The ‘Get to the pub by 4” ultra is a bit of an experimental race conceived by ultrarunner James Adams. Each runner starts at a different time with the idea that everyone would reach the finish at the same time at 4pm and have a drink together afterwards.
It’s a 50k event starting at Box End Park in Kempston, heading out through Bedford, some fields towards Haynes & Sandy and then back to Bedford on the national cycle route. I thought this sounded like a nice idea and any excuse to do lots of running followed by beer sounds like a weekend well spent so I signed up as soon as I found out about it.
Applying for the run involved sending in some recent race times for James to decide what each person’s start time would be. I had completed the Tring 50k a few months before which was a perfect benchmark and gave me an estimated finish time of 5.5 hours.
This would normally be an achievable target for me – last summer I was doing a lot of 28 mile training runs in under 4.5 hours. This summer, however has turned out to be incredibly busy and I’ve found very little time for running, especially in the last 3 months (only 16 miles in total for the whole of July!). Being totally out of shape, unfit and untrained I wondered if it would be such a great idea after all go go ahead with this.
In the end there were two things that made me decide to take part. Firstly I wasn’t sure if this would be a one-off event and didn’t want to miss out. Secondly I hoped this would give me a bit of focus to get back to a healthy training schedule. I felt committed to at least have a go, even if it was going to be uncomfortable.
I arrived at 10am to get registered, pick up my map and instructions and join the other 10:30 starters to wait for James’ briefing. I had my garmin watch set up with the gpx route ready to go, but it has a really annoying habit of resetting itself just when we’re about to start. It took a fair amount of faffing about to get it working again, which also meant I missed a nice photo opportunity with my group.
The first few miles into Bedford were quite easy going. There was a nice bit of cloud cover to start with, and we had a brief summer downpour which freshened the air a bit as we approached Bedford. Some of my group ran a much faster pace and soon disappeared into the distance but my plan was to take it very slowly and save my legs until later in the run. I spent the majority of the race running with a couple who were running a similar pace to me. They lived locally and knew the route so I thought it would be a good idea to stay with them. We passed each other a few times throughout the race, chatting briefly each time.
Despite having the gpx route on my watch I found myself taking some wrong turns around Haynes, which made me realise I should pay more attention to the map and instructions we were given (this was actually marked in capitals as a ‘SNEAKY BIT’). By now the day had warmed up a lot, and without much shade on the route I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. The first checkpoint came at the 10 mile mark where I had some sweets and refilled my bottles while avoiding wasps.
There was a nice section on the way to Sandy with some shaded parts which I was grateful for. I took another wrong turn but was quickly directed to the correct path by the couple from my starting group. We passed some other runners as we approached sandy and by now it was feeling very hot. I had completely emptied both my water bottles by the time we reached the second checkpoint at mile 19, and was glad to refill them and eat plenty of sweets and salty snacks. From there I joined a small group of runners and we made our way to the cycle path on our way back to Bedford.
At the start of the run I overheard some people mention that this would be the easy bit – we just need to follow the straight path all the way back. I was finding it quite difficult. I was getting tired and a bit overheated by this point. The path was all on tarmac too and there wasn’t much variation to keep things interesting. A couple of fast runners sped past during this section and I found myself needing to slow to a walk a few times.
All this time I had been thinking about the run as a “30 miler”, which turned out to be a mistake as the actual distance was a bit longer. When I thought I only had 8 miles left, it turned out to be more like 10, which was a a big difference at this stage in a long run. I plodded on the best I could until I arrived at the third and final checkpoint at marathon distance. I had an embarrassing moment here when I tried to get my zero tablets added to my water. They had mostly turned to powder by this point and puffed into a big cloud, covering me and the volunteers who were trying to help me refill my bottles.
The last stretch took us back through Bedford and Kempston the way we came, and by now I was pretty much done in. I did my best to keep moving forward and drinking plenty of liquids. I managed to catch up with some other runners where we passed each other a few times on the way to the finish. Most people around me were walk running at this stage too.
I finally arrived at the finish at 4:51pm, and was really glad to have finished. I didn’t make it to the pub by 4, but someone commented that it was “4 something” which still counts. (In fact, I think there were only about five people who managed it before 4, maybe due to the heat) I chatted with with some of the runners I had seen on the way and had some more water. My garmin read 6 hours and 3 minutes which might not be my best time, but then again I had just completely winged an ultramarathon without any training whatsoever. Despite the heat and my poor form I had an amazing time exploring a new route and jumping back into running a long distance which I love.
James mentioned that if the event was a success he’ll put it on again next year, and if that’s the case I’d love to come back, hopefully on better form!
Stuff I brought (and stuff I didn’t need)
Useful:
2x 500ml Water flasks Zero tablets (3used)
Jelly cubes (used all)
Hat
Not useful:
Trail shoes (didn’t need, lots of the route was on tarmac)
Biscuits (didn’t eat any)
4x jels (not used)
Raincoat (not used)
Battery pack for phone
