Thunder Run 24 had arrived. With a lack of any decent
distance training and a late night watching the Olympic opening ceremony, I had
little ambition of making it very far. I turned up at Catton Park Saturday
morning to see that the event had grown once again (this year over 2400
competitors). So finding space in the solo camping area was tricky, but luckily
I had no tent to pitch so a Fiesta sized parking space was all I needed for
base camp.
I registered, collected my free t-shirt and after speaking
to some familiar faces got myself ready for the start. Plenty of sun tan lotion
applied and an Eccles cake down me I was ready as I was going to be, so I
waited for the start of the race, while watching the Olympic swimming on the
big screen at the start.
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| The start! |
The race started and I hung at the back letting the faster
runners get off, hoping the field would have spread out before the bottleneck
at Bluebell Woods 1k down the track. As the runners started to spread out there
was chance to do a bit of slow running, chatting to other runners and taking in
the applause of spectators where the course passed through the campsite and
other popular viewing points. The course was pretty much the same but with a few
little changes, which I quite liked.
The weather couldn’t have been better as it was very sunny
with the odd wind in places to cool you down. The first few laps seemed to go
by rather quickly, averaging about 1 hr 10 mins each lap with no sires or aches
yet. I came in after three laps to eat and after some spaghetti, nuts and an
Eccles cake I was off again. The laps started to get harder and harder and the
legs started to ache earlier on then on previous years, which I put down to a
lack of decent long mileage training.
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| Number 51 |
After a couple more laps I stopped again to eat, spaghetti,
crisps and biscuits washed down with energy drink for the electrolytes. The
laps started to spread out now at about 1 hr 30 mins each lap as the ration of
run to walk shifted more to the latter. I did my sixth lap going across the
start/finish line before lights we’re required on the course, so I could at
least do my seventh lap without lights. As I did this lap I noticed other
competitors we’re starting to wear lights, but it wasn’t yet dark enough for
them to be on.
I finished my seventh lap and decided to have a burger which
I had been craving, as the smell of barbeques around the campsites had teased
me all afternoon and evening. I got my money and went to the catering tent and
waited for ten/fifteen minutes to be served, which is not what you want after
running over forty miles. Once I got my burger and a full fat coke, I sat in my
car and ate my reward, finished with an Eccles cake desert. After fiddling with
my headtorch I headed off at around 9pm for more running/walking.
The eight lap started well and despite some expected aching
in the legs, I felt like I had a surge of energy. It was still light enough to
run without the lights, but it was needed in the wooded sections so I switched
it on and off accordingly to save the batteries, thinking of the long game. The
further on through the lap it started to get darker so the light was constantly
now, but have to give my Hope Vision 1 headtorch loads of praise as it wasn’t
too uncomfortable and was very powerful for the task (I even got a compliment
from another runner). I finished my first lap in full darkness and before starting
the next lap I scoffed down more nuts and biscuits.
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| Night Running |
On my ninth lap I ran a few kilometers of the course and
started to notice a soreness in me left foot, which grew and grew through the
whole lap. I tried adjusting the tightness of the trainer, messed about with
the sock but this seemed more than some mild discomfort in the footwear. The
pain didn’t go away and the solid trails didn’t help so I used the incentive of
painkillers to get me to the end of the lap.
I took some Ibuprofen and headed off on my tenth lap and it
took a while for the pain in my foot to dull down. Despite feeling that I could
go on through the night, I decided that I should make this my last lap. As I
was worried that if I made the foot injury really bad I may be out for a while
meaning that I couldn’t do any adventures or events for months. I was also
worried that the painkillers could mask the pain of another possible injury
that could come on, mainly the knee. So I finished the lap, quicker than the
previous five, thinking that the sooner I finished the sooner I could go home
to bed. I finished my tenth lap (60 miles) at 2:10am which was 14 hours and 10
minutes from the start of the race.
Despite feeling like I could have done more I was fairly happy
with what I had done. I got home and was in bed about 3am after a protein
shake. After seeing the GP a week later and having an X-ray it appears that the
foot injury isn’t bad as nothing showed up on the X-ray and there are signs of
improvement.
