Last weekend I ran in the first Northumberland Ultra Marathon - 62 miles - organised by AdventureHub. I'm not sure why I chose one of the longest, most gruelling courses for my first Ultra except for the fact that it started from Wooler, it was local, I know the Cheviots reasonably well and I am fairly fit. Only problem was I only found out about the race in June and didn't really start training until July and even then I wasn't sure what kind of training to do for such a long race.
And so it was that on Saturday morning at 6.30am I found myself assembled with about 15 other runners in a small marquee just outside Wooler. It was just light and pouring with rain when at 7am the hooter sounded and we all strolled out of the tent to walk up the hill into Wooler - this was my kind of race! Some fitter people did decide to start running while the rest of us walked and ran our way into the Cheviots.
After 7 miles I reached the first checkpoint as the back marker - thanks to Lee for the coffee, caffeine was definitely required as the next section involved the steep climb up Hedgehope hill (714m). I didn't know at the time but Tim and Lee were tracking me up the hill through some very powerful binoculars! From Hedgehope I descended towards the south and caught up with Lynn who had taken an unfortunate tumble and hurt her shoulder. We continued on together keeping each other going through to checkpoint 2. By now my right foot was giving me real problems due to the very rough ground and constant falling into peat bogs - thanks to Neil for bandaging it up! We were promised soup at the next checkpoint so off we went only to be stopped in our tracks by Pigdons Leap - a very steep down to a stream followed by equally steep up the other side. Apparently there is a path here somewhere but we were up to our shoulders in bracken looking for it whilst trying to avoid sliding down the sheer drop. Eventually we made it down to the stream and clambered up the other side to rejoin the path proper. From here we continued over Bleak Law and were joined by Sean - who had been a little lost! Checkpoint 3 provided us with the much awaited soup - thank-you Heather, and then we set off up Clennell street along the edge of the Kidland Forest. This was where things started to go wrong, my hips were hurting going uphill and my right knee hurt going down, in between I just felt worn out. I made a decision to get to the next checkpoint and then call it a day - I knew that if I was hurting this much now it would be foolhardy to attempt the Pennine Way section in the dark as it is also high and exposed. Getting to that checkpoint seemed to take ages but eventually at 8.10pm we made it and Lynn and I both stopped, we had done 37 long, hard miles and felt very pleased with our efforts. We were transported back to Wooler and given hot drinks and wrapped in warm clothes. Tim was waiting there to take me home - no way would I have been able to drive anywhere!
On Sunday morning it was a real struggle getting up and down the stairs - mostly aching thighs and my right foot looked a little misshappen and purple in places! But now it is Tuesday and already I am thinking of my next Ultra, probably the Yorkshire Ultra in January. This is also organised by AdventureHub - a great company who were so supportive of us all and looked after us so well during the race.
My next race is the Kielder Marathon in October - need to do a bit more training first!
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