5 weeks remaining, 5 months since last long run was less than 28 miles, 5 years since first marathon.  

“In 2002 Hamilton crashed early in the three-week Tour of Italy, fracturing his shoulder. He kept riding, enduring such pain that he ground eleven teeth down to the roots, requiring surgery after the Tour. He finished second. “In 48 years of practicing I have never seen a man who could handle as much pain as he can,” said Hamilton’s physical therapist, Ole Kare Fol”

The above is a quote from the 2012 book The Secret Race about the cyclist Tyler Hamilton written by himself and Daniel Coyle.

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who is good at managing pain and shutting out negative thoughts when I’ve needed to. 5 years ago, I would justify this self assertion by my ability to continue playing rugby and absorb the impact of collisions both those I lost and those I won; because this would benefit my team.

Since moving into running I have found a different sort of pain management that is rooted in a more selfish motivation but equally self affirming when it works and challenging when my brain tricks me into thinking it doesn’t!

I ran my first marathon before my last game of rugby. The lack of external influence on the result of my marathon time was a massive difference for me. I was never really the sort of player to blame refereeing decisions or teammate’s errors anyway but the purity of the distance being the challenge, the other runners didn’t really present a competition and I wasn’t motivated to finish in a certain percentile.

Over the last few years I have improved my marathon time and become more motivated by getting under a certain arbitrary time. This has often resulted in me defining 3-4 months of training by the difference of under 5 minutes in a total race time of between 3 and 4 hours.

Moving up to Ultra distances has had a certain “going home again” element to it because I have refound the satisfaction of convincing myself to go further than I have managed to go before. Last year I did training runs of 28 miles before completing my first Ultra of 7 miles further. When drafting my plan for this year I originally thought of this weekend’s long run being either 34 or 36 miles.

I had a few rest days before my long run this week. Having done 2 loops of 5.4 miles on Monday and Tuesday, I knew either 34 or 36 would bring my weekly mileage above my usual minimum of 44. The knowledge I had an extra week to recover before my race than what I’d usually leave before marathons was a comfort as I knew how that had been sufficient in the past.

The nettles in the woods were ridiculously overgrown but I did my 5 laps there for my first 10 miles. I cut my leg on a branch on lap 3 and got stung each lap. The first lap was worse than the others as I didn’t know what was coming. It got to the stage that O had to use my arms as “bumper bars” to avoid getting stung in the face! I had looked up the Tyler Hamilton quote last night so neither of these were going to distract me from my goal. Its hardly congruous to write a blog with a quote like that and chicken out due to something like getting stung or a scratch on my leg.

I did the last 24 miles in the gym including a 5% hill of 400m on each lap. I figured it was better to do 34 well than struggle through to 36. The lack of nettles and branches did brighten my spirits but the hills still presented enough of a challenge to keep my attention on the task at hand.

The food I eat during these runs has become a lot more responsible and I had cola flavoured raisens with Jaffa hazelnut mix which provided slow release energy throughout.

I felt a bit fresher on mile 34 than I did 4 weeks ago so did my last 400 at a 7% gradient rather than 5 and was close to the pace I do my 5.4 mile loops at. This may have been partly down to that I knew I wouldn’t have to run anymore!

The race allows people to raise sponsorship for a charity of their choosing. I have enjoyed working with Freedom From Torture in the past and chosen to try and raise money for them. If anyone would like to sponsor me, I’d be very grateful and there is a link at the top of this page.