When I first saw this race advertised I thought which nutters are they going to find to run 19 laps of the ambulance track of the Newcastle racecourse in December? Within 2 weeks I’d gone from no way, I’d rather shoot myself to it’s the only 50K in the north east and I fancy a new PB before Christmas. Having entered I still had my doubts as to whether I could mentally cross the finish line that many times before finally being told that I can stop but got stuck into training and decided that I’d give it my best shot.
Day of the race dawned and it was nice and mild for December but there was a slightly concerning wind. On arriving at the racecourse conditions could definitely be described as blustery so having collected our numbers and race T shirt, I hate it when races hand out the T shirts in advance as if you are going to get the chance to wear it you really have to complete the race, we sheltered from the weather before being herded to our appropriate start lines. I wasn’t the only lunatic to enter, Bill Ford and Richard Hall stuck to the reasonably sensible half marathon and Gareth Pritchard, Melanie Hudson and Dave Robson took on the marathon. All the races went off at the same time but from differing points round the racecourse so the distance was correct.
Now the race had been advertised as fast and flat. For a shorter race it would have been classed as flat but in reality the first half of each lap was slightly downhill with the second half being slightly uphill and yes you’ve guessed it, we had a headwind for the uphill! First few laps went by without too much stress, was being overtaken by plenty due to the half marathon and marathon start lines being behind the 50K one but there was no lapping going on at this stage. Phil had come to support and it was nice to see a friendly face at the end of each lap especially in the early stages when the laps seemed to flying over quite quickly.
So we went round and round and I’d completely lost track of what lap I was on but I was trying to mentally shut off. As time went there were less people running as the half marathon folks finished and there were various DNFs and then the marathon runners started to finish. I was still passing people and being passed but unlike an ordinary race I had no idea if I was actually overtaking anyone as didn’t know which lap they were on. Bill once finished his race walked round the route in reverse so I must have passed him 3-4 times and each time thought I’ve got to keep running as I’m not going to be seen to be walking at this stage. Claire Readey, who had come to support, then also walked round in reverse, it was nice to see a friendly face on the more lonely areas of the track, but I think I’d given up the idea of no walking by this stage.
My Garmin started to beep low battery at about 19 miles, my own fault as I’d forgotten to charge it properly but by 23 miles it had died and I died with it. Not knowing how many laps I had to go I mentally started to really struggle and my legs responded by refusing to run. Managed to force a run walk for the next 3 miles and finally got told that I had run marathon distance and only had 3 laps to go.
Now even in my fairly knackered state I could count down 3 laps so decided I was going to get them over with as quickly as I could, my legs responded and I was motoring again. Finally onto the last lap and as I passed each fence, there were no other landmarks to count down, I knew I was going to finish. A final push against the headwind to the line, I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to finish something in my life. Had been aiming for a sub 4.30 but had abandoned that target early on due to the wind so was happy to finish in 4.42.
I’ve run further before but that has to have been the most mentally challenging race I’ve ever run, made so much harder by the blustery conditions. Finished saying never again and already thinking maybe, I’m definitely not finished with lapped races but don’t know if I’ll ever want to see that racecourse again.