S*** Helen, this is hard!
At 40k I was broken and had already committed to stopping at Hove, but there was still a long way to go. My foot hurt - a lot - and the relentless heat over the relentless hills was seriously eating into my energy reserves.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved this event - the scenery was gorgeous, the hills a lot of fun, the organisation beautiful as always, and it was a lovely day. But S*** it was hard!
It was the first running of the South Downs Challenge by the Action Challenge team. It started in Eastbourne and finished in Arundel with Hove as the mid-point, incorporating over 2000m of climb (that is more than Snowdon and Scafell Pike combined, apparently). Along the way we take in Beachy Head, Seven Sisters (re-christened Seven Bitches by challenge participants) as well as Devil’s Dyke and every other hill along the South Downs way.
Training had not been ideal - I had done some runs, but had a ‘dodgy’ ankle, so was not at the level fitness I wanted to be. Oh, and my ankle was still dodgy. I have self diagnosed plantar fasciitis and promise I will get it sorted now the run is over - on the day I had taped it up and was keeping my toes crossed (like fingers crossed, but toes cos they are nearer to the ankle… no? Oh never mind).
It was a beautiful sunny morning, but we were in the middle of a heatwave so were expecting the heat to be brutal later. There was a lot of talk at the start line about keeping well hydrated, taking it easy on the hills, not using all your energy reserves early on, consistent fuelling…. I was nervous, by excited to be off and into the unknown. There were only about 200 ‘runners’ on the event and we got to start first, with walkers following on behind. We had planned to do a lot of walking, but still classed ourselves as runners…..
The course started along a beautiful flat seafront. At 7am a few locals were out for their morning constitutional, and all wished us good luck. By the looks on their faces I think they knew what we were going to face later on.
Leaving the seafront we very quickly saw how the day was going to go. Oh - those sort of hills!
We walked the hills, and ran gently on the runnable bits. Some of the downhills were too steep to even try to run - instead we edged down side ways. And it was beautiful! There was a bit of a breeze on the hills early on and that kept it comfortable. And the views were spectacular! We chatted to a few others running the event as we passed and re-passed each other. And it was fun!
The ‘schedule’ was to maintain an average 9 minutes per kilometre in the first half - this is a brisk walking pace. There was no intention of actually ‘following’ the schedule. Rather it was a useful way of a assessing how the day was likely to look.
We pulled into the first aid station at Birling Gap 6 minutes ahead of schedule, and after a quick turn around with fruit to eat, a toilet stop, fill up water bottles and a photo we were on our way again.
A few more hills, then we were at Birling Gap itself, which is a river estuary directing us inland for a few km, along a very hard concrete path with heat bouncing off, and no breeze. And for light relief a huge hill leaving us breathless followed by a climb over a wall. I think it was at this stage that we began to understand how the day was going to go.
The next aid station was Alfriston, and now we were 15 minutes behind the schedule. We were pretty tired and very hot and took nearly 20 minutes here. We missed the toilets on the way in and had to wander back to the entrance to find them. Then they moved the water table around while we were there so a bit more wandering around. I soaked a buff in water and hung it from the back of my hat to try and keep cool. We also chatted to a girl who told us that she had dropped down to half distance at this point as she had and injury and wanted to limit how much worse she was making it.
We then went uphill…. for 5km… with over 200m of climb. This was the biggest hill in the first half and was relentless. Stoney path with mountain bikes coming down towards us. Concrete path with scorched earth (ok stoney stubble filed) on each side of us. Spectacular views…
My ankle was pretty sore. Helen commented that it looked like it was turning out more than the other, and although it was only at ’11 o’clock’, it felt to me like it was almost at 90 degrees to straight.
Helen asked if I was thinking of stopping at Hove. Can’t remember how she worded it but not in any way that implied she thought I should. I said I didn’t need to make that decision until I reached Hove. But I was thinking about it.
What goes up must come down, right? And it did, almost as steep going down as going up had been, with much of it on a camber. Left ankle on fire, right quad being eaten by the descents. We could see the aid station in the valley, but it was a long way… And then, just as it was getting close there were those bridges to navigate.
At Southease we were an hour behind schedule (although we weren’t looking at time). Chatting to a girl who had been running with us down the hill, eat 3 or 4 pieces of melon, then deep breath…. ‘Helen I’m going to stop at Hove’. I jammed on my sunglasses so we could all pretend no-one saw my tears, then I quickly went to find someone from Action Challenge to change my status officially.
The next leg was 19.5k - the longest of the event - with only a water station in the middle. Another 200m climb and ascent, just over a lightly longer distance.
My decision gave me extra bounce for a while and Helen had to tell me to slow down. the bounce didn’t last long though.
I told Helen that she should continue and do the full 100k. I would get a train to Arundel and meet her there, whatever time of night it was. I knew she was struggling with indecision about whether she was strong enough to continue.
Me: S*** Helen, this is hard!
Helen: It is B***** hard. I’m going to stop at Hove too.
I felt bad for her. She is a strong person and makes her own decisions, but I didn’t want to be the cause of her failing to achieve her goal. We talked about how 54k (half way) in these hills and this heat was challenge enough. And having made the decision to make it a shorter challenge, we both started to own up about the extent and the worry about the injuries we were each carrying.
Over the hill and into the water station. Helen let the organiser know she was changing her distance. We drank a lot of water and leant on the table… sitting down may have meant I didn’t get up again. It was very, very, very hot!
In our heads it was all downhill from here. And mostly that was true.
As we got close to Brighton Helen pointed out a row of tents that we had seen before (near the end of the London to Brighton run). I was a bit confused as the path underfoot was not how I remembered it. It took a bit of prompting on where we were before I realised we were actually a lot closer to Brighton than I thought. That gave me a great boost!
Maybe now we were a little overconfident as we marched alongside the racecourse. We realised we hadn’t seen a pink direction marker for some while. We couldn’t see a missed turn. Out with google maps… Oops, we were supposed to be on a different path and now we can’t find an exit…. We eventually found our way out, and got back on course.
Here it got a bit bizarre as we were asked to help push a door uphill into a wood. Yes really. We declined.
Into Brighton on a hot bank holiday Saturday. It was seriously busy. Crowds of hot, sweaty tourists to fight our way through. Not what we wanted, and by now we were in ‘death march’ mode, one foot in front of another, head down, no distractions.
Where is Hove Park? Is it on the seafront? No I think it’s slightly inland. We turned right, and started going up again. 40m climb in 2km. Finally we turned into a park…. and out the other side, we still weren’t there! So glad this is going to be over soon.
Finally the end. There were groups of spectators cheering us on as we managed to smile and break into a final run to finish. Medal, t-shirt, fizz. It’s all been worth it!
That was hard!
It’s been 4 days since then. I’ve been a bit distracted by a mercy dash to Midlands and back to pick up my injured husband. But now I’m thinking…. what’s next? You can’t break an ultra runner :)
