Matt Hayter’s Marathon des Sables Adventure

This should really be the busiest part of my website with various events coming up in preparation of the Marathon des Sables!!

Sunday 8th March

13.1 miles – The Friends of Mick ‘n Phil Half Marathon, Draycote Water, Warwickshire

48.1 miles around Draycote in the space of 14 days is more than enough for anyone surely! Maybe I should plan my race diary a bit better in future. But I wouldn’t have missed Sunday for the world.

Despite waking up Sunday morning feeling like death, with eyes like piss holes in the snow, a thick head, and a chesty cough, there was no way I was not running today. Any other race and I would have turned the alarm off and rolled over!

I got there in plenty of time and was trying desperately to gee myself up for this, I would’ve much rather sat in the visitor centre with a mug of hot chocolate to be honest. But I was there now, and there was a race to be run.

The great thing about races these days is that there is nearly always someone I know. But because this was a FetchEveryone event there were literally dozens of familiar faces. I made my way to the start seeing more old faces, and meeting new ones, still trying to get my race head on. I don’t know whether it’s a result of the Mind Gym, or the fact I’m a dick, but I still had eyes on a PB.  The plan was to set off at 7:30’s for the first lap. Maintain it for the second and then up it 7:15’s for the final lap, which would have brought me home in around 1:36:30.

Things started off well and I was keeping quite even splits, going through 4 miles in 30 mins, bang on target. But as a result of the wind and my dodgy chest I was just working way too hard to maintain it. That should really be a comfortable cruising pace for at least 8 miles, I’ve done training tempo runs quicker, but I decided to ease off. No point in overdoing it at the moment.

The face says it all!!

The second lap still felt tough though, I think the wind had picked up a bit, and by now I really had seen enough of the lake! Luckily though there seemed to be Fetchies supporting and marshalling all over the place, and whenever I needed it there was always a shout or the odd Jelly Baby thrown at me  It’s amazing how much that spurs you on (the cheers, not the Jelly Baby chucking!), and going into the last lap I decided to up the pace again. I was surprised that going through 10 miles there was still an outside chance of a sub 1:40. I tried to maintain a sub 7:30 pace for the last 3 miles, but a tightening glute, and strong winds ended that plan pretty quickly

Cruising over the finish line

So I eased off again and battled through the wind in the last mile to cross the line in 1:41:05. I’m quite pleased with that. I was hoping it would feel more comfortable, but it was surprisingly hard work. I really had to battle for that time, which wasn’t the plan. I think the photo’s speak volumes as does this mornings leg pain!

But the day was never meant to be about that, it was about the event not just ‘my’ race, and the day was completely faultless.

I feel sore this morning, but should still hopefully make it out for a club run tonight. I need to keep the miles ticking over now, but just try and avoid injury. I think I’m doing a good job of getting all the niggles and illnesses out of the way, as I now have a sore throat to add to the cough. I’m sure that will be gone in 18 days!!!

The results for Sunday show I finished 55th out of 288. So top 20%, which I’m actually quite chuffed with.

Tuesday 3rd March 2009

2.2 miles – Recovery Run

Despite a relatively late night (11pm is late for me) I managed to drag myself out for a short 2.2 mile recovery run this morning, after a major internal tear up in my brain. It hurt though, and my knees are killing. I think its a tendonitis thing, so after MnP i’m putting my feet up and just doing a few weeks of swimming and sitting down.

Monday 2nd March 2009

8.15 miles – Tempo Run

After doing 0 miles last week recovering from Draycote 35, I have decided to use ”The Mind Gym” (sports psychology book) to assist with my training and my eating, as well my racing. So far it is working, i’ve not had a single bar of chocolate since Thursday (the Dime Bar cake doesn’t count, it was a present, and I was ill). I am an athlete, and I want a sub 90 min HM and a sub 40 min 10k this year. This is yet another mantra.

So to kick things off I went out with the club last night. Mondays are normally a gentle 5 – 6 miles, but I needed to stretch my legs so I went to the front of the field and did lots of looping back to pick up stragglers. It was a tough route, pretty much out and back with 2 miles downhill, 0.5 miles flat, 1.5 uphill, and then back. I was knackered by the end and my hamstrings/knees were giving me gip, but I was pleased with 8 miles at an 8.15m/m average pace. I’m now pretty sure that my hamstrings won’t hold up to 7:30′s at Draycote on Sunday though, so a sub 1:35 is out the window.

Sunday 22nd February 2009

35 miles - Draycote 35 mile Ultra, Draycote Water, Warwickshire

Well Draycote 35 was the last Ultra Marathon before the MdS and whilst it was a ‘target’ race in the way Round Rotherham and the Trings were, I still wanted to use it to gauge where I am preparation wise.

The conclusion?

I perhaps am not as fit as I was hoping, I’m definitely not as light as I was hoping, but I seem to have a gained a mental fortitude that will see me to the end of the MdS and ring that bell at the finish line!!

Things started off quite well. I was clipping along at a fairly nice 9:15 pace. On reflection that was perhaps a bit quick, but I was enjoying it and having a good laugh. I was definitely hydrated enough, I think I had two ‘pit-stops’ on the first lap, so no problems there. It all gets a bit hazy after that as laps just merge into each other. I think I did about another lap maintaining around 9:30 pace, but then I decided I ought to start the run:walk strategy as that was supposed to start on lap 2, not halfway round lap 3. Already a bit of a departure from ‘the plan’.

I went through 20 miles in around 3:18. I was really pleased with that, i’ve never done a 20 mile race before, and i’ve never made a note of a 20 mile split either, but it was sub 10m/m pace. It also meant I had 3 hours to do the last 15 miles and beat the time i’d set for myself in my head (6:25).

Things started unravelling at about 22 miles though. I’m not sure if it was because I’d set off too quickly, or whether it was a repeat of the nausea I felt during Saturday’s run which I had to cut short. But I felt awful, really dizzy and quite sick. I finally went through Marathon distance in 4:32, a little disappointing as I was hoping for much closer to 4:20. But I didn’t care at this stage, I had the best part of 2 laps still to do, and it wasn’t getting any easier.

Starting Lap 6, looking better than I was feeling!!

On the 6th lap I had little sit on the portaloo after the windy causeway. I caught my breath and rested my legs, and toyed with puking up. But I didn’t really want to be sticking my head down a public chemical toilet. So after a couple of minutes I was up and off again. This back section was demoralising, its the other side of the lake from the finish line, and it seems a million miles away. There are also quite a few short sharp inclines, which I appear to had completely forgotten about since last year. I was definitely feeling at my worst on the 6th lap, I literally just wanted to lie down and sleep, in fact at one point I felt so dizzy I thought I was going to fall down anyway.

I had a little lift as we reached the 4 causeways that lead to the race HQ, its still 1.5 miles from this point but it always gave me a bit of a lift, and after that its just one more lap. Almost home and dry. I grabbed some flapjack, and my iPod and plodded off for the last lap. It was painful, I felt crap and it was slow, but I finally reached the last 100m and may have even increased my speed from ‘shuffle’ to ‘plod’ to the finish line.

I crossed the line in 6:33:30 (ish). They were packing up the tent. I was outside the 6:30 cut off. I was probably last. I don’t know if i’ll get an official time. But I finished. And whilst I am disappointed with my time, and particularly laps 5 and 6, I kept going, and thats experience in the bank that I am sure will prove invalubale in 31 days time.

Results:

 77th out of 82 finishers

77th out 94 starters

So not too bad after all.

Saturday 21st February 2009

3.5 miles - Easy Run

I was planning to do 2 or 3 laps of Damflask for a 7 – 10 mile easy run. Things started off okay, but I felt increasingly sick, and after a battle up “Kilometer Hill” I decided I’d call it a day. I wasn’t having fun, and I felt a bit light headed and generally ill, so resting up ahead of Draycote 35 would be the wise thing to do.

Thursday 19th February 2009

2.64 miles - Easy Run

Tonight was my first session in Sheffield Hallam University’s Environmental Chamber. It wasn’t for long as I think they just wanted to gather some base data and see how I reacted to the heat in order to ascertain how much acclimation I need ahead of going into the Sahara.

We started off just sitting down for 5 minutes. Which was okay, i’m good at sitting down. They took my resting heart rate, which was a disappointing 60bpm, its normally around 50-55bpm so I was obviously anxious about what was to come. Then I was up and running on the treadmill for 15 mins at ambient temperature at a pace of 8.5km/h. I know nothing about heart rate really, so I’m not sure if I was wrong to be pleased that my heart rate stayed at around 125bpm, but I was.

After a bit of recovery we went into the chamber. I was expecting the heat to take my breath away, but to be honest it was comfortable, and actually a welcome relief from the recent cold weather! Again I sat for 5 mins with the surrounding temperature at 42degC and 20% humidity. My heart rate increased from 70bpm up to nearly 80bpm. Apparently this ‘drift’ is normal as your heart works to maintain your core temperature.

On the treadmill in “the oven”

Then it was onto the treadmill for another 15 mins of running at 8.5km/h pace. I was surprised that my heart rate seemed to stabilise at around 140bpm. Or at least it did for the first 10 minutes. The last 5 minutes the heat started becoming a little more uncomfortable and my heart rate began drifting upto 160bpm.

All in all though I was very pleased with the results, and very relieved that the temperature isn’t as uncomfortable as I was expecting. I was told that after a course of acclimation my body should be able to work as efficiently in the desert as it does in the UK. That is one hell of a confidence boost and having this kind of preparation under your belt is priceless!

Monday 16th February 2009

3.52 miles - Tempo Run

 

Sunday 15th February 2009

11 miles - Long Run

Tuesday 10th February 2009

6 miles - Tempo Run

Sunday 1st February 2009

40 miles - Tring2Town, Tring, Hertfordshire

After a particularly awful nights sleep it was time to get up and do it all again. The pain in my knee meant I finally managed to get to sleep around 3am, and with Tring being further from my mum’s house than I thought, I had to get up at 6am to get ready for day 2. Getting out of bed wasn’t a pretty sight. My legs were sore, particularly my knee and shins. I also had aches around my shoulders and lower back from the weight of the pack. To be honest I hadn’t really noticed the weight during the day, and my shoulders and back didn’t hurt anywhere near as I much as I thought they might, which was a relief. But I still decided to cut the pack weight for Day 2 down to around 4kg.

The hour long drive to Tring gave me a chance to plan a strategy for day 2. It also gave me a chance to down loads of Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and Codeine (I’m not sure if they are classed as performance enhancing drugs?). I’d decided I would start with a run:walk strategy. The plan was start the first 2 hours with 25mins running followed by 5 mins walking. As the race went on the ratio would decrease to 20:5, 15:5 and 10:5.

The start was again low key, we just seemed to gather in the hotel foyer.  There seemed to be a similar number of runners, but 10 or so of the 40 who were going both ways had withdrawn. I could hardly blame them, I was really starting to think they’d made a wise decision.

The race plan soon went out of the window, I should be used to that by now! The first hour went comfortably and I was making good progress. However, I was tiring quickly and soon found myself doing a 5:5 run:walk strategy, as it was all I could manage. It gave me something to focus on though, as again I found myself on my own as the field had stretched out. Before I knew it I was half way, in a little under 4 hours. This was promising as I had targeted a sub 8 hour time for Day 2. It may have been a little ambitious to knock over an hour off my time, but I had taken Day 1 very conservatively.

However, as soon as I left Checkpoint 2 the wheels came off badly. At 22 miles I found somewhere to sit down as the pain in my shins and knee was becoming unbareable. With 18 miles to go I honestly thought I was going to have to abandon. I sat there for a while, took on some fluids and some food, and dosed myself up on pain killers. I got my iPod out for the first time that weekend and tuned in to some Girls Aloud. I gave myself a stern talking to, lots of motivational guff about “pain being temporary”, “doing it for grandma”, “doing it so Mac would have to dig into his deep Yorkshire pockets” (cheers mate) and the old favourite from Finding Nemo “JUST KEEP SWIMMING”.

So I got up and I ran. And I ran. And I ran. I stopped at Checkpoint 3 to get some water. And then I ran. I was amazed. I was in the zone. I’d found a rhythm and it was comfortable. It was slow, but much quicker than walking. It was only with a few miles left that I stopped to walk for a bit. I took on some water, downed a Red Bull, and an energy gel and I was off again.

I looked at my Garmin and knew I had to push on in those last 3 miles to a get sub 8 hours. There was no way after 37 miles I was going to fail now! So I pushed on again, until we reached the bridge at Brentford High Street. Luckily I’d caught up with a couple more runners by this point otherwise I would have got lost. I followed them up the High Street and into the foyer of the Premier Inn Hotel. I’ve never been so relived to see a finish line in my life. And I’ve never been so proud to put on a race t-shirt before either!

I posted a “toys out of the pram” message on a thread on the MdS forum a little while ago about Ultra Marathons. About how I didn’t like them. About how after April I would never run one again. About how you can’t race them, you just endure them. I think this weekend may have changed my mind though. Even though it hurt. It hurt a lot. I’m still hurting now, and I imagine I will still be hurting for a few more days. But the sense of achievement is incredible. I failed at JW, I failed at Round Rotherham. I finished Bullock Smithy, but that was more of a very long walk across the Peaks. But this weekend I actually ran an Ultra. And I might just be back next year!

The results were:

Saturday – 44th out of 50

Sunday – 26th out of 39

Overall – 19th out of 35

Saturday 31st January 2009

40 miles - Town2Tring, Brentford, Middlesex

This race had crept up on me somewhat, with events unfolding in my personal life I hadn’t really given much thought to running it or the logistics surrounding it. So I had completely neglected arranging any accommodation or travel to/from Brentford or Tring. Luckily my mum stepped into the breach and provided chauffeur and hotel services. I arrived in Ascot on Friday night fresh from a couple of days down on the coast unwinding after my grandma’s funeral. I was fully carb loaded thanks to Gary Rhodes, he’s a bit of a tool, but the food at his Brasserie in Christchurch was amazing! I may have to do that before every race now.

I got an early night, and managed a decent sleep even though I was completely cacking myself. My last 2 ultras had gone tits up, and Brass Monkey was hardly a roaring success, so the last thing I needed was back-to-back 40 mile ultras. But this was the last of my 3 main MdS prep events (Bullock Smithy and Round Rotherham being the other two), so I had to nail it in order to send me out to the Sahara on a high.

I met up with some of the usual suspects at the Premier Inn in Brentford. I also met up with some other MdS-er’s who I’d agreed to start off with. The plan was to go very steady for the first half, and then maybe pick it up in the second half if I felt up to it. Where I’ve come undone previously was setting off like a fool thinking it would be good to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, only to realise that the wheels have come off and it’s a ridiculously long walk / crawl to the finish. In addition I planned to do the first day with a heavy back pack as further preparation for the desert. So with 7.5kg strapped to my back, and as 9am came, we had a very low key start from the foyer of the Premier Inn hotel in Brentford and 70 runners made there way down to the Grand Union Canal. As planned I started off slowly. In fact I walked for the first half. It was pleasant and sedate, and good to get to know some of the people I’ll be plodding across the desert with. We took in some interesting views along the canal; at least they were interesting first time round, I’m sure they wouldn’t cause the same spark second time round! Whilst walking and chatting was okay, I was starting to struggle with knee and hip pains. We were also told when we reached the halfway check point that we had only just made the cut off of 5 hours. So I pressed on and picked up the pace, I didn’t want to be timed out of my final training event for the MdS and I also found that running eased the hip and knee pains.

I pushed on at a comfortable pace, but was on my own now. The tow path was quite desolate as the small field had spread out and the dog walkers and leisure strollers had disappeared as dusk drew in. I kept looking at the route map we’d been given. We had been told it was almost impossible to get lost as the route followed the canal, however I don’t think they knew who they were dealing with!

I finally caught up with some runners in front, so knew I was still on the right path. I chatted for a bit and then pushed on again. It seemed I had actually paced this quite well as I overtook a few more runners. The sun finally set with about 3 miles still to go, so out came the head torch. It was a bit dodgy running in the dark along an uneven muddy towpath next to a freezing cold canal, and I had a couple of dicey moments as I checked and re-checked the map. I finally reached the bridge where we left the canal and plodded the final 800m up to the finish at the hotel.

Again it was all very low key, just a lady with a clipboard and a couple of pairs of muddy running shoes lying around. I suppose most people had finished and gone home. But after 40 miles I at least wanted some fireworks instead I was presented with possibly my worst medal to date, which left me wondering where the £95 entry fee had gone? But to be honest I would’ve paid £100 just for the bowl of soup I was given and the chance to take my shoes off. It had been a relatively comfortable 40 miles and I was very happy to have broken the 9 hour mark with a time of 8 hours 53 minutes, especially after taking 5 hours to get to halfway.

It would be interesting to see how I fared the next morning!

Saturday 24th January 2009

15 miles - Long Run

Thursday 22nd January 2009

3.1 miles - General Run

Thursday 22nd January 2009

3.24 miles - Recovery Run

Tuesday 20th January 2009

6 miles - Recovery Run

I managed a pleasing 6 miles tonight. I’ll call it a Recovery Run as it was an attempt to loosen up my piano string-esque hamstrings. It appears to have worked, and it was in a pleasantly brisk 8:20min/mile pace. So i’ll be hoping to crack off another 3 miles tomorrow before Circuit Training, and then 4 miles before Fat Club on Thursday.

Sunday 18th January 2009

13.1 miles - Brass Monkey Half Marathon, York, North Yorkshire

Well despite the dodgy weather forecast it turned out to be almost perfect running weather. Its a shame I forgot to bring my perfect running legs with me!

I had a few targets today that varied in their level of ambition:

Ambitious Target – 1:34:59

Sensible Target – 1:37:45 for a PB

At the very least – 1:40:33 to beat last years time

Actual – 1:42:54 (rubbish!!)

Although my head wasn’t really in the right place to be going PB hunting after the week from hell, I thought my body was in pretty good condition. I was sure it would get me round comfortably under 1:40, and if I pushed it a bit then maybe even under 1:37. Everything started out fine as the splits show. I planned to go out hard for 4 miles, cruise for 5 miles and then pick it up for the last 4 miles. Unfortunately I died on my arse at 8 miles due to a combination of tightening hamstrings / glutes, and possibly setting off a little too quickly. If i’d been a horse i’m sure they would’ve put me out of my misery by the 10 mile point as I almost crawled to the finish line.

The splits are very telling:

Mile 1 – 7:07
Mile 2 – 7:04
Mile 3 – 7:07
Mile 4 – 7:14 (going nicely to plan)
Mile 5 – 7:18
Mile 6 – 7:24 (easing off a bit)
Mile 7 – 7:23
Mile 8 – 7:29
Mile 9 – 7:36 (hamstrings tightening)
Mile 10 – 8:08 (bang – off come the wheels!)
Mile 11 – 8:47
Mile 12 – 9:18
Mile 13 – 10:13! (really struggling now with calf, knee, hamstring & arse – nice)
Finish – 1:42:54

I suppose I should be pleased in a way that i’m gutted with a 1:42 HM. A year ago I’d have been over the moon with that.

Saturday 17th January 2009

3.5 miles - Tempo Run

Tuesday 13th January 2009

4 miles - Tempo Run

Sunday 11th January 2009

5 miles - Recovery Run

I managed to squeeze in a relatively rapid 5 miles tonight after this mornings Long Run. My legs are trashed though. I was hoping for miracles from the Skins compression leggings, but no such luck. I shall hopefully get out for a short loosener tomorrow night.

Sunday 11th January 2009

11 miles - Long Run

Today’s run was nowhere near as comfortable as yesterday’s, and thats saying something!!

I felt awful when I woke up, really stiff and creaky and I wasn’t looking forward to going out to Derwent at all. Again the plan was 20 miles with a big loop around both reservoirs and then a loop around the smaller of the two. And again things didn’t work out quite to plan. After about 10km my legs decided they weren’t playing anymore. Simple as that. I tried forcing them to run but they weren’t having it. So I changed to a run/walk with an emphasis on walk. It was quite enjoyable actually, not worrying about pace or anything, just enjoying the scenery and the iPod. Also a lot MdS Vets have told me to do long walks in preparation for the Sahara as there are many sections that are virtually unrunnable. And apparently when you walk you put slightly different stresses on your feet, and various muscles and joints etc, so banging out loads of running miles whilst beneficial should be mixed with walking too. Well at least thats my way of justifying this mornings poor 11 mile effort, i will run tonight though to top up the mileage.

Saturday 10th January 2009

14.2 miles - Long Run

The plan for this weekend was to run 40 miles. Very ambitious and loads more than i’ve done, for…well ever. But I like a challenge and with the Trings rapidly approaching I need to get my finger out. I was hoping to do 2 x 10 mile today and then a 20 miler tomorrow.

Things didn’t start out well today as I was rushing around like a muppet trying to sort stuff out for the decorator who was arriving at midday. So the morning 10 miler went out the window, so instead I thought i’d just do a lunchtime 20 miler, or basically 6 laps of Damflask taking in the killer 1km hill each time.

Things started off well, and the freezing temperatures seemed to have kept most people away as there weren’t the usual crowds of runners, walkers and cyclists. However, there was a man in possibily the worst running ensemble I have EVER seen. And thats saying something as runners aren’t known for their style generally! I didn’t even know you could get RED Ron Hill tracksters!! But he thought it would be sensible to team it with a bright blue, yellow and green jacket. But then again he wasn’t the one shuffling around with a bright red face, looking like they were about to keel over any minute!

The first 3 laps were okay and I was enjoying myself. I’d taken my iPod with me for the first time in years, and I was enjoying the distraction as I went round, and round, and round the reservoir. It was on the 4th lap that things started going a bit wrong. I had been taking on gels, but with the rushing around in the morning I hadn’t actually got round to eating all day, so I was essentially running on empty and was starting to feel quite dizzy and ill. So decided to knock it on the head at 14.2 miles. It felt comfortable though, and was at a steady 10m/m pace.

Saturday 3rd January 2009

23.2 miles - Hebden 22, Hebden, West Yorkshire

Well that was horrendous! It would have been a lovely run if I wasn’t a complete dullard when it comes to navigating. Things started off okay and we were making steady progress despite the number of killer climbs (I think all in all there was nearly 5000 feet over ascent). But around the halfway mark we got horribly lost. We couldn’t see anyone and we were in a forest. So we took to the high ground to the top of the hill to try and get a better vantage point, but all we could see was a village down in the valley in the distance. I was having no luck pinning down our position with OS Map, so even resorted to getting the A-Z out…..how desperate is that?! Luckily as we headed down into the valley we hooked up with some walkers who were also doing this LDWA event. So we stayed with them for the est of the way, and finally arrived at the finish after over 7 hours! Not a great days ‘running’ but its distance in the legs and it was good fun.

 

Friday 2nd January 2009

12.43 miles - Long Run