GUCR – The Death March

Short version:

Went off too fast
Felt sick for a while
Got injured
Walked a bit
Got shiny medal.

Longer version: (grab a chair and some supplies)

For those that have not heard of it the Grand Union Canal Race is a non stop 145 mile race from central Birmingham to Little Venice in London along the historic Grand Union Canal mostly on rural towpaths. Its the child of Dick Kearn a runner of some standard in his day. The first winner of the first GUCR. It has now been running for 19 years and is well regarded in the british Ultra world as the classic one to do. It used to be until only very recently the longest race in the uk but is still regarded by many including me as the best and purest ultra in the country.

Friday night my crew and I all met up at a Premier Inn just outside Birmingham at a very unplanned late 10:15pm due to a horrendous journey up with my Fiancee Sue and my daughter Becky. We met my other crew member Nici and had a quick chat and ate take away before getting straight to bed which was a shame as normally meeting the other runners in O’Neils pub the night before for a bit of ultra banter and bollocks talking is the pre race prep.

After a restless night which is fairly normal before this race we got up at 4 am to eat wash and get ready to travel to the start line. At the start time was the usual pre race nerves and chatiness from all the runners and support crews . It was great to meet many old friends some who I had not seen since the race last year.

Note the disabled access sing in the background

The photo above is one that this group has taken each of the last three years with various people joining but it has been a tradition and I expect will be again next year. From right to left is Peter Johnson, Rajeev Patel (from the USA), Paul Ali, Keith Godden and myself and although I mostly see these people at races I consider them some of my closer friends. There were many other runners there such as the awesome James Adams and special mention must go to Mimi Anderson who had run from the finish to the start the day before in 31:58:00 and after just a nights sleep was here to do the race and complete the first ever GUCR double! After chatting and meeting people ywe get down on the startline for the traditional speech by Dick and off we go with no pomp or ceremony towards London.
I had a set of A,B and C targets and with Spartathlon in September I decided to go off a a good pace and see if I could turn in a good marathon and a decent second to meet the Spartathlon 9:30 50 mile cut off and then see if I can hang on for a good finish time. It did not quite work like that!

My awesome crew of Sue my Fiancee and Becky my 14 year old Daughter are veterans of crewing for me plus Nici who I first met when she marshalled at my Stort30 race last October where she expressed a wish to be on my crew for this event. It is so hard to get a crew that will do an event like this and stay awake and work as hard as you to get a runner to the finish and sacrifice what they need to do. I have crewed as well as run and it is a difficult job that is not to be underestimated.

Sue, Nici, Becky and Me before the race.

 The first place I was to meet my crew was the first major CP at 10.7 miles in and I got there in 1:42 feeling good and running well. After chatting to various runners throughout the route I settled in to running with Phil Smith who I have seen at a few races with including Spartathlon and Lakeland 100. We were going fast and felt good but possibly a bit quick at around 8:30mm. We also picked up Steve Thompson here who was not in the race but I have bumped into and he has run with me every year from this CP. Steve has run this race before finishing very well, he has finished the spine and won the first Thames Ring 250 among others and for some reason has just happened to run with me each year whilst out on his own long run. A really nice guy.
On we went my crew next met me at Turners green at 18.1 miles and I got there in 2:50. The next checkpoint was at 24 miles in and took me 3:50 so I was moving a bit fast though I was feeling very comfy and moving well still with Phil. This is where Steve said goodbye as he lives nearby. My crew actually got a telling off here for letting me go off too fast by Pat Roobbing the GB Ultra Runner and current record holder on this course. Apparently I was 10mins inside his record pace (25 hours) at this stage!
I took my first walk break here and tried to eat a bit more food whilst on a walk break. I dropped into a 25/5 run/walk plan and this was ok for a bit but then I started to feel really sick and wanted to throw up. I knew I needed to drink and eat as I had not taken as much as i could of from the start as I was going fast. I was reduced to a steady walk whilst I ate, drunk and tried to shake the sickness. I passed 50k in a bit over 5 hours and hit 35.9 miles in 6:08. Although I felt sick still it was going so I started to put short 5 min running stints in but found my left hip is starting to hurt a bit and gets quite painful when running. I dont know what I have done to it or how but it feels just like the camber on the towpaths has affected my ITB and pulled on my hip but I struggle to do any meaningful running after about 40 miles. I start to worry about tthe race and do some maths and as long as I can maintain 3MPH or better I should still finish with plentry of time to spare and although I wont get my A or B target I can still finish. I DNF’d this race last year at 100 miles and have a couple of other DNF’s at this sort of distance and decided that I would not DNF unless it was not possible to keep moving forward and get there in time. I had the support of my crew to get it done and they were under orders not to let me quit.  At 57 miles I was still walking ok but decided to change out of my Scott Kinabalu shoes and put on my Hoka’s which felt better for walking in on the uneven stony paths. I kept my Nike Drymax socks on and they stayed on for the whole race.
My next mental target was to get over half way so I could at least count down instead of counting up the miles. Its a difficult mental thing to know your race wheels have come off and you can still finish but you will still be out there suffering for another 30 hours! This was going to be a death march to the finish.
Just before half way is where you are allowed buddy runners to run with you and keep you safe and motivate you and I knew this was going to really help me out with keeping my head straight and focussed.
Food wise I was not that interested in bread type food but was using my regular Torq Gels and Bars which were going down well plus snatching hadfulls of normal food such as nuts, sweets and biscuits etc and this was keeping me going ok. I did decide I had a craving for tinned fruit and the girls got me some and boy was it good! Tinned pears and peaches are really easy to eat and give a good hit at checkpoints with me gels in between.
My next big target was to get over 100 miles and through the night which was really hard work. I normally cope really well at night and did not feel too sleepy until 96 miles in at 6am when I really felt tired and just could not shake it. My pace had dropped so slow and even coke or caffiene was not working so when I got into the CP I asked my crew to let me sleep in the car for 15 minutes but really struggled to sleep with the pain in my hip and only got about 8 minutes actual sleep but it helped and I left at a better pace.
I went through 100 miles in about 25:30 which felt slow but it still gave me quite a bit of time to walk the finish in and with it being another nice day in the making I plodded on.
I have not mentioned yet the cammaradierie between the runners in this race and everyong wants everyone else to finish the race. The anount of encouragement from people you overtake or who overtake you is immense and really keeps you going, many of the runners I know from other events or previous GUCR’s. I saw people from last years Spartathlon and my own races. A few people recognised me from the Torq Trail Team promotion and facebook etc which was great.
I was in a bit of pain now and just needed to push on and at times was quiet as I had to concentrate on just keeping awake and moving. I zombie walked through the day with members of my crew walking with me at times and finally reached the 120 mile CP after being on the move for 31+ hours. I just had to keep telling myself it was possible. With only 25 miles to go it was now a distance that seemed possible even in an immense amount of pain I could not see myself stopping at this point but I was very tired too. My pace had dropped and I was struggling to manage just over 2MPH but only had to manage 2MPH to finish under the cut off but it was going to be close to the wire.
I must mention Nick Greene who met me at 105 miles in and walked me in to 120 miles and gave up his Sunday to help me keep motivated and give my crew a break from kicking my arse. Thanks Nick I owe you. I had a ropey moment about 128 miles in where I really struggled to keep awake and actually bumped into a bridge support – lucky I did not go into the canal! Slowly I bimbled my way towards the 133 mile checkpoint which is the last big official checkpoint. Sue came out from there to meet me and as we walked back to the CP we bumped into Henk for those who dont know him he is the sweetest most polite man in the world. With such greetings towards me as ” Hey Sh*thead “, “can I feel you man tits fatty” and the one he used towards all runners ” I have a space on my death bus for when you dnf “! I must have looked bad as when I said hello to him his replt was “I’m saying nothing” and he didn’t I just walked past. Another mile up the canal an we were at the 133 mile CP which was staffed by Fiona and James and Gemma and a couple of others. I knew I could make it now and had to average just under 2MPH from here to finish inside the cut off. It was 12 miles to go from here but that still meant I had 6 hours of walking to do into another night!

Simon walking with me

The best medal you will ever earn