Back down to Phoenix for a mini break, to run round and round a 400m athletics track for 24 hours!
Travel report: 6 hours from my door to the Walton-on-Thames Travelodge door on the way down (drive, plane, train, train, walk), and the same on the way back. All good!
Race report: we started at 08.00 on Friday morning, running anti-clockwise on the athletics track at the Xcel Sports Hub athletics Walton-on-Thames. We did this for 3 hours, then changed direction for 3 hours, and again and again, for 24 hours! It sounds boring, but I do enjoy this format, for a few reasons. Firstly, it's very sociable, which I enjoy very much. Also, running round and round is strangely mesmerising, and I quite like the sort of enforced mindfullness of being in the same place for a prolonged period of time. It forces me to notice the things happening around, and how they change over 24 hours. Like the sky and the silhouettes of the trees in the changing light, and mundane things take on a new drama; like the bags of long jump sand being painstakingly wrapped in cling film only for it to blow off, and the robot painting the lines on the football pitches and field.
Chat report: Reunited with Sarah for an amazing 24 hour chat-athon! And there are of course countless chatting opportunities on the way around 🤣 It was brilliant to be able to catch up with so many pals.
Wildlife report: a swarm of honey bees had formed a hive in one of the shelters in the middle of the track, and mid morning a swarm departed and flew across the track, which was un-bee-lievably terrifying. Luckily they didn't come back, or we would all have ended up has bee-ns!
Weather report: very hot and sunny during the day. I have had zero opportunity to acclimatise to any sort of heat at all, other than the Blackpool Marsthon last weekend, which was quite toasty. Got so hot! By comparison, at night the temperature really dropped, so we renamed the event Track Wars: Frozen! The night started off clear with a huge bright moon. As it got cloudier, we did some cloud spotting; waves, hands, a shark eating the moon, which then turned into a Phoenix.
Body report: I had a tough run, but it was also very enjoyable if that even makes sense 🤣 My feet and lack of toenails were sore. I haven't done an overnight run since last September, and got so tired overnight; 3.30am is a disgusting time to be awake and running! And I think the heat got to me in the day, and altough I was careful with hydration and salts, I think whatever I did wasn't going to be enough on the day, so I was dehydrated. My head was quite sore in the sun, but settled down once it got cooler and was fine overnight. And also, and this is weird, have a thing where I often sneeze when I eat, and immediately before sneezing I feel very sick. Once I sneeze, it disappears! This happens most days. It never happens with fluids though. Until today 🤣 As evening approached, this started to happen every time I drank any water. Which is a bit of an issue when running! By about 10pm, I think it had happened so often, that I was sick! That has never happened before....
Nutrition report: ..... Sarah suggested having one of her mint tea bags, so Gavin who was manning the aid station overnight kindly made this up, with lots of sugar. Bingo! Warm fluids didn't cause the same issue at all, and so thank you very much indeed to Gavin for making about a million cups of the magic stuff overnight! And thank you Sarah for the tea bag - never have I been so attached to a tea bag! I have now added a mint tea bag and a sachet of sugar to my first aid kit, so I always have it with me, should this phenomenon happen again!
Summary report: 408 laps, which is 101.4 miles, in 24.02.09 hours. Worked hard for that - proud of us! That's my 8th x 100+ miles on a track, and my 26th × 100+ mile event overall. Onwards!
Medal report: modelled by our new cat, Theo!
Thank you to Phoenix for another brilliant event. And congratulations to everyone - absolutely brilliant stuff all around!
