Quadzilla!

Excessive rain in the weeks leading up to the Buff Enigma Quadzilla meant that running it at the original venue, Caldecotte Lake, was out of the question due to flooding and it was switched to Furzton Lake.  This was a slight nuisance as I had already paid for the hotel at Caldecotte, but unavoidable and no great problem, all I had to do was get there and I was confident that lifts could be arranged until Mandy joined me on Friday.  What could possibly go wrong?  My adventure started on the Wednesday night as I travelled up by train from Reading and had to negotiate my way across Tube strike stricken London with my luggage; a back-pack containing running shoes, a trolley case stuffed with food and a hold-all full of clothing.  Having arranged a mortgage to pay for a taxi, I reached Fenny Stratford station via Bletchley without much drama.  Everything was going pretty well.

As the train pulled away leaving me alone on the platform it dawned on me that my planning hadn't been all it should have been.  I usually have a good sense of direction and I knew where the station was in relation to the hotel but I realised I had no idea which way to go.  I opened up the map application on my phone, noted with slight concern that battery strength was at 10%, but worked out where I needed to go.  Unfortunately a couple of places shown as junctions on the map-app were in fact flyovers with no means of access on foot, but no problem, the phone (battery strength 8%) indicated that I could carry on through the Buckinghamshire countryside for a couple of miles, turn right, and reach Caldecotte Lake.  Very handily the hotel has a windmill attached to it and would no doubt be apparent even in the dark, and I'd stroll around the familiar pathways to my destination.  

Remember the excessive rainfall I had mentioned?  And the fact that the run venue had to be switched away from Caldecotte? Exactly!  I found the path but it was flooded.  Very flooded.  I didn't fancy wading through the swirling lake so turned back from the hotel, easily visible 100 metres or so away across the darkly agitated waters, and headed back the way I had come again consulting the map-app (battery strength 5%).  I stood beneath a flyover, knew I'd be able to find my way if I was above rather than below it, knew also that I'd probably get lost if I tried another route without the aid of my phone and so made the obvious decision.  My case and hold-all were thrown over the six-foot fence and I clambered up and over to find myself on a steep, muddy bank overgrown with brambles.  Excellent!  I struggled up the bank, cutting my hand on a thorn, hauling my luggage which was growing increasingly difficult to manoeuvre, slipping and sliding all over the place, but I knew that at the top I'd be on the bridge over the lake and almost there.

Except I wasn't.  I was on a slip-road to the A5 which I didn't recognise at all.  I once again consulted the map-app (battery strength 2%) and luckily worked out exactly where I was.  So it was down the curving slip-road, leaping into the undergrowth every time a vehicle came whizzing around the bend, battling with my bags across rain-sodden roundabouts and alongside a pavement-free dual-carriageway until I reached the Premier Inn.  Knackered, sweating, bleeding from my hand and with what felt like a nasty blister on the back of my heel - textbook preparation for four marathons in four days!

Despite the less than ideal trip I managed to sleep well, woke up feeling okay, applied a large Compeed plaster to my heel and courtesy of a lift with Max and Hari, headed for Furzton Lake.  This is a smaller lake than Caldecotte and necessitates 17 laps, which suits me better, it all ticks down much more neatly in my head than the seven laps of Caldecotte.  The weather was cold and blustery, and feeling not quite at my best, decided to take things very easily.  I jogged at reasonably consistent pace until 13 miles at which point my legs grew weary, it started to rain and it all felt a bit miserable.  Rather than try to push anything on day one I just got myself home without drama, finishing in 36th place out of 53 in 4:43:33, a bit concerned about how I was going to get through the remaining days.

It was disappointing to have struggled so much when all I was trying to do was get through at very gentle pace.  That evening I had a chat with Ruth, rapidly approaching her 300th marathon, about how it never seems to get any easier but really only ended up questioning why I persist with a distance I find so testing.  I'm certainly not alone in that but I just don't seem to enjoy any improvement in my endurance despite increasing training miles and running more events.

Overnight I had continued the self-analysis and had recalled how strongly I finished the Woolwich Foot Tunnel marathon about sixteen months earlier.  This had been five days after a very disappointing run at Abingdon when I had again crashed at halfway despite taking it very gently.  WFT had started with an enforced walk through the tunnel, and I had then walked for one minute at each 5k turn around to conserve energy with the effect that I stormed the last 10k feeling fantastic and was 20 minutes quicker than the previous week.  

In light of this reflection I decided to run easily until the hill on each lap, take a relaxed walk up the hill and then jog on.  This had the desired effect and although I had to let the majority of runners disappear ahead for the first few laps, I slowly caught, overtook and then lapped some runners who had finished ahead of me on day one.  My legs felt good until about 22 miles but by then it was close enough to keep going and finish reasonably strongly in 23rd place out of 53 with a time of 4:34:34 - much more encouraging than the previous day, the only blemish being some undercarriage chafing issues, a job for the Sudocrem!

I saw no reason to alter tactics for day three but did make the strange decision to run in shoes which I wasn't convinced were right for the surface.  I told Mandy I may want to change them at some point and to have a substitute pair ready for me just in case.  We had a great system in place, I'd tell her what I needed next time round in terms of nutrition or drinks and she'd sit in the car near to the start/finish area, out of the howling wind, until she saw me approaching.  One of the benefits of a 17 lap race!

At about 10 miles I had the first inkling of blistering on my right big toe and just after starting the next lap it burst causing a fair bit of pain on downhills.  I contemplated turning back to change shoes but decided to continue to see if it improved.  It didn't and by the time I was on the opposite side of the lake I was hobbling quite badly.  I phoned Mandy and asked her to get the replacement shoes ready for a swap, hoping she would bring them a couple of hundred metres ahead of the start line where there were some benches which is exactly what she did.

The change of shoes re-energised me and I set out confidently despite the cold and wind, happy that my tactics again seemed to be paying-off and I again spent the latter stages of the race overtaking fellow runners.  There were no further problems and I eased home in 4:35:40, 24th out of 59, despite the shoe change.  Even with the discomfort of the blister this was the most comfortable of the three days so far.

On day four I decided to be a bit bolder and to walk only the final steeper part of the hill and maybe let my pace creep a bit higher between walks.  The wind was again very fierce making one side of the lake a real battle but of course assisting on the opposite side and there were a couple of short showers to add to the discomfort.  Again the tactics worked a treat, I didn't fade, overtook people consistently and felt stronger than I had on the previous days, getting home in 4:20:48 and finishing in 13th position out of 55 with an even split all bar a few seconds.  Interestingly I checked my watch for the first time just prior to reaching the hill on the final lap and 'knew' it was going to be reading 4:15:xx, which it was, it's fantastic the way the subconscious will take care of these things if we just let it!  There's no way I would have seen it at any stage before that point as the cuffs on my rain-shell had been securely velcroed in place since I set the timer running at the start of the race.

This was not only a fantastic event, I shall be back next year, but also a an experience from which I have learned a great deal.  Rather than trying to fit my running into what works for other people, I need to do what works for me.  Blindingly obvious but obscured from me until now.  I seem to fade terribly no matter what pace I travel at unless I take short early walking breaks, and when I do take early breaks my finish can be very strong indeed, enabling me to speed up as others are fading.  I now need to work on how much I can increase early pace between walks and how few breaks I need.  I do intend to work on endurance in training too but for the time-being I am going to play around with these tactics during marathons and see where that gets me.

There was a great feeling of camaraderie during the course of this event, from the fast runners who blasted round relentlessly each day, right through the field to those pushing themselves just to complete the trial, mutual support and respect for what we were all going through, conquering the external stormy, cold conditions as well as the inner doubts and private concerns, runners who have completed many multi-day marathon challenges before to those who had never even attempted a double previously, all in it together.  It was great!

6th February 2014  Quadzilla Day 1   4:43:33   #26
7th February 2014  Quadzilla Day 2   4:34:34   #27
8th February 2014  Quadzilla Day 3   4:35:40   #28
9th February 2014  Quadzilla Day 4   4:20:48   #29