Tales from the Cyclopark and beyond

What can I say about 5 different days of running exactly the same route? Boring? Repetitive? Hard work?

Well that all depends upon your mindset!

I knew some days would be harder than others but I was only dipping in and out whilst others were running the full 12 days which is absolutely amazing! Some were running 10ks, others running half marathons/marathons/ultras. Although the route was the same every day there were always differences eg the weather was cold and slightly damp followed by baking hot with a gentle breeze, then some drizzle and then a mixture of all those conditions.

I didn't bother to take my camera with me but got plenty of photos from others to give a feel for the terrain:

There was always a briefing at the start with Traviss announcing any major milestones people had achieved:

Justin was always taking snaps as he ran along:

Thursday's outfit

Heading out for my last lap on Thursday

One of the bridges over either the railway or the M2, not sure which as they look the same!

...and another one!

Random overgrown bench on the concrete road section

I'd still got 2 more days to go at that stage.

Day 4 for me looked something like this at the start:

Strangely I was 15 minutes quicker on day 4 which was a surprise.

The next surprise was going to start the car and finding the battery was flat. Deep joy! Thankfully I had jump leads in the boot and 2 nice chums to help get me started so a big thank you to Paul and Dave. Needless to say the car went in to be checked the next day and even though the battery check seemed OK I changed it anyway as I didn't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere after a marathon!

Day 5 was much quieter as some people had finished when they had done 10in10days so it was mostly the stalwarts doing 12in12 of whichever distance they chose. So here's my outfit for the final day - it was rather overcast so I chose my bee leggings to brighten things up!

Quite a nice medal haul although I am running out of space to display them!

So that left just 4 more to reach my 200th............

Inbetween marathons there was a Virtual 5k Guinness World Record attempt. The official title is: "most people to run or walk a remote 5k in 24 hours". The run had to be done on Saturday 4th September so I did it nice and early:

The previous record was 6718 and the latest figure from our attempt showed 9196 with more to come!

Then of course there was another marathon at the weekend, the Bates Green Gallop organised by the lovely people from https://www.weruntheyrunirun.co.uk which was held on a farm near to Arlington reservoir. I'd never done this event before but it sounded nice with a mix of woodland and trail across a large working farm.

The weather was hot and heavy right from the start and my asthma made itself known quite early on so I didn't push my pace and just ran at a comfortable pace. I completed 8 laps for a 28 mile ultra-marathon and here are a few photos from the day:

It's a huge farm and there was a massive field to park in.

The Race briefing

The start took us through woodland which was lovely and cool - this ection was lovely but other bits were tricksy with tree roots to trip you up! One girl went flying 'cos she hadn't spotted a moss-covered root. I went slowly in the rooty sections!

The Farmer had created a quiet place in the woods for people to sit and remember their loved ones after he'd lost his wife.

There were several lovely ponds both in the woods and the fields

After the woodland we ran alongside acre upon acre of Sweetcorn!

 The ground was very hard and rutted and the grass was long but thankfully was trampled down after a couple of laps.

This section looks inocuous but a bit further up I came a cropper when I tripped on one of the  many brambles and fell heavily onto my right side - OUCH! I have a massive bruise on my right thigh and my right elbow is swollen and sore.

More Sweetcorn. Some sections we had to run on compacted clay studded with flintstones so we had to be careful to lift our feet up properly. Amazingly I managed not to faceplant again!

Shaded sections like this were very welcome

This section felt interminable!

There was one very short section of tarmac

We'd been warned there was long grass and the long socks would be advisable!

I was absolutely dripping by the time I'd finished and my time was rather slow - 6:23:49. I'm not complaining though as that was ultra-marathon 197 with just 3 to go to the magic 200.