Pilgrim Challenge - North Downs Ultra

On Saturday Carl and I took part in the Pilgrim Challenge a 33 mile run across the North Downs Way from Farnham to Merstham. This was to be the first real test of my running fitness and an opportunity to try out my new Raidlight waist belt which I think I'll be using on the UTMB. I had fairly big reservations about this run as Carl and I had not done anywhere near enough running - a few 9 mile runs home, a couple of 8 mile runs along the river and only one 10 mile run each did not look nearly enough for 33miles of trail running! Having not run over 15 miles in one go since Namibia last May this looked like it may have been a step too far too soon! Anyway we started well and found a good rhythm, conditions were pretty muddy which made the downhills and uphills a little bit more exciting!

There were loads of people on the race training for the MDS and a few for Atacama - you can spot the MDS lot from a mile away as they all use the Raidlight back pack! As always on these things people who pass you will chat and discuss what you're training for and encourage you and we were also doing the same with those we passed. I gave the Atacama lot the benefit of my Racing the Planet experience!! Ha ha - not sure if that helped them or not though I did see them all finish as a group later in the day so clearly didn't put them off completely! I told them to look out for the girls of Team Good Sport.

It turned out that trying new kit out over long distances for the first time is not the best idea! By the time we reached checkpoint 2 my powders had exploded in my bag covering everything and my back was being rubbed raw and I could feel a little blood on my hips from where the waist belt was rubbing. I kind of felt this made it a better test as I am absolutely sure I'll be in a whole world of pain for most of the UTMB!

Despite going off the North Downs Way twice (!!) and giving ourselves and extra couple of miles to run for our troubles we actually did much better than expected, the legs kept going even through the thigh burning climb up Boxhill and the thought of being done and dusted in time for England vs Wales in the 6 Nations helped us fly through the last 6 miles. We ended up completing the course in under 7hrs putting us 34th out of 90 odd starters. Given that I honestly thought our legs would go and we might not finish at all this was pretty pleasing and sets up my training for the UTMB quite nicely!

More importantly we made it home, picking up GBK burgers on on the way, and were in front of the tv in time to see the English beat the Welsh all washed down with a couple of cold beers! Perfect day!

Next event is the Jurassic Coast challenge, 3 marathons in 3 days on the coastal path (more hills!).

Sponsors and ramping up the training

Having come to terms with the fact that I am now signed up for one of the world's toughest ultras (re-reading Frank Fumich's experience did give me a few substantial doubts!) I am now back into looking for new kit. In Namibia I used trainers made by UK Gear who work with the physical training corps of the British Army. I figured kit tested in Afghanistan and Iraq should be up to the Namib desert and I wasn't disappointed - no sand in my shoes and no blisters all week! As good as an endorsement as I can give a pair of trainers! I lost a fair few toenails but you can't have everything. I contacted UK Gear to see about a trail running shoe I can use for the UTMB and thought I may as well ask if they would consider sponsoring me. The result was yes they would and I am meeting up with one of their guys to discuss sponsorship and also get my hands on a new pair of trainers.

I wrote them a review of the desert shoe which you can read below if you are in need of a shoe that is good in sand, rocks and temperatures up to about 50 degrees!

http://www.ukgear.com/Pages/Media-Centre/Product-Reviews/Consumer-Reviews/251-PT-03-DESERT-Alex-Howarth,-Namibia-2009.html

Next up is a cheeky 50k dash across the north downs - suspect it might actually be easier than the hour and half 5-a-side footy I played on Saturday - first outing in over a year and still feeling it!

How I got into the crazy world of adventure racing

I'm sitting in London in the middle of January having just received the news this week that I have got a place in the 2010 North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. I am absolutely chuffed to bits but as recently as 18 months ago I had not even heard of the UTMB nor would I ever have considered entering it!






In the summer of 2008 I had a bit of a think about what I had achieved since leaving university back in 2000 and fairly swiftly reached the conclusion that not a lot was probably the right answer. I didn't enjoy my job and was treading water as life went by. I decided that I needed a challenge that would be totally different to anything I had done before and preferably not something that any of my mates had done either. I had heard of the Marathon des Sables and had a look at that and saw that there was a 2 year waiting list and figured I needed something I could get stuck into immediately. Surfing the net I came across Racing the Planet and looked at their 4 Deserts series and Racing the Planet series and saw that they had a race in May 2009 in Namibia. I liked the idea of trying an event that hadn't been done before and thought that 9 months would be long enough to go from gym fit to desert fit (a painful transition!) so I signed up and went to buy a pair of trainers!


I am not a what you would call a natural runner, I had done the London Marathon back in 2004 but that was for the experience and 4hrs 20minutes is not exactly express! I had a lot to learn. Having to go from running 5ks on a treadmill and playing 5 a side football to doing cross country back to back marathons carrying a 10kgs pack was hard to say the least. Discovering the hard way about shin splints and chaffing were the low points of the next 9 months. Completing my first ultra (50 mile Thames Trot) and realising I could run from London to Brighton over a weekend and not feel totally destroyed after made me think I might just be able to complete this thing. Luckily I had a Saffa mate, Carl, who has done marathons (including the OMM) and knows all about kit and training and he was an invaluable in helping me choose kit and manage my training as unsurprisingly there is no beginners guide to how you train for a 7 day 250k self supported run in a desert in deepest Africa!


When it came to it I was pretty nervous knocking about the hotel in Windhoek the night before we were to be bussed to start down in the Fish River Canyon - I felt like I was totally out of place the bio's of my tent mates that I had read on the plane read like some sort of who's who of Racing the Planet legends and serious endurance athletes. I had visions of finishing hours after them each day if I managed to finish at all! Needless to say they were awesome tent mates to have and there is no way I would have got through the week without their advice and the banter we had each day which invariably had me laughing as I dragged my aching body into my sleeping bag at the end of each stage. Rowley's coffee was a great change from the increasingly sickly energy and recovery drinks, and his chili flakes made my re hydrated bolognese really quite tasty! Lucy and Frank (the couple in the tent) were brilliant in particular on the long stage where without them I would never have made it through the last 40ks in the middle of the night. Frank's stories of past events and very English dry sense of humour (unusual for an American!)
was very entertaining and his ability to find some duct tape when my gaiter broke on the morning of the "dunes" day was a total life saver! The fact I am in touch with them all almost a year later is testament to the bonds you build in these things which was definitely a factor in wanting to do another!

In the end I managed to finish 56th out of almost 220 starters which exceeded all my expectations. But the result was I had the bug and having not got myself organised to join up with some of the people I met in Namibia for the Sahara race last autumn I realised I needed to pick a new race. Frank had told me about the UTMB out in Namibia and had completed it last August. You need to have done qualifying events to apply for a place and I figured I probably wouldn't be doing these events every year so it was time to use my events of 2009 to see if I could get a place. Which brings me to where I am now - had the news this week that I am in and the 50k run over the north downs with Carl in a few weeks now marks the start of some serious training! Am signing up to do a charity run up Tower 42 (one of the tallest buildings in London) in Feb and that should give the thighs a good taste of things to come! I have lots of advice coming in from Frank and Stephanie both 2009 UTMB veterans (and proper endurance runners!) which is awesome and I am hoping that I can join the 51% of those who actually finish the event! Guess 103 miles in 46 hours taken into account the height of Everest in elevation is not going to be easy....!