Posts Tagged ‘ultramarathon’

Every summer, thousands of runners gather in Bramham Park to take part in Endure24: a 24-hour running race where the aim is to do as many 8km laps as you can within the time limit. Participants take part as solos, pairs or teams. I did the virtual Endure24 over COVID but this was my first time at the thing itself.

I turned up on the Friday and met up with Robyn for the shake out run, which is one lap of the course. It was great to catch up and see what the course is like ahead of the race. I then went home and slept in my nice comfortable bed ready for the race starting the next day.

Back to Braham Park on Saturday to meet up with the rest of my team: Grace, Jed and Matt, to take on the race. I wouldn’t describe myself as a big outdoor person (despite all of the triathlon and adventure racing) so camping is a bit out of my comfort zone. Thanks to Matt for lending me a tent.

The race starts at noon and we each did a lap before moving to double laps. The first twelve flew by: we originally were thinking an hour per lap but having the break means you can go faster than you would on a solo ultra. All speed is relative, though, and by the end of lap eight, both Charlotte and Toby had lapped us.

By around 10 o’clock we had all done three laps each and moved onto the night laps. I had said I was going to take on more of the night shift as I wanted to run when it was cooler. It got down to about 12 degrees at night, so still a little on the warm side even in shorts and t-shirt. My mood was up-and-down at night. When I first started I was thinking maybe I’ll do even more night laps after my double but by the end my stomach was complaining and I wanted to get some sleep. So, after Matt did his night lap, we had nobody running for an hour or so. It would have been nice to do the sunrise lap but I just wasn’t up for it at the time.

In the morning, we switched back to single laps and cycled through two each, before crossing the line together.

In total, we managed 25 laps as a team. We set out as a chill team so there was no target, but everyone hit their individual target of getting six laps in (48km, making it an ultra distance) and my extra night lap took us up to 25 as a team, meaning we hit 200km overall.

After the race, we went to the Endure24 pub. The event village has a pub, cafe, several food vans, an ice cream van, a medical and sports massage tent, and some retailers. And a fire pit at night.

There were some brilliant performances to mention. Charlotte completed 23 laps, finishing first lady and second overall. Toby completed 20 laps to complete the 100 miles, and Robyn crushed 10 laps for a total of 80km at her first 24-hour event. Eleanor took second in the female pairs. Well done to everyone who took part, and thank you to my teammates for running with me.

Six years ago, Toby had a dream: that every hour, for twelve hours, we would run three laps around Woodhouse Moor. After the psychiatrist discharged him from hospital, he set about making this dream a reality. Around the Park, Around the Clock was born. This year would be it’s sixth running.

The weather was good this year. Warm but not too hot and no rain all day. It was only a week after God’s Own Backyard Ultra meaning that if you include both weekends, ABC and parkrun, I was looking at 182km of running over the week. Luckily, no injuries, just fatigue.

The big race news was that Rich was away in the Lakes. Rich, Toby and myself were the only three to have done all twelve laps all five years and now sadly we’re down to two. There was no lack of experience, though. We worked out that Toby, Robyn and myself have now done 612 laps of Woodhouse Moor as part of this event. And probably over a thousand more if we threw in parkrun.

Loads of well dones and thank yous to give out: Toby, Robyn, Helen, Lara and Matt for completing the full thing. Naomi also completed a lap every hour. Elina for brining the picnic and Venla for getting a few laps in. My mum for completing an amazing 20k setting a new personal best distance, as did Sharron with 25k, and Donna running her first marathon/ultra with 45k complete. Toby for organising, another set of dozen facts, and the post-race pint. Everyone who dropped in and out to keep us company. And Robyn for making the trip over to provide her excellent company, despite having a 50k ultra and Windermere Marathon coming up on consecutive weekends.

God’s Own Backyard Ultra is a backyard event that takes place in Bramley Fall Woods and the canal towpath each May and November. In a backyard, you have one hour to complete a 6.7km loop. You have to be back in the starting pen on the hour for the next loop and anyone that doesn’t make it is eliminated. The winner is the last person standing.

I’ve never had a “proper go” at one. I did God’s Own back in 2022 but had to make a planned drop out after 11 laps. I then did Dublin Mountain in 2023, but with 250 metres of elevation gain per lap, it is not comparable to other races. This time, I was going to see how far I could go.

That said, I was doing it for fun, so I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself. If I went and did one lap, that was fine. If I got a PB, that would also be good. And that’s the thing about packing for a backyard. You take so much stuff and have no idea whether you’re going to be running for an hour or a full day (or more). I felt silly walking down to the race in my changing robe at in 20 degree heat, but felt very glad of it after it got dark.

Early laps were good. I used arm screens and a wide-brimed hat to try and protect myself from the sun. I also went for leggings initially, but abandoned this after the first couple of laps. The Saturday was relatively cool, peaking at 21, and much of the race is in the woods so you get some shade. I certainly didn’t envy those still running on the Sunday and Monday when it got really hot. Last time I did the race, I fell twice, so I was pleased to get through without any issues.

Once I was through 11, things changed. On the plus side, exciting things were happening. 12 was a PB, 13 was a double marathon, 14 was the first night loop, 15 was 100k, and 17k was a 24-hour PB. The only lap I didn’t want to stop on was 16. At the same time, I was increasingly hurting and not able to each as much between laps.

Food wise, pizza really worked for me. I think I got through most of one during the day, as well as some crisps, an ice lolly, some potatoes, half a sandwich and maybe a few other bits. The real food sat very well compared to sports-specific stuff. There was also a catering tent on site and I drank my way through three slushies throughout the day. I would have done more but they closed as it got dark.

The first night loop was fine. I didn’t get back to camp any faster, though. Lap 15 was hard. I was getting really sore. My hip had been bothering me since the early laps, and Andy kindly let me use his foam roller, but by this point everything was sore and it was becoming harder and harder to run. By lap 16, I decided to walk it and see how I felt. Walking was almost equally painful. I managed a little jog at the end and got back to the corral with less than a minute to spare.

I couldn’t face lap 17. And it felt pretty reasonable because 16 was the lap I didn’t want to stop on, so I think I was just empty by this point. I did cross the timing mat to start lap 17, though. This is important because is technically means I was timed out on lap 17 rather than refused to continue, and because retiring at 12:00:05, meant I can say “I ran into the early hours of Sunday morning”. Both of these things make me happy. Total distance covered:

107.289 kilometres

Five laps added to my backyard personal best and only three kilometres short of my 24-hour PB.

Loads of thank yous: to Gav and Ruth and the whole race team for putting on another great event. The marshals for keeping us safe and offering encouragement. Richard for turning up with ice lollies and orange juice. Everyone who came down and supported, it was lovely to have people cheering us on at the start and end of every lap. My fellow athletes for making it such a communal, encouraging race. And Elina and Venla for putting up with “I’m going for a run; not sure when I’ll be back.”

2025 marked the fifth outing of Around The Park, Around The Clock: an event that involves running three laps of Woodhouse Moor (approximately 5km) every hour for 12 hours.

We have had a range of weathers over the years and this year was mostly good. Last year was rainy all day while 2023 was glorious sunshine. This year was mostly dry but with some heavy rain around the 2pm loop. This meant lots of people joining us for the morning loops, one of which had around 40 of us, and a quieter afternoon.

I had a rough time last year, both at ATP ATC and in life generally. No such problems this year, thankfully. I did some some stomach issues for the last two hours but nothing serious. it was hard going, running wise, though. I really felt tired for some of the middle loops and that never really got much easier despite the introduction of caffeine. But all good fun.

A big thank you to Toby for organising it, Andy for watching the bags all day, and everyone else who turned up to mind base camp and cheer. Also to everyone I ran a loop with, especially Robyn as we took in most of the loops together and had a lovely catch-up.

Trinity Harriers run an annual fundraising event that involves teams of four competing to see who can run the farthest combined distance in 24 hours as well as raise the most money to fund club activities. I did the event two years ago and it was a lot of type 2 fun.

This year there were another ten teams competing. I was on Chariots of Tired with Clíodhna, Jack and Adam. Alas, I still don’t have a photo of me running in a DUHAC vest.

Race day report

I’m heavier and probably less fit than two years ago when I was still in IRONMAN form. But i had logged some long runs. And unlike my previous two 24-hour races, where I slept from 2am to 7am, this time I wanted to try going straight through.

Unfortunately, things did not go to plan. My stomach was unhappy from Saturday afternoon onwards (the race was on Sunday) so I was feeling crap to begin with and was running a slow pace with lots of bathroom breaks from the start. My mood was unusually low and I felt really sad for most of the night. I was originally running with an audiobook but decided to switch this off and just be present to see if that helped, which it did a little. As a result, by 6am I had only covered 35km which felt barely further than last year. I decided to abandon my attempt to go all the way through and opted for a 30-minute power nap.

As soon as I climbed into bed, fully dressed in my running gear, I decided I couldn’t face a 30-minute timer either so I cancelled it and just went to sleep. 90 minutes I woke up naturally and felt a little better so I switched into my super cushioned shoes. By this point it was daylight and I switched to my 1.3km loop around the green space. By 10am I finally made it through 50k. Not going to be finishing Donedea anytime soon, but I got it done. I was running in blocks of 10-15km at a time and did another 12km to take me up to 62k before taking a break for lunch.

I had a series of milestones to try and get myself excited about reaching a certain distance. Post-lunch running was a bit of a slog as once I was through 60k there wasn’t really anything until the double marathon at 84.4 so there was hours of running in circles with not much to celebrate. I think I around 50 loops of the green space in total. After each block I got on my foam roller to try and loosen up some of the muscles, especially around my hip that tends to cause problems.

My final daylight loop took me to 97k at which point I briefly paused to stick some tea in the oven before doing a final 3k to round up to 100. This gave me a new 100k PB of:

19:09

At time of writing, the world record is just over six hours so lots of room for improvement there. But self-compassion and all that: most people don’t have a 100k PB.

Unfortunately, dinner upset my stomach again. My previous experience of running ultras has been that some real food is helpful but I fuelled most of this on Haribo, Lucozade and gels. That was working for me so maybe I should have stuck with that. With my ongoing stomach issues for the past few years, eating and drinking anything is pretty hard at the moment so getting anything in was a challenge. In total, I got through 12 bags of Haribo, seven bottles of Lucozade, six gels, six chocolate bars plus some crisps, shortbread, strawberries and salted potatoes.

I took my time getting back out there but by now I was exhausted. My running was barely faster than a walk and my ankle was starting to wobble in a way that said I might hit the deck at some point. So, after a final 10k, I decided to call it. At this point, I still had two hours left and it was a bit frustrating to have done all of this work not to use all of the time. But I think I was physically and mentally done at this point and deciding to let myself stop here was a real sense of relief.

Results

My total distance was:

110km

Plus my shiny new 100k PB of 19:09 which is about 3.5 hours faster than two years ago. I also set a new single-day step record of 122,988. My total running time was 13:05:32 which is about two hours up on my two previous 24-hour races. I burnt around 7,779 kcals.

I managed to avoid any serious chafing thanks to copious amounts of vaseline and bepanthen but I did pick up a blister on one of my toes.

It felt a bit deja vu because two years ago Team Cool Runnings monopolised the leaderboard with 1st, 2nd and 4th, and this year again we took 1st and 2nd with Jack posting a monster 200+km 8-hour+ cycle that he traded in for running miles.

That final 10k managed to take us over the 200k mark for a comfortable victory but things were exciting close behind with just a few kilometres separating our second and third place. The total distance covered by everyone was 1,293km meaning that on average people ran over 32km each: a phenomenal effort given not everyone is a distance runner.

On the fundraising side, Lost In Pace (great team name!) flattened us all with €1,670 raised. In total, we raised over €4,000 for the club which might still be rising as the fundraising page only launched the day before the event.

Reflections

In the days leading up to the event, I was both excited to get started and nervous about how much it was going to hurt. And that was pretty accurate. But I would like more tired legs and less stomach issues. They’re really driving me crazy at this point. But despite all of that, I did make it to 100k, and past it for the first time, and that’s pretty cool.

I tend to get caught up in “X ran 180km when they did a 24-hour event” so I am going to stop and pause and reflect on 110k being a really long way. It’s more than two and a half marathons and most people will never run a marathon. I can be proud of what I achieved and how hard I worked for it, both in training and in those difficult hours when I pushed through.

A big thank you to everyone at DUHAC involved in organising the event. And to everyone who has contributed to the fundraiser. And to my wonderful team mates, my family, and everyone at Blackrock that sent encouragement over WhatsApp.

One of the main reasons there is nothing on my blog this month is that I have my head burried in writing a research paper. Even though I’m not at the writing stage yet. The paper is on mental health in ultra-endurance athletes and I’m currently on the data analysis stage. Watch this space. But not too closely because it’s a slow process.

Four years ago, Toby came up with the idea of running three laps of Woodhouse Moor (approximately 5k), every hour, for twelve hours. Some said he was crazy. Others said it was too easye because in a real backyard ultra, you would have to run 6.7k. Neither group were listened to.

2024 arrives and we’re doing it for the fourth time. Last year was glorious sunshine. This year was back to the rain-soaked day of 2021, and possibly the wettest it has ever been.

It’s a lovely format because you can change your pace and running partner on different laps which is great for catching up and having a chat. Thanks so much to Cat, Naomi, Robyn, Louise, Susie, Steve, Kevin, Kay and everyone else who provided some good banter on the way around. I’m sure Toby and Rich would have some good banter too but they’re in a different league. And a big thank you to Andy for looking after our stuff, providing insightful political commentary and buying ice lollies from Tesco.

I haven’t done any long runs since February, except for making it half way through Westport marathon, so I wasn’t sure how my ankle would hold up. The answer is that it held up fine: but I did get a pain in my hip after 10k. It was the same pain that forced me to retire at Endure24 2020 so I was concerned. I foam rolled between every lap and that got me through, but it was pretty sore for the rest of the week.

Early on, I felt quite a bit of panic, despite lapping a park I knew really well and being surrounded by friends. That was frustrating and scary. But I pushed on and made it through and I am glad I did because once I got onto the Red Bull for the final two hours, I felt great. By 8pm I was exhausted and keen to get home to check on Venla who was poorly at the time, so ended up skipping the pub.

It was absolutely lovely running with you all and I will see you soon! Thanks to Toby, Laura, Robyn and Andy for the photos.

She’s only gone and bloody done it!

The Barkley Marathons is a notoriously difficult race. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a nominally 100-mile race (nobody is sure how long it really is) that consists of five 20-mile laps through Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee. The elevation gain is huge and much of it is off-trail running. It contains many cult elements: the start time can be any time from midnight to noon for example and is announced an hour before when a conch is blown.

There is a 12-hour cut-off for each lap, giving athletes 60 hours in total. The terrain is so tough that most years nobody finishes. Though, if you manage 3 laps within the first 40 hours, you at least get a “Fun Run”. There have been various documentaries made about it including The Race That Eats Its Young, Where Dreams Go To Die, and Last Woman Standing which followed British ultrarunning legend Nicky Spinks trying to be the first woman to complete the race.

Enter the 2024 race where a star-studded line up. This included last year’s winner, Aurélien Sanchez, Jared Campbell attempting to get a record 4th finish, and Jasmin Paris who had a Fun Run under her belt and until this year held the out-right course record for the Spine Race which she famously set while expressing milk for her baby at the aid stations.

Either conditions were good or the field is getting stronger as a record 12 people achieved a Fun Run this year. It may have also helped that the race started at 5:17, allowing the first, third and final lap to be done in daylight. This meant a record 7 athletes were able make it to lap 5 before the 48-hour cut-off. The most finishers ever had been three, set in 2012 (the year The Race That Eats Its Young was filmed) and repeated again in 2023.

Sebastian Raichon and former Spine men’s course record holder (still two hours slower than Parsis’s time) Damian Hall dopped out leading five athletes out on the course. The only way to follow it is to follow Keith Dunn’s Twitter feed. Elon must have been delighted that people were briefly using it again as we all desperately refreshed for news and chatted on WhatsApp.

Ihor Verys was the first to come home with an hour and a quarter still to go before the 60-hour cut-off. John Kelly arrived 30 minutes later to briefly equal Jared Campbell’s three finishes until 15 minutes later, Campbell himself arrived back to set a record 4th finish. Greig Hamilton came in 9 minutes later, leaving Paris the only athlete left on the course with 19 minutes to get home.

We continued to madly refresh the Twitter feed as the 9:17 pm GMT deadline passed. No news. Then, a few minutes after the cut-off had passed, Keith tweeted to say Paris had made it home! At 59:58:21, she made it home 99 seconds before the deadline making her the first ever woman to finish the race!

The concept of Around The Park, Around The Clock is simple. Every hour, for 12 hours, we run 3 laps of Woodhouse Moor. It is roughly a 5k course making for a total of 60k over the 36 laps. In between, we sit around getting stiff.

It is organised by Toby who, this year, decided to schedule it on his birthday. That meant not only did we run a lot of laps of the park but we also sang happy birthday over and over again until he hid on the floor in his hoodie.

The weather was kind this year, as it was in 2022. My form was okay. I was pretty tired but plodded through. It’s not an event you need to rush. Nor would you want to: chatting is the best bit.

18 of us made it through all of the laps this year. But it’s not really about that. it is more about the social aspect: people can drop in and out, run some laps, walk some laps, or just sit around and enjoy the sunshine and the picnic.

I even made it to the pub this year where Toby was trying to buy people drinks despite it being his birthday.

Thank you for a lovely team, team. And a big thank you to Toby for organising the event. Finally, thank you to Laura, Toby and Lizzie for the photos.

A backyard ultra is looped race where you have an hour to complete a 6.7 km loop. At the start of the next hour, you have to be back in the starting corral ready for the next loop or you are out of the race. The winner is the last person standing; everyone else is a DNF.

I packed plenty of spare clothes for all weather and a big bag of snacks including some homemade chicken wraps and a pizza cooked freshly in the morning and packaged up into convenient pieces. The weather was much kinder than at the official recce and everyone set up their camp outside in sunshine.

It has “mountain” in the name for the reason: there were around 230 metres of evaluation gain in each lap. Each loop started with a 22-minute slog up the hill that almost everyone walked. There was then a short section along the top before the bog field and a technical off-road descent through the forest. Finally, it joins a gravel track going back down to base camp. This is the hard way around and the opposite way to how we were promised: perhaps a bit of Irish humour creeping in.

100 people entered the race and 87 people started. By lap three, we were four runners down. The adage is “run your own race” but this was difficult given there was such a big crowd walking the first few kilometres. Being a road runner, I was slower on the bog field so slower walkers would then want to overtake me, and then on the downhill where I would open out my stride (and my gravitational advantage) I would go back past them.

I took my backpack on the first loop to get some hydration but soon decided to ditch the extra weight and eat and hydrate at the end of each lap. This was no easy task, though. Laps would take 52-56 minutes which doesn’t give you much time to do more than one thing. If I needed to sort my shoes out, change some gear, or have a wee, as well as my hourly feed and drink, things got very tight.

I was pretty grumpy the whole day. I was grumpy on lap one because we were going the “wrong” way and the technical bits were hard. Then I sank into “why am I doing this to myself”. After lap six I switched from sports drink to caffeinated drinks, aiming to do between 10 and 12 laps. 10 seemed like a round number. But then 11 would be a night lap and 12 would be one better than God’s Own Backyard Ultra.

After lap nine I grabbed my backpack with a base layer in it and swapped my cap for a buff and a head torch. 49 of us set out on lap 10 as the sun went down. I was feeling relieved by this point that I had reached at least ten. By lap 11 the sun had fully set and I was half excited for a night loop but also suffering. I felt myself wheezing up the hill and the bog field was even harder to navigate because it was impossible to tell what was hard mud and what was soft mud. I got back with four minutes to spare but had already decided I couldn’t face a fourth loop. 33 runners outlasted me.

In total I managed 73.7 km (my watch measured 69) with 2,512 metres of evaluation gain. This is double my next hilliest race, Man Vs Coast. I was moving for 9:48:57 of the 11 hours. Congratulations to Kevin Leahy who ultimately won the race with a course record 29 laps, and to fellow Brit Myles Barnes for the assist.