Aid Station

Ep 31 - Kev’s Conquest of the King Alfred’s Way Ultra

• Kevin Munt • Season 3 • Episode 31

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SPEAKER_04

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

SPEAKER_03

Hello and welcome to episode thirty one of AidStation. This episode features the aforementioned King Alfred's Way Ultra. This is a long episode, so I won't dally anymore. Let's get straight to King Alfred and that ancient route around the south of England. It is Friday, the August the 11th, and it's just coming up to quarter past five in the morning. I've done registration for the King Alfred's Way Ultra, and I'm literally stood underneath the majestic King Alfred's statue at the moment in the middle of Winchester. And I'm the only one here waiting for people to turn up. The registration's about a mile and a half uphill. I've been dropped off by my son Lyndon down here, and he's just taken Darren, the co-founder of Green Runners, up the hill because he didn't realise that Reg was up there. So done him a favour this morning, and hopefully I'll get him on the podcast when he gets back down here. So we're all set to go. It's really mild weather at the moment, and it's not looking too bad in the forecast, but not getting too hot. So hopefully we're gonna have a good three days out. It's really funny. There's a chap over the road on a park bench waiting for a bus or something, first bus in the morning, I expect, and he said to me, You going for a run? And uh I didn't like to tell him, I just said, Yeah, I am, thanks. A long one. So it's quite amusing, really. I couldn't really tell him it was 220 miles, he wouldn't have believed me. I'm standing under the King Alfred statue now with Darren Evans, co-founder of Green Runners, who I was surprised to see here. Do you do do these long ones normally, Darren?

SPEAKER_01

No, not at all. No, this is a new adventure for me. So yeah, just gonna push the envelope and see see what happens really. I just like the hot the idea of I love this area anyway, and the whole history with King Alfred. Um I just couldn't resist it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, I was a bit the same myself actually, the whole the fact that this was the capital of the country at one time.

SPEAKER_01

100%, yeah, yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_03

So um you just showed me something because we were talking about Green Runners, um, which I think we should share is your uh mobile drinks a collapsible cup.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So uh every race I do uh I use an old oat milk carton, uh cut it in half, fold it up, and then use that as my uh my race cup. Yeah, so uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That makes me feel guilty because I'm on my third one of those soft ones. I keep losing the damn things, and that means there's more plastic laying around somewhere that it shouldn't be. So that's a great idea. Good tip.

SPEAKER_04

We'll have a really good race.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you kev. See you on the truth on the trail. See you. Cheers.

SPEAKER_03

We're about two and a half miles into the race, um which is all out of Winchester on tarmac obviously. Uh now going up slightly and climb towards Spar Schultz. Uh the whole thing was quite low-key. There's a bit of a race beating before, right underneath King Alfred's statue, and a group photo, and basically the civic clock struck six, which incidentally is where I married my lovely wife Jill 22 years ago. Uh, so there's a bit of sentimentality to this race as well for me, and we got going and going, I got going very slowly. I'm quite the way back already at the moment, just taking it easy. I'm gonna have a little jog now because it's downhill, and I had a big surprise. Steve Jones turned up, who you will have heard me talk about before, particularly on last year's dragon spike race, because Steve's the guy who helped me off the back of Treffan when I fell over, smashed my face. Um, and uh delighted to see him here, he's up in front somewhere, and Steve has done the uh Yukon Arctic Ultra 430, so uh that's the type of legend he is, and he was telling me all about it and the the wolf tracks and crossing frozen rivers where you can see the water rushing underneath, carrying a 35-pound pork behind Toei behind him. So hopefully I'll catch up with him and maybe get some stories from him along the way. I'm taking it real easy, um having done nothing for 18 days since the Beacons 800, just easing the legs back into it and the lungs and uh yeah just easing it. Right we're 13 miles in. We've just come out of the village of Broughton, we're heading uphill and as I said earlier, um the legend that is Steve Jones is on this race, and I've caught up with him at last. And he's travelling what I call old school because he's on OS maps. He's got a series of them and he's doing really well with his nav. Tell us why you're using them today.

SPEAKER_02

It's nice to see where you're going. Um you've got a perspective of going for it's not like a 350 kilometre race, it's just like a couple of miles to the next village, looking at towns, drink points, all the different things to see on the way, and it's sort of more adventure than you forget about running and racing, and it's like a day out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, brilliant. I think that's a great way to approach it, and it's yeah, it makes it much more of a journey. And I love the idea of like looking and seeing what is coming up and what the next village is or the next bit of forest or something with the views. That's that's great. Um, you're a very experienced ultra runner. How long have you been doing ultra, Steve? Oh a few years now, maybe eight or eight or nine, maybe ish, or thereabouts. Yeah, and you've gone all the way up to the Yukon Arctic Ultra 430, is it called? Uh yeah, 437 this year, up 437.2. And that's miles.

SPEAKER_02

Uh miles, yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's amazing. And uh you got it done?

SPEAKER_02

Oh yes, yes. I didn't fall through the thin ice. Well, only once.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so those that don't know that race is um you pull uh what they call a pulk behind you, and I think you said you had was it 35 pounds or something? Uh 35 kilos, rather, yeah. Wow. Um, and uh do you see any wildlife?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's moose, quite a few wolves, uh few little things, eyes in the night. Yeah, um sometimes you don't know whether you're hallucinating its eyes or whether it's uh the locals coming at you with an axe or so you need to keep moving, you don't want to sleep too long, you might not wake up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so in eight years you've gone from like I presume doing a shortish ultra and now you've gone right up to doing 430 odd miles, which is incredible.

SPEAKER_02

Now I'm doing this at 220, which in some ways might be harder because of the cutoff.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yeah. Yeah, this is um a nicer roll in the vent uh terrain-wise than uh you and I are normally doing. Um and I think it gives you time to appreciate it a bit more actually. So uh have you got any you're not worried about time, are you? Just beat the cutoffs.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I'm worried because I think I might be timed out, but uh yeah, you know time for complacency. Yeah, the cutoffs do seem very tight, whereas the ukorn might have been colder and perhaps tougher, but there was plenty of time you could amble along at a steady pace for this one. You've just got to keep moving at a brisk pace.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, it's a lot more running in this.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And when was it like have you have you done a UK event over a hundred before?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's uh Dragon's Back Race there, King Office Light race twice, Lakeland a few times, Beacons 100, that's excellent. Which is if you like bad weather. Uh South Wales 100, Home Rooks Coast 100, Apocalypse 100 twice, and a few other things.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so you you did have a spell where you'd done like about 20 in a year or something, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there was a time when I did seven weekends, I was always doing one race. Uh either ranging from a half marathon to a hundred miler.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. That's why I call him the legend. Well, it wasn't me that called him that it's a guy called Pete Riley, but he said, You've got to meet this legend. And I did, on a jargon's about Recky. Amazing. Anyway, Steve, well, I'll sign off and I'll no doubt talk to you later. And uh he's coughing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You just uh it's one thing after another, isn't it? The moccasinsylin tablets should keep there. I started those a couple of days ago. Right, so I think I'll get through.

SPEAKER_03

And you've just come off Lakeland Hundred, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh how long ago was that? That's two weeks ago, is it? Wow. Oh well, we'll see how you go, see how we go. Yeah. So talk to you later. Uh, twenty miles, four hours and eight minutes, uh, which means I've only got two hundred miles to go. It's a bit of a sobering thought, isn't it? So that's got the as I said, the odd bit out of the way, and now we can get on with the actual 200 miles. Uh weather's dry, it's warmish, muggy. Um, on a nice shady tree section at the moment, heading out towards old Sarum, and I've got about another five miles to go to the first checkpoint. Um, I'm really feeling it in the legs, like you'd think I'd run a hundred miles into Brecken Beacons 18 days ago. That's what it feels like. Definitely um not fully recovered, but uh just gonna keep pressing on on the journey and turn it into a journey and try and enjoy it seeing some already some lovely little Hampshire villages and chalk streams with trail in and yeah, just different well terrain that I live in, but I don't see so much over this side of Hampshire. Well, I suppose I'm heading towards Wiltshire now anyway. Um just need to do a bit of a GPX check as I'm at a crossroads. Yeah, I think I'm en route. Yep. And now heading out into the opening to some more downland and uh yeah, it's really picturesque and enjoying it. Our at which is checkpoint one after 25.25 miles, um and I was four minutes outside my predicted time, which I'm not particularly fussed about. Um I've had just under 15 minutes stop um setting off on an amber to be honest, up over this beautiful hillside here where the fort is. Um I've never been here before, it's got a huge, I presume man-made man-dug trench round it, really deep actually. Uh pretty impressive, with a stone structure on the top. Um can't get a good picture of it because it's all right at the very top of the hill, and it's national not national trust, it's English heritage site. Uh anyway, might come back another time. Uh the weather is getting very warm, sun's out. I just the race director just said it's gonna be 24 this afternoon, so but there's a good breeze blowing, which you probably hear over the mic. And uh next stop Stonehenge. You're joining me just after Ravebury now, which was at 33 miles. Uh got through there half an hour ahead of schedule, which was mainly due to taking less time at Old Sirum than I'd allowed for. Um I have to say my legs are completely shot already, and uh we managed to get our first shop open, shop stop, where Steve consumed a vast amount. I can't believe he must have the constitution of an ox. What did you buy, Steve?

SPEAKER_02

Um very large milkshake, banana milkshake with cream on top. Yeah, um, some ice creams, um big thing of orange kind of stuff with bits in, and this melon with bits in as well as well. Yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_03

So that's two drinks, a chocolate chip ice cream, and a large banana milkshake with cream and chocolate sprinkles on top. Amazing. I I bought a coke, that's all I could manage. Uh I feel rejuvenated. Yeah, you're gonna go really well now, aren't you? Anyway, next stop, Stonehenge. Apparently, it's three and a half miles according to the public footpath sign. So that's gonna be quite nice to get some shots there. Apparently, we can get in on a public footpath, don't have to pay the fees. Um, so looking forward to that. The weather's still good, it's a bit hot, but really good breeze. So that's just keep taking the edge off the actual heat, which is great. Been right up as close as the public can get, got some good pickies, um, and that was um 30 well, just below 38 miles in, and I was up there in about eight hours and 40 minutes. So the next stop is at 51 miles at Market Levington, and that is an indoor checkpoint which I'm looking forward to. I don't know, I might see Hannah before there, not sure, but we'll keep pressing on, and uh I'll probably get back to you when something else more interesting is happening. A small water point, I'm forty-five miles in and ten and a half hours done, and uh I've been finding it really hard to go at any sort of walking pace, everybody else is walking much quicker than me. Steve Jones kept disappearing and I had to run up to catch up with him, and he was only walking. He's got such a good walking pace. In the end I got fed up with it and decided to run harder and run a few more uphills, um, and then take some walking breaks and run and walk, and gradually I've uh left Steve behind a bit, uh, but I ran out of water, um, it's just not enough, it's too hot and there's none. Um well since I filled up at Avebury, which was in the town, not a checkpoint, and I thought I was gonna be in trouble because I've got about another six or seven miles to go yet, and I'm not sure whether Hannah's gonna be this side of the checkpoint at 50 miles or the other side. And arranged with Hannah for Hannah to come nearer to checkpoint two, and we are here on the top of somewhere Redhorn Hill. There we go. And uh I've just eaten, got all my gear on my lights, and I'm ready to go, and Hannah is here with Sophia and he said that Sadie doesn't want to eat anything, but I know he needs to eat something, so I'm gonna make him down his customer. She's been brilliant, forces me to do all sorts of stuff. And Sophia wants to be an ultra runner. Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna get carried and then uh we're gonna sleep on the sleeping bag off of Hannah, which is great, so I'm gonna have to carry that for that. Sixty miles. It's now uh one thirty in the morning. Um Steve and I are still together, sort of. He's quite a way up the hill at the moment, but we're moving around together at night. Um we've just come out of Avebury, got there about quarter past one in the morning. Uh there was a bit of a water stop there, fill up the bottles, and Richard, the race director from Beyond Marathon, informed us it was 18 miles to Bishopstone, which is much further than I thought it was, and certainly much further than the details say. Uh so it is 90 miles in Bishopstone, which is checkpoint three. Um speed we're going at, it's gonna take us about the best part of six hours to do that. Um we're trudging uphill at the moment over Chalky Downland up onto the Ridgeway, and then it's the Ridgeway path all the way out to it, and of course beyond down into Goring and Streetly, um, which is a long way off. So uh I'm just managing to keep going really. Um, we have been pushing because we've uh the cutoff time is 9.45 in the morning at checkpoint three. Um so we should be inside that, but the problem is we were planning to get a couple of hours shut eye, um, and that might leave us quite close with the time we get in there um to get two hours, so it might be an hour laid down. Hopefully, I'll go out like a light, um, and we just have to get up and get going again. So I'm gonna say night night, and uh hopefully it'll be a nice pleasant morning when I come back on here and talk again. Night night. Uh it's quarter past seven on Saturday morning of the race. Uh the sun's been up at an hour. Um that was yet another long night. I don't know what it is about me and these long three-day events, but I'm didn't get any sleep again. Uh tried to sleep on the trail, only ended up laying down for 40 minutes. My hip flexors just kept spasming and keeping me awake. Um, so I gave it up as a bad job, and it's a hell of a trek. Uh we got to the water point in Ogbourne St George, and the race director told us it was 18 miles still to go, and at like um three miles an hour is about all I've been managing. Makes it a very long time to get over here, but I'm nearly there now. On my schedule, I was due to be here at half past six in the morning and have a couple of hours stop here. In fact, 2.5 hours. This was going to be a sleep point. But I'm the cutoff here is 9.45, so I need to be out. I really want to be out of there by 8 o'clock to be honest, because the cutoffs, I seem to be getting closer and closer to them, um, and they're not very generous, it's quite tight. Um, which the Cobain events tend to be, uh, you know, it's for the hardcore. Um, so there's no prisoners taken, so you gotta stay on it. Um I'm planning meeting wife and family in uh Goring and Streetley, which I'm looking forward to. I love that place. Um but God knows how long it's gonna take me to get over to there. That's the next place. We've got a car we've come over here on the Ridgeway from Ogwood St. Georgian. Now we're staying on the Ridgeway. There's an annoying out and back into Bishopstone to this um checkpoint. And then it's Ridgeway out over Berry Downs and down past Gordon Streetly Golf Club and into Gordon Streetly, but it's quite a long trek. I think they said it was 40 miles between checkpoints, but that seems huge. Uh between this Bishopstone one and Reading, which is in Lower Caversham, the actual checkpoint. Anyway, haven't been able to talk to anybody, been on my own most of the night. Steve, I left him when I decided to bivvy on the trail. Um, I've no doubt he's probably asleep in this checkpoint when I get there in a minute. So I'll speak to you probably at Goran Street, if not before. Um, with a huge amount of supply of stuff, which is great. I had two slices of mushroom and uh what was it, green stuff on it? It's spinach or basil or something, uh pizza, uh homemade Chelsea bun that Jill had made, uh coffee, yeah, all just all good stuff. Got some resupplied with some stuff uh to carry in my bag food. Um and I had quite a good run over from uh Bishopstone to Goring. Uh it was about 18 miles. Um Goring actually marks 120 miles in, so there's a little mass matter of a hundred mile ultra left to do. Um which is a strange thought, but anyway, um I'm a bit garbled because I I was actually falling asleep again on uh the route over. I was gonna sleep in a park here in Goring actually, but um it just started to rain just as I was planning that. So I'm gonna go on to Reading and sleep at the Reading aid station support point. Um and I'm not travelling very quickly at all, so but I think it's 12 miles to Reading, it's pretty much the same distance as the um Autumn 100 uh leg four out to Reading, which is 12 and a half miles, so it's about 12 miles I reckon. Uh so at uh 3 miles an hour walking 4 hours. Um I left. I got into Goring at uh 20 past three, left at four, had 40 minutes there, which was probably too long, but I needed it. And um I'll try and get that back at Reading if I can. Uh I'd planned to be in Goring at half past two, and I was there at 20 past three, so I was 50 minutes behind the schedule, and that was was still going quite well to get over there. Um, since been overtaken by loads of people while I was sitting in my chair watching them go past, uh, but it doesn't matter. I it this is just a case of getting this race finished. Um, there's been quite a few dropouts, I think about ten have gone already. Um, and maybe there'll be a few more by tomorrow. So uh reading it is next time. Uh I do know, I don't know what day it is. Um the race started Friday and we went through the night and oh no, it's it's Sunday. One thirty Sunday morning. Um I left the reading checkpoint at about quarter to ten and the cut-off time there was quarter to twelve. So I wanted to have two two hours in hand. And um uh what a route out. It was quite horrible actually. Uh very dark all along the Kennet um through urban reading at uh, as I said, around about ten o'clock at night. Um not the most pleasant thing you can do. Uh and uh there was a Dutch woman who went out about half an hour before me as well on her own. She was very brave, I thought. Um but anyway, I didn't really see anybody, and you zigzag around round Reading and Green Park, and eventually you get over to the A33, and then there's this really again horrible footpath through wood all the way up the uh A33, and then you go backwards and forwards um over the A33 and end up back in Risley where I had this amazing surprise. Um there's an underpass that's all spray painted and it has a light on it uh was sprayed with graffiti, and there was a chap uh at the end of the tunnel with what looked like a skinhead haircut and it turned out to be Graham's meet who's crewing me. Um so I was a little bit worried when I s came to the end of the tunnel, and Graham has come out at 1.30 in the morning, or met me at 1.30 in the morning, having made uh cheese sandwiches about t uh cheese rolls about twenty minutes ago. Or or they were made twenty minutes earlier. Um so which is absolutely brilliant, and he's gonna see me again at um five thirty. Uh which will be a nice treat, because I have been literally falling asleep on my feet again. I've had no sleep. Uh at Reading I laid down in my son Linden's car and just everything started screaming at me, uh, which wouldn't let me sleep, but I just laid there for about an hour, just so at least I was horizontal, but um it wasn't comfortable. Um so I am desperate for sleep. I could have easily slept actually in the last between 12 and 1, could have easily just sat down and gone to sleep for ages, so uh managed to avoid that, and thank goodness Graham turned up, so uh I haven't lost too much time. Um and it's quite a pleasant evening. Um I can see one or two stars in the sky, so I'm not I don't think we're getting any rain. And uh I'll come back to maybe get a chat with Graham at half past five if I can remember to podcast. Um I had a really bad night, um just no sleep at all, falling asleep walking up roads. I mean they're very quiet roads, in fact I didn't see a car, but um just constantly dropping off, uh seeing faces and pictures in the vegetation, um like mild hallucinations, and just nothing in the tank, then the my feet when I took changed my socks and my bandages or tapes at um reading I noticed that uh inside left heel had a huge orange blister, which I um I've left left intact, and now my right foot uh underneath this middle toe has got a huge blister, which I've re-taped and covered, and I've changed into a pair of hocus speed goats, which are like probably the perfect cross training shoe for this event. Um but yeah, really had a bad um night and not great morning uh but that said I am on home turf. I have been since Reading, know all the route, just about. Um I was met out on the course by Neil Nelly Balsall, um, who spent some time with me. I was met by Graham Smee at half past one in the morning with uh coffee. I might have already said that actually, but I saw him again later on in the morning around about six o'clock ish. He's done a sterling job really. Um, and I got met by quite a few of the running club in the uh car park on the canal opposite the Bali Mow, which was very nice, um, and perked me up a bit. Um, also met by my wife and son-in-law Mike and Harry, and uh yeah, cheered me up no end, and I've uh run over to Crondall, which was the next checkpoint, which um I couldn't do any running last night, so I was quite pleased to get running. I've I am just climbing up out of um Ushot. Did I say Crondall? I meant Ushot. I'm just climbing up out of Ushot, uh up Beacon Hill, which is part of the Caesars Camp uh land up here, and then we are heading down old, I think it's old Deer Lane, it's called down into Farnham, which is a lovely long descent on a track, uh just the right sort of incline and really nice to do. So I'm looking forward to that, and I'm being met again in Farnham Park, so things are looking up. I'm I was gonna try and uh Jill bought my car out to the car park at the Bali Mow with a view to me having an hour of sleep or so, but I decided that uh there was no way that was gonna happen with the time scale. Um, and I've just left Crondel with two hours to spare, and I need that in the tank really, because well, there's another day and a half of this race, just about. So, um, yeah, I need that uh in the bank. Ethan and his cousin at Farnham Park. Um my wife met us again in the six bells car park and had more of a delicious pizza, and so and then out of the blue turns up Andy Danson, who drove off and got me some Coke, uh, and uh Peter Bedwell, who I was on the Dragonsback race with in 2021, and Pete's a lovely guy, and we had a good old tune rug as well. Um just as Andy and Pete were following me up the trail, this woman comes down the trail screaming, um, and guess who that was? Yes, Lizzie. Um and we had a really good time as well, so it really boosted me and cheered me up a heck of a lot, and then in the evening I was met by Lewis and his partner Sarah up at um Thursley Village Hall. Now the trek up to Thursley from Hankley Common really got to me. Um kept falling asleep during the day this time and knew I just had to get some sleep or I'm gonna have a terrible night. And there was a blow-up mattress there, I had my sleeping bag which I just put over me. Um, there was a blanket on the mattress, and I went out like a light. I'd set my alarm and I got an hour and 40 minutes sleep and left Thursday with an hour and 40 minutes inside the cut off time, which I wanted to do. I wanted to bank some time to get through this second half. I think the cutoffs do get a bit more generous, but There's a fair bit of climbing in these last what have we got? Um about 50 miles, is it now? Um and as you can hear, I'm labouring up the devil's punch ball at the moment. The ground's really full of iron stones, it was all rocky. Um but I feel rejuvenated. Um Pete Bedwell bought me out the most delicious vegetarian pizza. I don't know if it was shop bought, but it was really, really nice. Um and it's touch and go between my my my wife and Pete um on who produced the best pizza so far this race. Um, I guess I'd have to give it to Jill because she made the whole thing. And Pete, I don't know where he got it from, I'm gonna have to find out, it's really good. Um so had a bit of a watch nightmare at Thursley, didn't realise there's no GPS signal there, and I just couldn't get nav back on my watch. And between Lewis and myself, we didn't really get it right technically, and it stopped the route having gone all that way. Um it doesn't count because it won't be on Strava. Uh but um I left it with Lewis because I'm meeting him again at Hindhead, and he sorted it out, came running after me. Um, and I'm back on it now, otherwise I would have been just using OX maps on the phone, which isn't actually too bad on a route like this. Um, although I think most of the more complicated nav uh has got like you know, going through woods and bracken and you know from one field to another with multiple turn points has gone. So uh hopefully you can tell I'm feeling more upbeat. Um amazing what hour and 40 minutes sleep will do. I've read all about it um before about you know, some people just power nap and they feel great again. I don't know how long it'll last, it's still daylight at the moment. Um, so we shall see, but I do feel like I'm in a much better place. I've eaten plenty and feeling quite energized, which is weird. Um, I couldn't get off the mattress, had to roll over onto all fours, crawl over to a radiator with a cage around it because it's a village hall, and haul myself up the cage like a monkey. Um but it didn't take long before I got upright and moving around for all the stiffness and most of the aches and pains to disappear. So I'm hoping that they won't return, but there's still quite a long way to go. Uh I guess it's just over 12 hours. Um the race, yeah, the race finishes at seven Monday night, and it's now well getting on for seven on Sunday night. No, hang on a minute. That's 24 hours. It's still 24 hours to go. Um so I'm looking forward to the views over the Devil Punch Bowl. I should be up, yeah. There'll be plenty of light. Um and then I go out over the Commons sort of lip hook list direction, uh, which I've never run on before. That's Dean Callaway's stomping ground, so um looking forward to seeing that. And I haven't worked out uh what I'm gonna miss in terms of running in the dark, but still have yet to take on Old Winchester Hill, Beacon Hill, and Butsa. So they're right at the end of the race, which should be fairly unpleasant. But uh, in terms of the race, I'm sorry there's a lot of information here, but I haven't podcasted because I've just been surviving. Um the uh yes, huge dropout rate. There are 14 of us left in the field in the 220 distance race. Um while I was at Thursley, I don't know his name, but the winner won it. So oh that's very round because we started at 6 uh in the morning and he finished around about six in the evening, so can't do the maths because I've been up too long, but nice round number. Um, and basically he's well finished miles in front of me a day, probably by the time I get back. But uh yeah, great that somebody's still out here doing it. Um behind me, there's one person behind me, I think. Well, he was asleep when I left uh the Thursley A station. Um so I had a bit of a joke with Hannah saying that uh top 10 needs to be the aim then, as I'm currently 13th, but that was a joke, I had no intention of chasing anybody. I just need to nurse my way through it and see what happens. But at the moment, well I don't want to speak too soon, so I'm not gonna say anything, but I'm feeling okay. Um we eventually got across from but uh from Thursley no, yeah, from Thursley to Bucks Hill, but I also had a little stop with Lewis and Sarah up at the National Trust place at uh Devil's Punch Bowl. Um and having had the sleep that hour and forty minutes I got at Thursley, I really started to pick things up and was moving pretty fast and fairly soon caught up with a guy called Manuel who um who was doing a lot of walking and we stuck together as it was getting dusky and evening time and we did the whole of the night section together, loads of uh nav conversation and then a few little detours, not much, until right at the end at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park Visitor Centre where Manuel for some reason took off up the hill away from the centre. I was convinced that the support point would be in the uh Country Park car park. That wasn't there at all. So then I wondered if Manuel had got it right. Um and also there's some sort of show going on where they've blocked off the footpath that you normally take out of the car parks there to go up Butsa Hill. So I went to try and find the detour, then I thought I'd better find Manuel, and we got in a right mess. Eventually I found him, and we just went climbed through the gate and went straight on up Butsa Hill where the checkpoint was at the top. Um strange place to have it. I mean, it poured down with rain in the night, it wasn't too bad cold-wise because it wasn't windy, but I'd have been in a bit of trouble, I think, if it had been windy as well. Um, I only had a base layer, t-shirt, and waterproof jacket, obviously a hat, but everything got soaked through, so you know you're already feeling the cold. Um, we got to top of Butts Hill, had some really nice blankets thrown over us up there, uh, and very kind lady made us um cheese toasties on a cup of coffee. Uh Manuel has uh his wife supporting him all the way round, so he called her to tell her where he was, and she was coming up to the car park, and he was gonna grab some shut eye there in his car. And when we got to the vans um at the Butts Hill checkpoint, there were three guys asleep in the vans there as well, and apparently they'd got lost down the bottom as well uh at to Queen Elizabeth Country Park and had lost were lost for an hour. So um they're still there asleep, or they were when I left. Um I was nodding off hundreds of times as usual, following Manuel up all the steep hills and staggering about like an idiot, and I'm still doing it now, and it's morning, and I've had a cup of coffee, so I really need sleep. Um the other thing we did was um which worked out quite nicely, we got to Lis at about 10 to 12, and we went up onto Lis station and we got half an hour sleep there on benches. So that was good, and again, once I'd had that 25 minutes, I felt much better again, but I've chosen not to sleep at the Butsa place because it's right on top of the hill and it's pouring with rain, or it was that rather downbeat voice of mine where I'm fast asleep at the top of Butsa Hill doesn't really do justice to the actual story. Um, it was quite pathetic really. I um decided that I was going to sneak off and leave the four people asleep in the van or in uh the car as in Manuel's case. But you should have seen it as I gingerly took one step at a time uh trying to stand up. I was hardly moving forward at all as I crossed the car park, and I just chuckled to myself thinking, look at me making my break for uh to get away. Um, and it was really it must have been a pathetic sight, really. I'm so sad, I can't stop it. Um but it did pull it did seem to work. Yeah, oh yeah, another reason I came on at this point was that I've just passed the sustainability centre that would be uh east of Old Winchester Hill and the sustainability centre is where Centurion running are having the life base, if you can call it that. In other words, a place where everybody's gonna be able to sleep. Um so for the uh this is for the uh Winter Downs 200. Um so that sort of sparked me up a bit. I thought, oh yeah, I got another one to do. Oh god, what is up with me? Um so unless I fall over, twist an ankle, get run over, I think I might be able to get this one done. Well inside the cutoffs now. They seem to have gotten more and more generous. Um I had one hour and forty minutes when I left Thursley. And uh in fact it took us almost exactly 12 hours to go Thursley to uh top of Butsa Hill. So I think that's quite a long roundup of what's been happening. Um I might get back on here. I've still got it's 24 miles from the last checkpoint to the finish. The distances between the checkpoints are huge, so um, but hopefully, as it's Monday there'll be a shop somewhere, surely we go into a village. The only village I know that we've been in um was Lis, actually, of course it was all shut at nearly midnight. Um but there you go, oh ramble, ramble, ramble. The only good thing about this is it keeps me awake because I'm serious, I mean every I must be falling asleep like I don't know, two or three times a minute and stubbing my foot, you know, the bottom of my train and scuffing it, and it wakes me up. I don't know how I haven't fallen over. The body's really good at keeping you upright when you're not conscious as it were. Anyway, I'm now heading away from Winchester Hill. We haven't I know we go past it, I haven't been there yet. We might I think we're doing a big loop round towards um uh what's it called? East Meon, isn't it? Uh which means going all the way down and then going all the way up Winchester Hill. So still got that to do and Beacon Hill. And then it's all the way down into Winchester. Uh another interesting thing, if you can call this interesting, um, is that I think there's only gonna be about 15 of us finished the actual race. Uh so that means at least um twenty five or or more have dropped out. Um and as this is a one-off event, um there's gonna be quite a rare item will be the King Alfred's statue trophy. Obviously not as big as a statue, but it still looked quite big when I saw it. Well, when I've seen a photo of it, it could be the tiniest thing, but I don't care, it would be quite a uh nice one to have that. Uh as there won't be more than about fifteen of them. I'm looking forward to collecting that off of Mark Cobain at the statue when I get there. Um and I was really in full-on race mode by now. Uh, once I got into the bottom down near East Meon, I then uh powered my way up Old Winchester Hill and actually for me flew up there. Um and when I neared the top, I got a WhatsApp message from Hannah saying I'm uh parked up at the end at the bottom of Old Winchester Hill, which was absolutely fantastic news and couldn't be in a better place for me to meet her. Uh so I absolutely powered on down over the grassy descent. There's a lovely uh even descent off the top of there, then you get down onto what looks like an old, looks like old uh disused railway track, but there's about another 2k of flat run along the track there, and I finally popped out of the end of there, and there was Hannah and Sophia waiting for me. Um I'd got my bottles out of my pack already uh so that she could fill them up. I didn't hang about long, took on some more food, and uh we set off, they came walked along behind me through Exton so that I could try and find and nab my way through Exton. Uh and I just kept it moving from there on really, and uh it was uh raining on and off. Um and later on the rain got uh quite heavy. Um, and then I came across my next big problem. We were warned about this at the start of the race, which that there was the Boom Town Festival was on, um and this is a massive festival. I didn't realise it was so big, uh, but it was a huge uh footpath diversion that took us well off route, uh, but it was well signposted by the festival organisers, uh, but also there were loads of people leaving the festival, and with all the rain and mud and cars, it was a chaos getting out of there. Um, and I hadn't realised how far off the South Downs way this diversion took us. And eventually, when I got out onto the um road outside particular part of the festival, um there was no signage saying which way to go. Um and I looked at my watch and I was so off far off route that my watch wasn't speaking to me at all. I got my phone out to look at uh OS Maps, which would have easily helped me out, and there was absolutely no signal up there at all, and I couldn't download anything, I couldn't get a map on the the site, so there was real traffic problem everywhere. Um, and I headed against the traffic, which I thought I was going west. The traffic was so bad I climbed over through a load of nettles and brambles, quite a wide verge, climbed over a farmer's gate and into his uh field, which was just a massive field of open stubble, but made it easier walking and outless danger from the traffic, and trudged along there for quite a way. Um I called Graham to uh try and help me out, um and he said that my dot hadn't moved for about 10 minutes, it was only updating about every 10 minutes, so I um kept going. He looked up where it was on Google Maps and said you need to be heading west, and I said, Yeah, I'm heading west. And of course, I wasn't heading west at all, was I was heading east, absolutely clueless. I mean, it it was raining, I guess, so there was no sun to work out where I was, but um I was going the wrong way. Eventually I made up my own mind to turn round it this I was looking for a uh another small car park where Downs Way intersects it coming from the north. Was Graham's clear instructions. So I ended up walking all the way back where the festival was coming out, and uh headed with the traffic, going the other way, west, and simply after about five minutes came across the South Downs Way. Uh but that cost me about 25 minutes, half an hour, that stupid detour. And all I was worrying about now was uh my position of seventh, because I was worried. I even said to Graeme, can you see how far behind the guy is uh behind me? And he said, Oh, you're way, way in front, so I was less worried about it. I called Jill, who was also in a complete stress out because she was driving to pick me up and was caught in traffic on the A31 turning out of another entrance of this uh festival, and we both had a good old swear about people who go to festivals, which was completely irrational and unfair. But you know, I don't want that festival getting in my way of my seventh place. Oh god. So, anyway, I was on the South Downs way now, and everything was fine, and it was a nice gentle downhill into Winchester. Uh, a run a little bit through the city and managed to just avoid getting flattened by a double decker bus about five metres short of the statue. Um, and took two attempts to climb up onto the base of the plinth because my legs just weren't having it, and eventually kissed the rock that uh King Alfred has stood on. Uh, was met by Richard and Mark, the joint uh uh race directors of the event, who presented me with my King Alfred Statue Trophy. Got a big hug from my wife Jill, uh, who had videoed my finish, which was quite nice to have as a keepsake. And that is the conclusion of my race. Two-thirds done of the three times two hundred races I'm doing this year, and it was a goody, and uh I got a much better result than I was ever expecting, mainly due to this massive attrition rate. 69% of the field dropped out, 42 started, and only 13 of us finished. And uh I came seventh, which is my highest ever placing in an ultra and probably will be the highest ever uh at all. And uh it just shows you you keep hanging in there, keep doing it, um, and as long as you're strong enough and have a strong enough willpower, you will get higher and higher up the field in these events by the look of it. This is my last race until the Centurion Winter Downs 200, uh, which isn't till December. So I've got plenty of time to recover, get some more training in, um maybe tweak a few things. Uh looking forward to that one. There definitely be a podcast pre that race. But uh that wraps it up for me for the moment. Uh this race wouldn't have happened for me uh without the help, and I must give thanks to all those that did help me with it, especially Graham Smee and Hannah Hall, my sons Lyndon and Lewis, and all the rest of the family who turned out along the way. Also, thanks to Peter Bedwell, Andy Danson, Lizzie Gatherer, and Nellie Bowsaw, who were all lovely to see and spend some time with while I was out there. And also all the Heart Roadrunners that came out to support me along the way. You all know who you are. I won't go through the list, but it was lovely to see each and every one of you. Um, and it was very uplifting and had a real nice feel about it running through Heart and seeing all the Heart members out, uh, giving me a bit of a boost along the way. Um, and a final thank you to all the club members and friends who donated to the Phyllis Tuckwell charity. I wanted to raise a pound a mile, and we raised over£130, so that covers all my navires as well. So there we go. This is Kev saying bye for now. To the next bloody hate station.