Bideford Bay 50K - Putting Demons to Bed

Nic's report on the BB50K

Not finishing the Hardmoors marathon in Saltburn this August was a huge blow for me.  I spent lots of time trying to figure out why things went so wrong, and concluded that lack of preparation was the biggest issue.  I didn’t spend enough time thinking about the race profile and my nutrition strategy.  I was, in short, a bit too relaxed!  My friend Roy said I should enter another race as soon as possible, that I should ‘get back on the horse’.  So when I heard about the Bideford Bay 50K in North Devon, I didn’t think too hard about entering it.  I love coastal trail running and North Devon is one of my favourite places.  It was an ideal opportunity to heal some wounds.

I hadn’t left myself much time to train properly in terms of running great distances, but fortunately I had some annual leave after our Cotswold Way Century, so I focussed on back to back runs, a strategy that has worked for me before both my other ultras.  I clocked up over 60 trail miles, mostly running with a little hiking, over 8 days on my holiday, in the Cotswolds, Peak District and Northumberland, then had a good week of rest.  I thought long and hard about my pacing strategy.  I’d had a chat with Adrian Colwill, the BB50K RD at our race and he’d briefed me about the course – 20 miles of hills then 10ish miles of flat as the course followed the river estuary.  I decided to abandon any kind of pacing strategy and just treat it as a nice day out, running where I could and hiking the hills.  I even decided not to wear my Garmin, so I could run on feel and not worry about keeping any kind of average pace.  At the Hardmoors, I ate too much sugar too soon and probably crashed.  This time I buried the sweet stuff at the bottom of my pack where I couldn’t reach it!  I planned to eat nuts, a cheese sandwich, fruit malt loaf (buttered), and some salty potato wedges, only reaching for the gels and shot bloks after 20 miles.  About a week before the race, my friend Chris suggested that we run together for moral support.  I wasn’t sure – I normally like to run alone.  And she is quicker than me on the flat – I didn’t want to be over-doing it trying to keep up, but I thought we could start together and see how it went.

Race week was a busy one, after a 9-hour drive home from our holiday in Scotland, and jumping straight into a manic week at work.  Friday evening came and we headed down to Devon.  We had booked a cheap hotel near Barnstaple so we had only a short drive to the start in the morning.  We were sad to find there was no nearby pub for a relaxing beer.  However, Kurt went on a beer run to the convenience store and found some Doom Bar – one of my favourite ales.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t thought to bring a bottle opener…. Some creative use of a teaspoon and a bath towel and we managed to prise open the tops and enjoy a nice beer.   Perfect race prep!

After an ok sleep, we made our way to the start at Hartland, via Bideford to pick up Mitch, who was also running.  Kurt was planning to spend the day helping out at the finish.  The facilities at the start were great, and there were even lovely ladies selling tea and coffee for those who wanted it at 7am!  I felt very relaxed and happy and enjoyed the pre-race buzz, thinking how lovely it was to be just a runner rather than having the pressure of being a race-organiser.  Chris arrived, somewhat harassed, having thought it was an 8.30 start, not 8.00 – oops!  She just had time to get her number on and we were lining up for the start – no chance to get nervous anyway!

The first mile or so was on the road, heading to Hartland Point.  It felt like it was going to be a beautiful day, milder and less windy than forecast.  The crowd around us all felt very amiable and Chris and I enjoyed a nice catch up.  It wasn’t long before we reached a sign for the coast path – and here was the first sticking point.  The route was not marked, and some people thought we had to run all the way down to the quay before coming back up the hill and then joining the coast path.  I was pretty sure I hadn’t read this instruction, and I’d been in the loo for the first part of the race briefing.  There was lots of confusion – some people hopped onto the coast past, some headed down the hill, some people were coming back up the hill in the opposite direction!  A little arrow here would have been very nice indeed.  We followed some people down the hill, wondering if there was another way onto the coast path.  It turned out there wasn’t and we came back up the hill and joined the path.  It all seemed a bit pointless and confusing.  There were a few p***ed off runners, but it didn’t really matter – I felt pretty happy just to be off the road and on the trails.  We were having a good chat with each other and those around us.  The views across to Lundy in the pink early morning light were stunning and my mood was very light-hearted indeed.

Sun and clouds over Lundy in the distance.

The next 20 miles were more or less the same.  We hiked up steep hills and then picked our way down them.  Again, and again and again.  We would climb up steeply for 500ft, then plunge right back to sea level, then straight back up again.  There were also some woods and some fields, but mostly there were lovely sea views and tricky paths.

New hill, new view!

Fruit cake! Score! (Picture by Roy)

Chris and I stuck together.  I’m sure she had to wait for me a bit on the flat, but we were pretty evenly matched on the hills.

Sea level?  Yeah, it's back there where the last downhill finished. (Picture by Roy)

Kurt asked me later what my favourite part of the race was.  My answer was the point about around 16 miles where we reached a checkpoint and found Chris’ partner Roy and his son Alex (and Idris the dog) there.  Roy said how good we were both looking, we tucked into some lovely fruitcake and agreed that yes, we were feeling good and having a lovely time.  It was my favourite part because it was at that point I knew that barring injury, I was going to finish this race.  I felt strong, had only another 5ish miles of hills to go and was full of positivity.

Always nice to be met by Idris the ultra-dog. (Picture by Roy)

Well, that good feeling didn’t last long.  We climbed out of the village checkpoint up a very, very steep ascent, with lots of steps.  It really took the wind out of our sails and every hill after that was hard.  We got slower and slower, and the downhills became harder and harder too, with too many steps to be able to run them.  In this race, the downhills were just as hard as the uphills, affording us no recovery whatsoever, we were concentrating so hard on not going head over heels.  After about 20 miles, we knew we should be almost done with the hills, but still they kept on appearing in front of us!

Looks like an estuary. Does that mean the hills are finally over?

The view to the south of the coastline we’d conquered was stunning, but we were so desperate to see the river estuary to the north!  Seeing Roy, Alex and Idris again just before Westward Ho! was a lovely blessing as they were able to reassure us that all the hills were done.  In actual fact though, for me this was where the hard part of the race began.  I thought some flat would be welcome, but it really wasn’t.  I struggled far more than Chris to keep grinding out the miles.  But somehow, we kept ticking along.

My biggest down point in the race (quite literally) came about about 31 miles in, when we had to make a decision whether to follow the coastal trail along the low tide or high tide route.  As we had a few miles earlier taken the low tide route along the lovely, firm sandy beach at Appledore, and the tide was clearly out, we opted for the low tide route.  What a mistake!  The mud was ankle deep and properly squelchy.  I slipped on an uneven camber and fell onto my side, bruising my hand, shoulder and hip, and getting very muddy.  I wanted to cry, and I’m sure if I hadn’t been with Chris, I would have wallowed in my misery!  After trudging through the mud, we had to do an about turn as we reached an impassable channel – grrrrrrrr!  We really didn’t need that so close to the end when we were so tired.  But never mind, we were almost at the end and I was bound to fall down at some point – at least I didn’t do it on a steep, rocky downhill!  After another 10 minutes or so, we finally had the end in sight.  Dodging the locals during their Saturday afternoon stroll, we crossed the line hand in hand, all smiles.  It took 8 hours and 40 minutes, was around 5,000ft of ascent, and we were almost last, but it didn’t matter.  For me, I had well and truly put my demons to bed, with a pretty hard race.  Running with Chris worked well, as we helped each other – I dragged her up the last few hills and she dragged me the last few miles on the flat.  I discovered that it is also much harder to have a proper low patch when running with someone else – I don’t like to lose face by showing too much negative emotion so I had to keep my positive face on all the time.  The old adage of ‘fake it till you make it’ worked for me in this race!

So I had a few issues with this race, in terms of its sometimes vague markings and instructions, but I would do it again, and I have total confidence in Adrian to fix these issues for next year.  It was properly hard, but I think with some solid hill-training, and a couple more ultras under my belt, I would be able to do a bit quicker.  And the main thing is, I feel positive and confident about my running again.

The Long Trail to Recovery

Joy, it's another post about his darned feet, you say?  Well, only in as much as they're in good enough shape to let me get back into some proper running.  I may soon even be able to do a bit of racing, albeit at a reduced pace.

After losing most of July, August, and September to a combination of foot issues (hurrah, mostly trauma-induced, rather than just too much running!), it looks like I am back on the trail to recovery.  Just in time, too - there's a rather tasty 100-miler in February that's got my name on it, and I need to get some training in.

When restarting training after a long layoff, it's easy to do too much and re-injure yourself.  So, I've been breaking in gently, until last week.  We had been planning some R&R after the Cotswold Way Century, and after weighing up all the options, learning some new trails in the Peaks and Northumberland sounded ideal.  We looked for some races, but there were none that suited, so it became a chance to explore and enjoy the great footpaths on our own.

Day 1 was a relaxing 10mi around Edale, taking in the boggy joys of Kinder Scout and the southern end of the Pennine Way.  Although a bit chilly and breezy at the start, we got a sunny day to take in some excellent ghyll scrambling and the occasional chance for a bit of actual running.  It was a great way to test out my foot and ankle strength, as we weren't on particularly forgiving trails.

A few rocks here and there denote the path up.

A sunny look over Kinder Downfall

The route included some spectacular views in all directions.  This was my first time to the peaks, and I can understand why the area is so well regarded.  I wouldn't say the climbs were longer than what we normally get to run on, but we were certainly spoiled for choice!

I'm used to running in an area heavily populated by waymarkers, so it was good to get some experience running in what's best described as a sparsely marked area..  I can't say there's much scope for following an actual footpath on Kinder Scout.  Had we not encountered a local out for a hike, I imagine we would have taken quite some time to get across the bogs attempting to follow the bearing shown on the OS map.  He kindly pointed us about 10 metres to the left where a streambed offered firm footing and a quick way through the bog.

A few nice rock formations added to the stoppage time.

Because the goal of the day was to get to know somewhere new, the pace was pretty relaxed, with quite a few picture stops.  The green, yet rugged landscape on a bright day caused repeated deep-breath-and-smile stops.  It was simply stunning.

I was curious about what we'd find when we finally joined the Pennine Way, at Kinder Downfall.  The National Trails that I'm familiar with are pretty well marked (SW Coast Path, Cotswold Way).  This section of the Pennine Way, not so much.  There weren't a large number of options, so as long as we headed in the right direction and were on something vaguely trampled, I was confident we would be fine.  Off the tops, the signs began to reappear, so we could be certain of the final few miles back to Edale.  As we approached the ankle-breaker of a staircase at Jacob's Ladder, we met with several of the runners racing the Edale Skyline (~20mi).  With 15mi under their soles, they were looking tired and ready for the pub at the end.  When we arrived ourselves, it was a veritable runners' haven.

Day 1 finished - at the southern end of the Pennine Way

Day 2 was scheduled as a slightly more "runnable" day out, with 10mi near Ladybower Resevoir.  Once again, the day was dry, if a bit cooler.  The run along above the resevoir was very pretty, and quite a joy to run. Once we got up to Derwent Edge, though, the vast expanse of heather and random rock formations made for a rather spectacular run.  On greyish days, pictures of rock and heather (and the occasional picture-hungry red grouse) don't really say much.  If you've not been in the area before, and you have a chance to go - get out there.  Our jogs from one cool set of rocks to the next was a real joy.

Look: Rocks & heather!

Salt Cellar, I believe.

The Wheel Stones, with a rather tiny Kurt in front.

The plan for Days 3&4 was to rest and do a bit of walking around Durham for a day and then get back on the trails.  Still time on feet, but a chance to recover a bit and let the shoes dry before taking on another 10 miler along Hadrian's Wall.  In weather terms, it might have been better to risk the feet and do the 3 days in a row.  We had rather fine weather for our walking tour, and then had a proper Northumbrian day of wind and rain on slippery rock for our trip along the wall that is meant to be keeping my in-laws at bay.

Hey look - there's actually a bit of wall!

It wasn't a great day for pictures, although there were some excellent views when the sun briefly pushed through the driving drizzle.  Originally, we were going to take a circular route including some of the local moorland, but with a combination of starting from the wrong point (navigation error) and tired legs, we decided not to go bog-slogging in the rain and enjoyed an out-and-back that included some very slippery steps.  It's great to use rock to keep the path from significantly eroding, but since they were almost like ice in the rain, it was a high-concentration effort.

We had planned for a bit of running in Scotland for the next day, but in the end, decided that the opportunity to undo all the good healing was a bit too strong, and cut the running part of our break.  Still, 30mi over 4 days without any significant aches and pains lead me to believe that I will actually be able to do some proper training in the next few months so I'm ultra-fit for 2014.

Keep your feet happy, and you can pretty much run forever

Keep your feet happy, and you can pretty much run forever.  That's my theory, anyway.  Forget runner's knee, ITB pain, sciatica, weak core muscles, and all the other things that get in the way of a good run.  If you can’t put weight on your feet, you’re scuppered, but if you can, then you can rehab all the other stuff.

Why am I writing about feet?  Well, for a start, my feet and ankles have been a mess for months, resulting in a couple of missed races this glorious Summer.  My feet are the weakest link in my running chain, and they have been for decades.  When I hit a plateau in my running, it’s my feet that give way first.  If I do too much hill work, my glutes and hamstrings burn, but my plantar fascia complain for days (weeks/months).  If I do too much speed work, I may well strain a calf, but if I really overdo it, it’s the feet that suffer for the longest.  This is pretty consistent regardless of my capabilities at any particular time.  So what have I learned about feet in the past few years, as I progressed from 10k to 100mi?  First, if you want to improve as a runner, remember the tiny muscles in and around your feet and ankles.  Second, if you want to run off road, strong feet and ankles are the difference between enjoying the scenery and enjoying the run.

Enjoy the short videos of my feet.  Sorry about the toenails, but I like to think they're in great shape for an ultra runner... You should see the other foot.  I took these videos shortly after my first 100 miler, when feet, ankles, and calves were still pretty hacked off and I was just starting to rebuild some strength and mobility.  As a result, you can see how a relatively weak foot fares with the exercises.

Stronger Feet

To get stronger feet, all you have to do is exercise them – simple, right?  For some runners, it’s as simple as going for a run.  For the rest of us, though, a little extra work is required.  Here are two exercises I use as the basis for all of my foot pre-hab and re-hab.  I'm a pretty simple guy, and I like simple exercises.

Toe Crunches
You’ll find a variety of descriptions of this exercise, which is the foot equivalent of making a fist.  I typically see things like “put your foot on a towel and scrunch it up with your toes”, or “pick up a pencil with your toes”.  That’s all well and good, but not particularly handy if you don’t have a pencil or towel to hand (like on the bus, train, or in that boring meeting while you read this, pretending to be looking up an important e-mail).  I tend to do this pretty much anywhere.  If you have shoes with a decent toe box, you don’t even need to take them off.

The key to the exercise is to isolate the movement, so keep your leg, heel, and ball of the foot still.  Then, you are working all the small muscles that support toe movement and stability.  You can see in the video that the simple motion of curling the toes works quite a lot of the foot.  Start with 10 and work your way up over several days.  When you can manage 100 (~90 seconds), it’s time to just drop them into daily life while you’re waiting, standing on the sidelines or sitting still.

Toe Raises
I find that the top of my feet can also suffer when I’m doing a lot of trail running.  Often, when you turn your ankle, it’s the soft tissue across the top of the foot that gets the long-term damage.  After an ankle sprain (my last one was about a monty ago), focusing on the little toe can really remobilize the muscles that got the tweek.

Again, by keeping your leg, heel, and ball of the foot still, you focus the movement on the micro-muscles that support your toes.  As with the toe crunches, start with a few and work your way up to 100.

Stronger Support Structure

Once your feet are a bit stronger than they were when you started (all of these things are relative), it’s time to think a bit more about how to keep your foot well supported.  Trail running in particular involves frequently landing on uneven ground.  To keep your foot right-side up, you need to build up the supporting musculature.

Standing Still
One thing I often notice is that runners are notoriously bad at standing still.  When we meet up before a race, at club runs, in the supermarket, etc., we fidget, stretch, pace, flex, and generally cause the non-runners in our lives to wish we would just stay in one place.  Why do we move about so much?  I suggest it’s at least partly because standing still puts a strain on a very small set of very small muscles that we tire out regularly when running.  So, how do we make them stronger?  Stand still.

More specifically, get barefoot and stand on one leg.  This isn’t really a convenient thing to do (yes, I have done it in the office while making a cuppa, no it wasn’t received as normal behaviour).  Fortunately, most of us have a particular activity in the day that is perfect for standing still.  Try this exercise while brushing your teeth.  Why while brushing your teeth?

1. you have top teeth, you have bottom teeth, you have two feet – left foot, top teeth, right foot bottom teeth is a really simple way to work; 
2. nobody cares if you’re not wearing shoes when you brush your teeth;
3. the amount of time is suitably short for when you’re starting out and suitably difficult to give you some benefit;
4. and this is probably the key benefit of the tooth brushing activity – there’s just enough movement in your upper body to make you work to keep your balance.

The joy of this exercise is that not only does it require no additional equipment, but it works your entire body as you maintain your balance.  From your toes to your neck, you are working the whole chain that you need to work well when you step on one of those nasty rabbit holes as you run through a grassy field.  When it’s all strong and working together, you have a chance of remaining upright.  When it’s not, you may well find yourself looking up and hoping you didn’t land in that big cow pat you had been trying to avoid when you found the rabbit hole.

Once you find this to be nice and easy, splash out and find something uneven (wobble cushion, bosu ball, dog toys) to stand on and keep developing that support structure.

With these basic, low-maintenance exercises, you will quickly build/rebuild strength in your foundation, making all things running just that little bit easier.  You can add more reps, more time, more wobble, or more difficulty (try standing on one foot and then lifting your heel).  A few minutes here and there during your normal day will make hours, days, or weeks of difference in your uninjured training time.

Hardmoors Saltburn Marathon: It had moors. It was hard

Nic's review of the Hardmoors Saltburn Marathon

Moors.  Beautiful moors. Hard moors.

We entered the Hardmoors Saltburn Marathon at the start of the year, after I said I wanted a trail marathon to look forward to.  We like to use races as an excuse to visit new places, and Kurt had never been to North Yorkshire.  Then, a couple of months later, we entered Endure 24, and this marathon became something of an afterthought.

I had been struggling to recover after Endure 24, finding that I tired really easily and feeling like I’d lost strength and power when trying to run hills.  The first couple of runs after our Georgia trip were hideous.   I doubted I’d be marathon-fit by August 11th, and contemplated dropping to the half.  We’d already booked the hotel room, or we probably would have pulled out altogether, as Kurt was injured.  But then I suddenly found my mojo again at the end of July, while out trail-running with a friend.  It was like a switch had been flicked – I felt full of energy and running was enjoyable again – phew!  I was also loving running the Cotswold Way, recceing it in preparation for the Cotswold Way Century race in September.  With Kurt injured, the task of running the trails, map in hand, checking out the tricky bits, fell to me.  I ran the final leg of it, into Bath, last Wednesday.  We thought it was about 13-14 miles, but I went wrong big-style in the last few miles and added a couple of extras, eventually doing 17 miles.  I wasn’t too worried about this.  I wasn’t that tired at the end, I was uninjured and still full of energy.  I actually felt pretty confident about the marathon, I just needed to take it easy and make sure I ate regularly.

The weekend came and we made our way North.  After a pleasant evening, a nice Italian meal and a good sleep, we made the short drive to Saltburn by the Sea.  It was a beautiful morning – sunny and fresh, and the scenery looked very promising.  I didn’t feel particularly ‘up for it’ but that’s not unusual – I put it down to nerves.  In fact, I think I was the most nervous I’ve been about any race in the last few years.  The following few hours did not go well.

The route took a short road section out of Saltburn and before long hit the trails.  There was plenty of uphill in the first few miles, which I quite happily hiked.  I was keeping an eye on my average pace though, as I really wanted this race over and done with in around six hours.  I didn’t really feel all that good, but it has been taking me ages to warm up lately.  I figured I could always turn off at the half marathon split if I felt that bad, but it came after less than three miles, which was a bit soon to be making a decision to bail really!  I had some jelly babies at the checkpoint and carried on.  The trail was pleasant, very firm underfoot with some lovely views out to sea.  I was starting to feel a bit better as I loosened up and enjoyed the scenery.  The going started to get very hard at Guisborough woods, as the trail took a very steep gradient up the side of a hill, through some very overgrown (and sharp) vegetation.  This was really tough and unpleasant.  We continued to climb, eventually coming out on Stanghow Moor.  It was beautiful.  The heather was in full flower and the views were magnificent.

The calm before the storm

Running through a very narrow trail though bushy heather brought its own challenges though.  The trail was too narrow to run naturally, I had to trot along putting one foot very firmly in front of the other to avoid tripping on heather roots.  This took a great deal of concentration and didn’t feel good at all.  And, I was still going uphill.  I did however discover that heather is an excellent exfoliator.  Eventually, the downhill came.  Were it not for such a narrow trail, the downhill would have been a delight, as the trail was firm and the gradient was pleasant.

Lovely heather, narrow single track

Ten miles in was the next checkpoint.  All the checkpoint volunteers and marshals were so lovely and there was a nice array of snacks.  I had a couple of cups of coke (heavenly) and a chocolate cornflake crispy thing before hiking up a steep road and coming to the next section, uphill again on Skelderskew Moor.  I was really starting to fade at this point.  I felt exhausted and had no idea how I was going to complete.  The hills felt brutal.  At the high point on Skelderskew Moor, the heavens opened with some proper Yorkshire rain – cold and horizontal.  I pulled on my waterproof and ploughed on, grateful to find some downhill.  The trail here was made up of hard rock – it looked like slabs of rock had been laid to make a trail.  It made a change from fighting with the heather, but it was hell on tired sore feet.  After a mile or so of this, it was back to the heather.  I can’t tell you how many times I tripped and stumbled and almost fell down.  I was really struggling and as I reached the checkpoint at fourteen miles, three hours in, I phoned Kurt and said I wanted to stop.  He was busy at the finish, helping with timing, so I decided to keep going.  I really didn’t want to quit but I had no confidence of finishing without killing myself – either through falling down or plain exhaustion.  Another three hours felt out of the question.  Thankfully, the route did get a little easier over the next couple of miles, but I felt awful and after a couple more conversations with Kurt on the phone, I told him just to come and find me at a road crossing.  I’d had enough.  In those last few miles, I really tortured myself trying to make the final decision as to whether or not to quit.  I’d never quit a race before.  But I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bad in a race before.  Kurt picked me up at 17 miles in, four hours after the start.  I cried and cried but I’ve never been so relieved to stop running.

So what happened?  Simply, I failed to prepare properly.  I got a few things wrong.  I don’t know how much impact the 17 miles four days before had, but I don’t think that was the cause.  My legs didn’t feel tired after that run, and I felt physically fresh on the morning of the race.  But I suppose it could have had some impact. I had eaten well in the run up to it, but I did get my food strategy all wrong on the day.  In my other marathons, I’ve eaten things like Clif Bars in the first couple of hours, which has worked well.  In this race, I went straight to sugar, eating Shot Bloks, gels and jelly babies instead.  I just didn’t think about it enough, reaching for what was convenient rather than thinking about what works for me best.  So I sugar-crashed.  Not good.  The other thing I failed to do was actually look closely at the route map and the elevation profile.  If I had, I would have realised that the first 13 miles of the route are uphill and I would have paced myself better.  Instead, I was so worried about keeping my average pace around 13 min/miles, I pushed too hard and blew up.  I should have taken it much easier in the first half, knowing the second half was so much easier, and I could have made up time then.  But I failed to avail myself of this information and I paid for it.  I also think I am probably not fully recovered from Endure 24.  I do wonder what I would have done if Kurt had also been running, and unable to rescue me from my hell.  I probably would have plodded on and ‘deathmarched’ to the end.  It would not have been pretty and I probably would not have been able to run the lovely little trail run I did today.  So all in all, bailing out was a sensible decision.  My friend Roy says I must find myself another marathon to run so I can get rid of the demons – I think he is right – onward and upward is the only way!