Race reports and ramblings about Ultra running. 50 milers and a couple of 100 milers under the belt so far. The 76th mile is a reference to the mile where people are most likely to DNF (or refuse to continue...)
Here are the qualification times for men's automatic and free entry to the UTMB based on my calculations calibrated using historic results. You would need multiple races at this standard.
When I applied for UTMB draw, it also told me my ITRA rating was 480. This was the first time I had heard of ITRA rankings and a bit more digging told me that my level was "DDD - Intermediate 1". If only I had run a bit faster in my qualifying races - a score of 750+ would have got me automatic entry and 850+ would have been free entry. Every race that "UTMB" points submits the results for the database.
My best score was 489 for the Centurion South Downs 100 (23:12) which was quite a bit slower than my 100 mile PB of 22:40 for the Autumn 100 which had scored only 479 points. Even my slowest 100 - the North Downs Way 100 of 25:31 scored 487.
Being statistician and actuary, I naturally had to do a bit more digging
into the index. It works a bit like age-grading for parkrun but instead
of adjusting for age and gender, it adjusts for distance, elevation
change and "hardness coefficient". This makes sense as the North and South Downs Way races are similar lengths to the A100 but a lot more climbing. A bit more digging and I back
engineered the formula. I have expressed it as "Hardness score / Time in days to finish". The quotient is slight different for women but should have the same relativity. I had used the men's formula as there were more data points to calibrate it.
Nobody from the A100 2016 achieved the level for free entry with Mark Denby, Susie Chesher and Jess Gray achieving the automatic (but not free) entry level*. Interestingly Susie was closer to a free spot (750 vs 707) than Mark (850 vs 769) despite Mark winning.
*I think they would need 5 races at this level to qualify rather than just one
Now having back engineered the formula, this should be a way of comparing 100 mile races to determine which is the hardest as you only need 1 data point for the database for a race to determine the "hardness / distance / height change" factor. Please note this is not my opinion but merely a back engineering of the ITRA factor. I have picked races which are close to 100 miles to compare them.
Interestingly the A100 comes out as the lowest score / "least difficult". It is a relatively flat course but I am putting this down to the amazing support you get on a Centurion event with great aid stations and course marking so the controllable difficulties are mitigated. It should be a hard race as it is done in the British Autumn and certainly has the potential to be very challenging if the elements are unfavourable. However in recent years it has been dry and fast with mild conditions. The quotient can change from year to year depending on how well the runners perform or if the course changes slightly. I have grouped all editions together.
I have put together a table of the "quotients" for each race. This is the score you would get if you finish in exactly 24 hours. I have also included my ranking of 480, PB of 489 and Jim Walmsley's ranking of 916 (Ultra XL distance). In a separate post, I will put a table of times for each race to get automatic qualification but I am struggling with tables in this blog. http://76thmile.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/additional-table-for-itra-rankings.html
This table is only for races which have UTMB points - the Barkley marathon and Sparathlon/Comrades (road) don't appear for example.
The "hardest" 100 miler in the list is the Ronda Dels Cims where a sub 24 would score you 1,045 points. A projection of Jim's ranking would imply a finish time of 27:22. Admittedly RDC is 170km (same as UTMB) but it is an absolute monster of a race. Other notable scores are Hardrock (888), Spine Challenger (905), UTMB (806), Hurt (740), MDS (720), Arc of Attrition (662), Lakeland (647), Leadville (609), WSER (574) and North Downs Way (515).
On this basis, my PB of 489 would just about scrape me a finish at Leadville just under the 30 hours cut-off but 44:24 compared with the 48 hour Hardrock cut off. However you know what people say about extrapolation...
Hopefully you have found this interesting and don't take it too seriously. Here is the full table in case you are interested.
And I guess Killian's 22:41 at Hardrock is slightly better than my 22:40 at the Autumn 100...
Now is the time when all the 2017 mileage targets come out. Normally people go for round numbers like 700, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000. However if you run to eat, here is an alternative list to choose from. This is based on the Runner's World calculator which suggests a 75kg runner will burn 125 calories / mile and given that it is "run your weight in", your weight will be cancelled out in the calculations. Miles Food 48 celery 162 Strawberries 198 Curly kale 294 Kiwi Fruit 372 Oranges 438 Frozen peas 570 Banana 618 Olives 882 Boiled eggs 1074 Fried eggs 1140 Avocado 1242 Brown bread 1320 Pizza Express Margherita 1374 Big Mac 1392 Tuna baguette 1530 Plain bagel 1560 BK cheese burger 1602 Hot Cross buns 1698 Camembert 1722 Jam doughnuts 2040 Sultana scones 2268 Corn flakes 2340 Pork pie 2754 Iced party rings 3084 Hula hoops 3732 Almonds 4302 Butter 5412 Lard
The Centurion Autumn 100 is the 4th and final Centurion 100 mile race of the year. It is centred in Goring & Streatley and has 4 out and back legs of (roughly) 25 miles. First and fourth legs are flat runs along the Thames Path and the second and third are a bit lumpier on the Ridgeway.
I didn't have the best Friday before the race. I had a pretty busy afternoon which meant I forgot to eat lunch. I ended up eating a flapjack at about 5pm before joining a mate over from Australia for a glass of two of red wine before heading over to Paddington for a train to Reading and my hotel. I ended up with a the traditional pre-race meal of a sandwich meal deal with guest ale in my hotel room (Sainsbury's and Doombar). I drifted off to sleep after watching Britain's best bridges and the end of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic "Commando". Living the dream.
Good morning Reading!
I ended up waking up fairly early so made my way over to the start. The legendary Ken Fancett was on my carriage and he led the way to race HQ. Many people doubted my strategy of following Ken including Roz "canal specialist" Glover and Nicola Hoy who I shared the walk to HQ with. After the lovely Louise Ayling checked through my bag, I was all set to go. Only about 2 hours too early. I headed over to the start and was one of just two runners there. We decided to head back into town for a cup of tea to settle the nerves and wait for the start. Very civilised.
A great briefing by James "the rain whisperer" Elson who had promised rain at 5pm and 7am. I finally got the raise my hand when the question of "who had done 5 100 mile races" and also put my hand up for the grand slam question. It was all get very real now....
I lined up near the front as the start is quite narrow and has a few bottlenecks and after the slow start of the North Downs Way, I wanted to get started quickly. I started quite well and was ticking over well but had the nagging sensation I was doing a "David Hellard".
I ticked off the first few miles running with fellow 'slammer Mark Farthing. I looked behind me and noticed Paul Ali was just behind me and probably suggested I was starting a bit quickly so made my excuses and took my first walking break. Ken Fancett came past a few seconds later which confirms I had gone off a bit quick. The first section went very quickly with a Formula 1 style pitstop from the excellent pit crew at Wallingford before heading on towards the turn around. Despite the rain, the course was generally firm with a few muddy puddles (no fall this time) and a random bit where we ran across straw bales.
A lovely touch from the Lonegan parents who had taken a print out of the entry list and were cheering everyone's name - assuming the could look it up fast enough.
The out and back nature of the course means that before long you have the leaders coming back towards you. Intially I thought Pierluigi Collina, the Italian referee was sprinting towards me. Then I thought it was a jogger out on a Saturday morning run. Then I saw the race number and assumed it was someone who had gone out way too quick but it turned out to be the eventual winner (2:47 split for 25 miles for goodness sake!). It was quite some time until second place came past.
It was an uneventful few miles and I made it to the turn around in a bit under 2 hours. A quick stop and I was heading back towards Goring. Quite a few high fives on the way back for people who have been part of the Grandslam journey #MIBUltra. Flavien Bascoul was chugging along in his usual ridiculous shorts. He had last been seen with a large glass of wine in the pub so this may have taken the edge off his speed.
I shared some miles with a Polish man (not from Warsaw!) and a German chap. Soon enough, in just under 4 hours, I was back at HQ where the lovely Sarah Sawyer was on time keeping duties. Her plan was to volunteer and then pace Tom for the last section. I had seen Tom flying in roughly 5th place but would sadly drop out through injury between here and the North Stoke CP. My parents had came along to watch in South Stoke and had told me there was someone in front who was struggling with a bad back and sadly it was Tom hobbling along.
Leg 2 is by far my favourite of the 4. It has some lovely singletrack sections with undulations and some gradual climbing to the turnaround point. You cross a Golf Course and I have to say running across fairways is an absolute joy with soft springy grass. On the way back, it started to rain. At 4:57 it started - James had warned there would be rain at 5pm and was spot on with this one. The rain wasn't too bad but I had the waterproof out which would stay on for the rest of the race. The rain eased and I hit my favourite stretch. This is definitely a hero section of running as you have the gradient on your side, 40+ miles are in the bag and there are dozens of people coming the other way giving encouragement (and reminding you how far you are clear of cut-offs). The sun was setting with views over Oxfordshire. I had hoped to make it back into Goring without a headtorch but failed a mile short when I went past the Rossini restaurant and the bright lights made me realise just how dark it had got.
Two down - two to go...
Shortly after leaving Goring, I paired up with fellow Grand-slammer Peter who I shared most of the second half of the North Down Way with. We made good progress on this section - weather was almost perfect for a night section. Mainly cloudy which kept the temperature up but the clouds cleared to show a full moon and a great view of Orion's belt on the way back. I have a special gratitude for the volunteers staffing the two Ridgeway CPs. They are holed up in a tent and keep the tea flowing and really take care of everyone. Apparently Police had been called as there were reports of an illegal rave. To be fair there were people smashing down Coke, taking white tablets and a few hallucination as well as flashing lights and dance music. Easy mistake to make.
I was starting to get cramp in my hamstrings and stopping to stretch every half mile. I was also getting a weird pain just above my ankle on my shin where I think in hindsight my Injinji undersocks and compression socks were combining to cause an issue (I didn't have blister problems though). Moderately painful but not a game breaker.
Three down - one to go.
Back to Goring for a quick refuel of chilli con carne. The "Saturday morning jogger" had won the race about 2 hours before I got back - an unbelievable time of just over 14 hours.
Next time I come back here I will be a Grand-slammer... I was about 40 minutes down on last year but hoping I wouldn't fall apart quite as badly as last year.
I started making progress out of Goring but the chilli was taking a bit of time to settle. I soon found myself on my own. I have to admit I was cracking up at this point. It was roughly 2.30am and I had been on the go for over 16 hours. I was in the woods on my own and starting singing and whistling on my own. I think I was part way though signing "Jerusalem" when some runners came round the corner. They (deservedly) took the piss out of me but I carried on through the section as there weren't any people around. I love this section to Whitchurch which had a roller-coaster feel to it but could definitely have an axe murderer feel to it on a bad day.
The Witchurch crew were awesome - particularly the marshal who took my empty cup off me on the way out to save me a couple of steps. Really nice touch. First job was to tick off the 5 miles to the "Welcome to Reading sign". Early on, I cracked the outside of my knee on a gate (one of many). To give an idea of my mental state, I wasn't upset about this. I was actually quite pleased as my shin and hamstrings weren't the things hurting the most and figured when my knee stopped hurting, I wouldn't notice the other ailments. Sadly the gate had upset the delicate balance of my knee and it was quite sore when I ran but was ok when I walked. And so started the 18 mile march....
Last year the stretch towards the Reading aid station had really, really dragged. There is a sign which says "welcome to Reading" which is a long way from the Reading Richmond-On-Thames checkpoint. I had planned ahead and noticed there was a Strava segment which showed the distance to be 3.5 miles. This year I would be prepared for the distance and just tick off the 3.5 miles. This however relied on me being able to count to 3. Unfortunately I miscounted and after 2.5 miles (3 beeps of the Garmin) I started looking for the checkpoint about a mile early. Yet again the Reading section dragged....
The Reading aid station was a good stop including a chat with the Russhards. Paul raced this last year dressed as a bear and is a fantastic runner who I'm sure will win at least one of the Centurion races next year. Back down the stairs and 12.5ish miles to go.
I had come to terms with a slow finish but just wanted it over now. I was longing for the sun as it meant I would be closing in on a finish. The next ailment appeared which was abdominal cramp. I couldn't tell if was digestive or the actual "six-pack" that was cramping. It seemed to ease when I burped or if it stretched backwards. Really quite painful.
I had started to cry without warning every so often on this section as it started to dawn on me that I was finally going to achieve the grand slam dream. Part of me had hoped for a real grinding painful battle against injury and the elements and at 6:57 the rain started. Seeing the people coming the other way shows just how mentally tough and determined my fellow Centurions are. I would love to mention everyone as you were all amazing. I briefly chatted to Graham Carter and Rodrigo his pacer. Kate looked to be struggling but she is tough as nails so I had no doubts. Before long Tutu Tinu came past follow shortly after by Dan the sweeping superstar. A quick chat with Dan and that was the tail end of the race. Next stop Whitchurch for my final Centurion aid station of the year.
Back over the rollercoaster woods and Goring arrived. I was desperate for the pain to stop and as a bonus I nearly threw up but just held it together. Getting congratulations from fishermen and boat owners was really nice and I even managed a hugely painful jog finish.
I had finish just under 24 hours and enough under 24 hours to break 96 hours for the slam. I got through the door of the hall and slumped by the timekeepers table.
The journey of 400 miles in 4 days was over. I had a famous hug from Nici and a bonus one from 2015 Grand slammer Louise which may have prevented everyone from noticing just how sweaty my eyes were.
It was great hanging out with fellow runners and volunteers post race. It makes me feel really lucky to have discovered this by accident.
My parents had come to watch me finish and gave me a lift home. I had got home and a quick bath and later there was the small matter of watching the end of race countdown. That lovely lady and her blue Tutu had crossed the line and Dan the sweep gets to live another day. A little fist-pump and it was time to have a nap.....
All the best and thank you to everyone who has been a part of it. I think Vinny Jones sums up my 2016 running year quite well...
The 2015 Autumn 100 was an unusually fast race with James Elson steaming through to win in 14:35. The conditions were excellent with a warm day section and mild night. Personally I had a decent race and was flying at halfway in 8:47 (on track for 21:30ish). I kept up decent pace until 75 miles (15:05 / roughly 22 hr pace) but then really struggled through Reading to finish in 22:40. My ankle was bothering me on the last spur but general tiredness was probably the main thing slowing me down.
I am back in 2016 for another go and might go out a bit steadier this year to avoid the spur 4 crash - particularly the first 25 miles when everyone gets over excited and goes out too quickly.
Firstly I have summarised the race data in a scatter plot with some plain vanilla linear trend lines to join the dots for you. Look up your target time at the bottom and the read off where it crosses the lines on the y-axis. If you finished the race last year, you will appear as a dot on the chart.
I have also included some tables which give an idea of when previous runners passed through the various checkpoints. There is a quite a large range so it might help you to get an idea if you tend to start to quickly or pace things more evenly.
It is just a guide but might be helpful for crews to predict when you will get to future checkpoints. If you get to half way in 10 hours it, is extremely unlikely you will be finishing in 20 hours but sub 24 hours might be about right.
The more races I do, the more I find out about new races and challenged that I want to do. I have included some that I have finished for completeness and plan to updated.
This is a work in progress and I will add a bit more detail why each of them has made the list and also hopefully update as I cross a few off.
My categorisation is obviously subjective and based on my perception - you are welcome to disagree but it is my list after all. I have included some distance based goals which I have put in the buckets
Fun runs (finishing shouldn't be an issue - finishing fast is another matter)
London Marathon
Rhayader 20 mile - round the dams
Comrades marathon, South Africa - the world's greatest ultra NDW50
Man vs Horse, Llanwrtd Wells
Escape for Meriden Ironman 70.3 Sub 20 minute 5k
Challenging (should get round but not easily) A sub 24 100 mile finish Centurion SDW100 Centurion NDW100 An Ironman triathlon*
Self Transcendence - 24 hours of Tooting - 100+ mile total
London to Brighton Trail run
Vanguard Way oner - self supported. I have done the Croydon to Woldingham bit a few times and also the Vanguard Way marathon. However that is just the first 15 miles out of 67 and it finishes by the sea in Newhaven.
Sub 90 half marathon - unofficially done in training but would like to knock it off
Sub 40 - p.b. is 40:34
Good for age London Marathon (currently GFA is 3:05 and my unofficial pb is 3:37)
LDWA 100 mile challenge walk
Challenging + (50/50 to finish)
Centurion Grandslam
SDW unsupported
NDW unsupported - Farnham to Dover then loop back round to the junction via Canterbury
Lakeland 100
UTMB
Western States 100
UTMF (100 mile-ish ultra around Mount Fuji in Japan)
10km open water swim
GUCR
Leadville 100
Ultra Tour Monte Rosa
Thames Ring 250
T184 (or doing it self supported)
A sub 3 hour marathon
A sub 10 hour 100km
A sub 20 hour 100 mile finish
2,000 miles in a year
Long shots (finishing would be a major achievement and unexpected)
Automatic qualification for Sparathlon (currently a sub 8 hours 100km, 16:45 100 miler)
Sparathlon
Hardrock
Ronda Dels Cims 170km / 13,500m D+
Lon Las Ultra
Badwater 135
Diagonale Des Fous 167km / 9,700m D+
Bob Graham Round
The Hill
Tour Des Geants
Batsh!t crazy (you never know how life turns out)
Race across America
JOGLE (or LEJOG)
Vol State 500km
Appalachian Trail - through hike
Monarch Way
Not on the list
Marathon des Sables - the 1990s version would have been pretty cool but the hype machine of "toughest race in the world" with a 90%+ finish (yet no qualification requirements) doesn't appeal. Also I could do a lot of races with £3k+. I'm glad it does exist though as it means the rich business men going through mid-life crises will continue to go for this rather than events I want to do. I should also add that to race it hard and finish top 50 would be bloody tough and I have huge respect for Elizabet Barnes, Danny Kendall, James Cracknell etc.
Sri Chimnoy - Self transcendence 3,100 miles - 5,649 laps of a Queen's NY block. Not sure I need to explain why this didn't make the cut. I'm glad it exists though.
Chained Ultra - what is wrong with you people?
Choose
ultras. Choose a race. Choose a training plan. Choose a backpack. Choose a fucking big GPS watch and a foam roller. Choose good health,
low cholesterol, and a vegan diet. Choose your friends. Choose post-race
clothes and matching luggage. Choose
parkrun and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose not
sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game
shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting you
stomach away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable
portaloo, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up
brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose
ultras... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to
choose ultras. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no
reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got tailwind?
