The Endurancelife Classic Quarter 44 mile Ultra

I returned to Heathrow from Barcelona, where I had been attending a CPD event, on Friday 12th June; the plane was delayed and landed at 16.00. The plan was to drive done to Lands End and parkup my Camper, Murvi,  in the Carpark, which we could download a tree parking voucher for, prepare my kit and nutrition for the morning, get up and register at 3am, catch the bus to the Start at The Lizard at 4am then run 44 miles along the coastal paphto finish at Lands End again. The plan went slightly wrong when the flight and traffic delayed me and what was always going to be slightly hard core ended up with me arriving at midnight and getting two hours sleep..

Anyway the Land End carpark was pretty spooky at 3 am with registration under head torches and the lights of other competitors cars arriving and we all boarded two buses for the start at 4am. I immediately felt at home on the bus, ultra runners have a certain ambience about them, they are usually friendly and pretty laid back but hard core. There were lots of Buffs, seasoned trail shoes and unshaven faces and a sense of anticipation. Back packs were stuffed with nutrition, spare clothes and the mandatory kit for the race which is self supported except for water and the odd banana at the checkpoints, no cups are provided and you take all your litter home with you. No talk of times like you tend to get with road and track runners but a few tails of other races that they had competed in and a sense of enjoying the experience - even at 4am in the morning. 

The two buses arrived after dawn at the Lizard, There were no loos at the Start so there was a fairly long wait at those in the square...

The Lizard Square after dawn

The walk to the start

The Start above the old Lifeboat Station looking West

The pre race briefing

As this was my first Ultra over 33 mies I was unsure how the body was going to hold up so the plan was to start slowly, walk run where ever necessary in the race and try and run the last few miles and finish within the cut off times. We were warned at the briefing that the last section after Penzance was fairly demanding and to reserve some energy for completing that part to the Finish.

I had not visited this section of the Cornish Coastal Path before and was in awe of some of the Scenery there were beautiful bays, Technical paths

sandy stretches

Old Tin Mines

incredible views, this is St Michel's Mount with Penzance beyond

lots of hills, ascents and descents with steps and thin rugged paths

beautiful sandy beaches where I was tempted to to strip off and go for a swim

There was a long section of almost flat compacted gravel and tarmac though Penzance where I could have pushed on if my legs  had allowed. I did run most of that section but the Salomon GT6 shoes that I was wearing for the technical sections of the race were not ideal road shoes, although they did have adequate cushioning. I was feeling tired but the nutrition plan 2x 55G 33Shake 'all in one' Sports Nutrition Shakes for breakfast, 2x33Shake Gels, 2xChia Charge Banana flavour bars, 1Lx Chia Charge raspberry and chia drink, 1xCliff shot electrolyte (500ml), 2 xS!caps and a couple of OTE gels one for emergencies and a caffein one to help with the finish 30 minutes from home worked; unlike some other runners that were left puking up sugary gels ..

As expected the final section was hard on tired legs and core; there were beaches with huge giant sized boulders, 'paths' that required you to climb through and under rocks and sense of humour, other paths that were difficult to run on as they were too narrow and had many rocks jutting out of them and more stairs.. and hills; at least most of the ground was dry and there was a pleasant westerly breeze.

I was using poles in practice for the UTMR in the last part of the race; my poles are made of Carbon Fibre and fold like a Z so that they clip on the back of the Solomon 12 litre backpack which fits like a vest, unfortunately I had chosen the wrong shirt with 2 vertical seems in the back and the pack started to chafe as my back became wet - another valuable lesson.. I do not use a bladder in the pack as I find that this leads to more 'bounce', the water becomes warm and crucially it is difficult to gauge how much is left. I carry 2 flexible 500 ml bottles in the front pockets, you express the air out of these so they do not slosh around like solid bottles (the noise of that really annoys me!) you can then suck out of the nipples without removing them from the pockets (fellow runners will know that to replace them when half full you have to inflate them with air then express them once in the pockets). Some members of the public are amused by the gentle motion of the water and the odd jet that comes out of the nipples when running.. I am very pleased that I don't have boobs, can't imagine what it is like trying to control those ..

Started to feel a little tired around mile 35, not surprising I suppose, but funny how you forget about the bad patches soon after the race, guess that is part of enjoying being a distance runner, looking forward to the next one..

As mentioned above the final few miles where runnable and I had a gentle 'smackdown' with another couple. Nice technical TeeShirt,with ULTRA on the back, and large Medal

I finished within the cutoff time - and wasn't last - in 12:10:24 - good practice for 'time on legs' and nutrition.