The Training Run at Goring

Before

In previous years the Spine has crept up on me. The summer ends, kids go back to school, then suddenly Christmas is looming and with it the Pennine Way. 

I decided I needed something substantial to pop in the autumn diary to get my attention and scream loudly that I really should get myself organised for January. The Autumn 100 was pretty much perfectly timed. 

I have had a poor record in this race with two DNS' in the past. The first was when I felt simply not ready some years ago. That would not now be possible as I have a personal rule that DNS' are not allowed. After signing up I am committed to rolling up at the starting line then DNF in style if needed. (Although in the small print of the Jonathan race manual rule 2 says DNFs are also not allowed). 

The second A100 DNS was two years ago when I forgot I had entered. In my defence the SDW100 was moving all over the place due to COVID. It was scheduled for a couple of weeks after A100 so when the centurion envelope arrived in the post with my race number I thought they had mixed it up with SDW and ignored it. Until I realised. As I say I blame COVID. 

So here we are at Goring on a lovely sunny autumnal day on October ready to roll. It wasn't my best day out, it wasn't my worst. This is a brief synopsis. 

Leg 1 is up the river. It was ok, although some stretches were on a busy road and nothing really awe inspiring to excite the runner. I got a bit fed up trotting on the flat towards the end, although managed a respectable first 25 Miles in 4hr 30min. 

Leg 2 was more interesting. Some technical trail up on the East limb of the Ridgeway, with fun inclines on wooded tracks and across golf courses. The gradient was perfect for easy fast descending. 

Leg 3 was dire. I'm sure on a nice day it is lovely, but in the dark with a headwind it went on forever. The track was hard with loose stones underfoot. It was tricky to identify the gradients in the dark, and the outbound sections that should have been runable as they were slightly down, didn't feel that way due to the headwind. There was little variety to the trail, and it wasn't enjoyable.

On the return from Leg 3 I was watching the clock to try and work out if I had enough time to do sub 24. I felt 7 hours should be just about enough, so on the way back I ran maybe 50-70% of the downs to get a bit more time. I got back to base with 6hr 50min left to finish the final 25. 

I decided not to stop at base on the final occasion. If I lost 20 mins there for food and sock changes I would certainly miss sub 24. 

I realised soon after starting leg 4 my chance for sub 24 had gone though. My legs were pretty spent and they refused to run on the flat. The hill just downriver from Goring felt like a mountain. I started to fall asleep and spent a couple of hours trying to stay awake. 

Once I had accepted I was not going to make a time, it was fine. I spent quite a while in the aid stations and enjoyed the walk along the river, with no pressure of time. I came in at 25hr 15min or something. 

After

On reflection I feel the A100 was both a success and a failure. 

Failure, as I was undertrained for a 100 miler. I felt much better on the objectively much harder SDW100 previously. I was carrying too much weight and should have been able to run for longer, and make sub 24. 

Success because it was a perfect wake-up call for the Spine. 

• I ran with my Spine pack (to much amusement of many competitors who asked why I had a 33 litre pack when everyone else had micro packs) I had a small pressure area from the pack which I need to look in to - thats why you train like its the proper event
• I tested my resilience and endurance. It was pretty tough but I'm getting better at switching off the pain and just carrying on
• My feet were amazing. I didn't tape this time, but used copious vaseline with injinjis and oversocks, changed at 25M and 50M and honestly had zero blisters
• My nutrition was much better. I tried hard to stay off simple carbs and move to a more sustainable fuel mix, the ups and downs of sugar rushes really bothered me at the Northern Challenger. 
• It was good to get back in the compression tights, string vest and OMM shirts I hadn't used since January and they were as comfy as ever. 
• It was a great trial of my new Fenix 6x, using the Nav - really very impressive and amazing battery life - although I need to get a decent base map loaded in

The Fenix' post race advice

The plan for the rest of the autumn now is:

• Weight to sub 75Kg
• 5 mile daily run and one 40k pack run a week
• Kit plan, especially working out how I will get to 6 or 7 days of kit changes
• Route plan

All in all the A100 was well worth doing - and as a first 100 for anyone considering it a very good choice as it is logistically so easy, but I doubt I will do it again. I prefer linear adventures really and the only reason I'd go back was to do sub 24 and trail adventures are not about time anyway, are they?