Race Day Part Eight

This was the start of a long ascent that I ran most of.

Eventually there was a sharp descent before I came out into civilisation.

I could have done with a curry....

By road, it is 5 miles until you get to the motorway but....

Half a mile along a busy A road, some of which had no grass verge to run along, we would get to....

The bridge over that motorway....

As you can see, dusk was upon me, and it would be about half an hour before nightfall.  I was convinced that I could get to the next Aid station but I had forgotten to note the distance of this stage and I was unsure how far I had travelled this stage as well.

Time is running out on whether I could get to the next Aid Station before needing to get torches out.

Horses...shortly after this I came across a bench, and here I stopped to add a mid-layer and get the head and hand torch out.

The last photo on race day.  At this Aid Station I had a cup of tea with a large spoonful of sugar - the most wonderful thing ever.  I am now 14 miles away from the end.

I bumped into the "pedestrian" lady who had taken some of my advice to run whilst it was cooler ahead of nightfall. Hence she had remained ahead of me up despite me running, and again left the Aid station well ahead of me.

Race Part Seven

The photo is a bit darker than it was at this stage, probably because it angled downhill - a sharp descent that some cyclists were struggling up - one where you needed to control how fast you went down it,

There was a path off the course to the Uffington White Horse but I had decided to push on as I wanted to cover as much distance as possible before night fall.

There was a steep descent just before this that I flew down as part of a good running section for me.

The cheap non-prescription sunglasses were replaced with my prescription normal glasses, knowing that dusk would hit at some point during the next stage.

Race Day Part Six

The above photo is a view back towards the camp.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was mainly walking to start with, due to allowing the sandwich time to settle but the views were great if like me you love the countryside.

The terrain had mainly been smooth roads and then directly after that sign, the path turned very rocky and stony.

To add to the "fun" I caught up to a female runner who was talking loudly on her mobile whilst walking - I would have to put up with this for about 15 minutes.

Blessed relief as I completed this short stage.

Socks were changed again, and I caught up with the "pedestrian" who was leaving this Aid station just as I got there.

Race Day Part Five

Directly after the fourth Aid station, there were two horses, and from here on there was also a sudden increase in off-road cyclists to be aware of.

This was not too far from the half-way point.  The terrain during this section was very hard underfoot, so where possible I sought to run on any grass areas.

Half-way stage reached.

The strawberry ice cream was yum! I'm not sure the sandwich touched the sides when I ate it, and the price of that was needing to walk a while to allow it to digest enough so I could run without bringing back up.

I should also add that from filling up one of my water bottles I ended up with a very chemically tasting water that despite several washes it took two further Aid stations before I could get rid of it from the bottle.

Cider for those staying over and completing the rest of the distance tomorrow.

Not a good photo but in the distance there are the green tents the two-day participants were staying in.

I grabbed a banana here before I left to start the second 50km - I ran with it in my hand for about 12 miles! as I never got round to eating it, in part because I wanted to hold off until I was near to an Aid station, to put the skin in the bin.