The few days preceding this race the weather had been unusually hot, and as I made my way up to Ranscombe Nature reserve, which is just off the M2 in Kent, the weather was somewhat cooler, however this changed as the day progressed, and remained very hot.

The course was a timed event of 8 hours, and the idea is to do as many laps (3.74 miles) as possible in the allotted time, my goal was to complete a marathon distance of 26.2 miles, which I thought was more than achievable given the generous cutoff time. However as I soon found out this particular course was very Hilly (433 feet of elevation per lap), and that combined withe the increasing rise in temperature made the day very challenging.

The first few laps passed as expected and with no real dramas other than my calves hurting, this I put down the amount of hills on the course and that the fact I was not used to running on this sort of terrain.

By lap five, I was beginning to struggle, I had made sure that I was taking on plenty of fluids (I was trying out a new fueling strategy which was Tailwind mixed in with my water) and I had set my goal on ensuring I drank around 500ml of water per hour, which would give me all the necessary electrolytes and calories needed, this did work to a fashion; however I did start to fill a bit ill and bloated, towards the end (I Still need to work out what works for me on the nutrition side and the Tailwind doesn’t seem to be it); It was at this point I considered to call it a day and when I returned to base camp ring the bell to signify that I had finished; however when I did get back to the start I had decided to carry on for the final lap which I thought at the time would be my Marathon distance completed, so with that in my mind I carried on to lap 6, which I did indeed struggle with, but kept thinking “this is the last lap, then I can finish”.

So when I got back to the start/finish I rang the bell and finished, it was shortly after this that I made a bit of a tit of myself as I realized the medal did not say Marathon distance on, so I went back to Traviss and asked why?, I was promptly told that it doesn’t say marathon (a little badge) on it because I had only completed 6 laps and a for a marathon I needed to complete 7 laps (Doh), however both Travis and Rachael did say that I could go back out on the course and carry on for another lap if I wanted, and although I did have plenty of time left to achieve this, I did really struggle on the last lap, and mentally my brain had resigned itself that I had finished, so I agreed that I had indeed finished.

And so another race completed, although shorter than I would have liked but still it was 22.45 miles and a step closer to getting my SVN 100 mile shirt (32.6 miles to go).

Who knew that running is so much more than just putting one foot in front of the other, and as I clock up the miles I realize that I still have a lot to learn. I have purchased a set of compression calf guards, which have eased the early on set of muscle soreness in my calf’s, I have also purchased a pair of Injinji socks to help with the blisters, and I am now better organised, I have got rid of my old rucksack and now use a Kitbrix bag, which I have to say was well worth the purchase (shop around on this one as you can get it a lot cheaper than advertised)

I am still struggling with my race nutrition, and have to find what really works for me, and as I now seem to be running more trail races will still need to get a pair of Trail running trainers.

If anyone is thinking of doing any of these SVN events I highly recommend them, An I plan to enter a fair few more, I am already planning on next year’s races, and am planning to run quite a few more Marathon’s as I would like to get to 100 Marathons, and enter into the 100 marathon Club (this will take a few years).