Pete Ellis
So I pitched up at 13.00 on Friday in my sons mini camper (no wet tent for me), found a nice patch of grass by the start/finish line, a few minutes later Dave Ullett turned up and set his camp up next to mine, next to arrive was Andy Warren with family (Andy running the 12 hour Piggy plod on sat), finally at 16.00 Anne Marie and Alison arrived up, so had a nice little community set up.
I think we all had a rough distance goal but nothing fixed in stone. This was a looped course and do as many as you can in 24 hours. The course was 3.5 miles long, the usual White Star event, so was not going to be a walk in the park. Undulating run with a mixture of steep hills long downhill, slurry which burned the back of your throat as you ran past, and grass covered pots hole to turn your ankle.
18.00 on Friday, ready to start. With normal start line adrenaline and nerves we were off. Dave shot off in to the distance. I didn’t see anyone in our group again for 5 or so laps.
First lap was the worst, very hot at around 26c, so I was already saying to myself, I may do a few laps then have a sleep, make it a relaxing weekend, but as it cooled down I began to enjoy it more. Time soon went by, at 21.00 we were told the put our head torches on. Running round again I eventually bumped in to Anne Marie, Alison and Dave. Every lap I had 5 minutes break at the camp for refreshments.
At around 23.00 I was saying to myself, ‘ill just do one more loop’, fueling *each time I went round.
At midnight there was a mass group start, around 30 of us started, we all walked around one loop together chatting, really nice. After the mass loop I believe Anne Marie and Alison went to bed, and this was the point when Dave and I had decided to go all night, just one more ‘oh go on then’.
During the dark hours the moon was full and still warm, I still had just the vest on (yes shorts, socks and, shoes as well) I started with, it was pretty well stuck to me with 6 hours of sweat. I did change sometime during the night.
It was very quiet as I ran round, you could hear a pin drop. Most of the runner had gone to bed leaving only 19 runner on the course Through the night you could do a whole loop, only meeting 1 or 2 runners/walkers on the course. The best lap was at 04.00, started with a head torch and ended the loop in daylight with the dawn chorus (which I must say was poor).
Morning was overcast and cooler so ideal running conditions. 07.00 Saturday I had an hour’s rest but only slept for about 10 minutes, the 10 minuets sleep must have been very deep as I felt so refreshed. I got up and had a coffee, I felt good. I needed to do 6 more laps to get to just over 100k.
Around 08.00 (Same time as Andy started his 12 Hour Piggy Plod) Anne Marie and Alison took a break from the Cider 24 met Donna Pike (another 12 hour piggy plodder} and went off to the Blandford Parkrun. Crazy.
Around this time Dave was starting to knock out 30 min loops, I was doing them in 45 mins, he had finally gone mad. Eventually we both finished at around 13.30 having done 18 laps and Dave, I believe 20 laps.
Tired aching legs, I sank a pint of local Cider and ate a huge burger, chatted for a bit and crashed out. Woken by a text message at 20.00 to go down to the marquee and celebrate Andy's birthday with the rest of the Totton team. This consisted of Dennis (he gets everywhere) Coady, Donna 12 hours plodder, Andy Warren 12 hour plodder, Anne Marie, Alison and Dave my 24 hour fellow plodders.
We had few drinks eventually 5 of us ended up at the base camp to carry on drinking exchanging secrets of our adolescent times not to be repeated.
The party was broken up by heavy rain around 23.00 so all went to bed. I had a great night’s sleep , Sunday morning got up to a bacon roll and coffee, packed up which took me 2 mins drove home and arrived around 11.00.
What a fabulous weekend, some of the best company, great running, fantastic event, undertaking my favorite hobby- off road running. Sadly the last White Star Event.
*Just a note. I find that food is one of the most important ingredients when I undertake long adventure runs. I have fallen apart a few time on long runs having missed a fuelling break either because, I didn’t want to stop or found it a faff to unpack my food. So I make sure I always have enough food inside my system to keep ahead of the dreaded wall. On the run I ate and drank a mixture of mini pork pies, tail wind, Soreen fruit loaf, water melon, and coffee. I don’t usually preload before a race but may just have a coffee. I always have a packet of Crystallised Ginger in my pack, as I find it great for settling my stomach tastes good too.
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