Punchbowl 30 mile - Two Ordenance survey maps later!

OK my cold has got worse than yesterday and only an extra 17 miles today in this 30 mile event! But my motivation at this point is I need these 30 miles to get me up to 974 miles of organised events and therefore leaving me time to rest my legs and prepare for the final 26.2 miles in Antarctica.

However if I was impressed with yesterdays event I could only be more impressed this time. Although a very different type of event it was again superbly organised and benefited from the rain free day.

The Punchbowl marathon is a 20 or 30 mile course, as it suggests, around the punchbowl and surrounding areas - for Walkers and Runners (OK in this event I had to count myself somewhere between the two).

After the quick and easy registration process in the very picture perfect village hall I got ready for the 8:30am start in the cold morning air. The walkers completing either the shorter 20 or some even the 30 mile course had left at an early start time to give them plenty of daylight to finish and enjoy the course.

Unlike yesterday the course is nearly all off road with only a few sections of road connecting Bridal ways or public footpaths. The route is not marked and you need what can only be described by the newcomer as short hand text you would use on a mobile phone, but after a few miles it all starts to make sense.

Stunning Views

Now during this event my motivation for getting to the end changed, as mentioned I started off just wanting to complete the miles and then it moved to looking at the stunning scenery. As it turns out my cold got the better of me after about 10 miles and I started to remember why I had taken on the challenge this year. I new I had the legs to complete the distance – having done 80 miles without too much of a problem last week and 50 miles only shortly before. However I just couldn’t breathe fast enough to get the air into my lungs to then get the oxygen into my legs, plus the constant coughing was annoying to say the least. I then realised that while I had never thought of it, in that way, but CF must be so frustrating – I see my nephews just stop running when they are playing football but normally just think – oh they are having a rest because of the CF and not that they as with other children really just want to keep playing.

Similarly I had to say thank-you so much to the two people I ran with, for the first ten miles (names and correct spelling when results come out) and reduce my pace to enable me to catch my breath. Both where really great people with lots of experience of running and also in team events. I just felt I would have slowed them down too much. And with hills like this…

         
Gentle hill (left) through to plain crazy (right)

I think my body was still recovering from what now seemed like gentle slopes on Brands hatch.

Finally I must just say for anyone working there way up to an ultra event this is definitely the way to do it. The event is well organised with plenty of other runners and walkers (which you get to meet along the way as the two courses are joined for parts). With the check points being a veritable buffet it seems a shame to run past to fast. I have to say this was also a key reason behind how I made it round today.

 

Looking to get back to full strength - ready for the big marathon, in a few weeks time.