Hi people! You may have seen Facebook, but in case you didn’t, Kyle just phenomenally conquered his 1st ultra marathon, which was also the World Championship qualifier in Haworth this weekend! This is his recap:
So …around January after Googling what races to focus on this year, I decided that I would give the trial race for the IAU World Trail Running Championships a bash. The “Haworth Hobble”, as I found out afterwards is appropriately named, consists of 32 (or 32.5 for me) miles in distance with 4500 feet(!) of elevation. There was something that excited me about the prospect of doing an ‘ultra’ distance and the training that comes with it. With my background initially in mountain running (interesting fact: I went to the World Mountain Running Champs in Alaska many moons ago), then trail running (I guess I can call myself current national champ in that field) and current form in marathoning (coming 28th non-elite at London in my first marathon, and 3rd at Loch Ness), I think ultras could be something I could excel in!
So I went straight to my coach, Lewis Walker, for the go ahead. He was excited by the idea and threw me into long steady runs of marathon+ distances (including 2 x 50k runs in the hills), and regular 90-100 mile/weeks. I also tried saunas (research has shown 2x30mins per week in the sauna produces similar results to altitude training…and I’m pretty sure I didn’t make that up!), tested out solid food on my long runs (and hated it), and even threw in some faster intervals for good measure…I even experienced a catastrophic gargantuan “bonk” on a 20 miler so, all in all, I couldn’t feel anymore prepped for the race…!
Although everything was going swimmingly well until then, the Mooreigs tend to love a bit of pre-race drama, so this was the spectacle this time:
Basically, when we were skiing in France, I discovered my left foot had changed shape drastically one day (i.e. I could get my ski boot on in the morning, then after lunch I was nowhere near getting in there, and had to go back to the hire place to get a new pair). Since then, I have struggled even in running shoes, and I have been running without soles in training.
I thought it would be a bright idea (it wasn’t) to order a different pair of Inov8’s the week of the race, that I’ve never tried before, but – shock, horror – when they arrived they didn’t fit my newly oddly shaped foot, despite the reviews saying they had a wider toe box than my other shoes.
Kyle’s solution…cut a hole in my old shoes so my bunion could poke out!
I’ll spare you the pic of the said bunion or whatever it may be…!
Next act on the playbill was the day before the race: travel day. I don’t know what I would have done without Debs, as I was vomiting all the way down the road…regularly puking up my beetroot juice on the motorway laybys. Classy guy. By the way, I was trying the whole “beetroot juice loading” last week, which again research has shown to be effective in endurance athletes. I don’t think that was the root (gettit?) cause of my sickness, it just meant I puked a nice shade of pink. Deb was off work last week with a virus, and maybe I just caught some of it? So it was her own fault she had to drive the ENTIRE way from Alford to Yorkshire #SUPERFIANCE!
She forced me to drink all evening when we got to the hotel, and a fresh air walk/recce of the final km of the race definitely helped. As did the deep fried ale pickles she ordered with her fish n chips. I was of course the better athlete and opted for carbonara and a large Cadbury’s easter egg 🙂
The morning of the race arrived and I couldn’t have been more pumped now that I felt a little better…!
I registered and arrived at the start line (there was no line) at 7.30am. The conditions were perfect for a long race…vest, shorts and Callum’s ultra bag it was! Oh, along with Callum’s Phoenix watch where I he uploaded the race course = LIFESAVER!
The race was slightly delayed due to the number of participants (and because we were in Yorkshire, so really laid back vibe…no one even seemed nervous!) but without warning the organiser just appeared and shouted “READY…GO!”
The first 4 miles were very steady and easy – something I wasn’t used to in any race I have ever run, but I loved how relaxed it was. For these miles, I just tucked in behind the leading pack and tried to conserve as much energy as possible.
After around 6 miles, we approached the first hill and managed to fall over and hit my knee – although it was slightly cut, I couldn’t really feel it until later on in the day. That wasn’t to be my last fall…
Around the 12 mile point, Christopher Hudworth pulled away with Tom Payn (a 2.17 marathon runner and GB trail runner) and had managed to gain a 30 second lead on me by the 14 mile mark. The other group I was with were content to stay in the group so I decided to chase down Tom and run with him for a few miles. The biggest issue was that the entire course was unmarked so we really had to have our wits around us. A couple of times we went off course and had to wait until the chasing group caught up with us to find the right way – disaster!
The greatest error was around mile 20 when we (Tom, Matt and Gary) took the wrong turn heading down towards Stoodley Pike and ended up doing probably 4/5 minutes longer than we should have done. We did manage to find out way back on course but had another pack to chase down. This was the moment Debbie found me while out on her bike and although she was really nice and asking if I needed anything, all I could shout at her was “GELLLLLL. NOW.”
I also demanded a flapjack, but at this point she was too far in front and I never realised we had to head back on trails so I missed her.
Continuing on that trail to the top, I had very little confidence left in my navigation and ran alongside the legendary Ian Holmes for a few miles and with local knowledge he kept me on the straight and narrow for the last few miles.
The last few miles, I started to struggle and I was told I was now in 2nd place – at this point I ran out of gels and tried to eat a sausage roll and doughnut. Note to self – make sure you don’t have a dry mouth with no water when eating them as you will find you’re playing a game of chubby bunny*.
I then hit a bit of a wall at 28 miles and Tom zoomed passed me and then a mile later, Gareth and Matt caught up with me and went past me. I then started seeing flashing black lights…uh oh!
However, I was soon offered some orange juice from a passerby and that perked me up a bit to make a stab at catching Matt and Gareth who were, by mile 30, around 30 seconds behind me in 3rd and 4th place. I saw in the distance, that leading runner Chris was soon overtaken by Tom which surprised me as Chris was 4 minutes in the lead at halfway.
By mile 31, I closed gap to Matt and Gareth and then I went passed Chris to now be on 4th place. It was now all downhill and a fight for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place…
The final 400 metres of was down a narrow path and through narrow lanes…it was like a scene from the Wacky Races…never did I imagine I would be doing a sprint finish in an ULTRA marathon!
I headed into the final 100metres but took the wrong turn whilst 3rd and 4th followed me…they turned and I was now in 4th place but couldn’t overtake due to the narrow paths! All in all…it resulted in 2nd, 3rd and 4th being TWO SECONDS apart! I was pleased but gutted not to make the top 3.
After I collapsed at the finish line, much like when I was “forced” to do Debbie’s half ironman after her accident, being force fed donuts and Lucozade certainly helped, but I was a broken man! I met with a GB selector at the end who was really impressed by my performance, but as he was only 1 of 4 selectors and a budget for the World Champs in Italy hadn’t been set yet, he couldn’t tell me anything. All I can do is keep everything crossed (although not physically because my muscles are still too sore!) that they put me on the team!
(How I look after 3h55mins, 32.5miles and 4.5k ft elevation. Still want to marry me, Debs?)
Ok, so what I’ve discovered:
Do:
- Drink lots and lots of water in the days prior to the race (especially if being sick the day before…)
- Try out beetroot juice the week before your big distance event
- Read race reports for the race – it could might save you from going the wrong way or not getting that time you were looking for
- Praise your support crew as much as possible afterwards – I wouldn’t have made it to the start line without the better half!
Don’t
- Obsess over food the week before. I think naturally with less training, eating the same is technically carb loading
- Leave it last minute to pack. I never learn and always turn into a stress head (Debbie moreso at me)!
- Borrow Callum’s watch (that was not the con…that part was a life saver!) without finding out how to use it. At 10pm on Friday night, Google and Youtube were my best friends!
- Buy shoes the week of the race
- Leave it to a sprint finish at the end of an ultra 😉
*Deb edit: chubby bunny is a hilarious game involving marshmallows. If you haven’t played it, buy a bag of marshmallows and do it. Tonight.
In other news, Mum did phenomenally well in the 5km at Inverness the following day!! (Yes I did a helluva lot of travelling this weekend…) She was aiming to beat her race number (3448) and crossed the line in 33.56 by my Garmin! So proud of how far she’s coming!
…and yes she beat Kyle’s mum! She’s also been ill the last few weeks and had told us she wasn’t going to do it, then she surprised me at the start line!! Amazing efforts all round!
I was gutted I couldn’t run (virus + calf niggle = sensible Debbie for once, plus I was sore from chasing Kyle around Yorkshire on a bunch of 20% climbs!!) but everyone did so well – cannot wait to get back running and try to catch up! 🙂
Debbie Moore Tris 
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