Shires and Spires
Jun 5, 2016 · 3 minute read · CommentsYet another absolutely stunning day out in north west Northamptonshire.
This was the third time that I’ve done Shires and Spires now, going back to my first ever ultramarathon back in 2012, just 5 weeks after my first marathon - London - and each time it’s been an absolutely gorgeous day far better suited to a relaxed walk or a lazy day in a pub garden somewhere drinking fruit ciders or Pimms. Instead I’ve had to spend the best part of 6 hours stumbling through the heat and getting slightly lost in a part of the country I should know really well.
Going in to the race with tired legs from Keswick just a couple of weeks ago and still feeling the aftermath of Fellsman I knew I wasn’t going to be putting in a great time and was expecting to be a good 45 minutes down from last year’s race of 5 hours 37. Instead, I planned to take it slow, walk from early on if I needed to and just enjoy the scenery and the company of equally idiotic people who think it’s a good idea to spend 6 ish hours running in uncomfortably warm heat.
Despite having ran the course a couple of times before and having run around some of the area a fair few times on long runs I still kept feeling pretty lost at times and having to consult the map book to try and work out where I needed to be going. That said, I did manage to make a good few minutes up on a group just before the checkpoint at Althorp as I watched the group I’d been trying to stay in touching distance with for miles disappear into the distance the wrong way and completely missing the footpath that they should have taken. Emerging from that footpath slightly ahead of that large group when I’d been feeling like I was being left behind and struggling gave me an extra surge of adrenaline, pushing me ahead of them all the way to the checkpoint and starting to make myself feel a lot better about how the race was going. It’s always a bit funny how you can go from nigh on despairing to feeling strong again and several times over during the course of an ultra.
Other than that the only other particularly hard part was the last 3 or so miles where the heat started really getting to me, compounded by running out of water in my Camelbak. I’d had the same last year where I’d ran a really solid race until about 31 miles and then suddenly hit a complete wall as my body decided it was much too hot and I’d ran way too much already and then spent the next 4 miles in an agonising shuffle to the finish, shedding positions and ruining my time. This time I wasn’t too fussed about my time other than realising at that point that I still had a good shot at going under 6 hours which I’d completely written off before the start of the race. Taking that pressure off myself and having had a slower race up until that point than the year before got me half breaking the death shuffle that I fall into towards the end of most of my ultras getting me in at 5 hours 51 minutes.
Finish
That makes it my first sub 6 hour race of the year and it may quite possibly end up being the only one too with everything I still have to come. Oh well, at least I finally get a decent break with 8 weeks until Lakeland 50!