On Friday 6th of April I travelled up to hull with Sue and Becky (my daughter) to check in and get ready to run the innaugural Viking Way Ultra a new long distance minmal support ultra. 147 miles over some varied terrain from Hull to Oakham.
We arrived at the Hotel and sorted our room out and went to find and meet people, Mark Cockbain is someone I have known about and looked up to in the ultra world for a while and it was great to finaly meet him at last, the list of runners that were to take part was pretty impressive with no one in the race who had not done at least a 100 miler before on trails so a very good list of competitors.
Alan and Liz from the 9Bar team met us in the bar and it was great to see them, I met them before at the outdoors show this year and they are always very supportive and great to talk to. I actually like the 9Bars so the freebies they handed out are always very welcome.
It was great to get to talk to Mark and Alex and meet all the other runners that came to the bar the night before such as Richard Lendon, Mimi Anderson, Javed Bhatti, Allan Rumbles, Peter Leslie-Foxhall, Jo kilkenny and many others who I knew from before or I was meeting for the first time.
We all sat and chatted and had dinner before retiring to the rooms about 10:30pm with an early start required as it was a 7am race start.
We awoke at 5am after I slept for a few hours though it was in fits and starts from 3am as I always find it hard to not worry about a race such as this.
After getting up and washing and going through the ritual of lubing up and sorting kit out etc we went with Allan Rumbles and Peter Leslie-Foxhall to the start point on the other side of the Humber Bridge, Its a shame we did not start at this end of the bridge as it would have been nice to run over it.
We met all the other runners who checked in before the race and all posed for a few photos.
Left
Alan(9Bar) Allan Peter Me and Liz (9Bar)
Under the famous sign. The route is actually 147.8 miles.
Below
A group shot of all the 28 runners at the start.
A fantastic field of runners.
I settled into a pace and chatted to a couple of ppl then ran with Iveagh a runner from Ireland who I know from other races such as GUCR and Caesars Camp 100. He as always is great company to run with and not very different than me in pace over this sort of distance. Iveagh stopped at one point and took his coat off and had a pee and I expected him to catch me up but I never saw him again till much later. I ran on chatting to ppl such as Darren and Ben and passing and being passed by other runners settling in.
Soon I came up to the first CP(checkpoint) and saw Mark and others including Sue and Becky. I had my one Jaffa cake and some coke and off I went feeling strong after 16miles in just under 3 hours on trails.
I was loving the trails and felt good and was running along with Ben Davies who I was to spend many many miles with on this race. The route now got hilly and we were running with Darren too for this bit, the Lincolnshire wolds were very pretty to run through though hilly and a bit damp underfoot in the long grass. The map reading was easy enough as long as you paid attention with the only issues being going through villages where you are not sure which street or alley to take as the map is not that clear and there are not many signs in the streets.
I reached the second CP at 13:41 and 30ish miles still feeling strong but thinking my shoe choice was a bit wrong as I was wearing my Inov-8 X-Talons which are very minimal with no cushioning and my feet were starting to feel a bit more battered than I expected due to there being more stony surfaces and hard road sections than I expected but I had my drop bag available at the next CP and would change to my more cushioned Roclite 315s with more stone protection in them. I ate some cake and had some Juice and off I went again with Ben.
Off we headed towards the 50 mile CP, this would be a long 20miles into the evening. Off we went in good shape as usual doing a run/walk system to no real schedule just running or walking depending on the terrain and how we feel. Ben was geeing us up to run when we hit flat ground and we were still making good time, we were still a couple of hours before cut offs. I was starting to tire but still in good shape. We reached the 50mile point at 18:37 after some 5 hours on the move between checkpoints and a total of 11 hours 37mins on the move. I changed my shoes and socks and instantly my feet felt better and I got some fresh food supplies from my drop bag and topped up my Bladder with more coke and water and off we went into the evening.
I had taken a couple of Ibuprofen at the 50 mile CP as my right knee was a bit tight and my right hamstring was also tight possibly due to the wrong shoe choice early on or simply something in the terrain upsetting it but I wanted to manage it. The painkillers fixed it and it was easy to move smoothly again and I hoped it would not bother me again. Again me and Ben toddled off towards the evening and after a bit we caught up with Peter Leslie-Foxhall who is an impressive runner who has completed spartathlon 9 times and had a total of 13 attempts and we chatted with him at that point and the three of us went off together and it seemed to work as a nice little group with Peter having a very fast walk which kept us going and Ben having a good shuffle and Me average at both so we helped each other along and chatted.
We arrived at the 64 mile CP at 22:29 after another 4ish hours on the trails and 15:29 in total race time. I am always quite quick in and out of CPs but as we worked so well as a group and I could feel myself tiring going into a night section we all waited together and left together into the darkness. We headed off towards the 81mile CP. Not long after we headed out we were slowly caught by another group of runners including Tim Welch, Allan Rumbles and Iveagh Jameson plus a couple of others. These are all great runners with finishes in GUCR and other tough races and particularly Iveagh and Allan who I consider good friends. We said our hello’s and they slowly came past us over a mile or two and we plodded on behind them with it taking a few hours for them to be lost to sight. At this point I had really slowed down a bit and was struggling to keep going fast with the other two waiting for me at the odd junction with me having to shuffle to catch up. The painkillers had worn off my knee by now and it was starting to bother me again and rather than take more tablets I let it go for a bit to see how it was if just left. We plodded on into the darkness. We made a small navigation error and missed a turning on a track and came up to a draiage canal at the wrong point and after a bit of working out I sussed where we were and we cut accross to pick up the right route again with about 10-15 mins lost in total. No big deal over the distance we were to cover. A bit later I was really struggling to keep agood pace up for running or walking with my knee being a bit sorer and not losening up. I had to make a decision to either start taking regular painkillers in the hope of keeping it managed for the next 76 miles or pull out at the next CP and not injure it. We were heading towards a small village and I was very consciuos that I was slowing the other two guys down a bit and that they would go faster without me dragging behind and I messaged my better half Sue to check where she was and how long it would take to pick me up if I needed. She got back pretty quickly and said it would take about 30 mins to meet me in Stainfield so I spoke to Peter and Ben and told them I was dropping and getting picked up in the village we were now skirting and wished them luck as they were still well within the cut offs and I would try to see them at CPs later on.
My main target race this year is Spartathlon and I do not want a long term injury that stops me doing that race so I called it a day here as I think to push on in the hope my knee would not get worse was foolish. Sue picked me up and drove me back to the next CP and I got into a sleeping bag and relaxed and got warm and thought my decision through. I could have continued and maybe I could have managed my knee for the rest of the race but at what cost? I was a bit dissapointed as I really thought I could have done this race. I did make the wrong footwear choice and maybe paid a price for that but it was done now and I needed to move on.
Once I had got some sleep and awoke I then helped Sue and Becky at checkpoints and helped out chasing runners around and picking up runners in the car and doing what I could for Mark and Alex and the other runners still in the race. I was sorry to see so many drop between 81 and 97 miles but it shows how tough this race is. A few pushed on past 100 but not many went past 115 with only 7 out of the 28 starters actually finishing the race and all of those saying how tough it was. Congratultions to all who finished and those who tried like myself to become a Viking.
A truly great race by Mark that is sure to be a permanent fixture and hopefully kept as tough as it is. I really want to go back and finish this next year ( Please mark ).
A big thanks to Sue and becky who as always support me in these adventures even though they think I am mad.
Where from here?
Well my next race is VLM as a training run with a club duathlon before then but then halstead marathon as training again and the next big race is GUCR in June where I will try to see if I can do a sub 34 in preperation for spartathlon in September. A tough target but my main focus ahead.
What about the knee?
Well I think as far as my knee is concerned I stopped before it got damaged and I really think the wrong shoes had an impact so I am looking at different shoes for the long races and keeping minimal for the shorter stuff (up to marathon). I will do some more X training to try to make the knee stronger and lose some weight before GUCR to help me be lighter on my knees and faster so hopefully it will all help. I ran today and all seemed fine with my legs just very tired so all looks ok.
Please feel free to comment and offer advice or just slag me off for stopping!
Thanks for reading.
No one is going to slag you off for stopping. You stopped to avoid further (serious) injury and you have proven that right by being able to run again today with Sue. You wouldn't have done that had you soldiered on, you would have been out for a significant time and jeopardised VLM, Halstead, etc.But, I will point out the man-tits. *giggles*
A great read Lindley. Sounds bloody tough! Well done on having the good sense to pull out and protect the knee for your key races.