This year saw the inaugural running  of  ’The Wall”, a 24 hour, 69 mile race from Carlisle to the Millenium Bridge. Billed by organiser Urban Rat as “the UK’s most scenic ultra” it was always going to be a tempting race, even with the £150 price tag. The fact that it was being ran over my birthday weekend and that the course came within 1/2 a mile of my house finally tip the scales in its favour and I signed up, way back in October just after completing the Northumbrian Ultra.

Back then I had no idea that running wise it was going to be a pretty poor winter. Having strained by hamstrings yet again during the Northumbrian Ultra, I look it easy for a few months to allow them a full recovery, then we were into Christmas, then there was flew and a succession of colds after which things went a bit mad at work with the resignation of a colleague. Before I knew it, it was mid march and my monthly milages were barely into double figures. With 10 weeks to go I was barely scraping round a 1/2 marathon. I would love to say that I put everything into training for the next six weeks but I simply didn’t have the time or energy. A couple of weeks before ‘the wall’ I’d invested in a new pair of trainers, which while feeling great to begin with, suddenly started giving me calf problems with a week to go. I did the only thing I could at that point, booked myself in for some sports massage and crossed my fingers. At this point I was thinking that it couldn’t get much worse, but then came the rain.

The rain seemed relentless we drove west. The Tyne was higher than i’d seen it and it had burst its banks in a couple of places as we passed flooded field after field. When we eventually arrived at Carlisle the car park looked different to the way it had looked the day before, when we came over to register, we soon realised that was because 1/2 of the car park was underwater, with water still rushing in from the nearby railway track which itself was under 4 feet of water by this stage. Barely having got out of the car we realised that the whole car park could soon be under water and headed for higher ground. I driver abandoning their car altogether when it got stuck. Unsurprisingly the start was delayed to give runners a chance to get to the start with the weather.

As the race got underway the rain began to ease off. Of course the ground was still water logged, so it was wet feet from the off, but it didn’t seem to dampen anyones spirits. There was plenty of banter between runners as people swopped stories about previous races and theirs plans for the next ones.

The initial pace was deceptively fast on the relatively flat roads around Carlisle. Without really intending to I completed the first 13 miles in not much less that my great north run pace. I still had 56 mile to go.

Despite having had reservations as to whether my calfs would be up to running at all right up until the day before, I was feeling pretty good. My only problem was that my hamstrings felt a little tight, I was having to hold back a little on the descents, but other than that all was good.

As alway I found myself running with the same group of people some passing each other on the various up or downs depending on our individual strengths, and chatting along the way. Its amazing how much you get to know people over 70 miles and company makes the miles pass quickly.

While they called it ‘the wall’ not much of the course is actual along the roman wall itself with much of it on the roads. Wall or no Wall the scenery along the route is stunning, and although i’ve lived in Northumberland most of my life the route took me to a couple of places i’d never seen before.

This was my 3rd or 4th ultra, and by by comparison to races like the Lakeland 100 or the Northumbrian 100k Ultra, there had been very little information about the exact route or what sort of food was going to be available at the feed stations and checkpoints along the way. I was’t quite sure what to expect. In the end I was pleasantly surprised by how often the checkpoints and feed stations came up and how well the route was marshalled.

I’d left a drop bag at the half way stage and was glad of a change of shirt and to restock on gels after 35 miles. I didn’t really want to hang around too long, so passing on the offer of soup I headed straight out again and began climbing the steepest incline of the day. During the long section along the road towards fourstones the field had spread out a little and I found myself running on my own for the first time all day.  That didn’t last long though as the route soon took a turn off the road and onto a section of trail for a miles or two, at which point I caught up with the guy in front of me. We ran the next few miles together.

Before I knew it we’d reached Hexham, where I’d arranged to see my wife. I arrive shortly before she did. The sun had just come out and I sat and changed into dry socks for the first time in 40 miles. Its amazing what dry socks, an iced coffee and a few minutes with your loved ones can do to re-motivate you.

The next 26 miles would take me past our house and along the track I regularly run to work. In theory it should have been a piece of cake, but without having put in as much training as I should have it was going to be pretty slow going. Luckily my brother, his wife and their 2 kids came along to meet me along the next section, which was lifted by spirits and pushed me along the final few miles around the river to the final check point.

The last 6 miles seemed to take forever, by this time my legs were stiffening up and I could hardly move them past my centre line. I was having to take twice and many steps and not getting anywhere fast. Overall I’d made good time upuntil then and it wasn’t yet getting dark as I made it to the quayside and had the finish line in site.

My wife had arrived just in time to see my come over the finish line in 14 hours and 12 minutes. Collecting my t-shirt I sat down on the steps with Lucinda to catch my breath as we watch a few people coming in behind me, before I finally headed off for a long awaited shower.

With only 6 months to get myself ready for the challenges of a 100 mile trail race, I decided that it might be an idea to test the water and see what my fitness level were like with a really long run.

The plan was simple to fill the car with a decent supply of drinks, cereal bars and jelly babies, then park up and run as many laps of a 10 mile circuit around the river as I could, stopping to refuel after each lap.

I wasn’t quite sure how far I could go. The furthest I’d ran up until this point was around 32 miles. I told myself I’d be happy with 50k but secretly I was hoping for 50 miles.

Things didn’t look good on the morning of the big day, I got up to dark skies and the sound of rain pounding against the window. I tried not to let the rain put me off as I  got up, dressed and made breakfast before heading out into the cold and whatever miles lay before me.

I threw a couple of extra training tops and a few pairs of socks into my bag before I left, I’d resolved myself to getting wet, but it wouldn’t hurt to dry off between laps at least a little.

Despite the rain, the first couple of laps went really quickly. I’d ran this course many times before, and was very familiar with its easy rhythms, following the steep undulations of the rivers banks to begin with, then chris crossing the many bridges, before following the gentle decent as it flows down towards the final bridge and the turn around, and then climbing back up to complete the loop.

By the end of the second lap the battery on my ipod was down to a few percent. So I headed out into the rain for the third lap, I didn’t have the reassuring sound of those familiar tunes following through my head, but by this time I was confident that I would complete at least 50k, and  was beginning to let myself think I might actually make 50 miles.

Going into the fourth lap, my ipod was back to full charge, and despite the continued rain, my spirits were high. According to my Gps each lap was closer to 11 miles that 10, meaning that I would have ran 44 miles by the end of the circuit.  This brought the question should I run a fifth lap or simply make up the 6 miles to get me to 50, with the rain still pouring down and the now sun starting to set , I decided to make up this my last lap.

Without the focus of the familiar track and now running in the dark, those last 6 miles seemed to go on for ever, but then a little after 6pm it was over. I’d ran further than I’d ever ran before, and I’d been out for longer, covering the 50 miles in around 9 hours.

There is still 6 months before the Lakeland 100, but I will have to run twice the distance and i’ll be running through the night not once but twice, but that will be another adventure, for now I am content with having ran my first 50.

Last year I went from running the odd marathon to tackling something altogether bigger, the Himalayan 100, a 100 mile multi day stage race at altitude. But what could I do to follow an event like that?

Well for me it meant looking at Ultra Marathons. The furthest  I’d run up until this stage has around 30 miles (and that was largely downhill). An Ultra then will be something of a new challenge.

There is no real definition of what an ultra marathon is, other than being longer than a regular marathon.  Common distances can be 50k, 50miles, 52 miles (double marathon), 100km or 100miles.

Ultras like marathons are becoming increasingly popular. There are over 125 Ultras here in the UK many of which can be found on ultramarathonrunning.com or a variety of other website.  There are also some great online communities of ultra runners on sites like dailymile.com where you can get information on gear, training schedules and fueling stratergies.

While we tend to think of all of these distances as simply ultras,  each ultra has a unique character of its own, with different terrains, with different levels of ascent and decent, taking part at different times of year and with different levels of support.

So the question is with so many different Ultra’s to pick from which would I choose as my first . Should I start small and work my way up. Should I go for something relatively flat or something a bit more challenging with more hills. Should I choose something nearby or make a break of it and go further afield.

In the end the choice was simple, as I didn’t really have to make it.

My roommate from the Himalayian 100, Paul Stoneley sent me an email saying that he’d been looking at a race called the Lakeland 50, a 50 mile race across the Lake District in Late July that you could run individually or as a team of two, and did I fancy running it. I didn’t even have to thing about it, the answer right away was yes. A couple of days later Paul realized that it was during his summer holidays and he couldn’t in fact make it, but my this time it was too late the idea was in my head, and I was going to run.

Over the next couple of weeks, I spoke to a few of the other runners that I’d ran with in India and both Iryna and Dianne said that they were interested in running the Lakeland, but they were more interested in the 100 miler than the 50.

Last year only 20 in 100 of those setting out on the Lakeland 100 made it to the finish line, but Iryna and Diane made the argument that with 14 checkpoints over the 100 miles, I could drop out at any point and I still would have ran further than I had ever ran before.

Its a completely crazy idea, not only to  choose a 100 miler for my first ultra, but to choose one ran over grueling conditions and that will see us running through the night twice, if we stay the distance.

But for better or worse the choice for my first ultra has been made…and in July i’m running the Lakeland 100.