Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra 2015

Glasgow to Edinburgh ultra 55 miles

Tough day, much harder more than I expected. 

Relentless especially second half, no hills on the entire route, and all flat tarmac, gravel, hard track and surprising amount of muddy trail along canal paths and under bridges. Quads, knees all taking constant hit in same places.

First half easy miles 8-8:30mm, through marathon distance in 4hrs and 50% of race length in 4:12 even doing steady run walk with two guys I met Steve and David. Hot at times though and feeling more dehydrated as day went on, having to take on more fluids and electrolyte. Drank well at checkpoint 2 at Falkirk Wheel (canal joining point), increased walking breaks to 1m30+. David went ahead and lost sight. Running with Steve all fine, through two tunnel sections but mandatory torch really not needed.

As we carried on, couple of miles before cp 3 stomach problems for Steve, I felt okay. He stopped at cp3 to find a toilet whilst I pushed on. Two or three miles after Cp3. Not feeling good, tried to take in various foods in but very dry mouth and water not mixing enough. Carried on. Tried to eat a little gel and started to feel sick. Vomited, never had this before in a long event. Couldn't find anything that I could eat and keep down. 20+ miles to go and nothing liquid at checkpoint with any carbs, no flat coke or similar would've been great.. 20 miles on electrolyte was a big ask. Ouch.

Strangely felt a little better after being sick so carried on, 5-6 miles of hard work. Cp4 caught up with David, also struggling couldn't eat food either and he had done the race 4 times and many longer ultras. Walked through quay, thought about pushing on but then reconsidered, not an A race, sticking together was sensible. Waited for David. Far easier to pair up when you're in trouble - which we both were. Checkpoint people had even asked was I okay to continue. Nipped off into bushes, quick test, was very dehydrated (according to colour!) so kept drinking.  Miles 42-55 a blur now but were many hours painful mix of run walk, pace dropping and case of shuffling when possible between lamppost, tree or one of the many bridges and walking especially the cobbled bits curving underneath those arches. Main thing, keep moving forward. Also avoiding cyclists ringing their bells and making you turn and twist. Not ideal for balance or with the large amounts of dog muck from Ratho onwards trying to avoid them.

From times I was at 30, 40 & 50k, sub or low 9 hours finish time was very doable, but on 70k in exactly 7 hours no chance - and going even slower. Hard running on no energy just electrolyte, David couldn't even drink water, but we pushed on. White blur whizzed by, it was Steve absolutely flying, he was doing 9ish min miles us more like 11-13 run/ walk. He said hello but then a dot within 60 seconds. Where did that come from! Both of us now digging deep, well past using reserve energy and running on willpower.
Mental side came to forefront as you began to doubt yourself, stuck on a never ending canal, why the hell am I doing this, I can't do this, feeling pretty rubbish. Kept talking and checking each other okay. A canal boat went past called Madalena so my guardian angel was watching. Even with all this struggle, David still on for a PB though! And we did see a cormorant flying into the canal, coming up with its dinner. Amazing.

50 miles came finally. Hooray? More a fzzz whatever. Miles to go slowly clicked down. Bridge no 3 to go, 2, 1, a sign for 500m to go - 400m on cobbles. We did best speed and finally finish in sight. Joint finish arms raised - great teamwork, should be a fab photo.

Half way in 4h12, Finished in in 9h 34, second half a draining experience.

Excellent training run though if a painful one, tough event and a lot to learn from, whilst making friends too. (Also tested out new backpack and new shoes). Managed to get some food down soon after - soup, solid food and many full sugar cokes to revive me with family nearby. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but likely I had a bit of sunstroke, classic symptoms the day after, made some simple mistakes. (Sunstroke, it was snowing in Edinburgh 4 days before!)

Reading Alberto Salazar's 10 golden rules of running, no9 is:-

"TACKLE DOUBT HEAD-ON At some point you're going to push yourself harder, you're going to enter into a grey area that can be painful, and you're going to doubt yourself. Push through it. Never think you are mentally weak."

Amen to that after G2E. Plan is to go back to South Africa & Comrades, but I was doubting myself for many miles here to the point of not going. The same distance on a flat course but harder? Found a way, pushed through. If it doesn't kill you...

Time for a little rest, VLM to come then Comrades. We go again.

STATS Fans:-
Ran as No26 and came 26th. (I like that!), 26th out of 107 finishers. 13 did not finish.

Splits per 6 mile sections

Mile	Split (min)	Av Pace (min:sec)	Time     (hh:mm)
6	48.2	8.03	00:48
12	51:00	8:30	01:39
18	55:00	9:10	02:34
24	61:00	10:10	03:35
30	65:00	10:50	04:41
36	65:00	10:50	05:47
42	68:00	11:20	06:55
48	69:30	11:35	08:05
54	78:30	13:05	09:23
55			09:34