I ran the Rodgau 50km and it went well. Rodgau is a season opener for the German ultra running community. There were some big names there including the reigning German 24hr men's champion Florian Reus. I always enjoy this race 10 laps of a 5km route. Sometimes the last km gets rather muddy, but this year it stayed quite firm.
My friend Jan flew over from the UK to attempt his first ultra and was so confident of his speed that he predicted he would lap me before the last lap. Being twenty five years younger and a darn sight faster, I thought that this was a fair prediction.
Chrissy drove us to the start and we collected our numbers and made our way to the refreshment point start. We set up a double camping chair and I had 10 bottles of Mountain fuel in old Powerade bottles. I find these bottles the right size and weight to carry and sip from.
I wore:
- Nike Air Pegasus trail shoes,
- Sealskin double skin trail socks,
- Dri-Fit Stride Hybrid 5in 2in1 Running Shorts, these like the sock are particularly good as the inner lining rides with your body and prevents chafing,
- Some old running tops.
- A buff
- Gloves that went on and off during the race
I liberally plastered by under carriage with Vaseline and taped my nipples.
We set off promptly at 10:00am and Chrissy went of to do the weekly shop. The weather as ok. not too cold or windy for the end of January. I noticed that I was going a little too quickly over the first 5 laps at under 30minutes a lap. By this time my rather full stomach needed emptying . After this point I settled on a target of thirty five minutes.per lap.
During the race a fellow runner said to me that it was not done to have a tattoo of a woman on my leg. I pointed out that was no woman, but Pheidippides, a symbol that I had finished Spartathlon. He had never heard of the race. Imagine being an ultra runner and not knowing of Spartathlon. The shame!
On the sixth lap I saw Jan sitting in our double chair looking rather sheepish. I went to collect my bottle and he said to me
"I couldn't be bothered any more after 30km"
"Fair enough,"
"You're not going to have a go at me?"
"Jan, I could only do that if I had never a quit a race as you have done, and I have DNF'ed more times than I like to mention""
I believe he had low blood sugar because he was not eating enough.
I suggested he put the space blanket on and called Chrissy so that he could rest in the car and keep warm.
At 40km, and only two laps to go I saw Chrissy at the start that we go through ten times
She encourage me as always and I really appreciate her support! I saw her again as I went through the start of the last lap and she said she would call Jan to watch me finish. Unfortunately I was too quick and met them as they came back from the chair. As I was among the last to finish there was not many there. We did, however, manage to congratulate two eighteen year olds who had finished their first ultra. That is quite impressive.
As Jan quit after 30km, I reckon I lapped him four times. we meet some of our former work colleagues that evening and had a jolly good drink that night. as I think I deserved the celebration.
My next race is on 18th February, the Sparta City twenty four hour. Link here.
My goal is to get one of the two longer qualifiers for Spartathlon, either the hundred miles in twenty one hours or 180km in twenty four.
This requires me to run around eight kilometers an hour and this race has set me up nicely for that. I think the trick is to maintain a slower pace in the beginning. As the route is one kilometer long, pacing should be quite simple. Run quicker down the street away from the statue and return a bit slower on the slight incline
I will wear pretty much the same gear, changing tops once every four hours, so that I fill fresher each time. I will use the Powerade bottles with Mountain fuel and drink one per hour. I plan on bringing a lot of warm tops for the evening and a space blanket just in case it drops to very cold. I will also bring some cheeses and rice. Mainly, I will rely on the food provided by the race. Another important not is not to dawdle too long getting changed or eating. Relentless Forward Motion or RFM is the key.
In terms of things going wrong I have a hand written book of motivational quotes that I will look at each hour. I know that no matter how bad I feel I will feel better after thirty minutes or so. It is a matter of walking down the steps to the darkest monster infested steps and having the strength to walk out the other side.
I shall make two checklists prior to the race
1) Kit list
2) Things to do to keep head straight list
Don't wish me luck as , to paraphrase the words of the great John Foden
"If you have prepared properly you won't need it and if you haven't it won't help"
Update
I ran with Fatih last night. We talked about the race and he came up with some suggestions
- Run slow for the first hour and really focus on warming up
- Every hour have a walking break
- Ensure you have Red Bull or similar caffeine drinks for the night section
fist 25km in
better of a wobble
mountain fuel and dextrose
slower 25km
all in all ok
