Ep 36 - Kev discusses the Isle Of Wight Ultra with first timer 100k’er Shane Morel

Shane Morel recently completed a 106k ultra race around the Isle Of Wight. As it was Shane’s first time over 50k, I thought it would be of benefit to others, looking to step up in ultra distance, to hear Shane’s views on the build up to the event and how it went for him.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Hello and welcome to episode thirty-six of AidStation. It's been a little while since I've been on, back in February now, I think. Anyway, on this episode we have Shane Morrell, uh an old running mate of mine from Heart Roadrunners, who has run the Isle of Wight 160k, and it's his first time to really go step up to that sort of distance. So he's given us a really interesting interview on what it's like as uh more or less starting out with ultra running and getting into doing to that 100k distance. Um, and I haven't been here since uh the James Elson interview, which I have to say was a very popular with you all. Uh the episode received the largest number of unique downloads ever. Um, and as it was the latest one, that is quite a lot. Um, so thanks again, James, for for doing that. Um, and I've only raced uh the aforementioned Centurion Hundred Hills event so far this year, um, which was a fun event, a great location based at Stoner House near Henley, and I highly recommend this race as an early season warm-up race, really good fun, good crowd, usual centurion support, um, lovely downland and woodland running. The trails weren't too bad at all, actually, considering the weather we've had um pretty free draining up there, a lot of uh downy Chalkland, so a good race to do early on in the season. Anyway, the season's well underway, and there's loads of dot watching on offer at the moment, and it's on just about every weekend now, so things have really ramped up since uh I was last on here. Um, in other old well-worn news um that everybody has already known about, was caused a big uh news, I was gonna say for Raw in the Ultra Running World, it was the uh sale of the Ark of Attrition to You Know Who, and they shall remain nameless as far as I'm concerned. Um, and I've decided not to make any comment on it as I've made my known uh views known on uh those two organisations in the past on this podcast, and as I've pledged not to take part in any of their events anymore, there's not much more else for me to add to it. Um it just means that uh the arc of 100 will remain forever a DNF for me, having only got to Land's End uh in January last year, so uh that's one that'll just have to stay as a DNF uh and remain as unfinished business. Um anyway, no longer to wish waste any more time on the uh negativity around uh all of that as far as I'm concerned. So let's move on to more positive things and uh other places to spend our racing money. So I'm here with Shane Morell, um, a former member of Heart Roadrunners and uh an ex-coach with Hart as well. He used to be part of our coaching team. Um, and uh Shane has just completed his first well, he's done an Ultra before, but this one was a longer one in like over a hundred K. Um, and really this is to discuss how it all went and why you decided to uh return to Ultras if you like. I think you did one, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Yeah, I'd done the North Downs 50k back in 2019, just before lockdown. Alright. So were you getting into it then? I was starting to.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

And then COVID came along.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

And then COVID came along and sort of knocked everything out.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah. So let's go back a bit. Um what uh how what got you into running? Just general fitness.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Um and I used to do a lot of weightlifting, and I thought to myself, why do I want all this bulk when I can't necessarily run away from something that could be um chasing me? That sounds really odd, but that's did you have a gym set up at home? I had a gym set at home. I thought I saw that. Yeah, and then I also used to go to the gym a lot when I was younger. So yeah, then I when I got into running more and then got my own place, I set my own little garage gym up so I could do strength and conditioning.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

So so how long ago did you turn to running?

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Must have been 2010? Oh right. So wear this for me recently. But depending on which way you're looking at it, yeah, yeah. So yeah, 14. Is that when you joined a club? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. About 2010, I think it was.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

And did you still use uh weights for strength and conditioning for running as well?

SPEAKER_03 5:50

Yeah, I was doing a lot of that as well. Yeah. Um, just to keep everything kind of tight and kind of um well strong. Strong keep everything mobile.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah. And so you um so what was your progress? Was it the typical join a club 0 or 10k type?

SPEAKER_03 6:13

That's pretty much it. Yeah, I went from not a lot and I didn't do a great deal on my own. Yeah. And then joined the club and then really started ramping up. Went from uh 55k, sorry, 55 minute 10k down to a sub 45 minute 10k in the matter of two, two and a half years. Really? Um, doing half marathons, um, and then done one full marathon. Yeah, you got up to the full one then. Yeah, I got up to one DGD. Done Brighton in 2013.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Had an absolute mare over time, really didn't enjoy it whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Classic first-time marathon. Yeah, mine was the same.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

I swore I'd never do another one. Yeah, that's that's pretty much it. Yeah, I thought I'll not do this again. And time went on, didn't do any events, um, and sort of running took a back seat, I was focusing on other things.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Um and then come 2018, I completely had a lifestyle change, right? Then got back into running um and then started talking and running with a friend, and she had got into doing ultras. Right. I thought that seems interesting. Oh, okay. And then it went from there, really. So, what was the first one you did? North Downs. So from Farnham Park to Roygate Priory Park, I think it is. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

So what was that? A 50k of 50k, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Well, advertisers 50k, but as we know, the world truths are always slightly further. Yeah. So that was with Ultra Challenge.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

And how did that go compared to um the marathon? For you for me, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Um totally different, totally different. It was obviously a little more relaxed, enjoyable, yeah, off the road, no massive crowds. A lot of time I was running on my own. Right. Um, but knowing that it was okay to walk and you know, eat, drink, you don't have to. I think with the ultras is it's you're you're completing it. It doesn't really matter about what time you're doing it in, it's just about let's get it done. So that time pressure, because it's the unknown, you're not it's not you against everybody else, it's you against the course. Yeah. So and conditions change at the drop of a hat. And I was quite lucky that when I started the run, it was cool, went really hot, and by the time it was sort of one, two o'clock in the afternoon, I was done. People who were going at a lesser pace, they weren't finished until sort of maybe 10-11 o'clock at night, right? And from about six o'clock through till then, it absolutely hammered down. Oh god so then they're trying to battle through Box Hill and all that in the torrential rain.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

So we were I was quite lucky.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

So, where did you get the info to like the background to get into that first ultra? Did you did your friend like give you a chance? She yeah, she helped.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

She definitely helped quite a bit, um, and talking to other people, yeah. Um, but I think I took from what I learned from from that ultra, yeah, going into my one that I've just done and listening to um other podcasts, yeah, um YouTube channels, reading. Right. Um I've know a few or um science um like doctors in in sport and stuff like that. So I had a good old chat with those. Oh right. Um and other people, other ultra runners, like myself, uh Hannah, yeah, and other friends, you know, just going from there.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

But so when when did you decide that you were gonna take on 100k?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

So it was probably beginning of last year. Oh right. So 2000 yeah, so 23. Right. I was like, I'm thinking about it. Okay, and then my dad saw the Isle of White Ultra on Instagram, he sent it to me. I was like, I've been thinking about this for a while, right? I might as well just focus and yes, I'll enter it. So I knew I wanted to do it, and then come I think it was August, September time it was open.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

So I was like, right, that's it, I'm gonna sign up, commit, and then hard work starts.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah. So tell me about that hard work then. So if you entered in like August, whatever it was, you had a good run at.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Because it's only just what was how long ago was it? Two weeks? Yeah, just over two weeks ago, yeah. So what did that involve that August to May?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

So August to May, just a slow progression on the build on the mileage, so just everything. So I still done my club runs. Yeah. Um how often a week? That that's on a Monday night. Um but I was I was sort of do a bit of a almost like a sandwich style, so I do a little bit before, then do a hardish kind of speed 5k with them, yeah, and then keep going for another two, three, four miles after, and then job done. Yeah. Um, and then my longer runs just progressively got longer. And everything off-road? Majority, if I was doing the longer stuff, was all off-road. Yeah. Um, in and around Hawley, Woods, Minley, Yoatley, uh, Tweezlown, Caesars Camp.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Just as much as I could, really trying to get the elevation.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

And and did you on the distance, did you progress? Yeah. On did you do it on mileage or or just time on feet?

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Mainly on mileage.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Um but I was on all the long runs, I was doing uh run walk style. Right. So run for seven, eight minutes, walk for two or three minutes and repeat. So it was like a workout, but I knew I needed to be able to walk quick, yeah, but and consistent, and also have time to get the fuel in the body, get the water, fix any issues, right, and move on.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Um, so yeah, they just got progressively longer and longer.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

What did you get up to distance?

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Uh twenty nine miles. Right, okay. Um I was meant to go further.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

But my body I had a an issue beginning of March, so about eight weeks before the event.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

My SI joint basically locked up.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

And I was just in sheer agony. So I just couldn't I didn't run for a whole week.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

And then it was like, right, 25% of what I was supposed to do, 50%, and then almost back to where it was meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Um on a week-on-week basis, but didn't quite get to that 39. But I I didn't beat myself up too much. Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I was gonna ask you what that mentally did to you before the event. I mean, when your first happens, you like, oh god, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Yeah, it was it was tough, it really was. I was in there was a point so I was going, I I don't think I can do this. Right. Do I cut my losses now and go, okay, I'm gonna do it next year? Right. I was like, I've invested so much time, yeah. You know, not just for me, but the wife and the family and friends, yeah. Sort of I've kind of neglected them a little bit, been quite selfish. Yeah, do I really want to do that for a whole nother year? Yeah, yeah. Um and you know, fitness, I was like, you know what, it's not that bad.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, I've built up a solid base over over the weeks prior to the training plan starting. So I was like, okay, it's not not the end of the world. Yeah. Just got back on it. And I'd done a so four weeks out, which was supposed to be the big week. I'd done a a marathon on the Wednesday morning, followed by a half marathon on the Thursday morning. Oh wow. Just just to give myself a bit of recovery, but just to know I could do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

And it felt okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

So I wasn't too. And how far sorry, how far out was that from the event? That I'd done my back in or No, that you did the back to back. The back to back was probably yeah, about three or four weeks out. Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

So from when and then into taper, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Um technically taper, but yeah, the taper was the long run, was a 20 miler, three weeks out, ten miler, two weeks out, and then like hardly anything.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Right. Okay. So and on the um this is a bit of a step up, uh, obviously distance-wise, or double what you've done before. Is it did you do anything particular on nutrition or you know, get used to anything different?

SPEAKER_03 15:59

So I definitely got used to eating more proper foods. So yes, I did have my bars and had gels and water and re um electrolytes whilst doing my training, but I was also throwing you know other things, sandwiches, crisps, mortal life, uh fruit. Um finding a cafe, getting a double espresso or whatever it was, just to see how my body reacted to those things. Yeah. You know, did they cause me any um gastro sort of problems, any uh cramping, anything like that? And any any issues, anything, nothing. No, I was quite agree with you. I was quite surprised at the stuff on the run I was quite happy with. Yeah. Um played around with my pre-run sort of uh like the night before pre-run fuel, yeah, and found out that pasta wasn't as good as I thought it was gonna be. Right. And so I opted for pizza.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Oh, okay. So yeah, my favourite.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Yeah, I was gonna say after listening to a couple of your episodes, I was like, right, if Kev's eating pizza mid-run, it's gotta be a good thing to be having.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah, yeah. Um, so with uh Isle of Wight, let's have a bit of um stats about it because I don't know, I've never done it.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Um, it sounds fantastic because you run round the whole island, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Pretty pretty much, yeah. There's ins and outs, but yeah, the majority of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

So can you give us a a rundown?

SPEAKER_03 17:31

So it's uh it was meant to be 106k. Right. It ended up being well, for me, 111.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

There was 1900 metres of elevation, so a little bit spicy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Um is it typically that coastal majority, yeah, it was quite coastly, yeah. And is it downland type?

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Is there running on grass or is it uh there there is a bit of grassy bits, there's some a lot of wood, a lot of trail, so the coastal path really quite nice, yeah. Um and then as you go through like the um a lot of the fields or through some of the woodlands around uh I think it was Yarmouth, right? Um and can't remember the other part, it was really quite like proper boggy, really slimy, oh really, ankle deep at points, right? So you're contending with that, yeah. And whilst you've got that, you're trying to get through that, you've been got the baking sun coming down because it was quite a warm weekend and it caught a lot of people by surprise, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

And what sort of um aid stations are there?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

So eight stations, so there was seven in total, so there's the minor and the major aid stations. So the minor ones were predominantly uh your basic, so your water, electrolytes, um, basic food, um, place you can sit if you need two toilets, etc. And then at the major aid stations you had a bit more proper food. Yeah. Um there were sandwiches, crisps, pot noodles, soups, all that sort of stuff. Uh at the major ones, which were every 25k ish.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

And then it was quite well. Oh, absolutely. Support was there. Yeah, oh support was fantastic. There's many centres at every aid station, right? Which I did have to use towards the end. So who's who's the organizing company? Uh Ultra Challenge. Right. Or Action Challenge slash Ultra Challenge. So yeah, I that's who I'd done the North Downs with to start with. And use it for them to be out of the light. Right. But yeah, really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

So they do a lot of coastal stuff. Do they do stuff on Isle of Perbect?

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Do you know? Uh not that I know of. I know they do the Jurassic Coast, they do London's Brighton. Right. Oh, right. North Downs, they've done a South Downs. They do you know quite a few. Uh uh the lake districts. They do yeah, they do quite a few, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So they're definitely well well organised, really well signposted. Yeah. No nav at all. It's like, yep, there's an arrow, there's a pink flag, just follow if you haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

And so is a lot of it runnable? Is it something you could like go for a time?

SPEAKER_03 20:27

You could probably could, yeah, if if it wasn't so so stodgy and if your fitness was good.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

And do you end up at like sea level and then back up again? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

Yeah, and a lot of times you were literally up on the coastal path or you were at yeah, running alongside the beach, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, um, especially through um through Yarmouth, through Sandown, Ride, right, yeah, um, and all those sort of places, absolutely. Yeah, it was literally the sea was next to you.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Yeah, sounds like a lovely route. Oh, absolutely beautiful route. So you get out near the needles and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a bit bit naughty.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

So after you've got a really big climb or about a kilometre, and then it sort of flattens out slightly down, and as you're going down, you can see the aid station, you're thinking, oh result, I've only got you know, probably just go around this bend and I'm there, and they just keep you just keep going and going, so putting another two or three K out, so then you have to come all the way back just so you can go and see the needles. Okay, but again, yeah, the view was worth it. Yeah, you get to that point and you're like, you know what's okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And do they do some sort of deal with a ferry? Because obviously you've got to get there.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

They do, but it's by the time they put it out, it's quite late. And I'd already sort of booked um across everything, and I was just like just didn't want to risk not being able to get on a boat to get over there. Where does it start? So it's us in trail.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Right, so you can't you couldn't pedestrian it. Not really.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

They do they do put on shuttle buses from from these cows, so you can't actually, you know, if you went over on the hovercraft or something like that, you could get there and then get sheltered down there. Oh right, okay. So it's it's a viable option, yeah. But then you've either got to get a tent if you're gonna run it, and depending on how fast you're gonna get it done in, yeah, you've gonna either chill out at the end of the race, which could be two or three o'clock in the morning, and then get shouldered back out up there in order to catch the ferry home.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Wow, so it'd turn it into a triathlon, you could swim, of course. I think what is it?

SPEAKER_03 22:49

It's 11 miles from South Hampton from Southampton.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Really busy bit of water as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Busiest channel in the world. Oh, is it busiest channel, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yeah, yeah, that bit in the solent would be really bad. Um, so did you have uh a time target?

SPEAKER_03 23:07

I wanted sub-20. Sub-20 hours. What what's the cutoff? Uh the cutoff is very, very generous. Oh, is it? So it was 10 o'clock on the Sunday night and it started at 7 o'clock on the Saturday morning. Oh, right. Oh, well over because it's mainly aimed towards um walkers, joggers, hikers, right? So all types can do it. Yeah, absolutely. It's really quite inclusive. Yeah. Um, and yeah, so I was just like, if I can get it done in sub-20, I'll be happy. Yeah, I just want to finish it. Yeah, especially after the setback with with the back and all that. I was just like, sub-20 be happy. And then I started doing you know, on on the marathon and the half. I was thinking, actually, I could potentially do it quicker.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

So I was thinking maybe sub 15, something like that. But I didn't take into consideration aid stations, fuelling, sorting out my feet, you know, doing you know, your general sort of maintenance.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

So actual moving time was sub-16 hours, right? But total time was just under 19 hours.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Right. So you beat the 20, I beat my 20, which I was you know, happy about.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah. But so what did you do?

SPEAKER_02 24:24

You say you mentioned your feet.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Did you have feet issues to sort or were you just taping up or so at the end, you know, when I could going through all that mud and all that, I had spare socks in my bag, right? Um, with sort of lube and blasters and everything like that. So I just thought, you know, I need to just look after my feet, yeah. Really look after them. So fresh socks feel so good. Yeah. You know, even yeah, in them for like two or three hours or whatever it is, but just to take them off, right, you know, when they're soaking wet, dry them out, you know. I so we had a um an alert come through saying that the course was really, really wet, bring waterproof trousers, or sorry, waterproof shoes and all that. I was like, oh damn, all right, you know, it's a bit late now. So I was like, okay, what do I do? So popped into Waitros because it's literally next to cows and thought, right, I'm gonna get myself a microfiber cloth. All right, because it's light, tastes you know, super absorbent.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

So had that in my bag, so then when I needed to, I could literally take it out, dry my feet, fresh socks, do everything I needed to do. Yeah. So that was at the aid stations, but I did have one um oui point, shall we say? Right. About the 95k in my my hill, I was just like, that don't feel right. That feels really quite uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

So I slumped down the side of the road and thought, right, let me sort this out myself and got the plasters out and smothered it in sort of pseudocrim, tried to get a plaster on it, which I kind of did. Pulled it up and then got my shoes back on, and then like hobbled like pointy toes or tiptoes on one foot, and then normal and then using my poles to get to the uh aid station, which uh was only like five-six hundred metres away, so it wasn't too far, but you know, 95k, you no no. I I was like, I don't know how far it is, so I just have to just want to get there completely out of it, and then to get there, ask where's the medical team? Yeah, I had to go down two or three flights of stairs to then go and say, Can you fix me? And was it a blister or blister on the left had pods, right? Oh, right, which was giving it the pain, so she dressed that fantastically. Right. But whilst I was in there, I was like, the right one, can we just check this out? Because I don't, you know, 5k time, I don't have to do it again. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I took the shoe off and then uh she was like, Oh, there's a little wee beastie there. So we drained that off and padded that and patched it and off I went again.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Yeah. Sounds like you were on top of it then, really, with the Yeah, I tried as best I can, or best I could. Yeah. Um so what were you like sort of like halfway through? Did were you in a good place? Were you like thinking, oh yeah, I'm gonna get this?

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Or um I wasn't thinking I was gonna get my target, you know, the sub-15 target time. I knew that was yeah, I was at like seven, eight hours by then.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

And I I phoned the wife because she was meeting me at the halfway point with um fresh, fresh shoes, fresh socks, um, bath hat, you know, just basically to get myself for the next half to feel a bit, yeah, feel a bit nicer.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

So you can have support on the event, can you? It's certainly important.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Yes, yeah, you can, but you can't. The thing that I found a little bit difficult is they can't come into the enclosure with you. Right. So you've got a spectator's area, which they have to stay.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

And then you've got your area.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

If you wanted to meet them outside, yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Right. But she could give you stuff to take in. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Yeah, she took stuff from me, I took stuff from her, okay. Which helps quite a lot. Um, a little bit of a moral boost as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

But yeah, definitely at that time, I think I think I was about 42, about about a marathon in.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

And I was at because I wanted to get to her for about one o'clock, one, two o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

And yeah, it was at 42k, and I was like, I'm already at like one o'clock, no chance of me getting there by two o'clock because of what I knew was to come with you know more boggy and all this sort of stuff. And I said, I'll be there when I can. Yeah. And then yeah, it was just after three. Okay. By the time I got to a is that in the afternoon? That was in the afternoon, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so mayor at halfway point.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Um, but I was in I was in an okay place. Yeah. Yeah, got some food and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

So did you get into darkness? Yes. Yeah. So when how how much did you do on the head torch?

SPEAKER_03 29:19

So on the head torch was about what time did I get to? So Culverdown, which was basically I managed to get to Culverdown, which was the last big aid station.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

By about half eight, that's when the light really started dropping off.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Um so and then yeah, sort myself out. So I got out about nine. Yeah, about four and a half, five hours.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

On the head torch. On the head torch. Yeah. How did you find that?

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yeah, it was okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Did you do any head torch running in training?

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Um, probably not specific, but you know, always you know, I used to go out in darkness anyway. So you you always had a torch. Did I go out in the woods with not tons? Yeah. Um, with the head torch, because I'm comfortable with darkness. So if it's lit up, if anything, it helps it being dark. Right. Because when you've got the hills coming up and you can't quite see what how bad they are, it's just like, okay, just I can see about there. Or you can see the um the glow stick. Like just looks like it's just floating in the in the midair, and you're like, okay, I'm going up there. Going up there, yeah. So no, I didn't do tons of specific sort of head torch running. I probably should have, or done a lot more going out out of the middle of the night whilst tired, like waking up at like one, two o'clock in the morning. Right, and then and then go and do an hour's run on the torch.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

But you didn't have any issues with steep sleep deprivation, you were okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

No, no, absolutely not, no, absolutely not. No, it wasn't long enough for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

So the amount of coffee I drank, I was just completely wired and so when you finished, you stay did you stay on the island?

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yes, yeah, yeah. So we were probably five two-minute drive from the finish. Yeah. So yeah, I got home and showered and then tried to sort out the dirtiness on the feet and stuff like that. But yeah, again, you don't think it's gonna be that bad. So I didn't take you know a brush just to to scrub, scrub the toes, don't just hold, take one next time. Um so I got all that done, and then trying to sleep. I think it was a mixture of caffeine, just general buzzing bitches. Yeah, I mean, done it, yeah. Yeah, a bit of bit of tenderness in the legs, yeah. Um, but yeah, just the struggle to get into sleep and and that. But then eventually I did. Yeah. Dropped off and then woke up in the afternoon and then went and had a I really wanted a roast.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

But couldn't find one.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Couldn't find you're a bit late in the afternoon as well, were you?

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Yeah, it was about four o'clock in the afternoon. All I had was a gammon, and I was like, nah, I don't really fancy gamma roast. So I had a full English with a cider mac and cheese. And I was just like, yeah. It just went down so easily. I was so hungry, yeah, unbelievably hungry.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

So and so how's the recovery been? What was it like then sort of day or two after?

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Do you have DOMs and oh yeah, yeah, there was definite soreness um wandering around, literally like waddling almost a couple of inches at a time. But that that slowly went away because sort of you you force yourself, you've got to get going again, as much as I didn't want to. Yeah. Um forced myself to get going again and done lots of stretching, Theragun, sort of trying to massage it out when it had a massage from Hannah. All right, and that helped loosen it off. Yeah, but before then I wasn't too bad compared to some of the people that I saw on the on the ferry coming back. I was like, well, you could tell that they were you know right the way they were all walking. Yeah, I was just like it's not just me, but I was I'd like to think I wasn't quite as bad as that. So I think certainly the training, um, strength conditioning, all that sort of yeah, has helped not just me doing it, but recovering relatively quickly. So I was back to work on the Wednesday. Oh right. So had a couple of days to recover, but then it straight back into it on your feet. So do you know what sort of number did the event? So, in total, the people who'd done uh the challenge that I done, yeah, so to speak, because it was like 1800 people doing various challenges, yeah. Um, the people who done my challenge, I think it's 463 or that sort of figure completed it. Oh, there's over 200 people that dropped out. Gosh. So yeah. Oh, it's a big field then. Yeah, yeah. It was like I think it was about 300 people per start time.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Right. So yeah, that's so there was around 600 people in your in the full circuit.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Potentially, yeah, yeah, potentially. I I had an early, I had a seven o'clock start time. Some people seven thirty, some people eight.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Oh right, okay. Um, that's really good. I didn't realise it was as big at an event.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Quite a big event. Yeah. And there was I think the person who came in first done it in 11 and a half hours.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

I was like, wow, that's that's impressive. That's yeah, that's proper proper game, so I'm like, how? Just just how do you keep going out? It's incredible. That's 10k an hour, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Yeah, that's where I'm at. It's normally the winners normally double. Yeah. Oh, half, sorry, my time. I'm normally double their time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Yeah, that's the way I was looking at. I was thinking, if I can do this sort of sort of yeah, I think the record is around 11, 11 and a half before. Well, if we double that, then yeah, as long as I'm under that, happy.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah, so yeah, I was good. So what's next then? Are you having a got any plans for any more?

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Any more ultras? Yeah. I was unhooked, but you do sort of think, yeah, that could be interesting. That could be interesting. I was looking at the lap, so around Lake Windermere.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

Um, because it was this weekend, so everything was coming through on Facebook and stuff. I was thinking, oh, that could be good. Yeah, but it's now sold out next year, so I was like, okay, I can't do that. Okay. So they do an anti-clock a clockwise and an anti-clockwise, so I might be able to do the anti-clockwise in the September.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Oh right. Oh, they're at different yeah, different times. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um be running into each other.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Um, that one potentially, or I've not really looked too many. I've had people send me stuff. There's one that starts in um the border of Wales in Clun and goes across to uh Aberiswith, all right, which is about 45, 46 miles. Uh-oh, it's called a walk across Wales. Alright. Okay. Done. And I think you have I think it's 15 hours. Right. 15 or 18 to know that. So it's quite, you know, I can imagine over there it's going to be quite quite spicy, quite hilly.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Do you fancy the mountains?

SPEAKER_03 36:45

I'd like to give it a go. Yeah. You know, I'd definitely need to up my hill work. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

It's difficult in it where we live, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

But it would be quite interesting to do more just just a different, different, maybe a little bit more technical sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um running on the flat, you know, nice and open, and if you fall off, you're not necessarily gonna hurt yourself, but on a mountain, yeah. Anything could happen.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Yeah, and the weather conditions change and all sorts. Yeah, and I think it depends on what you want to get out of it, but it's like it sets up it throws other challenges at you that you have to deal with. Yes. And I that's what I get out of ultra running as well, is this like you're constantly having to deal with it yourself at the time, yeah, which is you know a lot harder than just like you say, following the marked trail that's there and you're safe, and yeah, the next eight stations only ten miles away at the most, you know. That yeah it's a different type of challenge.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Yeah, yeah, it could be self-nav. I'd definitely yeah, it's something I need to practice. I'm not very good at compass work and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Wow, yeah, you don't have to be great these days with GPS. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Oh, that's fair enough. Yeah, I just definitely think being either getting high, you know, getting up into the clouds and into the mountains, stuffing the views at certain times of the day, as long as you've got yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Uh well there's loads of opportunity to, you know, people like Lizzie are uh over in Wales all the time. So um yeah, I'm sure there's l plenty of opportunity to get away now and again for some practice stuff to get into it.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Yeah, absolutely. Just getting the time, yeah. Time away from the room.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah, how uh yeah, I suppose the commitment to is the hard thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 38:42

That is that is the the m probably the most difficult part is having those having a conversation with my boss to say, right, I need these days off every single week so I can get my training done. Yeah. But unfortunately, those days were that they're never gonna be a weekend because it's our busiest time. Right. So then it's during the week and no one wants to go out for a long run or go somewhere. Well I'm always around. Yeah. I'm around in the weekend. Yeah, Wednesday, Thursdays.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Yeah. So yeah, yeah, it's harder. And plus the fact that I guess you have to like pick one or two main events a year, so that you know, because of family commitments and things like that as well, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Yeah, I definitely will I'm definitely gonna do another big ish one, I think even this year, beginning next.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Yeah. Yeah, you're probably in a good spot to do one now, even if it's like September or something in autumn. Yeah, just keep a good place.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Keep up the training. I think a friend of mine wants to do a half. Right, the half marathon. So I'm like, yeah, I can do some running with him and that and just sort of do something help him out as well. Sort of sort of guide the location a little bit. Yeah. Sort of do a little plan or see, see how I feel. See how he feels.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Yeah. Yeah, I think the um that's the thing with Ultra is that uh, you know, because it's so slow for us, um, and I like what you said about your training, you approached your training just run, walk, run, walk. Yeah, and it was like interval training, yes, the whole thing. Um, so you know, that's all doable, isn't it? And once you've done those distances, you you don't I don't think you need an awful lot of no work. If you've got a decent background of endurance, you don't need to do loads really to get ready for the next event. So keeping that base up, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely quite scary when you look at the plan and you're thinking, wow, that was it was quite just looking at the weeks, but then you start ticking it off and you're like, well, actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Yeah. So yeah, okay, you're out four or five hours doing your marathons or you know, whatever you're doing, but you know, you're thinking, it doesn't hurt too much. Yeah. By doing I say by doing that wrong walk, yeah, it certainly put less pressure and less um stress on on the body, I think.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

Yeah, I think the um the other thing is the where it changes a bit is when you get elevation and you start having to you know go somewhere serious, at least go to the beacons or something to get some decent elevation in. Yeah, um, and then that changes things a bit in terms of how much you have to do or or what it takes. And of course, then you've got um ascending and descending and two different techniques and yeah, using poles properly, and you know, yeah. But it's all good stuff, it's all it's all good practice and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Yeah, I found what I do, I sort of took my my long run, divided up to roughly what um as a ratio, so I knew it was 1800 um 1800 metres of elevation. So if I do over 106, so 18 18 metres of elevation per sort of K-ish and try to replicate that in training. Yeah, it's difficult, yeah. But it was literally like sometimes running up and down. So you just scamp over and over and over, yeah. Up random hills, like just like spider webbing and stuff to go back and forth over them, yeah, just to get the elevation. Yeah, I think it helped, definitely seemed to work.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Oh, it definitely would help, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:26

But you just don't get that long.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Yeah, that's the problem. It's never you're getting a recovery on the way down to go back up again. Whereas on the you get in into the well, you get into snow don't you go in and going and going.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

On and on and on, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Yeah. But you know, step at a time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm really glad you got an ultra done and you got around the Isle of Wight, and that sounds very appealing actually to me to I think you'll easily be able to do that. Yeah, I know, I I think I could do it, but it it's the I I like the idea of the whole circuit of the island. Yes. I like these things that have a you know are either point-to-point, yeah, got an end, or you know, that have got a scenic scenic circle circle that yeah, that you know, it's just scene that scenery changes and along the way.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Yeah, I think the darkness spit what those like four or five hours. Yeah. Yeah, you it was pretty points still, because along the sand and seafront.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Yeah, yeah. And you'd see all the you see all the lights and boats out at sea and that sort of stuff, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you saw the um the shipping containers and all the big boats here, big yachts and stuff in the in the far distance, which was yeah, you're right, yeah, it was quite nice.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Yeah, cool. Well, I wish you luck with your next one. Thank you very much. Let us know what it's gonna be and when it is. And and if you want to get away if I'm around, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

I'll give you a shout.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

And even round here. Yeah. Have you been out with Hannah? I've been out a couple of times with Hannah. Yeah, good, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Great stuff. Yeah, there's a few of us around now, ultra runners in this area. Yeah. Anna and Matt and Lizzie and well lots and lots of getting into it. Yes, yeah. Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Make a little little ultra club in in this area. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking that like it could be quite a yeah quite interesting to do that. Just find different little routes and stuff. Yeah. Or big routes, so to speak. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

I think yeah, I think I've explored most of them now, but yes. Yeah. Good. Well thanks, Shane. No worries. Thank you very much. And uh yeah, we'll see you on and and good luck with the rest of it. Thank you. Cheers. Cheers. Well, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Shane. Uh, really good, really good guy, um, lots of uh good information in there, I think, about that race. A race I didn't know anything much about at all. Obviously, I know about the Isle of Wight, but had not uh ever looked into uh running around it in that event, and it looks like quite a good one to do actually. So that might be going on to my list of ones to undertake before I uh can't do these things anymore. Um and uh anyway, as I said earlier, the season ra is racing has got going, and I must mention um a couple of my fav women who come on to this podcast before. Uh firstly, Sarah Francis, who's been very busy uh competing and the Chester Hundred and the Scarpa Great Lakeland 3 Day. Um and Hannah Hall, who completed the Chester 50 Mile back in April in a whole load of mud. It looked like an awful event to run. It was in the peak of all the uh heavy downpours of weather we had and a really muddy event. Um, and Hannah is running London to Brighton on the 25th of May, so I wish you the best of luck with that, Hannah. And also a big best of luck, and I know she's going to be in her element and in her favourite environment to Lizzie Gatherer, who's running the Wild Horse 200 and entering 200 country. So really looking forward to see how she gets on with that, and that starts on the 22nd of May. So have a great race, Lizzie. And finally, I'm running, walking, surviving the Suffolk Backyard Ultra, which starts on the 1st of June. Uh, and this is my A race this year, so loads more to come in the next few episodes on that event. Um, if you listen out on 1st June, I'm gonna release episode 37, which will be a feature on Backyard Ultras in general and my approach to the Suffolk event, and then I'm hoping to do some podcasting at the event with my uh more normal in race uh podcasting. So hopefully that won't be too boring, but it might pass the time for me uh as I intend to go a very long way. Uh so there we are until episode thirty-seven. This is Kev saying bye for now.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

To the next bloody hate station.