I have been turning into a bit of a dragon lately with the other lads hoping to come on the run with me. This is mainly due to the fact that I have recently had to cope with the loss my greatest asset in Football Manager Demba Ba. I was informed that he would be injured for 8 months with a broken leg. For two days I wore black, drank white lighting with the village drunk and memorised every line of Shakespeares finest play, a midsummer nights dream. And it is also the fact that I have a responsibility to make this run a success and more importantly make sure everyone gets through alive. I have a hard time respecting people who do “talk the talk” and don’t “walk the walk”. If there is a challenge to be met set my me then I would of already done it in a faster time and under worse conditions.
I want to get used to running by myself in new enviroments. It could be a possibility that I would be running solo on the run if other members drop out or dont pull there weight. A few days ago I had to waste an hour of my time with some crackpot student who thought he was fit and wanted to come on the run. I wont take anyone on the run who does not reach the required physical fitness levels or lacks the mental fortitude to see this thing through.
In April there is to be a final assessment of everyone’s fitness levels. The test will consist of a 28 mile run with full kit starting from Purley and ending in Guildford. This test is designed to push each man to his limit. The run will be at the individuals fastest pace and would have to be completed in under 7 hours. It is really hard. I would know.
I just did it.
During week five of my training I decided that I was going to attempt the run towards the end of weeks six. At the time I was running 12 miles with ease with over 26 pounds of weight on. I was getting into a routine and wanted to shake things up a bit. I hate routines, if I am not being stimulated and challenged I will start to shout at walls and attack people.
My aims for the run were fairly simple. My primary aim was to establish a pass time for the test. I decided that anything I got I would add an hour to. My secondary aim was to put some of my navigational skills to use whilst running over the South Downs. I decided to set a route from Purley to Guildford as it combined a great mix of artificial surfaces such as (Pavments) with the soft terrain of grass and lots Hills.
I set of on my journey after skipping my alarm three times (great start!), my pace to begin with was very slow. I am quite strange in the fact that I only reaching my full pace at around mile 5. I am prone to all kinds of aches and pains in the initial first part of my runs, this is most likely to due my neglect of stretching. As I entered Hooley my muscle memory started to kick in and my pace increased to around 8kph. Not much happened between Hooley and Redhill apart from being called a c**t by passing motorist. I had my latest RA Podcast on full blast and my mind was wondering to all kinds of places. As I neared East Surrey college I turned right and began to increase my pace to 10kph this was because I knew I had a mile or so stretch of gradual incline with some more severe drops along the way. I like to power through hills. I find that that is the single best way to tackle such stages. Once I reached Reigate I stopped and ate a bar of chocolate washed down with some pastilles. I read a really interesting article recently about Dean Karzanes ( One of my heroes and an inspirational figure to many others) a ultra marathon runner who has completed tasks such as running across the south pole and taking part in the hottest marathon on earth. During his runs (sometimes reaching over 100 miles in length!!!) he consumes Pizzas, Chocolates and any other junk he can get his hands on. He said that this gives him the quick release of un refined carbs that he needs along with high calorie content. If it worked for him, then im sure it will work for me. After breaking for a minute I joined the road linking Reigate to Dorking. As I passed the road leading to Box Hill I began to have nervous convulsions. A part of me wanted to just to run up it again but I knew I would regret that decision 10 miles later!
At Dorking I stopped for around 30 minutes to eat some pasta and do some stretches on council property. They seem to keep all the nice patches of greenery for themselves. I set of I was making good time, 1.30 minutes gone. I would be in Guildford in no time! I had no idea how wrong I was going to be.
As I left Dorking there was a sign saying “North Downs area of natural beauty”. I suddenly had disturbing flashbacks to a very similar sign stating the same thing about Box Hill. Of course being a “area of natural beauty” in the middle of surrey only meant one thing lots of hills. And hills make James very tired. I wasn’t wrong for the next two miles I had to tackle some really tough hills, not at the level of Box Hill but not far off. It was made harder by that fact that I had all ready ran 12 miles before that point. As I reached I turned off the roads due to them becoming un fit for pedestrians. I started running across a field. As I am a man I refused to stop an look at my directions and made use of my instinctual navigational tools, such as the man compass. I have made use of my trusty man compass on many occasions, such as the time I got lost in Sydney and whilst I was tripping in Indonesia. It never let me down before. I could hear the drone of the road near me and decided to follow it as much as I could until I reached a town called Westcott. The field was a boggy mess. Matters were made worse when I started to get spitted on by a nasty dark cloud. It was waiting to burst on me. Once I reached Westcott I decided to sit down and rest. As I ate some more Pasta and drank my water I realised that this village was a bit strange
Combine the “League of Gentlemen” and “Hott Fuzz” and you have Westcott. I saw the same Police car circle around the village square three times. A woman was standing in the park opposite me taking part in what I could only describe as some kind of ancient mating dance directed at her dog. I visited the local store to buy some water and was greeted by the owner stating, “what are you doing?” ( I think the combination of me young mixed race male combined with me sweating carrying a massive bag led him to assume I was an in fact an escaped convict about to steal his stock) I ate some more food and set off again. After reaching Gumshall I decided to go off road again. This was when things went horribly wrong.
The road I was running on became an A-Road and after nearly being hit by a passing Lorry I made a decision to get to Guildford by cutting north across the downs. It would not only save me time but was also much safer. As I ran across the countryside I realised how steep some of the peaks were getting. I hit my first big wall as I approached a particularly nasty field. My legs began to burn and my hip ached. I ran to the top and rested. At this point I was beginning to realise that I had absolutely no idea where I was. I went to drink some water my bottle was now down to its last ¼ of a litre. Picking up my bag I forged on and climbed over some more fences into fields, the spitting from earlier on began to increase to light rain. The one thing I noticed as I ran was just how beautiful England is. All I could see were hills which seemed to stretch for miles, I had a moment of realisation sitting down as the rain landed on my head. I was very cold and tired but felt so appreciative to be in the situation I was in. I set off again after running through a small cluster of trees I paused and assessed my situation. I looked to my notes form the night before giving me key points to aim towards if I got lost. I swore as I withdrew the paper it was damp and un readable. I couldn’t hear any traffic which meant I had strayed deep into the countryside. I knew from looking at maps the night before that I was somewhere inbetween Gumshall and Guildford. All I had to do was keep going in one direction and I would re join the road again as it split into multiple lanes. I drank the last of my water and continued running.
The rain was coming down now quite badly at this point I began to get angry. I was doing so well and I had messed up a very simple route by trying to be clever. I approached another fence. I began to climb over. As I picked up one of the wires to duck under I jolted back in agony.The shock sent me tumbling over the fence, my bag was stuck and I faced another few seconds of pain before I freed it. Stupid twat I thought to myself. I just clambered over an electric wire. I clambered up the hill, towards the end of this particular field I saw a herd of Cows as I passed them they all looked up at me with there big eyes. I stopped and tried to pat one of them. I really love animals. The cows seemed to have a spritual connection to one another. It is a shame that many of them are simply bred to be slaughtered. I hope that one day I would have the courage to become a vegetarian.
I was really getting thirsty at this point. I had been running for around 45 minutes without water. It doesn’t sound much but my body was crying out for water to feed to my muscles. What also made my morale worse was the state of my clothes, I was muddy and my hands were cold. Still it could be worse the rain had stopped and the sun looked set for an appearance. I continued on for another 15 minutes. As I reached the end of another field I heard a moped straining over a hill. There was a road near by! I followed the sound and gazed at the beauty of the concrete. Jumping onto the road I began running. This road literally had no pavement. I kept running, now my thirst was getting quite bad and my hip was starting to click. I stopped at a café which over looked a magnificent view of the whole of the downs. I was very high up and I now understood why I was tackling so much incline. I went in and asked for a pint of water. The lady was very kind, she asked me where I had came from, when I said Purley she poured me three more pints! After speaking to her about why I was doing all this she pledged to donate some money to my page. It turns out I was at a viewing spot and Guildford was only 6 or so miles away. I thanked her and began running down a very long hill. Cars whizzed my me. One man beeped me and I threw a stone at the back of his car whilst offering to kill him. I had to run along this road, if there was a pavement I would run across it! From training in Martial Arts for nearly ten years I normally have a very good control over my temper. However I had been running for hours, I was thirsty, wet and my hip hurt. If this guy had a problem then I was more then happy to talk to him about it.
At the end of the road I saw a sign saying “Guildford”. I knuckled down and ran, this was the hardest part of the run so far. I was so near to the end. Im sure it was only a mile or so but it felt like 10. Mentally I was beginning to fade and my mouth was so dry. I hit a roundabout. Opposite I saw a sign saying “welcome to Guildford”. I approached it and cuddled it shouting at the top of my lungs, fisting the air. I was so happy with myself. I stopped the stopwatch on my phone. My time: 5.55 Minutes. Not bad for the first time. As I walked towards the train station I got very strange lookes from many people. They didn’t know what I just done. To them I was just another guy. I looked a state and smelt awful. But I really didn’t care. I had ran a distance I would never of dreamed of 7 weeks ago and I done it with weight over difficult terrain. This was the first test of my training. And Im happy to say that I passed. Now it is time for the rest of the lads to do the same.
I have learnt many things which I can definitely take forward on the next run and when I run to rome. The first is that I need to seriously invest some time into improving my navigational skills. I worked out I had actually ran a massive 7 miles which I didn’t need to do. This cannot happen on the run. I also realised just how much water I will need. I drank two litres on the run and I desperately wanted to drink more.
Im training again tomorrow. No rest for the wicked. Im also doing a show in two weeks time, I plan to run to it.
