National 100k and the Three Forts Challenge - race reports
So the weekend of 3rd/4th May was all set to be a bit of a hectic one with Sarah running the National 100k race on Saturday and me running the Three Forts Challenge on the Sunday morning. Neither of us really had any expectations of times/positions but we both ended up having pretty good days out, and with second places in our respective races it was definitely a tired but happy Perkins household by the time bank holiday Monday rolled around.
National 100k (Saturday)
Sarah really wanted to get a race longer than 50 miles under her belt this year and after a bit of hunting around the only one that was reasonably close (and at a time that would just about fit in with our schedule of other races) was the National 100k. Very different from the usual trail races that we do, this was to be 48 laps of a 2.1km road loop at a cycling venue called Cyclopark near Gravesend. So on Friday evening we packed the kids into a hire car, drove over to Kent, picked up Sarah's race number, ate a bit of food at a Beefeater (which lived up to its reviews of "very average but the best you can do in Gravesend") and then located the delightful Premier Inn that we were staying in.
Sarah's plan for the race was to start off at about 5:00 min/km pace and hold onto that for as long as she could. Having never run anywhere near this distance on the road and never more than 80km on trails she really had no idea of what to expect. She'd also not run a huge amount since the SDW50 a month before and wasn't feeling at her sharpest. But the primary aim was just to do the distance and hopefully not fall apart too much at the end.
The Cyclopark venue turned out to be pretty cool - the 2.1km road loop enclosed a BMX track and skatepark, there was a cafe right by the course and (importantly for me as I was in charge of distracting the kids all day!) a pretty good playground too. As the race was to include the National 100km Championships as well as the yearly Anglo Celtic Plate competition there were all the English, Welsh and Scottish teams milling around in their kit, and as we over to the course carrying kids and bags and other paraphernalia Sarah remarked that she felt a little out of place here! I basically told her to put a sock in it and not to worry about all that and just to concentrate on running her own race on her own terms, which is what she does best.
At 8am the race started and myself and the kids settled into our crewing role, punctuated with trips to the cafe for breakfast and the playground for distraction. Knowing that Sarah would be round again every 10ish minutes made timing our excursions pretty easy and the first few laps passed pretty uneventfully, with Sarah hitting her 5:00 min/km pace pretty much spot on - a trend which would continue for the rest of the day. After a couple of hours the plan was that I take the kids swimming (to stave off their boredom a bit), and when we got back at about 1pm I found that the lovely volunteers at the 'open' race aid table (the less swanky version of the national teams feed stations) had thoroughly taken Sarah under their wing and were providing her with great support and had generally been looking after her while we were away. Sarah was still knocking out the metronomic 5min/km pace despite having eaten only a couple of slices of melon in the previous 5 hours, and although was complaining a little of feeling slightly nauseous she was looking strong and very calm and composed.
And that was pretty much how it went until the end of the race - she just didn't slow down while others faded slowly around her, and with about 14km to go a lady from UK Athletics came over and asked if Sarah had a target time in mind and if she knew that the qualifying time for the GB team was 8hrs 25mins. Neither of us had any clue about that of course and so I told Sarah on her next time round, and also let her know that I thought she had moved up into 3rd or 4th place overall. Obviously this was all a very nice surprise but she didn't let it go to her head and just kept on knocking out the steady laps.
With a few laps to go she had moved into second place and by the time her last lap came around she had closed a ~5 minute gap between her and Jen Salter, who was in first place, down to a 1:30min gap. I let her know when she came past and she started putting her foot down a bit, and in the end finished less than 30 seconds behind her - at one point she was sprinting down the last straight and I though she might catch Jen up but it was not to be. If the race was one lap longer the race would really have been on!
But finishing in 2nd place in a race that included all the national teams and running 4 minutes under the 100km qualifying time (in her first 100km race) has got to be a pretty damn good day out by anyone's standards. Sarah's amazing ability to just pick a pace and stick to it, never significantly slowing down, is really something quite special and I'm sure she could have even gone faster had she had any real idea of what to expect of herself. I was definitely a very proud husband at the end of the day!
After a quick massage (for Sarah, not for me sadly) and a little ceremony to pick up her trophy we all jumped back in the car to head back to Brighton before we needed to return the hire car. A long day and pretty successfully knackered out the kids but all in all a really fun day out.
Sarah's race splits and GPX on Strava
Three Forts Challenge (Sunday)
So after all the excitement of Saturday it was my turn to race on Sunday morning, at the Three Forts Challenge - a pretty tough hilly 44km race that I've done a couple of years in a row now.
Sarah and the girls were originally going to come along but we decided that it would be all a bit much to pack the girls into the car again so I decided just to take the train there and back instead. To be honest I was feeling really quite knackered after the last couple of days and so was thinking I'd be better off just using this as a fast training run rather than a full on race; so not having my supporters at the finish wasn't really a big deal. And I ended up bumping into the excellent Dan Skrobak on the train (who was doing the race as well) and so had someone to chat to on the way there and back anyway which was great.
I lined up at the start near the front after saying hello to Paul Sargent, (who beat me in last year's Three Forts and with whom I'd run a bit at the start of this year's SDW50) and a couple of minutes later we were off. The first bit is a narrow path that is the start of both the SDW50 and this race, so I know it pretty well now. Paul set off at the front and I slotted in behind him, thinking I'd get up this narrow bit and then probably drop back a bit and not push myself too hard.
But running is a funny old game. After a couple of guys went past myself and Paul on the first climb, I realised that I wasn't actually feeling that tired - I was just expecting to feel tired. But in fact my legs felt pretty sprightly, and I didn't even think that I was really working that hard, which surprised me as we were running at quite a good pace up the first section. Paul didn't seem too interested in pushing it to keep up with the two chaps that had come past us, so I made a snap decision to throw the 'training run' idea out the window, move past him and try and latch onto the guys in front.
As it turned out, I've never before run a race where I felt so strong, calm, and in control. I overtook the two lead guys on the road section of the climb up to Truleigh Hill and just revelled in powering over the out and back section of hills between Truleigh and Devils Dyke that I know so well. I stretched the gap between myself and the chap in second place slightly while flying on the downhill back to Botolphs, and just couldn't believe how good I felt. I've really never felt so in the zone in a race before, and I was loving it!
I maintained the gap of probably a minute or more over second place all the way to Chanctonbury Ring, feeling strong all the way. He seemed to be gaining on me slightly on the uphills, but I felt I was pulling away from him on the downhills, and I knew that the vast majority of the last 10km from that point on was fast, chalky downhill so I was feeling pretty confident of maintaing my position. I checked my watch and noticed that if I could run a sub 40 min last 10km I'd come in under 3 hours; around a 35min 10km would see me coming pretty close to (or even maybe under) the course record. Now a 35min 10k at the end of a 44km race sounds ridiculous, but actually on this long downhill section with only a few smallish hills I didn't think it would be totally impossible, so I nailed a caffeine gel and set off like a bat out of hell.
About five minutes later I was still feeling strong, fast and generally in control of everything when I managed to catch my toe on a rock whilst charging downhill and went absolutely flying. I pulled a full-on superman down the steep chalky-gravel hill, tearing up my arms, hand, knees and ribs nicely in the process and knocking the wind out of me totally. I rolled over onto my back and looked at the sky, trying to assess if I'd broken anything. A very nice lady doing the half marathon asked me if I was ok; I thought about it for a couple of seconds, determined I was still alive and then told her I was fine, threw myself back onto my feet and set off again.
Well the massive adrenaline rush lasted all of about 5 seconds and then I totally crashed. Suddenly I felt like all the life had been kicked out of me, the knee that had taken the brunt of the fall stiffened up and all motivation to carry on racing just washed out of me. I'm really amazed how I could go from one extreme of feeling untouchable to feeling utterly broken in just a few seconds, and really shows how much of a mental game running and racing is.
I was pretty powerless to do anything as the chap behind me came cruising past. He very kindly offered to run with me to the finish and asked me if I wanted a gel or anything, both of which I declined - he'd never backed off as I tried to push the pace throughout the race and thoroughly deserved to run his own race into the finish. All I could do was try and gut out the last sections, cursing myself all the way for being such a clod-footed idiot.
Despite the fall I still ended up going sub-3 hours (2:59:44 to be exact) for the 44km which I was really incredibly happy with. I ran a new (unofficial, of course) marathon PB of 2:53:02 along the way - my first sub 3 hour marathon effort in fact - and which I would never have expected on such a hilly course. Not bagging the first place that I was pretty sure was mine is of course gutting but nothing will take away from how strong I was feeling and how in control I felt of my own body. It's given me great confidence that I'm still getting quicker and that I haven't yet come near to plumbing the depths of what I can extract out of myself.
Just need to concentrate a bit more on staying on my feet and not being such a muppet next time I guess :-)
It turns out the guy who beat me was Robin Houghton, a Winchester runner who has previously placed 4th at the Lakeland 100 and who has run UTMB before. He is also running the SDW100 in June, and I have a sneaky feeling he's going to be pretty hard to beat on that course with his speed and his experience of hilly/mountain 100 milers!
GPS route and splits on Strava here