Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTCOAST 2 COAST ULTRAIn my previous blog, I noted that food, or rather lackof it, during a race causes my desire to finish tovanish. I had been told this before. To quote 'if youare feeling lethargic, slow down, refuel and thenstart again.' Somehow I had missed this tip or justignored it. Tim Noakes writes in the Lore of Runningthat the 'symptoms of hypoglycaemia include...anintense desire to stop running....the athlete sensesthe impossibility of completing the race.'With this in mind I prepared lots of food for MarkCockbain's Coast to Coast Ultra. Gels, energy bars,rice puddings, crisps, scratchings and cheese, lotsand lots of cheese. I put this all onto a plan andadded up the calorific content, it was nearly twentythousand. A lot for a normal two days, but as I wasgoing to be running for nearly thirty eight hours ata burn rate of five hundred calories an hour, it isabout right. The Ugly Unt questioned if I could eatall this without throwing up but I rarely throw up...itis a waste of beer and food if you ask me.I gave this plan to my crew with the instruction toensure I ate this amount as a minimum. This is anappropriate point to mention my crew and thankthem for their fantastic service. My son Ross, whocrewed for me on the ill fated Tortourderuhrattempt, and Chrissy, my most excellent wife, forwhom this was her first crewing duty.They were great throughout the race and kept megoing, offering food and encouragement all theway. I really can't express my thanks enough forwhat they did. I better stop with the praise now,otherwise I will be far too soppy.We left Germany on the Tuesday before the raceand traveled to Ijmuiden in the Netherlands tocatch the sleeper ferry across to Newcastle. Arrivingon Wednesday morning we drove to a pleasant Bedand Breakfast place in Embleton.The next few days were spent doing a bit of coursereconnaissance and a lot of casual touring.After I posted the link to the tracker for the race onFacebook I received some excellent encouragementthat helped me focus. I also received a few personalmessages that really rammed home that I had a lotof backing among my friends in the runningcommunity. Either that or I was being guilt trippedinto finishing :-)A couple hit home‘I love the way you just list your performance on theDNF as it happened... your blog doesn't just inspire,it reassures’I was also told‘You Got This’And'You had better nail this race as Mark has put this onespecially for Sparta training 'These really inspired me.My complete kit list for the race was quite simple.! A couple of hats.! A Sparta buff.! A Montane Minimus jacket.! A Care Keep Warm top for coldest time of thenight.! An Asics long sleeve top with sleeve mittensthat I bought in 1998.! A couple of technical t shirts from variousraces.! A pair of leggings by Alex.! A couple of pairs of shorts by Adidas.! A couple of pairs Sealskins socks for the rain.! A couple of pairs Wright socks.! A couple of pairs of Drymax socks.! A pair of Asics GEL-Trail Lahar 5 G-TX shoes.! A pair of Asics GT 2000 shoes.! A Adidas sports watch with just the timedisplayed in very large numbers! Two backpacks with large bladders. (one wasa gift from a friend and another was a gift from amarathon)When we woke up the weather was bad. It wasbucketing down. Therefore I chose to start the race50 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://