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| This line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar appears on my finishers medal for the 2015 Stratford half marathon |
So I've picked the brains of the team and done extensive research on-line about is it possible and distilled their combined wisdom down:
1. It's going to be tough, but if you've done the training you'll be capable of it. I get that. It didn't seem possible for me to run 26.2 miles until I'd run my first marathon.
2. Patience is key, you need to manage your energy expenditure. If you start out too quick, or even just put in a few bursts at a faster pace you're going to pay for it later. I've seen that in every race I've entered regardless of distance. The inexperienced people get carried away by the atmosphere and the adrenaline at the start and shoot off at a pace they can't maintain. Half way round they are struggling. To run slowly takes control and discipline. In the context of this ultra-marathon challenge it means thinking about how I will feel in 6, 8 or even 12 hours time.
3. You need physical strength to complete the distance buy you also need mental toughness too. I've seen that too. A few months ago we were helping on a water point at 6 miles into a half marathon. The number of people who wanted to give up there and then was high. They'd maybe not done enough training, had been out on the town the night before or just started too quickly. Whatever the reason they'd spotted a place where they could stop and let someone else take responsibility for them and it was just too much. That's were teamwork comes in. A few minutes break and a bit of encouragement from their friends and from us and all of them continued.
4. It's easy to have a "pity party' and talk yourself into giving up. Been there, done that, but I haven't yet got the t-shirt. I know it's going to hurt at some point and somewhere along the way my brain is going to conspire against my body. "You've done enough, no one will blame you for stopping, it's ok, it was a silly idea to think you could do it". These thoughts always seem to creep in somewhere when I've been running for hours and it takes a certain amount of stubbornness to just keep putting one foot in front of the other until my brain snaps out of it again. Of course it gets easier if you've done the distance previously, but it never goes away entirely: "last time was a fluke, you'll not do it again". I've never run a multi-day ultra event before so it's uncharted territory on what my brain is going try to convince me to do.
5. "When your car engine starts making a noise you don't like the easiest way to fix it is to turn up the radio". In other words while you need to listen to your body to know which bit is about to fall off* you need to find things to distract yourself with. You can sing to yourself, admire a lovely view or chat to a team mate; anything to distract yourself from paying too much attention to the bit that's hurting. But you don't want to be distracted too much as you need to remember to eat and drink regularly and to concentrate on where you're putting your feet.
Today was an easy paced run over 10 km (6.2 miles) but I completed it in 7 minutes less than it took cover the same distance in a race back in 2014 when I was running as hard and as fast as I could. Just shows what four year's of regular running can do.
*toe nails are particularly susceptible I'm told. Though I'm reassured that the loss of a whole limb is rare.
Today's stats:
Distance: 6.2 miles
Elevation gained: 60 metres
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