Zero to hero (Hannah)

As I’ve mentioned in my recent posts, the last few months (in fact pretty much all the months since the Transalpine!) have been pretty frustrating in terms of training.  For the last 3 months I’ve battled a chest infection on and off.  So consistency of training is nil – I’ve hardly been running at all and that’s getting very frustrating.  After I wrote my last post about a great weekend running again, the chest infection returned.

My first race of the season was the Compton 20 miler – I DNF’ed as it quickly became apparent that my chest was not happy.  My second race of the season was the Marlborough Downs Challenge 50k – I didn’t even start that one. My third race of the season has now been cancelled by the organisers – so all of a sudden my A race of the year which everything’s building towards looks like it might be my only race of the year.  Hmmm…  I’m having a bit of a rethink but I’ll write about that another time.  The point of me writing today is to record something a bit different.

Races aside, Brett, my brothers and I had planned an ultra challenge of our own.  The challenge – to run around the Isle of Wight over 2 days – 70 miles in total.  And this bank holiday weekend was the one we’d picked to do it – we’d booked a basic hotel halfway round and we were all primed for the adventure.

So what should I do?  Well – ten days of working from home, coupled with a dose of antibiotics meant I was actually feeling more human than I had in a very long time.  So I decided to head over with the boys and see what happened.  It’s not like the Isle of Wight is particularly remote – I’d never be far from a  bus stop if I realised I still wasn’t 100%. I decided to ignore the fact that 70 miles of running off a training base of very little was going to be tough!  The decision to head over was helped by the weather forecast – 2 days of glorious sunshine and 16 degrees.  Pretty much perfect running weather especially when this would be coupled with a light sea breeze.  How could I resist the opportunity?!

Saturday was an early start to get the ferry over from Lymington to Yarmouth – the sea was flat as a pancake and boded well for a beautiful day.  Though it was a little chillier than we’d anticipated when we stepped off the ferry and we wondered whether we’d been a little overconfident in our choice of kit!

We spent a few minutes in the ferry terminal using their facilities and getting ready to go.  The man working in the terminal asked what we were up to and the look of shock on his face when we explained was one we’d have to get used to as it was repeated by others all around the island over the course of the next couple of days.

We had decided to run clockwise round the island – the main reason was that the first part of the route was going to be quite fiddly and going through more towns than on the second day.  Also, we know the route around the Needles quite well and it would be good to finish off with that as it would be a psychological boost and remove the need for navigating. The first part of the route from Yarmouth to Cowes definitely backed up this rationale – it was really fiddly and we definitely covered considerably more distance than the direct route on the road. This wasn’t helped by the Coastal Path signage being somewhat patchy – something that got increasingly frustrating as our journey progressed. And it highlighted that the pink OS map (as opposed to the orange) is just not helpful in these sorts of situations.

Our journey to Cowes took a fair bit longer than expected but we knew that there would be a chance of a little rest break when we got there as we’d need to catch the ferry across from West to East Cowes.  We took this opportunity for a trip into Sainsbury’s for a refuel and the first bottle of Coke of the trip.  Brett and I also had a craving for fresh pineapple which went down remarkably well.  

Cowes was also an opportunity to slap on the suncream – the day was hotting up and by the time we’d made it to Ryde the beaches were full of your classic British holidaymakers going more than slightly pink whilst building sandcastles.  From Ryde onwards we were running right along the coast for quite a while and it really felt like we were on holiday – beautiful beaches, people enjoying the sunshine, endless rows of beachuts and huge numbers of sailing boats.  The holiday vibe continued when we got to St Helen’s where we hopped on a little catamaran across the bay to Bembridge.  At the end of the short ride the catamaran just pulled up onto the sandy beach – memories of places somewhat more tropical than Hampshire!

The houses along the next bit of the run were impressive.  In fact, we saw some amazing houses all the way round the island.  Huge houses, grand-designs-type houses, houses with fantastic coastal views, … 

We stopped at the Eastern-most point of the island for a final refuel.  I also realised that my rucksack had been rubbing my back quite badly and I had a big raw lump on my lower back.  So I used this as an opportunity for a repack.  Following that, more Coke and a couple of packs of crisps we headed off for the final push to Sandown – 10km to go…

 

I always get a second wind when it comes to the home straight – it was also the point in the day when I thought to myself “I am definitely going to do this”.  I’ve been finding it really hard being sick and having to have that battle between my psychological will (which will never let me give up) and the sensible side of me which tells me I need to stop cos of my health.  It’s a really tricky balance. But I’d felt ok throughout the day – I’d not pushed it too hard and had walked when I needed to.  My legs were definitely fatigued but that was hardly surprising given this was the longest run I’d done since the Transalpine.  It had been a long day on the feet – we were out for about 9 hours including ferries, food stops, photo stops and “detours” where we lost the footpath signs.

The hotel was very old school with velvet wallpaper on the walls and a stern owner who told us off for being late and said we had to be down at dinner within 30 mins! It was a bed though and we all slept well despite the live music in the lounge below our room which was keeping the elderly coach party entertained with the liked of “itsy bitsy teenie weeny…..” as we drifted off to sleep.

Day 2 – we woke up to another perfect day and were on our way by 8am.  We had high hopes for an easier day on the navigation front but had soon lost sight of Coastal Path signs and off on a random detour.  One of these detours was quite cool though – down a steep flight of steps through a little gorge.  The sides of the gorge were so close together that Jacob had to take his rucksack off to get through.  No problem for the rest of us skinny little runners :-)

The southeast of the island was really stunning and peaceful. There were also some lovely little cafes and bars down on the beachfront – they were just opening up as we ran past and the smell of cooked breakfast drifting out along the shoreline was very tempting!

 

As we rounded the southern tip of the island, the Needles came into view far out to the west.  We could see the route we’d be running for the next 15 miles or so!  Luckily this made it much easier to navigate as the route did hug the cliff pretty much all the way to Freshwater Bay, other than the bits where it had collapsed.  It was scary how much erosion there had been and I’d be interested to know what that stretch of coastline will look like in a few years time as there was evidence in many places that it wouldn’t be much longer before other large chunks of the path fell away.

This was a long slog to Freshwater although the paths were much more runnable than before and we were able to make ground more quickly.  But my feet were feeling bruised by this time, I was tired (evidenced by me going over on my ankles a couple of times) and it was still a long way to go to the finish – 13 miles or so.

In Freshwater Bay we were greeted by my parents.  It was good to see them but I didn’t want to hang around too long – we’d timed one of our earlier stops at 24 mins and that helped explain why we were taking so much longer than in a race situation.  There were about 10 miles to go at this point and I just wanted to get on and get them done.  This last little bit was the route we knew and that really helped psychologically.

Having stocked up with Pepsi (no Coke available!) we had a long walk up to Tennyson’s monument.  The Pepsi and the thought of finishing gave me a second wind and, once we’d got to the top of the climb, we ran pretty much all the way to the Needles.  From there we really were on the home straight. As we hit the last km into Yarmouth I felt my legs become light and we were able to pick up the pace a bit for the final stretch.  I stuck on Barney’s shoulder as he made a determined path through the crowds of tourists.  I wasn’t sure where he was going until we got near the ferry terminal – we ran up to the door of the terminal, he came to a stop and tapped  the door.  We were done!

70 miles later, I had no hint of a chest infection, a couple of very tired legs, chaffage on my back and a big smile on my face.  It feels really good to be running again and hopefully this is the beginning of a good year...

And a huge thank you to TORQ for the bars and recovery drink - I lived off the bars 80% of the time on the run and they were great.  Not too sweet and really easy to digest - perfect.