Having checked out Man vs. Horse and Race the Train, I decided these were too far away. So I searched Keith Godden's ULTRAmarathonRunning.com for possible events. That's how I came across the One Day Ultra - Summer 40 Brecon Beacons organised by the Mightcontainnuts.com crew. The event seemed perfect - not being too far away, a 40 miles race over the mountains with fabulous views.
Having entered, I modified my training to suit this event - Plenty of box steps with a large weight in a backpack, two dumbells in my hands and ankle weights - to prepare for the ups and downs of the course.
So, on Friday 20th May, I travelled up to Talybont on Usk to the Talybont Outdoor Centre - A Grade 2 Listed former railway station, now used as an outdoor pursuits centre, complete with accommodation. I was booked in for Friday and Saturday night.
After arriving, I registered, then met and chatted with some of the event organisers and other competitors, then made myself something to eat (pasta/pesto followed by sticky toffee pudding).
The weather was looking lovely on Friday evening:
I shared my room with Pat and Ian. Pat, 58 years-old and retired from the army - Hard as nails but very green when it comes to ultra running. Ian, a 47 years-old surgeon from Nottingham.
My sleep during the night was average, with plenty of snoring from my room mates and door banging from the next door bathroom. I got up at about 5:30am to have a good big breakfast and still leave plenty of digestion time before the 8:00am race start.
Over breakfast (rice pudding, followed by toast and marmalade) I managed to discuss the course with some fellow runners - Along a canal path and then over Tor Y Foel, Corn Du, a loop down to a car park (for more water) before going back up Corn Du and then onto Pen Y Fan, a long descent, a difficult climb up Cribyn, Fan Y Big and then finally back down to the finish back at the Outdoor Pursuits Centre.
The course profile looked pretty scary:
In my mind, I had decided to split the course up into approximately eight 5-mile sections and four major climbs.
My nutrition for the day would start with a bottle of Lucozade Sport, move onto gels, then finally solid food in the form of muesli bars and protein bars.
The race briefing:
The course started out with quite a long, flat section mostly on a canal towpath. Quite a big group took-off along here, but I was quite happy to amble along, knowing there was plenty to come.
The course markings were easy to follow:
The first descent:
After about 8-10 miles I found that Ian (who I'd met at the race HQ) and I were progressing at a very similar pace. We got chatting, and then ended-up completing the rest of the course together.
The views were stunning. Although some of the ascents and descents required enough concentration that some of these weren't appreciated as much as they should have been.
Ian and I were progressing well. It felt much more of a competitive race to me than I felt during the VoTwo Oner, which was much more about survival. This time, I was picking off other competitors (in the nicest possible way ;-) ).
There were only a few linking road sections:
This following picture is of the Cribyn. At about 28 miles into the race, this was quite a challenge!
Ian had decided to bring telescopic trekking poles for some of the sharper ups and downs. I tried them out and they seemed to help somewhat.
On top of the Cribyn (it was getting colder and beginning to rain a bit):
After Fan Y Big, we descended to a big dam which marked about 2 miles to the finish. During this descent, we overtook another runner, and by the time we reached the dam, he looked far enough back that we weren't expecting to see him again. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case - I had just opened a gate for Ian, and this chap came out of nowhere, and ran through the gate. Not wishing to lose the race position, I took-off after him.
We had about 0.5 mile to go, and I soon caught him up, but didn't have the legs to overtake. When we got to a small muddy bank about 100 metres from the finish, he ran up and I knew he'd beaten me. Still, I was pleased to have put in a run like that after 40 gruelling miles.
I waited for Ian before we both crossed the line to record the same time.
Looking somewhat more tired than at the start!
All in all, this was a great race - A great course (scenic, tough, but not overly long), very well organised by an extremely nice race crew, good showers, and finished off with a freshly cooked chilli con carne - What more could you ask for!
I was very pleased with my race performance. I think I prepared pretty well, got my nutrition on the day about right and felt like I was racing rather than just surviving.
For the record, Ian and I came 20th in 8 hours 21 minutes - Results
Not sure what next. Ian was keen to plant the seed for doing UTMB in 2012 - Something to think about. We also talked about the 3 Peaks Yacht Race, which is definitely something I'll look into for next year.
Take a look at these photos to get a real feel for the day:
4 comments:
Looks like a great race - I'll need to add it to the list of races to do in the future. Well done on a good run.
Luke, fantasic report, really pleased you enjoyed the event, it is always great to hear first hand accounts on our events, thanks..
Been in green all my life lol Luke, great report and another added to your race CV, mines on a postage stamp at the moment, but working on it, soon be in the vet category, so might just win something!
would love to see you up north for Hardmoors series event.
cheers
pat
Great result Luke. Well done. (Ain't Google a wonderful thing? I've just discovered your blog on a Google search).
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