IAU World 100km Championships 2018, Sveti Martin na Muri, Croatia

The 2018 IAU World 100km Championships - my 6th appearance in a Great Britain vest, but sadly not one of my better races.  I'll start where I left off on my previous blog post, with a hamstring tear back in April.  I gave the injury the necessary time to heal before resuming easy running, but it wasn't until June that I was really able to start training properly.  When the Great Britain team for the 100km was announced in June I was over the moon to be selected, but knew I would be hard pressed to be back to my best shape by September when I was about a month behind where I would have liked to have been.  However, I was proud to be representing my country again, and was determined to give it my best shot.

 

I built my mileage up nicely over the summer months, managing a few 90+ mile weeks - not easy when combined with a particularly stressful time at work.  I was also experiencing some nerve pain in the balls of both feet, which at times made running almost unbearable, but I had to keep on pushing though the pain as time was so short.  I had several sessions with my physio, Mark Buckingham, and podiatrist, Steve Avil, to try and sort the problem out and eventually resorted to wearing an old pair of orthotic insoles, which helped, but didn't completely resolve the issue.  I also had a time earlier in the year where I felt very fatigued and heavy-legged, so much so that my runs were literally more of a shuffle.  I had various blood tests and have had several visits to the Sports Medicine clinic at the QE Hospital in Birmingham.  It was diagnosed as a non-specific 'systemic issue' which affected my TSH thyroid levels.  Thankfully it seems to be resolving itself now and my blood tests are almost back to normal, but I'm still seeing the Sports Med. doctor to monitor things.  I guess these things are all part and parcel of running and I don't think I've ever had a build up to a major race that has gone completely smoothly!

  

I raced sparingly during my build-up as I felt I just needed to get the training miles in.  I was required to run a marathon back in June to 'prove my fitness' to the selectors, so I ran the Enigma Running marathon in Milton Keynes where I finished 1st lady.  I also travelled down to Redhill in Surrey for the British Masters Half-marathon Championships.  Just a couple of days beforehand my podiatrist had doctored my orthotic insoles to try and help my foot problem, but unfortunately it made it worse and by the end of the first lap I was in agony.  Deciding that my race was over I stopped, walked back to the car, took all the temporary felt off my insoles, changed my shoes, then decided to try a little jog as I really needed to get some more training miles in.  It didn't feel too bad, so I re-joined the race where I'd left off and ran the second lap!  It's definitely a 'personal worst' in terms of time - a half-marathon with a 15 minute break in the middle!

 

The weeks flew by and all of sudden it was time to fly out to Croatia.  My last two or three weeks training had picked up considerably and, although I knew I was nowhere near PB shape, I was confident of a solid performance. 


At Birmingham airport ready for my flight

The race village was at the LifeClass Terme Sveti Martin - a complex comprising hotel, apartments and leisure facilities based around a thermo-mineral spa.  I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and met up with my team-mates who had travelled from various parts of the UK.  It was also great to catch up with athletes I knew from other countries, who I'd met at previous races.  All our meals were in the hotel restaurant - a buffet with a wide range of choice and where we could help ourselves to as much as we wanted; perfect for hungry runners!

The race hotel

Meeting up with my fellow GB team mates

My race picnic all prepared!

The day before the race was taken up with the usual pre-race preparations - a little jog to recce the course, the team meeting, preparing my drinks bottles and then the Opening Ceremony.  I had the huge honour and privilege of carrying the Union Flag for the Great Britain team in the athletes' parade.  After each of the 41 countries had been introduced to the crowd there were a few short speeches and a local choir performed the Croatian National Anthem and a few traditional songs.  It was then time to carbo-load on pasta and rice and get an early night ready for my 4.00am alarm.

A short jog along the course on the day before the race



Left:  Local school children preparing to lead the teams in the parade  Right: Team GB preparing for the parade

Left:  the athletes' parade about to get underway                Right:  Team GB in the parade

Team GB at the opening ceremony

The race start / finish

The race started at 7.00am local time on the Saturday, with the start and finish directly outside the front door of the hotel, so no need for a bus ride to the start!  At this time there was cloud cover and the temperature was around 17 degrees C, so it felt really pleasant for running.  I set off at my intended pace and found myself in a group with a couple of girls from the USA.  I felt comfortable and hardly noticed the hills on the course as I took in the scenery around me - fields of sweetcorn and apples, a wooded section and houses with window boxes of colourful flowers.



The early miles went by quite comfortably
 

Running through fields of sweetcorn

The course consisted of one small out-and-back lap (2.5km) and then thirteen out-and-back laps of 7.5km each.  The main feed station was at the hotel complex, with a second feed station at the turn-around point.  These were ably manned by our team managers - Jo, Adrian and John - who did a great job of supplying us with our needs and offering plenty of encouragement.  As each lap progressed I began to tick off familiar landmarks - the house with the barking dog, the group of supporters playing upbeat music from their van, inspirational signs that had been put out by the roadside and the fields of sweetcorn which I knew meant I was approaching the turn-round point.


Motivational signs had been placed along the route

Left:  Team manager Jo in action at the feed station         Right: the main feed station

I maintained my rhythm for approximately 70km, but by this time the sun was fully out, the temperature had risen to 30 degrees C. and humidity was high.  I thought that training through the heat-wave we had this summer would have helped to acclimatise myself, but obviously it wasn't enough.  The hills that had seemed manageable at the beginning now began to feel like mountains!  The course was constantly up and down, with a total of 800m (2,600 feet) of climb and hardly a flat section anywhere.  This began to take it's toll and my quads started objecting violently on the downhill sections, screaming at me to give them a break.  From then on it was a matter of putting one foot in front of the other to get to the finish.  The team management were giving me sponges and bags of ice, I was drinking extra cups of water and pouring it over my head too.  For the last 30km or so I was reduced to a run / walk strategy, but I had no doubt in my mind that I would finish, however long it took me.  I knew how privileged I was to be representing my country, and how important it was for GB to finish a team, and there was no way I was going to let them down.  I hadn't gone all the way to Croatia to DNF.

The undulations felt like mountains in the latter stages

I eventually crossed the line in 8hrs 55mins 37secs - my slowest ever 100km.  I finished 51st out of 109 finishers in the women's race and 6th in my age group (140th out of 284 starters overall in the combined men's and women's races).  With three to score for a team, and only three women in the GB team, it was vital that I finished to back up my two team-mates.  We were placed 9th women's team out of the 22 countries that managed to finish a full team from the 38 countries that sent women.  This was, in fact, the first time GB have managed to finish a complete women's team in a major 100km champs. since 2012.  Japan won both the men's and women's team races, with South Africa second in both.  Japan, in fact, took individual 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in the women's race and won the men's race!

The relief of crossing the finish line

A tired athlete with a proud coach!

I must be honest, I'm bitterly disappointed with my performance and feel I let many people down - myself, my team-mates, my coach Les, and everyone who has supported me.  My plan had been to start steadily and finish strong, but my body had other ideas on the day.  Looking back I feel angry that I allowed myself to get into a negative mindset, allowing myself to walk and not having the mental strength to keep running.  But I know that I'm also probably being too hard on myself - it's easy to look back afterwards, when the pain has gone, and think 'I could have tried harder', but the reality is I did what I could at the time.  I tried my hardest and I'm proud of myself for finishing when many others didn't.  Not only that, but I still managed to finish in the top half of the field, despite my poor performance.  I will take both those as positives.

Another positive was the fact that the foot issues I'd been having didn't surface at all during the race!  So thank you to my trusty Mizuno Wave Rider shoes for not letting me down!

Les and I stayed out in Croatia for a few days after the race, which I was very thankful for as post-race was a huge anti-climax for me.  My life had been focussed on that one race for the last three months and not only was it all over, but it wasn't the result I'd been hoping for either.  I'm so happy that Les was able to come out to Croatia with me and share the whole experience.  He is always there for me in training and it's only fitting that he should be at the race too.  I owe him so much - he did an amazing job getting me from where I was in April to being able to finish a 100km in September.  We enjoyed some time sightseeing in Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary, refuelling on cake and ice-cream, taking a dip in the thermo-mineral pools and sampling the local restaurants.  And then, sadly, it was time to come home.

Left:  The countryside around Sveti Martin                  Right:  Floating water mill on the River Mura nr. Sveti Martin

Vinarium Tower in Lendava, Slovenia, and the view form the top (from where you can see Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Austria)

Left:  Lake Balaton at Keszthely, Hungary                          Right:  Stari Grad (Old Castle), Varazdin, Croatia

Left:  A relaxing dip in the thermo- mineral pools                      Right:  Post-race refuelling

Time to say good-bye to Croatia

It's now a week since the race and I've taken the time to recover and recharge my batteries, both mentally as well as physically.  The soreness in my legs went very quickly thanks to the amazing powers of CurraNZ berries http://bit.ly/2o9SmW6 . I hope to resume light jogging within the next few days and see how my legs feel before I make any firm plans for races, but I hope to be out there racing again soon as I need to rebuild my confidence that was severely dented in Croatia!