I had never heard of a 24 hour race until Seb Locteau sent me an email a few days after the Portumna 50k. I wondered why he had sent it to me, and reckoned it was a group posting mainly for the 100 km heroes who had finished a tough and brave race .But it did plant a seed in my mind and I considered that perhaps in the future I might give it a lash. I had spoken briefly with Mick Rice shortly after I came across the line and he said that I seemed suited to distance running in that I seemed steady until the end and had coped well with it. He asked” Had I ever thought of trying the Connemara 100 mile event?!! “
I spent hours on the net digesting and pouring over ultra running sites (when I should have been out running) and putting feelers out on the various running forums. The answer that came back was –why not give it a try…..See how far you get and build on it for a proper go at it next year when you have trained and prepared properly. You can just step off the track when you have had enough, and it would be good to check out how it works in real time for future reference.
I did the scheduled Bogtrotters marathon a week or two later and pulled a muscle in my calf area going through a bog hole covered in grass towards the end. There were only two weeks to the 24 hour and I wasn’t sure I would make it. I decided to do nothing in the line of training and give it a total rest and see how I got on. All I would miss would be some speed work and tempo runs which would be useless at this point anyway. Although the longest time I had ever run was for 5:17 hours I hadn’t been wrecked at the end and felt that if I had had to run another hour that I would have managed it ok.
Well that left the other problem…I had no crew/helper which was a requirement. Thankfully at the last minute Yvonne, who I had met at Portumna, came on board. She was considering it for next year too, as an ankle injury also sustained in the Bogtrotters was keeping her out of her runners too. What appealed to us was the fact that, even though we are both slow, we would still reach a decent total as we are both used to being on our feet a long time. Faster runners who finish marathons in 3 hours and a bit are seldom on their feet for five hours like us down the back and we maintained that this would stand to us for an endurance event.
Advice number one : Get two good night’s sleep. So Wednesday night I got home from work about 10.30. Had a snack and went to bed. I was all alone in the house until I woke up at 1am with someone standing at the end of my bed. I nearly had a heart attack. My 80 year old father had woken up 9 years ago with a heroin addict sitting on his chest in bed. He was lucky to survive being stabbed in the chest and having his faces and head smashed in. This was the first thing that came to mind. But it was my 15 year old daughter who was on her way to the airport with her dad for her first 2 week holiday without me. She was upset and wanted to say a last goodbye. She had her own key and had let herself in quietly. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much for the rest of the night.
Thursday night I headed to bed at 9.00 pm to relax. I spent about an hour laminating business cards with white sticky labels and sellotape. I put famous motivational and inspirational quotes on them, including a few of my own and was planning on keeping them in my pocket and using them when needed during the tough hours. I was asleep by 10.30 until a friend phoned me at 11.30 to wish me well. I don’t know was it nerves starting to get to me or what, but for the life of me I couldn’t get back to sleep. At 3.45 I figured I was as well to get up and get the stuff ready for the morning. I cooked some pasta and rice and packed some food and snacks and gels and drinks into an ice chest. I was travelling onward for a weeks holidays after the run so had all that stuff to sort too. Hungry by then, I had a big bowl of branflakes. By 7am I was tired and went back to bed. I slept until 10am. When I woke up I had a lot of cramps in my gut and I couldn’t face eating anything else. Branflakes was probably not the wisest mid-night snack to have. I eventually got on the road by 1pm, not having had anything to eat since 4am. I called in to visit my sister on route, confessed where I was going and what was involved. I hadn’t actually told any of my family. She gave me some soup and bread and 3 chocolate biscuits.
Traffic was much heavier than usual, possibly due to some torrential showers and road works on the way up. I eventually arrived and found Yvonne had her tent up and had made friends already. I got my tent up in the grassy area of the centre of the track beside everyone else. Many had their own tables’ trackside in front of their tents. Got sorted out between the showers thankfully and then went up for the briefing .There was a room full of fit looking individuals including Paul Donovan an ultra hero , who was to be the race referee or something official and world ranked runners and medallists for Ireland. I had this horrible feeling that I had wandered into the wrong place. What on God’s earth was I doing here among these people. I felt so far out of my league it wasn’t funny. At least in marathons, there is plenty of company down the back. All plugging away doing the best they can and enjoying it for the most part; admiring and respecting the speedier guys and girls up the front but feeling like we are taking part in a different kind of event. This bunch looked so serious that were it not for the fact that I had made friends with some of the lads on the RW boards and they were so encouraging I think I would have gone home.
The rules and guidelines were broadly this: Only the inside two lanes had the electronic mat and you had to stay in the second one if you were walking to allow runners to keep going on the inside. There would be a change of direction every 4 hours .If you wanted to take a break you had to step off the track and back on again at a designated spot to make sure proper laps were done and were fairly accounted for. There were two toilets beside the outer lane. There were three tables with drinks and crates of: mars bars, go ahead bars (yummy) and gels and bananas which were restocked as required. This was where the hot porridge and bacon butties and hot dogs were distributed later too. All this was beside the jeep, at the back of which was the computer tracking our progress. Later I discovered you could check your progress at any time. The lads here were so helpful .There was a big clipboard and everyone’s distance was written up at the changeovers every 4 hours when we turned around and went the other direction.
Advice number 2: Go slow. Slower than you think you can and don’t leave it too late to walk.
We lined up at the start line. Big Bob took what was to be the first of many pictures through our toils and troubles in rain and sun, night and day. The start was announced. The clocked approached 6.45pm and next thing we were off… They all took off like a shot and I started trundling down the back behind them. By the time they had covered the first lap I was about half way around. I was happy enough. I knew that I wasn’t going to last if I started off fast. A voice came from the sidelines to say that I was doing a more realistic pace. That gave me a little lift. Four laps in I started to walk as planned. A girl popped up with a big TV type video camera. She asked me would I answer a few questions. There was so much going on in my head at that time trying to get settled in that it was probably unwise to agree. Why did I decide to do this? I couldn’t think of anything logical to say and blurted out something stupid; I am not a fast runner and I feel I am more like a Duracell bunny where I can go for a long time. So I wanted to see how far I could go.
Meanwhile everyone else kept running along swiftly with a small group in a little posse. As usual it was hard to switch off my physio gait analysis brain. Marty was bounding along like a gazelle. Really high backward kick and bounding up on his forefoot with arms waving wildly. I smiled to myself as I remembered a tall man in Seville who started out the same way. By the time I passed him at 20 miles he was well down on the flats of his feet and was running much more efficiently. If Marty started off the way he continued later in the day, he wouldn’t have wasted so much energy in the early stages. Fred carried his head quite far forward. I nearly had a pain in my neck looking at him. I wondered if it bothered him or was he so accustomed to it that he didn’t even notice it. Unlike many marathon runners, these guys were lovely steady runners with no unusual gimps or gaits.
I settled into my routine of running a mile-walking a lap and noticed that I seemed to keep meeting a man who passed me at the same place on the track each time. I told him I was a bit worried that I was walking way to early and while I didn’t care what the others were doing I did feel a bit out of my league on my own , doing my thing. He said that it was wise what I was doing, that the others would burn up a bit later in the day and to trust what I was doing. We met so many times in the first few hours. HE asked me my name and told me his was Eddie. He was an extraordinary runner. He was like a clockwork mouse that you wound up and let off. He had the steadiest most efficient running style I had ever seen. He was deceivingly quick too. I told him that I did actually run even though every time we met I was walking. For the rest of the 24 hours, I don’t think there was a single lap he passed me that he didn’t offer some words of encouragement or at least a small gesture of the hand. Later we had some good chats even though I’m sure I held him back on his pace. He is a wonderful runner and a lovely man and he was part of the reason why I enjoyed and got through the event as well as I did. I am forever grateful for his support and I am determined to continue with my journey in ultra running. (Eddie was the best Irish finisher at the 2010 European and World 24 hour championships covering almost 224kms.)
Yvonne at this stage was still standing in the rain under an umbrella. I don’t remember her sitting down once in the first five or six hours. Every single time I passed her she checked if there was anything I needed or wanted. If not, it was a thumb up and looking for the same in return. Whatever I wanted or needed, nothing was too much trouble. I didn’t know whether it was better to give her things to do, to make it less boring for her or whether that would be needlessly demanding. I couldn’t have been in better hands. There wasn’t a moment in the day when I needed something when she wasn’t there to provide it within moments notice. Not only did she provide back up for me but also for a lot of the others as well. Not only did she provide support and back up but encouragement for each and every one of us. It was definitely a team event. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for minding me and helping me through this.
And so it went. 4 laps’s running- changing my ring from little finger to index finger one by one, walking when I got it to the thumb. The rain started and I kept going. It started to get dark. Still everyone continued on running. Everyone seemed to be doing really well. I hadn’t noticed anyone else walking yet. There were two girls that I noticed, running side by side with their respective men. They looked fit and strong and very comfortable. Later I was to discover that the girl in pink and black (Lynne Hanna) had reached the peak of Everest with her husband Noel with whom she was running. So this wasn’t the biggest challenge of her life. The other girl Kellie, was raising money for a children’s hospital where her young son was awaiting an operation. Neither of them spoke to me for the entire duration of the event.
Jonathon who was running for prostate cancer and who had already done some major running this year (up to the Belfast marathon, did the marathon and back home – a mere 93 miles) was eating up the miles. He was quietly focussed and really covering the ground very fast. Fred looked like a steady plodder but I didn’t see him walking until the daytime, I’m sure. I couldn’t believe that one of the two triathlon lads running together was doing this, having completed an ironman triathlon a mere two weeks earlier in Roth.
By 15 miles my legs were feeling tight and I was getting worried. I wasn’t sure if it was because I wasn’t used to walking or my lack of training, but I didn’t usually feel this until about 24 miles or so. By about 4 hours in I think I was only at 18miles or so. I’m sure everyone else had gone marathon distance at this time. I didn’t notice people leaving the track but there were definitely less on the go. Yvonne had gone up to the pavilion where there was a kitchen available throughout the night ,to charge my garmin in the clubhouse . It was very useful at first to help me with pacing but it wasn’t really necessary after a while. I was glad to see her out of the miserable conditions and hoped she was warm and dry and having some refreshments herself. And on and on we ran. Pizza was delivered courtesy of Eddie Gallen. I didn’t have any. I’m not sure how it went down but it looked a bit sad after it was sitting out in the rain for a few laps. I dropped to a 3:1 ratio but found it confusing on the fingers so changed to 2:1. I started to get quite cold and decided to put on long sleeves and long trousers and a rain jacket to try and stay warm. The balls of my feet were getting very tender too and eventually I decided to have a foot massage .Peter did one foot and another girl did the other. It felt nice although my toenails were very tender and murder if they squeezed them at all .Ed the organiser came into the tent. He asked me did I have a target distance in mind. I said I wanted to get to 50 miles which I was sure I could do and after that, really anything more would be great. I knew I could do that but wasn’t sure how much I could add on. He reckoned I could make the 75 miles and I laughed. I thought that was way out there. Back on the track they were still as tender as ever and the break in the massage tent had just made me colder. I ran for perhaps another hour. By then my eyes were sore and felt stingy and focussing was a bit odd, so I decided to go to bed for an hour and take the weight off my feet and get some sleep. Yvonne climbed into her tent too. I took off my damp tops and put on my only really warm long sleeved top. I left the damp leggings on, changed my socks and climbed into my damp sleeping bag. I put my feet up on my kitbag to try and elevate them a bit. I was just settling when I heard the announcement that Eddie Gallen had just reached 100kms. Go Eddie!
I got up after about 50 minutes. Did some stretching and climbed out of my tent, trying not to wake Yvonne as I reckoned she needed sleep more than I needed anything else for a few hours. It wasn’t long though before she popped her head out and came back on duty. Hot porridge was on the go by then too. I was cold but started to warm up. Bit by bit everyone ended up back on the track again. Kellie was running very fast for a while…doing 2 minute laps. FFS !! but this was a last spurt before a break. I noticed people who hadn’t come to my attention earlier in the night. There was one guy in particular who was going really fast. Everyone else had slowed down at this stage but he was bombing around as if he had just started. I don’t know how I didn’t notice him before. I asked him what his name was, as he flew past. He said it was Thomas. Thomas Maguire is Current Irish record holder of the 100 mile distance ( 15:15 hours reached during the World Championship 24 hour race) and another extraordinary ultrarunner on the Irish team and rated sixth in the world. But I didn’t know that then.
Every four hours we changed direction. About 9 hours in, the gut cramps started to ease and it was more comfortable to feed. I was drinking regularly as best I could even with the gut cramps. Isotonic electrolyte tablets dissolved initially but then just plain water for the rest. I found the go ahead bars delicious and there were three or four biscuits in the packet. I ate one each lap, or on the walking lap. Same with the mars bar. I took a bite every lap. I never ate solid food before , even rubbish or healthy food during running events as I usually used gels and it was far less sickening and quite tasty and I never felt that big drop in energy that I sometimes do . I felt steady the whole way though. Everyone raved about the ice-cream but I did didn’t eat any of that either as I had just had a nutrigrain type bar a bit earlier. I think I only used one gel the whole 24 hours along with a couple of mars bars and maybe 3 or 4 go ahead bars and a bowl of porridge. I did eat some cold pasta during the night and walked for a good bit after it. I also had some more around lunchtime on the Saturday I think. I’m sorry that I didn’t take notes at the time. I did try to text my mate in Scotland as there would be a record on my phone of distances and times and how I was feeling but unfortunately these auto deleted before I could write them down. Without the time sheets it is hard to remember when things happened the longer time goes on.
As the day wore on I did more and more walking. I was getting tired and I stopped for a 30 minute sleep. Then back up again for more. I never felt that I wouldn’t finish the 24 hours. I knew I would be able to stay going and I was determined to stick it out. People had different strategies. Lynn seemed to run for a while and then take a longer break and then get back out again. Her husband had a similar pattern though he was on his feet and running more often and for longer. Marty or was it Graeme sat regularly for short periods in his camping chair with his sister before getting up and facing into it again. Everyone was making great progress. Robin, Jim and Rob were like warriors never giving up and in spite of obvious discomfort battled on. People walked and chatted as we went around lap after lap and I have to say I personally didn’t find it boring. My plan was to stay on the feet unless I absolutely had to sit down and then only enough for a change of shoes or a breather.
When it seemed that we had such a lot of time left and I was tired, I tried to remember the quotes , which I had left on my bedside locker. “You cannot say that you have reached your limit if you do not keep going until you have given it absolutely everything” and even “Mick Rice says I can do this”J.
I don’t know when I reached 50 miles. I think it was about mid 50s before I discovered I had passed it. It as well outside 12hours and I thought that I was going to be screwed if I was going to try and do the Comrades marathon next year. It is 56 miles. 4 or 5 major hills and a strict 12 hour cut off. Here I was on a flat track with plenty of cushioning and I wasn’t within an ass’s roar of it. I would just have to dig deeper and train hard to do it.
The hours passed but I didn’t really notice that much not having a watch on anymore. Our double ironman said that he found this event a lot tougher than the Double Ironman he had done. I wondered how Dark Vader from the RW boards was getting on. He was doing a double iron man this weekend. I hoped he gets through it. He is incredible.
One by one, people’s names were called out as they reached 100k. Everyone cheered for everyone else as it was super and we all celebrated each other’s achievements. Fred was the third man behind Thomas and Eddie. Lynn was the first girl. At some stage there was a commotion on the track. Kellie had just collapsed and was lying down. She had been feeling nauseous and couldn’t face eating or drinking so she just ran out of fuel and basically fell down. She sat out for a while and ate and drank and rested and fair dues to her she did make it back onto the track, assisted and linking arms with her crew at first .She got going herself then and covered a lot of miles in the end. When I was told I had 4 laps to my 100k. I wanted to run it and off I went. When I got across the mat, the official held up one finger. I was so disappointed. I thought he meant one more lap to get it, but what he meant was One hundred kms. It was announced just after I got passed the feeding area and I was thrilled. I remember thinking about the boys in Portumna and how I got a lump in my throat watching them going on and on until they made it to the bitter end. I was awestruck at their stamina and endurance and their bravery continuing when the body was tired and when it started to hurt even more than it was tired. I thought it was a huge distance to run. It is. I was thrilled to get there even though it took me a very long time.
I decided to sit down for 5 minutes. I had just stepped off the track when one of the officials came up to me and told me that I was the lead woman and he wanted me to know before I took a long break and did I really want to sit down? He said that Lynn had taken a long break and I had passed her. Tired and all as I was, I was excited at the thought that I might sneak ahead of her even for a short while. I was just about to go out again when he came up and apologized saying that her chip had not counted a few laps and in fact she was ahead of me once this was taken into consideration.
Meanwhile Iryna from the Ukraine was making steady progress. I hadn’t noticed her for hours. Probably cause we both ran slowly and were likely at opposites sides of the track for a lot of it. She was another amazing person. Married to a Northern Irelandman she was living here for a long time. She had wanted to swim the channel but didn’t know how to swim. So she got lessons and did it as part of a relay. She was so pleasant. She hadn’t run further than a marathon before. She had a kind of loping run in that there was minimal upward and downward motion. She had a hip thing going on where she was more like a walker .It was very efficient run and she covered ground so gracefully and so consistently. I was only half a lap ahead of her at one stage and I decided to put a spurt on and do a bit more. I think this was about 20 or 21 hours in. I put” Woman on a mission” By Gabriella Cilmi on my ipod that ATM in Scotland had put up on the RW board for me. I played it nonstop about 12 times, Singing along aloud at times. Sorry Jonathon I know I drove you mad!
“Its time for me to make a move, and I know what I gotta do
,Cos I got everything to prove I gotta plan im sticking to………
There’s only one thing on my mind and I am running out of time
Im coming through so get out of my way.
I am a woman on a mission ,Woho .Nothing can stop me I’m stronger than ever
I wanna see this through .I am a woman on a mission , whatever it takes I will do
what I gotta do.
It spurred me on and I did a lot of running in that hour, or at least it felt like I did. It had got hot and sunny and I had to change into shorts and a short sleeve top and my third pair of runners. I had peed about 3 times since the start at this stage and apart from a worsening period pain and leg stiffness I didn’t feel too bad.
That was the single most important thing I learned on this run. That once the leg aches start, that no matter how much further I went they didn’t actually get worse. What did get worse was trying to overcome the stiffness and to get started again into a run if you had walked for too long. When I started walking again after my effort I just couldn’t get the legs to run again. Not a hope. I decided to visit the massage tent again. Stripped off and got the worst torture inflicted by any therapist ever. Tears were tripping as I buried my face in the towel. My right buttock along the sacral margins was very tight and had lots of trigger points so he did a pin and stretch technique rotating my hip while holding them firmly. It was brutal. My hamstring had been tight for months but I knew that it was a local issue in the muscle belly. He did a bit here too. He said he could feel a lot of scar tissue in it but that I wouldn’t thank him for working on it now. Too right!! Then he went at my quads. This wasn’t pleasant either but it did the job and instantly I decided to run again rather than walk to get going. Eddie was still stealth running and encouraging me and Thomas was still running past like a train. Fred was sneaking along behind them wearing his finishers 100 mile t-shirt with so many peaks and troughs on it that it looked a horrendous challenge. He was doing this as a training run for the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc marathon. What he had already done so far this year was awesome and he wasn’t yet done. At 59, he was the oldest of us.
The taller of the tri boys had legs that were at this stage almost totally straight. I didn’t know how he was going to continue, but in fairness to him, continue he did to the bitter end. I don’t know how. One of the lads Jim had a really strong side to side collapsing gait. He led with his head and his whole upper body would rock from side to side like a pendulum and he looked like he would collapse with every step. His feet landed heavily in a stomp and you could always her him coming up behind you. He seemed to walk very little and managed to run like this for hour upon hour.Such gutsy determination! Noel was going well running easily and seeming not to be in any way stressed. Lynne looked really comfortable with the same consistent running style right from the start. Strong and steady with only the slightest bit more of a shift of the pelvis to the left than on the right. I didn’t know whether it was my physio brain appreciating good biomechanics and efficiency or was I developing lesbian tendencies due to fatigue and running behind shapely toned Lycra bums for so long. And still Thomas raced around like a hare, and still Eddie clocked along steadily lap after lap. 100 miles were called as they went through.
The final hour was called and everyone, who had been resting got back up. Some took off and ran as if this was their dying chance. I tried but my feet were so sore from blistered toenails and balls of my feet. I didn’t realise that this was what was giving me grief at the time, never having had them here before. I should have burst them and got on with it but the pressure of fluid filled bubbles when I tried to weight bear were just so uncomfortable I couldn’t force myself to run. . I don’t know what got into Iryna but she got a new lease of life and ran around and around like a hamster on a wheel. She didn’t look as if she had any aches or pains. As the clock ticked down I knew that I had covered very little ground walking and she had run almost constantly. I didn’t begrudge anyone any distance but I was determined to finish in front of her.
On the last lap or two, Yvonne was walking with me and I said that I needed to get a lap or two or running in as I was sure she was overtaking me. Off I went with teeth clenched. The final lap all I could hear was Yvonne shouting to keep running. The final minute… run as fast as you can, was all I could hear from her. Across the electronic mat – GO FASTER. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1….. The hooter went and we stopped dead where we were. I instantly just started bawling. I couldn’t stop crying. I covered my face with my hands and just howled and sobbed. It was over. The relief, the joy, the success, the achievement. I had finished. I had made it. I was so proud of myself. I felt that I had achieved something tremendous for me. For where I was at and how far I had come. I was proud that I hadn’t given up. In spite of the poor preparation and the lack of sleep and the lack of prerace feeding, I had exceeded my expectations and hopes by a long shot.The man with the wheel came to measure my extra distance past the finish line. I had covered 84.54 miles. I didn’t know at the time but I had beaten Iryna by 41metres. The official at the mat had said to Yvonne for God sake to get me to run as she was closing in on me and to shout as loud as she could. I don’t know why he favoured me over her for the last few yards, she was so pleasant throughout and we were both friendly to all and enjoyed the whole event. I think it was that he didn’t want me to be cheated after holding second woman position for so long. I wouldn’t have begrudged her the place. It was meaningless really. We both did superb and I am proud of us both. I think we achieved greater than Lynne even though she covered a staggering 92 miles but she was fitter, stronger, more conditioned and had faced worse than this. She had nothing to prove,( it seemed to me). We were only running about 2 years and we were both mothers of two children with busy lives and struggling to fit in time to train. Our 135.27 and 135.23 kms, our 338 laps were such a stretch from where we started that I feel we actually achieved more. Our victory was greater. But she deserved the title. She was the champion of us women coming overall 9th ,as well , and she was terrific.
I was so inspired by us as a bunch, especially those of us, dipping our toes into ultra running for the first time. The never say die attitude, the never giving up , the keep on going putting one foot in front of the other . The determination to continue long after people’s bodies had said ‘enough’; to keep encouraging and helping each other. It was tremendous. I don’t think in subsequent years it could be as good. There were only 19 of us and most of us got to know each other. We were a united little bunch with very inspiring leaders. We had faced a great challenge and triumphed. This event had changed us. We were not the same people who had started 24 hours earlier, heading out into the unknown. We had come through the night and faced a new day. Apart from one who had stopped at 15 miles, we had struggled on to the bitter end. I thought this was amazing. That no one gave up or quit.
Prizes were distributed and we were complimented and lauded by the organisers. Hailed as heroes we proudly received our medals and 75 mile target prizes. Then it was final goodbyes and we headed off. There were so many people who had made this a memorable and wonderful experience, from Yvonne who was a stalwart and deserved a medal too, to the other runners, especially Eddie Gallen who had such an influence on me, and all the backup crew co-ordinated by Ed Smith the organiser. It was brilliantly organised and I am sure it will go from strength to strength. I for one will be back.
I got into my car and it was hard to drive as I had blisters under the balls of my foot and they hurt like mad pressing the clutch. If i tried to do it with my toes they also hurt from the blisters under my toenails. I eventually made it to Dublin tired and hungry and checked into a hotel. I had an ice bath to cool my feet of flames. I punctured as many holes in my blisters as I could and the relief was tremendous. Why hadn’t I thought to do this earlier? No food was available so it was pillows under my feet and off for a well earned sleep. I had certainly earned it .
What a day!
The finishers were
Thomas Maguire 203.89km 127.43 miles
Eddie Gallen 191.16 119.48
Fred Hammond 177.49 110.93
Noel Hanna 160.04 100.02
Jim Moore 154.21 96.38
Graeme Colhoun 153.49 95.93
Rob Davison 148.64 92.90
Jonathon Mc Cloy 147.33 92.08
Lynne Hanna 145.24 90.77
Paul Mc Allister 136.91 85.57
Robin Alexander 136.05 85.03
Me (Finn O Mara) 135.27 84.54
Iryna Kennedy 135.23 84.52
Harry Mc Cloy 134.45 84.03
Kellie Lyttle 132.11 82.57
Marty Lennon 130.81 81.75
Keith Clarke 130.81 81.75
Dominic Mc Allister 25.20 15.75
I spent hours on the net digesting and pouring over ultra running sites (when I should have been out running) and putting feelers out on the various running forums. The answer that came back was –why not give it a try…..See how far you get and build on it for a proper go at it next year when you have trained and prepared properly. You can just step off the track when you have had enough, and it would be good to check out how it works in real time for future reference.
I did the scheduled Bogtrotters marathon a week or two later and pulled a muscle in my calf area going through a bog hole covered in grass towards the end. There were only two weeks to the 24 hour and I wasn’t sure I would make it. I decided to do nothing in the line of training and give it a total rest and see how I got on. All I would miss would be some speed work and tempo runs which would be useless at this point anyway. Although the longest time I had ever run was for 5:17 hours I hadn’t been wrecked at the end and felt that if I had had to run another hour that I would have managed it ok.
Well that left the other problem…I had no crew/helper which was a requirement. Thankfully at the last minute Yvonne, who I had met at Portumna, came on board. She was considering it for next year too, as an ankle injury also sustained in the Bogtrotters was keeping her out of her runners too. What appealed to us was the fact that, even though we are both slow, we would still reach a decent total as we are both used to being on our feet a long time. Faster runners who finish marathons in 3 hours and a bit are seldom on their feet for five hours like us down the back and we maintained that this would stand to us for an endurance event.
Advice number one : Get two good night’s sleep. So Wednesday night I got home from work about 10.30. Had a snack and went to bed. I was all alone in the house until I woke up at 1am with someone standing at the end of my bed. I nearly had a heart attack. My 80 year old father had woken up 9 years ago with a heroin addict sitting on his chest in bed. He was lucky to survive being stabbed in the chest and having his faces and head smashed in. This was the first thing that came to mind. But it was my 15 year old daughter who was on her way to the airport with her dad for her first 2 week holiday without me. She was upset and wanted to say a last goodbye. She had her own key and had let herself in quietly. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much for the rest of the night.
Thursday night I headed to bed at 9.00 pm to relax. I spent about an hour laminating business cards with white sticky labels and sellotape. I put famous motivational and inspirational quotes on them, including a few of my own and was planning on keeping them in my pocket and using them when needed during the tough hours. I was asleep by 10.30 until a friend phoned me at 11.30 to wish me well. I don’t know was it nerves starting to get to me or what, but for the life of me I couldn’t get back to sleep. At 3.45 I figured I was as well to get up and get the stuff ready for the morning. I cooked some pasta and rice and packed some food and snacks and gels and drinks into an ice chest. I was travelling onward for a weeks holidays after the run so had all that stuff to sort too. Hungry by then, I had a big bowl of branflakes. By 7am I was tired and went back to bed. I slept until 10am. When I woke up I had a lot of cramps in my gut and I couldn’t face eating anything else. Branflakes was probably not the wisest mid-night snack to have. I eventually got on the road by 1pm, not having had anything to eat since 4am. I called in to visit my sister on route, confessed where I was going and what was involved. I hadn’t actually told any of my family. She gave me some soup and bread and 3 chocolate biscuits.
Traffic was much heavier than usual, possibly due to some torrential showers and road works on the way up. I eventually arrived and found Yvonne had her tent up and had made friends already. I got my tent up in the grassy area of the centre of the track beside everyone else. Many had their own tables’ trackside in front of their tents. Got sorted out between the showers thankfully and then went up for the briefing .There was a room full of fit looking individuals including Paul Donovan an ultra hero , who was to be the race referee or something official and world ranked runners and medallists for Ireland. I had this horrible feeling that I had wandered into the wrong place. What on God’s earth was I doing here among these people. I felt so far out of my league it wasn’t funny. At least in marathons, there is plenty of company down the back. All plugging away doing the best they can and enjoying it for the most part; admiring and respecting the speedier guys and girls up the front but feeling like we are taking part in a different kind of event. This bunch looked so serious that were it not for the fact that I had made friends with some of the lads on the RW boards and they were so encouraging I think I would have gone home.
The rules and guidelines were broadly this: Only the inside two lanes had the electronic mat and you had to stay in the second one if you were walking to allow runners to keep going on the inside. There would be a change of direction every 4 hours .If you wanted to take a break you had to step off the track and back on again at a designated spot to make sure proper laps were done and were fairly accounted for. There were two toilets beside the outer lane. There were three tables with drinks and crates of: mars bars, go ahead bars (yummy) and gels and bananas which were restocked as required. This was where the hot porridge and bacon butties and hot dogs were distributed later too. All this was beside the jeep, at the back of which was the computer tracking our progress. Later I discovered you could check your progress at any time. The lads here were so helpful .There was a big clipboard and everyone’s distance was written up at the changeovers every 4 hours when we turned around and went the other direction.
Advice number 2: Go slow. Slower than you think you can and don’t leave it too late to walk.
We lined up at the start line. Big Bob took what was to be the first of many pictures through our toils and troubles in rain and sun, night and day. The start was announced. The clocked approached 6.45pm and next thing we were off… They all took off like a shot and I started trundling down the back behind them. By the time they had covered the first lap I was about half way around. I was happy enough. I knew that I wasn’t going to last if I started off fast. A voice came from the sidelines to say that I was doing a more realistic pace. That gave me a little lift. Four laps in I started to walk as planned. A girl popped up with a big TV type video camera. She asked me would I answer a few questions. There was so much going on in my head at that time trying to get settled in that it was probably unwise to agree. Why did I decide to do this? I couldn’t think of anything logical to say and blurted out something stupid; I am not a fast runner and I feel I am more like a Duracell bunny where I can go for a long time. So I wanted to see how far I could go.
Meanwhile everyone else kept running along swiftly with a small group in a little posse. As usual it was hard to switch off my physio gait analysis brain. Marty was bounding along like a gazelle. Really high backward kick and bounding up on his forefoot with arms waving wildly. I smiled to myself as I remembered a tall man in Seville who started out the same way. By the time I passed him at 20 miles he was well down on the flats of his feet and was running much more efficiently. If Marty started off the way he continued later in the day, he wouldn’t have wasted so much energy in the early stages. Fred carried his head quite far forward. I nearly had a pain in my neck looking at him. I wondered if it bothered him or was he so accustomed to it that he didn’t even notice it. Unlike many marathon runners, these guys were lovely steady runners with no unusual gimps or gaits.
I settled into my routine of running a mile-walking a lap and noticed that I seemed to keep meeting a man who passed me at the same place on the track each time. I told him I was a bit worried that I was walking way to early and while I didn’t care what the others were doing I did feel a bit out of my league on my own , doing my thing. He said that it was wise what I was doing, that the others would burn up a bit later in the day and to trust what I was doing. We met so many times in the first few hours. HE asked me my name and told me his was Eddie. He was an extraordinary runner. He was like a clockwork mouse that you wound up and let off. He had the steadiest most efficient running style I had ever seen. He was deceivingly quick too. I told him that I did actually run even though every time we met I was walking. For the rest of the 24 hours, I don’t think there was a single lap he passed me that he didn’t offer some words of encouragement or at least a small gesture of the hand. Later we had some good chats even though I’m sure I held him back on his pace. He is a wonderful runner and a lovely man and he was part of the reason why I enjoyed and got through the event as well as I did. I am forever grateful for his support and I am determined to continue with my journey in ultra running. (Eddie was the best Irish finisher at the 2010 European and World 24 hour championships covering almost 224kms.)
Yvonne at this stage was still standing in the rain under an umbrella. I don’t remember her sitting down once in the first five or six hours. Every single time I passed her she checked if there was anything I needed or wanted. If not, it was a thumb up and looking for the same in return. Whatever I wanted or needed, nothing was too much trouble. I didn’t know whether it was better to give her things to do, to make it less boring for her or whether that would be needlessly demanding. I couldn’t have been in better hands. There wasn’t a moment in the day when I needed something when she wasn’t there to provide it within moments notice. Not only did she provide back up for me but also for a lot of the others as well. Not only did she provide support and back up but encouragement for each and every one of us. It was definitely a team event. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for minding me and helping me through this.
And so it went. 4 laps’s running- changing my ring from little finger to index finger one by one, walking when I got it to the thumb. The rain started and I kept going. It started to get dark. Still everyone continued on running. Everyone seemed to be doing really well. I hadn’t noticed anyone else walking yet. There were two girls that I noticed, running side by side with their respective men. They looked fit and strong and very comfortable. Later I was to discover that the girl in pink and black (Lynne Hanna) had reached the peak of Everest with her husband Noel with whom she was running. So this wasn’t the biggest challenge of her life. The other girl Kellie, was raising money for a children’s hospital where her young son was awaiting an operation. Neither of them spoke to me for the entire duration of the event.
Jonathon who was running for prostate cancer and who had already done some major running this year (up to the Belfast marathon, did the marathon and back home – a mere 93 miles) was eating up the miles. He was quietly focussed and really covering the ground very fast. Fred looked like a steady plodder but I didn’t see him walking until the daytime, I’m sure. I couldn’t believe that one of the two triathlon lads running together was doing this, having completed an ironman triathlon a mere two weeks earlier in Roth.
By 15 miles my legs were feeling tight and I was getting worried. I wasn’t sure if it was because I wasn’t used to walking or my lack of training, but I didn’t usually feel this until about 24 miles or so. By about 4 hours in I think I was only at 18miles or so. I’m sure everyone else had gone marathon distance at this time. I didn’t notice people leaving the track but there were definitely less on the go. Yvonne had gone up to the pavilion where there was a kitchen available throughout the night ,to charge my garmin in the clubhouse . It was very useful at first to help me with pacing but it wasn’t really necessary after a while. I was glad to see her out of the miserable conditions and hoped she was warm and dry and having some refreshments herself. And on and on we ran. Pizza was delivered courtesy of Eddie Gallen. I didn’t have any. I’m not sure how it went down but it looked a bit sad after it was sitting out in the rain for a few laps. I dropped to a 3:1 ratio but found it confusing on the fingers so changed to 2:1. I started to get quite cold and decided to put on long sleeves and long trousers and a rain jacket to try and stay warm. The balls of my feet were getting very tender too and eventually I decided to have a foot massage .Peter did one foot and another girl did the other. It felt nice although my toenails were very tender and murder if they squeezed them at all .Ed the organiser came into the tent. He asked me did I have a target distance in mind. I said I wanted to get to 50 miles which I was sure I could do and after that, really anything more would be great. I knew I could do that but wasn’t sure how much I could add on. He reckoned I could make the 75 miles and I laughed. I thought that was way out there. Back on the track they were still as tender as ever and the break in the massage tent had just made me colder. I ran for perhaps another hour. By then my eyes were sore and felt stingy and focussing was a bit odd, so I decided to go to bed for an hour and take the weight off my feet and get some sleep. Yvonne climbed into her tent too. I took off my damp tops and put on my only really warm long sleeved top. I left the damp leggings on, changed my socks and climbed into my damp sleeping bag. I put my feet up on my kitbag to try and elevate them a bit. I was just settling when I heard the announcement that Eddie Gallen had just reached 100kms. Go Eddie!
I got up after about 50 minutes. Did some stretching and climbed out of my tent, trying not to wake Yvonne as I reckoned she needed sleep more than I needed anything else for a few hours. It wasn’t long though before she popped her head out and came back on duty. Hot porridge was on the go by then too. I was cold but started to warm up. Bit by bit everyone ended up back on the track again. Kellie was running very fast for a while…doing 2 minute laps. FFS !! but this was a last spurt before a break. I noticed people who hadn’t come to my attention earlier in the night. There was one guy in particular who was going really fast. Everyone else had slowed down at this stage but he was bombing around as if he had just started. I don’t know how I didn’t notice him before. I asked him what his name was, as he flew past. He said it was Thomas. Thomas Maguire is Current Irish record holder of the 100 mile distance ( 15:15 hours reached during the World Championship 24 hour race) and another extraordinary ultrarunner on the Irish team and rated sixth in the world. But I didn’t know that then.
Every four hours we changed direction. About 9 hours in, the gut cramps started to ease and it was more comfortable to feed. I was drinking regularly as best I could even with the gut cramps. Isotonic electrolyte tablets dissolved initially but then just plain water for the rest. I found the go ahead bars delicious and there were three or four biscuits in the packet. I ate one each lap, or on the walking lap. Same with the mars bar. I took a bite every lap. I never ate solid food before , even rubbish or healthy food during running events as I usually used gels and it was far less sickening and quite tasty and I never felt that big drop in energy that I sometimes do . I felt steady the whole way though. Everyone raved about the ice-cream but I did didn’t eat any of that either as I had just had a nutrigrain type bar a bit earlier. I think I only used one gel the whole 24 hours along with a couple of mars bars and maybe 3 or 4 go ahead bars and a bowl of porridge. I did eat some cold pasta during the night and walked for a good bit after it. I also had some more around lunchtime on the Saturday I think. I’m sorry that I didn’t take notes at the time. I did try to text my mate in Scotland as there would be a record on my phone of distances and times and how I was feeling but unfortunately these auto deleted before I could write them down. Without the time sheets it is hard to remember when things happened the longer time goes on.
As the day wore on I did more and more walking. I was getting tired and I stopped for a 30 minute sleep. Then back up again for more. I never felt that I wouldn’t finish the 24 hours. I knew I would be able to stay going and I was determined to stick it out. People had different strategies. Lynn seemed to run for a while and then take a longer break and then get back out again. Her husband had a similar pattern though he was on his feet and running more often and for longer. Marty or was it Graeme sat regularly for short periods in his camping chair with his sister before getting up and facing into it again. Everyone was making great progress. Robin, Jim and Rob were like warriors never giving up and in spite of obvious discomfort battled on. People walked and chatted as we went around lap after lap and I have to say I personally didn’t find it boring. My plan was to stay on the feet unless I absolutely had to sit down and then only enough for a change of shoes or a breather.
When it seemed that we had such a lot of time left and I was tired, I tried to remember the quotes , which I had left on my bedside locker. “You cannot say that you have reached your limit if you do not keep going until you have given it absolutely everything” and even “Mick Rice says I can do this”J.
I don’t know when I reached 50 miles. I think it was about mid 50s before I discovered I had passed it. It as well outside 12hours and I thought that I was going to be screwed if I was going to try and do the Comrades marathon next year. It is 56 miles. 4 or 5 major hills and a strict 12 hour cut off. Here I was on a flat track with plenty of cushioning and I wasn’t within an ass’s roar of it. I would just have to dig deeper and train hard to do it.
The hours passed but I didn’t really notice that much not having a watch on anymore. Our double ironman said that he found this event a lot tougher than the Double Ironman he had done. I wondered how Dark Vader from the RW boards was getting on. He was doing a double iron man this weekend. I hoped he gets through it. He is incredible.
One by one, people’s names were called out as they reached 100k. Everyone cheered for everyone else as it was super and we all celebrated each other’s achievements. Fred was the third man behind Thomas and Eddie. Lynn was the first girl. At some stage there was a commotion on the track. Kellie had just collapsed and was lying down. She had been feeling nauseous and couldn’t face eating or drinking so she just ran out of fuel and basically fell down. She sat out for a while and ate and drank and rested and fair dues to her she did make it back onto the track, assisted and linking arms with her crew at first .She got going herself then and covered a lot of miles in the end. When I was told I had 4 laps to my 100k. I wanted to run it and off I went. When I got across the mat, the official held up one finger. I was so disappointed. I thought he meant one more lap to get it, but what he meant was One hundred kms. It was announced just after I got passed the feeding area and I was thrilled. I remember thinking about the boys in Portumna and how I got a lump in my throat watching them going on and on until they made it to the bitter end. I was awestruck at their stamina and endurance and their bravery continuing when the body was tired and when it started to hurt even more than it was tired. I thought it was a huge distance to run. It is. I was thrilled to get there even though it took me a very long time.
I decided to sit down for 5 minutes. I had just stepped off the track when one of the officials came up to me and told me that I was the lead woman and he wanted me to know before I took a long break and did I really want to sit down? He said that Lynn had taken a long break and I had passed her. Tired and all as I was, I was excited at the thought that I might sneak ahead of her even for a short while. I was just about to go out again when he came up and apologized saying that her chip had not counted a few laps and in fact she was ahead of me once this was taken into consideration.
Meanwhile Iryna from the Ukraine was making steady progress. I hadn’t noticed her for hours. Probably cause we both ran slowly and were likely at opposites sides of the track for a lot of it. She was another amazing person. Married to a Northern Irelandman she was living here for a long time. She had wanted to swim the channel but didn’t know how to swim. So she got lessons and did it as part of a relay. She was so pleasant. She hadn’t run further than a marathon before. She had a kind of loping run in that there was minimal upward and downward motion. She had a hip thing going on where she was more like a walker .It was very efficient run and she covered ground so gracefully and so consistently. I was only half a lap ahead of her at one stage and I decided to put a spurt on and do a bit more. I think this was about 20 or 21 hours in. I put” Woman on a mission” By Gabriella Cilmi on my ipod that ATM in Scotland had put up on the RW board for me. I played it nonstop about 12 times, Singing along aloud at times. Sorry Jonathon I know I drove you mad!
“Its time for me to make a move, and I know what I gotta do
,Cos I got everything to prove I gotta plan im sticking to………
There’s only one thing on my mind and I am running out of time
Im coming through so get out of my way.
I am a woman on a mission ,Woho .Nothing can stop me I’m stronger than ever
I wanna see this through .I am a woman on a mission , whatever it takes I will do
what I gotta do.
It spurred me on and I did a lot of running in that hour, or at least it felt like I did. It had got hot and sunny and I had to change into shorts and a short sleeve top and my third pair of runners. I had peed about 3 times since the start at this stage and apart from a worsening period pain and leg stiffness I didn’t feel too bad.
That was the single most important thing I learned on this run. That once the leg aches start, that no matter how much further I went they didn’t actually get worse. What did get worse was trying to overcome the stiffness and to get started again into a run if you had walked for too long. When I started walking again after my effort I just couldn’t get the legs to run again. Not a hope. I decided to visit the massage tent again. Stripped off and got the worst torture inflicted by any therapist ever. Tears were tripping as I buried my face in the towel. My right buttock along the sacral margins was very tight and had lots of trigger points so he did a pin and stretch technique rotating my hip while holding them firmly. It was brutal. My hamstring had been tight for months but I knew that it was a local issue in the muscle belly. He did a bit here too. He said he could feel a lot of scar tissue in it but that I wouldn’t thank him for working on it now. Too right!! Then he went at my quads. This wasn’t pleasant either but it did the job and instantly I decided to run again rather than walk to get going. Eddie was still stealth running and encouraging me and Thomas was still running past like a train. Fred was sneaking along behind them wearing his finishers 100 mile t-shirt with so many peaks and troughs on it that it looked a horrendous challenge. He was doing this as a training run for the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc marathon. What he had already done so far this year was awesome and he wasn’t yet done. At 59, he was the oldest of us.
The taller of the tri boys had legs that were at this stage almost totally straight. I didn’t know how he was going to continue, but in fairness to him, continue he did to the bitter end. I don’t know how. One of the lads Jim had a really strong side to side collapsing gait. He led with his head and his whole upper body would rock from side to side like a pendulum and he looked like he would collapse with every step. His feet landed heavily in a stomp and you could always her him coming up behind you. He seemed to walk very little and managed to run like this for hour upon hour.Such gutsy determination! Noel was going well running easily and seeming not to be in any way stressed. Lynne looked really comfortable with the same consistent running style right from the start. Strong and steady with only the slightest bit more of a shift of the pelvis to the left than on the right. I didn’t know whether it was my physio brain appreciating good biomechanics and efficiency or was I developing lesbian tendencies due to fatigue and running behind shapely toned Lycra bums for so long. And still Thomas raced around like a hare, and still Eddie clocked along steadily lap after lap. 100 miles were called as they went through.
The final hour was called and everyone, who had been resting got back up. Some took off and ran as if this was their dying chance. I tried but my feet were so sore from blistered toenails and balls of my feet. I didn’t realise that this was what was giving me grief at the time, never having had them here before. I should have burst them and got on with it but the pressure of fluid filled bubbles when I tried to weight bear were just so uncomfortable I couldn’t force myself to run. . I don’t know what got into Iryna but she got a new lease of life and ran around and around like a hamster on a wheel. She didn’t look as if she had any aches or pains. As the clock ticked down I knew that I had covered very little ground walking and she had run almost constantly. I didn’t begrudge anyone any distance but I was determined to finish in front of her.
On the last lap or two, Yvonne was walking with me and I said that I needed to get a lap or two or running in as I was sure she was overtaking me. Off I went with teeth clenched. The final lap all I could hear was Yvonne shouting to keep running. The final minute… run as fast as you can, was all I could hear from her. Across the electronic mat – GO FASTER. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1….. The hooter went and we stopped dead where we were. I instantly just started bawling. I couldn’t stop crying. I covered my face with my hands and just howled and sobbed. It was over. The relief, the joy, the success, the achievement. I had finished. I had made it. I was so proud of myself. I felt that I had achieved something tremendous for me. For where I was at and how far I had come. I was proud that I hadn’t given up. In spite of the poor preparation and the lack of sleep and the lack of prerace feeding, I had exceeded my expectations and hopes by a long shot.The man with the wheel came to measure my extra distance past the finish line. I had covered 84.54 miles. I didn’t know at the time but I had beaten Iryna by 41metres. The official at the mat had said to Yvonne for God sake to get me to run as she was closing in on me and to shout as loud as she could. I don’t know why he favoured me over her for the last few yards, she was so pleasant throughout and we were both friendly to all and enjoyed the whole event. I think it was that he didn’t want me to be cheated after holding second woman position for so long. I wouldn’t have begrudged her the place. It was meaningless really. We both did superb and I am proud of us both. I think we achieved greater than Lynne even though she covered a staggering 92 miles but she was fitter, stronger, more conditioned and had faced worse than this. She had nothing to prove,( it seemed to me). We were only running about 2 years and we were both mothers of two children with busy lives and struggling to fit in time to train. Our 135.27 and 135.23 kms, our 338 laps were such a stretch from where we started that I feel we actually achieved more. Our victory was greater. But she deserved the title. She was the champion of us women coming overall 9th ,as well , and she was terrific.
I was so inspired by us as a bunch, especially those of us, dipping our toes into ultra running for the first time. The never say die attitude, the never giving up , the keep on going putting one foot in front of the other . The determination to continue long after people’s bodies had said ‘enough’; to keep encouraging and helping each other. It was tremendous. I don’t think in subsequent years it could be as good. There were only 19 of us and most of us got to know each other. We were a united little bunch with very inspiring leaders. We had faced a great challenge and triumphed. This event had changed us. We were not the same people who had started 24 hours earlier, heading out into the unknown. We had come through the night and faced a new day. Apart from one who had stopped at 15 miles, we had struggled on to the bitter end. I thought this was amazing. That no one gave up or quit.
Prizes were distributed and we were complimented and lauded by the organisers. Hailed as heroes we proudly received our medals and 75 mile target prizes. Then it was final goodbyes and we headed off. There were so many people who had made this a memorable and wonderful experience, from Yvonne who was a stalwart and deserved a medal too, to the other runners, especially Eddie Gallen who had such an influence on me, and all the backup crew co-ordinated by Ed Smith the organiser. It was brilliantly organised and I am sure it will go from strength to strength. I for one will be back.
I got into my car and it was hard to drive as I had blisters under the balls of my foot and they hurt like mad pressing the clutch. If i tried to do it with my toes they also hurt from the blisters under my toenails. I eventually made it to Dublin tired and hungry and checked into a hotel. I had an ice bath to cool my feet of flames. I punctured as many holes in my blisters as I could and the relief was tremendous. Why hadn’t I thought to do this earlier? No food was available so it was pillows under my feet and off for a well earned sleep. I had certainly earned it .
What a day!
The finishers were
Thomas Maguire 203.89km 127.43 miles
Eddie Gallen 191.16 119.48
Fred Hammond 177.49 110.93
Noel Hanna 160.04 100.02
Jim Moore 154.21 96.38
Graeme Colhoun 153.49 95.93
Rob Davison 148.64 92.90
Jonathon Mc Cloy 147.33 92.08
Lynne Hanna 145.24 90.77
Paul Mc Allister 136.91 85.57
Robin Alexander 136.05 85.03
Me (Finn O Mara) 135.27 84.54
Iryna Kennedy 135.23 84.52
Harry Mc Cloy 134.45 84.03
Kellie Lyttle 132.11 82.57
Marty Lennon 130.81 81.75
Keith Clarke 130.81 81.75
Dominic Mc Allister 25.20 15.75
