Dartmoor Discovery 32 – 4 June 2011

Anthony Clark reports

A word of warning, when you receive an e-mail from club mates asking if you want to do an Ultra Marathon - stating this is ‘probably not your thing’ and ‘I don’t think he will do it!’ – don’t bite… check the website…  then
ignore it!  I, on the other hand, did bite… had my name on the reserve list… and was fully paid up within the week.

Only at this stage did I think, it’s 32.2 miles it’s in Dartmoor and it’s up and down like no race I had run before!  My training for London completed well over 1 month previously and with only Ridgeway in
between, I had not done any training for a 32.2 mile run but how hard could it be if I set off slow?! ‘Let’s give it a go’ I thought.

So with very little preparation and not really sure what I was letting myself in for, myself, Jerry, Craig, Andy and our support crew, Nicki, met at 05:30am for the drive to Dartmoor.

As we turned off the main road and headed onto Dartmoor to Princetown, I had my first glimpse of what was in store as we travelled along the first 10ish miles of the course. Even the car didn’t like the hills with gradient
signs! After 2 and a bit hours we arrived with plenty of time to register, drink coffee, lose the car key, panic, find the car key and get ready to run.

Jerry, Ant, Andy & Craig at Dartmoor Discovery 2011

The start of the race was on the main road of Princetown, heading downhill (so, an uphill finish – great!) and followed a route passing through Dartmeet, Poundsgate, Newbridge, Ashburton, Buckland in the Moor, Widecombe in the Moor, and Postbridge, before making its way back to finish in Princetown.  The race started with the letting off of a firework (that very nearly went horribly wrong) and we were off at a steady pace somewhere between 7:30mm to 8:00mm. For the first 6 miles we happily chatted and proceeded with our plan, I don’t think we had a plan but we seemed to think this was it.  At 10k we were met by the biggest and most challenging hill on the course, we had decided we were going to run it and I’m happy to report that on this one hill both me and Jerry ran all the way, I can also report Andy ran the whole hill but Craig did a bit of walking (he said to let Andy catch up hmmmm).

Hill at 10k

So 10k complete and hill one out of the way we kept a good pace over the next few miles until mile 14, at this stage we were starting to change our race plan about half way up what felt like the longest hill on the route, we decided to walk!  We then dug deep and kept on going up … and down the hills experiencing the first signs of cramp and starting a lot more walking on anything the resembled a hill. Until we reached 26.2 miles – The Marathon – where Jerry crossed  slightly ahead of me in a time of 03 hours 49 minutes. The toughest Marathon I have ever done!

Mile 22 – another hill!

It is here that I had to finally give in trying to keep up with Jerry. I had already dropped back twice approaching the Marathon marker but managed to dig in and stick with him but over the next 10k it was all about surviving the cramp, hills and trying to run as much as possible. My new plan was walk the
hills and run the rest. This went as good as I could hope for, with cramp kicking in every time I started running after a walk section but the other runners were trying similar tactics. In the end it resulted in ‘walk, stretch and then run’ repeated as I counted down… 5 miles to go… 4 miles to go… 3 miles to go…. Oh! I just remembered the start was downhill!  I walked the last steep hill up to Princetown but wanted to run in and when I hit the houses, 300m from the end I ran all the way to the finish where the announcer gave each
runner the welcome they deserved.

I have to say I have never experienced a race like it, I thought I was taking it easy, I had enough in the bank, I was so wrong! This was the hardest race I have ever run. Would I do it again? You BET!!!!

The race was made by the support given to me, Jerry, Andy and Craig by Nicki and by the teamwork put in by the two mini groups we formed. I for one know I would never have made it to the end without having someone I trust to run with and provide the advice and support to accomplish such a fantastic achievement.

Thanks to you all

How we did:

Jerry put in the performance of the day with a 19th place 4:45:55 and Male Veteran 45 age group victory.

Jerry collecting his prize

I followed in 28th place with a time of 4:54:43 followed by Craig in 42nd place with a time of 5:17:23 and Andy in 70^th place in a time of 5:36:45.  The day was topped off with a surprise 3^rd Male Team prize for Wimborne AC for the fastest 3 runners from each Club.