TR24 2018

So it’s, TR24, as apparently they now call it and it’s the event’s 10^th year. Happy Birthday Thunder Run. Thankfully last night’s rain was as brief as it was unexpected and we don’t get another event like last year’s when the rain simply didn’t stop. So the several pairs of grippier shoes that I have brought with me, just in case, don’t get to come out to play as the ground is like concrete.

Once again L and I are in a team of five and our team consisted of the completely injured (me), the just getting fit again after being injured (L), our seemingly a little more reluctant each year team captain, a first timer and the first timer's super keen husband who was drafted into last year’s team at the last minute and loved it. Frankly, we're probably all tempted to leave him to it.

There’s also the teams of eight, pairs and the truly mad folk who do it solo. As ever it all kicks off at 12 noon and for the second year in a row I get to lead off.

I don’t mind doing the first lap, as this is the only lap that you can really call a ‘race’. After lap one, you have no idea what agenda the other runners on the course have. E.g. which team category they are part of, how many laps they are doing\have done or whether they even care. Instead everyone eventually becomes a sleep deprived comrade in the trenches. Life long friendships and relationships have most probably been formed between people who met through such adversity at TR24.

As I take my place on the start line, I have everything well strapped but especially my ‘broken’ ankle on which I haven’t run in a month but which probably needs a least another month to mend properly. I tell a small lie, I did jog to the bus yesterday to test it out and that wasn’t pleasant. Fingers crossed I can at least complete a lap.

So off I go across the field in front of the crowds and up the first big hill through the trees. I get as far as the 1k point before some creature decides to bite me on the leg, my good leg, an insect I assume. Ouch.

So now I’m hobbling on both legs as I head downhill to where the course goes through the campsite before heading back out into the wilderness. My lack of training and the heat means I struggle from the off and resort to walking at several points around the ‘not flat’ course. The heat means I am never more grateful to see the water station at around halfway.

After which is the main section through the trees which I wasn’t looking forward to. This is where I came a cropper in the dark two years ago and this is where all the tree roots are. Therefore there are plenty of opportunities to re-fracture my ankle.

Finally that section is done and I’m climbing\crawling up onto the plateau above the main site before the route descends again and turns back on itself as it head back to camp. This is where I fell in the wet last year...

I make it unscathed back into campsite, past the pompom girls\boys and up the final incline. Then it’s back down to the finish and the changeover point to pass on the snap baton. Job done. 54:35. Which is slower than all three laps two years ago and slower than the drier two last year but I made it round.

I visit the St John’s tent to show them my insect bite. They are very impressed and hand me an ice pack that this time doesn't come with a spell in detention. Then with L due to head out as our number three, I go for a pint on the beer bus. As all runners know, hydration is everything.

When I go out again five or so hours later, it is to record a 57:50 and my night lap is a shocking 65:29 but this was partly because my head torch packed up at 6km with the most difficult sections still to come. I had to resort to running in other people’s lights which probably got me a bit of a reputation as a stalker.

Then I do an only marginally quicker 65:15 in the morning. I would loved to have done a fifth but the body said no.

In 2016 with a team of eight we manage 21 laps in total and with a smaller but potentially quicker team of five in 2017 we had high hopes of beating that. Then came the rain and we managed only 19. So this year we should have been able to have pushed it out beyond 19 but sadly we only made 19 again. This was due to some of us being half fit, having a novice who had to be cajoled into her second run having hated the first but then did brilliantly, actually managing an impressive four full laps and some questionable tactics.  

Still it was another fun packed Thunder Run weekend although a bit less fun packed without the mud and after which, after three years in a row, we handed in notice of our retirement from the event, at least for a few years.

(Sunday 22^nd July)

Twenty Four Hours In The Sun

Last year L and I did the Thunder Run as part of a team of eight and the team as a whole managed 21 laps of the 10k course which worked out at three or less each. This year we attempted it again but with a team of five, which hopefully should get us at least four laps each.

If that wasn’t enough of an epic challenge, we hadn’t reckoned on the weather. I kicked the team off with the opening lap at midday with an impressive 48:27 but then four hours later it started to rain and kept raining through to about 7am the following morning. Summer? Summer in the UK always has been merely a notional period on the calendar rather than an actual indicator of nice weather.

Consequently the off road course because an absolute quagmire becoming not just a stern physical challenge but also a test of mental toughness. I loved it and thought this new, unexpected, side to it merely added to the enjoyment. However most people seemed to disagree with me.

Last year both L and I went into the event with questionable fitness, this year I’m possibly in as good as shape as I could be on the back of two 70.3 triathlons. L however has been advised by practically every doctor and physio on the planet to stay at home, so naturally here she is and fully intending to do her four laps.

As I headed out for my second lap at around 5:20pm, I felt that I had the right footwear for the necessary mud skiing that a lap now mostly involved and my time of 51:23 perhaps confirmed this.

As before we fuelled ourselves with ham and cheese rolls and pasta.

At around 11:30pm I’m off on my third lap where I did take one tumble, somewhere between the 8km and 9km points, when I misjudged the slope of the hill I was running across in the dark. After sliding for half a mile or so, I picked myself up, brushed the smidgen of mud off my clothes and carried on. Sadly this ruined my time a touch but I still got in under the hour with a 59:32.

The organisers were having a few problems too, as the weather took out the generator for a while overnight and the marshals had to hold the inflatable start line up while it was fixed. They didn’t seem to mind, the general camaraderie or should that be the Dunkirk spirit between everyone was great. Which included a couple who got married on Saturday morning and then shared their on course wedding reception with all of us.

After grabbing a few hours sleep, I ran my fourth and final lap at 06:45am. By now the rain had eased, not that that made any difference to the conditions underfoot and my time was a slightly disappointing 61:15.

I did offer to do L’s fourth lap for her, which would have been my fifth but she was having none of it. I hope she doesn’t regret that tomorrow. So I head to the Bus Bar to grab a pint and watch her slither home.

We have one more runner to go after L then we’re done. Only 19 laps this year, I suppose we have to blame the weather for that.

There was only blot on the event (unless you count the rain as a blot) and that was the range of Ladies fit T shirts that none of the girls could get into. So only the lads will be in the pub tonight wearing their swanky green race t-shirts. I’m sure they’ll sort out replacements post-race.

Afterwards I pop to the site of next week’s dog show, which is only next door, to see what state the weather has left things in there, not bad as it happens. Then we drop in at my parents before a night out at the Crafty Crow followed by a curry at The Laguna.

(Saturday 22^nd July/Sunday 23^rd July)

Thunder Running

This morning we head off to join our team mates at Catton Park for the Thunder Run where they seem to have been in residence for months but it’s only actually been 24 hours. I think they suspect we’re not coming but we don’t let folk down, only ourselves occasionally and the people who organise the Leeds Half. Which we both bailed on but they probably didn’t notice.

We pitch our tent, meet our team of eight known collectively as the Unbr8kables and then head off to the race briefing where again there is no mention of an allocated holding area where you can store your dogs while you do the hand over. It would have been nice for L and I to run consecutively but given this organisational omission we are allocated places three and five in the running order.

The weather is already quite warm and the midday sun beams down as the race kicks off with a spectacular mass start at 12 noon. Our lead out man puts a marker down with a 53 minute lap and battle has commenced.

I have no idea how many teams are in the event but there are over 250 in the teams of eight category alone. As well as the eights there are teams of five and then there are the real nutters. Those doing it in pairs and those doing it solo.

By the time I do my first lap at 2:15, which is a little later than I’d predicted with runner number two doing a more leisurely 80 minute lap, it seems incredibly hot. The first problem though is not the heat but recognising my team mate who I only met a few hours before and has since changed her running top. Eventually when it becomes clear no one else is going to take the baton off the girl who is standing there looking lost and confused as well as knackered I do. I just hope that was my team mate who slammed the snap band (the baton) onto my arm.

During my lap the heat does takes its toll as a hilly 10km off-road course. It’s enjoyable though and it nice the way the route meanders through the campsites enabling good support to be available across most of it. I am also hampered by making the wrong shoe choice, perhaps the trail shoes that I’ve never ran further than the length of a dog agility course in were not the best selection on such hard baked ground. Standard cushioned running shoes might have been wiser.

I come in with a foot full of blisters but even that could probably have been prevented had it not been for the schoolboy error of not lacing them up tightly enough. The time though is 50:35 and the dodgy calf is fine. Get in.

Now just what did the girl I was handing over to look like? Not this one, or this one, or... hmmm, she’ll do. Now I’ve either performed two successful changeovers or we’re about to be disqualified. As I meet up again with L, she doesn’t seem alarmed at who I’ve just tagged into the race so hopefully it’s the former.

I’m buzzing after my run and feel like I’d like to go around again asap but it’s a minimum of eight hours to my next lap.

It’s so hot now that even L is drinking fluids and she has purchased a ‘Secret Training’ bottle which comes with free refills of watermelon or lemon and lime or mango and others. Then after a 60 minute lap from whoever I tagged in its L’s turn. Will her ankle hold up? I’m not sure if she’s ran this weekend by her physio but I guess what she doesn't know won't hurt her. I wave L off and then head off to get a ham and cheese roll from the car to perk myself up.

L does well with a 74 minute lap and then we can both chill for a bit. We visit the Shardlow Brewery’s bar which is aboard a Routemaster Bus. We daren’t drink too much and instead head back to the car to heat up some pasta for our evening meal.

I was hoping for a second lap at around 10pm based on us averaging 60 minute laps but that was a bit optimistic and I start my second lap at 11:35pm, by which time it’s a lot cooler. This time the girl who is running before me gives me a fashion show before she sets off, showing me her brightly coloured ‘wasp’ attire so I shouldn’t miss her this time and I don’t. What we really need is an inflatable haddock like some of the other teams have which clearly identifies them to all and sundry.

We purchased some really good head torches a few years ago and these really come into their own this weekend, lighting up the course brilliantly. It had been suggested that carrying a hand torch as well would be useful but I certainly didn’t need one. All the same I stalk a girl who was running at about my pace so that I can use her light as well as mine.

The only problem was that when I stopped for drink at the water station at halfway she didn’t. I downed my drink quickly and sprinted off after her but then we headed into a narrow wooded section where a slower run got between us. I saw her in the distance getting further and further away. Bugger. I eventually squeezed past the other runner, upped my pace and then went down like a Premiership footballer looking for a penalty. Where did that tree root come from? Well actually they are everywhere and I just wasn’t paying attention.

My battery pack becomes detached and it takes me a while to reassemble everything. Then I have to pass the same runner again, the girl meanwhile is long gone or so I thought. I now run my own race and probably run quickly, then about 2k before the finish I pass the girl and leave her for dust coming home in 54:30. Not bad at all. Again I’m itching to go around again having really enjoyed my night time lap.

Now it would be great to get a bit of kip as its half past midnight, and almost my bedtime, but L is off out in an hour. So it is not until L gets back around 3am that we finally turn in. I get around four and a half hours sleep before I’m up again and ready to run again at 9:30am.

It’s cooler this morning and light of course, which all makes for a really enjoyable last lap. The on course support and camaraderie has been great throughout, even at night, from both those watching and those actually on the course running. This time I get round in 53:39 and tag girl four who is tasked with getting round in enough time for L to start the team’s last lap before 12 noon and bring it home. Naturally she is terrified about this prospect but she sets off with twenty minutes to go before noon giving her plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere.

Those of us without dogs (e.g. not me) join her for the last stretch and all cross the line together. The team has done 21 laps between us, that’s 210km. Which is a pretty good effort.

So were the Unbr8kables broken? Not a bit of it. We would not be broken. In fact my calves survived 30k and L’s ankle maybe 30k worse off but she’s still walking, just.

We had tentatively thought about doing it as a pair next year but I’m not sure that will happen, a five would be nice though.

We get home, have a shower, do the usual debrief in bed, and then head off to the Golden Fleece. There’s not a lot dark doing there so we move to the Lincolnshire Poacher which is better. The Sunday curry rounds things off. 

(Saturday 23^rd July/Sunday 24^th July)

This Thing Is Actually Happening

Our Thunder Run team mates arrived at Catton Park promptly when gates opened at 8am this morning and have set up camp. I feel a touch guilty for not assisting but they seem happy enough doing everything and we are feeling part of it courtesy of the constant Facebook status updates.

I get a text from a number I don’t recognise saying ‘we is registered’ and read something on Facebook about Prosecco ice lollies. It appears this thing is actually happening.

L is a mass of butterflies. I feel her pain, all that food and socialising. It's good job there’s a race to take our minds off it. She says she’s bringing home the Magnums, which is another way of taking your mind of it. I assume she means ice cream and not champagne. 

(Friday 22^nd July)