Colin Fitzjohn Ultra Runner

The organizers of this race wanted it to be directly comparable with the  Ultra Tour du Mont-Blanc® hence the actual distance of 104 miles. I got to the  race start point at John Ruskin school about 2 hours before the off & met Neil Bryant & Steve Gordon, friends from JOGLE.

Medal

The race organizers gave us a very detailed map & a road book (all waterproof) and we all had to attend a pre race briefing before we were allowed to start. This included a talk by running legend Joss Naylor MBE. He talked about some of his running achievements including running 84 miles in around 9 hours off road! We also got a very nice Montane technical t-shirt before the start of the race which was at 5:30pm on Friday. The race used the “Si system” to check into each of the 14 points along the route, so we had accurate timings for all our CP’s.

As we lined up for the start I suddenly realized I hadn’t dibbed in my timing chip before we set off so I had to go right to the back of the line-up and dib in, great start. As the race started we slowly made our way out onto the road and up the first hill. This first section included 2,100 feet of climbing and a 1,950 decent. I ran the first 15 miles with Neil & we chatted about previous ultras we’d done together. We soon reached the first checkpoint at Seathwaite village hall, filled our water up & went on our way, food in hand. I try not to spend any time at the checkpoints as later on you can get tempted into staying too long.

The next section was Seathwaite to Boot with a climb of 1,165 feet & descending 1,345 feet. I soon found out that each section of about 6+ miles was to be like a fell race. The weather was good on the first day with no rain and quite warm. I stayed with Neil for about 15 miles & then settled into my own pace. Before long I’d reached CP 3 at Wasdale Head just as the light had started to fail, I decided this would be a good time to break out my head torch just before the next climb of 2,437 feet up Wasdale Head followed by a 2,306 foot decent. I also put on another Buff to keep my neck warm as it was starting to get a bit chilly despite all the climbing. This was a hot food CP also so I had some soup to keep me warm. On the way up Wasdale head we spotted a few fireflies flying round the ferns, I’d never seen them before. It seemed like quite a climb to the top maybe it was the dark or just staring at the pool of light from my head-torch but it seemed to take a long time to reach the top. I was glad to see the next CP 4 at the village hall in Buttermere, as I approached the door I got a cheer from the support team which was nice. On the inside we could have some more soup & a roll, I just had some soup and re-filled my water pack. On my way out I could hear a runner telling the organizers he’s had enough & wanted to quit, it was going to be a long night. I’d now covered almost a marathon, 25 miles done & only 79 miles to go!

The next section was Buttermere to Braithwaite which would be another 2,440ft climb & 2,539ft decent. By this time I’d been running on my own for a few hours & was glad to catch up to 3 runners ahead I said “Hi” but they didn’t answer, they looked very tired as we ran up yet another mountain. I tucked in behind as the path we were on was very narrow with a very big drop down one side and a steep climb on the other. The path was covered with ferns and you couldn’t see the stones underneath, the guy in front of me kept tripping up and falling. I was worried he may fall down the drop but somehow he always managed to miss it. After a while they moved over and let me pass, the guy in front said they were all falling asleep! I could see some more runners up ahead & thought I’d see if I could catch them. As I got nearer I realized I’d not looked at my SatMap for a while & decided to check I was still on the right path, I wasn’t! I’d been too busy trying to catch the others I’d forgot to check my course. I was only a few hundred yards off where I should have been but it almost ended my race. I’d come to a very steep section of rock and ran halfway down towards the other runners when I realized my mistake. This meant having to retrace my steps back up in the dark, it was very hard to get my head around having to climb another 1,000 feet for nothing. As I reached the top again I saw another runner who pointed to the runners on the other side of the river & said he doubted they’d make the next checkpoint in time & were probably out of the race. That was a close one, we ran together to CP 5 at Braithwaite & chatted on the way. This was nice as it had been a while since I’d spoken to anyone. Eventually we reached Braithwaite at 33 miles, this was one of the better checkpoints and they had biscuits, coffee, tea, rice pudding etc. I filled up and set off again just as dawn broke, it’s always nice when you see the sun starting to rise on a new day.

On my way to CP 6 Blencathra at 42 miles it came light & my thoughts turned to how long I still had to run, it was difficult to think I still had another full day & night to go in this race! I ran alone again for a few hours before seeing anyone. This is when things can start to go downhill mentally as your left alone with your thoughts. As I approached yet another mountain climb I saw 2 runners up ahead, they stopped for a while as I ran past and we exchanged a few words. As the hill got steeper we passed each other a few more times. Just as I thought I’d got passed they sped up & passed me again. We were running at a very similar pace so I tagged along. As it happens this was a good move, Nigel had done the 100 the previous year & Hannah the 50 so they both had a good idea of the rout. As we chatted I discovered Nigel lived only about 6 miles from me. They both had lots of experience in various ultras so knew what to expect. The next section of the course was past Lonscale fell which was a horseshoe shaped trail around a river, you could see the other side only a few hundred yards away but because of the river in between we had to run another few miles to get to the other side. As we looked back we didn’t see any other runners which seemed strange as we left quite a few at the last checkpoint. We made our way round looking back now & again & still nobody behind. Just around the corner & on our way down the hill we saw a photographer who was taking pictures of the runners, I was glad to see him as it just confirmed we were on the right path. We reached the bottom of the hill & just around the corner was checkpoint 7 at Dockray we’d now run 49 miles. We all had some Soreen and filled up our water and set off for CP 8 at Dalemain.

Nice tech T-shirt

I was looking forward to CP 8 as it was about half way through the race & I could change my socks & trainers. By this time it was getting very hot and my feet felt quite wet from all the water the night before. The skin on my feet had gone soft & I could feel a big blister on my right foot just under my big toe. As we reached the long driveway up to the tent at Dalemain, I stood on a large rock and as my foot slid off it the skin covering a large blister came off. I could feel it throbbing through my sock, running on bare skin was painful but I knew I could change into some fresh socks in a few hundred yards. I had a drop bag with some clothes, socks & my own food which I filled my rucksack with. When I removed my trainers I found my feet weren’t as bad as I’d thought, I put some antiseptic cream on & new socks and felt much better. Most of the runners around me said they were having foot problems with all the water. I sat on a massage table to eat a bowl of pasta & Pete & Andrew came into the tent to ask me how I was doing, they were doing the 50 miler which started at Dalemain. It was nice to see a couple of familiar faces. We chatted for a few minutes before me, Nigel & Hannah set off again. It was great to be running with someone as the time passed much quicker. As we ran across the fields away from Dalemain we picked out a few 50 milers & decided to catch them. My feet felt much better now and I could start to allow myself to think of the finish.

We ran together for quite a few miles & as we ran it started to rain. I couldn’t be bothered to put my full weather gear on so it got very cold. The good side to this was that my stuff started drying as soon as the rain let off a bit. The last part of the race was almost totally wet & windy but I was almost 75 miles in by now and just kept going. We noticed that Nigel had gone quiet & he said he was nauseous & couldn’t get any food down, at this stage that’s never a good thing but he seemed to get over it and started feeling better after eating something.

At around 90 miles I decided to part company & carry on alone. I sometimes feel the best way to get to the finish is to be on my own.  It was sad to part company with Nigel & Hannah but I was going through a bad patch & needed to be alone. I picked up a couple of runners as I started to feel better & we chatted as we ran the last few checkpoints to the finish. As I ran the last mile I asked a lady which way the finish was (my usual rubbish navigation) and she said she would show me! She ran about half a mile with me & pointed to the finish. I got back in 37:46, which I was happy with considering the other big races I’d done just before the Lakeland 100. When I got back my Forerunner said 104 miles which after asking around a few other runners seemed to be right. Lakeland 104 doesn’t trip off the tongue as easy though so maybe they shortened it a little! At the finish they weighed us and I’d lost 2lbs, I wouldn’t recommend it as a diet though. If your thinking of doing this race you don’t need to run it in full on trail shoes, I used trail shoes for the first 50 miles (blistered) then Brooks Adrenaline for the last 54 miles. Some runners did the whole race in road shoes which I would do if I do it again.

Overall this was a very well organized race with the right food & plenty of it at each checkpoint, the checkpoints are maned by runners from local clubs so they have a good idea what your going through. I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a good challenge without going to the extremes. A very doable race & mostly on good paths & trails. Just make sure you take a good head torch for the night sections.

Happy Running!

this is how we all looked before the start

Well its taken me a long time to get my head around writing this report, not because I’m sad about how far I got but because of how emotional it all was. I think everyone involved with this race/run shed at least a tear or two at some point, I know I did. It all started for me a few months before when I completed all the training runs. The first run gave me an insight on how hard this was going to be, after the the first day I was completely exhausted & didn’t think I could do the second day! I got out of bed & was so stiff & sore it felt like I’d been hit by a train. This was a wakeup call & made me realise how much training I needed to do. Over the next few weeks I increased my mileage to 180 miles a week plus loads of gym work. I also did every ultra I could in the lead up to JOGLE just to build up some mental strength.

I was the last one to board the sleeper coach which was to be our home for the next few days & had already met most of my fellow runners on training weekends or in other ultras over the past few months. By this time we were all quite experienced ultra runners but none of us had done anything of this scale before. Most ultra distance races are over a single day or a couple of days but to run this kind of mileage over and over again would be something new to us all.

John O'Groats 2010

Just before the race I was lucky enough to get sponsorship from Hilly Clothing who supplied all my socks for the event & Soreen my favourite energy food & Buff Headwear and for energy drinks I also got Science in Sport who are local to me. This was great as it covered some of my expenses & as I already used all of them in my training runs I was familiar with them & knew they worked, this is good as you don’t want to be finding out you don’t like something after the first day!

Chris who I met on a mountain in Scotland doing JOGLE on his bike

As we all lined up on the start of the first day I cant help feeling we were all unaware of the way we would feel over the next few days. The first day was quite an easy day as we were all fresh & running on adrenalin for the most part. I did worry on the night before as I’d had a problem with my right knee, I fell on it in training and this caused my kneecap to rub on my femur. I’d been having intensive physiotherapy on it over the previous weeks with  Amjad Butt who had done a great deal of work with me in getting my knee ready but who advised me to rest for at least another 4 weeks. This I couldn’t do so I just had to risk it. The night before the race started I had a quick jog down the road at John O’Groats & my knee just felt wrong. I would either be out of the race before the first mile or it would be OK, I wouldn’t know for sure until the start! I managed to make it through the first day & ran 63 miles without injury & in pretty good shape, the next day I woke up & was very stiff & sore but felt OK to carry on, after all we only had 58 miles to run today!

what hills?

We all set off to meet the support van every 10 miles along the rout. As I reached the van at the first checkpoint I saw someone sat in the passenger seat, it was Joe who had picked up an injury on the first day & her foot had not healed overnight. We all felt sad when someone left & it never got any easier. The A9 was a hard road to run down, the traffic was showing us no mercy. With 28 miles to go, Justin was now feeling crippling pains in his feet. We had run together all the first day & now Justin was feeling the miles. Later that day I approached the support van & Justin was out. Because we had run so far together I really felt it when Justin left as I knew the days were going to be a lot lonelier without his company & humour. Annette and Graham were also beaten by the miles today, this made me wonder who would be next?

I had 54 miles to run on the third day & felt terrible, it just seemed to take forever. The hills were taking their toll on me & I was feeling the pain. Me and Bethany ran together & as the day went on it became apparent she was in pain with her back. At the checkpoint Rory looked in her pack and decided she may not need all the things she was carrying such as spare head-torch batteries in the daytime! She emptied a load of weight from her backpack & we carried on together. She was in great pain & I felt useless as there was nothing I could do to help. I didn’t want to leave Bethany on her own as I knew how hard it was keeping going alone & trying to keep yourself motivated in such pain. Amazingly Bethany managed to walk the 9 miles back to Spean Bridge. Smithy was also having a bad day with severe shin splints. He had gone industrial with the pain killers & managed to make the end of day 3 in one piece.

ah Soreen!

Day 4 was 55 miles & we were all suffering in our own ways, Bethany was still in severe pain from day 3 & wisely decided to call it a day. She had been up all night & couldn’t sleep in her bunk as she was in agony with her back. I set off with Smithy who was by now keeping the workforce at Voltarol in overtime. It was a very cold misty start to the day & it took us a while to get to the first checkpoint. Steve was also having trouble & was in pain from the start of day 4 & unfortunately didn’t make the end of the day, we were all beginning to wonder if anyone would make the finish! Even Rob who led the race was in trouble with his right ankle tendon gone & limping badly. As I reached another checkpoint Rory told me Smithy who I ran with earlier in the day was out. I’d miss his dry sense of humour which had kept me going at the start of the day. He said he was the the token Southern softy in a race full of hard as nails northerners, I think it was humour in the face of adversity which was keeping most of us going by this time.

land of the giants

Day 5 & 57 miles, Rob was in such pain he didn’t start today. I think we all realised early on that if Rob had made the end without injury the rest of use would have been left in his wake. I was sad to see the big man go.

By this time we had started to find ways of adapting to the hardship & one of the things we learned was how to find ways to go to the loo whilst on the road! We couldn’t use the loo on the coach so everyday had to find somewhere to go. We were consuming massive quantity’s of food & needed to go a few times a day. We found one of the best things to use was a car tyre wedged between two stones! I also found that as we ran along lots of dual carriageways cones turned upside-down made a great mobile toilet (sorry road-workers!).

the road is long

new trainers after 3 days of JOGLE

bad ankle day

Day 6 & 58 miles By this time everything hurt like hell! Every day we would set off in pain & know it could only get worse. The days would seem to last forever & getting to the next checkpoint was all I could think about. I’d run almost 290 miles now & Rory said I looked in the best shape, this made me wonder what state the other three were in? Mark was still suffering with severe shin pain which he’d had for days, how was he keeping going? Dave had pain in his feet & Neil was struggling with ankle pain, I had swelling in my lower legs from being on my feet so long. At every chance I got I put my legs up to try to drain some blood from my swelling feet. I ran with Mark today & somehow we both decided after consulting our Google maps that the right way to go from a roundabout was onto the M74! As we made our way along the hard shoulder a truck came up behind us with bright yellow flashing lights and Mark said he thought he saw lights flashing on the road in front of us, I looked back & saw a truck was following us and the driver was telling us to get off the motorway! We didn’t know what to do as we were so tired the thought of going back was a none starter so we just carried on & ignored it. After a while we found a place where we could climb over a wall and get off the motorway so we did, straight onto some private land, a security guy started shouting to us from his hut & again we decided to ignore it & carry on. A few minutes later the police turned up! They took our names & addresses & were about to take us in when we decided to tell them we were running for a famous cancer charity. On mentioning this everything changed & they decided to give us a lift to where we were supposed to be on the other side of the motorway! By this time it was getting dark & we met up with Rory & Jen who had a good laugh at our expense. The next few miles to the end of the day & the coach seemed to take ages but we made it.

Day 7 & 58 miles. By the end of today I would run 406 miles, I felt good & keen to get started on the day. Rory told me I needed to stop talking to passers by & get on with it. No more f***ing around! It went well today & I made it through another day without injury. Everything hurt like hell but the swelling in my feet had gone down a bit which was a bonus. It got harder & harder to find something that made me want to eat but that was a daily struggle, at first sweet things taste great but after you’ve eaten them for days you begin to crave just savoury things.

Day 8 & 60 miles. I didn’t know it yet but this was to be my last day of JOGLE 2010. I set off & felt OK to say I’d run almost 450 miles. As I passed some roadworks the workmen shouted to me “didn’t we see you yesterday in Carlisle?” yes I said “have you run all this way” yes I said & they started to clap as I ran past. This spurred me on when I felt low, it was things like this which kept us going at the bad times. I had a bad patch on the way up the Shap later on that day & a cyclist shouted to me ” you look like you need a brew mate!” he had a cottage on the other side of the Shap & said if I stopped he would make me a brew. He did and gave me some loo roll which was great. I was so tired I was falling asleep & the coffee woke me up.

I wasn’t beaten by the clock but by the map! I took a wrong turning at a roundabout and ended up running about 16 miles in the wrong direction, if my iPhone had been with me I would have been fine, I’d been using it for navigation most of the way. When Rory told me I was out I’d done 45 miles on my Forerunner so would have only had 15 miles to go to the finish. I feel this could easily have been done as I was going well with no injury and absolutely gutted to have to stop.

the end

I’d just like to say of my fellow runners, every one of you are fantastic, I cried most days when I was running alone, not because of the pain but because I’d never seen such bravery in people before. We all went through so much pain & suffering it would have put most people out after the first few miles in Scotland. I met some fantastic characters who’s humour lifted all our spirits & made me cry with laughter daily. It was a very emotional run that’s for sure! However for me the biggest pain was being separated from my wonderful family who supported me through all my miles of training leading up to the run and the run itself.

We all thought we’d lose loads of weight, I heard two stone mentioned. I lost one pound, so wouldn’t recommend the JOGLE diet! My body fat % went from 12% to 7% though! This one is going to be filed under unfinished business and after seeing how well I recover . . . . . maybe. I’d just like to mention my fellow runners who finished JOGLE in 2010,  Mark Cockbain is an absolute star & showed immense courage carrying on with severe injury, a true legend in the ultra running world for good reason. David Miles who’s humour kept us going when things got tough & always has a smile for everyone & Neil Bryant my friend from the Ridgeway who can push on no matter what injury he has & is always extremely positive in adversity. I’m sure the Bryant family are very proud of their son. Your all winners & made it to the end!

Happy Running!

My aim this year is to complete as many marathons & ultra distance events as possible in the lead up to my attempt on the John O’Groats to Lands End ultra run on April 30th 2010. I’ll be running all 867 miles in 15 days with daily mileages ranging from 50 up to 63.

Below is a list of the mileages & Google maps for every day & where I’ll be starting & finishing.