Dukeries 40 2019

My longest race to date - 40.8 miles

8:39:08

91st place out of 109 finishers

Beautiful course -

Sherwood Forest (including Robin's Tree!), Cresswell Crags and Clumber Park.

       

Well organised (thanks Ronnie/Hobo Pace!), great volunteers and amazing soup!

My Two Broke Guys buddy Tom crewed for me as he had to DNS due to injury.

Very much a game of 2 halves.

First 34 miles - beautiful weather, feeling good, regular walk breaks worked well. Didn't quite eat/drink enough but felt OK and hit the last aid station slightly ahead of pace for an 8 hour finish.

Last 6.8 miles -Torrential rain, very bad tendonitis in right foot extremely bad tendonitis in left. Lost all sense of how much further to go and lost heart. Slowed to a crawl. Begun to doubt I was even still on course.

Lessons learned

Cheese, salami and honey bagels are the food of champions. But my post race ones need to be quartered and put in zip lock bags in case I want to eat them during the race.

Sweet chili mini kebabs seemed a good idea. But they really weren't. Salty is good. Spicy is not.

Don't discard the polypocket for your map even if it's really sunny. I did and when the rain came my map turned to mush and I had no clue how far I was from the end - which messed with my head.

Never trust anyone who tells you how far the finish line is. A fellow runner told me we were less than  two miles from the finish. We were at least five. That hurt.

Don't put your coat over your hydration pack. When it rains take your pack off and get all your rain gear out and then put it back on top. Having my coat over the bag made it too much hassle to get to my rain trousers, food and water. So I didn't.

Big shoes (size 11 for my size 9 feet) were definitely better for my toes - they didn't look like minced meat this time - but I don't know if the tendinitis was down to the miles/hours or the shoes.

I need to relube half way round - toes, crotch, butt.

I need to lube my entire butt crack - sorry folks TMI! I can't say for certain if the relative lack of pain in my hips and legs is just due to the agonising fire of chaffing in my nethers.

The 5:1 Run/Walk ratio (20 min run, 4 min walk) became a 4:1 then a 3:1 then a 2:1. I briefly flirted with a 1:2 and spent the last portion 'running by feel'. i.e. "I feel terrible, so I'm not running". In principle though it's a good idea, especially on races that don't have much vertical.

I had my running playlist going and popping in the ear buds when things got dark helped, but I wouldn't want to do a whole race that way.

Top Tunes

1) Here - Sho Baraka
2) I'm A Believer - Tedashii ft Trip Lee, Soye
3) Walk All Over You - AC/DC
4) No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys