“What is a caucus-race? said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought somebody ought to speak, an no one else seemed inclined to say anything.

“Why”; said the Dodo,” the best way to explain it is to do it.” (Extract from Alice in Wonderland).

I had heard a lot about the SVN events run by Travis Willcox and team, all good I have to say, so was especially looking forward to my first race with them.

The day started as it did most pre-race morning’s with being woken up abruptly my alarm clock, however this morning was especially early, 5 o’clock in fact, and once I managed to get myself up, it was downstairs for my morning coffee and porridge. I carried out a final check of my kit, and then out the door for the hours travel to Samphire Hoe.

Upon arriving, the weather had turned from a bright fresh morning at home to wet and windy conditions at the starting area; I had arrived just after 7 o’clock, so was one of the first few runners there, as the next hour ticked by more and more runners turned up, and before very long it was quit busy. At 8.20 Travis gave a humorous welcome and update on the slight change to the course namely a cone that had been placed at the end of the sea wall to make the distance close to 26.2 miles after 7 laps had been completed, more than 7 laps constituted as an ultra.

The course was a simple out and back of 3.8 miles, going through the nature reserve, onto the sea wall to the cliffs around the cone at the end and then back, as this was a timed event of 6 hours the idea was to complete as many laps as you could in the time.

At 8.30 we were off, the start was very slow due to the narrow path and large numbers of runners, this continued until we got to the sea wall where we thinned out as the faster runners sped off. It continued rain for the next couple of hours, so all I could do was keep my head down and repeat the laps. After my first lap I was pleasantly surprised to receive encouragement from Travis himself, I then got my lap card punched, a quick bite to eat and set off again.

When I started out my aim was to complete a marathon distance, however this was not too be, after I had completed 3 laps the outside of my left foot was causing me quit a bit of pain, so when I got back to the starting line, I quickly got changed into fresh socks, and a clean T-shirt (the rain had stopped by now, and it was getting a bit warmer), I then made my way back to the start and set off again aiming to complete another 4 laps.

I have to say that changing my socks did help as I no longer felt any pain in my foot, so again head down and keep running, by lap 5 I had slowed down considerably, so much so that I was kind of shuffling along rather than running, but all I could think of was that I only needed two more laps and I would have reached my goal of completing 26.2 miles, it was at this point whilst running on the outward leg of the sea wall I started to feel a pain on the outside of my left knee, a pain which was all to familiar (previously suffered from tight IT band issues); so I decided to walk for a bit and see if the pain subsided, which thankfully it did, so once again I picked up the pace/shuffle, and carried on. During the remainder of this lap, I continued t get slight pain in my knee so I was forced to run walk until I got back to the start/finish line, when I got my card punched for lap 5 Travis asked me if I was going out again to which I said yes, so it was a quick loo break and some food.

It was at this point whilst sitting down eating some bread pudding (thank you very much to ever made this), that I decided to finish the run. The last time I suffered from ITB issues I stupidly carried on running, which took me out for 3 months and resulted in quit a few visits to ER Sports Therapy (thanks again Erin). So I finished stuffing may face, walked over to the desk and rang the bell to signify that I had finished the race.

 

 

I was congratulated, and handed my Awesome medal (the biggest one to date), I received my goody bag (filled with chocolate and beer), and given my official finish time of 04:05:58 for the total distance 18.75 miles. Unfortunately not the distance I was after, however due to the slight knee pain I had experienced during the run and not wanting to do myself any real damage, a good result, one with which I am fairly pleased with.

 

I can honestly say that despite the bad weather at the start, and not making the distance, this was the most enjoyably race to date, it was well run, well organised and everyone I met was extremely friendly and I have made new friends along the way.

If anyone else is considering racing at an SVN event, then I whole heartily recommend it, Travis and his team know how to put on an event, I could not fault any aspect of this what so ever, not even the rain ( I cannot hold Travis responsible for this LOL).

Afterthought:

We all run for different reasons some to loose weight, to get fit or to de-stress but  I strongly believe that the most important aspect of this running lark  is not the finish times or the distances; but the journey we have along the way and the new friends we meet.