Brecon Beacons Ultra - Run

Started off reasonably okay, averaging about 6 min km along the first 5 km, which was all flat along a narrow canal tow path. Basically, pace was dictated by those around you as there was very little scope for overtaking or being overtaken. My pulse was very high considering the relatively easy pace, possibly coffee induced, race jitter induced, lack of sleep induced, lurgy induced or a combination of all of the above. But still, taking those things into consideration, it was still around 183 bpm, which is ridiculous, and it wasn't a dodgy monitor, I could feel every beat.

After the first 5 km we turned off the canal path to takle the 1st of the 2 major hills in the race, which was about 1400 ft of climbing in 2.2 miles. Wasn't too bad underfoot, mainly grass with a bit of mud. Got overtaken a fair bit here, but kept plodding on, hands on knees power walking sort of. Got over the 3rd fake summit before finally climbing the real summit for a quick descent into the 1st check point at mile 7.

Stopped at this point to apply compeed to a hot spot on my foot before setting off on a descent down toward a track that runs along a reservoir. If I weren't so ill, or under-trained, I believe that this course has a lot of run-able sections on it. Unfortunately I am untrained and unwell, so, meh.

The next leg involves the 2nd climb of the race of a 1000 ft over 6 miles distance, so it's not really steep, but it does mean that it is always going up. The track is rough (have a look on you tube of mountain biker descending it, called The Roman Road, or The Brecon Gap) and you really need to keep concentrating on your footing along the next 10 miles. This area is where the British Army Special Forces complete part of their selection process, known as the Fan Dance, pretty tough going. It gets pretty cold up here pretty quickly, and the wind blows over the Gap, a saddle between two peaks, strongly. By the time I got to this point, 14 miles in, the lead runner was half way into his 2nd lap, wow. I then had 3 miles of descent down to check point 2, mile 17ish, where I spent about 25 minutes filling my bladder and trying to sort my feet out.

The last 10 miles had been taxing stuff on my feet and had left me with a fair few blisters to sort out. I did the best I could, but my feet were too wet to get any of the tape I brought to stick. Must remember to pack talc and a microfibre towel on future runs.

The guy I had been with for the past 2-3 hours had decided to call it a day, so I fell in with another guy to do the next leg of the race. He was struggling with blisters also, but managed to get away from cp 2 before me. It would take me about an hour to catch up with him, where we finally got in to cp 3, 23 mile half way mark. This is a 2 lap course, so this was essentially the finish line (or so I thought). At this point a fair few people dropped out. I hung around a fair bit of time again to try to sort out blistering on my other foot where the sole had become macerated. By this stage I had started popping anti inflams and pain killers like they were going out of fashion, as a pain had started to niggle in my legs that was getting worse with each step. I made a move off at about 5 hours and 45 min, with Phil, the other guy, setting off 10 minutes after me. If we'd hung on for 10 more minutes, we would have seen the winner come storming through to finish the entire course in a time of 5:59:37, unbelievable.

I kept on checking back on Phil to see if he'd catch me up, but not seeing him along the canal path, I had a feeling he'd called it a day. Met another guy coming the opposite way who called it a day also, said he wanted to get to 26.2 before jacking it in, fair play to him.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, literally, as I tackled the 1st hill, Tor-y-Foel (pronounced Tory Vole for all you English speakers :) ) for the second time that day. This time around, the field we go through before we hit the foot of the hill was full of Shetland Ponies and I immediately thought of Judi. Quite spooky really as this was 26.2 miles into the run, what are the odds? The night was closing in, so the temperature was dropping now, with the wind biting. Had to wear a woolly hat and gloves this time round. Half way up I turned around and could see Phil climbing behind me :) I have never been so happy to see someone in my life, I had tears in my eyes, I think I may have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster at this stage, with the slightest things setting me off on either end of my emotional spectrum. From laughing uncontrollably at seeing that someone had painted a smiley face on a rock half way up a mountain, to having a serious talking to myself about who the fach I'm kidding with all this training stuff and to get over it and just go out and buy a sports car like every other fat fella going through a mid life crisis. Phil stayed with me for about an hour before he had to sort his feet again, I left him because I couldn't stop. It hurt me to get going again, just had to race our own race to get through it.

Got to CP 2 again which is now CP 4, Filled bladder, got my head torch out and checked it was working before setting out again. Phil had disappeared again, I later found out that two walkers had kept him talking for 10 minutes, lol, like that's what you want to be doing when you're in that state of mind :)

Can't really remember much of the next leg other than it was dark and treacherous under-foot (see pic of my view). Kept checking back for Phil, could see his torch but couldn't really work out how far he was behind. This last part was the last bit of running I would be able to do as my ankles were in hurting so much now and I didn't want to take any more pills as I was close to my limit.

Got to CP 2/5, had a bit of a laugh with the marshals there, who were outstanding the entire race, and cracked on. There was a little bit of a tough stretch ahead that would prove testing in the dark, but after that it was easy road, canal paths all the way in. This should have been an easy run in, but I couldn't run one step. Even though I wanted to to get the race over with, I couldn't. At about 2 km out from the finish I glanced behind and could see a head torch, called out to Phil, and he replied :) Hung around for him to catch up and I said "I'm not running in mind, if you want to run, you crack on", His reply can not be put on here in case there are some sensitive souls that will read it, but it did give me a good chuckle :)

We walked it in to CP 3/6 to what I thought was the finish. Nope, met by 2 marshals to walk in with us to HQ. Got there to a big round of applause form all the Marshals of the day and had to do a last 10 metres out and back along a field before about turning for the last 10 metres through the finishing flags.

We got to the turn around point, me and Phil shook hands and both agreed to a sprint finish. On your marks, set, go, and we were off like a pair of startled gazelles, every step was excruciating but the smile got wider the closer we got to the line, the crowd were cheering, ringing in our ears, we dipped at the line and crossed. Who got in first, who knows, who cares, it was a photo finish without a photo but sorry Phil, I'm taking last place as my first ever DFL. 177 starters, 25 dropped out, 152nd out of 152 runners.

Had a proper Welsh cwtch (google it) off all the ladies, and a hand shake off the organiser before being offered back to the pub for the quiz where some of the other competitors were. What I'd like to know is, what kind of sadist puts the car park a km away from the finish of an ultra marathon? I skipped the pub because I was in agony and made an agreement with Phil to attempt it again next year with some training and try and get into single figures :)

Hmmmmm, train.
Really need to sort out something about my feet to stop them blistering.

Went home and had ham and mushroom pizza with extra cheese with my wife, fell asleep on the couch sans bath, stinky golem :(

Went to hospital the next day to be diagnosed with tendonitis of the digitorum longus in both feet. Crutches, ice treatment, anti inflams and pain killers prescribed.


A lot of time was spent trying to sort my feet out, 2 hours 7 minutes to be exact, really need to get a non-blistering set up in place.
No training on the lead up.
New distance and different type of terrain.
The dreaded Lurg.
A fached up heart rate.


Looks like it could be a regular, being that it's in my stomping ground.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/405547914

http://www.strava.com/activities/95813760