Ugh. I just spent my Saturday running more than 52 miles in the Cotswolds on the new ‘Race to the Tower’ ultra marathon. It wasn’t my first ultra, but it was definitely the hardest I’ve done. For those unfamiliar with the concept, an ultra is defined as anything longer than a marathon (which is 26.2 miles), and they vary hugely from about 30 miles to three-figure distances.
After many months of training, we started somewhere near Stroud and finished at Broadway Tower some 14+ hours later. In the dark. It was so hard! Those hills! Running the last hour over trails with a head torch and not falling over might be the biggest achievement of the day. (Apart from not giving up. Or crying.) Weirdly, the photos all make me look fresh as a daisy, despite feeling battered for a lot of it. And only two days later, I already have ‘runner’s amnesia’ and am telling everyone it was amazing and thinking I might do another…
