Again, again!

I loved it so much I'm going to do it again. I've signed up to run London to Brighton again in May 2016. i've also signed up for the new South Coast Challenge 100k in August. So to prepare I need to think about what went right and what was missing last time.

Fitness

Mileage was good. I peaked at just over 100k in a week, but most weeks were anything between 40 and 80k. Lots of back to backs from 15 to 30k. Lots of running with my dogs (aka fartlek). Willingness to walk whenever I needed to as long as I continued to cover the distance.

Although I did some trail running it wasn't nearly enough and I stuck to easy trails. I need to go off the main trails and practice running over roots and ruts and through mud. And hills. Lots of hills.

Strength

I used odd minutes of time - such as when I clean my teeth - to do squats (two and one legged), lunges etc to strengthen calves, quads, glutes and core. My core felt strong throughout and legs held up well. My ankles were not as strong adding to caution on trails and potential injury - so ankle strength and more intensive core and leg training will be needed.

Nutrition

Bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Nuun throughout. Homemade banana and date flapjack. Whatever aid stations have to offer. Worked ok so will do the same again. 

Although I felt nauseous around 88k I don't think there is anything specific that caused that or could have prevented it.

Kit

Need a new head torch - lightweight, non-slip, long battery life, bright. Maybe change from soft flasks to hard so they don't drop out? 

Top with high neck and half zip worked well.

If weather is dry before hand and on the day maybe use road shoes for the first half of L2B.

Why I nearly stopped, and why I carried on

I lot of thoughts went through my head on "that" hill. I've done a lot of pondering since then on what it said about me and what I learned.


I might die
Given the way my heart was beating and my breathing was so heavy, I really thought I might collapse. Some runners do collapse. And I didn't want to be a burden on the emergency services. And it was better to stop and go back rather than have to be carried back.

But then... I've never been really ill or badly injured. And if I was, wouldn't it be worse than this? I'm going to save my dying for when the pain is unbearable!

Others have stopped
Earlier I had convinced myself that Helen and Eileen had stopped. They had since texted me to say they were still moving forward and I knew that. But my imagination is quite a powerful thing, and having played through the 'H & E have dropped out scenario' in my head, it was hard to stop believing it. So if they had dropped out and I had got further, then it didn't matter that I didn't finish.

But then... I do know the difference between imagination an reality - no really I do!

No one would judge me
I've looked at figures for previous years and I know the drop out rate for a 100k is relatively high. So I could just be another statistic. Mot of my friends are impressed that I would even contemplate 100k, so achieving 88k would still be considered quite an achievement. Especially at my age.

But then.... I don't like failure, quitting, good enough. They call it an A type personality....

This is hard
Carrying on was going to hurt. Even if I got beyond this hill it was going to be a 'death march' to the finish. There was still a couple of hours until it was all over and I was already 'beaten up' and tired.

But then... I had wanted to do this run for a long time. I had done all the training and I was ready for this. If I didn't finish, then I would need to do it again, go through the training, spend all that time...

So in summary?
I'm a bit of a drama queen... but ultimately seriously bloody minded!