Spine Challenger: pre race
09/01/20 21:52
A B race wouldn't usually warrant a pre-race blog. And having been ill for a lot of the last month, the Spine Challenger has been downgraded to "hopefully finish, failing that DNF in a manner which causes minimal inconvenience to the organisers or myself". I spent last week flip-flopping between "it's nothing more than a standard fast-packing weekend with some sleep deprivation thrown in" and "Arggggh it's a 100 miles on the Pennine Way in January". And today I've been feeling slightly sick and anxious in a way I haven't since the full Spine back in 2014. (I'm desperately hoping this is nerves and not the precursor to another bout of puking...). There's a lot going on in my head, and it's better dumped out now rather than in the middle of a bog in the dark, wind and rain.
Back in 2013 the Challenger was my 'gateway race' into multi-day events, which have turned out to be my (running) thing. I followed the very first Spine Race back in 2012. Which back then involved checking the web-page for daily updates. That Summer I finished a disatisfying weather-shortened version of UTMB, the race which had lured me in to ultra running. By that point I'd realised that I was crap at mountain running and plodding on the flat was more my thing, and was planning to target GUCR and a sub-24 hour 100. However a tweet from the Spine Race saying that they wouldn't stop/cancel the race for bad weather (ha ha!) was enough to make me enter the Challenger to dispel the post-race blues.
I spent the Autumn getting used to the Pennine Way and bivying out. Come the race, I spent the first day plodding along with a huge rucksack, off the back of the field and paranoid that I'd get pulled for being too slow. But as other people slowed down I kept going and worked my way through most of the back of the field. Despite stopping to sleep twice I ended up finishing in 53 and a half hours, in 7th place out of 12 finishers (out of 18 starters) and 1st out of 2 women, which won me a free entry for the full race the next year. [Full disclosure: The leading woman in that year's full race got to the Challenger finish in Hawes before me, and the women's course record is now roughly a day faster than my time...]
Things got very hairy on the Cheviots in 2013, and I didn't decide that I was definitely going to take the free place until September. I was also injured, so my training involved lugging a slightly less large rucksack up and down the Pennine Way and also a steep hill on a local golf course. If I'd realised what a huge step up the Spine race was from anything I'd done before, I probably wouldn't have done it. But I (mostly happily) plodded my way to the finish in 6 and a half days, again at the 'front of the back of the pack'.
I've never really wanted to do the full Spine again. Partly because I've realised that I'm better suited to flat races, where I can deploy my 'shuffle'. Partly because the temptation would be to try and finish faster, whereas the weather plays a huge role in finishing times (and even whether a finish is possible). And partly because I wanted to stick with my 100% finisher record. In fact for several years I convinced myself I'd only managed to finish because of the 'good' weather (in Spine terms: no heavy snow or gale force winds). More recently there have a couple more 'good' weather years, which have removed that nagging fear.
So why on Earth have I entered the Challenger again? Partly to stop myself entering the Across the Years Six Day race this year. Partly as a warm-up to the Rovaniemi 150 in February. And partly to see if my new improved walking speed, which I've been working on for the past 18 months while injured, would lead to a faster finishing time.
Training went OK through the early Autumn. At weekends I did one long run and one long walk with my pack, building both up to 4-5 hours. Mid-weeks were yoga, Body Pump (both mostly for fun), power-walking on the treadmill and the occasional very short run. By December I was really tired, and didn't manage any long-sessions other than a run-walk around the ~40 mile round Chesterfield walk. But this was OK as my now traditional pre-Christmas fast-packing trip was going to be the Challenger route.
It started off inauspiciously with diarrhoea in the public toilets in Edale. At that point I felt fine physically, but going up Jacob's Ladder in the rain (and not heading back to a nice warm pub) took all my will-power. Things got even grimmer over Bleaklow. It was dark and the mist was so heavy I could barely see my feet. The only way I could stay on route and upright was to constantly look my GPS and take every single foot step carefully. It was some of the worst visibility I'd every been out in, and I decided that if my GPS failed I'd play it safe and pitch my tent rather than trying to find my way off the hill. I eventually made it down to Crowden an hour slower than expected, and decided to stop early rather than heading back onto the moors for more of the same.
I initially checked out the public toilets but decided that camping out would be more pleasant. The first sign of trouble came when I barely managed to eat any of my rehydrated meal. I then struggled to sleep, feeling cold, despite a -10 rated sleeping bag, multiple layers and fairly mild weather. I also discovered that my super-duper new lightweight tent isn't great for multi-day trips in wet weather-the rain soaked through the flysheet.
My initial plan was to try and find somewhere indoors to sleep for the next two nights, but as I struggled my way up Laddlow rocks feeling sick I realised my body wasn't right either. Bailing at Marsden, ~24 miles in, was beginning to seem like a good idea. As I plodded my way, even more slowly than usual, off of Black Moor another Spine entrant caught me and figured out who I was (there aren't many women who've finished the Spine, so that information plus my first name was sufficient). Being told "you're Anne Green, compiler of Spine blogs and doer of impressive things" was great for my ego. However having excerpts from my own blogs quoted at me was a bit weird. You can't put your inner thoughts on the internet and then complain when other people read them though! And at least my Spine blogs didn't contain extensive descriptions of chafing...
The company perked me up no end and I was tempted to keep going on beyond Marsden. Sitting at home in front of the fire several hours later I initially felt I'd wussed out. And then the puking started. It was several days before I could eat properly, and a few more before I had enough energy to get out and run-walk again. I managed a couple of 2 hour run-walk-with-a-pack sessions, which went fairly well. And then I got a heavy cold.
Two days out from the race the cold has just cleared up, but I'm feeling spectacularly unprepared. I've no idea whether my baseline fitness (and multi-day fastpacking experience) will be enough to get me to the finish. I'm also feeling anxious, in a way I haven't for years (being well-prepared is my usual defence against anxiety, in running, work and life). But worst-case scenario, if I'm really not feeling it I can DNF at CP1. 'Death before DNF' has never been my thing.
I'm also not looking forward to the pre-race atmosphere in Edale. In 2013 I had a room to myself at the Youth Hostel, in 2014 I escaped to a hotel in Castleton with the OH, but this year I'm in a full dorm at the Youth Hostel (I did briefly consider bivying in a field...). There's also a lot more participants and a lot more internet hype. I've had a few 'it wasn't like this back in my day' moments...
Back in 2013 the Challenger was my 'gateway race' into multi-day events, which have turned out to be my (running) thing. I followed the very first Spine Race back in 2012. Which back then involved checking the web-page for daily updates. That Summer I finished a disatisfying weather-shortened version of UTMB, the race which had lured me in to ultra running. By that point I'd realised that I was crap at mountain running and plodding on the flat was more my thing, and was planning to target GUCR and a sub-24 hour 100. However a tweet from the Spine Race saying that they wouldn't stop/cancel the race for bad weather (ha ha!) was enough to make me enter the Challenger to dispel the post-race blues.
I spent the Autumn getting used to the Pennine Way and bivying out. Come the race, I spent the first day plodding along with a huge rucksack, off the back of the field and paranoid that I'd get pulled for being too slow. But as other people slowed down I kept going and worked my way through most of the back of the field. Despite stopping to sleep twice I ended up finishing in 53 and a half hours, in 7th place out of 12 finishers (out of 18 starters) and 1st out of 2 women, which won me a free entry for the full race the next year. [Full disclosure: The leading woman in that year's full race got to the Challenger finish in Hawes before me, and the women's course record is now roughly a day faster than my time...]
Things got very hairy on the Cheviots in 2013, and I didn't decide that I was definitely going to take the free place until September. I was also injured, so my training involved lugging a slightly less large rucksack up and down the Pennine Way and also a steep hill on a local golf course. If I'd realised what a huge step up the Spine race was from anything I'd done before, I probably wouldn't have done it. But I (mostly happily) plodded my way to the finish in 6 and a half days, again at the 'front of the back of the pack'.
I've never really wanted to do the full Spine again. Partly because I've realised that I'm better suited to flat races, where I can deploy my 'shuffle'. Partly because the temptation would be to try and finish faster, whereas the weather plays a huge role in finishing times (and even whether a finish is possible). And partly because I wanted to stick with my 100% finisher record. In fact for several years I convinced myself I'd only managed to finish because of the 'good' weather (in Spine terms: no heavy snow or gale force winds). More recently there have a couple more 'good' weather years, which have removed that nagging fear.
So why on Earth have I entered the Challenger again? Partly to stop myself entering the Across the Years Six Day race this year. Partly as a warm-up to the Rovaniemi 150 in February. And partly to see if my new improved walking speed, which I've been working on for the past 18 months while injured, would lead to a faster finishing time.
Training went OK through the early Autumn. At weekends I did one long run and one long walk with my pack, building both up to 4-5 hours. Mid-weeks were yoga, Body Pump (both mostly for fun), power-walking on the treadmill and the occasional very short run. By December I was really tired, and didn't manage any long-sessions other than a run-walk around the ~40 mile round Chesterfield walk. But this was OK as my now traditional pre-Christmas fast-packing trip was going to be the Challenger route.
It started off inauspiciously with diarrhoea in the public toilets in Edale. At that point I felt fine physically, but going up Jacob's Ladder in the rain (and not heading back to a nice warm pub) took all my will-power. Things got even grimmer over Bleaklow. It was dark and the mist was so heavy I could barely see my feet. The only way I could stay on route and upright was to constantly look my GPS and take every single foot step carefully. It was some of the worst visibility I'd every been out in, and I decided that if my GPS failed I'd play it safe and pitch my tent rather than trying to find my way off the hill. I eventually made it down to Crowden an hour slower than expected, and decided to stop early rather than heading back onto the moors for more of the same.
I initially checked out the public toilets but decided that camping out would be more pleasant. The first sign of trouble came when I barely managed to eat any of my rehydrated meal. I then struggled to sleep, feeling cold, despite a -10 rated sleeping bag, multiple layers and fairly mild weather. I also discovered that my super-duper new lightweight tent isn't great for multi-day trips in wet weather-the rain soaked through the flysheet.
My initial plan was to try and find somewhere indoors to sleep for the next two nights, but as I struggled my way up Laddlow rocks feeling sick I realised my body wasn't right either. Bailing at Marsden, ~24 miles in, was beginning to seem like a good idea. As I plodded my way, even more slowly than usual, off of Black Moor another Spine entrant caught me and figured out who I was (there aren't many women who've finished the Spine, so that information plus my first name was sufficient). Being told "you're Anne Green, compiler of Spine blogs and doer of impressive things" was great for my ego. However having excerpts from my own blogs quoted at me was a bit weird. You can't put your inner thoughts on the internet and then complain when other people read them though! And at least my Spine blogs didn't contain extensive descriptions of chafing...
The company perked me up no end and I was tempted to keep going on beyond Marsden. Sitting at home in front of the fire several hours later I initially felt I'd wussed out. And then the puking started. It was several days before I could eat properly, and a few more before I had enough energy to get out and run-walk again. I managed a couple of 2 hour run-walk-with-a-pack sessions, which went fairly well. And then I got a heavy cold.
Two days out from the race the cold has just cleared up, but I'm feeling spectacularly unprepared. I've no idea whether my baseline fitness (and multi-day fastpacking experience) will be enough to get me to the finish. I'm also feeling anxious, in a way I haven't for years (being well-prepared is my usual defence against anxiety, in running, work and life). But worst-case scenario, if I'm really not feeling it I can DNF at CP1. 'Death before DNF' has never been my thing.
I'm also not looking forward to the pre-race atmosphere in Edale. In 2013 I had a room to myself at the Youth Hostel, in 2014 I escaped to a hotel in Castleton with the OH, but this year I'm in a full dorm at the Youth Hostel (I did briefly consider bivying in a field...). There's also a lot more participants and a lot more internet hype. I've had a few 'it wasn't like this back in my day' moments...
Challenger packs: 2013 v. 2019
