MDS 2009 - Keith

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Feeling rough

Since our success in the Maggie's Bike and Hike, things haven't really been progressing for me.For the last 2 weeks I've been suffering from a cold which has forced me to do quite literally nothing. I'm putting it down to my body rebelling from the continuous big events that we've been involved in since the Cateran Trail.

I've also noticed that because of the busy ultra-marathon calender my fitness has actually deteriorated, this is due to me either recovering from or tapering down prior to an ultra event.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to re-focus my training in preparation for another upcoming fitness test at Dundee University as well as our training camp in Andalucia.

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Monster is defeated!

So, this is where it all started for the three of us, back in 2005 we entered and completed our first “ultra-marathon” called “Maggies Monster Bike and Hike”. 73 Miles from Fort William to Inverness, 31 miles by mountain bike 42 miles by foot following the Great Glen Way. Technically, it is not a race, it is a charity event where the whole purpose is to raise funds and awareness for the Maggie’s Centres across Britain.

The “Monster” holds a special place in our hearts, having completed the event in both 2005 and 2007 the Monster has bitten all three of us in different ways, and has been somewhat of a frustration to us, because most of the damage caused to ourselves has always been self inflicted. It is impossible not to love the Monster, from the moment you register on the Friday evening to the moment you walk away from the sports centre in Inverness with a gold medal around your neck the organisation, support, enthusiasm and sense of achievement is truly inspirational.

As I have just mentioned, and for those of you who may not have followed our progress since 2005, we have always suffered terribly during this event, me in particular. We have experienced, dehydration, hyponatremia (extreme salt loss), swollen ankles, blisters, being ill prepared and late, two crashes and last year one of us got lost, guess who??

This is the 2008 version of events as seen through my eyes.

Experience now tells me that the ideal preparation for an ultra-marathon is a good week of restful nights 8 hours sleep per night and concentrated hydration, minimum 2.5 litres of water per day over and above your normal intake.

For me the intention was there however, my job decided to throw a spanner in the works, which meant that on Thursday I was working from 0800 straight through til 0430 on Friday morning, not only that but inevitably, I would be fuelled courtesy of Costa Coffee and Café Nero, which sounds great but coffee is a diaretic which isn’t the best when your trying to hydrate!!

Thankfully, I had Friday off which meant I could organise my kit and supplies for Saturdays Monster.
People often ask, what do you eat? Well here is a sample of the menu for all day Saturday. In addition to the above I would add some cocktail sausages, mini sausage rolls and energy gels. There are 2 bags of each sweet and savoury. The intention is to carry one of each and replenish the stocks at the silver checkpoint.

The masterplan was this;

In order to complete this type of event you need a support crew, someone with a great deal of patience and enthusiasm, as well as a basic knowledge for what is required at any particular time. For this job we recruited our mate Andy, who assisted us last year. I have absolutely no idea why he would want to do it again after last years debacle(see other blogs) however, his memory is ether very short, or he is a great mate!!?

Because James is participating in the 1st ever British Ultra race in three weeks time, he made the right decision to only participate in the first phase of the hike section, the 23 mile route from Fort Augustus to Drumnadrochit. James found this decision very hard to make as he was desperate to pit himself against the full Monster again but knew it would not leave himself much time to recover for the much harder British Ultra.

Seamus had borrowed James’s mountain bike which is a superior make and model to his own, so on Friday afternoon I collected Seamus and we drove to Fort William. James collected Andy a bit later in the afternoon and they met with us at the registration centre.

We arrived at the registration centre and completed the necessary paperwork, at this time, a particularly pretty young lady “volunteer” smiled at me and said “oh, you did this last year, didn’t you?” well obviously she recognised my boyish good looks and cheeky smile from the hundreds and hundreds of other competitors, feeling rather pleased with myself I then went and collected my free t-shirt from the next desk, this time the male volunteer who handed me the t-shirt said, “Ah, you did this last year didn’t you?”, I was now getting a bit paranoid, was my projectile vomiting and bike crash of 2007 really that famous?. Seamus and I collected our pasta, and salad from the next table and sat in front of the stage, where a local Ceildh band were entertaining the troops. It was at that moment that I realised what was happening.The staff had erected a huge projector screen and were playing all of the previous compilation DVD’s from 2005/6 and 7. This meant that when I looked at the screen all I saw was a 16 foot picture of my fizzer being interviewed with monotonous regularity throughout the 2007 DVD. Not so good looking after all!

Because of my late night the previous evening I was keen to get to my bed. We checked in to the bunk house and after the usual antics ripping the mickey out of each other and seeing who could fart the longest and loudest, (well done James!!) the lights were out and we slept.

Determined not to be late for the start I set my alarm for 0515.
The three amigos ready for another day at the office!!

We made the start line at about 0640, which gave us just enough time to relax a bit and position ourselves about 8 or 9 rows from the front of the pack. Jimmy and I were determined not to go out too fast, and try and keep an even pace throughout the entire event.

Just after 0700 the flag dropped and we were off.

We were hoping to complete the 31 mile bike section in about 2 ¾ hours. The 42 mile hike section we were hoping to average about 4mph for the entire route inclusive of the stops. This would get us in just under 14 hours from start to finish. Bearing in mind that the last 2 attempts have taken us about 17 hours each this would be a significant improvement.

The start of the cycle was fairly uneventful, compared to last year anyway. I guess the only thing to report was at about 10 miles, there was the first of the three compulsory dismounts imposed by the event staff for safety reasons. In my eagerness to get going again I jumped onto my bike and straight onto my right nut, AAAHHH!! However, with nobody there to kiss it better I had to grin and bare it, and on we went.

We found our pace quite easily, and settled into the cycle, I think we must have been about 15/16th from the front group. It was obvious at this stage that the event was beginning to attract a lot more ultra-athletes as opposed to only fundraisers. Sensibly, We did not want to be caught up in any “race” at this stage, so we watched them disappear into the distance.

The weather, which was threatening showers to begin with, never broke and we enjoyed near perfect conditions all the way to Fort Augustus. I had been drinking water constantly and I had also consumed 2 energy Gels and a chocolate oat bar. When we arrived in Fort Augustus my polar watch read the following,

Time:- 2hrs 27 min
Max Heart Rate:- 173
Average Heart Rate :- 154
Calories burned:- 2761

I was thrilled with that. We had finished the bike 15 minutes ahead of schedule and in very good shape.

James and Andy were waiting for us and after a kit change and some food consumption, Seamus, James and I started the hike. I have to say that Seamus and I were a bit nervous about James. We knew he was frustrated with only doing part of the event, and because he was only going to complete 23 miles we knew he was capable of pushing hard. We had nothing to worry about as James respected our wishes and plans impeccably. He only had to put up with my incessant banter about him only participating in part of the event, he took it well and as usual the three of us laughed our way through most of the first section.

We arrived at the bronze checkpoint in no time at all. We had agreed that we would only stop for a pee and to refill our water supplies. Total time at checkpoint was about 4 minutes.

We kept the pace going with our well rehearsed tactic of walking all flats and uphills and trotting all downhills. My Garmin 305 watch was telling me that we were averaging about 4.5 mph. I was determined to keep drinking plenty of water and eating plenty of sugar and savoury snacks. The only problem about this was I suffered from a swollen stomach, trapped wind. I found it very difficult to burp, I guess the body compensates in other ways because shortly after leaving the bronze checkpoint I started to utilise the only other method of expelling air from the body!!

About 5 ½ miles from Drumnadrochit there is a soup kitchen which does exactly what it says on the tin. In 2005 and 2007 when I had reached this stage I was already a mess, this year however, I was feeling quite good, physically strong and my system was able to take on some soup and a roll. We kept up our pace, and marched in to Drumnadrochit at about 1520 hrs. To put this in perspective, both other occassions we didn’t arrive here til 1800 so on paper we were flying.

It was at Drumnadrochit that we parted company from James, Seamus and I changed our socks and pushed on. Total time at the checkpoint about 10 minutes.

As we left Drumnadrochit I began to get very nervous indeed. There is a particularly nasty climb which on both previous occasions has seen me vomit violently about ¼ of the way up. I spoke with Jimmy about this and we agreed to take it easy all the way to the half way water stop, the hill eases slightly and the worst of it is behind you.

The hill really is a brute, it took us a total time from bottom to top of 1hr and 3 minutes climbing 1200 feet in the process. When I got to the top I wasn’t feeling great, my stomach was churning a bit, Seamus had pointed out that we had both slowed our drinking rates and that I hadn’t eaten anything for a while. I said that I would probably be sick if I did eat something to which he replied, “Well then, what have you got to lose!!”, it’s for moments like this that our friendship is worth it’s weight in gold. He knows me well enough to kick me in the ass if needs be. I forced down an energy Gel and a couple of electrolyte capsules and within 5 minutes I was beginning to feel human again.
Top of the hill! Believe it or not I'm feeling great!!

To my utter amazement I actually found myself trotting down the other side of the hill, this was the hill I had been wiped out on both previous occasions, and here I was running!! We stopped briefly at the water station 13 miles from the finish. We knew that the nearest person ahead of us was nearly an hour away, however when we looked to our rear we saw 2 black specs coming down the mountain. We pushed on.

Although we didn’t want to be caught, we also kept our game heads on and stuck religiously to our tactic of only trotting downhills 13 miles is a long way having covered 60 already and you can quickly blow up.

As we got to a section of road about 10 miles from home I looked back again and saw that the 2 black specs were now 2 guys about 400 meters behind us and running the flats and slight inclines. Seamus and I were a bit gutted, we wanted to be the first of the “rest” of the participants behind the elite runners, but we also didn’t want to compromise our technique which had worked so well up until now. We decided to stick to the plan, if they caught us, they caught us, and fair play to them.

We kept our rhythm going and when we reached the water station before the forest, we only had the final push and we knew we were almost home, 6 miles to go!

As we entered the forest we lost site of the guys behind us. They hadn’t managed to close the last few hundred yards, and as most of you will be aware, it is much more difficult to chase down competitors that you can’t see. At this stage I must admit, the competitive edge started to kick in more than ever, we were not going to be caught, and we wanted to finish in under 14 hours!

Seamus and I gave it a huge effort through the 3 miles or so of forest, trotting as much as we possibly could. Knowing the route so well, meant that when we saw the edge of the forest we almost broke into a run, from the forests edge there is a steep descent straight into the city and the finish line.
I sent Andy a text message at this moment, “can see the city, the boys are coming home. CMON!!” A bit excitable but I’m sure you understand.

We ran most of the way down the hill towards the start of civilisation, then walked a bit to recover. I started to do some maths in my head, it was possible that we could finish before 2000hrs. Not only that, we could break 10hrs for the 42 miles hike??
I mentioned this to Seamus and we just looked at each other. We had 5 minutes to get from the canal path to the finish line about ½ mile away, normally no problem, 41 ½ miles into the race hmmm. Without a word we broke into a jog. My heart rate sky rocketed and the energy seemed to drain instantly. Seamus shouted, “TIME” I said “2 ½ minutes!” “CMON”.

We entered the stadium and could see the finish line with 1 ¾ minutes to go before the 10hr mark.

The results for the Hike,

Distance :- 42 miles
Time:- 9hrs 59mins 6 seconds
Maximum Heart Rate:- 163bpm
Average Heart Rate:- 136bpm
Calories Burned:- 5505
Total Ascent :- 11,797 feet
Average Speed:- 4.1mph

As we crossed the finish line I was given my medal and immediately flaked out on the ground, absolutely knackered. Andy managed a photo.

We are still waiting on the official classifications, however the organiser at the finish line assured us we were 12th + 13th overall. I’m not sure who was what!!

The combined totals were

Distance:- 73 miles
Time:- 12hrs 26 minutes (+ about 20 minutes at Fort Augustus Transition)
Calories:- 8266

I was almost more emotional completing this one than any of the others. After our third attempt we had finally tamed the Monster. A tribute to the preparation we have been putting in as well as sticking to our master plan.

A special thanks to Andy our support crew, as well as all the volunteers and organisers associated to the event. Another fantastic day, I would recommend the Monster to everyone looking for a real challenge.

Job Done!

Cheers

Keith
www.hotrunning.net