09/2013 Ultimate Trails 100k Race Report
Earlier this year I'd been eyeing up ultra events of around 100k around September time. I discovered a new ultra run by Ultimate Trails and it seemed ideal. It was in the Lake District, an area of the UK which I love, it had plenty of hills, which I also love, it was the right distance and it was a week before the start of the hockey season. Ultimate Trails are the 'ultra branch' of Lakeland Trails who run quite a few trail races in the Lakes which always seem to get great reviews so I was sure it would be well organised!
I had info about each leg on small laminated pieces of paper so I knew what to expect in terms of elevation and distance (i'll brush over the fact that although the data came from the ultimate trails website, they were different from the advertised differences on race day!). This idea came from listening to an interview on the Talk Ultra Podcast with Stuart Mills. Stuart was this years Lakeland 100 winner and puts an emphasis on mental training of which a part is knowing the route. Since I wasn't able to do a recce of the route this was the next best thing and did prove to be quite useful.
After the race, the timings were released not only for the whole race but each leg so I was able to get a bit geeky and do some analysis of the numbers which I've also included I my write up!
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| Sweet race bib with elevation profile! |
So, on September 14th 2013 at 0600 I set off on my 100k adventure and this is how I remember it!
Leg 1 - "Sunrise over Garburn Pass" - 10.07km, +1680 / -1317ft
When I ran my first 50k in San Francisco last December, a mixture of over excitement and inexperience lead me to completely trash my quads on the downhills and by about mile 23, running was barely possible and the slightest downhill was horrendous! Not wanting to repeat this experience especially considering I was about to cover twice that distance, I was quite happy at this stage to take it nice and easy!
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| Sunrise at Garburn Pass |
At Kentmere I took a quick loo break, got rid of my now unnecessary head torch, hat and arm sleeves, grabbed a cup of coke and set off with a flapjack.
The first leg had taken me 1:37 and I was way back in 84th place at this point.
The first leg had taken me 1:37 and I was way back in 84th place at this point.
Leg 2 - Over Nan Bield to Small Water - 7.82km, +1503 / -1274 ft
The second leg was over in 01:40, I was 72nd fastest and i'd moved up to 81st place overall.
Leg 3 - "Round Haweswater to the Grasshopper Foods Breakfast of Champions" - 11.44km, +440 / -656 ft
After a couple of fairly significant climbs and descents over the first two legs, the third leg, whilst a bit longer, had much less climbing involved. There was some nice undulating single track around the edge of Haweswater which didn't leave much room for passing so although I felt good and catching those in front, I was content to sit in behind others and wait until there was somewhere convenient to get by. As we neared thesis station at Bampton, track turned to road and although I wasn't aware of it at the time this was to be the beginning of the longest road section of the race.
At Bampton, I was pleased to find I had not arrived too late for a bacon butty - something I'd been looking forward to for some time!
Leg 4 - "Over Askham Moor for a view of Ullswater" - 12.52km, +581 / -664 ft
The third leg was over in 01:31, I was 52nd fastest and i'd moved up to 68th place overall.
After another quick stop at Bampton, I left with bacon butty and ginger biscuits in hand, not particularly looking forward to the next two or three miles as I'd been told we had to continue along the road for quite a bit! I broke the monotony of the road with a mixture of walking and hiking and soon turned off onto a track which led us up a gradual ascent to Askham Moor.
Conditions underfoot were good during this stage and I was still feeling pretty good so continued to push on a bit whilst still trying to manage my efforts so as not to peak too early and struggle later! I'd had in my mind that I wanted to complete the race in 14-18 hours and as I've said, spent the first 10 miles or so taking it quite easy so now I began to push on, I had been passing people quite frequently. Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm rather competitive so it did give me a little boost to pass others and I kept telling myself not to concentrate on this too much, however it helped pass the time to see how I was gaining on others and not being gained on myself at this stage!
The fourth leg was over in 01:25, I was 34th fastest and i'd moved up to 57th place overall.
Leg 5 - "Over Boredale House to Half Way House" - 7.93 km, +1055 / -1048 ft
For some reason I remember very little detail about this section but going on the elevation profile I don't think it was too challenging until nearer the end and must have gone smoothly!
Reaching the half way point meant i could get into my drop bag. This being my first longer distance ultra, it was the first time i had used a drop bag so I had pretty much packed everything I thought I could possibly need! I re-packed with my fuel for the second half of the race and dunked some tortillas I had packed in a soup. I'd planned to change my t-shirt but the thought of having to re-pin my race number just seemed a waste of time so I didn't bother. Many runners had their race number attached to their backpack - maybe something to consider next time.
The fifthleg was over in 01:40, I was 01:11 17th fastest and i'd moved up to 50th place overall.
Leg 6 - "Over Grizedale Hause for a view of Thirlmere" - 7.5 km, +1561 / -1366 ft
This next leg would take me further than I had ever gone before, since the longest distance I had run up until now was a 50k (probably nearer 55k due to getting a little lost!).
The majority of this leg was a mixture of easy trail and road with occasional undulation. I was quite pleased to reach the climb up to Grizedale Hause and despite tricky conditions underfoot made good progress feeling strong in the uphill. The path back down was quite something and was not a quick downhill unless you run downhill like Kilian Jornet! I was paying so much attention to my footing on the technical descent I completely missed a turn off, in fact I wasn't the only one as there were 3 of us quite close together who all missed it (I was leading - if they were following me they were foolish!). Luckily we very soon met a road and it was obvious we had missed something so after some discussion we realised where we had gone and made out way back to meet the path having probably only lost 5 minutes or so.
I didn't stop long at the Dunmail Raise aid station and was soon on my way again feeling positive.
The sixth leg was over in 2:01, I was 34th fastest and i'd moved up to 43rd place overall.
Leg 7 - "Watendlath before Dark" - 8.05 km, +1166 / -919 ft
I set out on the seventh leg still feeling pretty comfortable and thinking that this next leg probably wouldn't be too bad since it was relatively short. Well, boy was I in for a shock! After a fairly hefty climb, the route soon took us over Watendlath Fell. Up until now I'd done quite a good job of keeping my feet reasonably dry but we were now going straight across a boggy, marshy hill top And any effort to keep dry-ish feet here would have been fruitless!
I had been continuing to run the flat sections but realised that this was sapping my energy due to the conditions underfoot and was probably not worth the effort so I continued for some time at quite a slow pace and eventually left the sogginess behind to begin the short rocky descent down to the next aid station at Watendlath NT Bothy.
Had a slightly longer stop here, had a coconut and lentil soup, warm sticky toffee pudding and some coke and was on my way!
The second leg was over in 01:25, I was 22nd fastest and i'd moved up to 40th place overall.
Leg 8 - "Over Stake Pass T'Pub" - 13.89 km, 1695 / -2209 ft
This was going to be the longest section of the whole course and also had the toughest climb of the race so as I set off I decided to plug in some music to keep me company. I felt reinvigorated once the fuel I'd taken on board at the last aid station kicked in and make good progress. The flat-ish section of this leg followed the valley floor for what seemed a long way but with the sun getting low in the sky, the beauty of the evening sunlight on the fells was enough eye candy to keep me preoccupied and soon enough I crossed the river and began the snaking climb up Stake Pass.
The view near the top was worth the effort and I could see the path I had just followed through the valley and up the pass, speckled with my fellow runners, hot on my heels! The pass flattened out for a bit and then the long snaking descent began back down to the valley floor and the promise of a warm tavern at Stickle Barn. Towards the bottom of the descent I had a rather uncomfortable feeling on the inside of my left foot and began to wonder if some monstrous blister had developed but the discomfort disappeared after a few minutes and as I passed the Marshall camped out at the bottom of descent I was happily whistling away to some Daft Punk, which he commented was a first, with about 4k to the next aid station.
Soon I was in the warmth of Stickle Barn Tavern and the embrace of the misses who had been patiently waiting for the past few hours! I shoveled some crisps in alongside a mug of soup and dumped my Garmin which had run out of juice by this point. I also took this chance to take out my buff and head torch as they would be needed soon!
The eighth leg was over in 02:50, I was 23rd fastest and i'd moved up to 35th place overall.
Leg 9 - "Round Loughrigg Tarn then Up and Over" - 11.29km, +812 / -963 ft
Leaving the tavern I still felt pretty good and strong (relatively speaking!) but with the light rapidly fading, a little apprehensive about running with a head torch in the dark, something which I had not done in training. I left it as late as I could to turn on my head torch as I knew the spot of light in front of me would be my view for the remainder of the run.
Leg 9 began with a short technical single track section which then became a flat section on wider gravel tracks and some road. It was during this runnable section that I began to feel a bit jaded. I was glad to finally reach the climb as I continued to feel ok going uphill. I soon realised that there was still strength in my legs but it was a mental battle to get them going again after a period of walking or stopping.
I was glad to be around other runners on this section since there were a few occasions where the path split and there was no signage to be found (note: the organisers have since acknowledged that the race markers had been removed from the route along the last couple of sections through the woods). Luckily the route that seemed to be the most logical was correct and I was glad to reach Ambleside, grabbed another coconut and lentil soup and left with ginger nuts in hand.
The penultimate leg was over in 01:50, I was 24th fastest and i'd moved up to 34th place overall.
Leg 10 - "The Final Countdown" - 5.81 km, +740ft / -712ft
The final section of the race was not to be underestimated! It was the shortest leg but had over 700ft of altitude gain/loss which seems like a lot on tired legs. As I walked out of Ambleside and began the slow ascent, I gave my brother Matt a call to pass some time but as the incline of the climb increased he found my heavy breathing a bit creepy so it was soon just me and my torch beam again.
The climb soon became more significant before the route became a teasing undulating track, just as you thought you were beginning the descent, you would find a small climb again! The first half of the descent was on wider, smooth tracks but soon the path was a mixture of rocks all shapes and sizes which proved rather tricky in the dark but at this point I just wanted to get to the end and I consider myself quite good at the technical downhill so I just went for it.
Earlier on in the race I had been surprised by how much of the route was on roads and had always been keen to get off onto trails but by the time I left the rocky track and met the road near the finish, my feet were glad of the flat tarmac! I dug deep and found some energy reserves which allowed a strong quick finish in 16:51 dead.
I'd done it! 100km with some meaty hills thrown in for fun and a final position of 34th of 86 finishers (over 100 started)!
The final leg was over in 01:40, I was 34th fastest and i'd moved up to 81st place overall.
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| Before and After |
I started writing about the race as a means of a personal record for me to look back and take some lessons away. Then I decided to resurrect the idea of starting a blog that I'd tried and failed at a couple of years ago. Who knows, somebody else might find it interesting or useful!
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