UK Ultra Winter Downs 2nd 🥈

Lovely chatty run with Alice

Running late

CRC social

For those of you who were watching my tracker, I hope that provided you with some entertainment! Read on if you weren’t watching.

My trail husbands (Simon, Damo and Tomo) joined me for a wet and windy winter jolly down in Eastbourne. 55 miles (90km) for us, and 50km for Simon (which he won 👏).

My nutrition didn’t arrive on time so I had to go old school and rely on the aid station buffet table, eating what I want when I want with no tracking of carbs etc. This worked well for me and although I finished the race very dehydrated, my stomach was absolutely fine. I had a real craving for Christmas cake and I think I ate about 5 slices! 

The race started strong and I ran with Damo and then Grant, a kiwi who had recently completed the Dragon’s Back, so we had loads to talk about. I was in the lead from the beginning and maintained my position and average pace until 80km when I made a big mistake. 

Everything was going well, I felt wired and chirpy the whole time and I had no issues apart from a pesky stitch on long descents which has happened in all my races this year, I’m convinced it’s in the mind. 

I didn’t get cold despite not putting my coat on in the rain so I was lucky there. The wind was absolutely relentless, that headwind in the first half completely zapped me, but I know these things are one big roller coaster of highs and lows and I just needed to ride it out. 

I skipped 3 aid stations which was a little stupid but I was being chased from the get go and the lady, Kate, was sometimes just 300m-500m meters behind. Just when I thought I had shaken her off, she would reappear and my heart would sink. But I tried to keep a level head and not push too much, 90km is a long way and I didn’t want to burn out or feel stressed or have a horrible day. I was running my race and if she passed me then she passed me. What will be will be! 

With just 10km to go I appeared to have lost her so I was having the time of my life bombing down a hill dreaming of that first place and course record. I ran into a party outside a barn and asked them which way the runners were heading, they said they hadn’t seen any runners. Then my phone rang. It was event HQ. I had gone wrong, very wrong, nearly 2km down a hill which I now had to go back up. 

It was my own fault, it was dark and I hadn’t turned my head torch on. Partly because I enjoy running at night without a torch, and partly because I didn’t want the lady to know how close she was to me. The UK Ultra signs are navy blue with a reflective arrow on, so impossible to see in the dark without a torch and I turned my map screen off on my Garmin. Absolute rookie mistakes. Karma got me. It cost me 30 minutes and first place. 

Overall I am still really happy to have come second. I really enjoyed the race and felt good in myself. Lessons learnt - turn your bloody head torch on and have your glasses handy - because that would have saved my poor eyes in that wind (I couldn’t be arsed to stop to get them from my bag).

最常做的運動

Helen Newman

UK Ultra Winter Downs 2nd 🥈

2 張照片

24 則留言

分段

註冊即可查看更多 Helen Newman 的活動

UK Ultra Winter Downs 2nd 🥈

Lovely chatty run with Alice

Running late

CRC

CRC social

想知道更多內容嗎？

跑步和自行車運動的第一名應用程式

免費註冊。追蹤進度，實現目標。加入 Strava 一億活躍成員的行列。

查看更多Helen的內容