Ep 24 - Arc Of Attrition 100..er well 57 anyway

Kev tackles the Arc of Attrition 100 round the rugged tip of Cornwall. Well it tackles him actually! 

https://mudcrew.co.uk/events/arc-of-attrition/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

There it is. It is just I can see it. Next exitation.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Hello and welcome once again to EightStation Podcast. It's season three actually. It's January. It's my third year into this. Been doing it for two years now. And this is episode 24. Don't know where those two years have gone, but I've gained a lot of ultra experience in those last two years, and I hope you all have too. And thanks for listening for all that time. And I am now looking forward to my third year of podcasting. It's been too long since I've last been on. It was day six of the Dragonsbat race the last time you heard from me, which was back in mid-September. I suppose post that race, I ought to give you a bit of an update. I spent about four weeks recovering just from the swelling in my feet and my legs. Took about eight weeks for all the bruising and the scabs to fall off and the skin to heal up. And it was about ten weeks, I guess, before I was ready to run long again. And by that I mean anything over about ten miles. Well that was to be expected really, I guess. It's been a lot of thought going process going forward. Also, once you're over that recovery period, the whole enthusiasm comes back again. And well personally, I couldn't wait to get on with something else. I wasn't just twiddling my thumbs for that period, uh went away on a training camp uh with a friend of mine, Hugh Williams' club from Hereford, uh the Croft Danverley Club, and we went to the Brecken Beacons for a training weekend, which was really nice, and I was lucky enough to take Pete Riley and Sylvie Delgado Ortiz with me. What a great name that is. More about Sylvie in a minute. And so I've gradually got back into my running, uh, but one of the big things um I wanted to do this year was have quite a big year, 2023, um, and so had put quite a bit of planning into that to try and structure for some big events. So unusually uh I'm gonna do four uh major events this year, which is quite a few for me, um, and uh because some of them are are quite big, uh, and it's a bit longer than the normal stuff that I normally do. Anyway, a lot of other things have been happening between um September and now, especially for some of the regulars on here, people that have even been featured on this podcast before now. And I want to give them a mention. Uh, firstly, Hannah Hall, who was first female at the Granite 50 on Dartmoor Way, which was pretty amazing, and then on the same day, uh Lizzie Gatherer was first female at the OTT Ultra in the Brecken Beacons, in atrocious weather, both of them. Um and I know that because it was the same weekend that I was in the Beacons with Hughes training camp. Pretty amazing results for those two. I'm quite pleased and proud of them, and uh really glad that uh their ultra running is giving them such great results. So a big well done to you two lovely people. Well, I couldn't go without mentioning uh last Saturday saw the uh finish of the Spine Race, um which is mid-winter race all along the Pennine Way. Uh many of you all know it. Hopefully many of you were dot watching it, it was a very exciting race this year, um, with quite a close finish. But as ever, with this podcast, the people that matter to me are the ones in the middle and the back of the pack. Uh the only person I knew on the race, there were two, uh Steve Chamberlain, so congratulations to Steve. I know that Steve had a difficult time after uh a couple of days into the race um and got taught to staying into the race and keeping going, and he did, which is brilliant and a fantastic effort. So well done to Steve. And I also need to mention Sylvie again, who I think this was about maybe her third or fourth attempt um at the spine or one of the spine races anyway, and she had the most frustrating finish to her race. Um, those of the of you that know the race, um the last uh point that you can uh stop where the shelter is HUT 2, which is 7.5 miles from the finish. Uh so Sylvie had covered 259 miles at this point of a 268-mile race. Mountain rescue, I don't know the full story behind this, decided that her and the person that she was running with, a Belgian guy, could not continue anymore. And it wasn't a time out situation, they had time to finish, but it may well have been the condition they were in, or the conditions of the course I am not sure. I haven't got to the bottom of it yet, but I really, really feel sorry for Sylvie. It's very sad and frustrating to go through all of that and get to that point and uh not be able to complete. I don't know how Sylvie feels, I haven't heard back yet. Uh but I know above all that that she's a very positive person and she will have got a lot out of the whole process and the experience, and I'm sure enjoyed many parts of it. Um I know it's a very, very tough race, and it's difficult to say that you enjoy uh any of it, but uh I'm sure that Sylvie will have got a lot out of it. So lots of thoughts for you, Sylvie, and uh hope to see you back out there soon doing the races. Anyway, to my planning for 2023, I am going it starts. My first event starts Friday, and I'm doing the Ark of Attrition, which is a 104-mile point-to-point race round the southwest coast uh of Cornwall from Coverack to Porth Town. Many of you will know of that race. Um, it's got uh 4,010 metres of elevation and a 36 hour cutoff, which I may well make full use of, I imagine. I haven't actually run for that distant uh that time before, not the distance, it's the distance plus the elevation. Uh, my longest time on my feet in a race was 29 hours in a race called the Pirinultra in Bulgaria, which is a mountainous race. Um, and that was a DNF, but I spent 29 hours on it. So this is going to be uh quite an interesting one for me to see how much longer I can stay out there. So you're on the head torch for huge chunks of this race. Um it's well, I guess we get about 14 hours of darkness at this time of year. If you could do the 436, you're back onto the head torch again Saturday evening around five o'clock, and the race finishes at midnight. So uh what's that, another seven hours? Um so you could end up 20 odd hours on a head torch in this race if you're running the the full uh time that's available. So it's going to be an interesting one, and I'm I'm actually looking forward to that. And you'll hear later on in this podcast the full uh event and what went on, I hope, and how I got on in the race, but that's coming up later. And then back to the plans. Uh the 1st of April, I am going to do the Northern Traverse run by Aurea Events, another one of their events, uh, and that that's 300k along Wainwright's coast to coast route. Um, and again, that's a non-stop event. I mean, clearly you can stop, and they have tents along the route to sleep in, but the clock keeps ticking, so the longer you spend laying down, the less time that you're running, and the the slower you get to get to the finish. Um I can't even remember how many days you get to do that. I think it's about four and a half or something to get through that one. And then following that, I plan to do a 50-mile event uh with Hannah Hall, which is the Ultra Wales 50, which is uh GB UK Ultras event, uh, towards the end of June. And then in mid-July, I am doing the King Alfred's Way, which is a 350k non-stop event, which I am doing because it's local to me. Goes around Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, so all on my doorstep. That's going to be an interesting one because of the heat issues. Um, I'm hoping to have some support crew uh from people who are involved or listen to this podcast. And again, I'll be podcasting all of these events, I hope, uh, as I come up to them and come along them. So there's more podcasts to be coming around these events uh this year. So I hope you all have a good year or season planned out, and I'm interested to know what events you're taking on and why. Um and it'd be really good if you came over to the AidStation Facebook community page. Just look us up on Facebook AidStation. Uh, there is an ultra community there. Um, and share your plans and uh what you're aiming to do and why you're aiming to do. That'd be really great to get stimulate some conversation around these events and let other people know what you're doing. And make recommendations if you like, uh, or report back on the events, it'd be really good, and I'd love to get some more of that information and get it across on this podcast to help others who are in the mid-to-back pack. Anyway, in the meantime, coming up is my recorded efforts of the weekend around the end of Cornwall in the Ark of Attrition Hundred. So, as ever, here are the Cowbells of Inspiration. Well it's Grace morning. It's uh Friday, is it 27th or something of January? I'm sat in the car park at the Eco Park at Porthtown for the start of the ARC 100. Did kit chat last night, registered, and just come back today. Everybody has to come back this morning to get their tracker fitted so we don't all lose our tracker overnight. I thought I'd just give you a bit of update where I'm at, had a good night's sleep for me pre-race, so probably had a good six or seven hours, which is actually quite good pre-race for me. Stayed in the Premier Inn in Canbourne, so had a reasonable bed for the night, and uh I'm all set really, had a quite a good block of training and build up to this. Did a couple of 30 milers, so I'm all set fair really. Probably as best prepared I've been in a while and not turning up ill or anything, or injured, so might be hoping for a reasonable outcome. I don't know anything about this route at all other than what I've seen on the um film my runs on YouTube. There's a guy on there that has done loads of recceing on this course, and so I've just watched a few of those, but the whole thing looks like uh just follow the southwest pass, follow the acorns, um, loads of up and down, and lots of broken running, which I don't mind. I don't mind the uh gives you a chance to rest. Uh walking up hills and running down hills. Uh, there's a few road sections, I think there's about six or seven miles of road into Penzance and a couple of miles out of Penzance, and obviously lots of uh mixed terrain, rock, sand go through the dunes of doom. So it should be quite um an interesting uh varied mix. Uh, one of the big things um is probably the um distance and the time on my feet. I think I said in the preamble to this that I'd 29 hours is the longest I'd been out on a run, but that's not true. Uh I did 31 and a quarter hours at Madeira Island Ultra back in about 2017, and I only got inside the cutoff by three quarters of an hour in that race, so uh that was 7,000 metres of elevation, but it was only 71 miles, whereas this is 104,000 metres of elevation. So I'm optimistic I can get it done in the time we get 36 hours to do it. This race has three medals, I think it's a black medal if you go sub 24 hours, which is just ridiculous, and only the uh front end do that, and then there's a sub 30 hour, which is a gold medal, and a finisher's medal inside 36 hours, which I think is silver. Um, so I'd be happy to pick up anything. Um, actually, I think it's a buckle, not a medal. Anyway, it doesn't matter, completion's the important thing. So from here we have a race briefing at half past nine, compulsory race briefing, then we get on the coaches uh for half past ten departure and get over to the start at Covraq for about 11:30 and the race starts at 12. So next time you hear me will be the usual thing. Probably try and record the race start and then chat to a few people along the way. So uh looking forward to a good race. Speak to you later. And I got onto the first one. By chance, had a good old chat uh with a a really good fellow actually. Um I don't know his name even, but uh we just talked for the whole trip for an hour it took to get over to Coverak. Um and got off the bus there. Uh, and we had an hour's wait, which was a bit of a nuisance, really, but um and it was a little bit chilly in the wind that time in the morning. Uh, but it doesn't matter, and I walked into the village at Coverak where uh there was a little shop there doing coffee, which was rather nice. So I got myself a coffee, wandered back, and waited through the uh eternal build-up, uh, which culminated in uh ACDC's Highway to Hell, very appropriate. Um, and at twelve noon we all got going to be a little bit. And I was stood right at the back. There's a sort of car park area that you're in while you're waiting, and didn't really put much thought into it, and found myself literally at the back of the race, the last person there, and we ran down um to the front along the front there, uh, before you turn right sharp up through uh coverac, and we ran down through a whole load of yellow flares, which um might have looked spectacular, but were quite horrible to go through a load of choking smoke. Um, not the best thing, I don't think, by the organisers, but there you go, everybody got through it, and very soon ground to a halt because uh it gets very technical very early on, as soon as you get onto the actual coastal path. Um, quite steep sections, quite narrow, and did quite a bit standing about at the back, which I now consider a mistake. I thought, oh, this was going to help me long term, but um it took me quite a while to get going, and the first five miles, the terrain is really tough. Uh, load of uh climbing and descending, climbing and descending, and the descending's not quick either. Quite rocky coastline. I didn't get off to a great start, but thought this would uh be good for me in the long term not to go tearing off. Um, of course, I had quite a bit on like most people did at the start of the race, and I stopped around about five miles in to get a layer off. Um, I was actually wearing a montane 300 uh gram synthetic layer, uh, which I took off. Um, and when I in in the process of doing that, I dropped uh a food bag, I didn't realise this, which had my salted pretzels in and my ginger, crystallized stem ginger I carry to help with uh nausea, which I tend to suffer with. Uh, and this was a major loss. Uh, those that know me um and have heard me bang on about this before with the ginger, um, will know that uh this was not a good thing for me, and it came back to bite me in the bum later on. But we continued on, and about two miles before Lizard Point, I managed to get going. The ground got flatter and faster, um, and there was beautiful weather. We actually had, I mean, you couldn't have got better weather in January down there for this race, and there were it was a course record broken uh in in the 50, and I thought it would be pretty fast going, and and somebody went under nine uh 20 hours again, did a 19-hour run. Um, so there was no complaints about the weather whatsoever. It couldn't have been any better, but it gave us some quite nice views. The sun came out occasionally, um, and it was all looking good, beautiful coastline views, and uh kept plugging away, and I eventually stopped at Kinance Cove, which is about 12.5 miles in at 5 pm and put my head torch on and got prepped ready for the evening section of the run. Um, I didn't turn my head torch on till 5:30 because I just well wanted to keep the night vision or the sight that I had going as long as possible, and also wanted to be off the head torch as long as possible, as we were going to get for the first section, the first night, at least 13 hours on the head torch. So the least time it was on and I was running with it on, the better. Uh, the other thing was that it surprised me because I down in Cornwall they got about 15 minutes more daylight than we did even in Hampshire. So one of those silly little things that interests you in the middle of the race when you've got miles and miles and miles of slogging along going that you think about. And I I'd been moving through the field, although I was literally last um after about a mile. I'd slowly move through the field and were gradually overtaking people without like putting too much into it, and thought I was going okay. And there are four main checkpoints to get to along the route. Um, the first one is at Porth Leven at the football club there, and that's 24.5 miles in. Uh, the second one is Penzance, which I kept thinking was coming up first, just because this is how sort of ill-prepared mentally I was in terms of cut-off times and um checkpoints. Uh Penzance is at 38.5 miles, then Lands End is 55 miles in, and St. V St Ives is 78 miles in. There's quite a big section actually between Lands End and St. So I got over to Port Leaven, felt like it was going quite well. Um, and as I came into the A station, there I was met by the Archangels. Um, this is what they call these lovely people that help you out around the route. I was actually travelling as um an unsupported runner. Most of the people in the race have support crew, so you're glad to see these archangels because they do carry some stuff around on the routes with them. Um, I had a couple of sandwiches off them at different points, and they have all sorts of other things bags of crisps and sweets and all the usual stuff, which was quite good, particularly. Um I think most people were tucking into them, but they're particularly for the unsupported. Runners, which was good. And they also have these archangels that take you in to the checkpoint, which is a really nice touch. They lead you in, show you the way. They also ask you all a few pertinent questions about how you're feeling. And if you've got any issues at all, they will sort out somebody to help you with medical assistance or illness or anything like that, which is really good. But I was feeling okay. I was a bit nauseous, but I said that I'd like some soup if they had soup, and that that was got for me. And my water bottles were refilled. I had some coke in one and water in the other. And I mentioned that because I'm not a big Coke fan, but I just seem to, since the Dragonsback race, got really into it for these races. I don't drink it normally out of uh race time, and I'd actually got turned round in about 10 minutes. I'd got this soup down me, I'd had some uh bread with it and was ready to go when I realised it was night time and I was about to set off uh in the cold without having any leggings on, I was still in my shorts, uh, and hadn't put on another top, so I stopped and did that, and uh I just seemed to then faff around and I went back into the aid station, got some more food, um, and instead of sort of turning it round in about 10 or 15 minutes, I reckon I took about 20-25 minutes. The next point to head to uh was Marizion, um, but it's all coast path along out to Marision, which is where you hit the road, actually. It's a that's where the road section starts into Penzance. It seemed to take me ages, and the nausea really started to set in over that um part of the race. The coastal path is really, really steep. Anyway, I eventually battled on to uh Marision uh where I hit the road and something seemed to come over me when I hit the road, it was like, you know, thank goodness I'm on road, but mentally I I you know just just seemed to switch off. Um, and also it coincided with my watch about to die, so um I spent ages fuffing around with that, putting that onto a power pack to charge it up. But from Maris Iron, there's a nice little downhill section on road uh towards Penzance, uh, and I got going on the downhill down there, and I could hear a set of poles coming up behind me, um, and just sort of raised the pace a little bit and kept ahead of these poles until we hit the flat about two or three miles outside Penzance. Uh, a chap came up and said hello, and he said, Who's that? And I said, It's Kevin, and he said, Kevin Munt. And I said, Yes, and he said, Oh, it's Peter O'Camp here. Um, and I know I know Peter listens to AidStation, um, and Peter finished the 2021 Dragonsback race, uh, which I was on, and I was always uh quite admired Peter's uh approach to that race and the fact that he got through it, and he seemed to be pushing on quite well and was running quite strongly. Uh, he said he'd had a quite a bad start himself, hadn't really got going, had had a uh contact lens issue, um, and he was down to one contact lens, which he needed to uh be able to keep reading his uh route map or um his watch. So uh he was a bit worried about that, but he was running quite strongly. Um and I was happy to run along chatting to him for a well, it probably was felt like a couple of miles anyway. But then when we got to within about a mile of uh the checkpoint at Penzance, um he was running much stronger. I took much more walking breaks, um, and he seemed to be there well ahead of me. Uh, when I got there, he'd already eaten his food, was just off to find the loo, um, and was off out of the door in quite a determined fashion. And as it turned out, he carried on in that fashion and really powered on through uh and got finished, and I think he got the whole thing uh done in about 33 hours, uh, which is excellent. So well done, Peter. Really pleased to to see that, and it was great to go with you. I wish I could have stayed with you, but I didn't. Uh, and that's where I was at, unfortunately. Um I was uh where were we? We were about 12 hours in at Penzance, I think. Yeah, I got out of the Penzance checkpoint. Um, I couldn't get much food down. Me, didn't the pizza was sort of I'm not gonna moan about the food. The food was excellent, but the pizza was like uh a bit stale and crusty, and I couldn't get it down. The chips were were stale as well, soggy. Um and I should have really had some pasta or something. The soup had run out, which is what normally keeps me going because it's easier to get down, but um because I was towards the back of the field, there were I'd missed out on the soup. But I left the checkpoint at 12.45 actually, quarter to one in the morning. So I'd been going uh 12 hours and 45 minutes, and I hadn't really given any thought at all to the uh Land's End cut-off point. I'd got through this checkpoint okay, but I hadn't really asked anybody about you know how long I'd got. I didn't even have it in my head um a time that I needed to get there by. Uh, but uh carried on the road section out of that checkpoint. There's about um two and a half miles to Mausal once you get out of Penzance and it's all on road, uh, a little bit up and down. Uh, walked all the uphills, ran the downhills where I could. And then when you get through Mausal, the real coastal trail to hell starts again, or to Minak Theatre, and it really was a tough section. It was one of the toughest sections of running I think I've ever done. Uh, there was everything on it, um, very steep uh climbs, uh, very steep descents, uh over you know rocky sections. There was nowhere you really got going, there was no flat at all anywhere to get anything moving. There were a couple of really boggy spots as well, where I went down to MacArthur in one area where streams were coming off down to the sea um and were just flooding the whole area, which had made it really boggy. But you know, you these things come along, but it just at that point of the race um just seemed to take me forever uh to get through that section um and to get to the Minak Theatre. Um, while I was on that section, I got uh caught by a guy called uh I think it was Matthew Wareham, and he said to me, Where are you from? and I said, Oh, Fleet Hampshire, and he said, Oh, small world, I'm from Fleet Hampshire. And Matt's a guy in I think his early 30s, and he he told me the schools in Fleet that he'd been to, which I know well, and it was really strange experience, really, to meet a guy from the same town that I'd never met before in this middle of what is a very, very remote part of Cornwall, well, before the Minac Theatre. The Minnech Theatre is actually where the Arc 50 starts, um, and it looks like a I've never been there before, so it looks like a beautiful venue, but of course, in the middle of the night, we didn't actually get to see the Minac Theatre. There's a really steep section of climb up to the theatre because you you end up right down by the sea by the coast and you have to climb up to it. Uh, when I got there I was pretty well done in um and not feeling that good, and uh one of the archangels said to me there that I'd got uh an hour and 15 minutes to cover 4.6 miles. Now you'd think that would uh would be easy, but it is no way, is it? Um and I'd sort of mentally was thinking, well, I actually said, No way, you know, there's no way I can do that. So I ran on for a mile um and got to a place called Porth Gawaurra, and met another angel there who told me that uh I'd got 55 minutes to get to Land's End and it was all runnable, uh, which I found out that it isn't later on, but I think they tell you these things to try and get you to push on, which is really good, and um I did push on. It's a really weird thing, this the whole adrenaline thing that suddenly runs through you. Instead of sort of just accepting I wasn't gonna make it, I decided that I was gonna make it, and it was still possible. And I passed three other runners on this section, and every one of them said to me, Do you think we can make the cutoffs? Um, and I had you know, I really hadn't got a clue. I hadn't even thought about it till I was told what uh time was left to get it done in. Um and I just said that all we can do now is give it everything you've got, and um and I hammered on. And what well for what I thought was hammering on anyway, and I pushed right on, uh, got clapped in to Land's End by another whole crowd of archangels, which were I hadn't realised were there, one of them to walk me into the hotel. Um, and I said to them, Have I made it? Have I made it thinking this was the point at which the cutoff actually counted? Uh and I was told, Uh, no, you haven't actually, you're you're already like seven or eight minutes outside it. And so I just walked into the hotel and ended up 10 minutes outside the cut-off time. And when I look, I look back at my Strava segments for that last four miles, which I thought I was absolutely hammering it. And I average about 17 and a quarter minutes a mile, which shows the state I was in and the type of terrain I was running over, or um, how much slower some of those sections really are. Uh, so I wasn't too disappointed to be honest. I didn't think I'd had a very good race anyway. Um, I was happy to have done what turned out on my watch anyway to be 57 miles. I'm not sure whether it was 55 or 57, officially 55, I guess, and sat down with a bowl of vegan soup, which I just didn't eat. Uh just couldn't get through it. Ate a white uh bread roll, but I was quite happy that um quite quickly eight of us that were the first eight to uh not get through the checkpoint were bust back to Porthtown, which was quite good. I was quite glad, and as soon as I got in the bus, fell asleep and pretty much woke up just when we were getting into Porthtown back to the eco park where the race is based, race HQ is based, and it was just getting light, it was freezing cold. Well, it was about two degrees actually, but um it felt really cold, obviously, when you've been hot and sweaty and chasing the times. Um, everything's cold on you. Uh managed to get changed in the car, uh, put the engine on and put the heater on and changed in the car. I then took what I think is a ridiculous risk, but I drove to the nearest Starbucks to get breakfast, got there okay, had breakfast in there, took ages as long as I wanted, really. I wasn't in any hurry. I then drove on another two miles to a lay-by and uh slept for about two and a half hours in the lay-by, which refreshed me. Then I had a lunch stop on the way back and drove to another lay-by and had another hour or so sleep, uh, eventually getting back home around about four o'clock in the afternoon, I think. And of course, people were still out there running in the uh hundred miler. Uh, but that was my race done, and I'm not overly disappointed about it actually. I mean, obviously, you always want to complete these things. Um I I mean officially it's a DNF, but I didn't I I prefer it as a technical time out. I was timed out, I didn't finish because I couldn't carry on, and uh so I've you know taken it as just it was a a good experience, a good training run. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh, and it's move on to the the next thing really, and it's all all training in the the tank. Um, the next thing for me is the uh club's training camp, which is happening in a couple of days' time, which will be a nice weekend down uh near in Pembrokeshire, near Pembroke, and uh that's three days of good coastal running and training as well. So that'll be all good. Um, in terms of the actual race itself, the Arc of Attrition, really good event, really well organised. Uh the Archangels are just fantastic. Um, the support on the races as ever, with a lot of these now. Most of the things I run in, they all seem to be excellent. They're all you know manned by people who are runners and know what they're doing and know what people are going through. And a little bit, it's probably I don't know, mate. It's probably the Cornish thing, but it's a little more low-key, relaxed than some events that I've done before, which is quite nice, quite laid back. Uh, but without doubt, it is the toughest. I mean, I only ran 57 miles of it, but I think if I'd have carried on, it would definitely be the toughest hundred miler I've ever done. Uh, it must be one of the toughest in the country. I mean, I I didn't get through the um Lakeland 100, uh, which has got more elevation on it, but I'm sure there's more runnable stuff than there is on the Ark of Attrition. Very difficult to compare these races, they probably shouldn't be compared, really, because they're great races in their own right. But uh I would say, one, if you don't know the Cornish coastline, find that out first because I didn't do any recceing of it. Uh, two, definitely enter the arc 50 if you're thinking of doing that first, uh, and check out the 50 and see how you go on that before you enter the 100. It is a very tough race. I think the attrition rate was about 50% as usual, so it you know it shows it is quite a tough event. I should I mentioned Peter already. Well done to Peter uh for getting it done. Uh, I should a special mention for Jane Gold, who not only got it done, but got it done to get her gold um buckle, which was 20 29 hours something. She did it in incredibly strong run, incredibly strong runner. Jane is uh she I know she'd been ill as well and hadn't had a great build-up in her training beforehand for about two months, so that was a terrific effort. And well done to everybody who got it done because it really, really is a tough event. The last for the all the backpackers out there, the last person in was in about 35 hours out of the 36, which I in looking back in historically, it's the last one is normally around 3515 or something. So if you're thinking of doing it, that's the sort of time you want to be capable of and getting through. The other thing is as well with it, is um don't do what I do, make sure you take account of when you need to get to a land's end and get there well in time. I mean, I was unsupported, so if I'd have got there inside the time limit, I would not have had time to access my drop bag, which is the first point that you meet your drop bag. Uh so I couldn't have done any resupply, I don't think, in the time, I wouldn't have had time, I wouldn't have been able to change any socks or trainers or anything like that, any kit that I wanted to. So make sure that you're capable of getting, I would say, to Land Zen half an hour before the cutoff, anyway, to give you time to do all that stuff and move on to the next section because it is tough the next section as well. Anyway, that is pretty much my summary. I mean, I know I rang the cowbells of inspiration at the start, and this might not have been that inspirational, but um I just that's the way some of these races go. I don't seem to be having much luck with finish many of them at the moment. Um, I'm hoping for much better luck in my next one, which is a northern traverse in April, and I will be back before then, I hope, and I need to do a bit more podcasting on aid station, and hopefully there'll be some people and some subjects that I can bring to you next time. But until that happens, this is Kev saying bye for now and see you at the next aid station. How long to the next bloody hate station.