2013 North Downs Way 100

This was my first race since the Bullock Smithy hike last September. I've barely ran over the winter, having instead been working in the gym a lot, as I started to compete (badly) in Weightlifting, since I've been doing it recreationally for so long I thought I might as well try and compete at it too. Also the slightly perverse idea of competing in two so utterly different and contrasting sports was quite interesting to me.

I’d entered the NDW100 after working on the Botley Hill checkpoint in 2012 (a hill I’d run up and down no end of times in training in preparation for the UTSW 2012). I’d been impressed by Centurion’s organization and decided to have a crack at it.

Not to worry, only need to run the first 102.7 miles

I honestly had no idea what to expect in terms of performance leading into this race; I’d trained somewhat less than I did leading up to the UTSW, which took me 29:43 to complete (40 hour time limit), with a rather grim 30 mile death march in the middle. Against that, I still felt in reasonable shape, and the course was easier (in theory).  My goal was mainly to finish, improve on my previous 100 mile time, and not get too weak and skinny in the build up and lose all the work I’d put in at the gym. Training mileage varied, usually 30 – 40 miles-ish per week, structured around one long run plus some interval sessions, steady state runs home from work etc to fill in the gaps. I built up to a peak of about 80 miles in one week, which was actually a PB of sorts, discounting actual races. This was spaced around 2 – 3 sessions in the gym most weeks, focussing on the Olympic Lifts, plus general compound barbell exercises, squats, deadlifts, presses etc.

View from Box Hill

Since I live in London, the whole of the NDW is fairly accessible to me, and I was able to recce the whole thing in advance. The course is rather varied, especially in the first 25 miles, encompassing road, track, trail, soft sand (which I hate), with some interesting scenery along the way, such as St Martha on the Hill. There were a few monotonous stretches (Botley Hill to Knockholt), plus some more severe than expected climbs (Reigate Hill). The section from Detling to Hollingbourne (82 to 87 miles) was also a bit of a bastard, although I’d been more focussed on coping with 30+ degree heat when I ran that than I was with the climbs.

Holly Hill - photo doesn't convey steepness

 Anyway, despite all of this I wasn’t sure what sort of time to aim for as there is a world of difference in plodding 25 miles then going to the pub, and plodding 25 miles and then keeping going for another 75; I mostly just wanted another 100 mile finish, but though 26 – 28 hours to be probably realistic. Sub 26 would be a very good day out, I thought. One thing I would liked to have done but didn’t have time for was an overnight recce, but beyond that I felt as well prepared as I could be given my mileage leading in. I was also around 4kg heavier than when I did the UTSW, but it was (hopefully!) LBM rather than fat so I was happy with that. I actually did a weightlifting competition 7 days prior to race and made a small but still satisfying PR, plus a bonus 1.5x bodyweight back squat for good measure, which I took to be a good omen!

Come race day, it was good to be on terrain that I was familiar with, and I felt reasonably confident on the line. The first 25 miles went by like lightening, even pacing myself by walking most of the hills, and including a quick detour to some public toilets to head off some burgeoning stomach issues (thankfully these didn't reoccur). I ended up running the last stretch into Box Hill CP with Neil Fox, who was gunning for a 24 hour finish, and absolutely sprinted (or so it felt) on the descent from Denbies Wine Plantation to the CP, so much so that my quads and hip flexors felt quite trashed at the bottom, and I was worried I would pay for that later. Still, fun while it lasted....I checked in at Box Hill, 24.5 miles, in 4:05, faster than I had managed it in training. I was feeling more beaten up that I’d hoped though, left calf was very tight, plus general aches as mentioned. Still, I’ll accept a certain amount of that when I've ran the best part of a marathon.

Staggering up Box Hill, I met Matt Pearce, who would be my running companion for the next 60 miles or so. We moved steadily on through the next section up to Reigate Hill CP. This stretch undulates quite a lot, and has one of the nastiest climbs of the race, up Colley Hill leading towards the Reigate Hill CP. We tried to move quite swiftly through the Reigate CP, but once again I was impressed by the quality and quantity of support that Centurion offers, as well as the enthusiasm and friendliness of the volunteers. Whilst I mostly aim for actual food during events, I did develop a bit of a taste for Vanilla Bean gels which were on offer at most CP’s.

Reigate CP - Photo by Barrie Smith

Moving on, we passed through Mersham onto the Caterham CP, which I’d somehow forgotten was there; Matt was adamant however that there was a CP between Reigate Hill and Botley, and sure enough, there it was. This was one of the few occasions I think where not knowing what was ahead actually helped mentally, as I got what was from my point of view, a bonus checkpoint. The fact that they had ice cream on offer made it even better, and I felt insanely cheerful after destroying a bowl of vanilla. On the way towards the Caterham CP, there is a section where you can look left and see all the way to the Shard and other buildings in the City, and you can usually hear the M25 on your right, so however sedate and tranquil the trail can seem you’re never actually that far away from the hustle and bustle of ‘normal’ life.

At this point, we were still making good time, and thoughts inevitably turned to the 24 hour mark. I wanted a sub 24 hour finish at some point in my life, but I didn’t expect it here. We were on course for it, but I knew there was a long way to go and lot that could still go wrong. We aimed to hit the 43 mile CP in about 8:30, and hoped to be at the halfway point in around 10 hours, with a goal to be out of the halfway CP by no later than 10 and a half hours. Since my 50 mile PB is 9:40 I felt this would be some pretty good work for me at least. Botley Hill came and went (I still hate that hill) and we headed onto Knockholt.

At this point, we had the only real navigational mishap, as some local toerag had moved the signage. My recce came in handy here as I started to realized we were heading off course (we ended up heading down a path behind some houses, which I couldn’t remember at all) and I definitely caught it quicker than I otherwise would have done. Still, there was some debate about whether we were on the right track or not, as the signage did confuse the issue. We were then joined by Paul Corderoy who was only a few minute behind. I was pretty sure I could pinpoint on the Harvey map where we were, Paul had a GPS as it happened but no signal, emphasising the importance for me of adhering to the kit list! We were joined by yet more runners, hashed it over for another minute or two, and then with some advice from helpful local walker we got back on course. I probably lost around 10 minutes due to this issue; in the context of meandering to a 26 hour plus finish this wouldn’t have been too bad, but both myself and Matt were now getting fixated now on breaking 24 hours and if this ended up costing us a sub 24 hour finish we would pretty pissed off.

Knockholt Pound CP at 50 miles. Photo by Israel Archuletta

We made Knockholt in about 10:05, and again I was awestruck by the support on offer. I’ve seen wedding receptions with less food on offer than this checkpoint! We were in the Knockholt CP for dead on 15 minutes, changing socks, repacking kit, headtorches etc, plus trying to sample as much of the food on offer as I could (felt bad leaving so much behind...). This seems like a long time now I look at it, but at the time it felt like a good ‘investment’ in myself, which would hopefully sustain me through the second half of the race.

Knockholt to Wrotham (60 miles) can seem like a long way, and I felt this would be the critical section which could make or break our chances of a sub 24; reaching halfway is all well and good, but the scale of what is left, when you’re already tired, can be somewhat daunting (worse on the NDW100 as the actual distance is 102.7!) I thought that if we cracked on, and could grind out this section in good time without degrading too much, sub 24 was on. Once we were at 60 miles, we could allow ourselves to start counting down.  

Wrotham CP - Cheese sandwich & added peanut butter

This section again went well, and I really couldn’t believe how well I was still moving at this point. My only 100 mile frame of reference, the UTSW, was so grim through the middle in terms of my physical condition that it was hard to reconcile that with how I was moving now, when I thought I’d trained less overall. Testament to the difference in terrain partly, but I’m also starting to think that conditioning for these events is very much a long term cumulative process, not just a matter of the two or three month ‘peak’ prior to race day. Stuart Mills discusses this in more detail on his Lakeland 100 report (not that I’m anywhere near his level). I don’t have a record of when we reached Wrotham, but I remember that we were on course, having been spurred on by another runner who was in fact walking almost everything, but at a ludicrously fast pace, and we were determined to stay ahead of him!  I was feeling slightly dehydrated by the end of this stage (Matt noted on several occasions how little he thought I was drinking) but I was taking on water in response mostly to thirst, and most of the way through the race I felt fine. This was a long stretch though and I didn’t go into it with completely full bottles, which was probably a mistake.

Wrotham CP was a quick transition, Matt meeting his crew and me saying hello to family before heading out, powered by a cheese sandwich with additional peanut butter. I was followed out of the CP by some volunteers asking if I was about to drop, which was strange considering I was clearly heading back out onto the course. The stretch to Holly Hill CP (65.6 miles) is mostly very runnable, on flat-ish woodland trail and track. It seemed to drag on, but we were running almost all of it so I assumed we were making good time. I was starting to get some pains in my feet and ankles now and was struggling with steep downhills; anything more challenging than moderate slopes was now cause for walking, which was somewhat frustrating. We laboured up the hill that precedes the CP (which seemed shorter than when I did it in training thankfully) and checked in at 13:49, still in daylight, which was ahead of my pre race expectations.

Holly Hill to Bluebell Hill (76.2) would take us over the Medway and to the three quarter mile point; this is another long stretch but again, there is some good running to be done through the woods and fields, and over the bridge. Night was falling now, and we were joined by Neil Cloke, who was missing a head torch, I had my spare though so I lent it to him until he could meet up with this crew at Bluebell Hill. We made more great time here, the sun was going in and so it was cooling off, and we hit the CP after about 16:20. There was an outrageously rich and sweet fruit cake/bar arrangement that the checkpoint volunteers had baked themselves, and it would probably have got you through 50 miles or so all by itself. I had some additional family members here turn up unexpectedly, have driven all the way from Hertford to see me at a single checkpoint! I was so caught up in sorting out food, and hydrating whilst finding some time to speak to them all that I ended up leaving a bottle on the checkpoint table, and only realized about a mile after I left; bad checkpoint drills! Luckily with the cooler temperatures, the litre bottle that I had left was sufficient, but definitely a lesson for next time on keeping calm and collected at checkpoints.

Bluebell Hill at 75.6 miles  - Photo by Barrie Smith

Bluebell Hill to Detling seemed to pass very quickly, and felt like there was actually more downhill than up through this stage, which wasn’t much fun for my feet and ankles but again we cracked on, avoiding a wrong turn that I’d made on my recce. The Detling CP had hot food and drop bags but we managed to get through in 10 minutes flat, but not before being overtaken by the walker who I thought we’d left in our dust hours ago....the expression on my face when I saw him must have been comical.

The first 4 or 5 miles out of Detling towards Lenham at 90.9 miles probably constitutes the most difficult part of the course; a series of very steep hills that require ascending and descending flights of steps cut into the downs. There are bigger hills on the course, but never so many so close together, and so steep, and when you hit them with 82 miles in the legs already it’s hard work. I’m not sure how long it took us to negotiate this, but it must have been in the region of two hours. Having only done this in daylight, I was losing track of where I was, in terms of how many hills were left to go, which didn't help. Ultimately you just had to put your head down and slog through it; the ultra-dictum of simply trying to maintain ‘relentless forward motion’ is probably as appropriate here as it is possible to be. One thing that kept throwing me was seeing reflections ahead or to the side of the trail, and thinking it was Centurion’s signage, only to realise that it was actually the eyes of sheep reflecting our head-torches; there was a whole field full of them at one point which was pretty surreal.

The Detling – Lenham stretch is interesting as it contains both the hardest and the easiest section of the race; once you finally get through the climbs and descend from the high ground into the village of Hollingbourne, you hang a left at the Dirty Habit (stop in if you get the chance) and proceed on the Pilgrims Way for another 6 miles or so, and it’s all flat track, which means you can claw back some time that lost on those bloody steps. At this point, I moved away from Matt, who was suffering from blisters; I felt quite shitty to be leaving him behind but sometimes you need to press on if you’re capable of picking up the pace. He’d been a great companion for the last 65 miles and I hoped he’d make it in not too far behind me.

I felt like I was flying along this stretch, running almost all of it, and overhauling several other runners. One problem that did arise however was that my main head torch was burning through sets of batteries in about 3 hours, which would serve me right for buying cheaper ones I suppose. Luckily my backup was sufficient for this ‘easy’ stretch.

Random statue and random cat, taken on a daytime recce

I hit Lenham feeling pretty damn good, and I knew at this point that sub 24 should be in the bag, barring disaster. One of the CP volunteers actually thought we were on for a finish time of around 22:30, based on our time of arrival at the CP. I managed to bag some spare batteries off the ever helpful checkpoint volunteers, then cracked on, eager to get the race finished. With around 11 miles of easy terrain ahead, I was feeling in great spirits.

And then the wheels fell off.....

Usually on leaving a CP I’d get a good burst of energy and be able to push on for a while, but within about a mile of leaving Lenham, I really started to struggle. The length of time I could sustain a run for before breaking into a walk was shortening dramatically, and it became harder and harder to start running again once I got myself together. The pain in my feet and ankles seemed to be getting worse, compounding the problem. I’d already taken half a dozen ibuprofen by this point and didn’t want to take on any more, so I’d just have to put up with it.

I’m still not sure what caused this downturn, whether it was not eating or drinking enough, or just fatigue catching up with me in general. I felt like I’d been eating plenty, and didn't feel any less hydrated than I was earlier in the race, so it may just have been a general falling apart rather than the result of a specific mistake or action. After 92 miles on my feet I’d probably earned the right to be knackered anyway. Interestingly, this was all in direct contrast to the UTSW, where I was in pieces up until 85 miles or so, when I suddenly perked up and ran most of the way to the finish. It was also rather annoying as I’d hoped to finish strongly, but even so I thought I’d still make sub 24 if I could keep shuffling at regular intervals.

I was running with Antonio Martins at this point; I think I’d overtaken him briefly coming into Lenham, but he rallied whilst I was fading and we moved as a pair through the last ten miles. I think he could have easily gone ahead if he’d liked but decided to keep me company, thanks Antonio!  Lenham to Dunn Street (92.4) seemed to take forever, which I suppose is in part due to the slight discrepancies in the initial published vs actual distance. We made it there in 22:14....loads of time, right?

I actually started getting somewhat anxious at this point about the timings, as due to the state I was in the margin for error was getting smaller, and a sudden bout of cramp, an injury or stomach issues can easily cost you swathes of time, and I was in no fit state to make it up again. It would take me about a minute to transition from walking, to a shuffle, to a run (which probably wasn't much faster anyway) and again these never lasted long. One positive note, there was little chance of a wrong turn at this stage, partly from my recce but also due to Centurion’s excellent course marking; the scale of this over such a long course was really impressive.

The final stretch veers off the road eventually and requires us to cross a few fields, one of which was full of corn which had grown to over head height. Plunging through it in the dark with my headtorch illuminating a narrow corridor ahead of me was quite disorientating. It seemed to drag on forever as well, even though I could remember how short it actually was from my recce. The sun was starting to come up at this point as we climbed the final ‘hill’ (more of a slope really but felt steep enough at the time!)

By this point you start to see North Downs Way markers with the distance to Wye marked on, which is a tremendous relief, particularly when you see the ‘Wye: 2 miles’ sign, at which point you know you've already done 100 miles! I could remember every step of the way now and it started to sink in now that we were absolutely going to do it, and it was a great feeling. Even though we were slower than perhaps I might have expected compared to earlier in the race, I didn’t much care. I was in no mood to push harder and suffer more just to get down from 23 hours something to 22 hours something. I called my parents and they let me know that they were at the finish, and that bacon sandwiches were waiting for us, added incentive!

Welcome sight

We crossed the final field and descended towards Wye. At this point, we looked back and saw the first other runners that we’d laid eyes on in quite some time. Somewhat absurdly, we decided that we didn’t want to be overtaken at this late stage! Climbing the last stile, we emerged onto the road leading into Wye, and forced ourselves to run, but not before snapping a couple of quick pictures.

Past the station, over the bridge, and there ahead of us was a small crowd of people, which had to be the finish; who else would be lining the village streets at 5 in the morning, if not the long suffering friends and family members of ultra runners?  My parents were there take some photo’s of the worlds least exciting sprint finish as we headed up to the Village Hall, where RD James Elson was waiting, and confirmed our times of 23:27 and handed us our sub 24 hour belt buckles.

Farnham seemed a long way back.....I just stood there for a while clutching my buckle and grinning like an idiot. It actually turned out that I’d been given a South Downs Way buckle, but never mind, it’s too small to see on the official photo.

In the immediate aftermath I wanted nothing more than to take off my shoes and socks (no blisters, a first) and let myself sit down. It occurred to me that I hadn't tripped over once either, which was also a PB of sorts, usually I’m incredibly clumsy and uncoordinated whilst running. My appetite was kicking in again and I bagged a welcome bacon sandwich and a brew. To cap things off, as I was munching on it, Matt Pearce made it home in 23:47, a massive achievement and well earned on his part.

I’d volunteered to take part in the medical study where I was weighed, measured  and had blood drawn after the event. I’d lost about 5kg, was still the same height, and collapsed when they attempted to draw blood. I ended up asleep on the floor for fully two hours with a sleeping bag chucked over me and a holdall as a pillow. When I came to, I was starting to seize up (more so), desperate for a shower and still in need of more sleep, but even so was reluctant to leave. The camaraderie and social nature of this wonderful sport is never more evident than at the finish, and I would had loved to have stayed and watched more runners cross the line.

Wouldn't have predicted this at the start

Aftermath

Matt must have had a point regarding drinking enough as it took me the rest of Sunday to rehydrate properly; my mouth was horribly dry if I didn’t drink every 30 minutes or so. On a physical level, both feet and ankles were swollen somewhat and quite painful. Both calves were very tight, the left one particularly so, and my quads were smashed; it was several days after when I could finally walk down stairs without wincing. Most of this faded quite quickly, with the help of some frozen peas, other than my left foot which remained swollen on the top for a while, and remains painful now depending on activity. It’s possibly a minor stress fracture but seems to be getting better slowly. Whilst this seems quite a collection, aside from the foot issue I’m actually pleased with how I recovered, and would have been able to run within a few days were it not for that.

 Once my bodyweight stabilised, I was a full kilogram lighter than I was pre-race. I went back into the gym 7 days after the race and tested my 1 RM back squat; I managed to grind out 110kg, 17kg lighter than a week prior to the run! Some of that 1 kg was presumably muscle in my legs....Will be interesting to see how quickly this comes back now I’m prioritising weight training.

All in all, I’m exceptionally pleased with how this worked out; I managed to balance strength training and endurance training far better than last year in the run up to the UTSW, and was able to improve significantly on a relatively low mileage, only really upping it in the final 6 weeks. This suits me well, as I hate running in central London, and this frees up more time for other pursuits, and in general feels less like work.  Areas which could be improved were hill work, both up and down, as improved descending would hopefully spare me some aches and pains both during and after. The collapse in the final 10 miles I’ll just chalk up to the distance, and is probably a matter just of improving my conditioning to this type of time on my feet. The only real solution I can see is to run more! The recce was also a significant factor I think; although the course was well enough marked that it wasn't really necessary, the additional confidence and familiarity with the course certainly helped me to relax and run at my best, as well as allowing me to gauge the correct level of pace and effort for each stretch.

It was interesting that the extra 4kg of bodyweight in no way impaired my performance, and the next test is if I decide to move up towards 94kg for weightlifting  (currently competing at 85kg) and whether I can still run well at that bodyweight.....it might be a bit much for 100 milers but for shorter efforts it could be doable. With that said, I was so impressed by the organisation , support and atmosphere of this race that I’m sorely tempted now to enter the South Downs Way 100 for next year whilst there are still places available. I also still have sufficient points for the UTMB so could still make another bid for a place there; the bug that bit me when I first learned about that race still lingers.......