Self Transcendence 24-hour Track Race, Battersea Park

In the words of Blur “it’s not about you joggers who go round and round and round…” Well I’d say this definitely was about the joggers who went round and round and round, and the walkers, and the speedy ones at the front end who covered amazing distances too!  Everyone taking part went through their own personal battles, their own highs and lows and, in the words of Sri Chinmoy, everyone who finished was a winner. 

24-hour running is a whole new ball game to me, and one that I’m really glad I decided to dip my toe into.  I’m not really sure who mooted the idea first – my coach, Les, or me – but it was an idea we’d chatted about on several occasions, though I was never quite convinced!  However, reaching my 50^th birthday this year I decided I wanted a new challenge as I know that I’m not going to get any faster over 50km or 100km.  The 24-hour event was one of the few events recognised by World Athletics at World Championship level that I hadn’t tried during my 35-year athletics career, so I decided to take the plunge and give it a go!  I must admit I was both excited and daunted in equal measure; after all, it would be a massive jump from my longest run to date of 9 hours.  “Why would anyone want to run round and round a 400m track for 24 hours?” I hear you ask!  Well, to be honest, I wasn’t sure myself, but it certainly became clear to me afterwards, as I’ll explain later.

How many laps could I complete?

And so it was that I found myself lining up at the start of the Self Transcendence 24 Hour Track Race at Battersea Park in London.  The concept is quite simple – how many laps of the 400m athletics track could I run in 24 hours, starting at 12 noon on the Saturday and finishing at 12 noon on the Sunday.  In practice, not quite so simple when you factor in pacing, nutrition and potential injury!  I spent the months leading up to the race agonising and stressing over what to eat and drink and how often, how to know if I was taking enough / too much salt, what socks and shoes to wear and whether to change part way through, what extra layers of clothing I might need, how to keep cool if it was hot, would my headphones stay in place and what music would I want to listen to (I don’t normally listen to music while running, so even this was new to me), would I cope mentally with running round and round in circles all day, whether Les (who was supporting me) would get enough sleep – the list was endless!  I practised all these things in training (apart from Les sleeping!) and made some important purchases – a fold-up table, decent cool box, headphones and a million pairs of socks!  It felt like I was preparing for a major expedition and I certainly packed enough food and equipment for one!  I discovered Mountain Fuel drinks and started using them in preference to the brands I’d used previously.  I really love their flavours and having the variety encouraged me to want to drink during the event.  In fact, during the last 3 or 4 hours I survived exclusively on Mountain Fuel drinks with no solid food at all.

I felt like I had enough 'stuff' for a month!

Do I really need all this food?! (The answer was no, but I needed to be prepared as it's impossible to know what you'll feel like eating after several hours running.)

From a running point of view my training didn’t exactly go to plan, unfortunately.  The start of my ‘build-up’ was delayed by a couple of months by a painful cyst earlier in the year, which resulted in a few days in hospital.  Once I got going again I managed some decent runs during the summer, including practicing long runs round and round my local athletics track in Leamington.  But then, about six weeks before the race, I started having issues with my sacroiliac joint, resulting in pain in my right hip, glute, adductor and hamstring!  This curtailed my training somewhat – I couldn’t do any quicker running and I missed a few crucial long runs.  In fact, I hardly ran at all during the final three weeks prior to the race!  Thank goodness for my brilliant physio, Mark Buckingham, who managed to sort me out enough to at least make the start line!

Les setting up my 'picnic' table!

So, I arrived at Battersea Park not really knowing what to expect – either in terms of the event itself, or whether my body would hold out.  As we put the tent up, and set up the table with my drinks etc., all the months of planning suddenly started to feel real.  

Pre-race briefing

Soon enough it was time for the pre-race briefing, where we were reminded about letting faster people overtake on the inside lane, notifying the lap counters if we were going to make a toilet stop or have a break, that the maximum length of break allowed was 5 hours (you were then deemed to have retired), rules about headphones, displaying your number at all times, athletes not allowed on the infield etc. etc.

Eventually, in hot sunshine under blue skies, the horn sounded and we were on our way.

And we're off.

The first few hours, as you might expect, felt easy and I was bowling along quite happily and eating and drinking well whilst running.  Luckily several of my long training runs had been in similar temperatures so I didn’t feel that I was affected by the heat.  

Enjoying the early stages.

Evening time and darkness starts to fall.

Unfortunately, however, by about 5 or 6 hours in I was already starting to struggle with tight quads and sore hip flexors.  This was disappointing as I’d felt far better than this in my long training runs of a similar length.  I briefly stopped for a quick massage from Les and then managed to get going again for a while.  

By about 9.30pm my right hip was becoming increasingly painful and I was hobbling, with more walking than running!  I tried to keep going as best as I could, but I was also struggling to eat by now too and beginning to feel quite cold.

Sent on my way with a foil blanket for warmth!

Fellow competitors were telling me I’d get through it and start to feel OK again, but I didn’t really believe them.  How could I possibly feel better after feeling so rubbish now – surely as time goes on I can only feel worse?!  At about midnight Les and I took the decision that I needed to see one of the race physios if I was to stand any chance of continuing.  So lap number 244 took me just over 47 minutes as I lay on the physio’s couch getting treatment!  I was really frustrated at losing so much time for no distance, but I think it was necessary and it also gave me chance to warm up with a foil blanket, stop shivering and re-set my body to be able to start taking on fuel again.  The physio’s verdict was that my muscles were very tight but nothing was actually broken, so I was sent on my way again, together with the foil blanket!  I had some lovely warm soup and walked a few laps, then managed to get myself running again.  It seems the others were right – it was possible to start feeling OK again after all!  This is the weird thing about running long distances – you can go from highs to lows and back to highs again very quickly.

6.45am and dawn is breaking at last

This pattern really continued for the rest of the race.  At about 16 hours in I was hobbling again, so took another physio break, then got going again, spurred on by the faint glimmer of dawn and the slowly lightening sky.  I swear the chip timing mat was getting higher and higher as the race went on, and I was sure that at some point my shuffling feet would trip on it and I’d end up flat on my face on the track (luckily I didn’t)!  Frustratingly I had to make a third physio stop at just before 20 hours, at about 136km.  I could feel my goal of reaching 100 miles slipping away, in fact well and truly out of reach now I thought.  However, I was determined to still be moving in some form or other at the end of the 24 hours, so I set off again, thinking of the messages of support that my family were sending and that Les was relaying to me.  

9.00am and all of a sudden feeling good again!

With about 3 hours to go something very strange happened – I suddenly picked up and started feeling really good.  I felt like I was flying round the track!  This wasn’t quite true, but I wasn’t far off the pace I’d been running early on!  Les calculated that if I could keep this going I might actually reach the 100 mile mark after all.  My sudden revival didn’t go unnoticed by others either – the lap counters nicknamed me ‘transformation Sue’, one of the other competitors called me the ‘comeback Queen’ and another said I had more lives than a cat due to the number of times they’d seen me struggle but then bounce back again!  

And so it was that at 23 hours, 17 minutes and 49 seconds I passed the 100 mile point, much to my delight as well as that of Les and some of my fellow competitors who had been willing me on!

Reaching the 100 mile point, cheered on by fellow competitors (left); the sheer elation of reaching 100 miles (right)

I managed to keep going for another 43 minutes, despite a few wobbles of fatigue in my legs.  I completed 412 laps in 23:58:33 and tried to go as ‘fast’ as I could to see how much further round the track I could get.

Crossing the chip-timing mat for the final time!

  

Exhausted and relieved at the end

Each runner had a helper tasked with dropping a beanbag at the exact point where their runner was when the final hooter sounded.  This final bit of distance to the beanbags was now measured and added to the completed laps, giving me a total of 102.504 miles (164.965km) - 40 miles further than I'd ever run before.  A wave of relief, fatigue, happiness, frustration and pain washed over me!

A hard-earned trophy!

I finished in 21^st place overall, 6^th female and 1^st W50.  I think this must have been one of my hardest-earned trophies!  I believe I also set Leamington C&AC club track records for 50km, 100km, 100 miles and 24 hours.

Running alongside the amazing 81-year old Pat

So why round and round a track for 24 hours?!  Well, boring as it might seem, it actually has a lot going for it.  Everything is contained within that small 400m oval – lap counters, refreshment tent, runners’ helpers and the competitors themselves.  Not only are you never far from assistance if you need it, but it also gives the event a really friendly atmosphere where everybody is very supportive of each other, offering help, advice and words of encouragement.  This is one of the beautiful things about ultra-running, the camaraderie between fellow competitors is amazing and everyone supports and encourages each other.  We were all chatting to each other as we ran / walked round; everyone had their own story to tell and their own reasons for taking part.  At one point I was talking to an 81-year old lady called Pat.  She completed the full 24 hours and ended up with a distance of 75.725 miles, setting new British Age Bests for 50km, 50 miles and 100km and World Age Bests for 6, 12 and 24 hours!  What an inspiration she was!

Because of the friendly atmosphere I never really got bored of running round in circles.  I must admit, though, I did go through a whole host of emotions during the race.  Just before halfway, before my first physio stop, I absolutely hated it and never wanted to do another one again (but I also said that during my first 100km, and went on to do another four!)  But then, in contrast, I really enjoyed the last three hours and that was probably my favourite part of the whole race!

Fantastic support from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team - lap counters (left) and refreshments (right)

Fantastic support from my coach, Les

All in all, the first-class organisation by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team made this a really positive experience for my first 24 hour event, despite the frustrations of so many physio breaks (and just to add a huge thank you to the physios for getting me back on track).  The support from the lap counters and volunteers manning the refreshments was amazing – thank you so much to everyone who gave up their time, and sleep, in order that we could run.  A huge thank you also to Les for managing to support me for the whole time, with only a couple of hour’s kip in the tent!  (Even though he did somehow manage to lose one of my favourite Mizuno t-shirts!)  

Thank you to Mizuno for their fantastic Wave Skyrise shoes which felt extremely comfortable for the entire race.  I’m really impressed with those shoes as I’d thought beforehand that my feet might have been an issue during the race, but in actual fact they came out of it pretty well.

So, would I do it again?!  Straight afterwards I would have said no!  But it wasn’t long before Les and were tentatively talking about “the next one”, so you never know!  It would be a shame not to have a chance to put into practice everything I learnt from this one, wouldn’t it?!