A (mostly) Coventry Way Challenge

Apart from Saturday and a family commitment I had a full weeks training. I did gym sessions on Tuesday and Friday. A 6.5 mile intervals session (3 mins fast / 2 mins slow repeated) on Tuesday. On Wednesday I did 8.5 miles steady (9 min miles). All trail routes of course.

I packed a 5kg rucksack on Saturday night and set off for Coventry at 6:15am on Sunday. Despite motorway closures and problems I managed to arrive at 7:30, registered and was on my way for 7:40am. You were allowed to start anytime after 6am. The route map is above, along with the elevation (very little, only 2000ft for the whole distance), and my speed profile there at the bottom.  You can find out more details about this event here.  http://beyondmarathon.com/ultramarathon_event.php?eventID=1437

I set off at around a 5mph pace. The course was fairly flat, with no serious hills to speak of whatsoever; gentle inclines mostly. I carried the route description which was the best I have ever seen. There were 18 x 25k scale maps in the 37 page booklet, complete with a detailed route description. I had used the maps to carefully transcribe the route into Memory Map and was navigating with GPS as usual. One runner, who started at the same time as me, passed me again a few miles later. Not sure how he managed to get so far off course but I was thankful of GPS (that would come back and bite me later).

There was a really enjoyable 5 mile section on an abandoned railway line, perfectly flat and straight, as seen below.





The first and second checkpoints (8 and 13 miles) passed without incident. At 15 miles I was still averaging 5mph which I was happy with, because that included all the stile-hopping and pausing to refill drinks at the checkpoints. I used my first electrolyte at the 13 mile checkpoint. At around 16.5 miles although still feeling fine, I decided that I should start a run/walk strategy to convserve energy. I would run for 25 minutes, and then walk for 5. I tried to stay with that as much as possible, but sometimes terrain would dictate otherwise. After checkpoint 4 around 22 miles the route joined the Oxford canal. I was hoping to have a good towpath but the path was very narrow and very uneven in places, and we were warned by the member of staff at the previous checkpoint to take care.

The route briefly left the Canal and rejoined later around 27 miles. However, I was not reading the route description, just navigating form GPS. I joined the canal on the wrong side of the water, and didn't realise my mistake until I saw some walkers on the other side. I thought, no problem, I will cross at the next bridge. However the next bridge didn't come before the actual route headed North West, and the canal I was following turned South West. I was forced to recalculate an alternate route which added a mile and a half onto the overall route! I have marked the map with the words "OOPS", and highlighted in green the route I actually took. You can see from the speed profile that my pace becomes erratic here, as I race to try and catch up time, but then crash and walk more frequently. The speed profile peaks are higher and I did run that section at a better mph pace, but by the time I rejoined the actual route and made it to CP5 I was a little tired. People I had already passed were already there, and I had to explain what had happened.

In my haste I had also lost my route booklet, so I was now forced to use GPS anyway. You can see on the speed profile at about 32 miles where I sat down at CP5 and recovered for 5 minutes.

After CP5 there was a short section through an urban area until CP6. You can see after 33/34 miles my overall pace drops as I do more walking. Ignore the flat-lined spots where I simply lost GPS and had to play around and sort it out (I probably lost 10-15 minutes through this, all day). The only other photo I took all day was the one below. The countryside was fairly regular, so I didn't just take photos of fields for you all day!

There were two or three sections like this;


It's hard to see the scale, but they were taller than me!
I had used a second electrolyte at 20 miles, but had not used my final one at 30 miles because I was getting sick of the taste. That really does happen, so it will be important to take several flavours on the MDS. The day had been quite hot, with sunny skies until the early afternoon. I even got a little sunburned without realising. My kidneys were aching from the backpack 'bounce' and heat build-up. Imagine being massaged in the same spot for 8 hours as the pack rubs against it. I really need to see what I can do about that, as this has caused me problems before. It got so painful I had to loosen my pack straps and very quickly the pack began to rub me as a result. I have never had the pack rub me before, so it just shows how important it is to secure it well. I was lucky this happened so late into the event, as I only have faint marks to show for it now.

I did feel quite tired in the last 10 miles, as you might expect, but still managed to run sections. I even knew that if it was required I could have gone on further, albeit a little reluctantly! My PDA ran out of batteries 9 hours and 15 minutes into the route. I had brought a spare PDA for just this occurance, but just used the battery to power the original again (this period is that flat-lined section on the speed profile near the end of the route). I had made a couple of other small navigation errors towards the end, but none as serious as that canal error, but still I almost covered 42 miles in total. I managed a good last mile sprint finish because I passed a load of people in Coventry-Way T-shirts at a pub and they made me do it! They were cheering and clapping which was nice too! I finished in 9 hours 50 mins, average for the distance I did was 4.3mph. I was certainly happy with that.
Anne and Vaughan who I met at La Trans Aq were helping out with the organisation and they welcomed me at the finish and made me a cup of tea. A nice healthy meal was laid on too, which I enjoyed. I chatted to Vaughan and other competitors for a good 40 minutes whilst I recovered. I was impressed with the organisation of the event and also the checkpoints were well stocked, and staffed by very friendly folk all day. A big thanks to everyone involved.
I drove home and went to bed at 9:15pm. I can't remember the last time I was in bed that early. I obviously needed it. Sorry I didn't post my update up on Sunday night as usual, but i'm sure you understand!
I woke up this morning, initially a little achy in my lower legs, but after a few minutes I was fine and have been all day. I am surprised at how quickly I seem to recover. I half expect not to be able to walk for a week after some of these events. It's lucky I do, because the 22 mile Hills and Dales event in this Saturday!! I'd better get some rest (Well ok, and some more training too) before then.
Speak to you soon.