Recently I took on the biggest challenge I’ve ever had in my life: completing a 100km ultra marathon. I’ve done events that have been long and tested my endurance before such as an 8.5 hour OCR or completed my own 50km at home but this was something to the next level completely. However, it was a success for me leaving me with a finishing time of 14 hours 33 minutes and managing to achieve 30th out of 470 in my category (doing the continuous challenge) which I’m very happy about!
On the back of this, I decided to write about write about my experience of the race itself. This is my opportunity to put into words these lessons so that I can both reflect on the experience out in the open whilst sharing this with prospective ultra runners.
“Why should you read this blog?” you may be asking. Well, dear reader, I will give you a few reasons as to why you should continue reading and take in all of the information I share with you:
- Preparing for an ultra – If you’ve yet to complete an ultramarathon and wanted to know what it entailed, what sort of problems you may come up against and help you not make the same mistakes that I did
- Inspiration – OK, you don’t need to complete 100km in one go but simply reading about what I got from this could be the catalyst for you to go out and tackle something that is a challenge for you. Don’t use this blog to simply compare you with me, use it to inspire you to take on yourself and grow as a person.
- Try and understand me – I know what you’re thinking. I was once there myself. Thinking “why on earth would someone want to take on such a task?!”. Well, if you read on, you’ll be able to find out my why so you can try (no promises you will) and understand me.
- Your entertainment – Maybe you’re intrigued to read all about my suffering as I conducted this challenge. It’s OK, I won’t judge you if that’s what makes you tick. We all have our things. I’m just happy to be of service for you.
This will be the breakdown of the blog so if you want to skip to a certain part without having to read the whole thing (though you may miss something valuable!):
- My why
- Kit list and preparation
- The story of my race
- Lessons learnt
- What’s next for me
I’ll stop wasting any more of your time with this introduction and get going with why you are here. Enjoy!
My Why
This is the thing that people usually don’t get at all. What makes someone wake up one morning and make the decision to sign up for a 100km race. Though the actual final decision takes just one click of a button, there’s a lot that goes into building up to that sort of thing. For me, my want to do one (well, an official one) has built over a few years, starting in 2018 and was only delayed by events being cancelled throughout 2020 and 2021. This was why I created my own 50km race at home in 2020 (you could read about this first and see how things have developed).
The long story cut short is that after coming across David Goggins via YouTube recommendations and podcasts, a few documentaries by a variety of creators such as Billy Yang and Gary Robbins came along and both romanticised the ultra marathon concept, in particular what you can discover about yourself during. I wanted to both see what I was truly capable of, push the bounds of what I thought was physically possible and see what emotions wanted to be released along the way.
This event in particular was selected as it is a stepping stone for me towards bigger goals and targets and aligned perfectly with me having another challenge to take on around my birthday, which is a bit of a tradition that I’ve accidentally started.
Kit List
For those of you that haven’t completed an ultra marathon before, you may be left wondering about what people actually have tucked away in the packs on their back. You’re out there for hours on end, how do you keep yourself alive? What happens when something goes wrong? Don’t you worry, I’ll be sure to answer for you with what I thought I needed and what I would do differently next time when it comes to kit.
So in the picture, you can see all my kit laid out the night before, making sure that I had all that I thought I needed before it got packed away. Admittedly, it also made for a cheesy Instagram (here if you want to give me a follow!) post…
In a list, here’s what I took with me:
- 18L Montane Trailblazer hydration – Well, you’ve got to have something that carries everything for you. Since having this pack, I’ve found it versatile, comfortable to wear and always has plenty of room to carry everything I’ve wanted. Maybe too much, leaving me adding things for the sake of it.
- 3L Camelbak reservoir – Plenty of water is needed for these challenges. Though the stops were often, I didn’t want to run into any dramas where I’m left gasping for water.
- GORE waterproof/windproof jacket – A very lightweight jacket that I love! Should the weather have taken a turn for the worst, I knew this jacket would keep me dry and warm, without me being too warm.
- Peter Storm waterproof/windproof trousers – Very much like the jacket and would have been used if things got REALLY bad when out on the exposed clifftops.
- Vivobarefoot Trail FG (Primus Lite pictured) – Vivobarefoot have been my go to brand for barefoot shoes for a while and their Trail Firm Ground were perfect for the mixture of the trails and paved areas, giving me suitable grip.
- 2 x Asics running t-shirt – One to wear, obviously. The second one had two purposes: 1) To act as extra layers if the weather got bad. 2) After running for a prolonged period of time, a simple change of t-shirt when is sweaty and salty (lovely image, I know) can be game changing.
- Event t-shirt – Just another layer if required and did you really do an event if you didn’t get a t-shirt with it on?
- 2 x running vests – Perfect if the weather went either way. If it got too hot, it acted as something cooler to run in and if it got too cold, extra layer(s).
- 2 x Karrimor running shorts – Again, one to wear with the second pair acting as welcome fresh pair.
- 2 x socks – You should be able to guess why I had two pairs and what they were used for.
- Natural sunscreen – Even though I’m a proponent of sun exposure, when you’re on the trails for hours on end, the sun will get you eventually. So you need a good natural (none of those awful chemicals!) sunscreen to protect you and stop the burns.
- Headtorch – Had my race gone into the night hours, having a head torch would be handy to be able to see where I was going. Though, one thing I realised on race day was a lack of batteries…
- 2 x High5 running nutrition packs – These contained a mixture of powders for before, during and after to aid the effort as well as bars and gels to keep you fuelled on the move. All the powders and gels that were caffeinated went in the back of my bag as an emergency as using them in the past hasn’t always gone down well for me. Everything else went in the pockets at the front.
- 2 x London Nootropic Mojo coffee – A recent discovery for me has been adaptogenic coffee and its power. This blend in particular has Cordyceps & Siberian Ginseng designed to give better physical endurance and help with stamina, amongst other things. May have been placebo but I’ll get onto the boost this gave me later!
- Fruit – Just some apples and bananas to keep me fuelled during the race. Yes, they are sources of more simple sugars but I find them easier on the gut that excessive gels and processed bars.
- Phone – In the case of an emergency and served as a good source of motivation when people were leaving supportive messages.
- Debit card – Taken should I need to buy something as an emergency such as food, kit or otherwise.
What I Would Do Differently
Though from the picture and my overview of the kit list that I had, there are a few lessons that are to be learnt from my preparations when it comes to kit that I’ll take forward to future events:
- Making sure I have everything prior – Yes, at the end of the evening, I had everything that I needed. But that wasn’t the case at the start of it. One of the most important things had been forgotten: socks. I’d kept telling myself that I was going to pick some up on the way but when plans and timings changed, this slipped my mind. They didn’t return to my mind until it was too late to get some whilst in Swanage the night before. Thankfully, I had a very kind friend to help me out who lived nearby who donated 2 pairs to the cause. I will forever be in his debt for sure!
- Check things are charged/have batteries – It’s all well and good having a variety of electrical items such as phone and head torch but the key to them working is them having power. Stupidly, I’d forgotten batteries for my head torch. Thankfully, I finished before they were required however, I’d have been in a bad place had it gotten dark!
- Nutrition – After purchasing two of the High5 running nutrition packs, I had plenty to get me going and support me as I went along but was carrying a fair few sachets that I was unlikely to use. Knowing now what was in the packs and what I used during will allow me to plan ahead and purchase the right amounts of each thing.
Aside from those lessons, I think that my kit was all that was needed. Obviously, it didn’t get tested with horrendous weather so that remains an unknown but I think I’m more than happy that I didn’t need to test it.
How Did My Race Go
The race itself had a few distinct sections that had an overarching theme to them which encompassed how I was feeling at the time and what I was thinking during that section. It should give you insight into the troubles that I was facing, what was causing them and how I got around them.
First Third
The first third of the race for me was plain sailing and I felt really good. I kept the food at the aid stations light with just the fruit, I was on top of the hydration side of things and I felt my pace was easy and manageable for where I was in terms of distance covered. I was also buoyed by the fact that I had a little group to run with and was currently placed quite high. Things were feeling good but I was trying to not get carried away, wary of blowing up later on in the race.
This all changed for me once I got to the steeper inclines and declines of the Dorset coast, with everything going downhill from there (pun intended).
Praying For Halfway
This is where the steep declines in particular that I couldn’t freely run down took their toll on the sore quads, as I had to control the decent and that half marathon really came back to bite me. After a couple of steep declines and inclines, the legs now hated me and running was something that was painful to do. Not ideal when you’re only about 35-40km into 100km.
I dived head first into the pain cave and it was here that I had my worst wobbles mentally. There was a genuine thought about giving up when I got to Weymouth. There were considerations of my why. There were the thoughts of what else I could be doing right now instead,.
When you hit this low point, the obvious question for the uninitiated is: How did I get through this? Well, there were a few techniques that were deployed.
The first one was breaking down the run into digestible sections. The next bush; the next km sign; the top of this incline; the bottom of this decline; whatever works for you, breaking things down into more manageable sections.
The second thing deployable was changing up the thought process. Rather than concentrating on the pain and how much I was suffering and what I would rather be doing, I was pushing the thoughts of: the feeling that I would have at the finish; the satisfaction of saying I’d done it; the feeling of achieving a tough goal I’d set out; remembering when I’d taken on other hard tasks, won and how I felt after that.
Oh, and avoiding the embarrassment of failure knowing that there were eyes on me, even if virtually.
Eventually, Weymouth and the feeling of relief arrived.
Second Wind
After the lows of the last section, a spot of lunch (comprising of a spag bol… Yes, I know! More on this in the blog about the event itself), a light sports massage on the quads, which loosened them off tremendously, and the first Mojo coffee, I got a second wind. This was helped by the flat elements of Weymouth and Fleet allowing the momentum to be built and start getting through the miles again.
It may have been placebo of the coffee knowing what the adaptogens were meant to do but I really felt that it helped out the cause. The caffeine gave me the kick that I needed and tied in with the massage, the fatigue in my legs went away somewhat and stayed away for a decent amount time.
Unfortunately, this second wind was only temporary and I soon ended back in the cave that I was getting used to dwelling in after stepping outside of it momentarily.
Back To The Pain Cave
The coffee wore off. The massage seemed like a distant memory. The pain cave was calling my name and I was setting up camp in there. Once again, it was the quads that were seizing up and making it hard for me to run and get any momentum, even on the flat sections now. I was making sure that on any downhills I was getting the legs to turnover and then trying to keep the momentum on the flats or else it was simple plodding along. Thankfully, the hills weren’t too steep nor long, making it easier for me in my fragile mental state.
And to top things off, I’d forgotten that legs can also get sunburnt. After all those hours in the sun, I realised that I had very red calves which were now noticeably sore. The best part was when I caught it on some thorns. That felt amazing! 10/10; would recommend!
From what I remember, it was during this section that I started getting emotional for no reason as well as angry as I started to experience the release of pent up emotions that had bubbled up to the surface.
My way of grinding through this section was by using exact same technique that was used during the last pain cave but I had the added extra of me being past the two thirds mark and knowing that it was “only” 30km or so to go. This made the thoughts of the joy of finishing a lot more realistic in my minds eye as the miles ticked down until I hit the aid station at 82km.
Another thing that was keeping me going was the fact that I knew I had another Mojo coffee up my sleeve to see me through the last 18km and it was time to deploy it.
Final Push
Surprisingly, another meal was waiting for me at this aid station, though I didn’t eat much of the chicken fajita(?!) offered. I used the time to psych myself up, drank my last Mojo coffee and got myself set for the final push to the finish line. Being informed of the inbound rain and imminent darkness (remember the battery less head torch?), I had some extra motivation to push through.
Thankfully, the run down to Chesil Beach was a slight decline so I could get the legs turning over, momentum gained and could start pushing through the final miles along the road that runs alongside it, knowing that the end was within reach. I’d made it this far so surely it wasn’t too much now to get to the end.
But first, there was Chesil Beach.
Yes, the first section is along the road that runs behind the beach but suddenly the road disappears and is replaced by just pebbles. The only way to avoid them is either to plod through a marsh or swim in the sea. Not fancying either of them, I started the plod along the beach. I’d been warned about this section but it didn’t stop it from draining the soul from me as each step took it incrementally.
It was here that I turned on my phone and received some of the messages of support which got me all emotional for some reason. There were laughs, tears and a right combination of emotions as I plodded along the beach.
Then came the biggest, and most welcome, surprise: my friend Tom who’d lent me the socks was waiting there for me with a pomegranate juice and a bear hug. I really didn’t know how much I need this until that moment. Walking with me from the 92km mark to the final aid station was a relief from the solitude of just me, my painful body and wandering thoughts. Those 3km disappeared in no time and I was soon at the final station with 5km to go.
I said goodbye to Tom, did my final refill of water and salts and got to the task of the final 5km, knowing that the next stop was the last one. I help me out, there were three guys who left at a similar time to me, which gave me something to tag on the back of keep in my sights as I rode the wave of increasing relief and before I knew it, there it was.
A beautiful sight to behold: the finish line! With the small crowd cheering, I crossed the line and I was done.
100km in 14 hours 33 minutes.
It was over.
With story time over and some of the lessons highlighted already, I’ll get into what I picked up along the way from the experience ready for next time’s endeavours.
Lessons Learnt
As with any experience, there are lessons to be learnt so that you don’t make the same mistakes again and can perform to a higher level next time. So let’s look at the lessons that I learnt myself so that firstly, I can vocalise and accept them and secondly, allow you to learn from them meaning you don’t suffer the same way. I can tell you, it’s better to learn the easy way and not the hard way.
Training & Sticking To The Plan
This was easily my biggest mistake in the build up to the event. I laid out this complex and intricate training plan but ultimately, I just didn’t stick to it at all and paid the price for it. It’s all well and good laying out how many miles you’re going to do a day, how you were going to progressively build into it and how you will taper things off in the build up but you need to be disciplined and I simply wasn’t. This left me with not a lot of miles in the legs, only one or two tester runs and the feeling of regret of not giving myself enough time nor being able to show my full potential.
Another mistake I made when it came to training plans is in the week lead up, though I didn’t think it would affect the 100km as much as it did, was when I went for my last long run. I got carried away with how good I felt, my improved technique and semi racing someone else who kept overtaking me on the same path. On the spot, I decided that I was going to go for a half marathon PB, which did go well knocking off 5 minutes. However, where it had a knock on effect with soreness in parts of both my quads, which never fully cleared in the 4 days leading up to the 100km. This underlying soreness was exposed around the 35km mark when having to take on some steep inclines and declines, triggering the tightness and seizing up of both my quads, making running rather difficult and a challenge in itself.
So the main lessons lessons to take away here are:
- Give yourself a robust training plan that will adequately prepare you for the challenge and give you time to build the correct mileage into your body.
- Make the training plan appealing too so that you have the motivation to follow it too. There’s no point designing something you know yourself you simply won’t keep up with and stick to.
- When designing the plan, take into account life events and plan around them so they don’t derail your momentum.
- Once you have that training plan, do your utmost to stick to it and follow it as planned. There’s not harm in the occasional deviation when required for something emergent but it shouldn’t be the norm.
- No matter how good you feel on a run or who may be trying to race you, stick to your own plan or else it may come back to bite you at the worst time, making things less than ideal.
Training Nutrition & Hydration
Speaking of training plans, it’s not only running that you should consider in your training plan. When you come to your longer runs, make sure that you cover training how you are going to fuel yourself. You don’t know how certain foods or drinks are going to react with your tired, dehydrated and hungry system. Your mind may think it needs something but when it actually hits the stomach, the stomach may disagree completely, causing disaster. I’ll leave that to your imagination.
My advice is looking into what you want to fuel yourself with on the day, make sure it covers all the bases of hydration (water AND electrolytes) and energy (food, gels, bars, drinks) and then test how you are with each one when running. Does it sit in your stomach and leave you uncomfortable? Does too much give you acid reflux? Does it cause you to need the toilet more times than what’s ideal? Does it actually give you the energy you need? Does trying to eat it leave you struggling to breathe or an unnecessarily dry mouth?
Going Off Too Quickly
I’m unsure as to whether the fatigue later in the race was due to going off too quickly or from the half marathon but is still worth mentioning. You’ve got a 100km to do, there’s no point PBing the first 10km or else it’ll bite you hard later on. The easy thing to do is get sucked into the pace of someone else, which may be good for supporting your race but risks you going too fast, ruining the end of the race for you.
The way to get round this is giving yourself a realistic pace to stick to at the beginning that you know you can stick to, then sticking to it religiously and then if you have the legs and lungs for a push later on, that’s when you unleash it. Race your own race and you never know, you may be passing them later on down the line when they are the ones blowing up.
Support Crew
Apart from the very kind surprise that I got with about 7km to go, this race was completed unaided and with no support crew. Whatever I started with and picked up along the way was all that I had, which I was OK with. I thought it was unfair to drag someone out for a day to support my endeavours. From outside viewing, there was a mixture when it came to support crews for other competitors.
It is possible to do this comfortably on your own without the use of a support crew as I found out but in hindsight, having someone there would have made things a little easier mentally and physically. In turn, this could have meant a reduction in finish time or placing higher.
Overall, I think having a support crew is going to be a benefit if you can get one for a few reasons. Firstly, they can carry any items that you may need later on without you having to carry it, giving you a lighter running load and flexibility in the support you can give yourself if required. I was very much relying on what I started with and what I could get at the aid stations. What you think you need at the start can change a great amount once 12 hours has elapsed and with 85km done.
The second bonus is the encouragement and the friendly face that’s there. When you’re feeling sorry for yourself, not in a great headspace and could do with that little bit of motivation, having a friendly face could be just the tonic to get you going again. This I found out when one of my friends surprised me on the path at the 93km mark and just having someone to talk to, walk with and give a bit of motivation was a welcome boost that I didn’t realise I needed. This also works the other way in bringing back some realism and letting you know if you are running too quickly, allowing you to pace yourself better.
The third benefit of having a support crew is that they help you nurse any niggles, problems or injuries better than you can yourself. What I mean by this is I remember at the second to last aid station seeing a supporter attacking the calves of one of the competitors with a massage stick to revitalise them for the final push to the finish. They can also bring awareness to things you have missed for instance, my sunburnt calves. For me, I was oblivious but having an outside opinion could have meant that I did a better job to take care of myself.
Simple Concept of Breaking It Down
When you look at it in one go, 100km or 62.5 miles can seem like a blooming large undertaking. A daunting one for even a runner like me. With such large numbers in front of you, it’s easy to get inside your own head and freak yourself out. This constant thinking can tire you out a surprising amount. One particular example of this was as I was suffering on top of the cliffs leading into Weymouth, thinking about how the “midway” point aid station was 58km in but meant that I had another marathon left to grind through. there were certainly thoughts of throwing in the towel at that point.
This is where I deployed the technique of breaking everything down into smaller chunks to make it easier. Yes, it was going to be another marathon after that but a marathon that was broken down into four smaller, more manageable sections. At other times, even this seemed too much and the frustration of my seized up legs stopping me from running was building. The push my way through this, I was having to break down the course into 10-20m chunks to help me keep the legs turning over and build the momentum needed.
Use of Headphones
Not quite a lesson but more an insight for you as a few asked me before and after as to whether I used them for the race. I didn’t use headphones at all. It was something that I considered doing so that I could deploy something highly motivational in my times of need however, I decided against it and reflecting upon it, I’m glad that I did leave them at home. My thoughts are that it would have only papered over the cracks and the small changes it would have had in my running would have just caused more problems later on.
For me, I would tell someone to go without, which is something that I’ve spoken about before (link), as you can stay in tune with your body better and if you become reliant on them, you’re either going to have to worry about the battery lasting, bring a battery pack (extra weight) or risk a wired set getting caught up in your kit at some point, which could send you over the edge in your tired and irritable state.
Prepare For The Finish
If you don’t have a support crew and you’re relying upon a lift back from the organisers, try and be ready to have a few hours in any weather at the end. For me, and I’ll talk about this more in my other blog about the race, I had to wait 3 hours before I was picked up. For me this was OK as I get clothes in my bag I could wear and a marshal had a spare sleeping bag to use until the bus arrived.
However, one guy didn’t have much extra and I genuinely thought he was going to go hypothermic based on this colour and shivering. He was offered the sleeping bag and other things, which he declined and thankfully he made it!
So if you can, whether it be a paid bag drop with the organisers or in your bag that you carry, be prepared for a wait at the end that could be for hours and, though under the cover of a tent, in the wind and rain. As the temperatures drop and your body isn’t in the best of states, it can soon catch up with you!
Plans For The Future
With one ultramarathon under my belt, what’s next? Has the itch been fully scratched now or is there more to come?
Answer: Definitely more to come!
Firstly, the next thing for me will be to return to some OCR races in July, hoping to complete a Spartan Trifecta in one weekend, entailing 36km over the weekend and around 75 obstacles total (oh and hopefully not too many burpees…). Depending on the results there, there could be some more OCRs in the calendar. As for ultras, I’m looking at what’s possible later in the summer, building up to a very large challenge that I wish to complete later this year requiring back to back ultras. However, apart from to a select few, I’m keeping that plan under wraps for now.
I hope you have found this blog a useful resource to either learn from so that you don’t make the same mistakes that I did, that it inspires your next fitness endeavour or both! I’m more than happy to answer or help with any questions you may have outside of the scope of this blog in either the comments, on social media or via email, whichever suits you best! Don’t be afraid to reach out.
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