This morning we head off to join our team mates at Catton
Park for the Thunder Run where they seem to have been in residence for months
but it’s only actually been 24 hours. I think they suspect we’re not coming but
we don’t let folk down, only ourselves occasionally and the people who organise
the Leeds Half. Which we both bailed on but they probably didn’t notice.
We pitch our tent, meet our team of eight known collectively
as the Unbr8kables and then head off to the race briefing where again there is
no mention of an allocated holding area where you can store your dogs while you
do the hand over. It would have been nice for L and I to run consecutively but given
this organisational omission we are allocated places three and five in the running
order.
The weather is already quite warm and the midday sun beams
down as the race kicks off with a spectacular mass start at 12 noon. Our lead
out man puts a marker down with a 53 minute lap and battle has commenced.
I have no idea how many teams are in the event but there are
over 250 in the teams of eight category alone. As well as the eights there are teams
of five and then there are the real nutters. Those doing it in pairs and those
doing it solo.
By the time I do my first lap at 2:15, which is a little later
than I’d predicted with runner number two doing a more leisurely 80 minute lap,
it seems incredibly hot. The first problem though is not the heat but recognising
my team mate who I only met a few hours before and has since changed her
running top. Eventually when it becomes clear no one else is going to take the
baton off the girl who is standing there looking lost and confused as well as
knackered I do. I just hope that was my team mate who slammed the snap band (the
baton) onto my arm.
During my lap the heat does takes its toll as a hilly 10km
off-road course. It’s enjoyable though and it nice the way the route meanders
through the campsites enabling good support to be available across most of it. I
am also hampered by making the wrong shoe choice, perhaps the trail shoes that
I’ve never ran further than the length of a dog agility course in were not the best
selection on such hard baked ground. Standard cushioned running shoes might
have been wiser.
I come in with a foot full of blisters but even that could probably
have been prevented had it not been for the schoolboy error of not lacing them
up tightly enough. The time though is 50:35 and the dodgy calf is fine. Get in.
Now just what did the girl I was handing over to look like?
Not this one, or this one, or... hmmm, she’ll do. Now I’ve either performed two
successful changeovers or we’re about to be disqualified. As I meet up again
with L, she doesn’t seem alarmed at who I’ve just tagged into the race so hopefully
it’s the former.
I’m buzzing after my run and feel like I’d like to go around
again asap but it’s a minimum of eight hours to my next lap.
It’s so hot now that even L is drinking fluids and she has
purchased a ‘Secret Training’ bottle which comes with free refills of watermelon
or lemon and lime or mango and others. Then after a 60 minute lap from whoever
I tagged in its L’s turn. Will her ankle hold up? I’m not sure if she’s ran
this weekend by her physio but I guess what she doesn't know won't hurt her. I
wave L off and then head off to get a ham and cheese roll from the car to perk
myself up.
L does well with a 74 minute lap and then we can both chill
for a bit. We visit the Shardlow Brewery’s bar which is aboard a Routemaster
Bus. We daren’t drink too much and instead head back to the car to heat up some
pasta for our evening meal.
I was hoping for a second lap at around 10pm based on us
averaging 60 minute laps but that was a bit optimistic and I start my second
lap at 11:35pm, by which time it’s a lot cooler. This time the girl who is
running before me gives me a fashion show before she sets off, showing me her
brightly coloured ‘wasp’ attire so I shouldn’t miss her this time and I don’t.
What we really need is an inflatable haddock like some of the other teams have
which clearly identifies them to all and sundry.
We purchased some really good head torches a few years ago
and these really come into their own this weekend, lighting up the course brilliantly.
It had been suggested that carrying a hand torch as well would be useful but I
certainly didn’t need one. All the same I stalk a girl who was running at about
my pace so that I can use her light as well as mine.
The only problem was that when I stopped for drink at the
water station at halfway she didn’t. I downed my drink quickly and sprinted off
after her but then we headed into a narrow wooded section where a slower run
got between us. I saw her in the distance getting further and further away.
Bugger. I eventually squeezed past the other runner, upped my pace and then
went down like a Premiership footballer looking for a penalty. Where did that
tree root come from? Well actually they are everywhere and I just wasn’t paying
attention.
My battery pack becomes detached and it takes me a while to
reassemble everything. Then I have to pass the same runner again, the girl
meanwhile is long gone or so I thought. I now run my own race and probably run
quickly, then about 2k before the finish I pass the girl and leave her for dust
coming home in 54:30. Not bad at all. Again I’m itching to go around again
having really enjoyed my night time lap.
Now it would be great to get a bit of kip as its half past
midnight, and almost my bedtime, but L is off out in an hour. So it is not
until L gets back around 3am that we finally turn in. I get around four and a
half hours sleep before I’m up again and ready to run again at 9:30am.
It’s cooler this morning and light of course, which all makes
for a really enjoyable last lap. The on course support and camaraderie has been
great throughout, even at night, from both those watching and those actually on
the course running. This time I get round in 53:39 and tag girl four who is
tasked with getting round in enough time for L to start the team’s last lap
before 12 noon and bring it home. Naturally she is terrified about this
prospect but she sets off with twenty minutes to go before noon giving her plenty
of time to soak up the atmosphere.
Those of us without dogs (e.g. not me) join her for the last
stretch and all cross the line together. The team has done 21 laps between us, that’s
210km. Which is a pretty good effort.
So were the Unbr8kables broken? Not a bit of it. We would
not be broken. In fact my calves survived 30k and L’s ankle maybe 30k worse off
but she’s still walking, just.
We had tentatively thought about doing it as a pair next
year but I’m not sure that will happen, a five would be nice though.
