A Tale of Two 100 Milers

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief…

‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens

Have you ever signed up for a 100 mile race with 4 weeks notice?  

I have and here’s how it went.

The age of foolishness…

I already had two races planned two weeks before that.

I had the London Marathon, which I had trained for. And also I had Lakes in a Day, a 50 mile day out with my wife (yes we’re that fun!). Then I decided to sign up for the Centurion Autumn 100 - which I hadn’t trained for and was my first 100 miler.

Now I’m an impetuous runner (as my long suffering coach knows); I set my race goals well in advance, only to decide to do something else on a whim at the last moment. I wasn’t going to compromise my London marathon but how do you prepare for races that double in distance over three weeks?

ANSWER: you focus on recovery and hope you’ll be OK!

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I toed the start line of the Autumn 100.

I was with my mate Gareth, who was aiming to break 18 hours. My plan was to stay with him for as long as possible and then just get to the finish if / when I got dropped. 

The epoch of belief…

The race was a bit of a blur to be honest. In the end Gareth had a cold and wasn’t feeling great.

But I was feeling good so at the end of Leg 1, I left him (as you do) and pushed on.

However, my toes were feeling really cramped in my HOKA Speedgoats, so I changed my to Inov8 Trailfly 270s before taking on Leg 2. That flew by, with the exception of some sharp hills just before the turn. I was running largely by myself throughout but at one point I did find myself making up a group of 4; consisting of 3 James-es!

The worst of times…

Leg 3 was a bit of a struggle. By now I’d started to walk all the hills. I’d also been relying on food from aid stations for the entire race and that had taken its toll. I had GI issues and needed to walk for 10 minutes each time I ate to let my stomach settle.

You’re allowed a pacer for Leg 4 but I hadn’t really considered that as I was expecting to be with Gareth if I was going well, or crawling to the finish if I wasn’t. As it was, I was scheduled to come in under 18 hours, and I started thinking I would benefit from a pacer. After some frantic messaging, my dear wife, Sally, agreed to come and help out.

Meeting her at Goring revived me for Leg 4 and we flew down to Reading. But by the turn, I was really struggling and couldn’t eat or drink anything without wanting to be sick. I could have probably dipped under 17 hours but I was DONE, eventually coming home 9th in 17 hours 11 minutes.

The best of times…

All in all I was super pleased with my 100 mile debut - running with no expectations is a joyful experience.

But in the cold light of day I knew I could go faster; conditions were good that day but I’d done no specific training and my nutrition was naïve at best.

I wanted to go again, so working in big round numbers I decided to target sub-16 hours. This was met with some skepticism by friends who asked (fairly) how I was going to take an hour 11 minutes off my time.

My honest answer was I didn’t know. I just knew I could go faster. And you may as well set a bold target!

The age of wisdom…

I actually trained this time!

My coach and I used a modified marathon training block to prepare (in hindsight, maybe I hadn’t been so unprepared the first time) with one 40 mile run at 100 mile effort included. And while I did run the London Marathon again; there was no 50 miler the week before.

My nutrition plan was also going to be very different. I was bringing my own gels and food, adapting what worked for the Bob Graham for the faster speed (and consequently greater digestive challenges) of the Autumn 100.

In the weeks leading up to the race, the size of what I was attempting became apparent. When I looked at the pacing, I needed to average 6 min kilometers for 100 miles. Clearly, there was going to be very little walking.

Race day came. From experience, the men’s race tends to go out hard and then slow down, so that was my plan. Leg 1 was soggy under foot but otherwise good although I was surprised by how high my heart rate was and how hard I was working given I was averaging 5:30/kilometer. I wondered if I was ill and whether the whole race would unravel later.

Note to self: don’t look at your heart rate in races.

I made another a rookie mistake with my shoes. I’d run in my Nike Zegamas before but never with Injinji socks and my toes felt very squashed.

So once again I changed into my trusty Trailflys. Apparently most of the frontrunners changed their shoes so at least I wasn’t alone.

Legs 2 and 3 were relatively uneventful. Where before I’d walked most of the uphills, this time I ran all but the steepest. My change of nutrition was also paying off and my stomach was fine. Eventually my fears about being ill receded, but I had to really concentrate to keep on target.

My pace was right at the edge of what I was capable of.

As it was, I was in 10th place despite being over an hour faster than last year!

For some reason I had really slowed but I had no idea why. At Leg 4, I picked up my pacer (another James!); we pushed hard and passed a runner just before Pangbourne; James had 4 more runners just ahead in his sights.

We put the hammer down through Reading and by the turn I was in 5th place. I was now exclusively on my most liquid of gels, but thankfully my stomach was holding up. I was terrified of being passed if I slowed down, so ran hard to finish 5th in 16 hours and 10 minutes.

I didn’t break 16 hours but I did take an hour off last year’s time.

Will I be back to try and break 16? No. In truth I might be able to, but for now, I can say that I gave the Autumn 100 my best shot and there are other races left to run. 

Dicken’s epic ends with Carlton imagining a better future as he does the extraordinary and sacrifices his life on the guillotine. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

It would be pushing it too far to liken Carlton’s death to running an ultra, so I’ll leave you with something from one of my favourite songs, the Hold Steady’s Constructive Summer.

“We can all be something bigger”

Each and everyone of you are capable of amazing things…