My first Ultra

My first Ultra race - 40 miles of trail, rock, road through the High Peak taking in the delights of Buxton, Castleton and Tideswell along the way.

I though I was reasonable well prepped for this having recce'd the course but the real attention to detail that I missed out on was adequate fueling.

A nice early start at Buxton Pavilion Gardens went slightly two quickly with the first 4 miles all averaging under 8 min miles - but we stayed as a pack (Paul, Steve, Derek and myself) and headed along Rushups Edge towards Mam Torr and Castleton - Paul said we were pushing too quickly too early and these words were to prove true.

In about 35th at 20 miles you then come up against Cavedale - two kilometres up hill through Limestone totally broke me - perhaps I should have tries running it instead of fast walking ?

At 22 miles we had dropped Paul slightly and I needed to eat something so told Steve/Derek to forge ahead - big mistake - this broke me mentally and gave me the choice of slowing down to the point of almost stopping.

At 26 miles Paul caught me up and went past as if I was stood still - this was a big check point as I could have decided to call it a day but didn't.

Insanely I left my bag of food and decided to do the last 14 miles with just water - idiot !

At 30miles I passed a guy at a check point eating a Steak Ginsters - I should have mugged him.

It was a bad experience from then on in - but I will know better next time - I finished 73 in 8:09 and have 5 weeks to recover, retrain and beat that in Germany.

High Peak 40

Bridging the gap

What a busy summer !

Great 3 weeks holiday in the South of France with the running taking a back seat but still managed to get in about 30-35 miles a week but so so hot - tried running early, running late, not running, just swimming - in the end a good rest was better !

Prior to the holidays I have only ran fell races - best position was 13th in the James Thorn race in Glossop.

I have kept up the long runs at the weekend 18's, 20, even 24's last weekend - I had planned on entering the 56 mile Bullock Smithy but family commitments meant a change to plan - instead I will do the High Peak 40 in two weeks time.