I'm doing a 75 mile ultra marathon and had been getting increasingly worried having maintained relatively high mileage but rarely in contnuous runs. I did a 23 miler with Sarah in York last weekend and the pace was a bit too fast for me, especially in new road shoes- one of my adductors seemed quite inflamed and my clients were noticing my limp most of the week, nonetheless, Friday is my rest day, so I figured 24 hours would cure it ready for the 30 miles I had planned on Saturday. I was to run with Rob and Lorraine, the duo who currently hold the world record for the fastest 5k dressed as a pantomime camel. When they aren't wearing their camel costumes, their marathon times are fairly similar to mine, so they are ideal companions for a long run. Plus they are always doing ultra runs just for the heck of it. This would have been my longest run ever though, and I already had my excuses in for bailing early.
I awoke at 6, and was almost as excited as I am before a marathon, however, it was noticeably cooler so I decided to prepare my breakfast and tea to have in bed. Poor David, I was chomping away as he was trying to sleep.
Lorraine and Rob were getting to mine for 8am and David was going to drive us the 2 miles up the road tothe Essex way in West Bergholt- we were like children at Christmas messaging each other via Facebook about our long run preparations. I had made Florentines and Ginger cake for run fuel, and Lorraine was bringing me some crisps to replace my salts- we all know I'm a very salty sweater.
After usual run preparations I was ready, and surprisingly for me, I was ready 10 minutes earlier than I needed to be! And they were stuck in traffic- such is the state of Colchester's roads that 8am on a Saturday morning does not guarantee you an easy journey! Shortly they arrived and David dropped us at armoury road where the Essex way passes some paddocks. Already the jokes started, and we were talking to the sheep and cows.
The first 6 miles flew by. I've run this section several times on my own, with @mia79gbr, part in reverse on the stour valley marathon. I knew what to expect and remembered the turnings that were a bit difficult to find. We were all using this run as ultra training, so we were sensible to take breaks like checkpoints, other than an apple orchard, which Rob took an apple from and bypassing the vinyard, there wasn't much particular of note on this section, although the following day when I ran the same section with David, we saw a muntjac (spelling from the British deer society) deer running away from the orchard.
After a long down hill on a stoney track, Lorraine and I spotted a beautiful lake and we decided to have our little picnic there- rob and I had Florentines, and Lorraine had some ginger cake. After a brief stop we were on our way again- I was still confident of the route and remembered parts where there was an angry dog... The land owner happened to be on his driveway at this point, and warned us not to run on the footpath- none of us could tell whether this was a joke or not, so we just carried on running, on the basis that he probably couldn't catch us. Shortly after this we got a little bit lost- we hadn't been using the route instructions and had been relying on my memory, which clearly wasn't all there since the last time I had ran this part was in the dark in December last year... Luckily Lorraine had a map, and rob at a fancy gps device so we found our way back onto the Essex way, up a steep hill up to langham church. Before a steep descent into Dedham.
In Dedham we stopped to get some drinks- I had some ribena, and had the whole bottle- I seem to do quite well running on ribena, I discovered last week on the run with Sarah.
Then we continued on our way. I was less certain of this part of the route, but the waymarks were much clearer- there were also fewer feasible alternatives, nonetheless, I was clutching onto my route instructions to keep up with them and avoid us getting lost again. This section featured many kissing gates and we worked out we could save time if we all bundled into the gates together, so the gate only had to kiss once, rather than 3 times to let us all through. This section was leg 8 of the Essex way relay, 8 miles from Dedham to Bradfield. We transitioned from the undulating vistas of constable country to the Stour's edge. Along the way we had another stop in Mistley, and managed to get a picture by the towers. It turns out there are as many versions of history as there are people who want to tell it. I read on the plaque by the towers the last time I was there that they were all that remained from a church that was there originally. Lorraine said they were there because someone wanted to turn Mistley into a spa town, but then run out of money, nonetheless, a food stop and photo op is all that's really important ;-). Although the gravestones surrounding suggest it probably was a church.
We continued having impressed some people with how far we had run already, 'wow you're running all the way to Harwich'. This was approximately 17 miles in, and I have to say my legs felt great- doing all these marathons lately has had the desired effect which is that it doesn't seem an insurmountable distance to exceed.
We passed through the edme factory and back onto beautiful fields and beautiful vistas- we met many walkers on this section, and one particular couple who helped stop us taking a wrong turn- I was adament we went thru the gate, and I remember now that the instructions had confused me last time at this point too- because that time I did go through the gate and had to retrace my steps. Both rob's device and the walking couple with their map said not to go through the gate, and they were right. What followed was a nice long run through the woods. Again the miles started to tick away and we were chatting away and singing tunes from classic fm and moulin rouge. Lorraine and I both learnt the hard way that signing whilst running uphill was not a good idea :-)
It wasn't long until we were in Bradfield and I had to turn the page for stage 9- Bradfield to Ramsey. This section was good as it took us over 20 miles but also ended at a pub I wanted to stop in. We found it easy to stay in our stride here, and we were still having lots of fun. Rob and Lorraine stopped to try a rope swing, and then Lorraine and I tried some cage dancing.
It wasn't a kissing gate, honest!! :)
We also passed through wrabness- this was one of the most interesting parts of the run- by the river was long grass, which Lorraine thought looked like wooly mammoth fur, and I have to agree.
We passed the church, and here is where local history was rather lacking- we saw a bell in a bell cage on the church yard and suspected it had originally been on a tower that had collapsed. We saw a local pull up to the church and asked him about it. He told us that the church extension had been built in 1911 and that the bell had always been in the yard (yeah right). A later check of Wikipedia gave a more likely story.
Back down to the riverside and now up on the sea wall, in the distance we could see this Gaudi-esque house. I didn't remember seeing it before and put it down to how tired I was the last time I ran this section, although now, checking it out, I see that it probably just wasn't visible yet. A house for Essex:
It really was a spectacle, and certainly helped the miles pass. Somewhere around 23 miles we were starting to tire but a quick look at the instructions showed we were just a few hundred metres away form the pub. I insisted we all had cider, since my next marathon is on a vinyard and so I will be running whilst drinking wine. I was really looking forward to an aspalls, but unfortunately their aspalls on draught was flat, and so instead we had kopperberg from a bottle. The landlord was so friendly, and offered to fill our ultra vests up with water- seemed adept at catering to runners, and I suspect that if you lived around Ramsey you would probably always run on the Essex way. So onto the cider, usually I hate this kopperberg stuff as it is just so sweet, but funnily enough after running 24 miles, it really hit the spot. It was just right, and just enough given we had another 5 miles to go.
Getting started after this stop was tougher than all the others, and I'm sure it's because of the alcohol- I was definitely feeling hotter than I had any of the previous 24 miles and breathing was a bit harder- a good warning to really pace the drinking at bachus marathon next month. This last section of the Essex way was, to be honest, a bit boring. We went though some paddocky type areas but then it was pretty much sea wall, to car park, to 2.5 miles running along the seafront where the Harwich port never seemed to get any closer, that said, I was full of beans having passed the furthest I had EVER run at 27 miles and my legs still felt good. We reached the old lighthouse at 29.94 on my garmin so of course I had to circle it a few times to tick over 30.
This really was a fab run, stunning scenery, ideal weather, perfect food and hydration along the way, and most of all fabulous company. Thank you both for joining me on my crazy quest- next summer, we'll do the whole Essex way in a weekend :-)
How cool is the map on garmin connect?!? We've crossed half the county
Well done! This looks an AMAZING run!! Really interesting landmarks AND with cake and cider!! :)
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