The one place there was something wrong however was the
achilles. About a week before the race I’d posted on facebook that I rated my
finishing chances at 60:40, and it had survived a 98km bike ride the day
after. Another week of rehab and I was
optimistically thinking 75:25. This had
the potential to become my bogey race after two DNFs in previous years, one in
awful conditions of torrential rain for 12 hours before and then for 12 hours of
the race (it has longer events than 40-mile as well) and then in very hot
conditions, similar to this, but with training disrupted by my diabetes
diagnosis. This time though I was
determined to finish.
The nutrition and insulin strategy had been discussed with
the Diabetes Specialist Nurse at the hospital and based on recent performance
we’d settled on 1 unit basal, a good breakfast with no bolus and keep an eye on
it before and during the race, taking my half-unit pen with me just in
case. The risk with the pre-race
strategy is that I’d drift too high with no bolus, the optimal point being
around 8-10mmol/l to allow a drop in the first 5-10km and then hopefully a steady
rate through the race, eating to the meter.
Of course there was always the possibility that adrenaline would kick
the blood sugar higher as well, but to be honest this race has always been
pretty low key for me.
So it’s an early start this one, a race start of 9:30 means
5am wake up, 6am departure and 7:30 arrival to get my tent set up, change into
the race gear, get race head on (that starts 3 days before really), check and
re-check bloods etc, but that early start means a quiet start. No-one else up at that time of day, all mine.
I arrived right on time and already found a big tent city,
luckily room for my small one right at the front, part of the strategy to
minimise the rest time and distance from control tent to my tent. The basic format for this race is a 10-mile
lap around a country estate on a mix of roads, hard packed trails and mud/field
edges, electronic timing at a control tent and points on the course and returning
to your tent each lap for as long as you want, but the clock keeps ticking.
In my case I had my prepared nutrition and hydration
strategy, tuned to my race strategy.
Over 10 miles, I was banking on around 2 hours per lap, so 80g carbs
plus a bit just in case. That was in one
of my boxes, elastic bands around each bundle of bars and gels. The camelback would be filled with 2 litres
of Nuun hydration solution, which at 500ml an hour (by long standing
experiment) should last me 2 laps. The
plan was at least one or two hard, fast (for me) laps until the achilles could
take no more with a very quick back to the tent, grab the next bundle and off
again. After that run/walk or whatever would get me to the end. Of course I also had plenty of carbs in
reserve and a plan B and C if necessary, but mentally I was prepared for pain
and lots of it.
Pre-race the blood sugars went a bit like this
5am Waking 7.0 (high in rebound from a hypo the night before, why then
of all times?)Breakfast 45g carbs, no bolus, 1 U basal
+1 hr, driving 6am 9.7
07:30 – 12.2 - I’m getting a little twitchy here with the novorapid pen
08:30 – 7.3, not quite sur ehow that much of a drop happened on that little insulin
09:00 – 7.3 – a quick fig roll just in case
Race briefing over, assemble at the line, another wait for the cows to be moved, another quick test on the line 09:20 – 6.1 what happened to that fig roll? Half a 9-bar for luck.
Lap 1 – intention run it hard, but maybe not as hard as I did,
completed in 1hr 32 including the return to the tent for supplies, a record for
me at this event and not far off training pace for a 10-mile run.
5km laps were 26:47, 27:37 and 29:00 so slowing a bit but also reflecting
easier terrain early in the lap. Drinking at the 5km tests and where I was
walking the uphills and more difficult sections. BG was pretty much behaving itself with 5km
tests of 9.2, 7.2, 6.7. A total of about
70g carbs taken during the lap, so that would be about 45g per hour, pretty
much right on schedule.
Quick return to the tent, pick up the next bundle of food, and out, no
need to refill camelback or bottles, time check and off I go.
Only problem was it was just starting to warm up now, but I still wanted
another faster lap while the achilles was holding up. On the first lap it had really not been
painful but there was a bit of discomfort moving around between heel and lower
calf, but nothing worth worrying at.
Second lap it really started to bite; not so much the achilles but more
so casuing other issues. If I kept
myself landing fairly flat footed in the middle, the 6mm drop Inov-8 TrailRoc’s
were aiding the achilles, keeping that eased, but then the gait was throwing
more strain onto the hip flexors and quads as I began to discover. Towards the end of the second lap the early
pace was beginning to tell, and I was thinking about going onto a yomp style
1km run/1km walk for the next two laps.
Lap 2 played out like this (5km splits and BG)
31:06 / 8.931:08 / 7.8
32:44 / 6.0
43:23 / 6.0 – this one included the lap 2-3 transition and a camelback refill, taking about 4 minutes, plus a bit of lap 3 walk/run.
Total carbs about 40g in 1hr 46, so pretty low by any standards, but
eating to the meter seemed to be working OK. At this stage a quick remark with
Keith, the organiser cemented the walk/run strategy in my mind.
Lap three started to get really tough, hot, no cloud cover, humidity
increasing all the time. Added to that
the pain in my quads was spreading to hip-flexors and ITB, but the walk 1km/run
1km was pretty much stuck to apart from increasing the walk on one field margin
section of pretty hard going and uneven ground, only to have the next run on
easier ground extended a bit as well. To
be honest this was now getting bloody painful, but I knew that having done the
best part of three laps and having DNFd twice, it was going to take a lot to
stop me completing that last lap. It was
hurting, but I was in a better mental place than ever and prepared to go
through any pain and out the other side. The thing that really sticks in your mind
during these things is the other people, all going through the same personal trials
as you but every one of them in this race full of smiles and chit chat as you
pass each other, no matter who’s going faster or slower, makes no difference.
So Lap 3
36:36 / 6.339:32 / 7.2
49:03 / 5.6 – including a 6 minute transition, refilling camelback and a short rest this time
Around 50g carbs in 2hrs 05, so still around the 25g per hour mark, much lower than most people would predict.
Lap 4 has no other way to describe it than 10 miles of pain. Quads on fire, hips on fire, brain on fire; I’d
been drenching my Texas Longhorns baseball cap every lap at the control point and
it was giving me about 15 minutes of cooling before it was dry again. Oddly enough
although my head was roasting, I kept getting waves of cold throughout the race
and waves of sickness as well, but that’s all part of the fun. The run/walk was becoming fragile now and was
erring towards 1250/750 and then later in the lap became run when I could and
walk when it hurt too much. The odd
thing is that throughout these last two laps I was able to maintain the same
running pace as always and a pretty decent pace as well at around 5:30/km or a
9-min mile, the only thing was I couldn’t keep it up and it was as if my legs
were just switching off. I also ran out
of water in that last lap with about 4km/2.5 miles to go, which was not at all
ideal. I’d checked in before the start
of this lap and was lying 19th, but I knew I was passing others. My
walk was quicker than some people’s run and as always I was passing people I’d
seen go past me on laps 1 and 2 and with a quick word established that they
were also on the 40 miler.
5km laps and BG
39:46 / 7.834:53 / 6.8
44:50 / 8.7
06:02 / 3.7 – no idea where that came from, but this was a very short section following, mainly due to an odd course measure (I did a total of 65.7km vs 64)
Total 55g
carbs in 2hr 8 mins, so staying at that 25g/h including a gel for that 3.7
outlier.
Eventual total time 7 h 50, finishing 13th of 107. I’d passed 6 people on the last lap, or they’d pulled out with less than 10 miles to go. Considering the achilles problems going into this I was chuffed to bits to finish where I did and ran over the finish line a very tired but happy man.
Straight After 7.4 – 22.5g carbs
+30min 10.7
+75 min 9.9
+105min 8.6
+3hr 6.8
Dinner 7.2 – 45 g carbs, 1 U bolus (would normally be 3U)
+2hr 6.4
Evening 6.7 – 3.5 unit basal (normal is 4.5, but adjusted for increased sensitivity post race)
Total for
the race about 240g carbs, so around 30g per hour while racing, much lower than
any text book would suggest. I think the reason for this is my years of low
heart rate training which have effectively trained me to utilise my fat
burning/fat reserves very effectively at these moderate pace for long durations.
And the
next few days? Ouch!
I went
down to see my sister in Hampshire for a few days and being bothered about
potential insulin sensitivity and erratic blood sugars I asked the other half
to drive. Only trouble was that sitting still for 2 hours had my lower limbs seize
up completely so when we stopped at the halfway mark for lunch I had to take
over. The next two days were not fun
with stairs being a particular problem, but just walking along my quads would occasionally
fail to fire on demand, threatening to dump me unceremoniously on the floor. I was also finding other things not working
well, such as my shins which were in agony and both ankles. I also found a very unexpected piece of
chafing on my rear end.
Four days
later though, a 2 hour bike ride at an average 18.5mph (28.5kmh) was tough on
the legs, but the HR was solid throughout.
Mission
very definitely accomplished. Now for 2
weeks off running and then a 4-week campaign before my next event a fast road
half marathon.
Plus a couple of piccies, tent farm, castle, assembled throng of loonies
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