The Thames Path 100 is a trail race running from Richmond to Oxford, and is organised by Centurion Running. However due to adverse weather conditions and flooding this year the organisers had to re-route the race as a series of out and back runs along a 38 mile stretch of the Thames Path from Richmond to Cookham.
This out and back nature caused its own problems as the course got very churned up very quickly, it also meant some of the later aid stations were quite far apart and there would now only be one indoor aid station at Wraysbury which coupled with predicted cold weather made sure it was going to be a tough run.
I will breakdown this report to runs between aid stations because that is how I saw the race
After registering and going through kit checks, I made sure I caught up with as many people as I knew on the start line, these included people I speak to a lot on Twitter but haven’t actually met up with before so it was nice to say hello etc.
Richmond to Walton on Thames (0-11 Miles)
The race got underway bang on 10am, the initial section was a reroute due to another race being run on the Thames Path from Richmond but this didn’t bother me to much as I knew there would be plenty of people around to follow. We did actually go wrong though and 5 or 6 of us ran through a park we didn’t have to adding about a quarter of a mile to the run but at that time it was still quite jovial.
When I got to Walton on Thames I made sure that I said hello to Allan Rumbles (@ogeerunner) who said he might be around as he was crewing for a guy called Spencer Rolls (@captwonderpants). I had met Spencer while working an aid station for the North Downs Way 50/100, so was keen to see how he got on. After a brief chat, with Allan I grabbed some food and was on my way.
Walton on Thames to Wraysbury (11-22 Miles)
Not long after Walton on Thames I started to develop a niggly pain in my hip and thigh, so decided to take a few walking breaks to eat and recover. My pattern at this time was to run for 25 minutes and then walk 5 minutes.
When I got to Wraysbury which was the only indoor aid station, I again caught up with Allan Rumbles to see how Spencer was getting on and made sure I grabbed plenty of food as this aid station was very well stocked. I was mainly eating ham wraps, water melon, chocolate spread wraps and mars bars.
Wraysbury to Windsor (22-28 Miles)
This is where my problems really began to start as I had to stop several times to try and stretch out my leg as the pain in my thigh was becoming unbearable. I quickly changed from 25 mins running to 20 minutes running and 5 minutes walking as that was the most pain I could bear at that time.
As it was a relatively short distance to Windsor I decided I would plod on until then and see how I felt. Once I got to Windsor I had some more food and felt ok to go so carried on.
Windsor to Cookham (28-38 Miles)
Leaving Windsor aid station was a horrible experiance as there was a large puddle that couldn’t be avoided and it was about 1 foot deep. Well it could be avoided if you walked along a narrow ledge and tried clinging onto a chain link fence while slipping around in the mud but with my pains I wasn’t about to do that so I had to splash straight through it.
When I got to Cookham I again saw Allan and he asked how I was going, I said about the pain in my thigh and hips and he sat me down and gave me a quick massage which really helped.
Cookham to Windsor (38-48 Miles)
When I left Cookham I felt really good, I had spoken to my crew who were now on the scene and waiting for me just down the road and I was now also running against everyone still on their way to Cookham so could see everyone who was behind me. I met my crew in Maidenhead, had a brief sit down in the van before shooting off to Windsor. This is where it started to get pretty dark, I had hoped to get to Windsor before dark so I could change into my night time kit there but the path was so churned up by now it was impossible to run in the fading light without a torch.
When I got to Windsor I had a brief chat with Sam Robson (@stupid_runner), someone else who I talk to quite a bit on twitter. Sam was supposed to be pacing Mimi Anderson but as she had unfortunately had to pull out of the race he was kindly helping out at the aid station. I got my first hot food at Windsor and felt good to go. I took a bag of salty vegetable crisps out of my drop bag but ended up throwing them in the bin after 2 crisps as I couldn’t stomach eating them.
Windsor to Wraysbury (48-54 Miles)
As I had gone through the big puddle at Windsor I decided now would be a good time to change my socks, put blister plasters on as I could feel hot spots developing on my feet and to change into my cold weather gear. So rather than faff on at the aid station I decided to sit on a bridge away from the aid station to get sorted. First of all I got my cold gear out to make sure I stayed relatively warm before attending to my feet and changing socks. After sitting down for a good 10 minutes though the pain in my hips became unbearable and I was reduced to walking for 10 minutes or so before they loosened up again. And as the path was so churned up every time I slipped I would get agonising pains in my hips. I had all of a sudden gone from a timed run/walk strategy to a run when I could strategy.
Just outside Wraysbury I picked up my first pacer Kiernan (@kiernan5). But once we got to Wraysbury and that nice warm aid station stocked with lots of nice food I didn’t want to leave but Kiernan made sure I didn’t hang around to long so on we went.
Wraysbury to Walton on Thames (54-65 Miles)
The pain in my hips and thigh was now becoming unbearable, I was having to get Kiernan to do things like count out 20 fence posts of running or run from lamp post to lamp post as I quickly went from running to bearly shuffling along. Although I was helped by my competitive side when I saw a runner behind us and I let Kiernan know that “if this cunt wants to overtake me he is going to have to work for it” (we didn’t see him again).
Just outside Walton on Thames I had to call the van as I could tell my feet were now in a terrible state, once we got in the van Lee (@leebriggs9) layed me down and quickly went about cleaning and dressing my feet. Problem was by this stage it was a really cold night and I couldn’t stop shivering in the back of the van despite having towels thrown over me.
Once my feet were dressed we got on our way but I asked Kiernan to run ahead and let the aid station know he had a cold runner coming in as I knew I was in danger of getting hypothermia. This enabled the volunteers to get a chair and heaters ready for me when I arrived a couple of minutes later. The volunteers were amazing and made sure I had a hot drink and helped me get my waterproof trousers on as I wasn’t capable of doing it myself by this point.
Walton on Thames to Wraysbury (65-76 Miles)
This is when I hit a real low point, we were about 65 miles in when we left Walton on Thames and I hadn’t been able to run for a while, the hips were hurting so much if I stopped still I was having to hold onto walls and fences as I plodded along waiting for them to ease up again. And as I wasn’t moving quickly I was getting colder and colder, I decided to get a second jacket out of the van and wore that as well.
As it was 11 miles between these aid stations which is quite a distance at this stage of the race the organisers had put on a “car boot checkpoint” however I didn’t want to stop because I knew it would hurt so much to get going again. However just after the checkpoint I sat down on a bench feeling sick and very sorry for myself giving it the old “this (finishing) isn’t going to happen today”. I then started wretching and felt so sick. Luckily the volunteer saw/heard this and ran over to help. He convinced me to eat something and after a bit of negotiation I said I would try a slice of cheese and a piece of bread. I slowly forced it down and then I felt a lot better and felt able to continue to Wraysbury.
Kiernan was trying to get me to run but I knew at that time I would just have to walk the last 37 miles or so because I just couldn’t make my legs run no matter how hard I tried. Luckily I had built up a lot of time in the first 65 miles so I was still well within the 30 hour cut off but I knew coming in under 24 hours wasn’t going to be possible.
Once we got to Wraysbury I tried to not hang around to long as I knew that lovely indoor aid station was going to be to warm and inviting and I wouldn’t want to leave. So I had a quick cup of coffee, asked Kiernan to get me some fresh fruit and we headed out the door again.
Wraysbury to Windsor (76-82 Miles)
The initial plan was for me to do this section by myself but I was too tired, disheartened and disorientated to be left alone, I was so tired I knew I would find the first bench and lie down to sleep which could have been fatal, so Kiernan swapped with Lee and Lee walked with me to Windsor. By this point the sun was starting to come out which helped with the tiredness but it was still bitterly cold. Once we got to Windsor I had some more warm food before we headed off.
Windsor to Cookham (82-92 Miles)
This was one of the toughest sections. The plan was to meet up with my 3rd pacer Johnny (@johnnyultra) at Windsor but as I didn’t want to stop still to long we left before he arrived. So it was rearranged to meet up with him on route.
My feet were in agony by this point and it wasn’t helped by all the mud that had washed into my shoes by walking through that puddle. So the plan was to meet at Maidenhead bridge to have another look at my feet but it seemed to take forever to get there. I was being really irrational by this point and blaming my crew “why couldn’t they have parked closer” and pacer “you said it was 2 miles, its been longer”.
When we finally got there, Lee looked at my feet, dressed them and said they were not to bad (he later told me it looked like trench foot and that my feet were covered in blood) and that lie down in the car made it agony on my hips, i was unable to walk until they started to loosen up again.
The walk up to Cookham was demoralising because I could see everyone else coming the other way back to Windsor and the finish line. When we got to Cookham I had no intention of stopping because I was afraid if my hips stiffened up this time they wouldn’t get going again so I walked up to the aid station, gave my number before turning right back around while Johnny grabbed me some soup plus some snacks.
Cookham to Windsor (92-102 Miles)
This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, it was painful with every step as the redressing of my feet had only taken the pain away for a couple of minutes and it felt like I was walking bare foot across broken glass. I had been awake for well over 27 hours and was in agony. I was so demoralised at mile 95 I said to Johnny I was going to quit as I just wanted the pain to end. The mud was so sloppy by that point and every time I slipped I got pains in my feet and even got pains shooting into my hands. I also started to hallucinate, I kept feeling someone right behind me so I would step to the side to let them past but each time there was nobody there.
I was desperate to take my mind of everything so I had 2 energy gels laced with caffeine and that helped a bit and gradually as we got closer to the finish my spirits began to pick up. It was strange I had gone 100 miles but by this point was breaking the race down into 10 metre chunks, “Just walk to that tree” and then once there “Just walk to that fence”.
Coming up to the finish in Windsor I had to go through that bloody puddle again which was by now 2 feet deep but I didn’t care anymore because just the other side was the finish line where Zoe and the kids were waiting. They had never seen me finish a race before so it was amazing to have them there to see me finish this one.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos or videos of me finishing as it was still so cold by this point the iPhones wouldn’t work. At the finish I had a big bowl of chilli with bread and a coffee before collecting my medal and buckle and making my way home. Getting to the car again was agony after sitting down for 10 minutes or so.
Although the race didn’t turn out how I expected it to I am glad I managed to stick it out and I think with a finish rate of only about 55% it shows how tough this race was. But I still managed to beat my hoped for time of being a good couple of hours below the 30 hour cut off with a time of 27 hours 19 minutes and 19 seconds. Placing 63rd out of 90 finishers (164 started).
It was also good to get the finish at my first time at this distance.