So, I bonked. Bonking is the same as 'hitting the wall,' that state of affairs most dreaded by marathon runners. It can be less of a thing in ultras because ultra-runners are usually keyed into the eating side of racing. Whereas, you'll sometimes get marathon runners bragging that they run without eating/drinking and make it through their training runs 'just fine'. This is a new-runner error.
Ultra-runners most often eat and drink, and very few would brag about not doing so, as it would be a sure sign of inexperience. With that said, bonking still happens, as I now know, to my utter chagrin.
It happened at the top of Cobstone Mill incline, at the top of which is the iconic windmill. I had been eating all day, but due to an ongoing stomach issue, and the fact that eating has been making me feel sick during my last three ultras, I wasn't eating enough.
The first 20 miles of the race were so much fun, I was just running along effortlessly, loving life, power hiking up the longer hills, and letting gravity pull me running back down. There was a cool breeze of 15mph gusting to 30mph, and it helped a lot in the muggy conditions.
I had also had some chat a friend from a previous Chiltern Wonderland (2025, the year in which I went sub-12 hours, the only time I've gone under 12), but he was running too fast for me yesterday, and fairly soon Ian was just a neon yellow speck on the road ahead.
At first I thought I had gone out too fast but looking back at my stats on Strava, I never went sub 11 minute/mile, so it was actually slower than last year (the year of my successful finish). I finished the first half of the race in only just under 6 hours, so the pace was reasonable, and on track for 12-12.5 hours.
To my credit, rather than just trying the 'same old thing' after being quite nauseous in my last race (North Downs Way 50 miler in May), I thought I was being smart, by pacing my eating and by switching to things that taste nicer, like Veloforte gels and Naak purees. These taste really good.
It worked, at first. I didn't get bloating or runner's belly like I did the last few times. But the flip side of those things (eating too much) is bonking, the point at which you run out of glycogen and your body switches to the much more inefficient 'fat burning' mode.
This makes running feel horrible, with stiff sluggish legs, tight chest and discombobulation in the brain as your sugar levels plummet. It's not a good feeling and you start moving at a crawling pace. I dragged myself into the 25 mile aid station, barely, and promptly let the marshals know I'd be stopping.
I could maybe have continued walking to the next aid station, but it would have been too slow, and there wasn't enough time to recover sufficiently to do so anyway. Because bonking is, technically, fixable, but you need to be able to get food down, which for me, wasn't happening.
I will need to re-think my races for the next few years because not being able to eat during long ultras is a limiting factor. I can pull off trail 50km or marathons, but the longer ones may be out of the question for a while.
It was fun hanging out at the finish line after the 'party' (sweeper) bus had brought me and about 10 other racers back to Goring. I watched the first through fourth women's and podium finishers come through before Diane came to get me in the car. Overall, it was a great adventure, one that I'll remember, even though I DNF'd.
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