Wilmslow Centurion – All Hail Our Julie

Wilmslow Running Club: First Lady Centurion.

Congratulations to Julie who ran the 100K peak challenge Saturday 13^th – finishing in the early hours of Sunday morning. I believe that makes her the first female at the club to have done that.

With an early start of 6:46 AM and a figure of 8 course to attack.

It is a tough course, less hillier second half. Especially as it would be dark for the runners towards the end. Profile below:

Anyone interested the detailed route is here

What was it like? Why did she even do it? How did it feel at the end – and the following day? Well over to Julie:

I entered the Peak District Ultra Challenge 100k because I wanted to do another race, the OCC which is the shortest of the UTMB races. I have entered the last 2 years but not been successful in the ballot, so have a guaranteed entry to the 2020 race, provided I have enough ITRA points. For the 2019 race you needed 6 points, and as the points only last for 2 years, I only have 2, so needed to find a 4 point race. The Peak Ultra was an obvious choice as it is on our doorstep.

I have done the OCC a couple of times, its 55k with 3500m of climb, so I hoped the 100k with 2450m of climb would be manageable. I entered, downloaded the 16 week training plan, and got started. I jiggled the plan around, sometimes did the runs in a different order, and moved some of the rest weeks around, but managed to do every single training run on the plan, which is why I you have not seen me at training much this year. So going into the race, I thought if I had done all the training, I must be able to get round. These races are as much mind over matter, and a bit of stubbornness helps!

We set off in groups of about 100 every 20 minutes from the Bakewell showground. There were major rest stops every 25k, and mid-point stops in-between, so you only ever had to run 8 – 10 miles before you reached a checkpoint. So in a way, this was easier than my training runs where I would go out and run between 25 and 31 miles on my own without a break.

I really enjoyed the first half, running through the grounds of Chatsworth, parts of Millers Dale, the Monsal Trail; Derbyshire really has some beautiful places and views. Although the race information said this half was 52k and 1450m climb, I found it much easier running than the second half of the race. There are a number of distance options, you can do the 1^st 25k, the 1^st half (52k), the 2^nd half (48k) or the full 100k. If anyone fancies trying a longer race, I can really recommend the 1^st 25k, or 1^st half, they are lovely routes.

At the halfway stage we were back at Bakewell, for a quick drink and tried to eat some food. On the long runs one of the most difficult things I find is eating enough food and drinking enough, I try and eat something before a hill so that you can walk for a bit. I always carry some gels and cereal bars, but it becomes a real challenge getting them down as the race goes on. At the rest stops I had a bit of food at each stop, a bit of pasta and baked potato, and at the mid points I had a few ready salted crisps and coke, for the salt and sugar.

One of the hardest parts was leaving Bakewell again, knowing you were only halfway. I had tried to recharge my watch as the battery was dying, but it hadn’t connected properly so had to set off without a watch while it recharged in my bag, which was torture for me as I constantly check my watch!

The next leg, although it didn’t look too bad on paper, was hard, some difficult terrain and a big climb at the end to the mid point, where I visited the medics as I was getting a blister.

I felt a bit stiff setting off as I had had a longer stop, but the next leg was probably the easiest. It was nearly all on the Pennine Bridleway which was flat, so I caught up a bit of time, which took me to 75k.

Leaving 75k was fine, more bridleway and I had got my watch back, then as it started to go dark, we went through the most difficult section. It started with a great big hill, then onto part of the Limestone Way, which is a track littered with stones, even in daylight I would have been nervous running on, especially the downhill. We then went onto some footpaths about 6” wide, with grass up to my elbows, I don’t think anybody else has ever used those paths! At this point I was having a serious sense of humour failure. This was the longest section and it seemed to take forever to get to the mid point, where I only stopped for a few minutes as I just wanted to finish.

Finally after 18.5 hours I could see the lights at the finish. I was tired at the end, but not exhausted. You do a lot of walking in these races, especially up the hills and my legs were tired, but on the flat and downhill it was as more comfortable to run (very slowly by then) than walk.

The winning time was 11 hours 30 minutes, I was 73^rd out of 502, and the winning lady was 12 hours 39 minutes and I was 22^nd out of 216, there were 140 withdrawals, nearly all at the halfway stage.

It was a brilliantly organised event, the route was so well signposted with markers every kilometre, all 100 of them. There was hot food, drinks, fruit, chocolate, crisps, cakes, pastries at the rest stops, and everything bar the hot food at the mid points. There were medics and masseurs at all of the stops, and even a glass of champagne at the end, which actually tasted awful, my nesquik milkshake went down much better.

I had brilliant support on the day from my family and friends, popping up in places where I didn’t expect to see them. It was so good to see them and you definitely get a burst of energy after seeing them. And they were there at the finish at 1.30 in the morning.
 

We got home about 3, after a quick bath it was bed and I slept really well. The next morning on waking, I did wonder if I would be able to get out of bed, I was a bit stiff, legs and shoulders (from carrying a pack all day) but I was ok. Went for a short walk in the afternoon, and brought the horses in, which definitely loosened the legs. Monday morning legs felt quite good, not sure I am ready for a run yet though. I did feel very tired on Sunday, nothing a few early nights won’t cure.

Thanks for everyone’s comments and encouragement, what a great bunch of people WRC are.

Julie

Finally her splits: