The beginning of March, and for the third year in a row, I headed back to the sports track at the Xcel Centre at Walton-on-Thames for the Phoenix Running 24 hour track event.
Despite being officially spring today, the weather was definitely "not spring". At all! After checking the weather forecast increasingly obsessively in the proceeding days, I eventually decided it was getting worse and I didn't like the look of it, so resigned myself to the fact it was going to be 24 hours of wet, packed all my waterproof clothes, and then ignored it.
The morning dawned dark, windy and pouring down. I always get very anxious about track events, as if I think too deeply about running around the same circle for 24 hours non-stop, I actually find it quite disturbing. Running around in a the same circle for 24 hours non-stop in the wind and rain is (in my own opinion), really not a normal thing to be doing, and the thought that I was myself about to need to do this in about 2 hours time was quite frankly a thought that I was struggling to come to terms with.
I ran the whole way with Sarah, and we started off at 08:00 in the anti-clockwise direction. The direction changed every 3 hours, when Ken the Cone would appear at the timing mat, and we would all run around him and change to running round the other way.
Lots going on on the track. The discus net was having a bit of a moment, and squeaking all day in the wind (like the start of the Jurassic Park tune, or a ghost??). The poles in the middle of the track looked like dinosaurs. T-rex! The pools in the steeplechase were filling up with water as the rain went on, like a mini swimming pool. Lots of floodlight maintenance (who knew, you can take giant floodlights down!)
The first few hours were rainy, then the rain stopped for a few hours and we even took off waterproofs! The day time was really good run, lots of catch ups (track events are always great for the social side) and laughs. Things were going really well and we were running good (I checked afterwards, and I did my best times ever for 50 miles and 100 km during this part). Well done to Annabel on Phoenix event #250!
As it got towards tea-time, the temperature dropped, and then as the evening went on it got colder (don't know why I was surprised by that 🤣) and windier.
At about midnight, it started raining again and then carried on all through the night. Trying to keep warm was a big challenge, and it felt like a never ending task of putting more things on, changing wet things, trying to keep our hands warm (I was rotating 5 pairs of gloves, as in my experience NO gloves are waterproof, even the waterproof ones!) Just couldn't keep warm. According to Garmin, we spent 3 hours doing this (at least there were warm changing rooms)! By the end, I was wearing a base layer, t-shirt, running jacket, 2 waterproof jackets, and a puffer jacket on the top. And still wasn't feeling warm 😆
Both struggled with nausea and not feeling quite right overnight. Did our best to try and sort it, having little bits of mint cake, mints, mint and lime squash, mini potatoes, sips of water, but nothing really worked, and sometimes when you're tired, it's just hard to know what to do.
I think that I would describe the day time as "good and fun" and the night time as "challenging" 😆
Still, even in challenges, you can still make the most of things. Sarah and I decided we were determined to stick it out for the 24 hours, and we didn't care about distance (as long as we hopefully got 100 miles), as the medal says 24 on it. I think once you've made your decision, it almost becomes easier in a way, as you know that's what you're doing, and you just have to keep going and manage things the best you can, to get round that.
And yes, of course, we still chatted and had fun in the cold and wet! No point being (too 😂) miserable! Amongst many random and funny chats, we had a good few laps of biscuit and cake chat with James. "Sitting down" chat with Dominique. Flying monkey pizza delivery chats with Tony. Curry chats with Andy. Woop woops with Alice. Attempting to count laps with Katie (conclusion - none of us can count to more than 1). Bowling chat with Stephen. And great to see Richard for the midnight marathon, and admire the tree silhouettes. Good to see Rik's girls Phoebe and Pippa out for some laps - Pippa was talking about "unicorn stretching" , which I feel sure will be a new revolution in running, so must watch out for that!
I had my first ever hallucinations in the early morning hours! I saw a golden Labrador playing in the middle of the track (turned out to be a hurdle), a rowing boat with it's oars rowing across the grass in the middle of the track, and on the football pitches I saw lots of people wearing bright colours running around.
Thank you to Rik and the Phoenix Team on the aid station for looking after everyone. Especially, Gavin - thank you for all your support overnight and our amazing new cups! I can't tell you how much of a boost that was for this surprise with a hot drink in overnight!
Summary = 24 hours, 423 x 400 m = 105.1 miles. Job done! Well done to everyone who ran during the 24 hours - this one was a tough one, and am feeling proud of everyone! Thank you Sarah (my running twin 💓💓) - together, we got ourselves through it. I am proud of us!
As the name "Savage" would appear to be related to the weather of the event, we have put in some suggestions for the next event to be called Track Wars Tropical/ Calm/ Blue Skies/ Unseasonably Warm Weather For March.
A reminder to never give up, a motto that I hold deep inside, and inspired by my dear friend Hannah whose birthday it would have been 💛💛💛 Dum spiro spero (while I breathe, I hope) 💛💛💛
