Achieving ambition. The Donard hat trick revisited

Back in 2012 I was looking for a new challenge.  I was enjoying a new lease of life in a new sport and realising that I had a bit of potential in mountain running.  I wanted something that was achievable but seriously challenging and so the Donard Hat Trick was born, boasting three full ascents and descents of Northern Ireland's highest mountain and giving a 15 mile route with 2550m of climbing and obviously the same amount of descending.  Tough in itself, but the real killer was that to complete the challenge I decided on a maximum 3.5 hours to do it!  If you read the link there you'll realise that not only did I never achieve it, I never even got round to attempting it!  I also failed spectacularly to convince any of the elite mountain runners I asked to give it a go either.  Consensus was that it was a bit too ambitious/mind numbing!

Don't get me wrong, I had a good stab at it but limited myself to double ascents culminating in a 2:19:26 (the 1:19 in the old blog is a typo!).  That theoretically put me on target but the reality was that I was almost unable to walk after the two times round and the thought of putting in a 1hr 10m third lap was laughable.  Two pretty successful years of running and racing later, quite unexpectedly the Donard hat trick sailed back into my consciousness.

Slieve Donard in the distance on a much nicer day.  Funnily enough I didn't take any pics today! 

I'm heading off to the famous Pikes Peak race in Colorado in two weeks, representing NI in the World Long Distance Mountain Running Champs.  The route for that race is an all uphill 13.3 miles gaining around 2500m of elevation.  To make matters much worse, the finish is above 14,000 feet, a height where the limited oxygen can leave you gasping for air when you're just standing still!  Extensive research has sadly taught me that for us sea levellers there's nothing we can do when competing at altitude except turn up a month in advance and acclimatise.  Also sadly, sport's funding bodies don't value us mountain runners very highly and so there's no chance of our team being given that opportunity despite physiology tests proving that top mountain runners are at least on a par with top Olympians.  If it's not Olympic or Commonwealth, there's no cash available (not that I'm bitter!).  Anyway, I'm digressing.  Realising that I couldn't simulate high altitude I decided that at least I could try to recreate the difficulty of the Pikes Peak route.  I was fortunate enough to spend an amazing month with the family in Chamonix and Lake Garda during June and July where I was able to put in some big runs with big ascents, adding a new level of endurance to the fitness gained from a great season of competing in Ireland.  Upon returning home I was looking for a breakthrough session that would test me to the degree that the Worlds will, whilst also demonstrating to myself the pacing and nutrition approaches I'll need in order to perform my best in Colorado.  With a bit of thinking the answer was staring me in the face, it was time to resurrect the Hat Trick.

I planned to put the attempt at the end of a heavy training week which included a fast, hilly 18 mile trail run on Monday and a double Donard on Wednesday along with two shorter recovery runs.  In the end I only ran a single Donard on the Wed as I thought my legs were a feeling a bit heavy.  In actuality I ended up feeling great and knocked out a sub 1hr lap which felt so easy that a couple of hours later I'd forgotten that I'd actually trained that day.  A rest day on Friday and I was all prepped and psyched, and then I saw the weather forecast!  Torrential rain and a weather warning for County Down wasn't part of the plan and I felt an initial pang of annoyance but then I saw that the wind was coming from the North giving me potentially a rare tailwind for much of the climb and I perked up a lot.  I don't care about getting soaking but pushing into a headwind repeatedly gets boring very quickly.  The other great motivator was that the Seven Sevens race was taking place in the Mournes that day, a race I was originally going to enter but wimped out when I got injured scoping the course out.  The winner of that race is always aiming to go sub 4hrs and I knew that the winner was likely to be my occasional training partner Seamy Lynch.  A quick text to Seamy and a bet was made, whoever finished their race first was promised a free lunch!

So to this morning.  I prepared as I always do for a race, eating well 2.5 hrs before and then getting as much fluid in as possible.  I planned to start at 9:58, just before the 10am start time for the Sevens so I wouldn't be interfering in the race at all.  You get a lot of thinking time when running so I think the best way to describe my attempt is by sharing my own internal dialogue.

Lap 1
Start easy, find a place to stash a water bottle for later.  11 mins at the ice house is about right but I feel bloated, I clearly ate too much.  I'm sick in my mouth a bit but swallow it knowing I'll need those calories later.  The flatter mid section feels great, I've found a good pace and rhythm and it feels totally effortless.  There's a slight tailwind which feels brilliant, I lose count of the amount of times I've battered into a headwind up here.  On to the really steep steps and the wind is picking up.  Through the col and onto the summit ridge and it's blowing a gale, the icy rain is battering me and it can't be much above zero degrees with the wind chill.  My jacket goes on, I can't see it coming off again today.  Hit the top in 43:20, about perfect.  My legs feel great, no strain at all, time for a steady descent.  Eat three jelly babies, one makes a bid for freedom and jumps back out of my mouth.  Good measured descent, I hit the bottom at 1:10:45, close enough to 3hr 30 pace and feeling totally relaxed.

Lap 2
How the hell are you meant to take on a gel when running up a 25% hill?  I can't even open the stupid thing.  Finally bite the top off and extract the remains that haven't squirted all over my hands.  Grab the stashed bottle and have a quick swig.  Legs feel fantastic, still really easy and totally different to my old double Donards.  Loving the confused looks on the faces of people who have seen me ascending twice now.  Not even out of breath so saying a cheery hello to everyone I meet.  There are some miserable bastards on the hill today, can you really not muster a reply?!  Kudos to the Dub fella who asks if I've forgotten my wallet!  I tell him I left my fags at the top.  Meet Jim Patterson, local running legend walking down.  He tells me he knows I'm in training but today is the wrong weather.  I respect Jim's opinion and his observation worries me.  Five minutes later I meet Anne Sandford, NI team selector and she asks whether this is my second or third ascent and gives me some support, I feel instantly much better.  The track is now a stream higher up on the mountain and the wind smashes me again on the summit ridge.  43:35 up, delighted to see that my pacing is near perfect so far.  All three jelly babies make it to my stomach this time, now for the descent.  I get a strange sensation of enjoyment, real enjoyment!  The descent feels fast and smooth, feet precise, plenty of grip.  So busy waxing lyrical about my new Inov8 X Talon shoes that I catch an edge and go over on my damaged ankle.  No amount of taping would stop that.  Familiar feelings of nausea but I know I can run this one off, concentrate, concentrate.  Hit the bottom in 2:19:53.  I've clawed time back and I still feel strong.  Last time I was in this position I was virtually crawling across the car park!

Lap 3
Better effort on the gel this time, learned behaviours!  The legs feel a bit heavier, calves stiffening for the first time and the quads know they've been busy.  Still hit 11 mins to the ice house so the pacing is still good but it feels harder this time.  I feel a bit fuzzy around the edges, slight hallucinations in my peripheral vision, other runners.  I'm convinced I've slowed but want to give myself a chance at 3:30 with a good descent.  Grind out the final section of the summit ridge, hit the top and touch the tower, glance at the watch, 3:03:03!  Incredible, my fastest ascent of the three at 43:10.  Amazing effort at constant pacing too.  Realise that I've still got plenty in the tank and with a decent descent should complete the challenge within the time.  Feet aren't so precise now but I'm attacking hard.  No need to hold back.  Loving the temperature rise as I descend.  Grab the stashed bottle, no way I'm going to come back up for it.  Out of the trees and sprint, a genuine smooth, relaxed sprint for the finish in the car park.  3:25:13.  Incredible.  I let out an involuntary whoop which gets me chatting to the walkers who hit the bottom at the same time as me.  The time has blown me away but more than that, I still feel strong.  I keep running back to the van, reckon I've got another ascent in me.  Pretty sure I've never felt this fit in my life, delighted and really excited.

So there it is.  A challenge completed and a really gratifying demonstration of how fitness can change and evolve.  I thought I was fit in 2012 but clearly now I'm on a different plane altogether.  The longer runs I've been doing have obviously contributed massively but the ease of it all, particularly in really trying conditions has astounded me.  With three ascents all within 25 seconds of eachother and progressively faster laps culminating in a 1:05:20 for the last one it's safe to say that I got my pacing pretty spot on.  The nutrition went well despite Fort Knox gel packets and freedom seeking jelly babies.  All in all I genuinely couldn't be more satisfied.  I just hope that I can somehow pull off a similar performance at altitude!

As a postscript, I let Seamy off the bet.  He won the Sevens in a very respectable 4:02 despite some questionable navigation and frankly it's a lot harder than my triple Donard.  I think the only fair thing to do is for him to do the Hat Trick and see who's time is faster.  I'll have my steak medium rare thanks Seamy!

The Process Of Belief

The Process Of Belief

Sporting success can be yours but you have to believe you deserve it....

This story begins a long time ago, the mid-nineties to be precise.  I was a moderately talented Cross Country mountain bike racer back then, regional champion, sponsored, felt like a big fish!  Which is all great until you get into the biggest pond.  It was my first year racing the full national series and I distinctly remember feeling totally overawed.  The sheer scale of the races sapped at my confidence and ultimately I found myself hiding on the back of the grid for the biggest race of the year, the National Champs, trying to be invisible, not bothering anyone.  The inevitable happened, I got stuck at the back of a huge bottleneck at the first singletrack and lost minutes.  By the end of the first lap any hope of catching the top 20 riders had been obliterated by other people's technical inabilities.  I was left frustrated by a 28th place finish in a race where I wasn't passed, not once!  I had spent the entire race picking off nearly a hundred other riders and when I finished I still had energy to burn and the definite knowledge that if I'd had the balls to stand at the front of the grid I'd have been a top 10 finisher.  The process had begun...

Fast forward 17 years and I found myself stretching my hamstrings on a bench in Janske Lazne, venue for the 2013 World Masters Mountain Running Champs.  After a frustrating 8 weeks of preparation since my last race, hindered by a run of interconnected injuries that had made my left leg a virtual passenger in my heavily interrupted training schedule, I had every right to feel nervous and unconfident, except I didn't.  Obviously I had the adrenaline, the essential buzz that brings out the best of performance when the flag drops but those crippling teenage doubts were nowhere to be seen.  I finished stretching, jogged back to the start line and placed myself on the front row, dead centre, racing line.  Any of the other racers could've demanded I moved back and joined the grid from the back as you should, but they didn't.  My demeanour said I was World Class, I belonged there.  The race went perfectly, tactically and physically.  As expected the genuine World Class athletes pulled away from me, the pros, full timers and superhuman specimens.  The rest of the field didn't catch me, couldn't pass me and I gradually eased away to get my top 10 finish.  Top 10 in the World!  The process of belief was complete.

Feeling confident 30 mins before the biggest race of my life

This scenario doesn't really make sense.  In 1996 I was already an experienced mountain bike racer with a fairly enviable CV of results.  I was at the peak of fitness and belonged somewhere near the front of that National standard grid.  By contrast, this year I was just a second year runner, albeit with some good Irish results but absolutely no experience of racing on a World stage and with no right to plonk myself in pole position on the Czech starting line.  In the 17 years between those two races I had learned a very important lesson...

Ability without confidence is about as useful as confidence without ability and neither is likely to win you anything!

I'll elaborate in a second within the limited context of my own sporting successes but first I want to drill this point home.  Picture Usain Bolt at the start of a race, any race, as he doesn't really lose ones that matter!  His posturing, smiling, oozing confidence, ultimate external image of relaxation actually served to change the sport of sprinting for a while.  I remember reading an article not long back about how Bolt's demeanour so totally crushed his opponents that the only way they felt they could compete was to copy him.  So everyone started acting the way he did, but they were just pretending to be confident, playing into his hands and basically by interrupting their own finely developed pre-race routines they were conceding the race before they even got into the blocks.  Even Olympic standard athletes need to believe they can win, the alternative is a lack of confidence that can end the careers of the truly talented.

Funnily, there are actually some comparisons to be made between those Olympic start lines and the pre-race warm-ups at the Irish fell races in which I've spent the last two years competing.  In my tentative first year I was turning up and getting sucked into a trap of amiability!  Despite always arriving with an hour to spare I'd end up chatting to so many really friendly people that I'd end up not even completing my warm up!  This left me underprepared and therefore never fully ready for the race.  I did OK that year, always top 10 but never a winner and there were a group of 5 or 6 runners who I never could beat, physically or psychologically.  I could almost predict my race result whilst stood on the start line because I knew that whoever was there from that elite group would be beating me to the finish line.  The process of belief was still a work in progress.  Having decided to focus properly on mountain running this season I began to think a bit more professionally and glean every bit of information that could make me faster.  I watched the pre-race rituals of the top contenders and realised that amongst all the chat (and they'd still be very friendly) they were definitely focused on their own routines and rituals, ensuring that when they stood on the start line they were 100% ready.  They were the Usains and the other 95% of us were the hapless opponents.  If I was going to win, my pre-race had to be right.

So that was learning point number one.  I changed my approach and developed a warm-up schedule that still allowed time for me to chat to everyone but guaranteed that I always finished with a final stretch just in front of the grid before stepping on to the front row, dead centre.

Here are the other things that I learned this year in order to mentally develop the required belief.  I think these are pretty generic and I'll be applying them back to mountain bike racing again in 2014.

1)  Prepare Physically

Yes this is totally obvious!  If you're not physically capable of winning races then you won't, but the format of your physical preparation can have a massive impact on your mental strength and belief processes.  Personally I'm a big believer in targets and goals and I had the perfect set of measures in the previous race results.  I based my pre-season training on an intention to beat the winning time from the 2011 Tollymore Hill and Dale race won by the then invincible Des Woods.  I knew that if I could get close to his time in my training then I'd have a really good shot at winning this year.  As the 2013 Tollymore race neared I focused all my energy on a full pace attempt at the course the week before.  I had to bury myself on that training run but I beat Des' race time without the added incentive of competition and so despite having never won a Hill and Dale race, I turned up at my first race of the season feeling like the firm favourite.  Ironically in this case it was the speed I'd developed and the confidence to run off the front of all those people I'd never beaten before that led to me missing a turning and leading the next three runners temporarily off course and to disqualification!  To me this was also irrelevant though, as far as I was concerned I won that race convincingly and I'd a sneaky feeling that my opponents felt that way too.  The belief was growing and I took it to the next race and won by over two minutes.

Brutal pre-season training added self-belief

2)  Set Ambitious Goals

At the start of the season I was asked what my goals were for the year.  Bearing in mind that this is just my second year in the sport I chose these.
a) Win my category in the classic Mournes based Hill and Dale race series and come top 3 overall.
b) Complete the iconic and historic Slieve Donard race in a sub 1 hour time.
c) Put together the results required to represent Ireland at the World Championships and not be disgraced when I competed there.
Pretty ambitious stuff but I figured if I was going to put everything into one sport for a year then I may as well aim high.  As it turns out my season started well and gained momentum from there, I achieved or over achieved all of these.  The important aspect though was the fact that having stated these to other people, the incentive was there to achieve them (or look very foolish/arrogant).  By setting these goals I was making that psychological shift needed to believe I could beat opponents who I previously found unbeatable.

3)  Ride The Momentum 

This is something that I learned but could have probably done a lot better myself.  Anyone who follows sport generally will probably have witnessed the way that winning is a habit.  Good teams become seemingly unbeatable and opponents start sub-consciously playing for a draw or just simply trying to limit their losses.  My season had great momentum but almost got de-railed by surprise success.

The Slieve Donard race is the one to win.  People have trained long and hard to get their names on the winners shield alongside the good and great of Irish mountain running and most have failed.  It's the race that used to totally astound me when I read that the winners could get to the summit and back in less than one hour.  Perhaps because of this I never once believed I could win it.  I raced it last year and was both delighted and gutted with my performance.  I was overjoyed with my 7th place but couldn't help but be disappointed with my time, 1hr and 46 seconds.  Not because it was slow by any means but because I'd built up a sub 1hr Donard as the ultimate verification of being a proper Mourne Mountain runner and I'd come so close.  That's why this year my main goal was to bag the 1hr Donard.  I prepared well and turned up with tactics in mind, get to the top as fast as possible and then try to hang on to the elites as long as I could on the way down (I'm not known for my descending prowess).  Sparing you most of the details, I ran away from everyone on the ascent and then unbelievably stretched my lead on the return journey to complete the course in 57:01 and win by nearly three minutes.  It's no word of a lie to say that I was in shock as I approached the finish and the realisation dawned that I'd won, and in a decent time despite the worst imaginable weather conditions.  My slightly over the top fist pumping as I slowed for the final 50 metres to savour the moment was entirely involuntary and came from a sense of disbelief.  My performance had outdone my self-belief and my head had some catching up to do!

The upshot of the result was that I nearly stopped running after it.  My total surprise at winning a race I respected and revered so highly almost derailed my whole season as I couldn't envisage it getting any better and subsequently lost motivation to train.  If I'd had a bit more belief then maybe I'd have taken it all in my stride, likewise if my goals had been more ambitious.  As it was I slacked off a bit and instead of riding the momentum of victory I had to wait a while to win another race.

The trophies that nearly ended my season!!

 4)  Stress the Details

I figured that if I was going to spend just one year achieving as much as possible in mountain running then I'd be insulting myself and the sport if I didn't do everything in my power to be as good as I could.  Obviously having a job, two young kids and a growing business meant that I couldn't train as much as I'd have liked but I took control of all the other factors, from the most major to the smallest details.  In terms of the bigger aspects I lost weight, taking over 1.5 stone off an already skinny (although I'd prefer lean) frame.  This took sacrifice, no booze, no buns, no biscuits, the lifestyle of a monk!  Obviously being lighter is a big advantage when running up steep mountain sides, imagine carrying a bag with 1.5 stone of rocks in it, it'll definitely slow your progress.  The other side to this discipline though is the fact that for every pint you refuse and for every Hob Nob you turn down, psychologically you feel that tiny bit stronger.  The more you sacrifice, the more it matters that you perform when you get the chance, because why make all that effort if your performances are going to be mediocre?  At the smaller aspects end of the scale I ditched the baggy biking shorts which had previously caused much amusement for my club mates and competitors alike.  By donning a pair of what passes as a pair of shorts amongst runners I was taking another psychological step to being a real runner myself (and on a practical note that move probably saved me from being blown off Millstone Mountain by a blistering headwind which would have flown my old shorts like a kite with me still inside them!).  By focusing on making all the measures I could to be faster, mentally my belief continued to grow.

Every little counts, and those shorts are little!

5)  Have a Routine

And stick to it.  Whether your race is a local evening event or the World Champs.  Whether it takes place at 7pm or 11am.  Whether your journey there takes 10 minutes or a whole day, just be sure that for the last hour before your event you're following your routine.  This takes out all the stress and allows you to go through the motions almost subconsciously.  Register, attach numbers, drink, warm up, stretch, energy gel, check the first 100 metres of the route, stretch again, line up on the start line, front row, dead centre, jog on the spot, GO.  Simple and worry free leaving nothing to burst that bubble of self-belief.

6)  Keep The Faith

You'll probably get beaten.  After all, there are lots of people stood on that start line with a race plan that ultimately ends up with them victorious.  Some of them may even have the self-belief too and so they'll probably get their results just like you get yours.  There can only be one winner, don't let your self-belief diminish because someone was better than you on the day, just work out how to beat them next time.  I won more races than I lost this year but I definitely lost races that I wanted to win.  I picked myself up and tried again next time but always with that same degree of belief.  On a similar note, if you're a runner you'll get injured at some point!  Give yourself time to heal properly (not easy I know) and with a bit of effort you'll soon be as good as you were before the injury and maybe even better for giving your body some much needed R+R.  Don't let your confidence be destroyed by the doubt that comes with injury.

7)  Keep It In Context (Or Maybe Not)

You could read this blog and assume that I'm some kind of genuine athlete with a solid backing in sports psychology (or probably not!).  The fact is that I'm neither.  I am fit, in fact very fit and I train hard (and have for years).  If I hadn't competed for years on bikes there's no way that I'd have been able to compete in a brand new sport physically, but even more so, there's no way I could've managed it psychologically.  It took me years of being totally rubbish, to mediocre, to average, to above average, to leading races for a while, to actually winning races as a mountain biker.  Without that experience there's no way that I'd have coped with the pressure of leading a race in a new sport with 250 people behind all wanting to be ahead of me!  This apprentiship as a sportsman is something that all but the most outrageously naturally talented have to go through.  The pleasing thing for me was discovering that in addition to the physical side, the mental side of being able to compete at a high level is also transferrable between sports.  Despite not actually winning a race of any kind since I quit mountain bike racing 15 years ago, that mentality and knowledge remained dormant, ready to be utilised when required.  If you too can develop that self-belief, the feeling that you belong amongst your rivals and deserve to beat them too then who knows where that mental fortitude could take you.  Big businesses love paying sports stars, adventurers, entrepreneurs and other 'inspirational achievers' to come and address their employees.  Why?  Because they want to inspire this winning mentality in their staff, show them the drive and self-motivation needed to be the best they can be.  I guess by the same reckoning I've never gone into a job interview, exam or assessment with anything less than 100% confidence and that's almost always got me the desired result.  Maybe there are very clear parallels between the psychology of sport and everyday life.  Don't forget to keep the sporting bits in context though.  Achieving what I have this year has brought me satisfaction and confidence.  However, if I'd failed dismally I'd like to think I'm man enough to shrug my shoulders and accept that none of it really matters in the grand scale.  Losing my job or business would have slightly more far reaching implications!

As a postscript to this story I took the self-belief to a whole new level in my final race of the season (and possibly my running career).  The details of the Mourne 2 Day Mountain Marathon are covered in my previous blog but now it's over (and with a sense of slight embarassment) I'll let you into a secret revealing how self-belief can get a bit out of control!  Despite having literally no experience of running in this type of event, no idea of how long we'd be out there for, no clue on how stiff the competition would be, I went in to the race fairly firmly expecting to win the Elite category.  Part of this belief definitely came from being partnered by a top athlete and previous winner of the event, but part definitely came from a degree of blind self-confidence.  I'll even admit that I'd considered what to buy with my half of the £500 prize!  I'm a touch ashamed to have felt like this and obviously if we hadn't won there's no way I'd ever had admitted to it but you can't control your sub-conscience.  I meant no disrespect to my fellow competitors, many of whom are very good athletes.  It's hard to ignore the fact that confidence can become a self-fulfilling prophecy but I was definitely setting myself up for a big (and probably deserved) fall!

The logical conclusion?  I expected this win before it came despite a huge lack of experience!

So next up I'm going back to a sport I'm very familiar with but in a brand new format, Enduro mountain biking.  I was out with the current Irish champion the other day and he left me for dead despite him complaining that he's massively out of shape and off the pace!  I'm going to have to seriously go back to the drawing board before I honestly have the self-belief to beat him.  Here we go again....

Small Margins, The Lowe Alpine Mourne Mountain Marathon

This one definitely wasn’t my idea!  When I decided last year to focus my efforts on mountain running for 2013 I had a few targets but they were all focused on joining the exclusive group of runners capable of winning the short course races.  A strong Winter's training developed my capability to run full speed up tortuous gradients before releasing the brakes and letting my legs pick a terrifying line down through uneven mountain terrain but never for much over an hour.  It’s safe to say that I over achieved in this respect, bar an untimely DQ that cost me one series, everything else I managed this year has pretty much astounded me.  The ability to drop weight at will, bury myself physically and learn from mistakes has led to a pretty satisfying season!

This progress clearly didn’t go unnoticed and so it was that I got an offer I couldn’t refuse, as much as I’d have loved to!  Earlier in the season I was very nearly tempted into taking part in a major running and sailing event around the Scottish Islands by Deon McNeilly, a legendary figure in Irish mountain running.  Very fortunately for me work commitments staved off that event but it meant that refusing the next offer was to prove too hard.  With his regular partner taking a year off, Deon was seeking a team mate for the Mourne 2 Day Mountain Marathon and it was me he again asked.  My initial reaction was suitably non-committal, it was less than tempting for a few reasons.

1)      It’s long (55km) and involves carrying all your kit and camping out before doing it all again the next day.

2)      It takes place in September, way beyond my planned season end (even if I went to the World Champs in August) which meant having to stay fit and lightweight for much longer than anticipated.

3)      I’ve never really done any distance running, except for my two Mourne Wall runs (see previous blogs).

4)      I hate being hungry and I knew that we’d be carrying minimal food!

5)      It’s another event I used to read about with bemused interest (much like all fell running really) but under the impression that I could never actually compete in it.

The only thing that really tempted me was the fact that Deon has won it before and obviously wouldn’t ask unless he thought I had a chance of helping him win it again.  Despite all the arguments against, simple flattery overcame them all.  Ego can get you into some strange situations.  So it was that I entered the world of balloon beds, scooping water from rivers as you run through, weighing food, reading maps whilst running up hill, titanium stove pots and many other new concepts, the world of Mountain Marathons.

30 seconds to start and feeling relaxed!

The Lowe Alpine Mourne 2 Day has been running for decades, always along a similar format.  Pick what class you want to enter (these days from Elite down to ‘D’) and move as fast as you can through the allocated checkpoints whilst navigating yourselves in pairs.  The winners are simply the teams that complete the distance over the two days the fastest.  As long as you ‘dib’ all the checkpoints, route choice is entirely up to you meaning there is plenty of scope for being creative, and in many cases simply being lost!  We were entered in the main event, the 55km Elite race.  I was dubious as to how close a race could be over such a long and varied course but a pre-race tactical chat with Deon and a peek at previous results clarified that even over 10 hours of running, fine margins really can count.

After a week spent teaching navigation in freezing 40mph winds coming into the weekend’s race it was safe to say that I was very apprehensive and more than a bit unenthusiastic.  The reality of what I’d signed up for dawned on me and I had a few sleepless nights.   Extremely fortunately, the stunning Summer weather kicked in again just in time and we were faced with a forecast of mild, still days and even better a dry overnight camp.  Buoyed by this I packed an extremely light bag (12lbs) containing simply the obligatory kit list items and only one luxury (a hat to go with my Buff).  On arrival at Tollymore it was clear to see that not all teams had been so precise!   There was a very clear distinction between the Elite and ‘B’ class runners adorned in lycra, fell shoes and carrying as little as possible and the ‘C’ and ‘D’ classes, many of whom were wearing proper waterproofs, hiking boots and carrying a hell of a lot.  Us competitive types were obviously smug about carrying less weight but it was clear who’d have the last laugh at the campsite when comfort became an issue.

Following kit checks and final goodbyes and good lucks we were bussed to a ‘mystery’ location and as our allotted time arrived we grabbed our grid references for the day, got them plotted and started running.  I’ll not bore you with the details but basically we cocked up the first point and lost 10 minutes but then had a very solid day, moving well over some of the worst ground imaginable before reaching the campsite after around 5.5 hours.  I was pleasantly surprised by how easy I found it, having to move fast over that ground (and I really can’t reiterate enough how poor underfoot it mostly was) for several hours meant that we were never at our limits.  In fact, myself and Deon were able to chat away through much of it, sometimes about the navigation, sometimes about the race and sometimes about navigation in the race!  Not all teams were so careful to conserve energy though and it was a great surprise to us when a rival elite team overtook us despite starting 15 minutes behind.  It was less of a surprise though when they subsequently ‘blew up’ and ended up losing over 40 minutes.  It was very useful having the experience of Deon and my own experience of years of endurance biking to keep our pace suitably steady.

2 second pause for a pic and then up Slieve Muck

As the day one results came in we’d been informed that the front end of the elite race was close.  As it happens, it was extremely close.  After 330 minutes of racing only 6 minutes separated the top 3 pairs with us enjoying a slender 4min 40 lead.  I tried to put this out of my mind and focus on shoving as many calories as I had into me to attempt to recover for the next day.  The overnight camp was actually a total pleasure, some great banter, lovely sunshine and soft grass to pitch the tent on.  I strolled between the various pitches marvelling at some of the items carried by other teams, full size stoves, 4 man tents, cans of food and even some booze!  How the other half live.

Day 1 over, still smiling and a near 5 minute lead

Day 2 dawned bright with heavy cloud just touching the summits.  Remarkably my legs felt strong and relaxed and I felt really confident about the day ahead.  The format was slightly different with no staggered start and ‘clusters’ of checkpoints meaning that teams could choose the order they wanted to visit them.  This allows totally different route choices and adds a whole new element as you therefore have no idea how your closest rivals are fairing.  Myself and Deon were hoping for some better ground and more climbing to drive home the advantage we felt we had in terms of running ability and we weren’t to be disappointed.  Summit checkpoints on Slieves Binnian and Bearnagh meant some hard climbing but also some more established tracks and we flew round the course aided by some very precise navigation.  We occasionally crossed paths with the English pair who were looking like our closest rivals but it was obvious that they were taking a completely different route.  It wasn’t until the cluster was completed that we were headed to the same checkpoint again and as we approached it contouring round Luke’s Mountain we caught sight of them sprinting down the opposite side of the valley, it was going to be close!  As it was we led them by a couple of minutes and stretched out that advantage in the final run in through Tollymore Forest aided by the local knowledge of running on our familiar training routes to the finish back at the National Outdoor Centre.  In the end our advantage was 9 minutes but in the context of a 9 ¼ hour run it certainly isn’t much.  Another error like ours on the very first point of the weekend and we’d have probably lost it.

As I stood agonisingly in the shower watching blood flowing from my toes and a huge blister on the sole of my left foot I contemplated all the small decisions that had resulted in our victory.  There are so many ways in which you can lose ten minutes in an event like that with so many variables.  It truly is a combination of fitness, mountain craft, preparation, experience, pain denial and luck.  It just so happens that I got a very capable partner and the fortune required to pull off a first time victory.

Elite winners 2013!

I can’t express what a superb event the Lowe Alpine Mourne Mountain Marathon is.  Perfectly organised, a really friendly atmosphere, suitably challenging but also fun.  This year it was dedicated to Denis Rankin who was central to the event’s organisation for decades and who sadly died during a fell race earlier this year.  At the prizegiving his wife gave a great speech which coincided with a huge sunbeam breaking through the clouds and bathing a stunning Mournes vista in light, I couldn’t have imagined anything more poignant.

Huge thanks to the organisers but most of all to Deon for persuading me to take part.  I’m happy to retire from competitive running now but Deon is still searching for the ‘perfect 2 day’ as he has been for years so I’m sure he’ll be back again next year!   If only we’d pinpointed that first point maybe Deon could be feeling as satisfied as I am right now… 

Sorry for the lack of pictures by me, we could’ve had hundreds of stunners but my phone weighs 82 grams which any serious Mountain Marathoner will tell you is far too much to ever consider.  Given the choice between nice pictures or extra breakfast there really is no choice, you can’t eat a phone and as the title says, it’s all about the small margins!