Pauls got the runs

It seems that 2018 would turn out to be the year of the Ridgeway! It’s been just over a month since finishing Race to the Stones and I’m back again for the Ridgeway Challenge. It’s an 86 mile ultra that covers the entire length of the historic Ridgeway, starting at Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring and finishing in Avebury non-stop through day and night. As I made my way to the start, I was feeling a bit terrified.

I found out about this race after discovering some fantastic running blogs when I was researching for my previous ultra events. The Ridgeway Challenge came up in quite a few places and seemed to be highly regarded by the ultra running community, a real adventure. It’s also excellent value for money, a fraction of the cost of other events like this. My first thought was that entering something like this would be absolutely out of my league being the beginner that I am, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. As I had such a great time completing two shorter events on the Ridgeway this year (The Ridgeway 40 and RTTS), I said to myself “What the hell, let’s just do it!” and booked my place.

Pre race prep

Training for this came off the back of a fairly competent (for me) RTTS finish, with some interruptions caused by a mega hot summer and a holiday to USA which provided me with even hotter, humid weather conditions which was tough to run in. Thankfully the UK weather had cooled considerably before the event, and I even started wondering about how much winter gear I would need for the night section that would be much cooler than I was used to. Talk about extremes!

One of the things I appreciated about preparing for this race was a real sense of community with the other participants. The Facebook group was lively with plenty of banter, discussion and useful training tips. The race director Tim Mitchell was very active on the groups too, answering questions and sharing valuable insights about the best way to prepare for the race. There was a real buzz on the run up to the big day.

I had put together a very rough pace plan listing out the distance to each of the checkpoints, and what pace I should theoretically be running at each. This would be very loose plan as I had no real idea how the race would pan out, or even if I would even manage to complete it. I had no preconceptions of a finishing time, although somewhere around the 20 hour mark seemed like a reasonable target.

Start to Checkpoint 5

I arrived at Tring train station in plenty of time for the shuttle to take me to the start line and waited with some of the other runners, cheering on the 10am wave of participants as they ran past. I was signed up for the 12pm start time for the extra challenge of a stricter cut of time, and it wasn’t long before the shuttle came and dropped us off at Ivinghoe to register.

We registered, collected our numbers (and awesome R86 tshirt) before making our way over to the starting area. It was nice to see a few familiar faces here from my last couple of events. Tim gave us a race briefing and we were off promptly at 12pm.

Checkpoints are spaced every 10 miles or so, with the first leg of the course twisting around some hilly terrain I hadn’t explored before. Thankfully I was able to follow the rest of the pack who knew the way. This almost led to disaster as I started following somebody down the wrong path, but the other runners quickly called us back onto the correct one. I reminded myself to keep to my own pace here as well – there were some experienced ultra runners here and I didn’t want to burn out by setting off too quickly. It seemed like no time at all before I arrived at the first checkpoint at Wendover where I just stayed long enough to refill a water bottle before getting on my way again.

The next section took me though Wendover before climbing Coombe Hill with some stunning views. I got a bit touristy here stopping every so often to take photos of the amazing scenery and felt lucky to be out enjoying it. I noticed I was falling behind my arbitrary schedule but that didn’t bother me too much. I was still feeling fresh and wanted to keep plenty of energy in the tank for the rest of the race.

The section after checkpoint 3 would bring me up to Lewknor and much more familiar terrain. I had covered marathon distance at this point and was feeling great, still a bit behind schedule but feeling very optimistic. The schedule was intended to be a guide and it was reassuring to know how far I had to go before each checkpoint. The course from here on would be very familiar as I had covered only a month ago.

After about 30 miles or so into the race I was able to keep a steady pace and actually passed quite a few runners and walkers, saying hello, chatting for a bit before carrying on. The camaraderie of the other runners is one of the things that makes events like this so great, and everyone taking part really wants everyone else to succeed. Some people stick to running on their own, while others group together for portions of the event. I met a lot of fantastic people here.

After Checkpoint 4 came the Grimm’s Ditch section where I was pretty much running alone as I weaved between the trees and roots. The sun was setting now with an amazing bright red moon lighting up the sky. I made my way past North Stoke Church and towards the Thames Path. It was night time by the time I reached Goring, and I was glad I had my backup head torch with me.

Checkpoint 5 to Finish

This checkpoint was at Goring Village Hall, where I was promptly reunited with my drop bag and sat down for a cooked meal. There was even table service here! I ordered some pasta and quickly changed into clean, dry socks and my night gear. I spent way too long here while I faffed around trying to restock my race vest, charge my Garmin and phone and put away the pasta which I was definitely ready for. I realised I had way too much stuff in my drop bag due to some nervous over-preparation pre race. When I do this race again I’ll remember to pack light so I’m not doing too much here other than a quick clothes change.

I got chatting with some of the other runners too which I’m glad I did because I got some great advice on the night section coming up. I was only going to wear one layer as I felt warm but talked into wearing my base layer too – the ridgeway gets very exposed after Goring and I was told windchill can be a problem even in the summer months.

When I was finally ready to get going and I decided I was going to take it easy for the next couple of miles out of Goring (all uphill) while I let the food settle. Once the terrain had levelled out a bit I felt confident enough to get back to running a fair amount. The darkness wasn’t as much of an issue as I expected and I managed to catch up a few of the runners who left Goring before me which meant I was doing much better than I had planned at this stage. I also caught up with a runner called Dave who I had met previously just before Checkpoint 3. While we were chatting he told me this was his 9th time running the R86 which is incredible. What was more incredible was that he told me he was 62 years old! We would end up seeing each other quite a lot before the end of the race…

After checkpoint 6 my pace had settled to a walk-run. It was about 2am by now and tiredness was setting in. I was still making good progress, even catching up some of the missed time on my schedule! At one point I almost went down a wrong road but some runners called me back which I was very grateful for. Overall, navigation hadn’t been a problem on this leg of the journey but now I was tired in I really needed to stay alert, keeping my eyes open for the Ridgeway signposts along the way. I didn’t stop at checkpoint 7 for long, only long enough to refill bottles and shake stones out of my shoes.

By 4am my legs started to feel a bit heavy and my walk-run pace had slowed to more of a brisk walk with occasional bursts of running. Despite this I was still feeling good, and took some caffeine energy gels and ate some food to keep me going. I passed a couple more runners during this leg, and made my way to the checkpoint 8, which had a bonfire! I stayed there for 10 minutes to have some coffee and warm up quickly. Dave caught me up again at the checkpoint but didn’t stop as he charged on ahead.What would follow was the longest leg (just over 10 miles) and the one I was least looking forward to.

After FoxHill would be a long roadside section leading to a steep climb up Liddington hill. After that is a seemingly endless field to Barbury castle which I didn’t enjoy last time I ran this part of the course. I felt better prepared this time round however. It took me 5 miles to catch up with Dave again, who had absolutely stormed ahead since the last checkpoint. We walked together for a while before I pressed on ahead, power walking by now. The sun had started to rise not long after I reached the top of the hill making my way across the fields towards Barbury. I saw a group of 7 walkers up ahead tiptoeing around a herd of sleeping cows, and gradually managed to catch them up one by one on the way to the checkpoint. I was glad to reach Checkpoint 9 which was offering some very tempting hot dogs. I didn’t stop however as I just wanted to press on.

This was it, the final push. It was around 7:40am by now and I had the idea of trying to get in before 9am if I could pick up the pace. This was a fairly short leg, mostly downhill and in daylight. It wasn’t as simple as I’d hoped however as my legs were getting very stiff and the ground felt very hard and stony here. Jogging the downhill sections was proving to be very painful as the undersides of my feet were incredibly sore. I somehow managed to keep a fairly steady brisk walking pace and also passed (very slowly) four more walkers on this leg, wishing them well as I went.

For the duration of this race I had maintained an optimistic outlook, breaking the race down in my mind and staying focused on the next checkpoint, one at a time. On the last few miles however that outlook had started to fade, with every step getting slightly slower and slightly more painful. I found myself cursing the last couple of miles as I made my way down the rutted path towards Avebury. It seemed further than I thought and felt like I was walking on broken glass. A morning running club ran past me up the hill I came from at a pace that seemed impossible to me now. They congratulated me as they sped past and I thought to myself “I remember being able to run like that” as I hobbled towards the village. After what seemed like an eternity I could see the finish line up ahead, and the race director Tim gave me some words of encouragement as I shuffled towards the tape marking the end of my adventure. As I approached I kept telling myself to smile but the best I could manage was this:

I made it at 9:15 am – a time of 21 hours and 16 minutes. Someone asked me if I would do this again and I remember saying “not right now, ask me later”. I received my medal and sat down for the first time since the race had started. After finishing the race I had a strange mix of emotions. There was a huge sense of relief that this was over, followed by a feeling of “what next?”. It took a while for the reality of running 86 miles to start sinking in as well. This time last year I would have no idea I would, or even could do something like this.

In the end, I gave my all on the day and I am very proud of the result. This is by far my longest run to date and the hardest thing I’ve completed, and I enjoyed every minute of it, even when it became painful towards the end. I would definitely do this again, and would be keen to see how much I could improve with better training and more ultra events under my belt.