My Highest Running High - Winning Endure24 Part 3

As camp stirred awake I headed out for my first daytime lap of Day 2. I think I’d expected to feel upbeat in the daylight, but I had a real dip on this lap and my comment on our post lap handover sheet fully reflected my feelings at the time: “can’t be arsed”. I’d ranked how I was feeling as 5/10 so still not too bad all things considered. In my break I fuelled sensibly to make sure my low state was purely mental. As I was starting to feel down, Eleanor was starting to perk up again and I tried to hold on to some of her cheeriness. However, I think she’d been right and I think the double lap had taken it out of me. Miles 55-60 definitely included my low points in the race. I walked the whole lap. I had a few nice moments; bonding with other competitors with walking poles - we giggled about them being cheat sticks. I also drank the fizzy apple energy drink from the party bus that I was convinced was cider during the night laps! But overall, I was feeling pretty crap. My score was now 2/10 and my comment was “Sh*t, walked all the way. SO TIRED”.

Our table to track our progress:
Time of day, Lap number, Person, Shoes, Lap time, How did you feel.

As Eleanor was feeling good again, she set off on a double lap so I could try to sleep. Of course, the moment you tell your body it can sleep it wakes right back up. As it was now 8am I started thinking about having to pack up our tent and load our cars, and everything we’d have to do once we finished. As soon as I established that I had too much to do to be sleeping, I had a couple of paracetamol, some breakfast, and I started to pack up my gear. Once I was sorted, I stretched out in my awesome reclining camping chair and closed my eyes. About 3 seconds later Eleanor was back from her double lap. So much for getting some sleep!  

Eleanor had run that lap with a soloist we’d met (camping near us) and by their calculations Eleanor was done and she had completed her victory lap with him. As she handed over the wristband she burst into tears as she beamed “I can’t believe it’s over, we did it”. We’d won it. I just had to do my 1 lap and the race was ours. I wasn’t so sure...

It was 10:15am as I headed out for potentially my final lap. The paracetamol had worked their magic and I felt amazing! I ran past the awesome Bex Wheatley (who was running solo) and we shared some love and mutual respect which perked me up even more. The one thing that I hadn’t accounted for was the sun. It was getting pretty hot, pretty quickly, and because I’d last run at 7am then I wasn’t wearing sun cream. I did the calculations and reckoned that there was no way we could stop before the 24 hours was up if we wanted to be sure of the win. Going into the night we had a 2 lap lead but we had relaxed a bit, and walked some of the hills, and the gap was closing.

There was no way of knowing where on course your competitors were, so although we were a lap ahead, by my calculations we left ourselves vulnerable to them being able to start a lap at 11:59:59 and potentially beating us. That wasn’t something I was prepared to let happen. As I headed across the finish line I still felt great and so I dashed in to camp to tell Eleanor I was heading back out to ensure the win. It was around 11:15am and so I could walk a lap and secure the victory with no pressure to run. I told Eleanor to meet me at the finish in an hour (ish) so we could run across the finish line together and share the last few moments together. My error at this point was not grabbing a cap or putting on some sun cream.

I walk/jogged the last lap, which became just walking the further in to it I got. In the first mile I passed Matt Pinnock who had kept pushing and was on his final lap. If he got round, he would complete his 100 miles, but he looked how I was starting to feel: Tired, hot, and very low on energy. It was amazing how all of a sudden, when we were this close to the finish, it could all suddenly feel so far away. The paracetamol were wearing off and everything was starting to ache, especially my left knee. I’d never run further than around 35 miles and this lap would take me from 65 to 70 miles. No wonder I was struggling.

I also underestimated how dehydrated I was. I drunk a cup of water at the halfway water station but it was too little too late. As I passed the spot where the day before magical dust tornados had danced, lifting my spirits and enticing me on, I felt the oppressive heat of the sun and wanted to cry. Knowing there was little shade for the next mile I had to fight off tears. I realised how silly I was to be out for over 2 hours in the midday sun with no water, cap or sun cream after no sleep and running over 60 miles. I fought to the end of that lap but it almost broke me. As I came up the final hill I saw Eleanor looking happy and spritely as she skipped over to run in with me. We ran across the line, arms lifted in the air and this time we really had done it. We had won an endurance race!!! It was massive for both of us but we were pretty exhausted. I collapsed into the tent just as they were announcing that the prize giving was about to start.

Thank goodness we don't have to run any more! We did it!

Being given our trophies.

From this point on everything is a bit of a blur. I have faint memories of laying on the floor of the medical tent with ice on my very sore knee, as Matt Pinnock lay in a bed trying not to vomit. As all runners do, in the moments after pushing your body to the limit, we made quiet murmurings about how we’d never, ever, do it again (although we still figured it had been worth it). We were presented with our trophies, took some photos, packed up camp and headed home.

Happy but exhausted!

It was only a 20 minute drive but I was lucky to survive it. Driving home from that race is one of the most stupid decisions I have ever made. The car drifted across the white line to face oncoming traffic THREE times and each time I only just managed to regain enough control to avoid a crash. I’d run 70 miles, not slept and had heat stroke. It was definitely not safe to drive but I needed to get back to Poppy. I had massively misjudged the toll that the race had taken on me. Endurance races are not easy! Poor Matt even ended up spending the night in hospital! And he’s super-fast, super-fit and super-determined…he got his 100 mile T-shirt although I think he’s sticking to the ‘never again’.

Pain is temporary, winning is forever!

Eleanor and I never really had a full debrief! It’s funny how you can achieve something so amazing with somebody but see them so little. In the whole event we must have seen each other for the total of about an hour (that’s how slick our handovers were!).

The final results: Top 10 female pairs.

So would I do it again? You bet your life I would…I MAY have even signed up for next year as a soloist and I’m not even sure if I’m free that weekend!!! I’ve got my eye on Comrades really. I think I need to get all of the crazy out of my system so I can get back to running 5km and 10km where the risk of heat stroke, car crashes and hospitalisation is significantly reduced! Was it worth it? One hundred percent! That trophy will live on my shelf to remind me that I am stronger than I think and can achieve more than I think is possible. It also cements my friendship with one of the most incredible women I know. 

Breakdown of our laps. A huge 65 miles for Eleanor and 70 miles for me. ABSOLUTE MADNESS!!!

My Highest Running High - Winning Endure24 Part 2

There were only two things we disagreed on as a pair. The first was whether or not to do parkrun in the morning. If you know me, then you’ll know that if it is at all physically possible for me to get to a parkrun, then I’m parkrunning (regardless of how sensible it is!). The other thing we disagreed on was our approach to the laps. I felt that a two lap strategy was best but Eleanor was adamant that she wanted to go with alternating every lap - her thinking being that you didn’t really need to recover from a 5 mile run. Whereas a 10 mile run takes a bit more thought in terms of fuelling and hydration, as well as needing more recovery. We agreed to disagree on the parkrun and I agreed to go with the 1 lap strategy for the race…teamwork is about compromise after all.

I ran parkrun a bit faster than I should have (no vehicles were allowed on-site after 10:30am so there was a bit of a time pressure to get on our way). I ran home (too fast also), jumped in the shower and was ready (just about) to meet Eleanor at my car at the agreed time. We drove there feeling confident that we’d done all of the preparation we could, and that this race was for enjoying.

Keep Gallon Forwood ready to go!

Eleanor was going to run the first lap. It’s really fun to run first as everyone is out lining the course, cheering, and it has a brilliant big event feel. But seeing as I had just done parkrun then I was more than happy to let Eleanor go first.

One very excited Eleanor Gallon!

 We had a whiteboard to write each other messages during the event, and also a table to track what lap number we were on, how long the lap had taken us, what shoes we were wearing, and how we were feeling (it was a 1-10 system with 10 being brilliant and 1 being terrible). For the first few handovers we had agreed to wait in the solo entry/exit area so that we didn’t lose any time. Eleanor came back from her first lap beaming! “You’re going to love it” she grinned at me as she threw our team wristband at me, and off I went.

The course wasn’t exactly what I’d imagined. I’d imagined something similar to TR which is very technical trail running which I love (slaloms through the forest over rutted ground with tree roots and crazy hills and cambered descents). This course was very different. The inclines and the descents were relatively gentle and although it was technically ‘trail’ running it was mostly on path made up of dusty, stony ground. To be honest I was a bit disheartened after my first lap. It wasn’t the sort of trail running I love and the dust was just plain annoying! One hill in particular was like running on sand, not my cup of tea at all. Still, we ticked off a few laps each and after Eleanor handed the band to me for my third lap I shouted ‘all handovers at the tent from here’. The day was incredibly hot and the sun was now positioned so that there was little shade in the solo area and I felt that any shade should rightly be given to soloists. Each kilometer was marked with an inspirational sign, so I set a goal of trying to remember to read them all as I went round! 

I had a massage after 3 laps, Eleanor did after 4, so we were feeling quite fresh. After 5 laps each (25 miles in - almost marathon distance) we were still going strong. Our times were consistent, we both felt confident and at this point I was just starting to get in to it and really start to enjoy it. Unfortunately Eleanor was heading the other way and started feeling bad and had a headache. In our passing words at handover I shouted “are you eating and drinking enough? Make sure you are drinking enough!” It was super-hot and dehydration can be a game changer. We’d got to 25 miles each in a third of the time so we were well on track for 50 miles each…and what was more, we’d found out that we were in the lead! By more than a lap. I think it came as a surprise to both of us but we had been slick with our handovers and consistent with our running. The tantalising thought of winning crept back into both of our heads. Before it got too competitive I ran a lap with my phone so that I could take some photos. Whether we ended up winning or not we were going to want to remember this experience.

ENDURE!!!

I spent that next lap thinking about Eleanor. I hoped she was okay, it was very, very hot and although she had done some decent training, she had found all of her speed again but had never run this far. On the other hand I had the endurance but not quite her speed…we were a balanced team with different strengths. But what if she couldn’t carry on…? Could I? It was still early days in terms of the race and it was a long slog to the end if I was going to have to go solo. On that lap, as well as pondering the many ifs and buts of being part of a team, I also had moments of beautiful mindfulness. Watching the dust tornadoes swirl on the path in front of me and then dance off across the fields as I ran after them. There were some marshals by the VERY dusty, difficult hill and they had a spray bottle. If you requested they would spray your face with cold water as you ran past and it felt like pure heaven: A moment of cool in the baking heat and delivered with a smile and some words of encouragement, it was priceless. There was a huge ENDURE24 in 6 foot letters and numbers on one of the hills surrounding the course, but by the second lap the 2 had fallen down. ENDURE 4 was not a very inspiring message so I relished the moment when the 4 finally fell down too. ENDURE was a message I could get on board with…I would endure!

Beautiful sunset.

The woods before the sun set.

Fueling during my massage.

I was delighted that after her next lap Eleanor was feeling much better. Another lap and I’d completed 6 so it was time for my next massage. It turns out that 45 minutes is a perfect time period to change your kit, grab some food, go to the massage tent, get a 30 minute massage while eating and get back to the tent in time for handover. My food of choice so far had been to have, after each lap, a Linda Mccartney sausage sandwich with mayonnaise and ketchup, an orange club bar, some crisps and some watermelon (I’d packed enough food for a week so that I could eat what I fancied as I knew that at some point I’d not want whatever it was I’d planned to eat and therefore the secret to fuelling was to have options). The timing of Lap 6 meant I’d needed a torch with me as after 8.20pm torches were compulsory. We were now running into the night.

My baby-wipe wash!

As the miles, and so the number of laps, racked up, the column (on our scribbled out table of how we were feeling) inevitably saw numbers fall. The 9’s and 10’s were now 6’s and 7’s accompanied with comments like “same pace feels harder” and “headache”. The setting sun and the excitement of night running kept us going. In a bit to lift my spirits I gave myself a baby-wipe wash to get some of the sweat and sunblock off my skin and I re-plaited my hair. It’s amazing how the little things can make you feel so much better. I felt fresh and ready to go again!

Running through the night was liberating. I really loved running with my torch lighting up the way. I loved the fairy-lights out on the course which made certain sections feel magical. I loved hearing Cristopher Hartley’s bell in the forest (after figuring out where on earth he was marshalling…it took me a few laps!). I loved the bats flying around my head. I loved the patches of freezing fog that would suddenly end and you would run through what felt like beautiful warm air to take away the bite from the wet, cold, cloudy darkness. I loved running through the darkness towards the lights of camp and the finish straight, particularly when John Keys was standing cheering on the finish straight. The laps in the dark were some of my favourites.

Team communication: A note for each other after each lap
and our table to track laps and how we were feeling! 

Eleanor had planned to have a shower after lap 7 but there were logistics to consider. A break of around 45minutes was tight timing so she prepared everything and after coming in from lap 8 off she went. Unfortunately, as I handed over the wristband Eleanor explained that, despite it being midnight, there was a queue for the showers and a queue was something we didn’t have time for. She was feeling a bit rotten and really needed a shower. I was loving the night running, so decided that on our next handover I would start a double lap so Eleanor could go and have a proper shower. For one thing it was cooler and after a scorching day I was embracing the feeling of being cold. At around 2am I headed out with some food and my walking poles to run a double lap. I ran the first lap walking just on the hills, and as I started the second lap, I got a beautiful warm feeling in my tummy as I realised that the sun was about to wake up. I ran-walked the second lap while watching the sun rise.

Sunrise on Day 2. The fog from the night still lay on the ground.

There was a water station halfway round the lap and it had jelly energy shots. I’d asked on previous laps if they were vegetarian…they certainly were. Vegan apparently! I’d not needed them until now but with over 45 miles in my legs and at 3 in the morning I decided I needed an energy boost. I grabbed a few blocks, had a drink and headed off. As I ate them I realised I had no clue what I was eating, I couldn’t even tell what flavour it was! I had a lovely moment with a fellow runner when I asked if they knew and we both decided that the flavour could only be described as red! Mmmmm red (it was really pretty disgusting but a much needed energy boost nonetheless). Towards the end of this lap, as I reached my 50 mile target, a red kite hung in the air over my head as I pushed up the dusty hill and I took comfort from the feeling that Ben was with me and was proud of me.

4am sports massage

I ran back into camp feeling strong and as I handed over to a fresh and strong looking Eleanor I said “take your phone, you’re going to want to take pictures of this. The sunrise is beautiful!” and off she went to complete her 10^th lap (50^th mile). I headed off for my next massage and was pleased to see Matt Pinnock in the massage tent. I was pleased to see him for about a minute and then realised that he looked in terrible shape-I was pretty worried! His race had started fantastically and Matt was one of the fastest men to complete the first 5 or so laps but now he looked very, very cold. I tried to insist on giving him some kit but he said his dad was already on it, at least he had some good support. Through the freezing fog he had run in a shorts and a vest (proper Yorkshire tough) but as I lay there shivering in my full leggings, long sleeved top, dressing gown and blanket he lay under his blanket looking distinctively less cheery. Matt was running solo which was a whole different ballgame. Any time in the massage tent is time you’re losing out on course. I didn’t envy him at all as he headed out of the tent for another lap as he made his way towards his 100 mile target.

It was just before 5am and we had reached our target: 50 miles each ticked off. Whatever came next was us surpassing our expectations and that was a great feeling. It felt slightly less great to think about the next 7 plus hours of racing ahead of us! Being in the lead was starting to feel like a responsibility…

50 MILES BABY!

My Highest Running High - Winning Endure24 Part 1

At the start of the year one of my aims was to run a 100 mile week. It came from a conversation with an old running friend Matthew Crehan. The deal was that he had to run 120 miles in a week and I had to run 100. At the time it felt crazy but crazy is good right? What’s life with no crazy???

Making crazy running plans!

Matt completed his in December and so I was keen to keep up my end of the bargain. I planned an 80 mile week followed by 100 miles the week after, but as it was early January I had one eye watching the weather. It’s not an ideal time of year to attempt a challenge like this. I started the 80 mile week and had planned to front load the week, to get the heavy mileage done, so I could have a few lighter ‘rest-like’ days before starting 100 the following week. As the week progressed I was feeling great, and by Wednesday I’d clocked up 55 miles and was still feeling pretty fresh. Looking ahead I saw snow and ice forecast the following week, so (despite 66 miles being the most I’d ever run in a week previously) I decided to go for it and do the 100. I racked up the rest of the miles pretty easily and finished with a Varsity XC race on the Saturday and a 10 mile trail race on the Sunday (Temple Newsam 10). It was an amazing week and in my head it surpassed anything I thought I could achieve with my running. But…it was easier than I thought it would be. I’d felt strong, focussed and had really enjoyed the week!

Less than a week later I saw a post from my dear friend Eleanor Gallon saying she fancied running Endure24* (E24) as a pair but needed a partner. I had already signed up to Thunder Run** (TR) which was only 3 weeks after E24 but there was little pressure as I’d signed up to TR solo so I could take it as easy as I wanted. Eleanor and I signed up as a female pair (Team name - Keep Gallon Forwood). It’s pretty hard to train for a 24 hour race as hammering yourself with loads of heavy mileage is probably just going to make you very tired and fairly likely to get injured. 

I took a lot of confidence from the hundred mile week. It was such a jump in mileage so I knew that my body seemed to cope with large increases in workload. My training peaked with a 50 mile week, 3 weeks before, which included two back-to-back long run days. The second day included a short run in the morning with a longer run in the afternoon The longer run included coming back home, having a 45 minute rest and refuel, and going back out to finish my run. The idea was to simulate starting running again on tired legs after eating when I probably wasn’t going to feel like running…only something wonderful happened. Because I’d been used to big mileage this concept of breaks for food and rest was amazing! Imagine running a marathon with a few food stops and sit-downs included! Sounds like my sort of running! I was on board!

Eleanor had been beyond excited about this for WEEKS, since the very moment we signed up in fact! I’m not entirely sure she’d thought about anything else which made her the perfect partner. Her excitement was infectious and so we were both hyped and even started thinking we’d quite like to win! We’d looked at the previous year’s results and knew that we could run further. The winning female pair had run 12 laps (60 miles) which we knew would probably be beaten this year (these events become more popular year on year) but it was a bit of an unknown as the previous year at Leeds had also been the first ever year. 

Over the coming weeks we poured over the details. We reckoned slick handovers were the answer and we also thought we should place heavy emphasis on conservation of energy. We decided not to handover in the team handover area, it was too busy and we’d waste a lot of time and energy on predicting our partner’s time, and standing waiting for them. We decided handovers at the tent would be best. Whatever time or energy we’d lose in the extra distance to the tent would be more than made up for by the extra rest we’d get.

Our confidence and focus took a bit of a knock when the Reading results came out. Endure24 Reading is 3 weeks before the Leeds event and the winning female pair had run 29 laps! TWENTY NINE LAPS! That’s 145 miles! It just wasn’t something we thought we could do and it was a good reality check for us to make us realise that we couldn’t control who else entered or how good they would be. All we could do is do everything in our power to have a good race and do the best we could. With slightly more realistic heads on we set our initial target. We would try to get to 50 miles each, if we both made it to 50 miles, then we’d go from there.

We decided to go and pitch our tent and take most of our kit on the Friday morning as soon as the site opened. We’d get a good spot and get the rest of the day to relax. We set off in convoy and arrived at Bramham Park at 9:55am (the site opened at 10am). We joined the queue of cars and giddily bopped to music as we tried to contain our excitement. At 10am on the dot cars were let in and we found a spot right by the start/finish, the solo entry/exit point, and the toilets. What more could you need?! It was only 10.30am but it was super-hot and by the time we pitched the tent we were both already sweating. The forecast for the weekend was set to get much hotter! We set out our beds, laid out our kit and went to register. We took some photos and looked around the site. There was already a real festival vibe and the multi-coloured flags looked beautiful in the bright sunshine, fluttering in the light breeze. We couldn’t wait! We headed home and waited for Saturday morning.

Team Keep Gallon Forwood!

Festival vibes ☼

Was I ready to run, run, run, repeat...?

Preemptive complaining of the pain my legs would feel!  

 * A 24 hour endurance race at Bramham Park in Leeds made up of 5 mile loops of trail running. Endure24 is also in Reading several weeks before the Leeds event.

** Another 24 hour endurance race at Catton Park made up of 10 km loops of trail running.