Into the red: Celtic Ultra

At 8 am on Saturday morning, we set off in the cold morning light. It was pretty cold but dry, so I decided not to wear a coat at the start as I envisioned warming up pretty quickly on the first climb. Right from the start, someone set the pace high and I thought to myself that maybe I should let him go as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be going at that pace from the gun. But I remembered that I had come to race, so I tagged onto his back.

After hitting the first climb, we slowly eased into a good rhythm, but I was definitely a little doubtful that I could keep this pace up all the way to the end. After around 20 minutes, we crested the top of the first climb and then hit a tarmac road as we shot past the first aid station. No stopping here, that was the plan from the start. I’d planned not to eat any fuel from the aid stations and only top up my water at four out of seven of the designated checkpoints. The views at the top of the hill were amazing - the sun was rising and shone on the wind turbines. We could see a fair long way across the valley and beyond and I knew that it was going to be good conditions to race in. After a few more minutes, the initial pack of three of us became two, as we dropped a nice guy who had done the race the year before. As I suspected we went off a little hot, I turned to him and asked “do you think he’s gone off too quick?”, to which he responded: “it is a bit spicy”. This didn’t really help with my worries that we had gone off too quick, but I started to feel a little more comfortable as we warmed up.

The next few ks were lovely. Nice rolling hills mainly on fire roads with the occasional offroad section thrown in there. In saying this, there were still some punchy hills that were power-hikable! Things were going smoothly and my fueling was going well. I already started to try to get the psychological edge on the other runner by asking him various different questions - I’m only kidding, I was just very curious when asking him about his training and past races. We then dropped down slightly into the second checkpoint where I topped up both of my water bottles. I momentarily lost the other guy as he didn’t stop to refuel and I had to put a bit of an effort to then push uphill and cling back onto him. I stayed calm as I had him in sight the whole time and just slowly reeled him back in just before we headed offroad again.

The next hour or so was really pleasant. We were still keeping the foot on the gas but it felt really comfortable - I knew from around 20 km in that my legs were feeling good. But then I needed my first wee of the race… so I turned to the other guy to say I was stopping for a wee. Luckily for me, he also needed to empty his bladder! Soon after, we started a long, gradual descent down into checkpoint three, where we would then hit the big climb in the middle of the route.

Rolling into checkpoint three, I was still feeling good but the long downhill definitely took its toll on my quads. This is where the half marathon runners would start their race, following the back-end of our route. As they hadn’t started quite yet, it was great to roll in and have a little bit of a crowd to cheer us on. By now, the race was on and we were both ready to push hard into the big climb. I topped up my two water bottles and shot out of the aid station after the other runner. You see, when I looked at the route before the race, I looked at the elevation profile and just told myself that there was a big climb at the start, then some rolling hills, followed by a big decent and a massive climb in the middle. After that, it was effectively all flat and downhill. This meant that the big climb in the middle was what I was most worried about - 600 m of climbing over 8 km is hardly an easy climb 20 miles into a run. The time had now come to tackle the climb.

Having started the climb, from here on we didn’t talk much more as we were both digging deep up the climb. The pace was fast, but luckily, there were some flatter sections and even some slight downhills in the middle of the climb to give us some rest-bite. After climbing for a little bit, we hung a right off the fire road onto a pretty technical offroad section. At one point, I swear we were climbing up a small stream! By this point, the pace was starting to feel hot going up the climb. I began to question whether my power hike would be able to hang on to the other runner with his nimble uphill running style.

After coming off the wet, rocky section, I decided to take the lead for the first time when we dipped onto the fire road. I knew that, mentally, if I could push the pace in the red for the rest of the climb at the front, it would show the other runner that I was strong and there to stay. By now, I was way into my threshold - maybe this is where all the speed and threshold work that I had done in training would come in handy! After another km or so of climbing, we popped out of the woods onto a fire road where there was another checkpoint. We ran past the checkpoint and I turned to the volunteers and said “that was definitely a hill”. I then turned to the other runner to start playing some mind games and said: “I wasn’t trying to pip you on that climb, sorry, I was just trying to keep the pace high”. We both then agreed that that was a bas**rd of a climb.

At this point, I still felt like he could make a move at any point so I kept the pace high at the front and took us into a very sketchy woodland path. We navigated around some big rocks and felled trees and even got a chance to rest and walk for a few seconds on a pretty un-runnable part of the course. It wasn’t long after this though that I slowly started to pull away. I didn’t put the burners on per se, I just tried to drive all the way to the top of the climb to stop him from making a move. I stopped hearing his footsteps behind me and carried on pushing. I then turned around for the first time and noticed that I had put around 20 meters into him. As we slowly crested the climb, I knew that this was my chance. I felt excited and stressed at the same time! You see, I’ve not done many races and the two ultras that I have finished have both been super exhilarating - being off the front is exciting as you feel like you are being chased, which defintely gives you a kick of adrenaline and pushes you to find that little bit more in yourself.

I then weaved through the rest of the woods before hitting another fire road. I knew that if I could hold 4 min/km on the gravel then I could hold the guy behind me off. I rolled up and down a few hills before reaching the second to last checkpoint. I stuck to my plan and topped up my water bottle one last time and then climbed out of this aid station. At this point, I could look back to the other side of the dip that I had just run through - the guy in second was nowhere to be seen. I started to feel like I may have the run in the bag at this point. However, the last few kilometers were very tough.

I pushed hard to the last checkpoint on a short bit of tarmac before hanging a left uphill for a few hundred meters. My legs were shot by now, but I kept pushing over the hill and tried to keep a good pace going. I passed a couple of photographers that said that I was only two miles from the finish, which I wasn’t sure to believe. At least I knew that it was all downhill from here. I hung in there and ran quickly past some mountain bikers, who didn’t seem too happy at me shouting at them to move (oops!), before hitting the finishing straight on the road. I opened up my stride and it began to sink in - I was about to win and knock over 10 minutes off the previous course record that I thought was untouchable before the race.

I ran into the finish and roared “cmon!”. My finishing time was 4:21 for 55 km with 1600 m of ascent on far from ideal terrain. I was chuffed. All of my training had paid off. I was proud of myself for hanging in there right until the end. But I tried to remember that, it is about the process and not the outcome. Yes, it was nice to win, but it was about more than that on the day. It was about dedicating time and energy to training for something consistently over the past three months. The result is meaningless - it is just a cherry on top of all the work that is done before the race. After I finished, I then waited until my brother, running his first ultra and marathon, rolled in. For me, it was just as exciting to see someone come finish their first ultra. He turned to me and said that he would never be doing one again, to which I said: “give it a week or two and you will”. Ultrarunning is strange. It is simultaneously extremely painful and incredibly freeing. I believe that by pushing through barriers, both physical and mental every now and then, you come out of the other side a better person. Regardless, ultrarunning is about more than the individual, it is about the amazing community.

That’s it from me for this post. I hope you enjoyed reading about this cool race! I would like to finish by thanking all of the amazing event staff and volunteers that helped to put on such a great race. The route markings were excellent, the people were kind and supportive, and most important of all, the mince pies at the end were delicious.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!