Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTMOHICAN 100We sat for hours waiting for Princess, we’d eaten thefood in our drop bags and decided to get some realfood while we were waiting. It was getting late andsoon it would be completely dark and therecertainly weren’t many food options locally so Dionheaded off to the local Pizzeria and came back witha massive, delicious pizza and a couple of beerswhich we enjoyed while watching the fire fliesflutter about in the remaining light. It was trulyamazing to watch other runners coming throughafter their 3rd laps now, looking strong andcertainly heading out for strong finishes.Totally inspiring!We were getting very worried about Princess andwere constantly doing laps in the car up to a fewspots we knew you crossed to see if we could findhim and finally we spotted him so I got out andwalked/hobbled with him to the start/finish againwhere he also decided to drop. He was asleep in thecar before we had driven even 5 minutes.The decision was right to drop out, this was nevermy ‘A’ race so I didn’t have a desperate need tofinish and I was always mindful that I have a 100kmrace, Race to the Stones, on the 19th of July (lessthan 4 weeks after) to run as part of The NorthFace Ultra team so I also wanted to remain ready forthat.But I can tell you now that this will be my ‘A’ race in2016. I’m going back, in fact all 3 of us are goingback to finish this bad boy and get that belt buckle;stronger, fitter and wiser than before! It doesn’twork in my plans for next year as it is too soon afterTransvulcania which I have already registered for soit will have to be the year after, but I will be backand then it will not beat me!What a steep learning experience the race was. Ithas certainly cemented my thoughts on nutritionand I am really pleased with how that worked forme so I will be taking that learning with me forwardto future races.Of course with every race you learn somethingmore about yourself and come back with a renewedvigour to attack your training plan to make yourselfan even better and more competent runner. And asa race recommendation, would I recommend it? Youbet I would, it was fantastically well run and I wouldhighly recommend giving it a try to win the holygrail of ultra running – a belt buckle, somethingthat alludes me for now but stay tuned for the nextattempt!14 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://