The JW Ultra was my first long event since the stress fracture in the summer and almost exactly three months since the SDW100. After resting for the first couple of weeks I had quite an active recovery and worked hard at maintaining my fitness through a combination of static bicycling and deep water running with Aquaphysio. Once my six works were up I began to slowly increase both my distance and pace with the hope that I would be fit enough for 30 miles of canal side running.
The first couple of events I took part in were local parkruns and the results were ok, not too far off my times from before the injury and the speed work didn’t seem to have any negative effects. I had also booked a session with James @Kinetic Revolution to try and get to the bottom of the cause of my stress fracture. The results seemed to show that I am over loading my left foot by not fully unloading through my left heel. Since then I have been making a real effort to get that left heel fully down and slowly it is getting slightly more natural.
A slight complication with the event was that we had a wedding the previous day which would mean that the usual sleep over at the Etap in Birmingham was out of the question. Instead we had a 4.45am alarm call before Ercole, Paul and I drove up to race headquarters to get the coach back to the start. Work stuff had been extremely tense and difficult in the previous couple of weeks so I was really looking forwards to spending a day by myself watching the ducks go by.
We arrived at the car park and collected our race numbers seeing a few familiar faces and getting generally organised. Strategy was start slowly and see how I felt after the first check point. Experience tells me that it takes about a third of an event to find my rhythm so it seemed a good place to start.
The start had changed a bit with a small out and back to bring the end a bit closer to the Sea Scout race HQ and it was nice to see the leaders heading out smartly. The portion through Stratford centre is lovely but has the challenge of tourists! Once this was safely negotiated and we were on the canal path I began to settle into my pace although I did have to keep reminding myself to put my left heel down (the right one seems much better behaved).
I love the aquaduct sections on the canal in the first section but for some reason hadn’t properly realised that there are two of them! The sea scouts were lovely although I’m never quite sure that they quite understand why we all do what we do! A short pit stop in a field was needed but this year I managed to find a hedge to tuck behind rather than giving one of the other runners an unpleasant surprise and before long I was at the first check point.
Shortly after the checkpoint I started to drift a little and a one of the Bournville guys caught up with me and I decided it would be a good idea to tuck in behind him and let him set the pace. His pace was ideal just a bit faster than I had been going but nothing to uncomfortable and we trotted along very nicely. At one point we passed a slightly confused looking girl who was sure we were lost! Not impossible I know! But I have done this section twice before and was pretty sure we were ok and Bournville guy had done it every year so assured her we were on the right path but she wasn’t convinced!
Check point two and Bournville guy dropped back to collect a drink and some snacks, I was feeling ok still so grabbed some food and kept going. I had decided to carry my Ultimate Direction SJ vest although apart from the usual first aid kit and stuff I only had a couple of gels and both soft bottles (love them although Sharon thinks they feel like fake boobs!) one with water and one with Nuun strawberry lemonade and this served me well.
It was only once I got to a few miles after check point two that I had a proper look at the times. Although I nearly always run with a Garmin I don’t actually check it until I get back and download everything to the laptop. I was really surprised to see that I ahead of where I thought I would be and on for a course PB. So this meant a quick assessment of how far left and what pace would get me there! I had three targets at the outset, firstly finish (uninjured), secondly beat or equal last years’ time and a stretch target of less than 5 hours.
This was just the just the push I needed to keep the pace up and getting the extra few hundred meters in at the start was great since not long after crossing the Worchester (??) Birmingham canal I could see Sharon, Rowan and the finish line. Sub 5 hours and very happy to see the finish!
Next stop Robin Hood Marathon! I may have felt very foolish with the deep water running suit but it does seem to have done the trick.
annettelovestorun 