Lessons Learned from Clyde Stride

Double post this weekend, as decided it would be best to seperate the lessons learned from the past weeks antics.

First of all here are some photos from Clyde Stride taken by David Hall. The first one is Colin Smith and I, just outside the first checkpoint at Cambuslang about 10 miles in. I was so pleased to hear finished his first ultra. He came in last but well under the cut off. There is never any shame in finishing last especially in ultras as it means you have been out there for longer. I know he really had to dig deep too which makes his finish even more impressive.



Then here is one of me at the finish:



Even though the race went remarkably well, I still feel it is important to document all the things that went right, as well as the few things I can change. Plus although I was tempted to do another ultra this year I've decided to stick with current plan. Next year though...

So here we go:

Pacing: My pacing was spot on and meant I could continue at that pace the whole way through and feel reasonably comfortable. So for near enough the first 30 miles I did 12 minutes running then 2/3 minutes walking. Then walked every hill and for the last 10 miles in particular it was walking all the hills and running whenever I could and make sure I am not running for more than 12 minutes. I think I did well also to run at my pace and even though most of the field took off ahead as I was right at the back. This is a tactic I will continue to do in future. One of things I was talking to Colin about, is that I am sure every person in that field could do the first 10 miles in that race in 1.30-1-35 comfertably. But in my opinion its only worth doing if you know you can sustain it for the next 30.

Now I know I can do this I think next time/in training I'll go up to 14 minutes then 2/3 minutes walking and see how that pans out. Of course if I am doing longer/hillier events I think I'll just stick to what I have done before and take each course on its own merit.

Eating and drinking - Here, I did something that I have never done in training. But it was a very very low risk and totally worked out. In training I would take a 500ml bottle for 10 mile stretches and found that I ran out before the end of the section. So for the race I upgraded and took 750ml bottles, which I was fine carrying and I made sure I finished it at the aid stations before taking a fresh one for the next stretch.

For eating for starter I had a marmite (my salt source) sandwich every half an hour apart from one half hour per section where I would have a gel. I have to say when I got to Crossford (about mile 34/35), I found it a struggle swallowing the sandwich so need to find alternatives for longer races. I did just switch to gels after that and they were absolutely fine. I also had a banana at each checkpoint and they were fine.

I think for longer races I need to make my calorie intake more of an exact science. As well as experimenting on training runs with different foods. I need to work out the amount of calories I need per hour and how I go about getting them. Also need to try out different salt sources if marmite sandwiches aren't going to be an option for over 30 mile races.

Checkpoints I feel I had a quick turnaround at checkpoints especially compared to the people around me. I finished my water, had a banana, re-stock and go. I think, on average I took 2 mins to 2 mins 30 sec. I know I could be quicker if I had support, walked while eating my banana. But just over 12 mins for all checkpoints/comfort breaks is pretty good going, so will probably stick with this.

Approach I think my mental approach to the race was spot on. I forgot about times and just ran at a pace which was comfortable. After the first 5 miles, I relaxed and just really enjoyed the day. I did see it as more of a day out than a race. I think with these events you need to. If you start thinking about the big picture (unless you do it to make you slow down) it can be quite daunting. So just focusing on the next 15 minutes each time really helped.

Garmin Which brings me on nicely to my Garmin. This was another thing which I never tried before race day but again was very low risk. Usually on my garmin I would have the Overall time, pace at that second and overall distance. I decided to change it to the big screen having Current Lap, this was a really good move as previously mentioned. I found on the training runs I was having difficulty calculating when to stop, especially with hills and my brain is surprisingly less effective after 30 miles! Then I had overall pace. No reason just for something on the screen! Then I had Overall time just so I knew when to phone my parents at 3pm. I am thinking in future just to have a stop watch and reset it. In longer races, unless I did the charger thing the garmin would cut out after 10 hours. Plus some of the other races I plan to do give you splits at checkpoints. If I was worried about cut offs I could just flick the stopwatch back to the time.

Video and pictures This was mainly inspired by John Kynaston who takes videos pictures at pretty much every ultra he has ever done. Did it slow him down? Some say it might cost him 10 minutes, but as he says, he does most of the footage/pictures when he is walking so it could quite easily be argued it is beneficial to do. And if you see his times, they are very impressive, usually finishing high up the field.

So I decided to give it a go again like I did for the WHW, Stephen's 50 at 50. I felt like it was like having a secret weapon, especially in the first 10 miles where I would just stop for 2 seconds whenever I saw something worth taking a photo of. Also doing the videos, it not only passes the time during the walking sections. It also gives you something to think about to split up the sections more. As I would be thinking when am I going to do the next video or where am I going to take the next picture. I would also get it set up while I was running just before I was going to stop. So in my opinion it works great and if people enjoy watching it that is a big bonus (the response I got from friends/family has been great!). So this is something I will continue to do. Will need to bring a spare battery for longer ones though as nearly ran out!

Ultras: The future As previously mentioned I don't plan to do any more this year, but I will continue to train for ultras. One of my friends, Alex who helped ran with me on reccy runs for Clyde Stride is doing the River Ayr Way challenge so I plan on helping him with reccy runs for that. I know this might affect my training for Loch Ness but it would be great to see Alex finishing his first ultra, just as he was pleased for me when I finished mine.

So next year, the Highland Fling will be my main focus for the first half of the year. It is 53 miles of the West Highland Way from Milingavie to Tyndrum. The rest will fall into place around the ultra schedule as I understand a few races will be moving to different times in the year and obviously getting into races before they get full. Fingers crossed the Cateran trail which I think is moving will be to later in the year as that would be my other focus. Then Clyde Stride hopefully again and maybe River Ayr. But again all depends on dates.

Well I think that is all but if I think of anything else I'll just add at random points as I'm sure when I'm doing this next year it will come in handy!