South Downs Way 50km 2025

It was my hardest ever effort by a long way, last Saturday, with a score of 565 (my previous highest being the London Marathon in 2022 at 481) on Strava.  But in terms of PERCIEVED effort, the South Downs Way 50km felt much easier than London.  I think the difference is entirely explainable by social and mental factors.  Runs feel easier when you run with people, and when you feel part of a community.  With Centurion, having now run two of their races and volunteered at one (and registered to volunteer at another), I'm starting to feel like part of the community.  I saw people at SDW50km with whom I'd managed kitchen orders at the Thames Path 100 miler just a few weeks before.  This isn't only a competitive thing, as many of those people are much faster than me.  And part of competition is collaborative in the sense of holding each other to a higher standard, and this held true during this race.

The race conditions were perfect as well, with 20C and fair weather clouds mixed with blue and a beautiful tailwind that stripped residual heat away from my body. 

I had the good fortune of being cheered on by Diane during this race; and I also got to run with Rik, Nic, and Paul of Bracknell Forest Runners (an award-winning team!) for some of the time, and we had some good chats.  

My time was decent, IMHO, in part because I didn't spend more than 2 minutes at any aid station.  

I drank a litre of Naak Ultra Boost Drink (60g carbs) and a litre of Tailwind, with a half litre of Coke and a litre of water to keep me going through four mid-race aid stations.  There was one available drinking water tap as well where I topped up the water. I ate sausage rolls and sandwiches in small quantities as well as a couple of slices of watermelon.

Gels consumed included three Precision Hydration fueling gels picked up along the way (30g carbs each); one Gu gel picked up at Aid 1; two Science in Sport 40g carb gels and two Naak ultra boost 25g carb gels and a Naak maple syrup 200 calorie gel.  High carb fuelling continues to get the job done.

The results are here . It is interesting to note that I was passing people the ENTIRE WAY, and you can see this as I progress from 241-->238-->213-->194-->176 by the end.  Nobody passed me in this race except for that one person right at the end! I passed 65 people, which is a great way to run a race, mentally speaking.  

It is my favourite ultra running course, and I will run this race as many times as I can in future years.  Every year. 

Beat the Sunset 2025

 

Yesterday I did the 50km Beat the Sunset race in Maidenhead as a kind training fun for another 50km and subsequent 100miler coming up later in the summer.  I think I paced it right and nailed the nutrition because today (a day later) I am recovered and have done a 5 mile easy recovery run.  

The course covered areas around Maidenhead, Cookham, Eton and Taplow, and was easily one of the most beautiful ultra courses I've ever experienced, which I was seriously not expecting.  It was mostly flat and mostly along the river, but it seemed that around every corner was an endless wheat-field expanse fading off into a horizon filled with lush forests and blue skies.  It epitomises what Theresa May described as her 'fields of wheat' childhood idyl (and which until yesterday I viewed skeptically).  I mean it seriously challenges the imagination as to how they fit so much wild beauty into that quandrangle of space between roughly Windsor and Maidenhead and the area just to the north.  

I had energy and strength throughout this race, and did not go off too fast.  I maintained pace through scorching heat by drinking a lot, and by refilling my bottles only after draining them twice.  Even then I found I was dry by the next aid station.  The stations were extremely well spaced, coming in at 10km, but with the last one somehow only 7.5km from the finish (so nice when you're tired at the end of a 50km not to have to do 5-6 miles, but only just over 4). 

Because this was a training run I tried (unsuccessfully) to keep to my 100mile pace (for my upcoming North Downs Way 100miler coming up on 9 Aug 2025), which would have put me finishing between 7 and 8 hours.  Instead I finished in 6.5, in part because I read my watch wrong.  It gave my a cumulative, instead of current, lap pace, and it was consistenly below 8min/km.  I read it as thinking that I was currently running sub 8min/km, when in actually that was my average, which included my 4 minute walking breaks.  It was a run walk effort of 11min run/ 4 min walk, meaning that my run segments must have all been well below 7min/km.  In a hundred mile effort I literally NEVER run that fast.

Anyway, it was a good training run, and it was even splits.  It was a good training run for my upcoming 50km with Centurion Running in two weeks on the South Downs way because my increased pace also increased my effort on this flat course, mimicing what will be an increased effort in two weeks due to the upcoming race having significantly more (4500feet) elevation than the one I did yesterday (only 500feet).  The hills on Beat the Sunset were pretty easy and nonetheless I walked them, and ran all the downhills (as one is supposed to do in ultras, according to unwritten rules of the ultra-running world).

I sped along passing the people the whole way (after the initial waves cleared and adjusted), and had a strong finish easily beating the sunest by just under 3 hours).  I saw several other Bracknell Forest Runners, all of whom appeared to have a great day despite the heat.  I certainly enjoyed myself and often achieved flow or a zone-out daydream state of mind (whichever one you choose to call it).  I would definitely do this one again!

Postscript: You can. see me running with poles, which I went back and forth on before the race.  I'm so glad I went with poles, and I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the race to do so.  I am sure they helped me run faster and stronger and more consistently, and added to the pleasure of the day.

Nutrition included 2 SisSport 40g carb gels; and 2 Naak Ultra Boost 25g carb gels; 8 mini sausage rolls; 2 bottles of Tailwind and 2 bottles of Naak Ultra Boost 60g carb drink; 2 bottles of Coke; and several bottles of water or over 2 gallons of liquid.

Ultra Trail Snowdonia 25km 2025

 

It was another sunny day in Wales, with the UTMB event pumping out the music at full volume on the start line through a weekend of racing.  Distances ranged from 25km (my race) to 100miles.  I wisely chose the shortest distance, a sub-ultra distance in what is an ultra-running event.  In terms of effort and sustained heart rate (and elevation) over time, this 15mile run was as hard as the 100km (62mile) run I did last year.  A run of only a quarter the distance hit me as hard something four times as long.  

We ran out of Llanberis in 3 waves (I was in the first), and headed straight up to Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), which has a gradient often going up to 25%.  It took me 1.5 hours to reach the top, and another hour to get to the bottom on the other side where the first aid station was.  By comparison the first time I walked up Snowdon 10 years ago we took a leisurely 7 hours round trip.   But I'm in much better shape now.  So, after 2.5 hours on the trail I finally got to re-fill my bottles (switching from Tailwind to a weak-solution Naak) at the pump-up-the-music UTMB aid station in the quaint village at the bottom of the Rhyd Du trail from Yr Wyddfa summit.

That hour descent was one of the toughest segments of running I've ever done.  Tripping (and falling) was a constant hazard as the loose boulder and stone-step field of play was often loose, and always uneven.  Many people fell coming down, or twisted ankles, or suffered dehydration.  I avoided all the worst case scenarios, including not falling off a cliff, because there's one section along which a foot-wide trail perches along the top of a several hundred foot drop-off that I'd seen on a video a few days early, and that was only worse in person.  Using my poles to tap my way along the top of the cliff face (along a dragon's back spiny ridge 3000 feet in the sky) at one point it was so narrow that one of my pole taps missed the trail, and tapped off into the void.  Luckily I hadn't leaned too hard on that iteration, and quickly recovered my balance. Meanwhile the waves behind me (waves 2 and 3) were running along the spiky edge inclined to my left, whizzing past but not quite bumping me.  There's no way in hell that segment could come anywhere close to passing a health & safety review.  I honestly don't know why it's open to the public.

So, I cleared my worst fear (heights) quite full of courage and driven by the sheer need to just get down and by the time I got past the worst of it my knees and quads were screaming, rubbery and just plain unreliable feeling as I got down to somewhat more even and level pathways (it's all relative because there's really nothing even or level there).  What followed was typical Wales: often very boggy and muddy even on what should be dry sunny hillsides.  The water is constantly seeping out of everything, and it was as we ascended another pass, and gently descended down to Llanberis. 

Meanwhile we had to cross back over the valley and then navigate back into town along the paved road to the 'finish line' which is a long 1km section that lasts forever because you're right next to the finish line but you have to curl back around (as with so many ultras).  

My effort rating was 300 over 15 miles, as measure by Strava, and I maintained zone 4 heart rate close to 150 for the entirely, often going up to 170 or more.  My nutrition was 1 liter of water, 1 liter of Naak, and 1 liter of Tailwind, wtih 3 precision gels, 2 orange slices and 2 banana segments.  My preparation of trail tempo, hill reps, and weekend long runs with elevation worked well for this race.   It was well worth it, and I would absolutely sign up again!

The Way of the Runner retreat (2025, Dartmoor)

I'm still experiencing a relaxing buzzy sort of vibe from my time on Dartmoor this past weekend.  The whole thing is already sifting down into my memory comfortably as one of the most exhilerating things I've ever done, a completely fantastic retreat from start to finish.  

First there is the running. We had an excellent cross-section of weather conditions and on our first two runs (Friday evening shortly after arrival, and Saturday morning after breakfast) we had cool mist on the mountains, the backdrop for a heightened aesthetic seemingly perfectly coordinated for photographing the Dartmoor ponies.

(all photos by Adharanand Finn or Damian Hall)

Dartmoor runs from town begin with elevation gain, and that means a short jog up the Tor.  All the runs started this way, and I loved it right from the get-go, that pulsing, 'tip-tap' (as Damian put it) rhythm as you grind your way up across the sheep tracks and desire-lines to the top. 

Looking down over Ivybridge, Tom set up a 'jump shot' perfectly, and then we had a lesson on how to get down, with sage advice on foot placement and decision-making on tricky downhill terrain.  I took that first hard downhill really slow but once I got my head around it I was flying. 

By the time of our third run (the second run on Saturday, where we joked about doing 'double run' days and being 'hardcore') the weather had started to clear and you could see the tops of the Tors and Beacons very well from down below where Damian Hall led the hill-stride session. 

The hill-strides were up a not-too-steep hill and were meant to be done using an endurance (not sprinting) strid to better enhance your form and efficiency in endurance (ultra) events.  After a nice long warmup, we did seven reps in total, 6 * 20 seconds plus a bonus round of 30 seconds, and then a cooldown to the lodge.  I definitely sprinted a couple of the reps due to the inherent competitiveness of running with others.  

The beauty of doing the hill-strides with Damian was that he'd just given us his slide show beforehand and so we had all the images of his Barkley Marathons experience in our heads and were inspired and confident to ask him even more questions.

Before hill-strides we'd had a session on movement with an expert, and we threw balls at each other and did wall-facing squats and various stretches and exercises.  I learned that my ankles need to move (they do), and that this is a key part of running on the moors (and just generally).  It felt like a crazy (in a good way) yoga/pilates/dodgeball warmup that got me primed and recovered for the subsequent Damian session and Sunday long run the next day.

Sunday Long Run with me in my orange and yellow outfit

The fourth run, the Sunday long run, is the centrepiece of the whole retreat, taking the runners on a tour of ancient forests and wide open grassy mountain settings.  We did a massive power hike up a mossy boulder pile and that slowed us down a bit, but because the runs were such a beautiful mix of fast and slow, it all balanced out.  After gaining the height of the Tor, Colin or Finn would invariably steer us to the best and, importantly, the most fast and fun, way down to the bottom.  

It felt like flying, running down those hills and then they'd go back up again, but this time just enough for a quick pause before heading off flying again, the terrain often forgiving and even and fast so that you could just let your feet go.  It's the same reason why I said my run last year (also a The Way of the Runner event), when I did the Dartmoor crossing in one day with Finn and Colin, was the most fun I'd ever had on a run.  It's because they'd designed the route to be exquisitely engaging and unforgettable, like a thrilling roller coaster ride.  It's my Disney Land and Middle Earth all rolled into one, a combination of all the fun things in life together at once.

At the top of the boulder pile past the ancient forest

We even got a coffee break on the long run, and I had a Mars Bar and a Coke (in addition to the two gels and Lucozade I'd packed, practicing my ultra-nutrition strategies), and talked about running and eating with Damian before we headed off into the idyllic pastoral second part of the run which ended up with everyone swimming in a wild river (except for a couple of spectators).  It was fun to watch and a nice break. 

After the long run we were buzzing and stoked, and for lunch we had Ugali which I figured out is made of maize (I think) into white fluffy balls served with dal made of lentils poured over the top.  This dish was accompanied by kale or chard. 

Ugali

Every meal was vegetarian, and incredibly flavourful and nutritious in plentiful portions. After Ugali and a nap and a few cups of tea we went into Finn's slideshow about Kenya, Japan, and Ultra-running.  We got to see a big cross section of images that haven't appeared in any of his books, including Finn with short hair, and Finn running a 24 hour race (one image per hour) slowing down and then speeding back up to the finish.  There were great shots of histrionic Japanese runners in the famous ekiden races.  The Kenyan stuff was the star of the show, however, with the vibrant colours and scenes imprinting on the mind of the viewer at least as much as reading the books.  They'll stay with me for a long time.

We had a pub lunch after that, and socialised a bit more, and then I disappeared again (fully intending to come back up) down into my beautiful cool sleeping room and fell asleep to get up 9 hours later for our final early morning (6am) run on Monday. This was not to be missed because of the sunrise and the great weather. 

Final early morning run with views from Dartmoor

I would absolutely do another retreat again with The Way of the Runner and will be telling people about this for a long long time.

Susie Chan's Trails and Tribulations

Susie Chan's book Trails and Tribulations is in many ways the opposite of Allie Bailey's There is No Wall, though both authors start out describing their wild, partying, pasts.  On the back of Chan's book it says "You Never Regret a Run", while on the back of Bailey's it says "Running Won't Save You."  While on the one hand I have regretted a run in the past in which I got injured by pushing too hard through a niggle, on the other hand in many ways running absolutely did, and continues to, save me.  The thing I like about Chan's book is that it is actually about running!  

OK, so I have regretted a run but just one out of thousands completed in my nine years as a runner.  Chan goes through her own journey of starting out running for health (both physical and mental) reasons and quickly ramping up her efforts from her first race which was a half marathon, to her second one, which was the Marathon des Sables!  This is quite a jump, I have to say!  Chan is an accomplished marathon runner and can easily knock out a sub 3:30 marathon time.  My own goal was once to hit sub 3:30 so I can relate!  I never made it but we can dream.

The remarkable thing about Chan is that she is a dedicated volunteer and supporter of other runners and has volunteered at the Autumn 100 mile race many times.  She mentions Centurion's races quite a few times (and in this she is I think also in line with Bailey again, in their dedication to these events, as part of their community). One of the most resonant stories was her first 100 miler along the Thames Path and how after reaching mile 91 and overhearing her husband saying on the phone that it would take 3-4 more hours for her to finish, she went into flying feet mode to polish the race off in quick time.  That's hard to do.

Hard to do: the Marathon des Sables four times (once with her friend Sophie Raworth); a 12 hour treadmill distance world record; finisher at Badwater Ultra 135 miler; the accolades continue to pile up, and she still seems like a fun runner.  I like best her descriptions of runs that felt fun the whole time (including the Death Valley ultra), though I have to say I think the social effect of reduction of perception of effort has a lot to do with this.  It makes me wonder how an anti-social runner like Bailey does it?  I see Chan's strategy clearly, and I can honestly say I don't have that kind of support network, but I would like to have those fun all the way ultras nonetheless.  

My takeaway then is build your running networks and give back to the community by crewing and pacing your fellow runners; don't smoke while running; never regret a run; and stay positive.  I mean this, staying positive is incredibly important and it's all too easy to get sucked into cynicism when you start to see yourself (delusionally) as some kind of sub-elite.  Unless you're running 2:20 marathons, you're not sub-elite! To end this review positively, Chan has given a polish to my toolbox of mental skills for ultra-running: it never always gets worse; use the community; give back; eat; realise the pain is temporary; and stay positive! 

Autumn 100 2024

I can't imagine the conditions being better next year. In fact, they're more likely to be worse, as the weather this year wasn't really that bad.  Just a bit of rain on the day, and a few days of rain in the week before, but also a few days to dry out, and clear weather for me at the end of leg 1.  It was glorious when I pulled the plug, and that's probably part of the problem.  I looked around like I imagined Ken Fancett to have done when he almost DNF'd (as he told Elson on the podcast about Fancett), seeing everyone around me taking in the sun and lolling around by the riverside. I felt my manky, sore, wet, eroding, pinched-toe blistering feet and my trashed hips and my calves coated in thick mud and made a mental calculation of the damage I'd do if I kept pushing, and then I sat down on a bench in the sun and mentally called it off.  I sat there for a few more minutes and another runner sat down beside me.  He'd just pulled the plug too.  That was it!  I was done, after have run a marathon across tons of slippery mud and clay.  

I told a fellow club runner the next day that one of my discoveries of having begun the Autumn 100 is that I'm a 'fair weather runner.'  He laughed: "YOU!!?? A fair weather runner??!!  No way!"  It made me feel a little bit better but then he wasn't there to see, as I did, those lead runners coming back at me as I neared the checkpoint at the end of the first part of leg 1 at Days Lock.  Those men and women at the front are really impressive to see running along on the mud, balanced perfectly and speeding along almost as if it's not there, a kind of hovering mud-dance. 

The checkpoints were brilliant and I came alive during my brief interactions with the marshalls, who told me I looked fine.  I felt fine, I have to say, at least when I was at the checkpoints.  Those were a short 3 minutes though.  

Another great thing that happened is that I was in last place for around 10 miles or so before I passed a flagging runner.  I actually told the guy behind me to go ahead, pass by me as I'm pacing myself, and he said "I'm the sweeper runner," which made me laugh.  We had a good chat and he reassured me I had lots of time, ten minutes to spare at the next checkpoint.  So I had someone to run with!  

My pacing and nutrition were perfect, and by the third checkpoint I was on pace to the minute.  I checked in at 1:08, excactly as planned on my race plan.  I had downed the exact number of gels I needed to get down at that point, and supplanted them with sausage rolls and wraps as needed.  My stomach and legs were in good shape.  My hips and feet, however (and I guess you could say these count as part of my legs) weren't cooperating.  My use of poles helped in that final 6 miles to struggle on to the end, so that was a success as well.

I think the main overall failing for the day for me was my sock choice.  I purchased for the day a pair of DexShell waterproof socks, a pair of Injinji socks, and Injinji sock liners.  However I had never practiced running with liners and waterproof socks together so I didn't wear them on the day.  I think this was the fatal error.  What do you think?  Let me know how you did...

How do you train for a 100km race?

I had this question last night at track, and it got me thinking.  The answer I gave was short because my training plan was actually pretty simple.  Once a month, in the lead-up to the race, sign up for an ultra and run it as a training run.  Don't race it, but use it as an opportunity to get in a long run.  By doing this you convince yourself that you will be able to go the distance on race day.  Of course, practice your nutrition and pacing for your given goal (100km) race. 

With those ultras under your belt as a physical and mental base, you don't need to do a lot of 20+ weekly training runs. I find that those, if done too frequently, tend to just grind you down.  Instead, focus on weekly time on feet and mileage.  I count gym time as time on feet and, honestly, in addition to running practice ultras, the other big piece is doing strength training. I do hard/easy alternating weeks in the gym, with up to 5 strength sessions in a hard week.  On the easier gym weeks, you can ramp up the running mileage to make up for the time on feet short-fall, aiming to get 8-10 hours of training in per week.

Aside from the above (ultras as training runs and gym), you just go about your business as normal: do the Monday night runs and track with the club, and lead Sunday runs in the forest, and then run three more times per week totalling six times per week for an average mileage between 40 and 60 miles per week.  My highest mileage week was 62, and I didn't run more than 20km in one go that week.  My longest run overall through the whole training block was a 33 mile run across Dartmoor, in harder than race day conditions.  

Completing my first 100km non-stop took a long time to work up to. I would say it took me 5 years to finally reach my goal: from my first ultra in 2019 when I did part 2 of Race to the Stones (5h 30mins coming in 10th place overall), through my unsuccessful attempt last year in 2024, until this year's concerted effort to get organised and mentally optimistic with the explicit goal of completion.  So, it does take some time, and it's by no means easy.  But if you train right and are smart, you can make it look relatively easy on race day!