SVN Norman 100, 21.09.2024

The last of the SVN events at Samphire Hoe!

Samphire Hoe is my favourite location of the lapped events - it's a tough course with the hills, endless miles of concrete sea wall, and it's "unique and unpredictable microclimate". But I think that's why I love it, it's like nowhere else. SVN, Tills and Rachel are the best, and the community they have created is magical. I'm really going to miss them an awful lot. I was quite upset about this being the last time we would experience a 100 quite like this. 

Went down on Friday evening with Andrew to stay in the Dover Travelodge, via a cheeky Nandos with Jon. The Travelodge is in the Dover retail park, and, this does sound strange, but do I love the Dover retail park. It's not the actual place that I'm particularly enamoured with, more the memories it triggers of weekends/ holidays there based around SVN adventures, and in my particularly nostalgic current mood, it seemed even more weirdly lovely. 

The event started at 08.30 on Saturday, and there was a really fantastic turnout of runners, and it was great to see so many friends.

The event had a 32 hour time limit, during which you could run as far you chose up to 100 miles. Sarah, Gavin and I were aiming for 100 miles, and we ran all the way together, plus Andrew joined in for a marathon on Saturday evening, as part of the pacer challenge. Gavin and Andrew even embraced the outfit matching.

The route comprised of 4 big loops up on the cliffs (about 9.5 miles each), followed by 18 smaller laps (about 3.5 miles each) around Samphire Hoe.

I love the big loops. They are quite hilly, as involve getting up on to the cliff tops, and then an "up and downy" path along them, but being up there is so magical, with views high up over the sea, feeling like you are part of the big skies. Unusually, for Samphire Hoe, the weather up on the cliffs was beautiful. Even a bit too hot, one might say. It was actually quite nice going through the tunnel (which is part of getting up and down from the cliffs), to cool off briefly. 

As the run went along, motivational signs written in chalk started mysteriously appearing along the paths. The messages started off with a kind and motivational tone:

Later on becoming slightly more assertive in nature:

And eventually adopting more of the tough love approach:

This last one was was right next to a big pile of horse poo, so it was surprising that mystery writer had passed by the opportunity to chalk a "you are poo" motivational message next to it.

Baywatch the pony was nowhere to be seen, suggestions for his disappearance included:
- glue factory (Andrew's suggestion, obviously)
- retirement village inland (Gavin's suggestion)
- dyed his mane, so is actually the small black pony in the photo (Sarah's and my favoured reason)

Other Samphire wildlife spotting included the cows (chalk and real), sheep, seagulls, lots of dogs, overnight slugs (sometimes squished) and snails all over the nasty hill in the morning (cue some snail rescues, which we abandoned, once we realised how many there were), a chalk llama, and pampas grass. 

 

 

So plenty of wildlife to be seen, but we didn't see France at all. We concluded that (aside from the obvious weather explanations, which were, although meteorologically sound, quite frankly just things we've all heard before) that due to Brexit, the UK had been moved further away from all the countries we used to be close to, and was now stranded in the middle of a large ocean, thousands of miles from anywhere. It was likely that this ocean was further south than the UK's previous position, which would explain the unusually hot weather for Samphire Hoe, that we were currently experiencing. If we did see a shadow or a cloud that looked like land, we though this was probably on a rotation, like clockwork cogs, so that other countries could take it in turns to be next to us, so they didn't have to be embarrassed for too long, and it might currently be Portugal. This conversation wasn't even that far into the run, which was concerning. 

Other random conversations included night time sounds (zombie crickets), where had all the ships had gone, regular checking (and ignoring when we didn't like it) of the weather app, hash browns and maple syrup (and other breakfast choices).... the great overnight orange/tomato debate (morning verdict - orange)....

.... and smiley/ Harry Potter, aka the turn around cone.

The weather was really hot and sunny on the Saturday, and even most of the overnight was warm enough to run in a vest. There were some storms knocking about, and we were treated to some lightening shows over the sea and Folkstone, but fortunately they missed us. About 6am on Sunday there was heavy cold rain for about an hour (I think, I actually have no idea how long it lasted), which was quite unpleasant, but we were lucky it didn't last long, especially when thinking what some of the rest of the country got weather wise this weekend. Actually, for me, I think it helped a bit. I had just earlier been hit by a big bout of nausea (the usual thing that I find happens in the early hours of the morning on a long run). I was really struggling with it, and thinking I couldn't carry on for another 5 laps feeling like this, and wanting to curl up in a corner (preferably a non-rainy one, maybe the cave where the Samphire sheep take shelter) and pass out and wake up when it was all over. So I think a combination of suddenly feeling much cooler, and having something else quite dramatic to think about, plus the dawn starting to break (I would say the sun coming up, but it wasn't) helped knock that away, and fortunately it never came back. It all reminded me of a favourite quote. 

The sky got light, the rain stopped, and then it was a purposeful march to the end. 

 

Before finishing, I have to mention 100 mile potatoes, as requested by Rebecca. I made a big box of these (recipe - baby potatoes, cooked in the oven for around 45 minutes, in olive oil and salt), but then only ate one during the whole 100 miles. My nutrition was a bit of a shambles again this time, but my hydration went very well, meaning I was able to be fully competitive in the peeing contests Sarah and I have at each pee break.

Gavin, Sarah and I all finished together, after 25 hours and 4 minutes of a tough and epic adventure together.

Thank you Rachel Tills and the SVN team for a wonderful event.