Special stories

Hi Mathilda,

The first thing to say about this race is that it is brutal, 145 miles of uneven trail just batter your legs.

The first 70 miles you have to run alone and I met up with my crew every 5 to 10 miles – swapped my water bottles for fresh ones and loaded up with more snacks. After 15 hours I got to 70 miles put fresh socks and trainers on my very blistered feet and headed out into the night. I went through 100 miles in 24 hours. Then the wheels started to come of the bus it became increasingly painful to run and my legs were so stiff I thought I was going fall over every time I tried. At Watford with 35 miles to go I had come to the realisation that only way I was going to finish was to "Death March" to the end. So for the next 11 hours virtually in silence and in a lot of pain I walked at 3 miles an hour to the finish. So after a good six months of hard training I finished in a time of 39:52, 26th out of 91 starters, only 45 managed to finish the race. Some of the best bits were when people on canal boats asked what race you running and the look on their faces as you explained you were running 145 miles non-stop from Birmingham to London.

I ran for about 10 miles with May-Britt Hansen a Danish International part of your female Ultra squad . . . I beat her by over 2 hours!

Glen ;-)