From Petra Bijsterveld…
A change is as good as a rest they say, even when it comes to ultra running. Having spent a lot of time in the last two years on the Pennine Way, the Coast to Coast, and the Cleveland Way, I decided to try my hand at some more runnable races in the south of England to see how I get on. Centurion Running led by James Elson has a reputation for excellence when it comes to race organizing, their objective as stated on the website is ‘to put on the best supported, most professionally and safely organised, runner orientated ultra distance trail races – anywhere’. Having done two of their races now (I ran their Hundred Hills 50k in March) I dare say that they are more than succeeding at this. From the website, the pre-race information and live webinar briefing, registration, course marking, checkpoints (10 of them) and finish line, everything runs like clockwork. Moreover, the checkpoint volunteers are the best, looking after your every need with a huge smile, and there are plenty of them, so you are almost provided with personal waiter service.
Anyway, enough gushing for now. I opted to enter the North Downs Way 100 (which actually is 103 miles) mainly because the date suited me. The race route is the North Downs Way National Trail from Farnham (Surrey) to Ashford (Kent). The National Trail actually continues to Dover. At the time I didn’t grasp that this is the hardest out of Centurion’s four 100 milers (Thames Path, South Downs Way and Autumn 100 are the others) as borne out by the finishing times, which are slower across the board from elite to back-of-the pack. With 11,000 feet of elevation it is by no means flat, though pretty sedate when you are used to the hills here in the North. However, the hills are steep and punchy, often with energy sapping steps either up or down. They are short, but there are a lot of them. The race is fully marked with both the permanent North Downs Way finger posts and Centurion race arrows and flags, making navigation super easy.
Runners are allowed to be crewed on this race, and many do so. There are designated crew points (away from the checkpoints) where crew can park up and await their runner. Runners are also allowed to have a pacer from the halfway point onwards. I opted to have neither, as I quite enjoy being self-reliant, but it was nice to receive cheering and encouragement from crew teams as I ran past.
I had recced the entire route in June, fast-packing it over three and a half days, in temperatures of around 28 degrees. So I was grateful that the weather this weekend was marginally cooler, around 25, still warm for running, but to me it felt manageable, especially as there was the occasional light breeze. The night remained warm and humid however, which I found harder in a way, until the temperature suddenly dropped a little bit just before sunrise. But by 9 am on Sunday it was already very warm again. Many of the checkpoints had ice, which I didn’t feel I needed, but some runners were using ice-bandanas. They also had buckets of water to dunk your cap in.
You may feel relieved that I will save the step-by-step account of the race for my blog, which will appear in the fullness of time for those who love to read my ramblings. So here is the ‘short’ version for now. Not having tackled this type of more runnable 100 miler before I was unsure what time I could realistically aim for, unhampered by mountains, big hills, technical terrain, or man-eating bogs. The cut-off is a strictly enforced 30 hours (with intermediate cut-offs at the checkpoints) and I was hoping for somewhere around 26. I had written a rough schedule and had that and the cut-offs on my laminated card, but I mainly ran by feel, keeping level of exertion and heart rate low. This involved quite a bit of jeffing, where I run to a count of 45 and walk to a count of 30, with variations depending on ascent and descent. My intention was to only have two proper sit-down stops, at the half-way checkpoint at Knockholt Pound and at 82 miles at Detling. At both these checkpoints you could have a drop bag. I reached 50 miles in exactly 12 hours feeling very good and ate some pasta at the checkpoint, brushed my teeth, changed my top as well as socks and shoes, restocked my race vest with some nutrition from my drop bag, and did my back exercises. I had to put my headtorch on at mile 55, and we were treated to a beautiful clear night with a full moon, initially orange and huge as it rose in the sky, later turning whitish yellow high in the sky, at times it just felt like I had a ceiling light overhead, so it never felt properly dark. I seem to have lots of full moons on my ultras, or maybe I just remember them more. Despite the night being relatively light I did slow down more than I had anticipated. Whilst the trails are quite runnable during the day I found the combination of increasing fatigue and endless tree roots and bits of flint sticking up on many of the paths slowed me down a lot. But whilst I was falling behind schedule I did not trip or stumble once which is a win. As the night wore on I started to feel somewhat nauseous. My stomach had perhaps seen plenty of gels and chews by now. I tried to mix it up with some real food from the checkpoints like banana and salted potatoes and started to already look forward to the chocolate milk in my Detling checkpoint dropbag at mile 82. At the 71 mile checkpoint I sat down, contrary to my earlier plans, as I felt dizzy. I had some coke and sadly I vomited almost immediately. I tried half a cup of tea and some cherry tomatoes which looked appealing, but sadly only 5 minutes later I was looking at those again lying in the grass at my feet. Anyway, ‘puke and rally’ as they say in the ultra world. I took away half a banana and some salted potatoes and hoped for the best. I actually enjoyed the crossing over the river Medway at Rochester which followed immediately after that checkpoint, much as I had on my recce (and I also crossed it by train two weeks ago!). You are on a footpath and cycle way next to the M2 motorway and the Eurostar tracks. It’s almost a mile and I ran all of it without even any jeffing. Not much of a breeze though, which I had been hoping for. The night was very humid. I was probably low on fluids, salt and carbs by now after not taking enough in over the last few hours. That combination caused me a challenge on nasty steep hill (steps again) at mile 78. I started to feel hot and dizzy, sat down briefly, tried to carry on but the whole world started to spin around me and I only just managed to avoid fainting by lying down beside the trail. I really didn’t feel good. After a while some other runners came past and I asked them to just phone race HQ to tell them I was OK and just resting a while here (as my tracker would have shown me as stopped). I could have got my own phone out to do so but these guys were so helpful I thought I might as well make use of their kindness. (I made sure to thank them again profusely later as I overtook them all in the final miles!) I was there for maybe quarter of an hour, vomited some more, but eventually got up and slowly got going again. It was getting light now, and suddenly it was a little cooler, both those things made me feel better.
When I reached the Detling checkpoint at mile 82 I asked if there was a medic there who might be able to give me ondansetron (an anti-sickness drug) as I was struggling to keep things down. The medic was lovely but said they only give it intravenously and would need to do an ECG before and then monitor me for a bit afterwards, which basically means they only do it if you end your race there. No way I said, I have to get to the finish! I just had to crack on steadily, more stepped hills coming up. I took my chocolate milk with me as I reckoned I could just sip it intermittently.
There were only two of us in my age category and I was very much hoping to win, but I had not looked at the tracker at all during the race, as I can only run my own race anyway. But with 21 miles to go I could not resist having a look. If my competitor were just behind or in front of me that might be useful to know. Instead it turned out she had dropped out in the first half. Sad for her, but now I knew I only needed to make it to the finish to get my hands on that trophy.
Onwards towards the Detling hills, which were steep and tedious, I took it slowly, and managed to drink my chocolate milk. At the Lenham checkpoint at mile 90 I asked for milk in my cup which was a good idea (I am not normally a milk drinker but it was exactly what my stomach needed) and managed some more banana, and repeated that combo at the final checkpoint, Dunn Street, just 4.5 miles from the finish. It was only here that I started to dare to believe that I would make it to the finish. I was feeling a lot better by now. After Dunn Street you cross a couple of big fields and then it is road all the way to the finish on the track in Ashford. I managed to run most of that, with just a few walk breaks in between, overtaking quite a few runners on the way. Arriving at the stadium you have to run three quarters of a lap of the track, there was lots of cheering from spectators and Centurion staff and volunteers. I felt super emotional, more so than at most of my other big races, and I actually cried as I went round. I had been to this track at the end of my recce, to return there now for the real thing, with the bonus of an age category trophy, meant a lot. I tried to sprint though it undoubtedly looked like an ultra-shuffle, but I believe I reached a lightning fast 10 minute/mile pace before crossing under the finish arch. My time of 28:44:44 was perhaps not quite what I had hoped for when composing my schedule, but in the later stages I had amended my aim to be ahead of the ‘golden hour’ (29 to 30 hours) and I managed that. As I sat down cherishing my buckle and trophy I was totally happy with life.
The finish line volunteers were absolutely amazing, personal service again. I was brought water and then food (and yes, I could eat again, it tasted good and stayed down), my drop bags were gathered for me and put at my feet, an absolutely sterling service. Everyone is treated like a winner. I had a shower at the track before travelling back north on the train later in the day. I managed to get a cheap first-class upgrade on the London to Leeds leg which really rounded off the weekend pretty well.
Results are here. The women’s course record was broken by Alice Robinson in 18:13:58 and the men’s race was won by Ryan Whelan in 16:25:06. 208 runners started and 140 finished, I was the 108th finisher.
Edit: since writing the above I have discovered that my time, even though I was a little disappointed with it, lowered the F60 course record by 13 minutes. Moreover, it turns out I am only the third F60 to complete the NDW100 in 15 editions of the event. Proud to fly the flag for older women!