Spine Challenger 2017 race report, part 3 - the aftermath

A Charles Dickens quote comes to mind: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" but as I Googled the extract and continued to read the longer quote, more and more of it rang true. Here it is, it is from A Tale of Two Cities:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us".

This pretty much sums it up for me and I suspect most of the other racers that toed the line 2 weeks ago on their own adventures that are the Spine race series. 

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This third post in my trilogy of Spine Challenger blogs covers what came after the race. I will cover my physical and mental state, what went well, what didn't go well, my high points and my low points, and what I intend to change for next years assault on the full version.

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I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely drenched. It was about midnight, and laying there the night after the race I started to think of what I could tell Paul & Cathy about the state of their bedding. I hadn't wet the bed, honestly, i was just sweating for England. I got up, mopped myself and the sheets as best I could with a towel and laid back down on a dryer area of the bed, and fell into an immediate sleep.
Waking further into the night, this time it appeared I had been moving about a bit in my sleep, instead of being the normal way in the bed with my head at the pillow end etc, i was at 90 degrees with my head pressed up against the side wall and my feet dangling over the other side of the bed. Again i was wet all over with sweat.
This pretty much summed up this first night, sweating, fitful mobile sleeping and frequent waking up.

Finally, giving up to wakefulness, I got up at 7ish and inspected the damage to my feet. They looked a whole lot better. The night before Cathy had given me a bottle of her finest moisturising cream, and a small tin of "badger butter" which was met with much mirth.
Before turning in I had spread both products liberally over my feet in an attempt to get them looking more human, and the combination had not done a bad job.

My foot the morning after.

Now that they were not all wrinkly and waterlogged I could see what was happening under the surface. I had a total of 8 blisters. The area between the ball of the foot and the rest of the foot was 2 blisters joined together in the middle, each little toe had a blister, one heel and one of my other toes also had one. They were not very deep and the skin had not broken so at this stage they were manageable.

I equipped myself with a needle, some antiseptic wipes and some loo roll and "dealt" with them as best I could, after which i could walk almost normally. 

Both ankles were very swollen. As Jeff pointed out I had a fine pair of "cankles" (yes I had to Google it as well), the left one was worse and was also bruised from wearing Jeff's boots when I did.

As far as my legs were concerned things were not too bad, my calf muscles were the worse, and my hip flexors also, but the rest of them felt fine, a little weak, but not at all bad considering the battering I had given them.
My shoulders were also quite sore. These lightweight race packs are all very well, but they are not very supportive and do rely on strong shoulders and back to hold them in shape. 
Luckily I had the foresight to have booked a massage the following day, and it was bliss, she ironed out the kinks in my legs shoulders and back, but I had to repeatedly tell her to stay away from the feet!

Two weeks on and most physical things have sorted themselves out. I still have a swollen and bruised left ankle, and two toes on this foot are without feeling. My blisters have all healed and I am shedding skin from my feet like a pet python going through a growth spurt. I am also still having the odd sweaty night. Interestingly I Googled this, It is hormonal, where during and after extreme exercise, hormone levels change to ramp up your metabolism and thus make energy resources more quickly available.

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Mentally I am up and down. During the race was interesting. At no point in the race did I consider giving up, it just didn't enter my head. Sometimes during other events you sometimes get a niggle in the mind saying "is this all worth it?" but you dismiss it and carry on, but this time nothing, just a dogged mindset that I would complete it whatever. There were however two points during the race which were particular low points and I did consider the point that I may not be able to complete it. 

The first was during my sleep at Malham Tarn. My coughing fit and rattling lungs did get me seriously worried. I managed to cough up some very thick gungy stuff that once this was gone it did improve things somewhat, but during the coughing I was thinking that I may have picked up an infection in my lungs. Things were going through my mind, like seeing a medic at the next checkpoint that was just down the road, but they might retire me if it sounded bad. Once the alarm went and I got up (and thus upright) I had no rattling or coughing, so I thought no more about it.

The second was at Horton in Ribblesdale. Timings were getting tight. We worked out that I had about 10 hours left to cover 15 miles. This was too tight for comfort when you start allowing for getting lost, getting injured, having a rest etc, and the thought of getting timed out so close to the finish really affected me mentally. I rallied round and really bullied myself during the next section in order to regain a time buffer, but while we worked things out I (and I am sure Cathy and Jeff) were a bit worried that things were not as they should be.

Now I am mostly good. Walking about I keep inwardly smiling, thinking to myself that I had done it. I had finished the hardest race I had ever done. I am a champion, etc, but occasionally I think to myself that my next race is ages away, nearly a full year ahead of me with nothing but training runs with the occasional trip to the hills for a play, but it does seem a long way off. I may just book a couple of marathons to keep things ticking over...

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My High points are easy. The start for one. I was happy just to be toeing the line with the other racers. It was cold and crisp, there was snow on the ground and I was fit and prepared for everything. 
Then there was the moorland after snake pass. The sun had come out, there was snow on the ground making the scenery most lovely.
And then of course there was the finish, always a high point in any race, but this one was special as I had my wonderful friends there to meet me. I couldn't have been happier.

My low points were definitely the two things I talked about above, my coughing at Malham and the time talks in Horton, but in addition to these has to be the final descent into Hawes when my brain relaxed and the pain really started to kick in.

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What went well? Well firstly the fact that I was a supported runner with a support crew worked really well, the meeting places were perfectly distanced and I looked forward to each and every meeting. The whole crewing operation went so well I think I can say that without them I would not have finished.

Navigation went well also. This was one of my main worries, but the well trodden path, the lights of others and of course my maps and GPS all worked well together to mean that there was no point i was lost. I may have taken a wrong turning or two, but it was quickly rectified without much time wasted.

What did not go well? My footwear choice I think was the main thing. If I had just added some waterproof socks to my available kit I think the whole race would have been more comfortable.

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What would I change? Just a few gear tweaks for next year. Different boots with a lower ankle and couple these with waterproof socks (including several spares) should do the trick feet wise.

My goggles were next to useless. I have taken advice and got some Bolle safety ones which several other racers had and they were impressed.

Food - more wet stuff. Trying to eat bread rolls was hard work when your mouth is dry from all the heavy breathing. I think lots of different snacks for the hills and good wet meals for the checkpoints or crew meetings will be the best option for me.

Other than that the rest of the kit performed very well which is good as it means less frantic gear searches as the race next year looms.

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All it leaves now is to thank everyone involved in the build up and during the weekend of the race.

Firstly I want to thank the organisers for putting on a fantastic race with some of the best organisation I have ever experiences in a race. Not only the people you see, like the marshals and the CP staff, but also the people you don't, like the ones who ship the kit bags from the start to each checkpoint and then to the finish. Great work chaps.

Then I have to thank Jeff and Cathy for their amazing job at crewing me in the race. They went beyond what i expected of them, they were totally focussed on getting me to the finish. I also need to thank Paul, Cathy's husband, who moved things about and looked after the kids to ensure Cathy could accompany me on my training weekends and the race.

Lastly I have to thank my long suffering wife Lesley. I know I obsess about things, I cant help it, it is what I do, and you must have had an awful year with me going on and on about this race. I will try to keep it off the topic of conversation as much as I can this year. But without your supporting me when I do stuff like this, well it would just not be good...

I hope all the worry you go through when I am out in the hills was worth it when I came home brandishing my new medal and a massive grin on my face. xxx