The inaugural Thames Path 100 (TP100) took place on the 3rd March 2012. Having been part of Jame Elson’s crew for his North Downs Way 50/100 races I knew that this would be a well organised event.
The TP100 starts in Richmond and finished in Oxford by the Ice-ring, there were 14 check points all well manned and supplied with lots of goodies, pacers were allowed after the 51 mile point and the course was relatively flat so some fast times were expected. The cut-off was 30 hours.
I caught a train to London and met up with Sam Robson at the hotel in Richmond where we sorted out our packs then went out for dinner to talk about more running – marvellous!
I used a very small 5L raidlight backpack which contained a long sleeved shirt, space blanket, gloves, head torch and waterproof, one 800ml water bottle, some nunns, a few sweets and a couple of baby bells. When I listened to the weather forecast in the morning it mentioned snow on the sunday and some rain during the day on Saturday, my plan was to have been finished by the time the snow had arrived on Sunday, but would have taken my waterproof with me regardless of whether it was going to rain or not as it was an extra layer and I get cold very quickly.
Sam and I walked to registration on Saturday morning where we collected our numbers and handed in our drop bags, I only had one drop bag for the half way point which contained an extra set of clothes, another torch and a hot cross bun, something to look forward to. It was lovely to catch up with friends before the race, especially as I was feeling sick with nerves, happens every time at a race, not sure whether thats good or bad.
I had a race plan and which I’m usually quite good at sticking to, but not on this occasion. After a count down from James 191 runners set off along the Thames. I’m not quite sure what happened to me, but I found myself running quite fast (for me) but legs felt good and breathing was OK so thought I would just go with the flow, I continued to keep up a good pace until the first cp at 12 miles (1hr 39 where I said hello to Penny, grabbed a few sweets and kept on going. I contitnued on toward CP 2 at Wraysbury 22 miles, still feeling good and keeping up a good pace. My first Ultra was the Thames Meander 54 miles from Reading to Shepperton so was great to recognise the route (albeit in reverse!) bought back some wonderful memories of the Thames underwater. Although I had kept a vague eye on on my watch to check my pace I didn’t notice the time I arrived at each of the CP’s but knew I was doing OK as I was running slightly faster than I had planned, so popped a Nuun into my water, grabbed something to eat and continued on towards CP 3 at 28 miles which I amazed myself by doing in 3hrs 49.
Hunger struck at CP3 but as always I can never decide what I want to eat as everything always tastes horrid, but had to try and eat something so grabbed a peanut butter sandwich which I nibbled away at for the next 20 minutes. Me and eating while racing really doesn’t go well together, I try and eat and instantly want to throw up, my stomach seems to close down so everything needs to be done very slowly in order to keep it down, extremely frustrating.
Thankfully so far I had managed not to get myself lost but because of the pace I was going at I had forgotten to drink enough so at about 30 miles had a bit of a bad patch due to dehydration, but another electrolyte soon kicked in and sorted me out. Coming up to Dorney Lake I did get slightly confused. As I ran round the Thames with the race course on the other side, I noticed a lady on a bike tying on the race tape to trees, in fact I initially thought she was removing the tape so I stood in disbelief watching her, then realised that she was in fact putting it up NOT taking it down. I eventually overtook her thinking it was a bit late to be marking the course, but never mind. There was a slight diversion, so I followed the signs which bought me into a car park – I had no idea which way to go but presumed that I had to keep left as the river was on the LHS, so I followed the lake (as I was told to do) and picked up the path markers on the other side and continued on my way towards Cookham at 38 miles (5hrs 37)
After leaving Cookham I was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I still hadn’t got lost, famous last words (or thoughts!) coming up to Bourne End I stupidly missed a bridge and continued running on the wrong side of the river. However I was blissfully unaware of this situation and having a marvellous time. It had started to rain so I stopped to put my waterproof on to discover the most amazing double rainbow behind me – which I pointed out to a young couple trying to be romantic (they didn’t seem particularly interested – can’t think why!) about a mile on I couldn’t see a sign for the TP so asked some walkers whether I was in the right place. They informed me that if I went up the hill and back down again I would re-join the TP or if I wanted to go to Marlow I had to go back and cross at the bridge – how stupid did I feel. I was extremely cross with myself for not staying alert, but with no time to waste I ran back. Coming towards me I noticed another runner (Cliff) and told him we were going in the wrong direction and needed to cross at the Bridge. This we did (adding a good 2 miles to my route) and continued our journey to Marlow, thankfully without any further problems. It was marvellous to see Mark Cockbain at the Marlow CP (mile 44, 6hrs 44 mins) I had half a banana, water and continued on my way with Mark giving me a whole banana to take with me. Now on to the 51 mile CP which I had hoped to do in under 8 hours.
Cliff and I continued to run together which was great, I think he talks more than I do! We arrived at Henley in 8hrs 06 so not too far off schedule (that will teach me to pay attention to signs!) I put on my warm top, treated myself to my hot cross bun which I had stashed in my drop bag and waited while Cliff put on warmer kit etc, men seem to spend far longer at Cps than women! I just wanted to get going as I had no idea how far the next lady was but knew she couldn’t be that far off as I kept on seeing her partner and huskies.
8 miles to the next CP at reading, this was the 1st section on the old Thames Meander so it was good to still be on familiar ground. We passed Shiplake College eventually arrived at the Reading CP in 9hrs 31. I was still pleased with my time, my Hokas were treating my legs well and I had no blisters so nothing to complain about. (did I say I love my Hokas?)
It was a 9 mile stretch to the next CP at Whitchurch but as Cliff and I were still chatting the time seemed to pass relatively quickly. Although I love to talk, when I’m racing its the one thing I tend not to do, I would rather just run and am more than happy with my own thoughts, but it was great having Cliff there as he didn’t expect me to answer him all the time so I was quite happy! We arrived to the first indoor CP to find Jo Kilkenny bouncing around looking after us. Again, I like to go in, get water, grab food and go, so there was no time for too much chatting (sadly!) In fact Jo is so bossy she would have thrown me out of the door had I spent too long there! The only disadvantage I find with an indoor CP is that you warm up too much (even after only a very short time) and going out into the cold of the night is a very unpleasant feeling and take me ages to warm up. About 5 minutes after leaving the Whitchurch I did have to stop and put my waterproof on to keep me warm as my body temperature had dropped quite a lot, but once this was done I quickly warmed up.
Coming up to Streatly at 71 miles I had a bit of a bad patch, this was down to not eating enough, same old story for me, just can’t get the calories in as I just go off any type of food. Thankfully Penny Matkin (who was going to run with me from the next CP) had got a hot cross bun for me, delicious and just what the doctor ordered, this kept me going until we met up again at Benson (79 miles) Dick Kearn the RD of the GUCR was there, always a pleasure to see him and have a chat.
There was a major diversion coming into Benson, I was so worried that I would get badly lost at this stage that I had looked, checked and re-looked at the maps to make sure I knew exactly where I was going. Thankfully Cliff and I managed to get to the CP without too much trouble although it did seem to go on and on and on!
We were now a happy gang of 3 running the last 20 miles together which was great although my energy levels were still low and my pace had slowed, so Penny gave me a gel which was disgusting but did the trick. The last section of the race there was a lot of running across fields, twisting my left ankle (which is my achilles heel) opening and shutting gates, all part of the fun. There was a small supposedly unmanned CP at Little Wittenham, you can imagine our surprise when we came across the CP being looked after by some marvellous people who took our numbers and waved us through. No water was needed here by us so we kept on going to Abingdon at mile 91. This CP was inside the cricket pavilion and was being looked after by Neil Thubron, the RD of the Extreme Energy Events, great to see him, he’s always smiling and happy to help in any way he can, just marvellous.
We left the warmth of the CP and headed off for the final 9 miles of the race, unfortunately we were being rather stupid and couldn’t work out which way to go, so back to the CP to ask Neil for instructions……..under the bridge of course, what idiots we were! Then to make us feel even more stupid we ran past where we had to cross over at the Lock House, thankfully we didn’t really go very far, spotted a glow stick and went back. The last thing I wanted to do was to get lost in the last 9 miles.
More fields and ankle twisting later and we came to the final CP which was being manned by Drew and Claire, no stopping here, quick top-up of water, grabbed a few sweets and off we went with Drew pointing us in the right direction (great eye Candy for the ladies!!!) Now is was heads down and get the last 5 miles (which did seem like a lot more) out of the way. As we were running towards the finish, probably about 2ish miles to go I heard footsteps behind me, panic set it, perhaps it was another woman, I had put in all this hard work and was about to be pipped to the post, this was so not going to happen, so kept the pace going while Cliff pretended to tie his shoelaces up to find out who it was. My heart was going like the clappers, if its a woman I would have to find some speed from somewhere to try and keep ahead, thankfully as it turned out it was another man, but still had to keep my pace going, so close yet so far; you are never 1st man/woman until you have physically crossed the finish line so on I went pulling every ounce of energy I could to keep my legs moving, huffing and puffing but still running. Then finally, there was the finish line, just before 5am and I’m afraid I was rather loud coming up to the finish (no change there then!) and I crossed the line in 18hrs 50 minutes, joint 7th overall and 1st lady.
A big marvellous thanks goes to Penny who was just brilliant and an amazing friend, to Cliff, thank you for your company and support and to James Elson and his amazing team of helpers who looked after us all at the various check points, you were just fantastic. Many congratulations to everyone who took part in the race, its certainly one to be remembered!
When I started Ultra running in 2001 there were very few women who were taking part in these amazing events, thankfully times have changed and the world of Ultra running has exploded all over the world and its fantastic to see so many woman now racing. Back in 2001 there were 12 women from the UK who took part in the Marathon des Sables, last year I believe there were 46! I now find myself competing with people half my age so have to work harder to try and keep up, lets hope my legs can keep going for just a little bit longer!
