Pre-race banter with Dave Tomlin (last year's winner) in the holding area
I loved last year's race. It being my first ever ultra and only my 3rd time going to marathon distance (I shoe-horned the North Dorset Villages Marathon in as a last minute long training run in May!), I had no expectations of myself. I set off at a pace that felt manageable and stuck to my task. To my abject surprise I found myself up near the front with the leading lady, and the 2nd placed female from 2010, Diane Roy. At mile 14 on the climb out of Ashburton I even went into the lead, building up a 2 minute gap at one stage, but Diane's experience and mileage in the legs proved too much for me as she overtook me on the climb out of Postbridge at mile 28 and ran on to take the win in 4h29. I finished 2nd female and 13th overall in my first ultra in 4h33. The feeling of achievement and self-worth you get upon completing something like this is unrivalled and so naturally, I signed up again for this year but with greater expectations...
And we're off! 9.30am and the loud rocket explosion gets us underway
Training had gone well in the final weeks before the race. I again used the North Dorset marathon as my longest training run, it being 5 weeks before the D.D. This year I improved my time on that marathon from 3h11 last year to 3h02 this and took a comfortable victory. I did 2 more long runs of 18 and 22 miles in the next 2 weeks and then started to taper off towards race day. As I really cut my mileage back in the last 10 days I succumbed to that usual blight of the tapering runner - the common cold! Strange how your body keeps going when you are making it work like stink for you but then crashes the minute you allow it to relax! I got the cold on Sunday and thought 6 days would be enough to shift it. It started to go but then came back with avengence on the Thursday. I threw every medication I had at it - Lemsip, Nurofen, degongestants, eccinaccea, Otrivine - and by race morning it was down to just a snivvel. However, once I started running it didn't take long for my stomach to protest that it was not happy about this extravagant concoction of meds that had been thrown at it and I suffered from rather bad cramps for the first half of the race - something I never normally suffer with. 8 miles in and my stomach hurt (especially on the downhill sections where I was using the stomach muscles to hold me up) and I felt a little weak. I just knew it wasn't going to be my day...
Only about 4 miles in but already not feeling terrific. Gonna be a long day...
The first part of the race is the easiest: predominently downhill to Ashburton.
In the build up to the race I had been billed by athletics guru and reporter, Kevin Fahey, as favourite to take the women's title, but I knew all along that I was not the favourite: that acolade went to Isobel Wykes of Truro AC. Having won the Duchy marathon in abysmal conditions in a time of 3h03 and then, only 1 week later, taken a convincing win in one of the toughest races on the Southwest running claendar - The Grizzly - I knew this was one talented lady who ate hills for breakfast and had the stamina of an Arabian horse! Of course, deep down, part of me did want to believe I could win, but it was only a small part and I knew that I would likely have a very tough battle on my hands and another 2nd place was pretty much on the cards!
Climbing the monster 0.75 mile long 20% gradient hill out of Dartmeet
I was just ahead of Izzy until we hit the first major hill at Dartmeet (20% gradient and 0.75 miles long!). She pulled up alongside me at the bottom, we both looked up and exchanged a few words 'Well, here we go then, fun, fun, fun!'; we put our heads down and set off up the hill. It soon became apparent that in order to stay with her I would have to push myself outside of what would be my "comfortable" pace. Reluctant to do that so early on when I wasn't feeling one hundred percent, I decided that the sensible thing to do would be to let her go and hopefully claw her back once the hill levelled out. This didn't actually happen and Izzy continued to increase her lead and I think the last glimpse of her I had was at mile 12, just before Ashburton, and then I didn't see her again until the finish!
At New Bridge, about mile 9.
Going through Ashburton at mile 13: the lowest point on the course, both geographically and psychologically!
To realise so early on that I was running for 2nd place, again, was a little disheartening to say the least. My other target was to run under 4h20, and I was on target for that up until about 16 miles, the halfway point, when that gruelling climb up to Buckland-in-the-Moor slowed my pace. My legs felt much more tired than I remembered them feeling at that point last year. I went through some rather dark moments out there on the high moor between miles 18 and 26. This is a very long and lonely stretch, but it was relieved momentarily by seeing Adam Miller - a good friend from my running club - who had come to cheer us 3 Exmouth Harriers on at Widecombe, and then by seeing my parents shortly after. (They were also meant to see me in Widecombe but their lunch date in Tavistock overran and they were late getting there and missed me. Kuh!) Roadside support in the form of my friend James Denne on his old faithful mountain bike was also massively appreciated. I would be having a very low moment, struggling up a hill, muscles screaming at me to stop and slow to a walk, and I would see James' cheery face up ahead waiting for me, 'Come on Sutcliffe!', and I'd dig a little bit deeper and keep on running. As it turned out though, James' bike was woefully ill-equipped for the Dartmoor hills, being about 10 sizes too small for him and with a flat tyre, and he finished off the race with worse cramp than most of the runners, bless him! Thanks James - your heroic efforts did not go unappreciated!
At mile 20 I came upon the shock sight of Dave Tomlin walking. Dave, also of Teignbridge Trotters, was last year's winner and was hoping to run just as well again this year. He just went off too hard, blew up, and had a bad one. Happens to everyone, even the best. I felt sorry for him and imparted a few consoling words as I chugged on past, but he was taking it all very well and informed me that he was going to enjoy the last few miles at a leisurely pace and so I left him behind making daisey chains as he went! Next thing I knew I was at marathon point and the big race clock was reading 3:29:30. I punched the air and shouted 'Sub 3h30, woo-hoo!' at the time-keepers (I went through marathon point in 3h38 last year), then head down and on we go again.
By now I had sort of been running with a guy called Richard Swindlehurst from Wimborne AC for several miles. I say sort of as he'd get ahead of me, then hit a hill and walk for a bit, I'd catch him and go past, we'd crest the hill, he'd pick up the pace, and catch me up again. Each time we passed each other we'd try and think of something encouraging to say. 'Only 6 miles to go until we can sit down!', 'Cup of tea and a pint, cup of tea and a pint, come on, we can do this'. Thanks Richard! You kept me going for those last painful miles!
This is Rich Swindlehurst who kept me company from about mile 16 to the finish!
Widecombe-in-the-Moor at mile 21: having more fun than I remember having at the time, I was struggling here!
Postbridge, mile 28, and I think the pain I'm going through is written all over my face in this photo!
I did a lot more walking over the latter stages than I did last year. I guess going off harder meant that I struggled harder in the last few miles. There was also a strong headwind from mile 27 until the finish and as I was going much slower (about 9m/m by this stage), I wasn't generating enough heat to keep me warm. My exposed thigh muscles in particular got very cold and started to seize up. The last 4 miles, which are predominantly uphill, were a huge battle. Dartmoor Prison loomed into view, shrouded in low cloud and mist (it's in Princetown, just a few hundred meters from the finish), and Richard, up alongside me again, exclaimed, 'I have never been so pleased to see a prison in all my life!' I glanced across at the forboding edifice and wondered who was undergoing the most unpleasant experience - those prisoners holed up in there, in the warmth, playing on their snooker tables and watching their TVs, or me, in total agony, freezing cold and struggling to take another step! If they were watching us out of the windows, they must have thought that it was us crazy loons who should be locked up!!
Up the highstreet of Princetown and the left turn at the mini-roundabout to the finish. I have never been so pleased to see a finishline in my goddam life! I stumbled to a halt and rolled into the path of my mother and Roger Hayes - Teignbridge Trotters' chairman and Race Director - who congratulated me. I said, '2nd again, but she was phenomenal.' Roger joked, 'Yes, it was me that invited her and gave her the idea to do it. Sorry about that!' Found out that Izzy ran 4h07 - just 5 minutes shy of the female course record. I was a sorry 20 minutes slower in 4:27:02. (Incidentally, my time would have been good enough for the win last year - but you can only compete against who turns up on the day, and Izzy is an astounding runner and if I was going to come 2nd again, I'd rather be beaten good and proper by an athlete of this quality!) On the positive side I did knock 6 minutes off my time from last year; on the negaive side I had hoped for much better, about 8 minutes better, and I had come 2nd again!!
Bettered my time from last year by 6 minutes, but still came 2nd: gutted!
These were my split times:
10k: 43:13 20k: 1:28:08 30k: 2:24:32 Mara: 3:29:33 50k: 4:13:27 Finish: 4:27:02
The numbers don't lie: somewhere between 30k and marathon point was where it all started to unravel!
Dave Stone, my Exmouth Harriers' teamie, had suffered a very similar fate. Despite recording his fastest time on the course in his 8 outings of completing the race (3h43), he also had to settle for 2nd again like last year as a superb performance by John Ward from Bideford AC of 3h33 brought a new course record and upstaged Dave's run by 10 minutes! Dave Wright, the 3rd and final Harrier runner, had a great debut run, coming in as first MV50 in 4h46.
With my Exmouth Harriers teamie, Dave Stone, trying not to get hypothermia after the race in a St. Johns' blanky!
After the race I was straight up onto the massage table where another surprise awaited me, in the form of the booming voice of Giles Pepperell. Giles is an old riding club friend from Bangor University who whose family live in Lustleigh. To hear him shout out, 'Oy! Sutcliffe. Is this the medical tent?' and give me a good slap on the back was a lovely surprise as I didn't realise he was in the area, so a little catch up with him whilst I was splayed out having my legs pummelled on the massage couch was an added bonus to my day!
After that I started to get very very cold, despite having drank copious amounts of tea and being wrapped up in a St. Johns blanket! When Tarq informed me that my lips were starting to turn blue I knew it was time to head into my warm bunkhouse, get a hot shower and put some snug clothes on. What totally different weather conditions to last year where it was 28 degrees and full sun!
Well, a victory would have been nice as I have other plans for next year and the timing of this race doesn't really fit in with them, but, being "ultra ambitious", I am not going to give up on this one until I get my name carved on that winner's trophey! So, maybe I will leave it a year and come back with even more fuel for my fire in 2014!
Receiving my prize for finishing 2nd lady
With the winning Teignbridge Trotters ladies 'A' team - Emma and Tracy
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