I just finished a 74.062km running that lasted about 10hh:24mm:32ss !
Wow! What a day!
This was my first ultra marathon attempt. Originally I had entered a 50k (And therefore trained for 50k) but it was cancelled because of covid19 so I had to find another ultra around the same time. Unfortunately the only realistic one was this and it was 74k.
The event was called The Lap 21 and it was a full lap of the area surrounding Lake Windermere in the Lake District. You have 24 hours to complete the loop, it is 95% off road and included nearly 3000m of climbing. The Lake District is one of the most beautiful places in the UK but the weather can be very unsettled. This was one of those days! It started raining at 05:55 just before the start of the race and continued until 16:30, an hour before I finished. Some of the views were still amazing and others I couldn’t see anything because of hail or fog.
By the half way check point I was pretty frozen from being wet and then battered by the wind. Some soup, sweet tea and a change of clothes made the world of difference and I was ready to go again. Especially once the waterproof trousers had gone on!
The race plan was to walk the hills, take on liquids + food during these climbs and then run the rest. It was great to chat to like minded people and it felt like a bit of a picnic in places. All was going well until 60k when the fog descended, the ground became very muddy and I totally hit a wall. After this point there was only 15 minutes here and there where I was able to run. I put on The Eye of The Tiger and it massively lifted my mood and got me up the last hills 😂
The last 5k was really tough but the end was in sight and when I went across the finish line and found out that I had somehow bagged 12th lady it all felt worthwhile.
Hot shower, big plate of pasta and a beer to celebrate 🍺
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