Shropshire 3 Peaks - Beyond Marathon

After a couple of months racing and training in Europe I had a spare weekend before I came out to France to hold one of my trail running coaching holidays and it just nicely coincided with the Shropshire 3 peaks race. 40 miles with just over 2000m ascent. I know the area quite well after doing the Apocalypse 100 and 50 mile and also The D.O.N in the same area. Although I didn't specifically recce the route at all but I found that I knew more than half of it from those events.

I like the idea of a linear route and got entered. Soon enough race day, 4 am alarm, in the car at 4.30 and in Ludlow at 6.05, time for a quick drive around the finishing miles and a few laps of some small back roads to find the Rugby club and get registered. Bus to start, all on time and we're gathered just after 8am to hit the trails.

I ran with the Garmin which I'd loaded the route on although didn't really need it initially as the route description was great. Pretty much a few minutes along a narrow trail before it opened out into fields and tracks and small country lanes to reach Stiperstones village and the first bit of ascent. The first climb is about 3km gaining 250m so over before you know it. As I jogged up the views over Shropshire came into view and I have to say it was pretty stunning! I had the Stiperstones ridge to myself and knocked out the next fast 5km section at a good pace before another gradual climb of 3km gaining about 200m up on to the top above Carding mill valley. I descended pretty fast and hit the first checkpoint just over 1 hour 20 for 17km and carried straight on to the ascent of Raglan (not one of the 3 highest peaks but a nice addition) This is probably the steepest climb but it's barely even 1km long so over and done with pretty quickly before some more fast kms to Eaton and up on to Wenlock edge and the 2nd cp at Wilderhope Manor.

One of the volunteers cars wasn't too keen on making it to the 2nd checkpoint so a bit of quick thinking and Wendy was ready and waiting for me with some water before following the route from The D.O.N in reverse (pretty much) to get to Brown Clee hill. I got a bit confused after the hill and spent a couple of minutes figuring out what trail to take about a km later as I'd realised I left the route description at the previous checkpoint. I got the gps out and checked the map before making a second mistake not long after as I ran down a farm track that was parallel to the footpath and reached a dead end. Just a careless mistake to be honest when I realised.

I was closing in on the final cp and also the final hill. It was perfect weather. Not seen a cloud so far and it was nice and warm now in the sun. I stopped for a quick chat at the final cp and I was now in totally new trails that I'd never been on which was quite exciting. I was told the gap behind to 2nd was likely to be over an hour by now though I looked at the watch and thought I could still make the sub 6 hour time. I made my way steadily up the climb and passed a few walkers here and there. You're again rewarded with some fast kms as it's pretty much downhill all the way to the finish over the final 10km. For me the trickiest bit to navigate was the final couple of kms of fields. The signs are there and the route description was pretty spot on it's just a little bit fiddly looking for styles and gates in the fields and hedges. Some lively cows just near some sort of big water pipe/ river that decided they wanted to run around in circles with me until I spotted the gap in the hedge to get out of the field and hit the final road section down into Ludlow and through the town. I pushed quite hard over the last part to try and sneak under the hour. I knew it would be close but didn't look at the watch and just ran.... At least I was 5minutes off the hour and not 1 minute off! 6 hr 5 min all done. I was happy with how the legs did, a bit of lazy nav cost me those few minutes.

After the finish I grabbed a shower and plenty of food and drink and waited just over an hour, as long as I could but had to get back up home for dinner out and a flight after that and so didn't actually get to see anyone else finish. The 2nd and 3rd runner came in together just as I was driving out.

It's a great route taking in many of the Shropshire highlights! There are some great trails indeed. It would make a good first ultra providing you're able to do some easy navigation and have basic map reading skills. Mostly good trails and runnable with a few climbs thrown in there to keep you entertained! If you get the chance to do this route I hope you get such beautiful weather too!
Thanks to the team for looking after us all and well done all who made it out of bed so early to take on the race!

Beskidy Ultra Trail 220km Poland

Beskidy Ultra Trail 220km (BUT 220) 11 000m ascent.
A first time in Poland for me. I saw the race pop up on an advert and the elevation grabbed my attention. Anyway, within 5 minutes of being on the site I entered and booked some flights seeing as I'd not been abroad on holiday yet this year.

This was a much more hilly race than what I've done before although not quite as long as the Viking Way it was far harder due to the terrain, navigation, gradients and generally unfamiliar territory. 

It took me 41 hours 7 minutes and some seconds which is the most time I've run for.

I really enjoyed the event aside from a bit of frustration regarding the markings, just waiting for the medals to be posted out too as they weren't ready for us unfortunately. I'd recommend the race if you're after a big challenge although I'd like to experience more countries and different races before I go back. It's going to make Ultima Frontera 160km in 2 weeks feel easy ;) 

The course profile below does obviously look hill highest point 1725m in the middle there. I usually look at race profiles and think wow that looks hilly, then turns out that the hills weren't as bad. This is the only race i've looked at a profile and thought hmm tough, and then it's actually even tougher than I imagined.

In terms of training for it I didn't do anything specific but have been running on the most mountainous terrain I can most of the year which has meant travelling to the Lakes or Snowdonia and the odd weekend in the Peak District. Despite this even the biggest climbs we have in the UK didn't seem to add up to what Poland had.

The race started 8am Friday morning and so I ran from then all day, through the night, then through Saturday and finished just after 1am on the Sunday morning. It is the first time I have actually fallen asleep and fallen onto the ground whilst running, literally as if someone just switched me off. A quick dust off and then continue.

So the race started with a climb up over 1000m within the first 10k. It was pretty cool on the start line, I opted for a long sleeve top and gloves which I added a jacket and hat to at various points in the race. It was a nice temperature to run in although you'd soon get cold if you were stood around.

After a couple of climbs and a few hours of running the field was very spread and I didn't see anyone around for much of the first day. I was running somewhere around 10th I guessed although my main focus was to stay on track and just keep going at a steady pace. Some stunning views off the peaks. Much of the areas we ran through turn into ski areas through the winter. The only bit of ice or snow was on the highest peak which I hit in the early hours of the Saturday morning.

Much of the trail was forest tracks with some technical root and rocky sections too. Some areas where seemingly being deforested and had branches lying around to stumble on. The weather stayed dry despite some heavy rain the day before the race. With some rain the course would have been incredibly technical and much more strenuous!

The average trail conditions for the race. Nice!

Generally each section was a big climb up from a town, a long descent into another town, a couple of km across the town and then to a CP then repeat!

 Sunset on the Friday night. Was really great to have the views. By this point I was around 80-90km in after 12 hours. Quite slow going for me although considering the terrain I was happy and moving well.

Sunrise here I think. Somewhere around 80 miles approximately?

The highest point of the course, there was someone up here in a sleeping bag (nothing to do with the race) I imagine the sunrise up here would have been a sight to see especially on such a clear night. It was a couple of hours after this where my falling asleep running episodes occurred.

 Here on the Saturday evening. Approaching some sort of reservoir at Zar which seemed to take forever to run along. After this was a loooong sustained descent. I could feel the heat from my quads going down this! There is a GPS assisted Hungarian chap who I had the chance to run with for many hours during the Saturday, eventually we parted ways and I moved ahead as the course became more well marked towards the end.

The average view during the night, the odd adrenaline boost when you shine your torch around and see dozens of eyes reflecting back in the woods (presumably deer) and then the rustling and trampling and pounding of footsteps as they run into the darkness.

And the view from the hotel the Sunday morning. Beautiful weather again, The last finisher was some 59 hours! The race had a cut off of 64 hours. To put that in perspective I'd finished, had a night in the hotel, travelled to the airport had a few hours there, flown to the UK, driven home and had dinner and there they were finishing. That is an epic performance in my view! Good on them for being so determined and keeping going for 2 and a half days!!

Some top tips for racing abroad...

1. If you have GPS use it and get the route in! If not get a good map of the area. We were not meant to need maps as we had a well marked route and instructions but for a few spots these weren't enough and I had to wait for competitors to catch me who knew the way. I would have saved literally 3-5 hours with a map. 

2. Find out as much as you can about the area and trails and weather etc. You can plan your kit better and shoe choice etc, I had my kit spot on although carried some extra layers and spare jacket 'just incase' and didn't need them although If I'd had to stop anywhere high up I would've needed them.

3. If you know a few basic words of the language it'll help. Things like thank you, hello, water, etc although there was always someone that spoke English everywhere I went.

4. Train appropriately, hopefully this is obvious but having done some pretty big weeks of elevation (for someone who lives in a flat area at least) my legs didn't struggle with the course and fitness wasn't an issue which meant I could focus on keeping on track. 

5. Try and minimize the stresses between door to door. I booked a transfer from the airport to my hotel which cost a bit more than a train or bus but saved me hours of waiting and changing over etc and meant I had a friendly face at the airport (possibly a body builder or security person when he's not driving tourists around?)  

6. Keep hydrated and keep your nutrition in check whilst travelling to the event. I took a couple of 'Performance Meals' and 9 bars to munch on and then topped up with a meal in the restaurant the night before, save having to trawl through the airport food.