Caesars Camp 50

I haven't blogged since last July after running the South Downs 100. Yesterday I ran my first ultra since then, the Caesars Camp 50. Over the last year and few months I've kept up the running but not to the extent I used to - no ultras, a few half half marathons and one marathon. I attempted the Thames Path 100 in March but unfortunately had to pull out due to not feeling good and bad conditions. After running the Kent Coastal marathon in September it gave me a bit more confidence to get back into ultras so I entered the Caesars Camp 50. Over the last month I upped my training, running 4-5 times a week gunning towards Caesars Camp 50 - I probably could have trained a little more but I was confident I could get around a 50 miler. So yesterday I set off with Sam my girlfriend who gave me a lift and picked me up from the race which I really appreciate as great to have a bit of support. We set off at 8.30 and it took just over 2 hours to get to the Caesar Camp HQ in Aldershot. Turned up and saw a few familiar faces including a good friend James Elson who got me into all this. I registered collecting my number and I was a little nervous as I hadn't done one of these for a while. Henk the race director then gave a race briefing, if you haven't met Henk he is a great guy and very funny. In the race briefing he mentioned the usual stuff and the fact that this will be the last Caesars Camp as it was becoming more expensive to secure the permit for the course and he likes to do it as cheap as possible, the land which the race was on had just been filming a Guy Ritchie film. Henk made a few jokes about how he managed to secure a permit for the race, I won't go into detail but were very funny. He then decided to single out anyone with a back pack on, Garmin watch and compression socks and one guy was left who got ruined. The race started at 12 which I think is a good time to start but would have rather started earlier to get less miles done in the dark. The course was a 10 mile lap course of 7600ft altitude with 2 aid stations, one at 5.5 miles run by James and one at 10 miles run by Henk. So just as it got to 11.55 it started raining, I looked at Sam and said why is the weather bad when I do ultras as she experienced me pulling out of Thames Path when it was cold and snowing. I put my wet top stood on the start line, Henk then did a 10 second count down and we were off. I started just behind the leaders in a group of 3-4 people, chatting away as the miles went past. The course was trails, rocky, hilly and through forests. In my mind I wanted to be around 9-10 hours but as I covered the first lap I thought to finish would be good as was very hilly. I covered the first lap in 1.38. The tricky thing about a lap course is you keep coming back to the start so easy to pull out, the 100 mile race has something like a 20% finish rate and I think quite a few pulled out of the 50 yesterday. There was no way I was DNF this race and Sam told me as well she wouldn't come and pick me up,which was in my head and didn't want to let her or myself down.Carrying onto the second lap running a bit with a guy Dave who had run various centurion races, I felt pretty good passing Elson at 15 miles, Just keep going I thought but I was getting hot. By around 25 miles I was sweating and thought I was in a little bit of trouble so took it easy. The thing with an ultra is there are so many ups and downs, you just need to keep going. I spent most of the day running on my own which is weird as normally you end up running with people here and there. I ran the first lap in 1.38, 2nd lap in 1.50 and 3rd in 2 hours. Going into the 4th I was a lot more confident thinking I have broken the back of this, even though 20 miles is a long way you get a bit of a confidence boost as you're over half way like in any race - 5k, 10k, half marathon etc. So feeling good I kept going, passing Elson at 35 giving him a wave. Was good to see him there as I wouldn't hear the end of it if I pulled out. I did find the course tough and hilly, in my head I wanted to get 3 laps done in the light, I managed to run about 34 miles by 6.15 then it went dark and the head torch came out. I got to 40 miles and then I knew I had done it. I ended up running the first 5.5 miles with a woman called Suzanne who had done a lot of triathlons, first 100 was in June - South Downs and this was her 2nd ultra - we chatted quite a bit which passed the time. Coming into Elson's Aid station at 45 miles I helped myself to some peanuts but nearly put the spoon into my mouth which should have been used to put peanuts on your hand as was for everyone. I was so ruined I didn't know, luckily Elson stopped me. Suzanne felt good so went on and I covered the last 4.5 miles on my own. Crossing the line was great, it brought back all the reasons why I do this. I finished in 9.48 so just under 10 hours and in 7th place. I love ultra running as it's great to challenge yourself, it takes you away from everything, you get to run some great courses, meet great people and I feel that running makes you stronger in other aspects of life. I definitely have the ultra buzz back, I want to enter another 100 next year, it's just finding the right one. I think my next ultra will be country to capital in Jan. I would like to say I would recommend Caesars Camp but unfortunately that was the last one but Henk did mention he is looking to set up another race so keep a look out for that!