I finally got in one longer run of 30km the week before last and although slow I managed to include some decent elevation and had no hip flexor or knee pain. Hurrah. See link below for my first attempt at videoing whilst running. (It’s a w.i.p.).

https://youtu.be/C4XiWUPUv8U?si=IRYRkwCAS8sBOsBv

This last week I’ve been taking it easier (sort of). I’ve only done 10 hours of training this week compared to 13 last week and 15 the week before that.

Hiking:

On the one hand my hiking mileage has been crazy for weeks so I wanted to reduce that:

Running:

My running has been sliding off the planet over the last month as I was resting my hip flexor / this co-incided with our hiking holiday so I didn’t want to do too much of both.

Strength:

I’ve been fairly consistent about this. The main change was adding in lots of specialised single leg/ single arm work to help balance out weaknesses and work on stability around the pelvis when running. I’m really enjoying this type of gym work and spend ages on instagram scrolling for ideas of new and crazier things to do. It keeps it interesting.

I’ve also started to work on being able to do a pull up. I’m not sure I will ever be able to do this at my current weight. The women I see doing this are generally pretty tiny but its fun working on the process of trying to get there. These are the steps I’ve seen on instagram to build up the strength for this:

I) Practice ‘hangs’. Find a high bar that is taller than you. Hang on to it with your hands (palms forward). You have to try and build up to hang for 30 seconds x 3 times. I’m currently up to 21 seconds (lol).

2) Start doing scapula pull ups. Basically you are hanging on the bar but now you are doing a mini ‘shrug’. It’s a tiny movement (like the start of a pull up).

3) Pull ups lying on the ground. Lie on your back and find a bar at knee height or a bit higher. Lift yourself up whilst holding onto the bar. Initially you keep most of the body on the ground. Build up to lifting your bum off (kind of like an inverted plank).

4) Hang a long band in a loop around the high bar and put your knees into it. Use this for assistance to do your pull up.

5) Do pull ups!

I’m currently doing 1, 2 and 3 at different times. I’m a long way from 4 though.

Here was my weight training schedule recently.

The Ultra:

I’ve already worked out I could be the last person in next week’s Ultra. My average pace on the last 30km is the same as the person who was last in the Ultra last year. Oops lol. I was also intending to video a lot of the run (for people who like to see a course before signing up – I do this). This will make me a little slower also. So I’m a bit torn between the need to speed up ever so slightly as I kind of don’t want to be last in and not overdo it as I don’t want to actually race at all. In fact the Ultra is just a training run for me. During a training run you should keep your heart rate low. My ultimate goal is RAS and everything else is just training towards it. So I need to be calm and collected and not do anything stupid to risk injury or burnout. Fingers crossed also that its not too hot. I think I’ve written enough on that by now you all know how much that disagrees with me.

The Peak Challenge 100km:

I’m going to be real here. I am already thinking I may not do the whole 100km. Chris fully intends to finish. I have the opportunity to duck out at 50km or 75km as its done in 25km loops. The problem I have, is that longgggg distance is a mental game. You will inevitably reach a point where everything aches and you are exhausted and you want to stop. If this was my last race for the foreseeable future; I could push myself through the pain and finish. The difficulty I have. is that it isn’t my final race and its also not my ‘A’ race. Again it’s a training hike. I picked it as we will be walking through the night – something I wanted to practice.

I therefore, have to be sure I finish it with the ability to get back to training a week later without any injuries.

When I’m out there in the night after 65km and everything hurts…how will I know if I should go on because its just ‘a bit of aching and tiredness’ or if I should stop because ‘there is potential to ruin training for the next few weeks’. I’m already thinking I won’t know the difference. So I think Chris and I have in mind that I might stop before 100km already. However, we will see. Either way I’ll be there at the end to clap my husband through the finish line.

RAS:

Ah RAS. I’m excited by this but also very nervous that I’ll be undertrained. I know it must seem like I’m always doing ‘loads’ but when I look at online training plans I do far far less than the recommended amount. I also read Ultra groups posts on Facebook and do about half the mileage they do. So sometimes I wonder if I’m undercooking it. That said. I can only do what I can do and it’s better to get to the starting line than miss it due to overtraining. Still its scary not knowing how my body will cope with the continuous style of event where you go from day to night over and over with barely any sleep. How will I cope running/hiking 80-100km a day? It’s a complete unknown how my body will react and if I’m even capable and thats nerve wracking. It’s also very exciting. I guess doing events you ‘know’ you can do is no longer as thrilling. There needs to be an element of ‘can I?’.

In other news I really need to nail my nutrition. I seem to be gaining weight monthly and although I know why, I find it hard to curb my bad habits (multiple lattes, cake, booze on the weekends etc). One of these days I’ll get the same willpower for eating healthily that I possess for training. It would really make those pull ups easier…

Wow. I’m bushed. Last week I started the week painting the kitchen a rather lovely shade of pale yellow (well it says lemon squash on the tin).

During the week I was training hard albeit doing cross training as I was trying to rest my left hip flexor, which had continued to play up. I also continued to work on strength (in particular my left gluteus medius (our main ‘bum’ muscles are split into maximus, medius and minimus – the medius part sits to the upper/slightly outside) to improve the stability in the pelvis.

After spending a few weeks working on ‘medius’ strengthening exercises, let’s just say I’m starting to get better at cone touches….

On Friday last week, we set off for Uttoxeter to begin our holiday hike of the Limestone Way on the Saturday. The way is 46miles long plus 6 miles to get to the “start”. Technically it starts in Castleton and finishes in Rocester but we walked it the other way around. We took our rucksacks full of camping gear and intended to cover the length of the way in 3 days.

Although I’m an ueber light camper/backpacker (think total weight nerd who weighs all components I have to carry and you’ll start to get the picture); I none the less struggled on this occasion with the heaviness of the backpack over the distance and with the heat. More on the walk below.

By the end of last week (Sunday) we had walked two days of the Way and totalled 17 hours of exercise (none of which included running!).

This week began with a 24km hike on the Monday to finish our walk of the route to Castleton. Normally I have a rest day on a Monday and will admit I felt every bit of this walk. On Tuesday (having stayed over in Castleton) we walked just 8km over Mam Hill to Edale and stopped at the penny pot cafe (an old favourite). The idea had been to walk back over the tops down into Castleton via Hollins Cross but I pleaded with Chris to get a train to Hope instead where we could walk a nice easy flat 3km back to the YHA. My feet were really sore and the heat was wiping me out.

On Wednesday we had originally planned to do a longer walk home but instead headed for Hope station and took the train home, needing only to cover the 3km back to the station. This felt like the right choice. I guess sometimes you know the body needs a rest.

Once home although taking a rest day from sport, the work on the house began. Having decided to put it on the market, we wanted to make it photo ready. The indoor pictures will be taken tomorrow so we spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday – Saturday doing DIY touch ups, decluttering and cleaning. It’s not that the place looked bad at all but it now looks really great. So much so, its tempting not to go (ha ha). But we are downsizing and getting ready for the next stage of our life in a smaller home. Early retirement with a good dose of running, hiking, cycling and general sportery thrown in for good measure.

Before the start of each days activities of cleaning, glossing, we did our beloved sports. Time at the gym, a run, a swim. By 9pm each evening we have both felt utterly shattered. Thankfully, despite all the crazy walking mileage and general busyness I managed a 2 hour run today and felt surprisingly good. No hip flexor twinges at all. Hazaah and phew.

So back to the Limestone way…

Day 1:

We set off from our “lovely” Premier Inn in Uttoxeter on the Staffordshire Way to Rocester. It was an easy and pretty walk, although we found ourselves knee deep in grassy fields for a lot of it. After a decent vedgy sausage butty in the pretty village of Rocester, we continued onto the Limestone Way until our first stop for the evening at Callow Top campsite west of Ashbourne. The weather was ‘extremely’ kind i.e. a bit too hot. For both of us this meant lots of suncream and for me this also meant lots of Vaseline on my toes, armpits and back to reduce chafing. I should of taken talc for my feet but forgot this little nugget of knowledge. I used it throughout JOGLE so not sure why I forgot. My feet did indeed pay the price for this later with blisters. Despite all this, the day was only 22km so we got to our stop for the night mid afternoon with plenty of time to relax.

The campsite at Callow Top is a holiday park so facilities were excellent. We had our own mini pitch for the two tents, with hedges to the left and right of our area (we carry a single man tent each).

There was a swimming pool which I had been keen to get in but upon arriving realised it was full of ankle biter dwellings so decided to give it a miss. There was a lovely pub offering yummy food, so we had showers, washed some clothes and went in to hide from the sun with a pint of cider and pie n chips.

Day 2:

This was a hard hard day. We started off on the Limestone Way and continued on this until Parwich, where we were hoping for a cafe stop. My bad. There is no cafe there and the pub wasn’t opening until 11am. We arrived at 10am so waiting was not an option. This was particularly annoying as it was incredibly hot and our bladders only carry 2litres each. We knew there would be no further stop until 3km before Moneyash. This would mean a total hiking of 25km through the day (5 hours) on just 2 litres of water. Not only that, but we would need to cook a dehydrated meal en route and use some of the water for that. We decided to keep it slow and take small sips of water here and there, trying to keep it going for as long as possible.

After Parwich I should add that we diverted onto the Peak District Boundary Walk and then the Midshires Way (otherwise known as Pennine Bridleway). This was due to the Limestone way taking a sharp turn east before heading back North west adding another 10km to the day compared to the route we took. This was originally an administrative planning error on my end but on the day it proved absolutely necessary. 28km was more than enough in that heat carrying backpacks.

Midway we stopped to share a pack of rehydrated chilli and rice and take a rest.

The Pennine Bridleway turned out to be a blessing. Not only is it stunning (You are up high with views for miles all around you) but we realised this would be an excellent place to go for a days mountain biking at some point.

Despite the beauty of it all, I admit to suffering to the point of not enjoying the last 8km. This is inevitable in long races or on a mad solo adventure. In these cases you are mentally prepared for the low points where it gets ‘hard’. But my mind was not ready for so much discomfort on a “holiday” and I struggled to get my head around this.

I was so tired and overly hot, that I resorted to mind games to keep myself going (typically the ones I would use on an Ultra). Don’t look at your watch until you get around this next bend. Then the next bend or wait until you’ve gone around two or more maybe. Chris said that I actually sped up during this time although I really don’t remember. I was fixated ahead, on each ‘next’ corner and the swift click click of my walking sticks. Anything to not think about the sore back and hot feet.

3km before Moneyash we came across the Blueberry kiosk cafe at Parsley Hay. I can’t describe how blissful this was! It was like spotting an oasis in a desert. Vedgy pies, coca colas and coffees were had by all.

There were toilets and an outdoor tap to top up water bottles. What else could a person need. Considerably happier we set off for our campsite for the night – Lathkill Dale.

The campsite was brilliant. I’ve been there before so was looking forward to staying again. You get your own ‘field’ per person or group of you. This was of considerable size and we had four tables to ourselves. The facilities were good and best of all, the pub was only 10 minutes down the road. Perfect. We finished off the day with another stodgy pub meal and plenty of cider.

Day 3:

It was another hot day and it was with some relief we were on our last day of the way. This sounds very wrong when you consider how utterly beautiful it was for the entire route. None the less this is how I felt. I guess the heat was just wearing on energy levels.

This was probably the prettiest day for me. We hiked up and up, then down (for what seemed like forever) into Millers Dale, where we stopped for food and drinks. After that we headed towards Hay Dale. This was gorgeous. Fields with millions of flowers and hills on either side.

There was more climbing through the day until we crested our final hill, which overlooked Castleton. The long descent to our final stop was stunning but slower going as we came to a long rocky and more technical downhill bit. With my feet on fire this seemed to take me ages but it always helps the views are beautiful (see below).

Once down into the village we stopped for coffee and cake before making the final mile to our YHA for the night.

I can highly recommend the Limestone Way and indeed the Limestone/Pennine Bridleway combo, which we did.

Now for a well earned rest this evening. I’m also looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. Yes!

I know, I know. If I complain about being able to take early retirement that would make me the worst human. So go ahead and tut, shake your heads in disgust.

The thing is though. I didn’t leave my job in a particularly positive frame of mind and it wasn’t intentional to leave that soon. I left because of stress, which mentally left me in a bad place. Initially the relief at not working kicked in. I was hyper, happy and giddy all at once. Then the realisation sinks in that you can do your beloved sports training whenever you want, go on longer walks and even take up yoga. It’s all great.

Shortly after this phase another feeling started to kick in. I couldn’t quite place it at first. It felt like – sadness. This week it really hit me. I have no current intellectual purpose. My life is full of sport, friends and in general selfish enterprises. At some point this doesn’t feel quite so fulfilling. What am I useful for? Am I needed for anything? Where did my brain go?

Funnily enough this new phase of mental and emotional indulgence has co-incided with some really tight hip flexors (muscles in your hip that enable you to pick up the leg towards the body – providing strength and flexibility in your hip area). It’s not uncommon for me to get tight hip flexors so I kind of know the score. Take a day or two of rest; cross train for a while and start (or rather restart) looking at hip flexor stretches and strengthening exercises. Also increase the glute strength work as this helps (buttock muscles).

At the beginning of the week I went swimming for the first time in many months. It was great and I loved it. The only downside was that I didn’t realise what time they closed the lanes so only swam for 35 minutes before I was thrown out unceremoniously by someone who looked about 14. She must of been older. It’s a sign of age isn’t it, when everyone looks so young.

The next day I went out on my mountain bike. This brought on my usual bike anxiety (even though I find mountain biking a lot less scary than road biking). I’m glad I made myself go though with it. As always I felt so much better for pushing myself out of the door and conquering my mini fear (well for that occasion anyway).

Outside of the above, there were some strength workouts (including with my PT; although this was a workout together as mates). I managed two runs including one with hubs. We ran well and covered a decent amount of elevation even though the run was much shorter than I had on the dreaded ‘training plan’. Finally today I went out on a short but beautiful walk. It involved taking a train to Chinley and then another back from New Mills so it was quite time costly, despite it only being a 10km walk. I wanted to do this route, however, as its not only very steep at the beginning (which weirdly I love) but has stunning vistas at the top of the third hill (its one of those walks where you keep thinking you’ve hit the top only to see another brow ahead).

So back to the ‘blues’. I was in a proper funk when I woke up this morning (as I have been on and off all this week). Following the climb to the crest of the hill, I felt joyous again. It’s amazing how uplifting just being outdoors is.

In the longer term, however, I need to find something else to occupy my mind. I’m not sure what it will be yet. Maybe a paid job, maybe voluntary work. Maybe something else. I’d always thought I would take most of this year off, whatever happened. So we will see. Yes I know this makes me incredibly lucky and I’m massively aware of how blessed I am. Still. The need to rewake the brain and have a sense of purpose is there. I think it’s natural and instinctive. Until I can come up with something better, I’ve decided to redecorate our kitchen. 🤔

It’s been a funny few weeks of achieving a lot in training combined with periods of backing off……..

Following last weeks ‘recovery’ week, I’ve had a busy 7 days in every sense.

The beginning of the week started with me visiting my sister and her husband. It was lovely to see them, especially as its been a long time since I’ve travelled South to visit. We did a lot of walking and chatting and naturally made time for a lovely pub meal. The weather was kind. It wasn’t hot but it didn’t rain at least.

On Thursday I spent the day on a beginners map reading course in the peaks. It was brilliant and I’m very interested in going back to do further courses. Although I feel I should practice the initial skills I’ve learned first. I remember in the girl guides we were taught some of the basic symbols on the map. Car park/Church/River etc. However, I haven’t truly tried to read a map for navigation in a long time.

These days I plan all my running including the JOGLE run I did (from John o Groats to Lands End) using my Garmin watch. It’s brilliant, so why not? The problem with the watch of course is that it could run out of battery/break down. Imagine if that happened in the middle of nowhere. The other issue is that I feel very wary when I’m running through multiple fields and relying only on the purple line and what it tells me. At times I doubt the line. I think a map would give me confidence and a sense of backup on this terrain.

The course gave me exactly what I was after. We were each taught some basics in a classroom before setting off on a 10km walk up onto Shatton Moor. We stopped often and would be taught many different aspects of map reading on our stops. The first interesting point was time. The leader had a stop watch which he kept resetting. The average group of people hike 4km an hour which is 100 metres every 1.5 minutes. Of course you need to find your own average speed and modify this for hills. But this initial timing suggestion was very accurate for our group as a whole. This can help confirm your belief that this turn is the correct one to take. We learnt about boundaries (hedgerows, fences etc), different types of public paths, accessible land and the absolute clincher; contours. It’s amazing what these little fellas can tell you when you really start to analyse them. All in all, I highly recommend the course to anyone interested in map reading.

For my next adventure I’ll plan a walk/run using a map and follow that without the handy Garmin route to navigate. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll keep you posted.

I was supposed to run on Friday but I was feeling incredibly tired so decided to rest up instead. It’s rare I do this but it’s important to listen to your body and establish that fine line between ‘this wont be good for me today and I’m just being a bit lazy’.

On Sunday I dragged myself out onto my long run. I’m pleased I’ve now got this up to 30km and was more than prepared to do some intermittent walking in true ‘Ultra race style’. Typically you can walk the uphills and run the most of the rest or some people follow a stricter regime of walk 1 mile out of every 6th for example. I tend to go by feel. It was beautiful weather on Sunday and the route was all hills for the first half. Thankfully I felt great and was enjoying the ups, the downs and some of the technical in betweens.

In the second half I was reminded that running directly after a peanut butter wrap can lead to a bit of tummy discomfort so slowed down accordingly (all practice for Ultras – you cant stop for an hour after eating so practicing different types of nutrition combined with different paces is paramount).

The gripes soon passed and I picked up the pace. Out of nowhere, I started to notice a niggle in my left knee. I should add that I never get knee problems when running. I’m more of a sore hip kind of gal. But hey it’s all linked I guess and my left thigh muscles have been very tight of late. For the last 3km I had to slow down and walk occasionally, especially on the downhill. I’ve now read up on this and have to self conclude its a low dose of ‘runners knee’. The advice appears to be rest for a few days, ice, elevate etc blah. After that keep on running but make the runs shorter and less hilly. Sitting around will not help it so you need to keep moving without aggravating it too much. In the meantime I need to add some hip flexor strengthening exercises to my routine. My quadriceps (thighs) are already very strong but my hips are not and I expect this causes issues. So exercises with bands and wotnot will kick off in a few days. The excitement is palpable 😆.

In the meantime I am looking forward to swimming tomorrow and cycling on Wednesday. Some good old cross training and a chance to give my running legs a rest.

This week I learnt a valuable lesson about randomly inserting long hikes into my training plan.

Two weeks ago I over trained. I didn’t really realise this at the time as I was looking at my hikes and runs as separate beings. The week after (last week) I started to notice my hip flexors were very tight. I cut back on running a little and tried to stretch out key muscles as much as possible. This week I started to notice other twinges. A small ooh in my Achilles, another ow in my IT band. So I cut back on the running some more. In fact I dropped from an average of 6 hours running a week to just 1.5 hours.

Before fully working out the issue, I went on two lovely hikes this week. Pretty decent hilly hikes too. The first one was a short but lovely climb of Chinley Churn from Chinley train station. I went with my son to spend some quality time together. The climb was steep and gravelly in places but it was fun. Once at the top we enjoyed beautiful views followed by a gentle descent down to the lovely Sett Valley Cafe for some early lunch. From there it’s a short walk to New Mills Station where we caught the train home. It was only 10km in total but I’d highly recommend it as a good hilly walk with great views. We were also blessed with the weather although it was incredibly windy.

For my second hike of the week I camped over in Edale with my husband on Thursday night and walked home again the next day. It’s been a while since we’ve been camping. I do love it, but it was a ‘tad’ cold. I borrowed Chris’s sleeping bag as mine only has a comfort rating down to 4 degrees and it was going to be just 2 or 3 degrees at night. Having said that; his only went down to 2. It’s generally not great if you reach the minimum comfort rating for your bag. You will be warm enough (just) but its not ideal. I kept all my clothes on including my coat all night. I slept ok but my feet were very cold in the morning and I really didn’t want to get out of my bag and go outside when I woke up.

The first 20 minutes in the morning were not the most pleasant. I went to the ladies to take off my socks, try and warm up my feet and put on clean socks. This helped a bit but two of my toes were still white. Chris and I both have one man tents so he retreated to his cocoon to warm his stove and coffee and I did the same in mine. I generally heat the stove in the gap between my inner and outer tent. It’s a decent one by three feet space so quite safe for my tiny stove. Once my beloved latte was heated up I sat warming my hands around the metal cup and tucked my feet back into my sleeping bag.

This was followed by a porridge pot. It was ok but I prefer the golden syrup ones to the plain ones. Something to remember next time. Chris enjoyed some Soba noodles over in his abode.

It was time to get a move on, despite the cold so we started packing up our sleeping bags, mats and other bits and pieces. Tents were dismantled last and finally everything was stuffed into our rucksacks in that specific order that makes sense to the individual. For me its tent at the bottom, spare clothes at the top. Snacks in outer pockets.

The hike itself was well known to us. Its’s 27km with all the uphill from the off. We started at the beginning of the pennine way and followed it up over Jacobs Ladder before coming off the way and heading down over stony tracks into Hayfield. From there we set off down the Sett Valley trail and found ourselves at the Sett Valley Cafe (for me, the second time in one week).

Normally I would have the cinnamon toast (which again I have to recommend), but on this occasion I was hungrier, so opted for a veggie sausage butty instead.

The rest of the walk was 13km but it’s all flat. The difficulty of flat walking is in how boring it can get but we tend to amuse ourselves talking to sheep and singing songs. We also had a small section where the path was cut off by a fence. The workman said he couldn’t think of any good reason for this and that we could go around it if we wished. This involved a one minute emulation of the Barkley marathon i.e. a scrabble up a thorny bank and climbing over a low wall.

In the last section, we had a much needed second coffee stop, which was a good opportunity for me to change clothes (see last weeks sweaty runner blog).

Other than that the rest of the week I managed two strength sessions and unusually one swim. This was instead of a run to help give my hips a longer rest. The tightness is easing already (as of today) but I’ve now booked into see the sports masseur tomorrow to ensure I stay on top of these things when they arise.

The main lesson learnt this week was that whilst my running schedule is highly structured and well thought out, my hikes have been all over the place. I’ve done 2 hours one week then 6 hours the next with tons of climbing. I realise this is why I’ve had some issues. Hiking counts as training for the ultra runs. Particularly for the one across Scotland as I’m likely to walk 20% of the time. So when I increase my hiking I need to cut my running down and vice versa. I’ve now amended my plan with this in mind and hope to avoid anymore pre injury ‘alerts’. Fingers crossed.

I’m sitting here on a Sunday evening with my legs up in a recliner chair. I’m resting my tired/tight hip flexors.

I’ve been pretty good at creating my own training programme this year, that is both slowly progressive and yet has built in sufficient recovery that I don’t get over tired or injured.

This week, however, I made an error in my calculations. I calculate running volume (so number of hours run) by week. My week is Monday to Sunday. In theory this method works. Last week I ran for 6 hours and this week I ran for 6.5 hours (in total). So far so good.

My mistake was in forgetting that I changed the running days around last week. In fact I’d changed my long run from Friday to Sunday last week and then done it this week on Friday as normal. Thus the following statements are both true. From Monday-Sunday this week I’ve run 6.5 hours (which is fine). From Sunday last week to this Saturday however, I’ve run 8.5 hours (not so good).

I forgot that you need to look at the week on a rolling basis. For now, I have a rest day tomorrow and will remember this little ‘rolling’ issue going forwards. Hopefully a day resting and stretching will put me to rights.

Yes I know. This is all quite boring training maths. But it’s a thing I do look at and have to think about. Perhaps some people are more robust but I need to ensure I don’t overtrain.

Outside the above, I’m very happy with where I’m at. This week I’ve covered 51km of running, 6km of walking (this fell short this week), done two yoga sessions and 3 very hard gym sessions (probably also the reason for my current John Wayne walk).

Typically in training for multi-day races people will reach up to 60-70 miles (96-110km) of running miles a week. So I’m away off that yet but I’m on my way there and doing ok – so hurrah. 🎉

Arriving at the National Water Centre on Saturday, ready to register and giddy with utter terror, I lined up in the queue.

A volunteer with ‘Outlaw’ written on her T-shirt leaned over. “Have you heard about the swim?”

“What no, why?”

“It’s been cancelled. High levels of blue-green algae.”

I stared at her and made her repeat it. “What no swim? Really?” After 7 months of training hard and overcoming various obstacles on the way I was not ready to hear this.

Let me be clearer still. I had signed up to an Ironman twice during the pandemic and both times it had been cancelled. The latter was in the final stages where it looked like it could go ahead but alas was not to be.

For 7 months I had dreamt only of that selfish moment when you run through the arch and someone shouts over the tanoy ‘you are an Ironman!’. Now one thing was certain. I would not hear those words.

Getting to Nottingham also took a lot of organisation. My husband had been suffering from a bad back so we had changed to driving over in a van at the last minute. The higher seat was better for him. There were moments when we both wondered if it was going to happen. I should explain that I’m not a confident long distance driver and taking bike kit, swim kit, running kit and a bike by train would be extremely challenging.

So we made it. We were here. I reflected briefly on what I might of done had I known about the cancellation before leaving home. I may have decided not to do it at all. No point in having those thoughts though. We were indeed now here. So I would get on with it and do my best.

Instead of the swim, Outlaw made some very last minute changes to the transition area and gave us a 5km run to do before the bike and before the marathon to finish. Thus the race would be a ‘long distance duathlon’. It doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?

Onwards and upwards. We put the stickers on my bike and I made my way into the transition area to rack it in my spot indicated by my matching number 149. I met a lady there as we were also walked through how the transition would work.

“Oh you must be a good swimmer”.

“Oh why do you say that? I was expecting to be mid pack”.

“It’s your number. It’s based on your estimated swim time. I’m 671. I am expecting to take two hours.”

“Oh”. This should of been flattering but I felt crushed. The only discipline I had a shot at being better than average at was being cut. “Oh I see.”

For the rest of Saturday I was a bag of nerves and probably not a lot of fun to be around. There is something about triathlon that is far scarier than a running race. For me anyway.

On race morning I got up at 4.50am which was a massive lie in compared to what it would of been had I been doing the swim. It still felt very early though.

I went through my routine. Have a coffee, bagel, jam and a banana. Start sipping my high energy drink and finish checking my transition bags. Done.

We got to the site with some time to spare but not so much you would get bored. I put my ‘swim to bike’ and ‘bike to run’ bags in transition on my peg and went over to the start area.

They were setting people off for the 5km run in groups of 50 every minute according to your number. I looked nervously around me. All the people near me looked like they had spent their life in the gym and should model for triathlon suits. Yikes. My placing there was only based on my swim, not my run. I decided to stay to the left so they could all run past me when we started.

The gun went and I felt my ears burning at the sound of rapid feet rushing past my right ear. Every now and again a new batch of 50 would come past me reminding me that these people saw this as a race even from the start. I joined a little group of folks who seemed like minded. We all wanted to take the first 5km easy and enjoyed chatting as we jogged around. It was going to be a really long day so why kill yourself in the first half hour?

Into transition and I found myself taking it so easy I had to keep making a mental note to myself, that I did actually need to get a move on. There was a genuine sense of ‘why bother its not an Ironman’. I can admit that. In a way it took away the nerves, which was a good thing. A self inflicted mental kick up the bum was given and I was on my way running with my bike to the starting line where a volunteer tells you, you can now mount your bike.

Setting off around the lake we then swiftly found ourselves on very big flat fast roads, separated by large sprawling roundabouts. There were cones set out so you could get around without having to worry about traffic. Marshalls on every turn to guide you and always with a smile.

After about 20km of aero helmeted cyclists with very fancy expensive bikes zooming past me I settled into the ride at my obligatory minimum 12 metres from the next person with people behind me but seldom passing.

By 50km something strange happened. As a rider I massively lack confidence. No tri bars for me. Are you mad? They are too far from the brakes thanks. Drinking every 10 minutes. Ha ha I wish. I tentatively try it occasionally. Aero helmet? Um no. I don’t want to draw attention to myself going at this speed. So what was I saying. Ah yes, a strange thing happened….I looked down and realised I was holding a high average speed. Higher than ever before and what’s more I felt really comfortable and could go faster if I wanted. Gosh I could do this 180km in 6 hours and 40 minutes I reckon. And with ease. Wow. How did that happen?

Suddenly I felt something new. Something completely unexpected. What was that feeling? Gosh I do believe its confidence. Wow. With my new found confidence I tried harder to drink on the bike. Ok, I’m still bad at that. But still. I started to enjoy the experience. Smiling at the volunteers in the aid stations, whizzing down the hills (ok it was seriously flat but occasionally there was a gentle down or up).

I started to go past people. Past the guy who was doing this weird 1,2,3 pedal stroke then rest his legs thing on his bike. Past the guy who was on a tri bike with fancy clothes (he didn’t look pleased). Past the guy who insisted on passing me and then sat too close just in front. Past the lady who was holding a good consistent speed but it just felt a little slow.

I should treasure the memory of those few hours as unfortunately the feeling wasn’t to last. At 90km I started to feel nauseous. The high levels of sugary carbohydrate drink combined with the intense heat of the day were taking their toll on me. I’ve never felt sick on a bike. It is not nice! Normally you would not choose to lean forward and squish your stomach when you are feeling sick.

From then on until the end I wondered if I would finish. I stopped at every feed station to hang up my bike, get off and walk about to try and get the feeling to pass. I stopped in between aid stations too. Sometimes I would try to find my salt tablets to see if that helped. Other times it was just to breathe in and out slowly. The last time I stopped, it was to vomit at the side of the road. Apologies to any other cyclists who had to see that.

Alas this did not make the nausea pass but I counted down the kilometres 5 at a time until I finally pulled into the National Water Centre and approached the lovely volunteers who were waving at me to get off the bike before crossing into transition.

“Gladly” I said to them smiling. “We’ve heard that a lot” they laughed.

A few minutes into transition the nausea simply went away. What was that about? Clearly being vertical was helping a lot. I went through the motions again. Slap on a load of suncream; take off your helmet, exchange cycling glasses for running sunglasses, throw on your trainers, peer in your bag for what else to do, generally ponder and faff a bit and finally set off on the run.

I have no idea what temperature it was by this stage but to say it felt hot is a gross understatement. The run was a mini out and back along the lake, 3 x 12km loops away from the lake and another full lap of the lake to the finish line.

Running around the lake felt fairly pleasant. Despite the heat there was a slight breeze and it was manageable. The long 12km out and back was not. The route went along a sandy trail, out in the sun and was completely devoid of shade. It was unimaginably hot and sticky.

The feed stations were thankfully every 3-4km. I stopped at every one. One cup of water over my head. Drank one cup of flat Coca Cola and ate one slice of orange. After the vomiting session earlier I couldn’t bear the thought of actual food. This marathon would have to be completed purely on flat coke for energy.

It was the slowest marathon ever. I actually could of walked it in the same time I got around. Having said that I am hugely proud of getting around and finishing. I saw many people walking, some hobbling, some looking simply dazed. At one point I wobbled into a feed station table. They wouldn’t let me leave until I ate half a banana. It was the only time I ate food on the course.

After 14 hours and 36 minutes I ran down the “Ironman’ chute and over the finish line. I felt amazing in the last 4km and actually managed to run again after a long stint of walking. Funny how that can happen. Immediately after crossing the line I went wobbly again and the volunteers grabbed me by the arms. The body is an amazing thing.

Did I enjoy it? That’s a hard one. On Sunday I would of said absolutely not but in writing this down, I realise I did enjoy bits of it.

Would I do it again? Again on Sunday I was 100% certain that ‘never’ was the answer. A few days later and I’ve moved onto ‘I’m not sure’.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. Finishing something you’ve set out to do which is both hard and involves suffering, simply feels awesome. Perhaps its a kind of high. Maybe thats why people go back and do these mad things despite the agony, the hours and the many other difficulties. I guess it is addictive in its own way.

For now. I’m happy to rest up and enjoy life with no training plan, no obligatory sessions and enjoy a bit of normal life and lazy mornings.

Bliss