You Never Stop Learning - The ARC of Doom

 

My name is Jonathan, and I just DNF'd.

I feel terrible about it. My first ever DNF, I never even DNF'd a Parkrun before. Having said that I have DNS'd a few races when I Knew What Was Coming and was unprepared. 

Its a few days later now, and I've had chance to stop whinging and man up a bit rationalise things. I wasn't going to bother writing a blog on it, but if I don't I'll forget then important bits so here we go. 

I was interested in the Arc when a few Spine friends suggested it a year ago. Interested but not obsessed, so I guess I didn't do as much homework on it as I should have done. I jumped in to it with the mindset of my last race - the Spine - where resilience and endurance matter and speed (at the back) doesn't. It was a Winter 100 mile trail race after all. 

I packed my kit in my ridiculously large 32 litre Osprey pack, thinking about contingencies but not being overly cautious. Head torches were an issue - the race rules demanded two lights both with back up batteries. Using my Lupine's and standard back up batteries would have meant almost 1Kg of torch. I compromised by taking two Lupines so I could spot the cliff edges easily, but without spare batteries - and an extra stand alone lightweight lamp with a single AA backup battery. This was still around 600g. I think most people were probably around 250g. I was unsupported so needed to make sure I had enough food to get me to the checkpoints. I packed the usual variety including soup and porridge and a rigid cup. It weighed quite a bit and I reckon again most people were carrying a fraction of this. All in all my pack weighed around 5Kg without water, which was way too much. 

After registration, which was pretty smooth, there was a chilly wait for the buses which finally left around half an hour late and we drove down to Coverack. This is a lovely place to start a race, very pretty with a small village store also doubling up as a coffee shop. A hot chocolate and croissant were welcome!

The start itself was a high-energy event, which I don't really like - but it was done quite well and admittedly good fun, with Led Zepellin on the tannoy, and enthusiastic commentor, and volunteers lining the route with smoke flares. The enviro bit of the flares bothered me a bit though! 

I started near the back, as I tend to in ultra races. It avoids the temptation to go off too quickly and I almost always end up picking up places as the race progresses. This was a bad plan in the Arc! I sensed that the field went off quickly - I'm not sure if that was because of the downhill start, or if others knew about the imminent utter cluster gridlock forthcoming congestion, but starting near the front is the way to go in this race. After a few hundred meters of road the course headed out on to the Coast Path, and the race promptly ground to a halt. The first block was a gate at the start of the Path. I stood in a queue for a few minutes, chatting to others, without feeling too bothered as it ensured it wasn't a quick start. However after that gate the utter cluster gridlock hold ups continued with every technical section of the course, for at least the first hour. My watch showed moving time of only 40 minutes in the first hour of the race, and we had covered only 2 miles in that time. The second hour was also slow - although mainly because of the technical ground. The first timing point was Cadgwith which we arrived at 2pm. The official timing chart showed 1.52pm as the latest time of arrival for a 36 hour round, and on that trajectory the runner would be cut off at both Pendeen and St Ives. It was an utter cluster disaster a truly terrible start. 

I wasn't exactly standing still either. Mindful of the pace I was overtaking as many runners as I could, glad of the Sealskin socks and boots which meant I could just run straight through the muddy sections of path whilst others tried to tip-toe around. In my haste I had a great wipeout on a descent section, where my body moved on without legs for a second or two, and rolled down the slope - happily in grass - and ended up with my legs tangled in a now demolished temporary fence by the side of the path. 

Lizard point came at 14.59 (last timing chart cut 14.50) and Mullion at 16.33 (chart cut 16.27). Porthleven check point finally arrived at 18.28 - the CP had a cut off time of 7.30pm, but again the timing chart showed a last row - 36 hour round prediction of 18.23. 

Essentially therefore I was slower than the latest finish time prediction on the chart by 8 minutes (Cadgwith), 9 minutes (Lizard), 6 minutes (Mullion) and 5 minutes (Porthleven). I was gradually making back time, but after 25 miles was pretty tired and realising the task ahead was metaphorically and literally mountainous. 

Portleven also had little food left. I asked a volunteer, who asked a colleague ("I think we have vegan sausages, soup and rice pudding left"). From memory I'm pretty sure they had something really good earlier on, but not for us cut-off dodgers. I felt a bit down-beat but enjoyed the soup anyway. 

The next section was tougher than I expected, and also took longer than I had hoped for. I was tired, and realising I was up against the cut-offs that felt pretty difficult. I had bursts of energy, speed and hope, but it was hard to keep that going all the time. 

I arrived at the volunteer point at the entrance to Marazion around 10pm, the time check shows 22.12 against a last-row limit of 21.56. I was losing time, now 16 minutes off the slowest theoretical finish time. The volunteer fibbed told me "just 3 and a half miles to the checkpoint now". It is not - it is 7.8Km, almost 5 miles. (It is about 3.5miles from the centre of Marazion to the centre of Penzance - but that is a different question!) 

Boosted by the alleged proximity of the CP I ran off towards penzance, managing a good mile non-stop before hitting a small section on the sand. A little later I met another couple of volunteers who told me the CP was only 3 miles away now. Well great, but I haven't just run half a mile! I checked my watch and realised I was going to be in to the checkpoint not too long before it closed. It was pretty depressing and I mostly walked from there to the Rugby club. 

I arrived at the CP at 11.19pm. It closed at 11.45pm. The latest "finish time" was 10.56pm, so I was now 23 minutes behind schedule. I thought of stopping there. I knew there was pretty much zero chance now of making the St Ives cut off, still 39 miles away. The thought of beating myself across the tricky technical terrain overnight with no chance of a finish was pretty depressing. However they had pizza and I ate quite a lot of it. That helped. 

I decided to carry on. Cyrille my Spine friend appeared just as I was about to leave the CP. "Let's try and make Land's End" I said, and headed out. 

I quite enjoyed the run to Mousehole, although the section after the village was tricky, with slow progress. I had had enough really. I kept looking behind me - seeing very few head torches. It felt ridiculous continuing a race practically at the back, with no hope of finish. 

I spoke to volunteers at Lamorna and asked if I could get a lift back with them, figuring the last runner must be close behind me. They were not very forthcoming. I am sure they were well meaning but said "It is an ultra race, you can keep going, Lands End is not so far". I felt like saying "I've done 20 ultras, I know what it feels like, but this isn't happening". 

I carried on, and was quite pleased to check out the tricky post-Lamorna section which wasn't as bad as I had expected. I met a fellow DNF-in-waiting distressed runner just before Porthcurno and he explained he was stopping there. I had assumed carrying on to Minak, but the chance of avoiding the steps seemed pretty good so I pondered that idea too. 

Arriving at Porthcurno I met Chris, another Spine friend who was crewing and quickly bagged a ride in his car. I'd managed 49 miles, which was a pretty good recce and I was happy to call it a day. Chris ran me to Lands End. They had chilli which was delicious and the race hit a high point. 

So my learning points from the race are:

1. I was undertrained and over-weight. I had had a knee injury in the autumn, and was also around 4Kg heavier than my Spine weight of a year previously. I am assigning my DNF to that lack of fitness and weight optimisation first and foremost. 

2. I started too far back in the pack. If I had been running with another 20 or 30 minutes in hand I would have been sitting on the "34 hour" row of the timing chart, which psychologically would have been much better and may have allowed me to make the Pendeen cut off - although I am still sceptical I would have made St Ives. 

3. I needed to travel much lighter. With water I was carrying around 6Kg, and should have aimed for almost half that. With the extra body weight I must have been racing 7Kg, so almost 10% overweight. I would carry less food - ditch the hot stuff as I saw no hot water outside checkpoints, and compromise on head torch spec/weight. 

4. Ideally I would use crew at this event. It is set up for crew, and doing so means less admin and precious minutes saved. 

The positives I take away are:

• My feet were excellent. I pre-taped and the boots and injini / sealskin combo worked well. I had no blisters or even hot spots at the end.
• My Base clothing seemed to work well - Brynje vest and OMM shirt, with 2XU tights. I would do the same again. 
• Navigation is relatively easy. The Fenix 6x worked well, and I would not take a handheld GPS next time - weight saving. 
• So I will go back and do this race again, and finish next time. I think it is very do-able. A recce of the Lands End to St Ives section would be good and I'll try and do that. 
• The morning after the event I walked up to the finish in the early hours. It was still illuminated, and I took a photo, determined to run under the finish line next time, not around it.