Last weekend I entered a race. But not just any race, but a 24 hour race. Equninox24 is held in the grounds of Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. There is a 10 km loop marked out in the grounds, and the aim of the event is to run as many loops as you can.
These type of events are an easy way for runners to try 'Ultra-marathon' events. A typical ultra marathon will be a point to point race (i.e. start at A, run through B and C, and finish at D). Or they can be a looped course, so the whole run goes in a big circle, finishing at the start point. These can be daunting for beginners (such as myself!)
Running smaller 10km loops like here at Equinox24 can feel 'safer' as each time you finish a lap, you have access to your supplies (food/drink/fresh clothes) and as people go round and round at different paces and keep lapping each other, there is always someone to talk to or follow, so you never feel like you are on your own
I've been wanting to do this race for a long time, but for the last 4 years I've always had other commitments to consider. This year however, my diary was finally free.
Lots of different people (of very different levels) take part, some aiming to complete 2 or 3 laps each as part of a small team, and others looking to win by aiming for 20 laps. 20x 10km is of course 200km, and that is a hugely impressive feat on such a hilly course!
My more modest goal, was for 10 laps, as 100km is a nice round number to aim for.
As you can see in my race post from last Saturday (and the image above) I failed, by only managing to complete 7 laps, 70km in total.
This report will give a brief overview of my experience of the event, along with looking at what went well (and what didn't) and what I would do next time if I ever attempted this again.
But lets start at the beginning...here is Belvoir Castle
btw the word Belvoir is actually pronounced by the locals as "Beaver" (eg a small mammal that cuts down trees)
Belvoir Castle is a beautiful stately home/castle, a reasonable popular local attraction, and located just outside of Grantham in Leicestershire:
The race starts at 12pm Saturday, and runs until 12pm Sunday. But to help people prepare, Runners and there support teams are allowed to camp on the Friday night before hand, partly to help settle in before race day, but also a change to mingle with other like minded people. Now in it's 14th year, its become a popular social event in the local running calendar, with regulars returning to the race year after year.
Friday PM
My partner and I arrived early on Friday afternoon, and pitched my tent on the campsite. There is plenty of space, and lots of people try to pitch close to the start/finish straight, to support fellow runners. I'd much rather have some peace and quiet, and so pitched it in the 'Solo' section, and in the far corner as far away as I could manage!
That is more of a grimace than a smile, I'm not a fan of tenting, but needs must I guess!
After pitching the tent, and unloading all of my junk running equipment, I then went to get my race number
There was a small 'race village' which was essential a line of food trucks selling hot food (burgers/fish and chips/pizza/noodles etc) and then a line of stalls, most of which selling either running kit or camping supplies.
After a quick look around, I got some food
And then stayed to watch some of the nights entertainment...
My partner headed home, and I retreated to the solitude of my tent, it was time to get an early night, I had a big day ahead tomorrow!
Saturday 9:00AM
For many runners, Saturday is Parkrun Day. And as luck would have it, there was indeed a local parkrun held the other side of Belvoir Castle. It has become a tradition of many Equinox Runners, attending the parkrun as well.
It was only an a mile walk from our campsite, so I decided to join them
I was sensible though, and whereas many people ran it, a number of us walked the whole thing. It was a simple out and back route through some fields, and onto a bridleway. In hindsight, it might not have been the best idea to undertake a 5 mile walk, 3 hours before the start of a 24 hour event!
I arrived back at the tent at 10:30 to change and get my running vest ready as....
Saturday 12:00 - Race Start
...and we're off!
After a short race briefing, we all lined up in position, and waited. There were so many people stood in front, that I couldn't hear the start, and it was only after 2 or 3 minutes, that I realized the crowds ahead were slowly moving forwards.
Finally after all the waiting, and preparing.... it was time to challenge myself, and see how far I could actually run.
fab image of me (in bright orange) running at the start
The first lap consisted of crowds of people running through some varied terrain.
Lots of it was 'off-road' on grassy trails
But other areas had tarmac or hard-packed gravel paths
There was a bridge overlooking a small lake
And then about two-thirds of the way into the lap, there was this monster of a hill!
Seriously this was so much steeper than this looked! And it was even harder, as first you ran up a long shallow hill, then there is a very sharp drop down, before heading back up that steep hill
check the 'dip' at 6km in the elevation profile, this was a shock to the system, and one we had to contend with every single lap!
After 'That Hill', the rest of the lap finished on a slow downward grassy path, and eventually looped through the campsite
This isn't the end of the race, just the end of the first lap!
When I asked previous runners for advice, several of them mentioned the importance of eating. Eat regularly, and try eating right from the start.
At the end of each lap I ran past the 'solo runners special needs tent'. Here I picked up food (typically half a cheese sandwich, and then a random pack of crips, and a random chocolate biscuit)
I didn't stand and eat, I just put the food into pockets and immediately headed out onto the next lap, no time wasting here!
And so I settled into a routine... run a lap, pick up food, eat food, run a lap...
I say 'run a lap', in reality I was run/walking, taking it in turns to run and walk as needed. And esp aiming to walk as many of the hills as possible
I think this was lap 4?
The runners were starting to spread out now, but there was usually always someone on the trail in front of you.
At the end of lap 4, I was starting to feel tired. I was also struggling to eat food. I still kept trying, but my mouth just felt so dry. Swigging mouthfuls of water in-between mouthfuls of food helped, but it was still difficult.
I decided to do one more lap - to get to 5 (50km) and then it would be time to pause and get some proper food!
It took me just over 7 hours to complete 5 laps. I was pretty happy with this, the pace was slow but sensible, and I was halfway to my goal of 10 laps.
After pondering the various food choices, I ended up with chicken nuggets and chips. I wanted something fairly bland so it wouldn't risk upsetting my stomach.
Unfortunately, when I sat down to eat this, I immediately lost my appetite. I did my best to force down half of this, and then threw the rest in the bin. While sat here I was still just in shorts and t-shirt, and now I was cooling down too quickly. I headed over to my tent and sat down for a bit, both to rest, and to warm up.
At this point I had been running in the same pair of shoes for the first 50km, so though it was high time I changed my shoes and socks, I also took the opportunity to charge my watch as well.
By the time I headed back outside, 90 minutes had passed, and it was now nighttime. I dug out my headtorch, and headed out into the night
rubbish phone pic, but at least gives an idea of the conditions. It is a very rural area, and away from the campsite there are no lights. In every direction there were lines of headtorches, as runners and walkers continued round logging lap after lap.
The weather for the start of the race had been nice and warm to begin with, but after 2 laps it had become uncomfortably humid. As darkness fell, it finally started to cool down, and I had not one but 2 fantastic laps of running in the darkness
er... well I don't look brilliant, but honest to God I felt amazing, this was the best I'd felt all day
And at this point I was coming to the end of lap 70, 70km... the furthest I had ever run
I felt fantastic, right up until I didn't!!
Sunday 12:00AM - midnight
At the end of the 7th lap, just gone midnight, I arrived back at my tent for some admin (change of shirt, and recharging my watch) and then the wheels fell off. I only stopped moving for 15 minutes, but when I attempted to go out for lap 8, everything had seized up. I was also struggling with sharp pain in both of my shins, and the tops of my feet/ankles
I slowly hobbled to the start line, decided it was a daft idea to continue and retreated back to the tent.
Perhaps I just needed to have some rest, I have been on the move now for almost 12 hours by this point after all
I set my alarm for 5 AM (Sunday morning), and laid down to try and get some sleep. And that failed as well. I think I was so wired due to the running, along with the high caffeine energy drinks... that I just didn't feel tired. I ached all over, and yet was unable to get comfortable to get any rest, let alone sleep.
In hindsight, I should have realized that if I was unable to get any rest, then I might have been better served by going out and walking slowly... at least that would have been a better use of my time
Sunday 5:00
My alarm went off, and with ZERO sleep, I looked outside the tent to witness the end of a pretty cool sunrise... it would have been even better to have seen this while running, but nevermind.
By this point I had enough. I now felt tired but restless, still had sore legs, and felt like I was running on empty. This where I finally gave up.
Decision finally made, I headed over to the campsite shower, and got changed into some clean, dry clothes. I started tidying my tent up and putting various bits of running kit away, and got rid of the rubbish too.
The aim of the event is to run as far as you can, but as far as the organizers are concerned, you only need to run one full lap, and then you can earn a medal. This means that even though the event wasn't due to finish until lunchtime on Sunday, people who have finished can go collect there medal when they are ready on Sunday morning.
And so, I walked over to race HQ, and collected the medal. I sat at oe of the benches to watch other people continue running. There was a small voice in the back of my mind that suggested, maybe I could go walk a lap... I was starting to feel a bit less stiff and achey now. But by this point, I'd made the decision to finish. I wasn't in the mood to start again now.
Around 10:00AM, my partner came and collected me... helped me to take down my tent and pack the car and took me home.
It was a disappointing end to what had been an amazing start of the race. Everything had gone how I planned for the first 12 hours, and then it all went wrong for the second 12 hours
This all happened last weekend. I was fairly pissed off with myself, mostly as I reasoned that it was down to poor decision making, and a moment of weakness that left me to give up too soon. I almost didn't bother posting any of this, as I was so disappointed with the result.
It has taken a week of reflection to turn that around, helped with some advice from friends and family. I now recognize that 70km is still an achievement, is still the furthest I have ever run, and is even better when I consider how tough the course was. I usually run on flat pavement, so hilly grassy trails were hard work. It is also important to remember that challenges are meant to be hard... if they were easy, then it wouldn't be a challenge. And at the end of all this, I can at least try to learn something from this, if I were to ever try something like this again
What went right
On the positive side, I'm please with how I paced it to begin with. I knew it was going to hurt on the 2nd half, so I made sure to start strong, and get the 4-5 laps out of the way early. This would then give me time to take breaks and do slower laps later on. In fact, my 70km, or 7 laps done by midnight was right on schedule.
On the whole food fueling was ok. I planned to eat regularly, and I did eat at the end of every lap. I brought a wide selection of snacks, but I did still get bored with the choices I had so that's something to work on for next time
The whole camping thing went ok, considering I don't like tenting, and have only slept in a tent once in the previous 25 years. All the stuff I purchased this year worked as expected and did what it should. And at least now that I've bought the items this time, I can use them all again next year.
What went wrong
This could be a much longer list, but I'll try to keep it short!
In hindsight, doing parkrun on Saturday morning was not necessary, and I'd have been better served by just sitting and resting in the morning of the race
I took too much equipment with me in the tent, and wasn't very organized with various items dotted around in different bags and boxes, more practice required there, but again now I've done this once, next time will be better.
The goal of 10 laps was unrealistic, considering I'd never done an event like this before. The terrain was much harder than expected, and the idea of going for hours and hours and hours is new to me.
But the biggest one was lack of preparation. I've not really managed to do the required long runs or back-to-back runs this year And the previous 5 weeks, my training has been intermittent at best! Despite that, I did still manage to bang out 50km in one go, despite having not run that distance in over 2 years.
Preparation was also lacking in terms of how I performed (or rather failed) at the halfway point. I wasn't ready for the lows that came at midnight when I was sulking in my tent. I didn't have a plan to get myself out of that lull and try to keep moving. I know that if I had managed to start that 8th lap, I would most likely have been able to hobble around and keep moving, and then maybe I could have ground out the last 2 laps...
I also forgot there was a sports massage tent on site, who might have been able to work some magic!
On the whole though, I enjoyed (most) of the event. I might have been disappointed initially, but there were a number of positives to take out of this. One of which is 'perspective everything'. Take the result... I finished 470th out of 777. 469 people finished ahead of me, which sounds pretty rubbish until I realize that 307 people finished behind me. That doesn't sound quite so rubbish now!
And now it has given me a benchmark, a target to aim to beat next time.
Because I definitely will be trying again next year... I've got a whole year to plan and prepare, bring it on!
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