Muddy Out and Back

The headline is, I didn't finish the Chester 100 Ultra. The story, well it's complicated. A Cheshire field.. The view looking back. Preparation and build up for the event was as good as I could have asked for. I not only stood at the start line healthy, I was looking forward to the challenges the experience would throw at me. The heat was a concern, but my feeding plan is simple. Have my watch beep every kilometre which would remind me to drink, eat and ask myself was I hurting. So that is how the day went. I stopped and enjoy the views and even used the excuse of sorting my socks out to take on an ice cream whilst at the Delamere Forest checkpoint. Sorting my feet out So where did it go wrong? The short answer I'm not too sure.  On reaching checkpoint 6 I had my first drop bag waiting for me which contained a change of clothing, more food and some 'wet wipes'. An actual necessity as my face had more salt on it than a Northwich salt mine. I to

It's here, the weekend I've been looking forward to for a year. "You can do it". The mantra I've been chanting to myself since the day I signed up for it. I'm trying to remember how many glasses of wine I'd had that night! So, this weekend I'll be running my first 100 mile event. I've done 100km events and when I tell myself it's only another 33 miles, I realize the scale of the challenge; only another 33 miles that's more than a marathon! Once I'd sobered up after a night of hitting the enter button for every ultra the Ultra GB team offered I decided I needed a plan. Without a plan is like leaping off a precipice and trying to knit yourself a parachute on the way down. I'm not great with plans. Oh, I can write them and make them look pretty by using every colour imaginable, but I can't keep to them. So my plan, I know I said I can't keep to them but I had to call it something, was to just run as much as possible on