How about this little bump, 100km in to a ~108km race.
https://www.strava.com/segments/10672091?filter=overall
That’s going to be even worse when they run the 100miler next year. Add another 50/60km into your legs, then attack this nasty little lump!!!
Excellent result, and crazy speed at start. How did you get on with Maurten?
#flat 
That hill is very bad because it’s just so damn steep and comes at the end but had it not been at the end, I would have found the climb out of Lynmouth to be the hardest. That bastard just went on forever!
I also lost my sense of humour badly in two places on that course. the first one was wading through all that mud where they were doing the logging. The second was leaving CP2 and walking across those massive pebbles. 
EDIT apologies but this is a really disconnected and jumbled post.
Cheers Matt.
Yeah, went off a bit hot. 10km in 42 mins and 1/2 mara in about 1.46 (and that included a 3-4 min aid station break to fill the bottles etc). Thought it would come back to bite me. Impossible to say whether it did or not.
As for the maurten, yeah i think it’s a goer. I had one down patch on it, quite early on where i thought my high risk strategy was doomed. I’d lost one of my bottles, so was left with no water (had saltstick capsules luckliy) and just 2 x 500ml of maurten. It was still a warm night and i was sweating buckets. All my clothes were soaked. I really worried that i was doomed as each aid station was around 19-22km apart. Luckily managed to snag another bottle at 1/2 way.
But then i found a system that seemed to work for me. 1 x 500ml high 5 on one side, 1 x 500ml maurten on the other and then one 500ml maurten in the back of the pack - VERY secure this time. Well i say that, it actually fell out again, but luckily hit my trail leg as i was running! very lucky.
I supplemented it very slightly with a nakd bar and/or spicy peperami between stations. I ensured i got at least one of the maurten’s in, and sipped the high 5 to thirst (i was also taking saltsticks every hour or so to keep up the electrolytes). I really could’ve done with more fluids to drink throughout the whole thing. But carrying 1.5l was already plenty, so not really sure how i could get around that other than stop being such a sweaty mess!!
So on the whole i think it was a pretty positive experiment/training race. I ran through the field into 5th across the line, time would’ve put me into 4 th just a few mins behind 3rd. 2nd was 25mins up and 1st was 50 mins up the road.
i did however get badly lost 3 times. I’ve just looked back at strava and that worth over 30 mins alone. That’s on top of the mental anguish and frustration tat threatened to derail things. Thank god for pro plus. It literally dug me out of that hole!!!
All in all i’m very happy. May still write a report later on, as it was quite eventful. i only started ‘training’ on the 1st September. So put in 4 out of 5 weeks at between 60-70 km. That’s it. So plenty of positives before Brecon in Dec. Though that is going to be a different beast altogether!!!
Haha, yes they were both pretty grim weren’t they!! That mud was ridiculous from those stupid logging vehicles. On the 100 there as also a section behind Woolacombe beach, in the dunes on the soft sand!! That wasn’t cool!
One thing I found with this race is that is much more poorly marked than Dartmoor in a Day. I went wrong twice in the daytime. I have no idea how you saw those acorn signs or tiny black on white arrows at night!
That’s by design though to be fair. All of these events state that nav is the athlete’s responsibility as they are (generally) on fully waymarked national trails. The event signs, glow sticks etc are then supplementary in a few of the more tricky areas.
The team have deliberately steered clear of the European style ‘flag every few metres’ type approach in order to keep it low(er) key. Some people love it for that, others not so much. Just depends on what you want/need/expect from a race i guess. But it definitely isn’t a switch off and run type of event.
Yeah fair point. It’s probably my inexperience (and frustration when I was already slow). I found the lack of signage out of Porlock hard going and I nearly missed the 180 turn to get down to Lynmouth.
I think it was the multiple signpost options of the trails that threw me a bit. This is what happens when your first ultra is a namby pamby, fully catered, neon lighted Race to the King (bloody newbies 
)
My report that I wrote for the Aussies:
So, after one of my earlier ultras was downgraded (retrospectively) to 3 ITRA points, I found myself needing a 3pt race in a bit of a hurry. There are quite a few point scoring races left in the UK calendar but most of them are very long, arduous races that take place in the depths of winter, which doesn’t float my inexperienced ultra boat right now.
There was one race however, back in the south west called the ‘North Coast 50’. It’s actually 56km and starts in Coombe Martin in Devon and finishes in Minehead, Somerset and follows the South West Coastal Path, which is a mix of muddy single track, coast path, rocky descents and very tricky woodland. None of which is the main issue, the main issue is the 2330 mtrs of vert!
I stayed at Mum’s on Friday, which is about a 90min drive to Minehead. I headed down at 3.30am ready to catch the 5.30am shuttle to the start. The weather was very bad, cats and dogs rains, as it had been for the last few days. There was a disagreement between organisers and the coach driver about the route to the start, the coach driver won, went the long way and that meant a 30min delay to the start time. This was a blessing, as the rain had stopped when we started.
There was also a 100km version of the race which started at 10pm the night before, further down the coast and then picking up our route at just before halfway for them. Because of this and the rain, the trail was very very muddy and your feet were going sideways more than forward. Could really have done with a pair of full on winter lugged trail shoes, as my Speedgoat IIs weren’t coping well. I was using my new Leki poles though, which were brilliant.
This course is extremely lumpy, and what descents there were seemed to be either rock strewn or woodland covered in wet leaves. After my big fall at Easter and at another ultra earlier in the year, I’m not a confident descender and lost many places descending. My climbing is improving though.
The race itself did not go well for me. My body had had enough by about 20kms in and everything was hurting and we still have the big challenges to come. These were the climb out of Lynmouth after CP1, which just seems to go on forever, the rock beach section of Porlock Weir after CP2 and the huge challenge of Porlock hill, 8kms from the end.
I won’t bore with the gory details but this was not my day. I had many more lows than highs, can’t say I enjoyed it, felt like bailing at CP2 my a spray for my migraine and a cup of tea helped. I fell over with 6kms to go also. 4 Weeks ago I did a 52km race and came 30/105. In this race I was close to last and the only people I had overtaken were the 100km walkers.
A very miserable 10hrs06, yep, not an error. 10;06 for 56km freakin kms. Beautiful views and I have my UTMB points but I’m struggling to take the positives at the moment.
Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes the nail!
Haha. Nah, like i said. It just depends what personally you want/expect from a race.
Nice little write up though. Sorry to hear you had such a tough day, but what doesn’t kill you an all that. Just remember that whilst CCC or UTMB or whatever you’re chasing is going to be the full party. There’s a lot of hills, properrrr hills in them there mountains! hahaha
I had noticed that UTMB are doing a Pyrenean race next year as well .That looks quite cool. Lavaredo registration opens soon as well. Not that i’ll be getting abroad for a while to race. Well i guess Wales is back over the border.
LIke you say. today is another day. Dust yourself down and get ready to fly again!
Cheers GB. Re UTMB, the irony is that now I have the experience to get the points, I’ve also had enough of a reality check to know that it would extremely tight for me. Stephen Cummins is a slightly faster road runner than me and he struggled badly at CCC. Bottom line is, I don’t think I’d make it if I was drawn next year.
I’m also not prepared to drag the family to Chamonix, pay a fortune for lodgings, just to enter a race I have little chance of making, or more importantly, enjoying. OCC could be a better choice with less pressure, or maybe the whole UTMB thing just isn’t important any more?
i do know I’m better at climbing and can power hike those hills way better than I could at the start of the year. It’s my descending where I just hemorrhage time.
I’m starting learn about which type of races suit me and which ones don’t. I’m also learning that I’m not as adaptable to all sorts of trail courses, as I am to all sorts of cycling courses. I think i prefer the longer/rolling stuff, rather than shorter and spiky. But I’m still a newbie.
Loving my trail running but can’t say I’m in tune with all aspects of it yet and I definitely want to avoid burn out by aiming too high, too quickly.
results are in. 55/83 
This will be me - a namby pamby Race to the King newbie 
Hence why I watch this thread with interest and already have Maurten on my list to try. I’m hoping you and Gingerbongo will be a source of information:wink:
Well I can help you with getting to the start on time. GB can help with just about everything else.
Centurion Autumn 100 coming up this weekend
Anyone else up for a slow muddy plod in the rain ?
was due to do the A100 to complete the Centurion Grand Slam 100’s but have had to pull out - 2 months of too little training and crazy hours at work. Gutted. Did the A100 a few years ago in 22:45 which is my best ever time for a 100. Hope the weather holds for you.
Gutted for you, a Grand Slam would have been a great achievement.
Weather is looking mainly showery during the day with some heavy rain after dark, before back to more showers, should be fun !
I’ll be there Doug - just looking to finish after being a bit of a bad year fitness wise. Tunster sorry to hear that - was looking forward to meeting you .
Good luck you guys.