GUCR 2012

GUCR 2nd June 2012Last year I ran this amazing race and finished despite injuring my knee in the process, this year I wanted to go back and possibly take some time off last years effort. It did not go quite to plan.I absolutely love this race.Friday me Sue and my Daughter Becky travelled up to Birmingham to register and meet runners for dinner. It was nice to see Dick and Henk and Sharon etc again and meet the usual suspects in the pub. Great runners I have met before such as Dave, Javed, Rajeev, Marit, Knut, Stephan, Jerry, Neil and Cristine and Christian who I did not really speak to. We ate dinner and had a drink and went back to our hotel which was outside the town centre as last year it was so noisy. The hotel room was nice and not too noisy even though there was a function or two on. Unfortunately it did not help as I struggled to sleep and probably only got a couple of hours in total. I had been concerned about my knee as it has been the cause of a couple of DNFs since damaging it last year at this race and I have been a bit concerned at it possibly letting me down on a very long one like thisWe woke at 4:30 and got organised and headed to the start in a nice English drizzle (the fine rain that makes you wet) and it was great to meet up with all the usual crowd of nutters who do this race.

Javed – Keith – Rajeev – Peter  – Stuart – Me Jerry in front (he is not that short in real life)

Then after a few more meetings with some others I have not seen since for a while such as Rob Edwards, Iveagh Jameson and a few others. After a few words from Dick we were off in the rain. Soon I settled down to a easy pace and chatted my usual amount of bullshilt with other runners along the route. I ran all the way to the 1st CP at 10.7 miles in 1:50 which was 6mins quicker than last year feeling ok. Sue and my Daughter Becky there waiting to hand me some food and swap my bottle for a full one and off I trundled towards the next meeting point. I was going to use the same schedule of meeting points with my crew as it worked so well last time, I felt confident that they would be there each time I needed them. The field started to spread out at this point and I found myself running mostly on my own for the rest of the race apart from short periods when passing or being passed by people.

Approaching Catherine de Barnes CP at 10.7miles

I was trundling along happily in the drizzle that eventually stopped at some point in the morning, I was running ok and now putting walk breaks in every 25mins or so to give my legs a break and allow me to drink and eat easier. I was drinking a fair bit more than I did last year but felt I was not eating as much. I felt good so did not worry too much early on. I completed the first marathon in about 4:50 which was a nice steady pace which I felt comfy at despite seeming to work fairly hard for it.

Walking with Chris

I warmed up during the dry period and managed to take my waterproof off for a bit. Each time I met my crew I was given food and a fresh bottle to drink. I was drinking well but seemed to be struggling to eat a lot which is not something I normally have trouble with as you can tell. I was having a rough patch and finding it very hard work from about 40 miles but not really sure why. I finally got through that and plodded on through the now restarted drizzle. It was waterproofs back on and I plodded through the drizzle to half way in a respectable 15hours 45mins. If I managed to maintain that pace even allowing a bit of slowdown I had a chance to break last years time. All good so far.As it got dark and I changed to my long sleeve top and put on my head torch I could feel my energy waning again. I had spent most of the day on my own and was feeling a bit drained at times but not too bad and it is a long way so I thought I would get through it fine. That evening a couple of people from running club came up to see me which was really nice. Sorry I was not more talkative. Another person came up from running club about 11pm to give Sue a small break in the night. Thanks Viv it was really appreciated and did help a lot. Again sorry I did not get much chance to really chat to you.Running in towards Leighton Buzzard I got really tired and began to struggle to stay awake and really started to have trouble, I normally do not get sleepy this early into the night sections and can only assume it was the torrential rain and lack of sleep/eating hat was making it worse.
Then for the first time ever I started to hallucinate and it was a bit worrying. I saw a giant person on the back of a boat who must of been 9 or 10 ft tall just staring at me and no matter how many times I looked away and back again he was still there. As I got close to the boat I stopped seeing him and realised it was just the shapes and shadows of the rear of the boat. Then I remember having a conversation with another runner for a while then realising that they were not actually beside me and I had no runners anywhere near me. A couple of times I must have dozed of on my feet as when I woke I was heading for the canal side! I staggered on to the next crew meeting point and told Sue what had happened and that I needed 15mins sleep in the back of the car to “reset my brain“.When I woke I still felt tired but better and got out of the warm car into the freezing rain and staggered off into the dark again. Just a few hundred meters on I passed a runner huddled against the wall with someone talking to him who I assume was a crew member for someone or another runner. I stopped and realised it was Rob Edwards who I ran a lot of the night section with last year and we really seemed to get on and ran most of the second half with. He even waited for me at the finish despite finishing a couple of hours faster than me. I called his name and he just got up and we gave each other a big hug and just headed off down the towpath into the darkness and chatted. This really helped my motivation and he set a really good walking pace with me and off we went. Thanks Rob. As the sun came up we woke up a bit and rob was clearly feeling as he set a really strong walking pace, unfortunately I seemed to have no real energy and my feet were starting to suffer from the constant wet and hurt a lot. I had a lot of negative thoughts entering my head and could not shake them and felt pretty bad. We chatted and Rob felt similar but we vowed to keep going and see how we felt at 100.At 96 miles I was wrecked and wanted to stop. Sue changed my socks fed me and made me go on. We walked/hobbled of like a couple of comedy granddads towards the 100 mile point. 
This was the slowest I had moved all during the race and my head was just not in it any more and I just could not motivate myself to push hard. My feet were shredded on the balls and it was really painful to walk. If it was only 20 miles to go I would have suffered it but I could not see myself pushing that hard for another 45 miles+ not without a lot of painkillers and that really messed me up last year and I did not want the race that much this year as my main focus is Spartathlon and I think psychologically I was not prepared to damage myself as much as last year and jeopardise my Spartathlon attempt.  I text Sue and told her I was done at 100 and an estimated time that I would be there. Rob made the same decision and we agreed to give him a lift to a train station into London. I am sorry if somehow I contributed to Robs DNF as I think he was a bit stronger than me at that point. We eventually arrived at the 100mile CP and sorted ourselves out and got in the car and headed for home. We dropped Rob at Bishops Stortford to get a train home and I got home had a bath and went to bed for a bit. It was a tough race and I am disappointed to add to my recent DNF’s and really need to look at my training and racing and learn a few lessons for the future. 
I need to work on my Hydration, Eating and Motivation before Spartathlon amongst other things. Positive to take away are that my knee was fine and working well and that as I write this only 2 days later my legs are recovering very well. I do still have sore feet but they too are healing well. 
I think I got my hydration and eating balance wrong and the weather and lack of sleep the days before really took more out of me than I expected. I think the first pair of Hokas I wore for the first 50 miles held a lot of water and that did not help my feet but the ones I wore after were better but the damage was already done. I should have changed my socks and dried my feet more often. But no point moaning, just need to learn the lessons for next time.


I still love this race and it is special to me. I will be back again.


I have to say a big thank you to my Crew consisting of my Missus Sue and my teenage daughter Becky who done really well over the weekend. And for Viv and Timmea and Tibby for coming up from my running club to help out for a bit. It really does make a difference have support like that around you.