I have now officially entered the Ultrarunners club! After the last few months of training, I finally got to cross the finish line of the Centurion South Downs Way 50 last Saturday. What a race!

My original plan was for the NDW50 as I know the route well, but with only 300 places it filled up before I could convince my mate James that he should join me (and I wanted a fellow ultra-runner-in-training :)). So we settled on the South Downs instead, signing-up in mid-August last year.

It's been looming in the calendar for a while but out of nowhere race day came around and it was time to see if we'd done enough training to make it round the course in one piece, and hopefully enjoy it a little along the way!

Prepping up

I've raced many road races before but never an ultra, and never one with a mandatory kit list. Usually I only have a small handheld water bottle and some jelly babies. Clearly that wasn't going to cut it this time, because as a minimum you need to carry a mobile phone, 1+ litres of water, a survival blanket, waterproof jacket, whistle, head-torch, backup head-torch, warm hat, gloves, and a base layer.

My jacket wasn't waterproof enough, I needed some trail shoes, and my trusty CamelBak wasn't even big enough to fit everything in. So I had a few bits of kit to acquire...but that's never a bad thing, right?

Most runners know that it's never a good idea to use new kit for race day that you haven't practiced with, as you may have some issues with it that cause you discomfort or worse over a long race. However, this relies on your Hermes delivery guy not leaving your package of new kit 'securely in the basement' that you don't have.

If that does happen, you might only have time for a single run with the complete kit! Not ideal, but my test run with everything packed into this (using Centurion's very useful video) was short but o.k., so fingers-crossed that would extend for 50 miles!

Pretty confident I'll be meeting the mandatory kit requirements... Okay, so most of it is for afterwards, trying to anticipate what I'll be craving after 8+ hours of exercise

Race Day

The race starts at Worthing College at 9am, so we were able to drive down from London early in the morning. It was a pretty grim morning, pouring down with rain and a little nippy. More than once we did question our life choices that had led us to this point.

Standard marathon breakfast. But this being effectively a very hilly double-marathon, follow up with a second breakfast for good measure :)

By the time we arrived though the weather had started to clear up, as well as our enthusiasm. Registration was quick and easy. We had our kit checked, signed a waiver and picked up our running number in no time. There was a busy but jovial atmosphere as everyone did their last-minute pre-race rituals and tried to decide whether the weather had cleared up sufficiently from the early morning rain to start without a jacket. Answer, yes.

And at about quarter to 9, in a group of 378 hopeful runners, we made our way to the start line...

Feeling apprehensively excited. This is it now!

3,2,1 Go!

We had a quick race briefing and then we were off! The rain had stopped, the sun was trying to peek out, and only 50 miles of trail lay between us and Eastbourne. Time to run!

Being my first Ultra I went in with no time-goal in mind, instead just wanting to finish, and as a bonus before sunset. That was quite a liberating feeling after racing on the road where I'm used to aiming for very specific splits and knowing exactly what I'm capable of; This was a whole different ball game, I felt I'd done enough training to finish but other than that it was all unknown territory.

A mile or so in and it's smiles all round. Will it last?

One thing that struck me really quickly was how sociable running a big trail event like this is. Coming from road-races where typically you'll set your watch and then focus in on your own race, it was a nice contrast.

Instead of jostling elbows of runners trying to get an early head-start, runners were bantering together like old school friends as they pushed on in mass up the hills. Ok, maybe at the front with the elite runners it's a bit different. Or maybe it's a smaller community and people are all old friends.

Either way, it was great chatting to all of the other runners. And to find out that most of them seemed to have raced several ultras before, or were wearing Grand Slam 100 T Shirt's was pretty epic... Humbling to be running 50 miles on a Saturday morning with most friends thinking you're crazy, and yet find yourself towards the novice end of the runners spectrum.

Incredible views to be had throughout the day. You can see for miles! (Of which you're about to run)

The first 11 miles of the race to the first aid station flew by. I felt good and full of energy, but was cautious to maintain a comfortable pace as I didn't want to burn out later. That, and some veteran 100 miler finishers were behind me and presumably they had a better idea about pacing than me :)

I think I pretty much sold the race to James with:

"Don't think of it as a 50 mile race... Think of it as eight back-to-back 10k's where you stop and stuff your face after each one"

It seemed to work, everyone likes food. I mean a selling point of the Heartbreaker was obviously the soup and roll. Luckily the aid stations on the SDW50 didn't disappoint. Instead of a cup of water grabbed mid-run, we stopped for a comparative feast.

I usually re-fuel with Clif bars on long runs as I find them pretty good and tasty, but today I supplemented them with ham sandwiches, fruit and chocolate in abundance.



After so many miles, food never tasted so good. And this is only half of it, there's a whole table of sandwiches, wraps and more fruit out of shot

The course exactly follows the South Downs Way except for a few miles at the start and finish, and it was virtually impossible to get lost en-route. As well as the standard acorn marking the trail there were Centurion's own markers, red and white tape and chalked arrows at key points.

A point-to-point and easy to follow route. My map stayed unused in my bag

Along the way was some fantastic scenery. We saw lots of animals, including running through a farm at one point. Cows, pigs, horses, sheep, check. That was cool, the raging bonfire not so much...

The total elevation gain over the race is 5700ft (1750m), so fairly hilly and no point in charging straight up all the hills. It was comforting that everyone else seemed to share the same view!



What goes up must come down...and back up

The hills were also a good opportunity to eat something, take in some more water, or update my 'crew' that came to support me of my progress (handy having that mandatory phone).

Unless you're aiming for the front of the field, a nice chance to admire the view and take a few photos

There are a few designated crew points aside from the aid stations. My girlfriend Abi and some of my family were waiting at Devil's Dyke 15 miles in, and then 5 miles later at Clayton Windmills. It was great to see them, and still feeling strong.

Devils Dyke, awaiting runners a plenty

They were waiting a while sometimes as being my first ultra I could only give very rough ball-park times for when I expected to be at each point. At least it was a nice day :)

At Clayton Windmills mile 20, it's not just the runners enjoying the views

Around the 30 mile mark I checked my Garmin. This was now the longest run I'd ever done, so I took a quick audit of how my body was holding up. Legs were...tired, but otherwise okay except for a niggling rubbing on the left heel. Hmm, hope that doesn't get worse. Not too bad all told, which was more than could be said for the watch, already down to 7% battery! I had a backup charger with me so I spent a while rigging it up to charge while hanging off one of the loops on the vest. And then had to run the next few miles holding it so it didn't bounce around... Not ideal. Especially considering the claimed 16 hour battery life being the sole reason I upgraded!

I reached Bo Peep at 39 miles and saw Abi again. Still mentally good, but physically quite fatigued by this point.

By the time I reached the aid station at Alfriston (41 miles) I knew I was going to finish. Holding back at the start had paid off and I now found myself wanting to speed up towards the end. Abi sent me a message to say I could make it under 9 hours if I got my game on too. Crikey, better get moving! Reaching Jevington at 46 miles I ran into the aid station not quite realising it was only a few miles till the finish until the volunteers called it out. Wondering why I had stopped I headed straight back out again and up the final climb of the course!

After around 8 and a half hours of running I reached the summit and stopped for a photo taken by one of the awesome volunteers that were all along the course. This was great.

All down hill from here now!

From here is the home-straight, downhill all the way taking you off the Downs and through the streets of Eastbourne until you reach the Athletics track of the Sports Park. It was a fairly tricky, technical descent down very narrow gulleys, and I almost stacked it a few times.

But I made it off the downs and onto the roads in one piece, feeling surprisingly good and picked up the pace a little towards the end. Soon the track was in view and I could hear the cheering in the distance. So close now! I reached the track just as a couple of fire engines arrived responding to the constant fire alarms that were going off, ready for my final victory lap of the track before crossing the line, taking my medal, and collapsing on the floor for a well-earned rest!

In total I was running for a little over 8h47m, my longest run ever in both time and distance. And possibly the most enjoyable.

Saved some energy for the mandatory sprint finish...!

I can't get over how quickly the day seemed to fly by. My longest run in training was 30 miles, but that felt like it took longer (it didn't). I put that down to the camaraderie of the day, and the frequent checkpoints that meant the race was broken up so it wasn't one long slog. It helped that the weather was good too! I'm sure I might have felt different if it was freezing, foggy, and lashing it down with rain :)

Challenge completed, great feeling!

At the finish line was hotdogs, tea and coffee. Oh, and the huge cool bag of food that I brought with me. After some stretches, I just ate. That 7k calorie deficit isn't going to fill itself, Om nom nom!

James completed the course too and had more or less the same feelings. Driving back to London we were absolutely exhausted, and drifting off to sleep. But not before the enlightenment of the day led him to come up with a real pearl of wisdom.

"Man cars are so good aren't they. So much easier than running."

An awesome medal to add to the collection :)

Summary

Exactly what I was looking for to make the jump up from marathon running to ultra-running. I haven't done many trail races (yet) to compare, but based on my experiences on the day I would recommend this race to anyone wanting to do the same.

Organisation: Great. Everything was easy on the day, and Centurion sent out a few emails in advance of the race with everything you need to know

Great. Everything was easy on the day, and Centurion sent out a few emails in advance of the race with everything you need to know Enjoyment: Great. Slightly biased as it was my first ultra, but so far this was one of my top 3 most enjoyable runs

Great. Slightly biased as it was my first ultra, but so far this was one of my top 3 most enjoyable runs Value for money: Pretty good at £70. Some road-half marathons ask for amounts nearing that these days!

Pretty good at £70. Some road-half marathons ask for amounts nearing that these days! Making it better: Would have been awesome to have a choice of hot-food at the end not just hot dogs. And announcements of runners when they hit the finish track would have been cool (actually I thought this was supposed to happen)

Would have been awesome to have a choice of hot-food at the end not just hot dogs. And announcements of runners when they hit the finish track would have been cool (actually I thought this was supposed to happen) Would I do it again? Yes

Now I just need to recover. Walking the next day was a bit of a non-starter, just like after I finished my first marathon. I also really like sleeping at the moment. And I think I've now gained weight with all the food I've eaten since.

What's next? In around 3 weeks now I'm running the Prague Marathon. The legs aren't too happy about that...