge and back, perfectly designed for burning off some of those mince pies that I've been busy scoffing for the last month or so. Again, I can hear you all thinking "that's not stupid at all, 300 miles on your bike, Pah, easy" and you'd almost be right. Apart from one small detail. There back to back, yes that's right, the Winter Cross is on the 28th and the Full Fat Festive 500 Fun starts at 06:00 on the 29th, less than 24 hours later. Oh, and it's the middle of winter, it's been raining all week and the forecast is for more rain with strengthening winds, and in case you haven't noticed, it's dark for about 16 hours a day at the moment! See, I told you that this was a stupid idea, and as I sit here in the van, surrounded by running and cycling paraphernalia, mentally checking off that I've got everything ready for the start of the Winter Cross tomorrow, before a quick drive down to Bristol. I'm starting to wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew this time. The thing is, I've been doing the running a cycling lark for quite a while now, and I know that I can run 30 miles without too many problems, and I know that I can cycle 300 miles without killing myself. But the big question remains, can I do both, one after the other, and can I do it in the middle of winter, when I'm guaranteed to get cold, wet and miserable on more than the odd occasion. To be honest, I've got no idea and I'm a bit nervous about finding out, but as I keep on saying, "The greater the challenge the greater the reward" and my new favourite, "Without struggle, there is no strength". So I'm going to find out, and hopefully, what doesn't kill me will make me stronger (not deader). I'm going to leave this here for the time being, and go back to considering my impending doom, but I'll update it again tomorrow. By which time, hopefully, the first challenge will be behind me and I'll be safely in Bristol, ready for the start of the next leg and I'll have a better idea of how my legs feel. So for now, I'll bid you fare well, it's 20:45 and I'm going to bed, after all I've got to get up and run 30 miles in less than 10 hours time!
28 Dec 2021
Well, that didn't quite go according to plan. All will become clear later on, but first a quick bit of waffle about the Winter Cross. It's brilliant, and that's all you need to know about it! Oh, you want more, Ok then. It's a really good day out with 2 distance options (50 and 75K), and consists of 3 or 4 out and back legs, depending on your distance choice, centred around the village hall at Meonstoke. The first leg, is a nice and easy bit of running along an old disused railway line, and apart from the lake just after the start that you have to wade through, there's not a lot else of interest. Leg 2 is a bit more saucy, heading out from Meonstoke, Eastwards to pick up the South Downs Way and takes in two big climbs, firstly up to Old Winchester Hill and then again to take you to the turnaround point at the Sustainability Centre. Once you get back to Meonstoke, leg 3 takes you West, back on to the South Downs Way, via the real slog of a climb up to the high point of Beacon Hill. Before another couple of miles of easier, undulating terrain to the turnaround point at Holden Farm. And for the real nutcases out there (I'm not playing on this one today) leg 4 sees you back on the disused railway line, heading in the other direction, before heading back to the start for tea and medals. See, what's not to like about that, fast bits, hilly bits, big puddles and being the middle of winter, more mud than you can shake a big stick at! Brilliant!
Anyhow, back to matters in hand and having collected my race number, had a last minute wee and got to the start at the appointed time (07:30) I was ready and raring to go. Or more accurately, I was stood in a damp field, in the dark, with 200 other idiots, all looking nervously at each other, waiting for the nice man with the loud hailer to say, GO!.
Now today wasn't supposed to be about fast, or winning, it was supposed to be about taking it easy, plodding round and saving myself for tomorrows main event, and to that end I happily hung back at the start, letting the fast guys surge ahead and falling in step with someone who seemed to be doing a steady pace. About half way along the first leg, steady pace man in front of me started to get annoying though. Not through any fault of their own, just that their stride length was a bit different to mine, and their route choice around the puddles wasn't to my liking. There's only 2 choices in that situation, get on with it, or go past, so go past I did. It wasn't long though before I was faced with the same dilemma again, as I caught the next person. Ok we'll go past them too. In fact by the time leg one was complete I'd probably moved up from where I was, to about 15th, It's not a problem though, I felt happy at that pace and It wasn't causing me any problems. As I started leg 2 there was a bit of confusion on the route, with 4 or 5 people in front of me going Right, where I thought we should go straight on. In fact the guy in front of me stopped and questioned them, by which time I'd caught up with him. Now luckily, and I don't know why, but yesterday afternoon I'd suddenly thought, "maybe I should download the route to my GPS and take it with me" in fact I'd even considered leaving it in the van this morning but didn't (why would I need it, the course is marked and I've run it before, surely it's just more stuff to lug around?). A quick check, showed that we were right, and those in front had gone the wrong way, and suddenly, my easy plod round has become a good chance of a top ten finish, without even trying. Ok, lets just keep pushing on at the pace I'm doing and see what happens, I'll get a better idea of my position at the next turn around point, as I'll see the front runners come back the other way. In fact, just plodding on, by the time I got to the turn I'd caught and passed another 3 people! Come the turn, it looked like I was in about 7th or 8th place, but some of those in front were doing the 70K, so they weren't even in my race. What now? Well, just keep going I suppose, I can't just slow down, that would be stupid, but at the same time I'm not supposed to be running this pace, what about tomorrow? By the time I'd started leg 3, I'd been overtaken by one runner, but I think that we had both caught some one too, which meant that I was in about the same position and to be honest, I was still feeling pretty good and the pace I was running at didn't feel unduly hard. As I came up to the final turn around, the guy that passed me earlier said "your in 4th for the 50 K" as he came the other way, which looking at the numbers on those coming the other way looked about right (70K runners had different coloured numbers). Oh well. I've come this far now so I may as well keep pushing, losing places at this late stage would just be a waste of effort. So I did, and you know what, crossing the line in 4:26:28 was good enough for 4th place, or if your feeling picky 3rd place man! Although I must admit that the lady that came in 3rd overall, for first female, was in a class all of her own. Not that I'm going to turn down a trophy for 3rd male mind, even though it's not really deserved.
So what's the problem and what didn't go quite according to plan, I hear you ask, surely 4th overall is a real result? Well, yes it is, but the whole purpose of today was not to kill myself and leave enough in the tank for tomorrows massive effort, and I suspect that my ego which just couldn't slow down and not race may have jeopardised that. Not what was supposed to happen and not what I was supposed to be doing!
Oh, and it absolutely pissed it down for a good hour with the wind lashing the rain into my face as I made my way back from the turnaround on leg 2, and that wasn't part of the plan either. I suppose that only time will tell how much of an impact todays efforts will have had on my energy levels and fatigue, but to be honest, I still felt pretty fresh at the finish, and although I feel a bit stiff and tender as I sit here now, typing away, some of that may be to do with sitting in the van for the trip down to Bristol, as much as todays efforts, but I suppose we will see in the morning. For now, I'm going to have some tea, a beer, rub some Deep heat into my legs, and get an early night, and see what tomorrow brings, after all the alarms set for Audax O'Clock (that's pretty early for the uninitiated, in this case 04:30). Good night!
29 Dec 2021 (04:30)
Bugger me it's early and my legs hurt from yesterdays efforts. You might never get to read this either, as I'm not sure if the van will still be here when I get back (whenever that may be) and my lap tops in it. Oh, and it's pissing it down!
30 Dec 2021 (evening)
Well, I can confirm that it is possible to run an Ultra Marathon one day and then set out to cycle 500Km the next day. I can also confirm however, that it's a stupid idea and is unlikely to ever be repeated, judging from how I feel right now! As I mentioned above, when I awoke Wednesday morning, just before the alarm went off at silly O'clock, it was throwing it down with rain. However, in a possible turn up for the books, by the time the other dozen or so lunatics and myself had gathered at the start, the rain had stopped. I'm not sure if this was a sign of good things to come, or just a brief pause in proceedings, and to be honest there wasn't really any way to tell. We could have looked at the sky to see if it was full of clouds, but as it was still pitch black, with no sign of dawn being even close, that wouldn't have helped! Rolling away from the start on the stroke of 06:00, we quickly headed out of the still sleeping city on the way to the first of the days checkpoints at Faringdon. I'm guessing that a lot of people have taken advantage of the longer Christmas break, as the roads were surprisingly quiet, a trend which happily continued throughout the ride, and it wasn't long before we were heading up towards the edge of the Cotswolds, with their picturesque houses and pretty little villages, not that there was much of a view today, with it still being dark! It would seem that the weather Gods didn't appreciate the swift pace though, deciding that now would be an ideal opportunity to slow things down, by resuming the ongoing monsoon season. Having put up with the rain for the best part of an hour, I eventually decided to stop and put on my waterproof trousers, not to try and stay dry, I was already as wet as you can get. But because I was getting cold and miserable in the rain. Luckily this did the trick and within 20 minutes the rain had stopped again, necessitating another stop to wiggle back out of my trousers, before I boiled, like some oversize Christmas Turkey (not that I've ever boiled a Turkey, so I don't know why that's a saying?). With the rain holding off for the time being, Faringdon was quickly dispatched, and it was onwards towards Winslow, via a detour through the centre of Oxford. Which, being a bike friendly place was actually quite a pleasant experience. Having previously, occasionally had the displeasure of working in Oxford, I can happily confirm that I've never seen the roads so quiet, or the streets so devoid of tourists, and on this occasion it made a pleasant detour, and a welcome change from the quiet country roads we had been on up untill that point. A Sandwich and a packet of biscuits, to munch along the way, at Winslow satisfied both my hunger pangs and the need for a receipt as proof of passage and then onwards again, heading now for Cambridge. A quick pause midway, to put refit some of the layers that I'd been shedding all day due to the unseasonably warm temperatures and make sure my lights were shining brightly ready for the long darkness, coincided nicely with the skies finally clearing and taking on some lovely colours as the sun set. Just after 17:00 and with roughly 145 wind assisted miles covered, the sign welcoming me to Cambridge hove into view. It never fails to amaze me how far you can get in a day by bike. I'll grant you that it takes a bit of work, and you wouldn't want to take too much luggage, but what a revelation it must have been when they finally perfected the design idea and the world started opening up to the intrepid explorer!
Cambridge centre was still busy with post Christmas shoppers and early revellers, so I didn't hang around, crossing the city before finding a convenient supermarket to grab a sandwich and replenish my rapidly dwindling water supplies. And then onward, picking up the guided Bus-way, complete with amazing cycle path, for the short blast up to St Ives and the turn for home.
Now I don't know why, but I got a real case of the shivers as I left Cambridge, going from pleasantly warm, to tooth chatteringly cold, in the space of 30 seconds and it took a while to get warm again. A bit worrying at the time, but looking back I suspect a combination of the temperature dropping, plus a bit of low blood sugar levels may have been to blame. As once I'd digested my tea and pushed on, warming my legs back up, and getting my heart beating again, I soon warmed up and was fine again for the rest of the night. Strange? With St Ives dispatched in short time, it was time to face the demon that had been on my back all day and head for home. Yes, the turn moved the wind that had been blowing from behind and providing a nice little push, firmly into my face. I must admit though, that the first 2 sections on Wednesday night weren't to bad, apart from one little error on my part. Now, being the cunning chap I am, I'd already considered that by late evening, I'd be cold, wet and tired and in need of a sit down and a brew. Casting my eye around for suitable solutions the week before, our friends at Travelodge had come up trumps with a room at Northampton, for the unbelievable sum of £25. At that price it was a no brainer and even if I didn't stop for long it was some nice insurance just in case. You never know what's going to happen when your 150 odd miles away from home, with nothing but a push bike and a spare pair of pants, and if you can be sure of somewhere warm to get your head down for a few hours then that's most of the worries taken care of. Heading out from St Ives at about 19:00, I seemed to think that it was just 27 short miles, to my nice comfy hotel room, and considering that I should be there before 21:00, there was bound to be somewhere that I could grab some food to enjoy in my heated room luxury, result as we say in the trade! So, imagine my surprise, when first, my predicted (wild guess on my part) arrival time, became 21:30 due to the headwind that I mentioned above, coupled with a bit of tired leg syndrome. Followed closely behind, by arriving at what I thought should be Northampton and bed time, only to discover that it was in fact, still another 20 miles away and another whole set of GPS route instructions. Arrrggghh, as we also say in the trade! Well that's buggered it, not only is any food option going to be shut by the time I get there, but I'm a touch on the peckish side now, and there's no way I'm doing another 20 miles on an empty tank. Luckily, and I've been here before on many a night out, I stumbled across the late night drinkers supper of choice. A Kebab shop. I was going to say salvation, but I'm not sure it was. A portion of chips and a bit of unrecognisable meat substitute, covered in chilli sauce, eaten with my fingers, perched on the steps of the church opposite, in the dark, did hit the spot though. You can say whatever you want, I certainly know how to live! Hunger sated, I tapped out the remaining miles to my salubrious accommodation in short time, arriving at 23:30. Not a bad days efforts then, 17 and a half hours in the saddle, of which I'd probably spent 45 minutes to an hour stopped at various times for food etc, and I'm guessing somewhere around 210 miles (337Km) covered. Before I move on, I must just recount my other cunning plan of the day. The 29th is "The Old Man's" birthday. Now, thinking ahead the night before, I thought that he's not going to want a birthday text when I get up at 04:30, and I'm not going to remember, or want to do it later on when I'm wet and cold, so I'll write it now and set my phone to send him my birthday greetings at a more sensible hour. Duly sorted on Tuesday night, I thought no more about it untill I arrived in Northampton, to discover said text still sat on my phone, unsent! We'll that's a bit naughty, now he'll think I've forgotten his birthday, or more precisely my cunning plan will have been in vein. Sod it I'll send it now. Now I'm not sure which would have been better, bright and early at 04:30 on the day of your birthday, or 23:55, well after bed time and looking to all the world like I'd suddenly thought, bugger, Dad's birthday, as I was going to bed. I'm guessing I might have some explaining to do, on this one!
Right, back to the matters in hand. Safely ensconced in my warm hotel room and with time still in hand for the 17:30 cut off to be back at Bristol, it made sense to grab a quick bit of sleep. So, head down, with the alarm set for 2 hours time, my plan being to be back on the road for 03:00, leaving plenty of time to get back to Bristol nice and early and hopefully home again.
What seemed like seconds later I was back outside again, making final kit adjustment and putting my waterproofs back on. The forecast had said rain at 12:00, so either they were a bit late or they'd got it wrong, as it was pretty damp at 03:00. Not to worry though, at least there wasn't a force 10 gale blowing straight in my face for the next 110 miles. Oh' wait a minute, yes there was! This was going to be an interesting day! Once I'd got going, heading towards the next control at Tewkesbury, some 70 miles away, the rain eased off, but that wind. My god, it was relentless. Even in the dark, I could feel it trying to push me back the way I'd come, in a newer ending, leg sapping, battle of wills. And if I'm honest, for long periods of the early morning, the wind was winning the battle of mind over matter. Slogging along, I tried every trick I knew to take my mind off the relentless force pushing me backwards. Day dreaming, music, podcasts, count to a million, recall Pie to 100 figures. None were working. In fact the only thing that finally cheered me up through those long dark hours was just as it was getting light, I found an open shop that had some scabby old sausage rolls in a warming oven. Along with yesterdays Kebab I don't think anything has ever tasted as good as that warm, crunchy pastry and old pig innards, washed down with a can of fizzy sugar, devoured whilst sat in a bus stop, at 07:00 in the morning. See, I keep telling you, it's a culinary delight this endurance sport lark! Onward, ever onward, into the howling gale, the only respite coming during the uphill's, where the hillside sheltered you from the wind and the odd occasion where the road turned and suddenly all became quiet and still, but not for long as it soon turned again. By the time I finally reached Tewkesbury I was really starting to struggle. The relentless pushing against the wind, coupled with yesterday's and Tuesdays efforts, were really starting to take their toll and I was wondering if I was going to make it back. Finding an open shop, I sat on the forecourt, resting my back against the wall, stuffing my face and trying to build back some energy, as the shoppers gave me strange looks, whilst collecting their morning papers and the milk to go with their cereals. Anyone would think they hadn't seen someone with 430Km in their legs having their 3rd breakfast of the day, but there you go, that's their loss! Come on though, I can't quit here, not after having come so far. So drag myself on I must. 16 miles to Gloucester into the wind in the rain down the A38, wasn't much fun, but by taking it slow, which is all I was capable of by now, was soon achieved. Through Gloucester amidst the shoppers and out the other side. Under 30 miles go now, surely I've got this? And you know what, eventually I did get there, but it was absolute hell, and I'm quite happy to admit that by the time I did get back to Bristol, I was absolutely spent. Probably, as knackered as I've ever been, and I had to make deals with the Devil and anyone else that would listen just to get there! I crawled along for long stints, battling the wind, where I couldn't even get above 10mph, I used gears to move forward on the flat, that I would normally get up the steepest of hills in, and I begged, prayed and wished that it would all be over soon. In fact, if someone had stopped when I was half a mile from the finish and offered me a lift on the proviso that the entire 320 previous miles had been in vein, I would have been in that car in a flash. But you know what, 32 and a half hours, and 508Km (although by my reckoning it came out at about 322 miles which is 518Km but that will include my hotel detour) I was back at the start, and sitting here 5 hours later, having had some tea and a beer, I don't know what all the fuss was about. In fact having vowed at the finish that I'd never get back on my bike again, I'm pretty much ready to get back out there. So yes, you can run an Ultra Marathon, followed by a winter 500K Audax, but believe you me it won't be pretty and it will take you to some pretty dark places in your mind that you had better hope you've got the will power and stamina to overcome! And will I do anything so stupid again? Of course I will, in fact the stupider and harder the better! As I keep saying "The bigger the challenge the bigger the reward" and I'm just rewarding myself with another beer and a mice pie (get them while they're still available, they're the best thing about Christmas). Cheers!
Postscript - 08:00 - 01 Jan 2022.
I've just been sat here proof reading the drivel above, with a brew and some breakfast, trying to make my random writing from the previous days into some sort of grammatical sense and it occurred to me what an outstanding piece of machinery the human body really is. When I consider what I put myself through over the couple of days discussed above, to be sat here now, feeling fine and ready to go again is unbelievable. I had a great sleep on Thursday night, I got my head down around 21:00 and slept like a dead man until the rain on the van roof woke me up at 06:00, and I woke up feeling refreshed and great. Maybe a bit stiff, but I'd been laying down for 9 hours so what do you expect. In fact I could quite happily have got back on my bike and set off for another round. When I got off my bike on Thursday afternoon, I thought that I was done, I couldn't go another step, but that was rubbish. By the time I'd got back to the van, had a brew and some food and chilled out for an hour, I knew that it was all in my head. Of course I could have gone on. I actually felt OK, I'd just started losing the mental battle. I'd let the wind, and the relentless effort, get to me and allowed my mind to start playing tricks on me! Someone once said that endurance events are 90% mental effort and 10% in your head, or something like that, and it's true. If you can overcome the dark times, when your brains begging you to stop, then you can achieve anything. And I guess that goes for anything in life. We can do whatever we set out to do, we just need to make the effort and believe that it's possible! Right, I've got to go, I've got a hotel room booked for tomorrow night and I need to clean my bike and sort out a route to get there and back, and I need to go to the allotment too. There's no point in sitting around, there's a whole world of stuff to be doing out there!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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