17 September 2016 - The Day The Wheels Came Off

Plan A: Finish in 7 hours 30 minutes
Plan B: Finish in 8 hours
Plan C: Finish

It had to happen sometime, a race that never went to plan, and on 17 September 2016, that day arrived. I said to Steven on the way home, if race days were a football match, this was my getting beaten 7-0 by Barcelona!

The River Ayr Way Challenge is a 40 mile ultramarathon, starting in Glenbuck and finishing at Dam Park Sports Stadium in Ayr. It's source to sea, a cracking course that is both rewarding and very challenging.

Steven Watt and I headed down early Friday afternoon, and got into our digs in Newton Mearns about 4pm, and started get our drop-bags for the race sorted, we had a half hour drive the next morning to catch the bus to the race start. No problem...we'll come back to that.

Have to give a quick mention to Cosmo, Glasgow. What an experience, you are limited to a 1hr 45 minute stay for £15 all you can eat. Steven and I rolled out after 2 hours of (what felt like) non-stop carb loading!

Alarm set for 6am, leave at 6:30 for Ayr. Goodnight!

Woke around 5:50, had a quick shower, some nervous chat getting dressed and the time was flying in. We left the hotel around 6:40, a wee bit late, but still OK. Then we discovered the access road to the motorway isn't as easily accessed as the exit was, Steven got a map up on his phone and the estimated time of arrival was 7:20, oops.
Had visions of us entering the car park like Starsky and Hutch, but we actually made it with five minutes to spare, had time to pick up our race numbers, one quick pee and on the bus.

The bus was the usual chatter of pre race nerves and the chance to speak with people about what they had done previously, what their plans were for the future and the journey is over pretty quickly.

We arrived at Glenbuck at the memorial to Bill Shankly, and I took the opportunity for a quick photo.

The race starts at 9am, and it was a beautiful sunny morning, a perfect day for running. The event is very well organised, plenty water stops and 4 checkpoints.

I was running using Tailwind Nutrition and had opted to go minimal for the dropbags, mostly mini milky ways and jelly babies! When I arrived at checkpoint one I was asked if I wanted a milky way or...a milky way, that's all that was in the bag!

All was going well up until mile 23, I just went totally flat. My hydration was OK, stomach felt fine feet felt fine, but my head was gone, and I had no idea why. I got to a water station and the marshall told me I was at 26.8 miles, my watch said 24.75...my watch was right!

It took me about an hour to get my mind back on track, that hour was spent walking/jogging and plenty soul searching. I was thinking about previous races, was there anything I could draw strength from?

I thought about Katie Hall at the Great Glen Ultra, what did Katie do mentally to complete that course? I thought about would I DNF (did not finish) for the first time. I thought about the runners in JogPKC, the running group at work, and how they have embraced running and get so much from it. How they have overcome barriers both mental and physical to complete what they wanted to achieve. There are a few people I thought about specifically and I'm going to catch up with them and let them now how they helped me.


I got to checkpoint three (31 miles) quick top up of tailwind and I was away again. This tailwind was the 'naked' neutral flavour, however it turned out to be very sweet. And here is how my brain was... I was having a wee sook of tailwind and a wee sook of water and mixing it in my mouth before swallowing, why not mix it in the bottle?
Walk/jog, being encouraged by who I now know was Norrie Hunter (you'll never know how much that helped man), it was a bit of head down and crack on. Plan A was gone, Plan B was gone, would Plan C fall apart too?

The guys at the last checkpoint let me know there was 4 miles to go, so I set off and it was at this point, when I saw this sign, that I knew I was going to finish.

It was very hot by now, but having topped up both drink bottles I had plenty fluids. My feet were starting to feel sore on this last section which is on tarmac, and the studs on the soles of my trail shoes felt like wee needles. I actually passed a guy who was struggling too, we exchanged pleasantries and I could tell he just wanted to be finished too.

I created Plan B.5, let's get this done in under 9 hours. Three and a half miles later when I crossed the bridge and ran along the outside of Dam Park, the tears started to flow, and I couldn't stop them. I was going to finish, one lap of the athletics track and it would be over.

Into the stadium, the sun beating down, I heard Steven (who finished in an awesome 7 hours 20 minutes) roar me on. Sprint finish...no happening, not today.

Crossing the finish line, Steven asked me how I was, my answer was one word with a shake of my head, "brutal", referring to possibly the worst day running I've had. My finish time sums it up. Plan B.5 fell apart too, I crossed the line in 9 hours and 40 seconds.

Thanks to the organisers, marshalls and volunteers, I hope I said thank you to you all. The event was extremely well organised and they even arranged some awesome weather!

A wee video treat of us preparing

What have I learned?
It won't always go how you planned
I can gain strength and inspiration from an amazing number of people and places
Talking to yourself, and cows, is OK
My mental strength is in a good place
There's always another day