Today, exactly six weeks ago, was the first day after completing four days of the Montane Dragon’s Back Race 2021. That’s how far I got this time. Since then, I have been living in the aftermath of this Ultramarathon indulgence.
I did not complete the whole race… there were two more days, 153km more and 5000m more elevation gain! You can read my race report of the 4 days, 247km and 12 900m elevation gain that I did not miss out on at Dragon’s Back Race: An epic journey to beyond your limits.
A whole new world!
One thing for four whole days and nights. One blissful focus. Keep moving forward. There is no time for anything else. Everything is focussed on moving across the landscape.
The journey is extraordinary, exhilirating and exhausting. I find myself in a small throng of people who are on the same journey. We are all plucked out of our everyday where the response to this endeavour is often ‘You are completely insane’ or ‘You are doing WHAT?’
This is my first long distance multi-day event. I hope that it will not be my last. I am hooked.
It has been a long journey of a life of running. The difficulty with sitting started when I was a mere child. I think it is normal for children to run with joy and abandon. My first half marathon was in 1984, aged 11. I did middle distance athletics, cross country, road running and all the accompanying injuries. Then I got distracted for a couple of decades…
Middle age came with a rediscovery of running. It was with Darth Coastal Runners(DCR) and I wrote something about that too: Running and Happiness. (I needs to be said that one of the champions of DCR, Peter O’Kane, was a volunteer on the most brilliant event team of DBR.) This time it was on trails and the city marathon mass participation event phenomenon of our time. Snowdonia marathon offered an ‘aha’ moment for a transition. That was where I wanted to run: on the actual mountains (not the road!), where only my two feet can take me and where I even wish to be a mountain goat!
Knowing me, knowing you
A small crowd is gathered at the start in Conwy Castle. 367 participants to be exact. Many already know each other quite well. This happened on the journey to the start line that included route recces, other training runs and an online group on Facebook.
One of my favourite questions to ponder is ‘why do we do these things?’ There is a myriad of answers, but at the root of them all is curiosity. At least, that is what I think. There are things to discover and we can only find out what they are when we go out there and explore.
Never have I come away from an endurance event feeling so enriched! My life is indeed richer with new friendships, new perspectives, a treasure trove of memories, new questions (of course) and different ideas for the future.
Dragon’s Back Race: the aftermath week by week.
Week 1
Pain, swelling and hunger pretty much sums up the physical realities. Pain on movement with limited range of movement gradually subsided. A thorough sports massage towards the end of the week helped to relieve the tension a lot. My feet remained swollen for at least a week. It took a bit longer for both my knees to be the same size again.
There was not a single blister to heal. For this I am immensely relieved, because I would have been woefully prepared. I had some sort of tape, but not the best for preventing blisters. Maybe it was the compression socks I wore.
Food glorious food!!
I could not stuff my face enough. Getting back from Dragon’s Back Race coincided nicely with a glut to harvest off my allotment. I feasted on fresh veggies: runner beans, spinach, courgette, beetroot, cherry tomatoes, carrots, chard and rhubarb. This was supplemented with onions, potatoes, rice, bread and lots of pasta from the store to make curries, roasts and crumbles. Another favourite was home made pizza. I drank orange juice by the gallon.
Week 2
I was sick in bed for a few days. It was nothing too serious, just a viral infection that clogged my sinuses and drained my energy. Thankfully it wasn’t Covid. Nevertheless, I had to cancel a second sports massage.
Despite the extra layer of exhaustion due to the infection, the quality of my sleep was not great. It is still a bit hit and miss. I spent the days in bed looking at ultra-marathons and multi-day races to enter.
My musculoskeletal system was feeling better every day with less pain and more movement. By the Friday I had hill withdrawal and managed to take a walk to the trig point closest to my home. The 3.7 miles felt good and the views were comforting.
Week 3
I felt (but wasn’t) ready for a proper run by Thursday. My dog Bb8, who had been a faithful training companion, had very low mileage during August and obviously didn’t come along on the race. A good friend offered to take Bb8 for a proper run and I stupidly went along, feeling great! We ran 10 miles at pace! The result was that I could hardly walk the next day.
It was about this time that I hit a melancholic phase. I missed the mountains and the community. The Facebook group helped a lot for this. There was a lot of processing to be done and this had to be shared. It is a good thing that a high percentage of ultra runners are also bloggers! I relished every story shared and was glad to be able to share my own.
Getting around to purchasing my race photos was a definite lift. I got them after I’ve published my race report blog, so I’ll share them here.
Sometime in week 3 I finally felt satiated. My weight was also back to what it was pre-race.
Week 4
I’m running again and it feels good. There is no pain in my right leg. I can let lose on the downhills. It is so good to be out on the hills of Gower again.
However, something is still amiss. There is an inner restlessness. I have no goal, no event lined up, no decision made. I am in touch with friends I made on Dragon’s Back Race. Only a multi-day event will satisfy this hunger. It is a new world to me and I am clueless.
I finally make up my mind and enter the Northern Traverse. The race covers 190 miles and 16 000 feet ascent between St Bees on the west coast and Robin Hood’s Bay on the east coast of northern England. It lasts 5 days. Once this is done, I can finally relax.
I also finally use the race voucher from Endurance Life from the cancelled Pembrokeshire marathon of May 2020, postponed and cancelled in September 2020 and May 2021. Having been away from home a lot with running, I settle for Gower Ultra in November 2021. This will do for my November running challenge.
Week 5
We are now well into October and I need an October running challenge. I decide to finally do Park run. It will be my first. I need something that won’t be too much I tell myself. After all, it is only 5km and in Swansea it is flat as a pancake along the promenade.
My running had been back to normal for two whole weeks, so I felt fairly confident about Park run. Suffice to say it was a misplaced confidence and a mismanaged challenge. I will elaborate in the blog about October’s running challenge for JCWI. I mistakenly did not recognise that I was still in the aftermath of the Dragon’s Back Race.
Week 6
With running now impossible due to a foolishly fast Park Run, there is more time for reflection. I will seek expert help for an individualised strength and conditioning strategy. Study and practice will be necessary over the coming months.
The low grade tiredness is finally coming through. Sleep has not been optimal since the start of Dragon’s Back Race. It still isn’t. This is taking a toll. Sometime my mood and motivation feels low. I feel a bit lost. This is worse now that I cannot access the escapism and endorphins of a long run.
But is running escapism? Maybe it is and maybe it is necessary. It is escapism and empowerment and enlightenment at the same time. Perhaps it is a return or at least a reaching out to a place in the wild web of life, nature.
People Move Challenge
It can be a challenge for people to move. Some people prefer to sit on a sofa and find the sort of moving required for ultramarathons challenging. Others find it challenging to sit on a sofa for long… I am one of those!
Movement of people across a border can be an even greater challenge than getting off the sofa!
I moved across the breathtaking landscapes of Wales on Montane Dragon’s Back Race for the cause of people moving across the UK border, as well as those living in the UK without British Citizenship.
You can find out more about the vital and amazing work of The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants on their website.
I have committed to continue fundraising with Lauren Tormey until we reach £12 700. This is the cost for Brits to have a foreign spouse. That’s if all goes smoothly and it often doesn’t! The People Move Challenge with the involvement of others has brought us much closer to our goal. The ultimate goal is for a border and immigration system that does not harm people. This will never happen unless many people know and care and speak and take action.
Read more about my ongoing fundraising efforts at Trail running for charity in 2021: a challenge for every month. Lauren also does a monthly recap of immigration related stories that reach the news.
