It feels kind of weird now that something that has occupied my worries for 18 months is now over. I almost feel like I don't know what to do with myself! Of course with term starting tomorrow, coursework to mark and lessons to plan then I have plenty to do but there's definitely a gap!
It turns out that I was only 290th on that last day, which was actually my lowest stage rank. However, it also turns out that a very large number of competitors were saving themselves for the last marathon and so only really pushed themselves then. Several people came in the top 100 despite being below halfway in the overall rankings. This is why Neil and JPD appear much lower in the rankings. If you look at my time relative to the stage winner, to Neil or to JPD then it was indeed my best result.
The reason for this was probably that only by the final day had I worked out my hydration and nutrition strategies. I seem to sweat more than average (maybe this is why I am often colder than others?) and had probably not been having enough salt so far. This certainly caused my dehydration on day one as I actually did have a lot of water in my stomach but it wasn't being absorbed well. I found this out as I had to go for no fewer than three pees that night! I guess this was why I was feeling nauseous as well.
We were supposed to take 2 salt tablets per 1.5l of water but on this last day I took 3 (as well as a small amount of sodium in my lucozade) and I'm sure this was what helped. I also had manged to scrape the re-solidified Haribo out of its pack into small chunks which I took regularly through this stage so I wasn't sugar-low like on day 4. That said, it was still a fear of heatstroke that was the limiting factor on my pace on the final day. 6hrs for a marathon is still a pretty poor time even allowing for the loss of perhaps 45 min due to the dune crossing.
So my final place was 247, which was pleasing as after day 1 I had changed my target from "finishing" to "finishing in the top 250". I am, of course, delighted with this as it's a pretty strong field. However, I probably could have got a fair bit higher with a few things that I now know:
1) Hydration. Drink all the water they give you - on day 1 I only took 1 bottle at one of the checkpoints as I felt I didn't need the weight of 2. This was a poor economy. I also need to keep a very high salt intake. This change was probably worth 30 min on day 1 and another 30 min over the next few days, so 1 hour in all.
2) Nutrition. I need to practise this. Every single day I had a "low" straight after my mid-race snack. I knew this in advance but when you're exercising for this duration then you have to eat. I can get through a normal marathon without eating but that's only about 3 hours. I had planned to take lots of energy through my locozade and I did do this but, frankly, I was quite sick of warm lucozade by the end and often drank the water undiluted instead. As a result I was short on energy at the end of every stage except the last one. On the long stage this was critical and I was seriously hypoglycaemic at the end. That day alone probably cost me nearly 2 hours, all in that last 20km. Neil made 2h 30 on me in that period. I reckon getting this right could have saved me 2 - 3 hours.
3) Finally, I definitely didn't push myself 100% as I had reasoned that the small time to be gained from this was not worth the risk of not finishing. I therefore kept an eye on my heart rate and deliberately kept it well within aerobic levels at all times. Neil and JPD do not think cautiously like this but then Neil did actually come very close to dropping out on stage 4 so perhaps I was right. However, were I to do it again I would work harder. This again would probably be worth an hour over the whole thing.
So, where would I have been with 4 - 5 hours off my time? 102nd to 121st is the answer to that but it's not really a fair question as I am sure that nearly everyone in places 122 - 246 also made mistakes that they could rectify.
Fitness-wise, I had no issues. The 100km/week training left my heart/lungs/legs in great shape and I had relatively few blisters too. In fact, as I type this I feel 90% recovered already and am confident I could go and run at PB pace on Sunday if I had to. However, with hindsight I can see that my training was far too road-specific. This was the case for most of my competitors as they struggled on the interesting terrain too and, in fact, I was quicker than the people near me whenever it got really steep or jagged from the small amount of off-road that I have done. I needed to have done a lot more trail running and also on sand. Quite why I didn't drive up to Hunstanton and do some long days on the beach is a mystery I pondered several times on the long sand sections. The answer, of course, was laziness.
So, would I do it again? There were times such as the last few km of the long day where I would never like to feel like that again. Never in my life have I actually been reduced to ticking every single 100m off. However, I would hope to be in a better place nutrition/hydration-wise next time. I'm also a competitive sod and finishing top 100 might just about be within my capabilities with a few tweaks to the training. If it weren't for the entry cost I would be signing up for 2015 already.
I _really_ enjoyed doing this with my friends too - there is no one better at picking you up when you are down and you benefit from shared energy as well as the bonus of sharing equipment when necessary too. I feel BPBC (Trinity College alumni rowers, for the non-boaties reading this) acquitted themselves very well in this but we all felt we could improve now that we have experience. BPBC could probably put together a very strong team indeed if we were really serious about this and I would be happy to play a domestique role in any such future team. Just let me know...
It turns out that I was only 290th on that last day, which was actually my lowest stage rank. However, it also turns out that a very large number of competitors were saving themselves for the last marathon and so only really pushed themselves then. Several people came in the top 100 despite being below halfway in the overall rankings. This is why Neil and JPD appear much lower in the rankings. If you look at my time relative to the stage winner, to Neil or to JPD then it was indeed my best result.
The reason for this was probably that only by the final day had I worked out my hydration and nutrition strategies. I seem to sweat more than average (maybe this is why I am often colder than others?) and had probably not been having enough salt so far. This certainly caused my dehydration on day one as I actually did have a lot of water in my stomach but it wasn't being absorbed well. I found this out as I had to go for no fewer than three pees that night! I guess this was why I was feeling nauseous as well.
We were supposed to take 2 salt tablets per 1.5l of water but on this last day I took 3 (as well as a small amount of sodium in my lucozade) and I'm sure this was what helped. I also had manged to scrape the re-solidified Haribo out of its pack into small chunks which I took regularly through this stage so I wasn't sugar-low like on day 4. That said, it was still a fear of heatstroke that was the limiting factor on my pace on the final day. 6hrs for a marathon is still a pretty poor time even allowing for the loss of perhaps 45 min due to the dune crossing.
So my final place was 247, which was pleasing as after day 1 I had changed my target from "finishing" to "finishing in the top 250". I am, of course, delighted with this as it's a pretty strong field. However, I probably could have got a fair bit higher with a few things that I now know:
1) Hydration. Drink all the water they give you - on day 1 I only took 1 bottle at one of the checkpoints as I felt I didn't need the weight of 2. This was a poor economy. I also need to keep a very high salt intake. This change was probably worth 30 min on day 1 and another 30 min over the next few days, so 1 hour in all.
2) Nutrition. I need to practise this. Every single day I had a "low" straight after my mid-race snack. I knew this in advance but when you're exercising for this duration then you have to eat. I can get through a normal marathon without eating but that's only about 3 hours. I had planned to take lots of energy through my locozade and I did do this but, frankly, I was quite sick of warm lucozade by the end and often drank the water undiluted instead. As a result I was short on energy at the end of every stage except the last one. On the long stage this was critical and I was seriously hypoglycaemic at the end. That day alone probably cost me nearly 2 hours, all in that last 20km. Neil made 2h 30 on me in that period. I reckon getting this right could have saved me 2 - 3 hours.
3) Finally, I definitely didn't push myself 100% as I had reasoned that the small time to be gained from this was not worth the risk of not finishing. I therefore kept an eye on my heart rate and deliberately kept it well within aerobic levels at all times. Neil and JPD do not think cautiously like this but then Neil did actually come very close to dropping out on stage 4 so perhaps I was right. However, were I to do it again I would work harder. This again would probably be worth an hour over the whole thing.
So, where would I have been with 4 - 5 hours off my time? 102nd to 121st is the answer to that but it's not really a fair question as I am sure that nearly everyone in places 122 - 246 also made mistakes that they could rectify.
Fitness-wise, I had no issues. The 100km/week training left my heart/lungs/legs in great shape and I had relatively few blisters too. In fact, as I type this I feel 90% recovered already and am confident I could go and run at PB pace on Sunday if I had to. However, with hindsight I can see that my training was far too road-specific. This was the case for most of my competitors as they struggled on the interesting terrain too and, in fact, I was quicker than the people near me whenever it got really steep or jagged from the small amount of off-road that I have done. I needed to have done a lot more trail running and also on sand. Quite why I didn't drive up to Hunstanton and do some long days on the beach is a mystery I pondered several times on the long sand sections. The answer, of course, was laziness.
So, would I do it again? There were times such as the last few km of the long day where I would never like to feel like that again. Never in my life have I actually been reduced to ticking every single 100m off. However, I would hope to be in a better place nutrition/hydration-wise next time. I'm also a competitive sod and finishing top 100 might just about be within my capabilities with a few tweaks to the training. If it weren't for the entry cost I would be signing up for 2015 already.
I _really_ enjoyed doing this with my friends too - there is no one better at picking you up when you are down and you benefit from shared energy as well as the bonus of sharing equipment when necessary too. I feel BPBC (Trinity College alumni rowers, for the non-boaties reading this) acquitted themselves very well in this but we all felt we could improve now that we have experience. BPBC could probably put together a very strong team indeed if we were really serious about this and I would be happy to play a domestique role in any such future team. Just let me know...
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