Decided to do a pre-ultra run to my mates house and back. Would have been a good 30 round trip by my estimates........best made plans rarely go right huh!
As I was leaving, the heavens opened.......and never closed again! I know there was point where you just can't get wetter, I'm just not sure I've ever experianced it running!!!!!!
My route was simple enough, aim for my mates house and hit the canal towpath till I reach it. Unfortunately building work was to put a spanner in my plan, I was diverted to Tring and had to run up a big ass hill I had not expected. I blitzed it though, guess I'm fitter than I thought.
To keep me hydrated and energised I trial ran an idea of mine, fill my camel bac with a concotion of 2 litres of squash with 1 Tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt. The result was lucozade sport for a fraction of the price! This kept me going along with chocolate brownie made by my mates girl friend and the thought "surely this rain can't get worse"...............how wrong can I be??!
Around the 15 mile mark, the slight opening within the heavens cracked open fully, and a downpour like no other hit me in the face! It was at this point when I started brushing up against the "wall" all runners hit. It was also around this point I doubted my commitment to finish the full route. So when I slammed face first into the wall around mile 17 I decided that once I made it to my mates, I would be calling it a day.
However the were still 3 mile between me and a cuppa tea, so I literally talked myself into carrying on. If anyone else was around they would have seen a guy soaked to the skin, a camel bac under his jacket (giving me a hump quasimodo would have been proud of), wearing "those wierd toe shoe things" and yelling to himself to run!! What a sight I must have looked!!
Finally after just under the 4 hour mark, I arrived at my friends flat, looked down at my garmin watch and was surprised to see I'd run just under 20 miles! My estimsted run route was off by a good ten miles if I'd continued! Cursed rain!
Moral of this story? Make sure you are suitably well stocked to run a homemade ultra! And don't run a homemade ultra in monsoon conditions!!!!!
