Just over 9 years after earning my first Welsh vest for a 10 km road race in Manchester, I earned my second last week. This vest was different, my first chance to represent my country overseas, and an opportunity to race an ultra on the stunning Brittany trails. It was also the first time Welsh Athletics had sent an ultra team to the Interceltic Trail Races and a great opportunity for me to race against some of the best trail runners on the continent. I thought the Welsh trails were tough but this was something else...I've spent a lot of time running around the Gower and have been up to the Afan Forest and Brecon Beacons a few times. The hills in these parts can be long and never ending, and the Gower coastline provides you with a challenging set of rolling hills. I thought this training would have prepared me well for what I was going to face in Brittany, but I wasn't quite right. The race was a 65 km (40 miles) trail race around Lake Guerlédan with ~2,500 metres of elevation, but the highest point on the course was only 265 metres. So I was expecting a lot of ups and downs. Nothing I wasn't prepared for, I've been training on the Gower a lot recently and clocking up 2,000 metres or more of elevation for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I had seen the winning time from last year, 5 hours 50 mins, and I was confident that this was achievable. The race got off to a fast start. Luckily I'd positioned myself at the front to avoid any bottlenecking and the first mile took us 128 metres uphill at 7:53/mile. The second mile flattened out a bit but had a lot of downhill and this was my fastest mile of the day in 6:16. I was in a good position, in the first 10 runners and running in a group of 6. As this was only my third ever ultra trail race, I was surprised to have so much company and was enjoying the prospect of racing against some of the best in Europe for 40 miles. The field had several professional trail and mountain runners and locals who knew the area well and had done the race before. It wasn't going to be easy but I knew I could put in a good performance. I maintained my position well until the ninth mile when I really learned what the Brittany trails were all about. The downhills were very technical, nothing like I have ever run on before. The ground underfoot was dry but loose and the best way to describe it is like a mountain bike trail. I'm used to the Gower trails with long and straight hills, but the Brittany trails zig-zag through trees and roots. It's the biggest technical challenge I have ever faced on the trails and I wasn't taking the downhills with the speed that I normal do at home. At mile 9, I found myself running down a steep hill with a group of French runners piling up behind me. I tried to race them and maintain my position on the single track. But then, suddenly, a slight drop and I landed and twisted my left ankle. The group passed me as I assessed the damage. It was nothing too bad and within 10 seconds or so I was able to carry on running with the pain. It would subside shortly afterwards as, when trying to make up for the time and distance I had lost when twisting my ankle, I kicked a tree root and tripped, sliding face down through the undergrowth, coming to a stop when my shoulder collided with a tree. The ankle pain certainly went away. I got myself back up onto my feet and brushed myself off. A few scrapes down my right arm and leg but nothing that I wasn't able to run with. I set off on the trail again and I couldn't see the runners I had been running with previously. I think a few more may have passed me on those downhills too. This was a bigger challenge than I was expecting. I decided to keep my cool and concentrate on running a decent time, finishing the race without any more mishaps. Under 7:00 hours was a good target considering I was new to the trails, and this was the biggest trail running challenge I had ever faced. A few more French runners passed me on the downhills and I took the opportunity to observe their technique. How were they able to take the corners so well and move down the hill at such speed? As the trails were through wooded areas, they would come past me and disappear within a matter of seconds. I wanted to know how they did it. After watching several runners I found that they all run on their toes with small, fast steps. As a result of running on the long straight hills in South Wales, I have longer strides and tend to heel strike. It might be effective for the straight hills, but the twisting and turning downhills don't lend themselves to my technique. I tried to copy the technique I had observed but struggled and felt unsteady and unnatural. This is certainly something I'll be working on to make a better challenge if I'm selected to run in Brittany again next year. Another thing that I noticed about the runners around me was that they were all carrying much less kit than me. I had 1 litre of water on my back, 2x 500 ml bottles on my front, all of my food and extra just in case. The locals had a waist belt with one water bottle. They obviously knew the trails and points where they could get crews to hand them food and topped up drinks. It's that local knowledge that I just didn't have. I must have been carrying 3/4 extra kilograms compared to the experienced locals and this will have slowed me down a bit. Despite carrying more weight in my pack than everyone else, I didn't struggle with energy at all and I didn't struggle with hydration despite the temperature reaching 28 degrees celsius by the end of the race. I was pleased with how my nutrition went. By carrying so much water with me, It meant that I didn't have to stop for long at the checkpoints like some of the French runners did. I just filled up my empty bottle(s), threw my head under the cold shower and off I went again. I think this helped me to claw back some positions, especially towards the end of the race where I passed quite a few runners at checkpoints. My nutrition strategy was quite simple - break the race into two 20 miles and use the same strategy for both. I took in fluids throughout and refilled my front 2x 500 ml bottles with water at every opportunity. From the start, one of the 500 ml bottles had electrolytes in but I used water only after this was empty. Food-wise, I had two energy jellies and a flapjack (in 3 portions), to take in around 15 g of carbohydrate per hour. It wasn't a massive amount of energy to take in but it worked perfectly on the day. Maybe if I was able to tackle the downhills faster, some more energy would have helped and this is something for me to bear in mind for next year.
I'm almost fully recovered from the race now and as I sit down to reflect on how it went, I'm slightly disappointed with my finish (6:58:35, 23 rd place out of ~1,000 starters). I really thought I would be in the top 10 at the very least. But, I can put it down to lacking local knowledge and experience running on the types of trails I described above. I know what I need to do to improve and the experience has given me something to work towards. I definitely need to do more short trail races to get used to running fast on technical trails and that's something I'm looking forward to doing for the rest of this year. But next, after a couple of 3000 m steeplechase races in the UK Athletics League, my focus is on the Gloucester 24 hour race in August where I'm looking forward to another new experience.
1 Comment
Val Rothwell
4/6/2023 06:00:44 am
Well done Dan x
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