The Druid Challenge - 84 miles

An amazing end to an amazing 3 days.
I am definitely not a morning person, so a 7am start was not the perfect way to begin a long day running - leaving the overnight accomodation at 6:30am made things even worse. Fortunately, I don't think my battered body knew what was happening and we made excellent early progress.
As the darkness lifted and the sun burnt it's way through the miles just kept coming and then going. After the struggles of yesterday it was so nice to feel strong and even, though my legs finally worked-out what was occuring, the half-way was done.
Stubborness is not always my best quality but today it kept me going. With the last checkpoint behind us and my knee adding to the list of ailing body parts, time to grit my teeth and get on with it.
A warm welcome waited as we crossed the finish 6 hours 15 mins after starting, a total of just over 19 hours of running since departing Ivinghoe 2 days ago.
A genuinely exhausting and elating experience that I am so pleased to have been involved in.
The time and effort of my fellow competitors and the fantastic organisers made it so much more than just an ultra event - thanks and congratulations also to Suzy for her amazing efforts.
I imagine when I've recovered in a couple of days time I'll be able to fully comprehend what has just happened.
:)

The Druid Challenge - 56 miles

What a day! The shortest of the 3 days but by no means an easy one. Heavy overnight rain had made the muddy conditions even worse and some parts of the route very tricky to walk across.
After slipping and sliding my way through the first half of the day my legs, already beaten-up after yesterday, vere in tatters. As we moved away from the Thames at Goring things did get noticably better, as did our pace - not to get carried away though, today was slow. Over 14 minutes per miles is, I guess, understandable but with a 20 hour finish target it'going to be tight tomorrow.
Whatever happens though, I can have no regrets, this is a huge achievement and the pain I've put myself through in the last few days has only added to that opinion. Yes, training could have been better. Yes, my illness in the last week was not ideal. Yes, the conditions underfoot could have been easier. In context though, when I cross the finish tomorrow, and I will even if I'm in a coffin, I will have surpassed any other running achievement in my life. These 3 days are my 3 longest runs, back to back and off-road - in my eyes that is pretty special.
Just found out we're on the 7am start, that'll mean we have to be ready to leave at 6:30am - that's just not humane!

The Druid Challenge - Day 2

.3 things I hate about today, already;
1 - it's 6am, the lights are on and people are getting ready.
2 - I'm about 5m away from a bloke wearing the most unpleasant budgie-smugglers I've ever seen
3- My legs!!!

The Druid Challenge -30 miles

That was certainly one of the toughest days I've ever had as a runner and the longest distance I've run thus far.
We finally finished today after 6 hours 15 minutes on the trail, it was not a forgiving route either. Undulating from start to finish and at times really awkward underfoot, my legs have taken an absolute beating - calves and hamstrings equally broken. The only consolation is that my lungs, which I was particularly worried about after a week with a cold, survived brilliantly.
The word from thosr who know is that the remaining two days ate not as brutal as tofay, a small boost for a famaged individual! Hopefully a good nights sleep will fix me.
The organisation is terriffic and  the chevkpoints had Haribo Starmix, I might have been under 6 hours if they  did not, I'll settle for that compromise though, we also had a nice spaghetti bolognaise for tea and a beer - all events should be like this but without the pain!
8am start tommorrow, what kind of unholy hour is that? Hopefully I'll be updating after another duccessful day.  :)

The Druid Challenge - 11 miles

Checkpoint  1,  11 miles in 2 hours - not a bad start :)

The Druid Challenge - 0 miles

Heading off soon, arrggghhh!!

The Druid Challenge 2012 - Day 1

Extreme Energy are delighted to announce the 4th  “Druid Challenge” a multistage race along the oldest roadway in the UK, dating back to 3000BC.

The route follows the Ridgeway path from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Overton, just North of Barbury Castle near Swindon in Wiltshire. 

It's 7:15am and in about 30 mins we'll be leaving for Ivinhoe, the start for today. at 11:00am the race starts and then it's 29 miles (the longest distance I will ever have run!) until we reach Watlington, our home for the night. Already had one cock-up this morning as I accidently set my alarm for 5:50 not 6:50 - idiot!

84 miles of muddy exhaustion ahead, I'm a bit nervous!