Get To The Pub By 4 Ultra - Bedford (2019)

A crazy ultra where everyone starts at different times with the intention of all finishing at the same time? I'm in! Especially when I heard it was organised (and I mean that in the very loosest sense of the word) by James Adams who featured in the Barkley Marathons film The Race That Eats It's Young (now showing on Netflix) as Woefully Unprepared English Man.

I suspect this was a combination of self effacing English humour and Hollywood editing as anyone who completes even one loop of the Barkley is a stone cold freaking legend of ultrarunning.

I started off in the 9:30 wave, leaving me 6 1/2 hours to 'get to the pub' having been warned that the 50k was actually 32.7 miles. We were giving detailed instructions such as 'TL, TR', 'Mind your head' and 'stop to read a lovely poem'. Needless to say I was getting mildly but repeatedly lost in the first 4 miles (as I was constantly being reminded by a lady with a Garmin who informed me I was "having a really bad day". Ah the camaraderie of the trails!).

Around that time I remembered I had attempted to load the gpx file into an app I'd downloaded on my phone. Hallelujah! There it was! Remarkably I still continued getting lost after opening the app, but at least now I was confidently lost.

Making better time I made a few new friends, Carl, an heroic ex-army guy who's run the London Marathon in 45lbs of kit and done Race To The Stone TWICE, and Barrie who races in sandals and has run the Copper Canyon Ultra in Mexico with the Tarahumara Indians. 

Running with others gave me a real boost. I found I could piggyback on their pacing meaning I needed less willpower to keep going.

Pounding away in the sun, we headed through an aid station in someone's front yard (with runners popping in to use the loo) and off onto a section we had been warned bore no relation to the GPX whatsoever, thrusting us back onto the vague and cryptic directions. As 3pm came up I found Radio5Live and listened to Liverpool beat Southampton. 4pm came and went and it was closer to 5pm when I finally got back to Box End Park. The park was full of people doing water things and those big banners things that usually mark the end of a race. I headed for some only to realise they lead straight into the lake. I ran over a bridge asking bystanders for direction to the finish line. I ran between 2 small traffic cones, one of which was knocked over. "Is that the finish line?" I asked. "Yes". "Oh. OK."

I 'got to the pub' by 4:45pm! coming 20th out of 35 finishers. It took me 7:15:00. 

Relief.

After lying down, soaking my feet in the lake and getting changed I finally 'got to the pub' - on my own as people were still waiting on other runners to come in, and had an ice cold coke - as I was driving straight to London afterwards. 

It was a mad race, but a good one. Feet swollen, one tiny blister and very tired of course, but I haven't destroyed myself and should be back training by the end of next week which was the goal. 

I'd like to do the race next year, if it happens, but the crazy thing is, if I'm a better runner this time next year, my handicap will be greater, so the race will keep getting harder!