Facing my first 100

Its 8.30 in the morning on the 29th of July, a day that I have been preparing for for the last 7 months. I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about what lies ahead of me. In 9 hours time I will set out from Coniston with the single aim of getting around the 100 miles of hilly land standing between me and the finish. I have 40 hour to complete the run, and at this stage i’m not even sure i’ve got what it takes to go the distance, but i’m ready to give it my best try.

While ultimately your on your own running for such a long way in such harsh conditions, and i know that the greatest struggles may be ran in my mind, I hope that on the longest hills and in the darkest parts of the nights ahead that I will find inner strength from the support, love and best wishes I have received from my friends and family.

[Side note:I found out about this race from Paul, with whom I shared a room my Himilayan adventure last year, sadly it fell during his summer vacation so he couldn't make it, but Iryna and Dianne persuaded me to enter anyway. Unfortunately Dianne also has had to pull out, leaving myself and Iryna the only competitors from team India. I'm sure that much of the 40 hours in the hills we'll be thinking of all the runs and races that got us to this point and the friendships we made along the way and again i'm hoping that they will lend me some of their strength to get me through.]

…unfortunately my race did not go exactly go to plan. After setting off from Coniston, we slowly go further and further behind. By the first checkpoint we were trailing behind in last place, but we were in it together and I ran with Iryna
at far as the third checkpoint were she unfortunately decided to call it a day, at this point we were a couple of hours behind the last competitor. I struggled on alone over blacksail pass in the night, pushing hard to try and make an almost impossible cut off. Eventually I saw a single head torch lighting the trail some way infront of me, I had made up quite a distance would it be enough to save me from timing out? In my desperation to stick to 8 minute miles I took a wrong turn and ran down a flat cycle track instead of having to go over the hill to the next check point. By the time realized my error it was too late. I reluctantly back tracked along the trail, jogging towards Buttermere and beautiful sunrise over the Lake.

After checking into the Checkpoint, the Marshall – Charles Sproson someone reluctantly told me what I already knew, that the race was over – at least for me. Everyone else had either checked in or dropped out at this stage so all that remained was to close the checkpoint and get back to the start. The return journey was in the back of a campervan, sitting on the floor with Charlies dog, another marshal and a fellow DNF. During the journey i had the crazy idea that i could still possibly salvage a little dignity from the weekend if i could make it to the half way point and still no the 50. When we reach Coniston i went to see the race organisers who explained that they could not programme a new race chip so it would not be possible to officially run the 50…but as i had officially retired then there was nothing to stop me doing a little training run in the Lakes on a saturday afternoon, but as i was not officially running there would be no medal or t-shirt and that if i were to get lost they would have no way of knowing were i was so i’d be on my own.

The game was back on. With the help of my brother getting me to Penrith, I ran the first few miles with Ian and Wayne of Blackhill Bounders, then suffering from the miles of the night before I let them get off coming out of howtown. Shortly a leaving the guys I bumped into Grant Hamilton (who i’d met the night before at the 1st checkpoint where he was ont supporting a friend) and we completed the rest of the 50 together. It would have been an altogether harder race without Grants help, and a pleasure to run with him.

Iryna had left Coniston by the time I got back from the 50, so after a short sleep I got in the car and head home. I’d failed to complete my first 100, but i’d ran further than i’d ran in my life, and made some great new friends.