So…my second ultra…hmm. For those of you who don’t know what an ultra is, it’s a race longer than marathon distance. I’m doing a ‘short’ ultra, a 50k, through the Chilterns on Saturday with XNRG.

My training has had its ups and downs – a brief lurgy or two, some twinges in my knee. But otherwise, it’s pretty much gone to plan. In addition to covering the miles, I’ve run and stomped up a lot of hills, covered marathon distance on a rather warm and sticky day, walked around every now and again up and down said hills with a weighted backpack, done core work etc, run in the hottest part of the day…all the stuff I should be doing.

As for how Saturday will go, who the hell knows. It’s going to be a little warm – 25 or so and sunny. This is not ideal running weather for me but I’m at that point I’ve done what I can and what will be will be.

My main hope is I don’t end up in the medics tent at the end of it, and that it takes less time. Albeit, the medic was great, putting my arm in a sling and giving me an ice pack. And there was cake! You can read all about how it went wrong here.

Yep, I’m nervous. I’m anxious. The reason I’m doing this race again is to improve on my time. It won’t be fast, chances are it won’t be pretty, but all going well, I will get to the end!

And as I’ve said before, there are times a picture paints a thousand words. So I’m feeling much as I was this time last year, with a few additions around expectations!

 

How I think my second ultra might go…

 

Fear of not waking up on time means setting multiple alarm clocks at 1 minute intervals and no sleep

 

The next morning

 

Breakfast

 

Coffee

Getting dressed

 

Leaving home

 

The arrival

 

First things first

At the start line

 

A few miles in

 

A few more miles in

 

Then a few more miles

 

At various points

At the aid stations

 

A few other thoughts

 

And hoping for none of this

 

Meeting others

Likely somewhere near the end

All leading to this…

 

Followed by this…

 

And this…

 

 

 

Happy running all!