Piece of String

My Piece of String “fun run”   Part 1

I entered this race after watching the drama unfold online last year, and got accepted by email while running a 100 mile trail race which I subsequently got my first dnf through sickness or was it just shock of getting a place in this most pointless race?

Training was going well leading up to the race so I entered the Clarendon Marathon on October 6^th but I wanted to make it more interesting so decided to do the double and run back cut a long story short I got lost on the way back and ended up doing 60 miles 8 mile with a very painful shin so 4 weeks on crutches.

Wind forward to Thursday 28^th November I set off to Goring on Thames got to the B&B and chilled out for a couple of hours until Rich arrived then we met up at the Swan Hotel with Tom and Kate had some food and a couple of drinks and then retired for an early night .

Friday 29^th November “fun run day”

We were stood outside of the Morrell room when James started handing out The Thames Path maps 12 maps 13 runners ,James asked has anyone got a spare map with them, yes I said in the van , run back and get it then , so off I ran back to the car park grabbed the map and thought what if they start without me that wouldnt have surprised me at all, so I sprinted back as fast as I could ,still there Phew. With that James said follow the path north so off we went for 100 yards or so round a corner and stopped to be told to get in the minibus that was parked up. What the hell were they doing to us, we drove aroud the lanes of streatly for a while before eventually ending up on the M4. Minibus Dave was indicating to turn off at some places trying to wind us all up ,i looked to see if they had a satnav but alas no.A big cheer went up when we passed Swindon (nobody wanted to go there) Bath was next and I thought no please not the Cotswolds again after my dnf in September. On we went towards Bristol and then eventually stopped by a industrial estate. Poor Rich he only lived a few miles away from here.

After another brief and given some dodgy sheets of A4 paper with a map on it we were told to head off and keep going ,after about 4 miles we were met by Drew who stopped us and gave us a better map (well a tourist map) and told to head to Bath.

Although I live in Poole I know this area quite well and had a good idea what we were in for. But with both James Adams and James Elson running the show anything could have happened.

Kate and I hung back and got into a nice comfortable pace and let everyone else go ,we had decided we were in it for the “long haul”!!!. There was an area with a few tricky crossovers which I thought we managed quite well, we were on one of the bridges of the old railway line when we saw Ian down below on the other side shouted down to him and he made it up to us then Sam and the others appeared behind us ,they had taken a wrong turn somewhere. So off we all went again only to go wrong again sometime soon after . I am convinced Sam Robson does this on purpose so he can record more miles than anyone else in the race .

We carried on to eventually end up at the Bath aid station where Nici was waiting she told us to stay on the Kennett and Avon canal, so my thoughts about the route were correct so far.

My little/Big adventure

Well the plan is almost complete!!! As follows,

On Saturday 21st September at midday  I will be starting The Cotswold Way Race in Chipping Campden , 102 miles in total and hoping to finish before midday sunday the 22nd in Bath,but after the finish I will be continuing running, (and probably lots of walking) home to Poole,another 60/70 miles (not really sure of the distance)
I have a rough idea of the route and is as follows :
From Bath to the Kennett and Avon Canal to Avoncliffe.
From Avoncliffe join the Macmillan Way to Stourton.
Join the Stour ValleyWay somewhere near here and follow it to Canford Magna where I leave the Stour Valley and head across Canford Heath and hopefully home in one piece.
This will be absolutely my biggest challenge to date and to be honest I don't know why I am attempting it!!!!
I think the actual race will be ok but am really nervous about the home leg, mainly because I am not good with maps but as the saying goes (practise makes perfect). Food and drink is another issue I will have to deal with as during the Ridgeway 85 I was sick a few times in the last 20 miles, and couldn,t face more food or drink which slowed me down considerably.
So that's about it for now just got to sort and pack kit .
Here,s Hoping!!!!!!!!

Well it went well for 35 miles but was very sick for the next 30 miles so pulled out at 65 miles was more like 75miles to after getting lost in the fog a few times . First DNF !!!

SDW100

This was my second 100 miler, the first being the Thames Path in March in which I completed in 23 hours 19 minutes,but was quite badly beaten up with a severe case of achilles tendonitus.So the training for SDW was not as I had planned . I managed to do the North Dorset Village Marathon in May

after a 4 week lay off and 1 more 25 mile training run, so that was about it .

I had decided to go ahead and try and if the achilles got to bad I would simply drop out so that was it.

The morning of the race I have never felt so nervous,i just didnt know how I would manage another 100 miles not fully fit . I met up with Peter Lemon at the the Chilcomb Sports Ground who was doing his first 100 and lives near me .

6am and we started off around the field to stretch out the 190 starters before entering the SDW trail.

Pete and I stayed together for I think about 75 miles in total even though we hadnt planned to run together.

I usually like to run the really long training runs and races on my own ,and Pete being faster than me anyway had me a bit worried but on we went and it felt ok ,my original plan was to try and get to 50 miles in 10/11 hours and just see how it went from there.We got to the checkpoint at Queen Elizabeth Country Park 22 miles in ,and I had phoned my Brother in law Phil and friend Paul to let them know I had a hot spot on my foot so to ready the compeed .I am so glad I did that because from there on I had no trouble with the feet.On we went covering mile by mile at what felt like a good comfortable pace.

I hadnt really looked at the profile of this race , I knew it would be a bit hilly but I really underestimated the tough climbs ,to me it just seemed like one hill after another all the way through.Pete was laughing because I think I swore at every hill we came to.I also tripped and fell on a downhill and nearly took poor Pete out with me but luckily no damage done ,or so I thought!!!!!!

We continued our journey and my achilles was aching but ok at the pace we were going ,but my back was starting to ache a bit. Mile 50 soon came and I looked at the watch and thought holy s*** 9 hours 16 minutes way to fast for me I am going to pay for this later.At mile 54 I changed socks and shoes and put my leggings on. The weather was really good strong winds on the top of the hills buffeted me around a fair bit but mostly it was in our favour.

My back was starting to be quite painful now so I took some more ibuprofen but they didnt seem to do much .

Clayton Windmills was 70 miles in and I could really feel the early pace catching up with me now and I was having stomach issues as in I just couldnt face any food or drink but knew I would have to force something down me ,so I managed to get some water melon and grapes down

The aid station food and drinks were absolutely fantastic throughout they even had sushi at one and the volunteers and helpers are bloody awesome with their help and encouragement .

I think it must have been around 75-80 miles I told Pete to go on as I was struggling with the back and was therfore going to start walking a fair bit from now . Luckily Pete was met by a couple of friends to pace him for the last 20 miles or so,so I didnt feel to bad for not trying to keep up. On I plodded walking as fast I could to the next aid station Southease 83 miles ,had a coffee but that was all I could face , 17 hours 29 minutes was the time but I knew I was getting very tired and still feeling ill. On the next stint before Alfriston aid station I was really sick and everything I had eaten through the race came up in one go ,( I have never been that sick even after a belly full of beer ) luckily it wasnt that far to go to Alfriston where my crew were. My back was really bad now and the stomach wasnt much better and I wasnt running much so it was quite a low point for me here, but with the help of Phil and Paul urging me to get this done somehow I managed to eat some pasta and had a coffee and set off again to Jevington . I think after the aid station there was one last hill to climb and it for me was the biggest hardest climb of the day but knowing how close I was to the end was all I was thinking about now . The drop down to Eastbourne seemed to go on for ever and by now my legs and back were in agony .Then I could see the floodlights ,,round the track for a lap and that was it I had made it and in a time of 22:01:55 .

Upon reflection I am really pleased the achilles seems to be healing as for the back it was a pulled muscle but that will heal quickly.Feet were fine with no blisters and legs were ok after a day .

Am feeling a lot more confident in my running after this race so with good training and no injuries I think I can and need to improve on the second half of a 100 mile race.

Finally a very big thank-you to each and everyone of the volunteers for all their help and to Centurion Running for another truly epic event.Thank-you to Phil and paul for being a great crew.

The Thames Path 100

Well this was it, the morning of my first 100 mile race and boy what a snow storm to wake up to.

We (myself and bro-in law Phil, my crew man) stayed in a hotel the night before and noticed at breakfast that Mimi Anderson was just heading off so I quickly introduced myself ,i feel as if I have known her for ages, reading her blogs and chatting on facebook etc so was nice to actually meet in the flesh(so to speak).

Got to the registration and was starting to feel very nervous especially looking around at all the experienced faces in the crowd. Had I done enough training, was I indeed ready for this,i knew deep down I had trained very hard and put many miles in, but was 6 fifty mile training runs going to see me through this . Well it was time to find out as the countdown to the start had begun .

Due to the flooding the race had to be re-organised and what a fantastic effort from the Centurion team to even get this race on.

I purposely started as far back as possible mainly because I always seem to go off to fast at most races.My aim was to run 10 minute miling for as far as i could or at least get to 50 miles in 10 hours giving me 14 hours to get the one day buckle,which as it was, worked out perfect hitting 50 miles in about 9:30 and on the plus side I felt great although the conditions were very grim and getting worse by the hour.I made my first mistake here changing kit ,clothing was fine but changing shoes from my Salomon Speedcross to Adidas Kanadia was a massive blunder as my feet had swollen quite a bit .Dont get me wrong the Kanadia shoes have been perfect in training along the muddy South Coast Path all winter but they just couldnt cope with the Thames Path mud.So lesson number 1 is to have 2 pairs of identical shoes or not to change them.

So on into the night and this is where I was in uncharted territory for me ,52 miles was the furthest I had ever run and that was on my 52^nd birthday (what a treat ), but incredibly I still felt great .

I had an achilles tendon worry for a couple of months beforehand but it seemed to be holding up ok .Through the night I put my ipod on(unusual for me) but really think this helped (David Bowie you are awesome).

Also ran straight past one of the aid stations and ended up doing 1 mile up a road before realising what I had done and heading back (lesson number 2 concentrate more)

I got to mile 82 in 17:02 hours which I was amazed at and so happy and was still feeling great,but that didnt last long.After I left the Windsor aid station I tripped over for the 3^rd time in the race and felt the Achilles really stretch badly and from there on it was just a really painful walk ,run shuffle to the finish.The last stretch from Windsor to Cookham and back to Windsor took me 6 hours 20 minutes which is still niggling at me in the back of my head ,but i will have to try and forget that and be pleased with my finish time of 23:22:10 . The actual mileage for me ended up 106 miles.

A massive thank-you to Phil for crewing me in freezing conditions and doing a great job looking after me .

Another massive thank-you to all the volunteers ,we really could not have done this without you you are all amazing.

Finally congratulations to the Centurion Running team for all your hard work to get this race on it was fantastic.

Chris Edmonds