Back to Samphire Hoe for another spooky Halloween 100 weekend with the fabulous SVN!
I did this last year, and it was probably one of my favourite events ever. I was so adamant that I didn't want to ruin my memories of it, by going back and trying it again and maybe having a bad experience, that I didn't enter it until a few weeks ago. But I couldn't stop thinking of everyone who was going to be there, having such adventures, and that I would miss out, so I entered. And of course, I am glad that I did!
Being Samphire Hoe, the weather was bound to be bad, so no surprise that the sea wall was shut because the sea was too rough. So there was the added extra bonus of doing the extra 2 laps up the cliffs instead! So it was the same route as last year; 7 x 6.55 miles on the big route (around Samphire Hoe, up through the tunnel, up the cliffs, along and up and down the top of the cliffs and back, down through the tunnel, through Wasteland, and back to base) plus 16.5 x 3.28 miles on the little route (all in Samphire Hoe).
The weather was wild! The wind wasn't quite as bad as last year (only 62 MPH gusts rather than 74 MPH - thanks Traviss for the stats!) but I would still say, that it felt quite windy! The rain came and went as it pleased, and when it came, it threw it down. Jackets on, off, on again, off again, too hot, too cold, so many outfit changes!
The clouds and the sky, and the wind on the sea, made for some beautiful views during the day.
The late afternoon up on the cliffs was actually beautiful weather, and even vest weather for a couple of hours!I ran the whole 100 miles with Sarah, and we had so many catch ups with so many friends on the way round as well, it was brilliant. Thank you to everyone out there for the chats, hugs, smiles and encouragement. It was so good to see you all, and it's such a great feeling to be in something epic all together.The sunset was marvellous!
I quite like having the two sets of different laps, as by the time you have finished the 7 big cliff laps, you are almost at 50 miles, so then it almost feels like another event when you start off on the little Samphire laps for the second half. At the end of the 7th cliff lap, we came down the tunnel (aka, the wind tunnel) for our last parachute practice of the day (the wind was blowing up the tunnel!) and back into Samphire Hoe for Halloween night!
As we finished our 7 big laps, we got to switch our tally cards over to a new one. We celebrated this notable moment with a wee (in the posh loos which were still open), a snack, an outfit change for warmer night time gear (alas, no PJs tonight), and got our headtorches out. Because of where the car park was, we could use our cars as giant drop bags, which was quite fun! Despite arranging everything carefully in the boot at the start, so that I would be able to find things easily, of course, in the middle of the night I was completely unable to find any of the things I wanted.
We got a lap or two of the little laps in before the sun disappeared....
....and Halloween Night began!
I managed I think 3 full little laps before having a fall. Thank you Sarah for picking me up and putting up with my mini-meltdown! And thank you to the First Aiders back at base who cleaned me up, and stuck me back together. It's a shame. After my recent run of falls (3 in a month!) my knees were just about looking like something that might pass as normal, and my future dream career as a knee model was looking more promising again. Alas, the dream is crushed once more.
But, this was no time to be sentimental. There were still around 40 miles to do! Running with Sarah is always so much fun, and we seem to talk away all the miles, which makes them go by quickly! The topics covered did, I suppose, fall in quality as the time went on. We started with sensible things, catching up on a whole 3 weeks of news. Via an assortment of subjects, we eventually, during the night, happened upon the question of do sheep sleep? None of the ones at Samphire did, they seemed to be eating all night.
And if they do sleep, do sheep count humans, if they can't get to sleep? And then how long would they be asleep for?
And what about cows? Where do the Samphire cows go at night? They had all completely disappeared, apart from this one cow, who randomly appeared to eat the grass right on the path at about 3am.
The cows had left some helpful "cow pat markers" along the course, which helped with navigation. Big Cow Pat, was followed by Flattened Cow Pat a bit further down the hill, and finally Third Cow Pat was right at the bottom by the fence where you turned to go up the other hill. This worked well for keeping track of our place on the course, until someone, late into the night, kicked the Big Cow Pat off the course, which completely confused us for the next few laps.
Quite late into the run, whilst running through Wasteland, conversation turned to concrete, which is an under visited topic of conversation. Wasteland is filled with concrete. All different patches. This makes for interesting shadows and shapes, which in the dark, may turn out to be just a shadow, or may be a surprisingly deep and cold puddle. I think some of the brambles have been cleared since last year, so it seemed a little easier to navigate around - through the gap, round the lake, through second gap, 10 cones, turn round - etc etc! Wasteland is also full of cones to help mark the way. Some of the cones were missing their reflective covering, and so became known as The Naked Cones. We also saw a tiny mouse in Wasteland, who looked very shocked to be caught in 4 headtorches all at once and didn't know what to do, and I felt very bad about. Hope he found a peaceful spot for the night away from us all, the poor wee thing.
It was a dark night, and the moon was hiding behind clouds, and the white cliffs reflected what light there was, making the surrounding darkness seem even denser. There were plenty of ships in the channel (including one that was entirely lit up, and looked like the boat from Blackpool Illuminations), their lights twinkling away, and the lights of Dover at one end and Folkstone at the other end of the course added to the light show.
After filling out our new tally card with 10 clippity-clips for 10 laps, we got our new, and final tally cards, and were down to the last 6.5 laps (less than a marathon!). I refuse to let myself think of the end of a 100 miler during it, as I think that's the start of a slippery slope; 100 miles is a long way to be on your feet, and letting thoughts of the times and distance left to do into your head is likely to stress you out! But, it was getting close now, and if we completed it today, Sarah would have done 13 x 100 milers (that's a conveniently spooky number for Halloween!) and I would have done 8 x 100 milers (and 8 looks like a ghost wearing a belt, maybe)! So we started to get excited, and in our "hundred mile" (crocky) voices, we allowed ourselves to let out the odd squeal.
Right before we finished, there was the most beautiful sunrise. We had survived Halloween night!! We'd seen a few ghosts, but on closer inspection, mostly these were patterns on the wet paths, cows pats, or sheep eyes, so nothing to be concerned about.
The finish is always exciting! So happy to have completed another 100 miles and to have enjoyed it! I think it's fair to say it was tough, but then again, if it wasn't, would it be as good? We finished in 24:36, so pleased as punch!
Thank you so much to Traviss, Rachel, Karen and all the SVN Team for yet another superb event and for taking care of us all. I don't know how you stay awake yourselves for so long, keep track of where everyone is up to, and stay so happy and supportive! And thank you to the First Aid team, who were amazing!
Thank you Sarah for putting up with me for the whole time, and for staying side by side even when I do stupid things like tripping over nothing and throwing myself down a concrete hill and hold us up for ages. It's always the best fun to run with you, and I hope we will have more 100 mile chat-athons! Well done to Jon on your 50, super proud of you! And well done to everyone who ran - it was a tough thing we did there, and you are all awesome!
Note: questions cannot go unanswered, and Google is helpful:
1. Sheep do sleep, but only for around 4 hours per day. The RSPCA website does not have any information on how sheep get to sleep, or if they count humans in order to.
2. Cows also need about 4 hours sleep per day, and they can doze lightly on their feet (because they have special ligaments and tendons that mean they need minimal muscular effort to stay standing up), but they have to lie down to sleep deeply.
3. There are three grades of concrete, which sounds like the start of another 100 conversation......
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