Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTXNRG - ROUND THE ISLANDXNRG - ROUND THE ISLANDBY DAVE LOCKYERThis was my first attempt at a multi-day ‘ultra’. Infact it was only the second organised run I’dentered, having taken up running 2 years earlierin my early forties and completing a the 50k5-4-3-2-1 which had me hooked. I chose theRound the Island because it was geographicallyclose and I was fairly familiar with the placethrough a number of MTB outings there. It alsooffered me a bit of a stretch beyond the 50k andseemed like a well organised event. The eventtakes a clockwise course around the Island Coastalpath over 2 days, with an overnighter atBrighstone and over 2000 metres of ascent overthe 2 days. Day 1 coincides with the iconic Roundthe Island yacht race which takes an anticlockwiseroute.I opted to travel over early on the ferry on the daythe race started. Most runners arrive the nightbefore and have an overnighter before the start butI decided to sacrifice an early start for a night in myown bed. This meant, however, that I ended up inthe late starters aka the ‘elite’ runners who wereexpected to maintain a sub 9min/mile pace. This, Iwas to discover later, was rather ambitious but itprovided a taste of what seasoned runners arecapable of. The race start/finish point was at theultra (no pun intended) modern Cowes High Schoolwhere we met the organisers, donned our racenumbers and were debriefed. I was able to meet afew of the disconcertingly small number of latestarters. There were only about 20 of us and I felt abit of a charlatan as we were taken to the chainferry point for the start. The forecast was for hightemperatures and unbroken sunshine. The completelack of wind didn’t bode well for the sailors andpresented a potentially tough day of running for us.As the chain ferry touched land we started and Iimmediately fell into the tail end of the pack, tryingto keep up with runners who were clearly fasterthan myself. The run begins with an uphill roadsection that, under the glaring sun, soon began tofeel like hard work. I was caught between trying tofind my own pace and not lose sight of the packDave LockyerRound the Island ResultFinish Time15hrs 23minsFinish Position21/50 Finishersahead of me. From Cowes the route heads towardsWooton and in this early section I hooked up withanother runner, Mike, with whom I ended uprunning the entire 2 days.By the time we hit Ryde it was baking and everycheckpoint was an opportunity to douse myselfwith water, drink and discover that pretzels, whilst agood source of salt, are very hard to swallow! Wekept a steady pace and began to pass a few of thegroup that had started out earlier. This was good formorale as we had lived for quite some time with thereality that we were at the back of the last group toset out and had no idea how far ahead the otherrunners were. Culver Down was the first section ofascent and I wanted to run it rather than walk. I’dcompleted the 5-4-3-2-1 without walking at all andhadn’t appreciated that, on a course which waslonger and involved much steeper ascents, walkingthe ‘ups’ is actually prudent. This was one of themany lesson I learnt from my new found runningbuddy, who had a lot more experience and had,amongst other events, completed the MDS. At thenext checkpoint it all started to become ratherdifficult. Having pushed myself to run up and overCulver Down my calf muscles started to cramp and I16 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://