Episode 3 - Vale Coastal Ultra

In this episode (recorded in April 2025) Paul and Aimee delve into their recent experience running 'Run Walk Crawl''s Vale Coastal Ultra, a challenging 32-mile race. Broadcasting from their quirky railway carriage in Wales, they share highs and lows, recount technical issues, and provide insights on ultra-running. Notably, Aimee celebrates her impressive achievement as the second female finisher while Paul discusses lessons learned, including the importance of problem-solving on the go. This is all to help them prepare for their biggest challenge yet—the Winter Downs 200 in December. Tune in for an hour of engaging stories and key takeaways for any ultra-running enthusiast.

00:00 Welcome to Solemate Runners

00:42 Technical Glitches and Location Setup

01:24 Race Introduction: Winter Downs 200

01:46 Vale Coastal Ultra: Race Recap

02:12 Aimee's Achievement: Second Female

02:28 Reflecting on Past Races

02:47 Birthday Ultra: The Tradition

05:43 Race Day Logistics and Registration

13:09 Race Start: Penarth Pier

20:09 Navigating the Course and Checkpoints

33:21 Challenges and Setbacks

38:51 Aimee's Quick Decision

39:15 Pain Management and Pep Talk

42:21 Navigational Challenges

44:20 Concrete Path and Overtaking

47:07 Electrolytes and Fueling Strategy

48:06 Beach Detour and Recovery

49:30 Tackling the Hills

54:37 Final Stretch and Finish Line

01:07:28 Post-Race Reflections

01:17:23 Conclusion and Future Plans

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Transcript

Paul: 0:04

Hello and welcome to Solemate Runners, The Podcast. I'm Paul Betteridge.

Aimee: 0:08

And I'm Aimee Tippins. We are a middle aged couple who like to run ultras together,

Paul: 0:12

so we decided to start a podcast about our experiences in the ultra running world,

Aimee: 0:16

especially as we're embarking on an adventure taking on our biggest race yet at the end of this year.

Paul: 0:22

And that race is the Winter Downs 200, a 200 mile ultra marathon in December.

Aimee: 0:28

So whatever you are doing, we hope you enjoy us waffling on for an hour or so.

Paul: 0:32

Waffling on? I don't waffle on. I'm a professional. Enjoy. Thank you for joining us here in the, not running room. We are in the shed.

Aimee: 0:53

No, the railway carriage.

Paul: 0:54

The railway carriage in Wales. We are on location, aren't we?

Aimee: 0:59

We are....

Paul: 0:59

We're on location. And we've had a few technical issues, haven't we?

Aimee: 1:03

Well, we basically recorded the entire episode or so we thought, and then went out, used our hot tub, came back in, looked at the camera, and realized it hadn't actually saved it.

Paul: 1:14

It's, yeah.

Aimee: 1:16

So...

Paul: 1:17

...the joys

Aimee: 1:18

...we're re-recording it.

Paul: 1:19

The joys of doing podcasts! We thought we'd be good at it by now. Right? Let's get to business. This is episode

Aimee (2): 1:26

Three

Paul: 1:27

May, 2025. But

Aimee: 1:30

...recorded in April.

Paul: 1:32

Recorded in April because, as we are coming from you on location, we are in Wales and we are, where are we? We're near Cowbridge, which is not far from the coastal town of Ogmore by Sea. Yes. And the reason we picked this location is it's close to the finish of the race that we did yesterday, And that race was? The Vale Coastal Ultra run by Run Walk Crawl, which is a 32 miler. Yep. Yeah. And it went really, really, really well.

Aimee: 2:02

It did

Paul: 2:03

...for somebody

Aimee: 2:05

You did well too!

Paul: 2:06

Not really, really, really well. So we will tell you that someone done really well. Where did you come? Come on.

Aimee: 2:12

I was second female.

Paul: 2:14

Sorry?

Aimee: 2:15

Second female.

Paul: 2:16

Second female.

Aimee: 2:18

I'm still in shock.

Paul: 2:19

Oh, I didn't wanna come second female. So yeah, it's all about taking part for me. Right? So how did we get here? So we have done this race before.

Aimee: 2:28

Yes. We did it two years ago. In April, 2023.

Paul: 2:31

Yep.

Aimee: 2:32

It was our second ever ultra.

Paul: 2:34

Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was indeed. We thought we were good then, didn't we?

Aimee: 2:38

Oh, we were very much learning.

Paul: 2:39

Yeah, very much so. So yeah, it was our second ever ultra we did. Why did we end up doing that one then?

Aimee: 2:47

We picked it because you wanted an ultra near your birthday.

Paul: 2:50

Oh.

Aimee: 2:51

And two years, two years ago the Vale Coastal Ultra fell just two days away from his birthday.

Paul: 2:58

Oh.

Aimee: 2:58

So that's why we booked it.

Paul: 2:59

So it'd probably be my birthday around recording this then.

Aimee: 3:03

No.

Paul: 3:04

Recording it. Not airing it, recording it.

Aimee: 3:07

Yeah. But your birthday still,

Paul: 3:09

It's still... I have a birth month.

Aimee: 3:10

Is it a couple of weeks?

Paul: 3:12

Birth month? I don't have a birthday. I have a birth month, so I celebrate all the time. So yes, it's me birthday.

Aimee: 3:18

It's probably gonna mention that a million times during this recording.

Paul: 3:21

I've forgot about it until you said!

Aimee: 3:22

Oh yeah, of course.

Paul: 3:24

Yeah. So it was our second ever Ultra.

Aimee: 3:27

Yeah.

Paul: 3:29

It went reasonably well.

Aimee: 3:30

We did okay on that one. Yeah.

Paul: 3:31

Yeah.

Aimee: 3:32

We didn't have any specific issues.

Paul: 3:34

No.

Aimee: 3:34

Like, like you didn't bonk for example, like you did on your first ever Ultra, which was also a Run Walk Crawl race that we did in February 2023.

Paul: 3:42

Bring that back up.

Aimee: 3:44

That was a 44 miler.

Paul: 3:45

44 miler, yeah.

Aimee: 3:46

So yeah, our second Ultra was a smaller one, but

Paul: 3:48

It was, it was,

Aimee: 3:49

but we picked it purely because of the date.

Paul: 3:52

It was the date. And I think, probably secretly, I probably was like, well we did a 44...

Aimee: 3:57

We can definitely do a 32!

Paul: 3:58

That was a bit of a mission!

Aimee: 3:59

It was actually 34, wasn't it, nearly?

Paul: 4:02

Yeah.

Aimee: 4:02

The mileage two years ago.

Paul: 4:03

Yeah.

Aimee: 4:04

So we knew it was gonna be a bit longer, probably this year.

Paul: 4:06

I probably did think, right, shall we just like go back a gnat's whisker before we go for the 100s!

Aimee: 4:11

Rein it back.

Paul: 4:12

Yeah, let's, let's try and do a 30 odd and see. So we did, yeah, we did it a few years ago and yeah, we completed it. We thought at the time was a reasonable time, which was about seven hours...

Aimee: 4:25

Seven hours, six minutes, and I wanna say 37 seconds.

Paul: 4:28

Yeah. So seven hours, seven hours, six-ish minutes. And then so this year we decided, I dunno, we decided we were gonna do a race, didn't we around my birthday?

Aimee: 4:38

We wanted to do one in April, yeah,

Paul: 4:40

Around me birthday.

Aimee: 4:42

Around his birthday!

Paul: 4:43

Yeah. And then we did think, why not do, because we, we've come quite a long way since then. We've got the hundreds under our belt and bits and bobs. So I think we did think, well, let's do this again and let's have a look at it and let's see what we can do. Whether we can do a better time,

Aimee: 4:56

Kind of be a way of showing if we have progressed.

Paul: 4:58

Yeah.

Aimee: 4:59

Whether we do it better, whether we find it easier.

Paul: 5:01

Hmm. And it was a bit of a train... we were kind of, very odd, but it was a bit of a training run for bigger races that we're doing.

Aimee: 5:08

Yeah.

Paul: 5:09

So yeah, we booked it and Aimee booked this lovely...

Aimee: 5:12

Railway carriage.

Paul: 5:13

Railway carriage, so we were in like a quirky little railway carriage.

Aimee: 5:17

It's very cute.

Paul: 5:18

It's cute.

Aimee: 5:18

You can't really see much of it on the video, but it's...

Paul: 5:21

Well, you can, this is pretty much it, yeah,

Aimee: 5:23

No it isn't! It's got a whole kitchen and a bathroom and a bed over there.

Paul: 5:25

Yeah. And we've gotta have the camera at that angle because we just forgot everything.

Aimee: 5:30

Yeah. We didn't really bring proper equipment. So we haven't got an extension lead for the camera and we don't want the battery to run out.

Paul: 5:34

That was one of the reasons why the battery ran out!

Aimee: 5:36

So it's got to be really close to the plug socket.

Paul: 5:37

Yeah. Yeah. But this is like real life, getting it out in the action when we're out, on site, so, right. What, what we'll do, we'll tell you a bit about, the registration, the kit, the checkpoints, the start, the finish. We, we'll tell you a bit about those bits first, and then we'll tell you how the race went I think so we can sort of tell you

Aimee: 6:00

Yeah, yeah.

Paul: 6:00

How it went. A little bit about the Run Walk Crawl, this race. I think what we find, it's quite good, it's a good starting point for getting into Ultras because there's three races isn't there on this?

Aimee: 6:12

Yeah. A lot of their races, they do do different distances, so what we did yesterday, it's called the Vale Coastal Races. We did the Ultra, which is the 32 miler, but there's also an 18 miler.

Paul: 6:22

That's it.

Aimee: 6:23

Which some people call the'Mini Ultra'.

Paul: 6:25

Yeah.

Aimee: 6:25

And then there's also a 10 mile as well.

Paul: 6:27

Yeah.

Aimee: 6:27

So they all finish in the same place and they're all on the same course. So obviously the 18 milers start halfway from when the 32 miler start. Yeah. And then the 10 milers just do the last 10 miles, but we all finish in the same place.

Paul: 6:40

Hmm.

Aimee: 6:40

So, yeah.

Paul: 6:41

So it's a good, I think it's a good entry level into,'cause you've got, it's, it's 32, well, it's advertised as 32.

Aimee: 6:49

Officially it's 32.

Paul: 6:51

It's officially on the paperwork it's 32, but it's a 33, 33 and a half, 34...

Aimee: 6:57

I think everybody had slightly different mileage, but I think nearly everybody had nearer 33 than 32.

Paul: 7:01

It's around the 32 mark...around.

Aimee: 7:04

Yeah.

Paul: 7:05

So yeah, not an expensive race either. There is a mandatory kit list and you're probably thinking, obviously when this airs, you will not remember what the weather was like in April. But the weather has been fantastic. Sunny, warm, it has been windy.

Aimee: 7:24

Yeah

Paul: 7:24

It has been windy. This was forecast. So I think a lot of people, you get the standard mandatory kit list and to be honest, it weren't compared to the likes of the ARC and some of these other races...

Aimee: 7:35

No, it's quite a small list.

Paul: 7:36

There weren't a lot on it to be totally honest with you. I think even I can remember that you've got obviously your waterproofs, your waterproof top, your waterproof bottoms. Maybe another, there was a base layer we had to carry or a long sleeve,

Aimee: 7:47

You had to carry a long sleeve base layer.

Paul: 7:49

Yeah.

Aimee: 7:49

There was no specifications about weight or anything like that.

Paul: 7:52

No.

Aimee: 7:52

But you had to have a long sleeve base layer and it couldn't be the one that you were wearing at the start.

Paul: 7:55

That was it.

Aimee: 7:56

So it did have to be an additional base layer.

Paul: 7:58

Yeah. Little mini first aid kit, bivvy bag.

Aimee: 8:02

You had to have a buff or, or a hat

Paul: 8:03

Buff or a hat. Yep, yep. There was no gloves or anything like that. You had to obviously carry water, your phone, your mobile phone. It wasn't mega. It wasn't mega at all.

Aimee: 8:11

No.

Paul: 8:12

So that, you had to have that. A little bit of, I'd say not confusion. I think when we've done races and there's a mandatory kit, you automatically assume that at registration, you're gonna have to get all your kit out.

Aimee: 8:27

It's, it's common for your kit to be checked.

Paul: 8:29

Yeah. It's common practice, isn't it?

Aimee: 8:30

For a race with mandatory kit.

Paul: 8:31

Yeah. So on this one, so the way, the way it works, you register, ideally, they want you to register on the Friday. I did see a few people registering on the Saturday morning.

Aimee: 8:43

Yeah. There was an option to register at the race finish...

Paul: 8:46

You had to let them know didn't you?

Aimee: 8:47

on the Saturday morning. No, you, you could just turn up.

Paul: 8:49

Right.

Aimee: 8:49

But, but there was obviously a strict closing time for that.

Paul: 8:52

Yeah.

Aimee: 8:53

So they had registration open on the Friday before, so the day before.

Paul: 8:57

Yeah.

Aimee: 8:57

It was open 12 noon till 8:00 PM so...

Paul: 8:59

that's it.

Aimee: 8:59

...it's a very generous time slot.

Paul: 9:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 9:02

And it was at a running shop in Cardiff.

Paul: 9:04

That's bad. That's bad. It's clever...

Aimee: 9:07

Dangerous!

Paul: 9:07

...but bad, isn't it?

Aimee: 9:08

Yeah.

Paul: 9:08

Yeah.

Aimee: 9:09

But if you couldn't make the Friday, you could register at the finish location just before the race started.

Paul: 9:15

Yeah.

Aimee: 9:15

And I say that sounds weird. Finish location, but it's because most runners were bussed from the finish to the start. You didn't have to do that. That was optional. But most runners did that, and that's why they gave the registration option there as well. So technically it sounds weird, but you couldn't register at the start of the race.

Paul: 9:31

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 9:32

But yeah, it all makes sense in the end. But most people would've registered on the Friday.

Paul: 9:36

Yeah. Yeah. And that was straightforward, but I think there was whisper because we, we've got our kit with us. It's in a shop. It's on the outskirts of Cardiff. Parking, not too bad, to be honest. I think if you went in rush hour, it would be a bit of a pain in the backside. But in the day, we got there about two o'clock, so it'd been open. But on the way down, I think there was a few whispers on social media. Do we need to show'em the kit? Do we not need to show'em the kit? Are we showing them or we didn't care. We got it in the car, but we rocked up and we'd actually managed to get a space outside, hadn't we? So we were just like, oh, let's just wonder in if they want the kit, we'll just grab it out of the boot. If not, so we stroll in, I think, did you ask one of the chaps behind the counter? Just said...

Aimee: 10:17

No you did... As we walked in. Yeah.

Paul: 10:18

Did I? Can't remember

Aimee: 10:19

You asked one of the guys behind the counter and he said he wasn't sure,'cause he wasn't part of the registration team.

Paul: 10:24

No.

Aimee: 10:24

But he said that he hadn't seen anyone coming in carrying kit, so he didn't think we did need it.

Paul: 10:29

Yep.

Aimee: 10:29

Yeah. So we carried on through to the back of the shop where you registered.

Paul: 10:32

Yep.

Aimee: 10:33

And, and no one asked us for it.

Paul: 10:34

Just give your name and yeah. Got your bibs.

Aimee: 10:37

It's very simple. You just collected your bib.

Paul: 10:39

Yeah.

Aimee: 10:39

Then, so they checked you with your emergency contact information.

Paul: 10:42

Yep.

Aimee: 10:43

That was it. Very quick and simple.

Paul: 10:44

Quick and simple. That's all you need. Got the bibs. The bibs are the ones we like.

Aimee: 10:49

Oh, they're hole punched

Paul: 10:51

With the holes in. Because we use those, what they call those clipping

Aimee: 10:54

Bib Clips.

Paul: 10:55

Who?

Aimee: 10:55

Bib Clips.

Paul: 10:56

Bib Clips. Which it's a brilliant idea if you've not seen them. They are just like they, because they don't put holes in your clothes. It's just like a two part and it clips on...

Aimee: 11:05

But it does have to have a hole in the bib.

Paul: 11:06

Brilliant idea. Try getting'em on. No, I'll rephrase that. I can get'em on because it doesn't bother me if they're a bit skewiff or anything like that. Someone else? You have a little bit, we always have a little bit of a...

Aimee: 11:21

Yeah

Paul: 11:21

A little bit of an issue with them.

Aimee: 11:22

It's getting a bit sidetracked here, but yeah. Talking about Bib Clips...

Paul: 11:24

Yeah.

Aimee: 11:25

I hate actually the mission of getting them on.'Cause I put them on my leggings and obviously leggings are tight to your leg.

Paul: 11:32

Yeah.

Aimee: 11:32

So it's quite hard'cause you have to put the back side of the clip on the inside of your leggings.

Paul: 11:37

It crumples stuff up doesn't it,

Aimee: 11:39

And it all get, trying to get your hand down there and put it in the right position and then clip each corner on. It's quite tricky when you've got tight leggings.

Paul: 11:45

It can be quite stressful

Aimee: 11:46

And I, I have to have it straight on my leg.

Paul: 11:48

Mm.

Aimee: 11:49

So it is a bit of a mission, which is why I really like being able to register the day before the race, because then I can faff about putting the bib on in the evening.

Paul: 11:57

Yeah.

Aimee: 11:58

And not first thing in the morning when it's an early start.

Paul: 12:00

It was only 48 minutes this time, I think! But anyway, we got diverted...

Aimee: 12:05

We got sidetracked, but it, it helps to have the holes.

Paul: 12:07

Yeah.

Aimee: 12:07

Because you need the hole in the bib

Paul: 12:09

Try putting it a hole.

Aimee: 12:09

to use the Bib Clips.

Paul: 12:10

Yeah. Try to put the hole in them when you haven't got the

Aimee: 12:12

A hole bunch.

Paul: 12:13

It's an interesting paper. You cannot get holes in it.

Aimee: 12:16

At one point we had a spare mini hole punch in the glove box of the car.

Paul: 12:19

That's how sad we are. We bought...,

Aimee: 12:20

We've lost it, but we've lost it.

Paul: 12:21

Yeah. No, I think it is been moved. Anyway. Right so you've registered, you're in the shop, they've got you in the shop. They want you to buy stuff as well, don't they

Aimee: 12:28

Yeah

Paul: 12:28

I was good.

Aimee: 12:30

You did try on a pair of trainers that you didn't need!

Paul: 12:32

Uh. Let's not go there. Let's not go there with trainers you don't need, but yeah, mmmm. It's not like, oh, maybe, maybe, maybe they come. But I was, I was a good boy. I, I did not do it. So anyway, we registered, job's a good'un

Aimee: 12:47

Then we came here and registered for, checked in for our accommodation.

Paul: 12:50

Yeah, checked in here. All good.

Aimee: 12:51

Had a chilled night.

Paul: 12:52

Yeah. Early start. Early

Aimee: 12:54

Very early.

Paul: 12:55

Early start. And I don't necessarily mind the early starts, but it is, it is a bit, we had to be, luckily we were only 15 minutes away from where we had to meet them. But you're still up. The...

Aimee: 13:09

The coach left... So the finish was Ogmore by Sea and the coach departed Ogmore by Sea at 06:30 to take us to the race start.

Paul: 13:18

So you needed... I like to get there early. It was quarter past five.

Aimee: 13:21

We, we wanted to get there for a decent time because we knew the car park was gonna be busy.

Paul: 13:24

Yeah.

Aimee: 13:25

And we wanted to get the space as close as possible to the hall. Because this is, this was a difference from doing it this year to two years ago. This year they've moved the finish to a hall.

Paul: 13:36

Yeah.

Aimee: 13:36

In Ogmore by Sea town, sort of. Whereas two years ago it was just on the edge of the car park. So on the coast path basically.

Paul: 13:44

Yeah.

Aimee: 13:44

So right by the car park. But this meant, the change yesterday, meant that you had to walk from the carpark about, it was a 10, 15 minute walk to the hall.

Paul: 13:54

Yeah, well...

Aimee: 13:56

We made it 15 minutes.

Paul: 13:57

It was a 10, 10 15...

Aimee: 13:58

because we, we missed an arrow and went too far down the coast path before we turned to go up to where the hall was.

Paul: 14:03

I love this royal"we".

Aimee: 14:04

Well, neither of us saw it!

Paul: 14:05

We made the classic error of following somebody. We thought this person knew where they were going. Dunno why we just saw somebody in front of us and assumed...

Aimee: 14:14

If someone in front of you is walking with, you know, just with determination and like looking like they're on a mission. You just assume they know where they're going. Yeah. We both missed what was actually an arrow telling us to turn.

Paul: 14:24

Right by the car park!

Aimee: 14:25

No, it wasn't right by it

Paul: 14:26

No'cause it walked up the side. We didn't walk up the side. But then, them lads, not only us but we had lads follow that us

Aimee: 14:31

Oh there was a few that did the same as us, yeah.

Paul: 14:33

Lesson learnt. This, this following people. You may hear us talk about that again throughout this, so don't follow people. So anyway, yeah.

Aimee: 14:42

Yeah. We wanted to get there early to get a spaces near the right, the correct end of the car park to make you closer to the hall.

Paul: 14:48

Yeah

Aimee: 14:48

So that's one of the reasons we got there really early.

Paul: 14:50

Yeah

Aimee: 14:50

So we got there probably half an hour earlier than we needed to.

Paul: 14:53

I have to pay for parking.

Aimee: 14:54

Yes. Oh, I forgot about that disaster. Yeah.

Paul: 14:57

Wasn't a disaster!

Aimee: 14:58

Paul paid for parking, put the ticket in the...

Paul: 15:00

Eight quid

Aimee: 15:01

...on the dashboard and then got out of the car and it blew out.

Paul: 15:05

Followed me.

Aimee: 15:06

It blew out and disappeared. So, lost the parking ticket.

Paul: 15:10

Weren't no way I was going back up there and paying another eight quid.

Aimee: 15:13

So we will see if we get a ticket.

Paul: 15:15

No. Hey. I know me parking, I know me rights. I put little notes in there, said, look, I have paid no problem.

Aimee: 15:23

Well, you can prove you paid'cause it's on card, isn't it?

Paul: 15:25

But yeah, that little note.

Aimee: 15:26

Anyway, so, so that was the first issue. We lost the parking ticket first, then we got lost walking to the hall. So it wasn't going well. Anyway, we found the hall.

Paul: 15:36

We did, we did. Found the hall, which was good.

Aimee: 15:39

Um, there was toilets there. Not a lot of toilets, but we were lucky'cause we were there so early, there was only a couple of people in front of us in the queue. By the time we came out the toilet, the queue was...

Paul: 15:49

There was, it is, it's one of those things in it. It's all runners. They all wanna go to the toilet 15 times in the morning, you know what I mean?

Aimee: 15:56

Yeah.

Paul: 15:56

It's like, oh, I'll go now and then I'll come out the toilet,

Aimee: 15:59

Go again immediately!

Paul: 16:00

Say hello to somebody and then go, I need a toilet again. And be gone again. Not I'm talking from anybody from experience.

Aimee: 16:07

I have to do nervous wees!

Paul: 16:08

Nervous wees? You have to stop every five minutes. Yeah, I'm all right until I get running and then I'll get...

Aimee: 16:13

And then you annoy me'cause you want stop every few minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Paul: 16:17

Yeah. So we got there and yeah, toilet break. You... we had a drop bag. You were allowed a drop bag. Purely...

Aimee: 16:25

Yeah. It's not the normal kind of drop bag'cause it's not, it's not a drop bag that you were able to access during the race. The reason they did it is because there was the walk from the car park to the hall and it was very chilly first thing in the morning. I mean, it was like...

Paul: 16:38

It was windy.

Aimee: 16:38

Was it... we got there about half five, didn't we?

Paul: 16:41

Yeah. Still dark,

Aimee: 16:42

So the sun was only just starting to come up and it was really cold. So you needed a jacket just to do that walk to the hall, didn't you?

Paul: 16:48

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 16:48

But then obviously you don't wanna carry that jacket with you for the whole run. So you could leave it there in a little bag. They specified only a very small bag.

Paul: 16:55

Yeah.

Aimee: 16:56

And then collect it after you finished and put it back on to walk back to the car if you needed it.

Paul: 16:59

Yeah.

Aimee: 17:00

So that was quite a nice...

Paul: 17:01

Yeah, that worked. That worked well.

Aimee: 17:02

So, yeah, I used that facility. You didn't, did you?.

Paul: 17:05

No. No. And then, yeah, the coaches, well, what we did then is follow 150 people

Aimee: 17:12

We followed the crowd...

Paul: 17:12

to the wrong bus stop

Aimee: 17:13

who all went to the wrong bus stop.

Paul: 17:15

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 17:16

And then somebody pointed out that it was actually further down the road, in the other direction

Paul: 17:19

Where funnily enough there was two coaches parked.

Aimee: 17:21

Yeah.

Paul: 17:22

Weirdly.

Aimee: 17:22

That nobody had spotted

Paul: 17:23

No, no.'Cause obviously they do blend in. So we followed that down and then Aimee has this thing about getting on coaches? You have to be seated. Where?

Aimee: 17:33

I like to be at the front

Paul: 17:34

Right at the front

Aimee: 17:35

If possible,

Paul: 17:36

Right at the front.

Aimee: 17:37

There is a method in my madness, and it links back to the toilet situation, if you are at the front of the bus, you get off first. So that means you're at the front of the queue because everybody knows any runners on a bus going to somewhere to start a run. They will all get off and go straight to the toilet.

Paul: 17:51

Yeah, but sit...

Aimee: 17:52

and that's what happened. Again.

Paul: 17:53

Sitting next to the driver is a bit close. When he had to tell you to sit behind him

Aimee: 17:57

We were sat right behind him.

Paul: 17:58

You were... yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 17:59

But it worked because we were at the front of the queue for the toilet.

Paul: 18:01

We was, we was

Aimee: 18:03

That made it sound like we went for a wee every couple of minutes. That's not what I'm saying. The bus journey was about 40 to 45 minutes, wasn't it?

Paul: 18:09

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 18:10

So we went to the toilet by the car park at the hall.

Paul: 18:13

Yeah.

Aimee: 18:13

And then again, when we got off the bus like 45 minutes later.

Paul: 18:16

Yeah.

Aimee: 18:16

At the pier. So that's where the bus took us. Penarth Pier, which is where the race starts. Really lovely location.

Paul: 18:22

Yep.

Aimee: 18:23

But god, was it cold on that pier!

Paul: 18:24

It was cold,'cause I think when we first started, the few years ago, everybody was on the pier hanging around. But this time everybody was inside.

Aimee: 18:33

Everybody crowded inside the hall at the pier'cause it was just too cold in that wind.

Paul: 18:37

Oh, it it, it it was purely the wind that was the issue. It was...'Cause obviously you're on a pier, you are on the sea, ain't you? It was baltic and I was like, right. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be bold. Start cold. Unlike you, who's be red hot when you start and then two mile in have to derobe. But yeah, so anyway, we was all in there. It's an eight o'clock start, he comes in...

Aimee: 19:06

Yeah, we got there about half seven, didn't we?

Paul: 19:09

Half seven, yeah, yeah. Got the toilet stops done. He gets everybody outside onto the pier. You are shaking, shivering.

Aimee: 19:15

You got to go all the way down to the end of the pier.

Paul: 19:17

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 19:18

Then he did a little briefing.

Paul: 19:20

Little briefing

Aimee: 19:21

Which was a very valuable briefing, actually It

Paul: 19:22

was for you. But then you did ignore him.

Aimee: 19:24

No, no, I didn't ignore him. I did exactly what he said. He said, I will come onto this in a minute, but one of the key things he said it was a good job. I was listening. He was explaining a few points on the course where you could possibly lose your way a little bit. And he said, if you come across a railway track, if the footpath leads you to a railway track that goes across the railway track, do not cross that railway track because you've gone wrong. And I just remembered him saying that and it was a good job I did.

Paul: 19:47

Yes.'cause that will come to light later. There you go, karma. Anyway, so come eight o'clock, he's there with his foghorn doofer, giving it all out, giving you the low down. I was shaking'cause I was really cold, but you know, start off cold within two minutes, warm red hot. Well in, well into it, going well. So horn when we're out, aren't we?

Aimee: 20:09

Yeah. You run the length of the pier and then you turn left and you run along the path.

Paul: 20:12

Yeah.

Aimee: 20:12

Out of the town of Penarth and then up

Paul: 20:15

And then it goes

Aimee: 20:16

into the coastal path.

Paul: 20:16

Yeah. And the race is, I think they class it as relatively flat for the first half, and then it gets hilly on the second half. When I say relatively flat, it's, I think...

Aimee: 20:28

Well, it's the last third, really. The first 20 miles are...

Paul: 20:31

Yeah. Not too bad

Aimee: 20:32

They're not flat but it's not significant elevation compared to a lot of ultras.

Paul: 20:36

No

Aimee: 20:36

But the last 10 miles are where most of the hills are.

Paul: 20:39

Yep. Yep. And you've got how many checkpoints?

Aimee: 20:42

Five.

Paul: 20:44

Five checkpoints. You've got a little bit in Barry Island where it kind of, it's almost like a heart shape, isn't it? But I think what you could do, if you want, you could cheat. So what they've done, they put these little like hole punch things and you had to go up to the one, get your thing punched.

Aimee: 21:01

Yeah. They were, I think they put them clip points, didn't you?

Paul: 21:03

Yeah. And then you had to go to it.

Aimee: 21:04

It made sure that you ran the whole length of Barry Island.

Paul: 21:08

Yeah.

Aimee: 21:08

Around it rather than cutting across.

Paul: 21:10

Because you could cut off

Aimee: 21:10

'Cause you could easily

Paul: 21:11

...a fair bit.

Aimee: 21:12

Just cut that off. That's standard. They did that two years ago as well.

Paul: 21:15

Yeah. So you've got that.'Cause we were gonna tell everybody about it first before we went on to our start. So you've got that. Checkpoints got your standard, to be fair, you've got your water, your electrolytes, electrolytes are amazing things, aren't they? You've got your electrolytes,

Aimee: 21:29

You're finally learning.

Paul: 21:31

Yeah. Yeah. You've got your electrolytes, food, some sandwiches, some chocolate. You've got the standard.

Aimee: 21:38

Yeah. They're very good.

Paul: 21:39

Standard stuff.

Aimee: 21:40

Very helpful volunteers that would help you fill your bottles up.

Paul: 21:42

Yeah. Fair few people around cheering you on.

Aimee: 21:46

Yep.

Paul: 21:46

Come to the end. You think you're at the end. And then you have to do a right turn up a hill. Finished, job's a good'un, get your medal, get a drink, bugger off home. That's what you should do. So how did it go for us? Well. Let's put it this way. It was a race of two halves like the course was. We started together. We started together. Which...

Aimee: 22:14

Yeah. And it started out really well.

Paul: 22:15

Which was nice. But we didn't finish together.

Aimee: 22:17

No, we didn't.

Paul: 22:18

No, no. Someone left somebody, on the course. Still, still gets me here. Still gets me here. Right. So we set off, didn't we? Together

Aimee: 22:29

At a blistering pace for us!

Paul: 22:31

Together. Yeah. Somebody decided she wanted to go off at warp speed for us really.

Aimee: 22:38

It felt good.

Paul: 22:40

Yeah.

Aimee: 22:40

And you did initially.

Paul: 22:43

Yeah. Until you wore me out. So we set off, and the first checkpoint was about five mile in.

Aimee: 22:49

Yeah.

Paul: 22:50

Five mile in.

Aimee: 22:50

It was classed as Barry, but it wasn't in like Barry centre.

Paul: 22:54

We haven't worked it out yet, but we think Barry is like the place and Barry Island's just like the promenade and stuff, which, I dunno. But you come into like just a normal residentially businessy place.

Aimee: 23:08

Well, the first checkpoint was kind of in an, almost like an industrial area, wasn't it?

Paul: 23:11

Yeah. Yeah. So we got there. I kind of base a good pace for us, for, for me, this is what I thought. This is what I thought we'd got organized. I always set my watch up for five miles, so as long as I'm getting that five miles done in an hour, I think I'm doing all right. I'm happy with that because I use that maths in me head'cause it's easy. Five, I knew my five times table for a start.

Aimee: 23:37

That's stuck in your head from doing Endure24.

Paul: 23:39

From doing loops, loops

Aimee: 23:40

It's loop races because

Paul: 23:42

Yeah

Aimee: 23:43

I think you've worked out, when we did it the very first time we did in Endure24, you went in obsessed with doing a hundred miles.

Paul: 23:48

Yes, I did.

Aimee: 23:48

Unrealistically. It's true.

Paul: 23:51

That's harsh.

Aimee: 23:51

It's true.

Paul: 23:52

A lot of harshness today. Lot of harsh.

Aimee: 23:53

You went in wanting to do a hundred miles, so you'd worked out, that if you could do five miles every hour

Paul: 23:58

Yeah

Aimee: 23:58

That would take 20 hours to do the 100 miles and give you four hours leeway for using checkpoints and toilets and stuff. That's how you work that out.

Paul: 24:08

Yeah. And that's a

Aimee: 24:09

And that motto has stuck with you.

Paul: 24:11

Yeah.

Aimee: 24:11

On every ultra that we've done since.

Paul: 24:14

I work well with five miles, so the first five miles in an hour. So the first hour we done about six and a half.

Aimee: 24:21

Six and a half. Yeah.

Paul: 24:22

My poor legs. My poor legs, they were struggling to keep up, I'll be honest. But at that point I weren't feeling too bad. You were feeling right.

Aimee: 24:32

You seemed to be going well.

Paul: 24:33

Yeah. And then

Aimee: 24:35

You were cheerful still and we were talking.

Paul: 24:37

Yep. Yep. And then when you get to that first checkpoint, you're then onto the road. There's a road section ent there, which is the bit that goes into Barry.

Aimee: 24:46

Yeah.

Paul: 24:46

And roads for me.

Aimee: 24:48

You don't like tarmac, do you?

Paul: 24:50

No, I don't. It's a combination of tarmac and flat. Obviously that's, yeah, it's, no, I don't. I'm not a fan of it, but it's, it is part and parcel.

Aimee: 25:00

You were saying it was all tarmac. It wasn't flat.

Paul: 25:03

No, but when I say flat, it's, it's, it's a flat surface, isn't it?

Aimee: 25:07

Oh, I see what you mean.

Paul: 25:07

I'm a bit, it's

Aimee: 25:08

Level terrain, not, not rocky or...

Paul: 25:10

Yeah, I like a bit of uneven.

Aimee: 25:11

I get what you mean.

Paul: 25:12

Which allows me ankle to move around. It's a bane of my life. So yeah, we did that bit.

Aimee: 25:18

You ran, you ran through some residential areas on that section and there was one section where it got a bit confusing with the route, didn't it? We were running along this road. You'd come up this hill.

Paul: 25:27

Yeah.

Aimee: 25:27

And then our watches,'cause we'd got the GPX file and we'd made sure we'd got the latest GPX file as well, because they had said on the Facebook page that they'd just updated it like the day or two before. So we made sure we've got the current one.

Paul: 25:39

Yeah.

Aimee: 25:39

Um, we came up this hill and we turned left onto this road, residential area. And the watches, both of our watches were telling us to go straight on.

Paul: 25:46

Just go straight on. Yeah.

Aimee: 25:48

But the yellow Run Walk Crawl arrows were saying turn left.

Paul: 25:52

Yeah, they, they put quite a lot of arrows.

Aimee: 25:54

So we hesitated at the top of this road, thinking, do we go down there or have we gotta go down that hill?'Cause it was down a hill where it was the arrow was pointing. But then we sort of looked and you could see at the bottom of the hill there was another yellow arrow saying go right. So we were supposed to go down and then round to the right.

Paul: 26:07

It was like a crescent.

Aimee: 26:08

So we decided well we should really follow the arrows.

Paul: 26:11

Yeah.

Aimee: 26:12

So we did,'cause obviously they would've only have put the arrows out either that morning or the night before. So that's the most current, you would think. So yeah, we followed the arrows and it took you down along that road a bit and then back up a hill onto the road on you were on before.

Paul: 26:25

Yeah. Yeah

Aimee: 26:27

So we're not quite sure what purpose, unless it was to make the mileage up. I don't know. It must been, it seemed a bit of a strange...

Paul: 26:31

Even though the mileage was over!

Aimee: 26:33

diversion.

Paul: 26:34

Yeah.

Aimee: 26:34

But yeah, so you're just running around housing roads.

Paul: 26:36

To be fair that bit. I didn't mind.'Cause you did come into, there was some steep hills.

Aimee: 26:40

There was definitely hills.

Paul: 26:42

And one good thing that we found like our fitness levels obviously improved because the first time we did that in our head,

Aimee: 26:48

We walked those.

Paul: 26:48

We walked those and thought, let's eat.

Aimee: 26:50

Yeah.

Paul: 26:50

That was our excuse for not running them. We need to eat,

Aimee: 26:54

We'll eat on the hills!

Paul: 26:54

So we'll eat and walk up them. But this time

Aimee: 26:56

We ran them!

Paul: 26:57

We said before we wanna try and run,'cause the elevation that was advertised isn't that bad for what we're used to.

Aimee: 27:03

No.

Paul: 27:03

So for us, we were kind of saying, you know what, we could probably run

Aimee: 27:07

We should be able to run them.

Paul: 27:08

We should be able to run them all. So that bit, yeah, it weren't going too bad. I was getting the food in. Obviously I have a few issues sometimes with food. Every time with food, every time I food, water.

Aimee: 27:18

Nearly every race.

Paul: 27:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was loaded up. I'd got me gels, I'd got me waffles, me bars, me tailwind, electrolytes. Not in the water, I'd got electrolyte sachets on me. I was like a bloody shop. I was like a supermarket, rattling. Yeah. I've got everything on me. So we was getting the food in

Aimee: 27:39

Except painkillers.

Paul: 27:41

I was getting the food in. The painkillers were in here.

Aimee: 27:45

Yeah. Here in the railway carriage.

Paul: 27:47

I knew I'd brought'em. Just didn't have'em on me! So it was going relatively well. But then how can I put it without trying to make an excuse? I wasn't feeling as good as I should have felt, really. I felt like my legs were starting to give me a bit of gyp before they should. But

Aimee: 28:05

Was this before or after we went through Parkrun?

Paul: 28:08

Oh no. This would've been, so coming up to Parkrun...

Aimee: 28:11

Because that was quite a cool part of the race. We enjoyed that bit, didn't we?

Paul: 28:14

Ah, right. So coming up to Parkrun, I had a different issue.

Aimee: 28:17

Yes. You needed the toilet, didn't you?

Paul: 28:19

I did need the toilet. I did need the, the proper toilet. I was, yeah, I think with me, cause I had breakfast this time as well, didn't I?

Aimee: 28:27

Yes.

Paul: 28:27

Yeah. Which was a mistake.

Aimee: 28:29

No, it wasn't because it, you did well, yeah. You were running well!

Paul: 28:33

I had breakfast and then I was banging the calories in. And then my stomach, it always happens like right at the beginning, and I'm all right after. It decides,'cause it's been juddering around a little bit. We need to go and sit down and have a little moment on our own. So anyway, we get into the Barry Island part of the race, and this is where you had to have your bibs stamped. So we come into the first one, and then as we were coming down. I think I can remember saying there's toilets down there. They're like, yeah. We asked that lad, there was a bloke next to us who'd obviously done it before, and I said, toilets. He said, oh yeah, that blue building. I was focused on that. I'm telling you now, that was where my legs decided let's get there. But then we come down into Barry Island to the promenade and they got the Parkrun, which was,

Aimee: 29:17

Yeah, it just finished.

Paul: 29:18

Just, well, it was on its last legs, but ah, there was loads of people around, weren't there?

Aimee: 29:22

It was pretty cool.'Cause I think it was the race director who saw us coming,'cause was, there was probably five or six of us running in, not quite a group, but coming at around the same time to go through the promenade bit

Paul: 29:32

Yeah.

Aimee: 29:32

And he sort of shouted'cause it was crowds there wasn't it? He was like...

Paul: 29:35

Yeah.

Aimee: 29:35

"Ultra runners coming through!"

Paul: 29:37

Yes, yes I am!

Aimee: 29:38

And then like the, the crowds just parted so we could run through and they were all going"come on, ultras, you're doing amazing!" It was really cool. Being cheered on by Parkrun.

Paul: 29:46

Yeah, it was, it was, yeah. That was, that was a bit of a lift.

Aimee: 29:49

Yeah. Really good feeling.

Paul: 29:51

And then I could see, I could see it, the toilets. And I, well, they were a bit hidden around the side and the bloke said'oh yeah, they're round there'. And I was, I think my brain and my body had started like working things out and like, yeah, we're in a good place now. We can start relaxing, you know, the problem's gonna be solved any minute now. I go through this door, stood there and I was like, oh no, it's just urinals. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because brain and bum had sort of got in their, in their head...

Aimee: 30:23

Oh, too much information.

Paul: 30:24

It's a running problem. I got outside, there's a geezer with a vizi vest. I said,'mate, you got any proper toilets?''Yeah, upstairs'. I was like, straight up, got the problem sorted, back out, new lease of life.

Aimee: 30:37

And I was efficient during that time.

Paul: 30:38

You did.

Aimee: 30:39

I'll make use of the time because I had taken my long sleeve layer off a bit further back, hadn't I?

Paul: 30:43

Yeah.

Aimee: 30:43

But by this time the sun was properly out, wasn't it?

Paul: 30:46

Oh, the long sleeve, taking that off!

Aimee: 30:48

I use that stop to apply sun cream.

Paul: 30:51

Yes.

Aimee: 30:52

So I had the sun cream in my bag'cause I did not wanna get the ta... some people have got hilarious tan lines

Paul: 30:56

They have

Aimee: 30:57

Because obviously you're just running along the coast in the same direction. People have burnt all down their left side.

Paul: 31:02

It is down the one side.

Aimee: 31:03

I put cream on.

Paul: 31:04

Yeah, we thought we were doing quite well. So Aimee obviously had to derobe, at the first, it was by the first checkpoint.

Aimee: 31:11

Yes. At checkpoint one. So we stepped, we've skipped back a bit now.

Paul: 31:13

Yeah, we've had to skip'cause it just popped into me. Yeah, this was a funny part as well. So, derobe, we were like, we practice this. We are like Formula One. We can, Aimee

Aimee: 31:22

Are we?

Paul: 31:23

What Aimee does, is she'll take her...

Aimee: 31:25

Formula One pit stop.

Paul: 31:26

Yes. Yes. We, we are just like working as a team for a change. So she takes the race pack off, hands it over to me, whips the layer off that she should have took off on the pier, which is slowing us down. I'm unzipping the bag. She passes it to me. I put it in the bag, zip it up, give her the bag back. We carry on

Aimee: 31:47

All while moving.

Paul: 31:48

All while running. And then. For some reason, Aimee has this mental block. Well, I don't I actually don't know what you're doing. A lot of people, you're all gonna know the Salomon race vest. Well, a lot of'em are. You've got your little bit of elastic, then you go like that and you hook it through your clip, go like that, job done.

Aimee: 32:05

Yeah. I... sometimes it works perfectly first time and sometimes I just cannot, for some reason, get the top one to clip in.

Paul: 32:13

How can you find it difficult?

Aimee: 32:15

I, I go like that. I think it's in, and then it pings back out and it keeps doing it. And it did that.

Paul: 32:20

Oh, i'm just gonna leave it undone.

Aimee: 32:22

I was like, I'm just gonna run with it undone. And I did for a few minutes and I thought, I'll try it again. And it went in first time!

Paul: 32:29

I was up front at that point. I was like, I'll let her deal with that on her own. Let's just give her a few seconds, see whether she's got it sorted. Then I'll go back and go, come on.

Aimee: 32:38

No, I

Paul: 32:38

Job done.

Aimee: 32:39

I did do it myself.

Paul: 32:40

So anyway, we had that that little drama,

Aimee: 32:43

It wasn't a drama!

Paul: 32:44

It was a drama at the time. You were getting a little bit aggy, you were getting a little bit angry. I could tell. That's why I just went, I'll leave you to it. Leave you to it. So anyway, we did that. We got the toilet stop. So we were in a good place then, weren't we?

Aimee: 32:57

Yeah, so we left...

Paul: 32:58

You de-robed.

Aimee: 32:59

left Barry Island.

Paul: 33:01

Toilet had been sorted,

Aimee: 33:02

I put my cream on and we went up out of Barry Island. I dunno what it's called. It's another pointy bit still on Barry Island, but there's a pointy bit and that's where we got our second clip on our bibs.

Paul: 33:13

We were flying then. Good to go. Then we went off down, I dunno where it goes, but then it went, it did go off road a bit, didn't it? And then we hit the steps and this is where, this is where all the problems started.

Aimee: 33:30

There's a horrible set of steps. It's quite long and steep. And the steps are all different. They're those steps that aren't even, so

Paul: 33:36

They're not the same.

Aimee: 33:36

Some are steeper than others. Some are wider than others.

Paul: 33:39

Yeah.

Aimee: 33:39

So you can't just do a natural. Run down. No, you have to tread a bit carefully.

Paul: 33:44

Yeah.

Aimee: 33:45

Going down them

Paul: 33:45

And I'm normally good. I'm normally good on my feet like that I normally am. And give me credit, I've got to the bottom, bar four steps? We got to the bottom. And then it was a little bit confusing'cause it kind of forked off.

Aimee: 33:59

There was a couple of paths.

Paul: 34:01

Yeah.

Aimee: 34:01

And my watch was doing... I was in front of Paul and my watch was doing this thing. It kept doing it all during the day. For a while it would give me turn signals and then it stopped doing it, and then it would start doing it again. And at that point it wasn't giving me turn signals. So I was trying to, and sometimes it wasn't clear which direction I was supposed to be going in. So I was kind of trying to work out is it that path or that path?

Paul: 34:21

Yeah.

Aimee: 34:21

And there were some supporters there weren't there.

Paul: 34:23

Yeah.

Aimee: 34:23

Cheering people on. So they looked like they were on the path that perhaps we were gonna have to go on.'Cause I assumed that's why they were stood there.

Paul: 34:29

Yeah.

Aimee: 34:29

So I started running towards them and they went'no, no, it's that way'. So I sort of had to turn and take the other path.

Paul: 34:35

Yeah.

Aimee: 34:36

And you, somehow, fell?

Paul: 34:39

I didn't fall

Aimee: 34:39

Well, didn't fall.

Paul: 34:40

What... I don't even know. I think, cause I dunno what I did. I kind of, I think'cause the steps went like that. And I think I was going that way and then they said something and I kind of, I think I just slipped off with my foot and just went down on my bad ankle. I don't know. I've got issues with my ankle. I won't go into it now, but I've sprained it and then shouldn't have done this and that, but it gives me a bit of gyp every now and then. It gives me a little bit of gyp every race! So, but I've, I've learned to deal with it a bit and I copped it. It just, I must have just pulled it in the wrong... it just hurt! So then I thought normally I can just run it off. I'm fine.

Aimee: 35:18

He didn't tell me that this had happened at this point and I didn't see

Paul: 35:21

No because I did go'oooh'

Aimee: 35:22

He was behind me

Paul: 35:23

And you were like,'you alright?' And I was like,'yeah, yeah, yeah, sound'

Aimee: 35:24

No, but I didn't know what happened.

Paul: 35:25

Yeah, no, it was just weird. It just, it just copped me wrong. So anyway we run off, obviously she's doing Usain Bolt speed!

Aimee: 35:34

No!

Paul: 35:34

So I run it off and also I think by this point, even though I was taking the calories and I was thinking, oh man, why's me hamstrings starting to feel a bit iffy. Dunno, I have this every now and then with me hamstrings, they just get a bit iffy, I know how to solve it. But at that point in time, I'd forgot I knew how to solve it because me ankle was hurting. There's a lot of excuses here, aren't there?

Aimee: 35:58

Yes!

Paul: 35:58

So I had a little bit of a niggle on my foot, so I go off and I was just chilling on me own, just behind Aimee. Just keeping myself to myself, not really talking, just didn't know anything to say really, did I? No. And then all she did was kept going on at me. You all right?' No. What did you say? I think because I don't talk a lot, do I? When I...

Aimee: 36:20

No, this is the thing. This is when I know something's wrong. Because normally he talks and if he's having an issue, he goes very quiet.

Paul: 36:29

I was just enjoying it.

Aimee: 36:29

When I say he goes quiet, nothing comes out of his mouth. But I can hear him more because he starts shuffling.

Paul: 36:36

No, I don't start...

Aimee: 36:38

You don't pick your feet up when you are tired, you start dragging your feet.

Paul: 36:41

Not my feet

Aimee: 36:42

Oh your foot?

Paul: 36:42

My foot. My foot. I just, for some reason this, this leg goes,

Aimee: 36:47

He just gets, his foot fall gets heavier and heavier and then more shuffly, and he stops talking and that's when I know there's an issue

Paul: 36:54

It's like one of them old horror movies!

Aimee: 36:55

So I started doing the whole'are you all right?' And he was getting further and further back, and so I was having to slow down'cause I was like, I don't want lose him. Like'are you all right?' And then he said his ankle was hurting. So I said take painkillers' not realizing he didn't have any.'Take painkillers'. Then he said he didn't have any. And I said'well I have','cause I knew I'd got some in my first aid kit.'Do you want painkillers?' And he was not aggressive, but assertive,'no, I'll do it when we get to the next checkpoint'.

Paul: 37:22

Because the checkpoint, I didn't wanna slow us down. And I thought, well the next checkpoint we've gotta get water on.

Aimee: 37:27

And I thought, okay, fair enough. We'll carry on. But he was getting slower and slower.

Paul: 37:31

No, my foot was just decided it needed a little bit of rest. That's what I was...

Aimee: 37:34

So a couple more times,

Paul: 37:35

dragging it!

Aimee: 37:35

A couple more times. I was saying'do you want painkillers?''If it's that bad, take the painkillers now'.'No, no, no. I'll wait till the next checkpoint'. I was looking at my watch, the next checkpoint is over three miles away. So that's gonna be over half an hour probably.

Paul: 37:47

It would have been more than half hour.

Aimee: 37:48

At the pace where going! Just take them now'.'No, I wanna wait. I wanna wait'.

Paul: 37:53

Yeah but...

Aimee: 37:54

And I even said to you at one point, didn't I? We are learning from these races. We're supposed to problem solve. If you've got a problem, deal with it. Don't just...

Paul: 38:01

Yeah...

Aimee: 38:02

let it get worse.

Paul: 38:03

What was...

Aimee: 38:04

Take the painkillers.'Nope, nope, nope'. But he was getting slower and slower and stroppier and stroppier. So I just took the decision out of his hands and we were running through this caravan park, weren't we? And he was dropping so far behind me. And I, was, it was frustrating for me because I was feeling really good and could have run a lot faster than I was. So I just stopped, took my backpack off, and then I had an issue because I couldn't find my first aid kit. I tried to just put, I was trying to be quick. I tried to just get my hand in and find it, pull it out. And of course I was grabbing everything but the first aid kit,'cause it was buried at the bottom. So then I just opened it fully and threw everything out. The first aid... outta the hydration pack,

Paul: 38:39

She threw her dummy out the pram, as they say!

Aimee: 38:41

To find the first aid kit. Found it, found a strip of painkillers and handed it to him.'Take these now!'

Paul: 38:47

Handed them to me.

Aimee: 38:49

Yes.

Paul: 38:49

Right. Okay. So that, yeah.

Aimee: 38:50

Yes.

Paul: 38:51

So what Aimee did, so she literally stopped, ripped her ruck sack off, put it on the floor, launched everything out, got me the tablets, give me them.

Aimee: 39:02

That's what I just said!

Paul: 39:02

There's, that's how you said it. I was like, I think it's time to take the tablets.

Aimee: 39:09

You knew you needed to take them.

Paul: 39:10

Yeah, no, you know what I did.

Aimee: 39:12

And you should have taken them a lot earlier!

Paul: 39:14

I probably should have. I probably should have, but I was thinking, oh, I've dealt with the pain before. Okay. My leg was dragging along, like some horror movie, and I was like, some clubfoot bloody Quasimodo, or summat! But, I was tootling along, so...

Aimee: 39:27

Yeah but I didn't wanna tootle.

Paul: 39:28

No, no. And then she threw the painkillers at me. So I had the painkillers.

Aimee: 39:32

It's not quite that extreme.

Paul: 39:33

And I was like, oh, you know what? I've gotta make an executive decision here.

Aimee: 39:38

Oh'cause you had said a few times to me before, earlier on,'just go and finish without me'.

Paul: 39:44

Yeah, just nicely.

Aimee: 39:45

But no, you didn't, at that point you said it aggressively.

Paul: 39:47

No, no. There was a few times...

Aimee: 39:50

it was like'just go'!

Paul: 39:51

There's a few times when, you know, my brain and my mouth, the translation is very mixed up. So I think I'm saying some it in my head, but then my mouth makes it come up very differently. So anyway, I, I'd give myself a little bit of a pep talk. This was all in a few seconds. And I was like, I know Aimee was going really well. I knew for an hour I'd got issues and that was gonna slow us down. So I just said, genuinely afterward, I know we were joking around. I just said, look, you've gotta go, you've gotta go. It's not a massive race. We're not gonna be that far apart, just go.'Cause I knew she was smashing it and I was thinking she's gonna get a bloody good time on this. So I was just like, right, look, just leave me. I'll be all right. on my own, injured, injured, hungry, starving. So anyway, so I let her go and it was a sad moment. If people with kids, you know? It was like, when your little'uns going to school for the first time, they're all dressed up. There you go. You go off to school, go. You enjoy school. Bye. You went for'em to turn round and wave back. No! She was gone! I was like, bye bye. No, she didn't even look past. Didn't look back. Gone.

Aimee: 41:11

No, but you are making it sound like I just literally ran off.

Paul: 41:13

You did?

Aimee: 41:14

No, no. We had a kiss and I said, good luck, keep going. Love you. See you at the finish.

Paul: 41:20

Yeah.

Aimee: 41:20

And ran off, and no, I didn't look back after that.

Paul: 41:22

Run off into the sunset. You didn't look back, you were gone. So I was there with my tablets. People going past'you all right mate?' Yeah. Yeah. S'all right, she just left me on my own, like, you know what I mean? I've, I broke my ankle, but you know, I'll battle through lads, battle through You

Aimee: 41:34

had not broken your ankle

Paul: 41:35

Felt like it at the time when I'd just been left on my own. So I was there like, I'm so sad. So then I had to sort of give my head a real good wobble and go, oh man, have tablets, sort yourself out, get a grip, get running. So I took the tablets and walked off. No, I did. I took the tablets got going, started moving. But then I was thinking, in my head, I was thinking, right, why are my legs giving me gyp?'Cause they shouldn't be giving me gyp. Well, how many miles was that in?

Aimee: 42:04

I left you I think at around 17 and a half miles in, so it was about halfway.

Paul: 42:07

Weren't, weren't even 20 miles in, and I was thinking

Aimee: 42:10

A bit over halfway.

Paul: 42:11

Yeah. And I was thinking my legs should not be giving... It was just my hamstrings giving a bit of gyp. The next section. It was that evil section, wasn't it?

Aimee: 42:21

Well, this is where my navigational issue came in.

Paul: 42:24

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 42:24

The immediate issue for me, because where that happened was running through that caravan park.

Paul: 42:29

That was it. Yeah.

Aimee: 42:29

Holiday park thing. When you came out of that, there was a footpath that it looked like it went straight. And I hadn't realized when I stopped and took my hydration pack off to get the painkillers out, I must have knocked my watch and paused it without realizing, because I just carried on up this path and then it kind of went round the corner and then there was a railway track. Well, because you wouldn't picture it because you didn't make the mistake.

Paul: 42:55

No.'cause I went the right way.

Aimee: 42:56

Exactly. So I went straight on, round the corner, saw a railway track, and I could hear the race director saying, if you come to a railway track, don't cross it.

Paul: 43:04

Yeah.

Aimee: 43:04

So I was like ay? I've gone wrong here. Looked at my watch going, hang on a minute. My watch said resume or finish. I, oh god, it's on pause. So that's why I hadn't got the map screen showing or any notifications because I'd accidentally paused my watch.

Paul: 43:21

And that's karma for leaving me.

Aimee: 43:23

Okay.

Paul: 43:24

Just saying. Just saying.

Aimee: 43:25

So I resumed the run and then navigated back to the map screen and realized I'd missed a turn. So as you came out that bit after the caravan park, there was actually a fork in the path and I was supposed to have gone left. So I ran back down and as I was running back down, there was two men running up towards me. They'd made the same mistake. So they were on the 18 miler, but I sort of was running towards them and I said, that's not the right way. And they were really confused. They were like, is it not? And they were looking at their watches. I said, it's definitely not the right way, because the race director told us at the start to not cross the railway line. Yeah. And they both looked a bit puzzled. I said, are you on the ultra or the 18 miler? And they said, the 18 miler. I said, did he not mention it on your briefing? And they said no, that he did. He did say something about not crossing the railway track. I said, well that's the railway track.

Paul: 44:08

Yeah

Aimee: 44:09

It's not that way. So went back and then the watch confirmed we were back on route. So...

Paul: 44:14

And it was a horrible bit.

Aimee: 44:14

That was all good. It was only a little diversion, but it was a mistake.

Paul: 44:18

Then the next bit was...

Aimee: 44:20

But then you ended up on that, there was a really long concrete path. It was flat.

Paul: 44:25

Oh, it was the old tarmac plants.

Aimee: 44:28

It went past an old tarmac plant. So on the right. So if you looked to the left, it was quite nice, but if you looked to the right, it was not very scenic at all. It was a horrible industrial tarmac plant that's partially demolished.

Paul: 44:40

Yeah

Aimee: 44:40

It's not pretty to look at, is it?

Paul: 44:42

No.

Aimee: 44:42

You've got a big barbed wire security fence on this side. And then on the left you've got a

Paul: 44:46

It's the sea

Aimee: 44:47

sea defense wall.

Paul: 44:48

Oh, it's concrete.

Aimee: 44:49

And you just run...

Paul: 44:50

Concrete!

Aimee: 44:50

through. It's like running through, not, not a tunnel, but you're almost enclosed on both sides, aren't you? Really long path. And just flat concrete for a long time.

Paul: 44:57

Yeah.

Aimee: 44:58

And I remember I was running along there thinking, Paul will hate this.

Paul: 45:01

Oh

Aimee: 45:03

Paul will be hating this. But I found that bit a little bit disheartening because I was doing okay'cause I'm okay on that kind of terrain, aren't I? I can just

Paul: 45:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Aimee: 45:10

motor on. And I was doing all right, but I started getting overtaken by people.

Paul: 45:14

Yeah.

Aimee: 45:15

And for a minute I was confused'cause they were going past me so fast. Some of them were flying! But then I started thinking they must be the 18 milers. So this one guy came past me who looked quite approachable and he wasn't going that fast, but he did overtake me. But I sort of said to him'can I just check? Are you on the 18 mile race?' And he said'yeah', I said oh thank goodness it's just getting a bit worried because so many people are flying past me looking so fresh and I'm not fresh at all. And he said,'oh, are you doing the ultra?' And I said'yeah'. He said'no, no, don't worry, we're 18 milers. We've only just started!' I was like,'oh, thank goodness!'

Paul: 45:45

I got used to people passing.

Aimee: 45:46

I think at that point I was just under 19 miles in,'cause yeah, the next checkpoint was at the end of that road.

Paul: 45:50

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 45:50

End of that concrete path was the next checkpoint and that was officially at 19.1 miles.

Paul: 45:55

Oh, was it?

Aimee: 45:55

Yeah.

Paul: 45:56

Oh, that was horrible, that bit. I did um

Aimee: 45:58

I knew you'd hate that. Oh, and I had a gel malfunction on that section as well.

Paul: 46:04

Ah.

Aimee: 46:04

I tried to rip off the top of one of my gels and it ripped off, but it somehow didn't rip off low enough, so it didn't actually make a hole in the packet. So I was like squeezing it, nothing was coming out.

Paul: 46:12

Oh, they're all right when they cut open, but when they don't!

Aimee: 46:14

Oh, goodness sake! But luckily when I got to that checkpoint, I did ask the lovely volunteers, don't suppose by any chance you got a pair of scissors and they managed to find... one of them went to the car and he found a pair of scissors for me. Bless him.

Paul: 46:23

That would've slowed you down.

Aimee: 46:24

He was able to cut it off.

Paul: 46:25

Slowed you down. So I did eventually drag my foot along to that checkpoint. But I think whilst I was dragging my foot along there and being overtaken by everybody, I think an old lady walked past with her dog at one point. I'm thinking, god, she ain't even in a bloody race and she's beating me! So anyway, I get to that checkpoint and it just suddenly clicked. I'm thinking, what? We'd done the Big Bear hadn't we, like a few weeks before. We'd done a 50 K and we'd done really well on that.

Aimee: 46:52

Yeah.

Paul: 46:52

And that was when I practiced my fueling and bits and bobs on that. Cause I did with, I think I got to 30 odd mile. I know it was a bit more elevation, this thing, but in five hours 40 or something on the 50. So I was thinking, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? And then it kind of clicked because I've got tailwind. Cause I find calorie wise, I think the drinks are quite useful. For one convenience, aren't they? You, you know, gels are good and that, but by the time you've got'em out, done that, got squirted it all over your bloody arms and like you've done, you think you've got it. You're like...

Aimee: 47:26

It doesn't open,

Paul: 47:27

There's a little bit and you're thinking as soon as you go like that.

Aimee: 47:29

Yeah.

Paul: 47:30

So I was think, what am I doing wrong? And the thing, because I was thinking electrolytes and I must say I don't, I don't normally do'em in races, but I have been doing them in races and I've got me electrolytes with me. I use uh, LMNT ones, little sachets. Fantastic. So I sacked off one of the, um, water bottles, filled it up, electrolytes, necked half of that straight off, put some more water in it. Did me Tailwind, necked a gel, wandered off sulking still. Got on to the next bit was...

Aimee: 48:04

I went wrong there as well.

Paul: 48:06

Yeah. You decided you were gonna go on the beach again for some bizarre reason. When there was a big gate saying'this way'

Aimee: 48:10

See again I made a mistake of following the woman in front of me. She was confidently running. You came out of that checkpoint. It was a little car park and it went off, there was like pebble beach to the left and then there was a wall, but it had a tiny little gap in it with a gate, which you couldn't really see unless you were looking for it. And she carried on down towards the pebble beach and went on to the beach or the stones.

Paul: 48:28

Yeah.

Aimee: 48:29

So I just followed her and then started running on this pebble beach thinking'oh, this is horrible!''Cause it was hideous to run on, but luckily there was a group of lads behind us on the race and they'd gone the correct way. Turned right, gone through this little gate in the wall.

Paul: 48:42

Yeah.

Aimee: 48:42

They'd seen us go wrong. So they were like whistling and shouting. So then we stopped and turned and they were going, you're going the wrong way. So

Paul: 48:49

Yeah

Aimee: 48:49

we turned around, ran back off the pebble beach. So yeah, twice I went wrong after I left you!

Paul: 48:54

I didn't, I went off the, you know, working it out.

Aimee: 48:56

At that point, my watch...

Paul: 48:57

Blatently obvious!

Aimee: 48:57

My watch didn't give me the notification to turn right, so! And I wasn't the only one'cause that woman didn't turn either. So

Paul: 49:05

I've got so many jokes, but I'm not gonna go there. But there you go. Navigation.

Aimee: 49:10

I'm not, I'm not, i'm not renowned for my navigational skills am I?

Paul: 49:13

No, not at all. No, definitely not. Anyway, we get going, you're flying

Aimee: 49:19

The path, you go through this wall and then it's a stony path, isn't it? Straight alongside this pebble beach for a bit.

Paul: 49:24

Yeah.

Aimee: 49:25

And then you turned right? And then you were running around these fields, around the edges of these fields.

Paul: 49:29

Yeah, fields. It started getting nice for me in a way because I could see

Aimee: 49:32

Much more trail

Paul: 49:32

You could see the hills coming and like I said, I thought hills... still giving my head a wobble. It was, ah, I was starting to feel a bit better. I thought my legs are going a bit better, started moving. And it is disheartening when you get people coming past you and you're like, oh man, what am I doing? I'm better than this. But it is part of it, ups and downs, part of it. So anyway, I started forcing myself.'Cause it is your head, once you start walking, you're trying to get your head back into running, it's hard.

Aimee: 50:02

Yeah.

Paul: 50:03

Cause it can, it can take over. And I was like, right, let's go. We're on the hills. Got on that grass bit, which was evil. I don't even know why they did it. It is almost like they went down the side of a field, but it was long grass. And I think it was originally a ploughed field, so it weren't no golf course.

Aimee: 50:19

It was really uneven

Paul: 50:20

But you couldn't see it.

Aimee: 50:21

Lots of holes. But because there was squashed down long grass over the top of it. It was just a trodden path, wasn't it?

Paul: 50:27

But only by us lot, nobody else had been down there.

Aimee: 50:30

It wasn't nice to run on that bit.

Paul: 50:31

Yeah. And then I sort of started getting going, once I got onto the hills and I was getting me electrolytes in me, getting the food in, because I think I was grabbing some of the light sweets and that at the aid stations and then my legs started kicking in. Okay there was a bit of pain there, but nothing... but my ankle, it was what it was. And I just, then I got me rhythm back really. And started

Aimee: 50:54

You bounced back?

Paul: 50:55

Yeah, I wouldn't say I bounced back, I started plodding along. And then, yeah, it did start getting relatively hilly and I did find, which I think it gets your confidence back a little bit as well that you, you're not that useless, running up some of the hills, you know? There was,'cause look, we're all at different levels, there was quite a lot of people walking and I was just...

Aimee: 51:17

Well, it's common on ultras, isn't it?

Paul: 51:18

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just finding, you know what,'cause we did say we wanna try and run all the hills. So as soon as the hill come up, I started plodding on'em and then they felt good. It felt good on the hills. It did feel good.

Aimee: 51:29

Yeah. I think that that's one area where we can really see progress from our training.

Paul: 51:32

Oh yeah.

Aimee: 51:33

I used to hate hills and I wouldn't dream of running them, but now, I think there's a technique to it, and I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I've learned I'm better off doing a slow, it's very slow...

Paul: 51:43

Yeah.

Aimee: 51:44

I'm not fast on hills at all, but it's, it's like a, almost like a tiptoeing motion.

Paul: 51:48

Mm-hmm.

Aimee: 51:48

You lift your knees a little bit higher and more on your toes. But that's how I tend to try and go up hills. And I've learned, it doesn't seem to hurt my legs as much as trying to power hike. I can't walk very fast up hills. I find, I dunno, they, it seems to hurt my legs more.

Paul: 52:04

It kind of, I think you go into like an, because like you're saying, I almost look at it as you've almost like a kind of a weird way of doing high knees.

Aimee: 52:11

Yeah.

Paul: 52:11

So you're kind

Aimee: 52:12

Not that exaggerated, but yeah.

Paul: 52:13

Yeah. I find you, you almost trying to be upright I think.'Cause whereas, when you're power hiking, I tend to find me, you lean forward and you are almost pushing down on your legs. And I do think at that point you are using so many muscle groups, whereas if you were just sort of running up,

Aimee: 52:33

It seems to burn my legs more. Trying to do the power hike.

Paul: 52:36

Yeah. Calves as well, yeah. Whereas this, it tends... yeah. I think, there is a technique involved in it and I think

Aimee: 52:44

I've learned as well now when you, when you approach some of the hills, we could see them coming, couldn't you? And you'd be like, oh my god, I've gotta get up there. And they look really daunting from a distance. But I've learned now at the bottom of it, just start running. Do my, do my little tiptoe thing. Yeah. And I don't keep looking up every few seconds,'cause that's what I used to do. I'd look up and see, oh my god, I've still got really far to go. And you just get really disheartened. I just keep, I'm not saying I'm looking down at my feet, but I'm not constantly looking at how far I'm from the top. And I just keep going, keep going at the slow pace, but I'm still running. And I found now this is how it felt yesterday. Although they looked like horribly long, daunting hills. I was getting to the top way quicker than I thought I was going to.

Paul: 53:24

Mm-hmm.

Aimee: 53:24

Like I'd look up maybe once or twice, but then the second time I looked up, I'd like, oh, I'm gonna go at the top.

Paul: 53:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once you are on them, and it is again, it's a head game'cause I think when you start out and you start on the hills, you know, even for a couple of years, they hurt you. They're horrible. They hurt you. They're hard. Your legs can't take it. You're out of breath. Yeah. Yeah. But it's manageable. It's, the more you do it, the more it's more manageable.

Aimee: 53:49

Yes.

Paul: 53:50

You can cope with it.

Aimee: 53:50

Yes.

Paul: 53:51

So I think you've got, well we definitely, you had a mental block in your head.

Aimee: 53:56

Yeah.

Paul: 53:56

That your brain went'that's hard'. That's hard.

Aimee: 53:59

Hill: must walk.

Paul: 54:00

Default setting. You tell yourself, you're gonna be quicker walking up it and you might as well just walk up the hill and then run after. I think the fitter and the more you do... It's not always, we're not saying you can do all of them,'cause some, if they're really technical.

Aimee: 54:14

There were some sections yesterday that I didn't run.

Paul: 54:16

Mm-hmm.

Aimee: 54:17

But mainly when it was like steep steps rather than a slope.

Paul: 54:21

But have a go.

Aimee: 54:22

Or if it was really technical terrain

Paul: 54:24

Have a go at'em. I'll tell you, the more you do it, the more they do become easier.

Aimee: 54:28

I ran way more yesterday than I think I ever have on a race.

Paul: 54:31

Yeah.

Aimee: 54:31

On a route like that.

Paul: 54:33

Well, I ran more on the hills than I did on the flat! Yeah. So the second half, yeah. I think we both got into the swing of things really, didn't we?

Aimee: 54:40

Yeah. So after, after the field section.

Paul: 54:43

Yep.

Aimee: 54:43

Where was the pebble beach? I can't actually remember what stage of the race that was!

Paul: 54:47

The pebble beach...

Aimee: 54:47

But there was a section of pebble beach that you were supposed to run across. That wasn't a mistake. I can't remember where that was.

Paul: 54:52

That was close...

Aimee: 54:53

It's weird how your brain does this, isn't it?

Paul: 54:55

I know!

Aimee: 54:55

It was only yesterday, but I can't remember where it was.

Paul: 54:57

It was quite far in, and I think I,

Aimee: 55:00

It was after the 18 miler, after the 18 milers had started, because I've seen someone's put footage on who was, who was on the 18 mile race and she's got a video of herself and some of her friends...

Paul: 55:08

I wanna say it's about 25

Aimee: 55:10

running across that beach, so

Paul: 55:11

I wanna say between 25,

Aimee: 55:13

Oh so quite near the end then?

Paul: 55:14

26.... I think so, because I can remember that because I come up the steps the other side and that's when I had, not a funny turn, but I think I pulled my race pack too tight.

Aimee: 55:25

Oh, okay.

Paul: 55:26

I felt like, because I think I used a lot of lung space. I dunno, I felt restricted on that. And I've got a funny feeling and I was like, whoa. Because I knew I'd got quite far and I thought, whoa, if I've got a problem, I ain't got that far to go. So I think it was the last third easy.

Aimee: 55:40

Yeah.

Paul: 55:41

But that beach, it was horrible.

Aimee: 55:42

It was horrible.

Paul: 55:42

It was horrible.

Aimee: 55:43

It's really big pebbles. Not, not, not little stones,

Paul: 55:46

Rocks, round rocks!

Aimee: 55:47

Very uneven. Like it's got break your ankle written all over it!

Paul: 55:50

Yeah. Yeah. And we, so I obviously my ankle,

Aimee: 55:52

I didn't run that.

Paul: 55:53

No.

Aimee: 55:54

I...

Paul: 55:54

I don't

Aimee: 55:54

I sort of did a tip toe.

Paul: 55:55

It was like playing hop scotch!

Aimee: 55:58

Tried, tried to do a fast walk.

Paul: 55:59

Yeah.

Aimee: 55:59

It wasn't a run. And I didn't feel very stable, but yeah,

Paul: 56:01

No

Aimee: 56:01

Luckily it's not very long, is it? You're not on it that long.

Paul: 56:04

No.

Aimee: 56:05

But yeah, that wasn't pleasant. That bit. And then you had to go up the steps.

Paul: 56:08

Yeah, there was, there was quite a few steps.

Aimee: 56:09

You think that was before the 23 and a half mile check point? So checkpoint...

Paul: 56:15

The one by the, by the lamppost. The lighthouse?

Aimee: 56:19

Yeah. Where the lady was filling up water bottles with a hose pipe.

Paul: 56:21

So the one by the lighthouse was... we went through... Oh, ent it bad, when you think it's only been 24 hours!

Aimee: 56:30

I think it was before that checkpoint. It must have been before.

Paul: 56:32

It was before. Oh, a hundred percent. Because after that one. So you went past a light house. Oh, you know what? That's bad, isn't it?

Aimee: 56:40

Isn't it weird how your brain like...

Paul: 56:41

It ain't even been 36 hours

Aimee: 56:42

forgets when it was...

Paul: 56:44

Either way it was on the course!

Aimee: 56:46

But yeah. So there was pebble beach.

Paul: 56:48

Yep.

Aimee: 56:49

I can't remember what I was gonna say.

Paul: 56:50

No, you lost me.

Aimee: 56:52

Well, there was a section, you had the 23.5 mile checkpoint where there was a lady filling up water bottles with a hose pipe.

Paul: 56:58

Oh yeah. She said'do you want me to squirt you?' I was like, oh, I, you know what? I would've loved it. But getting drenched, that's got chafing written all over it. And I've had experience with that and I didn't want... oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Aimee: 57:12

But I know from there, my head was telling me at that point, because in all the race information, they'd made it clear, and you could see it from the elevation profile on the GPX file as well. It was after the 23 and a half mile checkpoint, so checkpoint four, that's when it got hillier. So,

Paul: 57:28

So then we knew we'd got a 10... See, I must have been in a good place then because that, I can remember looking and I'd got 10 miles to go. So it must have been after that,'cause there was a few steps you had to go around the back by it?

Aimee: 57:38

Yeah

Paul: 57:38

Yeah, yeah. I think I was in a relatively good place then. Again, I was, topped up on the electrolytes. I think I'd got me nutrition down. My legs are eased off'cause of probably electrolytes and I weren't cramping. But I can remember thinking, once I tried to work out what screen I've got with the countdown on.'Cause you've got certain big things and then others you're like.... And it don't matter what distance you're doing, when you're a bit tired trying to do the maths, even to work out, right, so I've got an hour left, I've got five mile to do. How long's that gonna take me? And your brain goes 24.7, 34 9 9 hours and you're like, it's really bad! But I can remember seeing like 10 mile and thinking we do 10 mile runs, our 10 mile training, it's an hour and a half or something. You know what I mean? That's all I've got left. I'm thinking I should be able to motor this. And I think that it's weird when you're thinking, oh, I've only got 10 mile left that you're thinking, I'm home. I'm home dry. Shows how far you've come,'cause whereas years ago it'd be like'oh man, we've got a mile left. Yes, let's get, let's get it done'. And it's like 10 mile. I'm like, right, sweet. Not a problem. I can do that. And it was the last bit, I did enjoy the last

Aimee: 58:45

bit. Yeah. There was some nice sections, wasn't there? There was the bit past the lighthouse was quite cool.

Paul: 58:49

And it was busy because there was loads of people cheering, weren't it?

Aimee: 58:51

Yeah, there was,'cause it was such a beautiful day, wasn't it? There was families out for walks and stuff and supporters as well who were actually supporting runners, but they were all lovely, like really cheering you on. And so that was nice. There were some horrible technical bits in that last section, weren't there?

Paul: 59:03

With the steep down

Aimee: 59:04

So there was a few bits that really reminded me of the Arc actually.

Paul: 59:07

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 59:08

Which very similar coastal path where you like climbed down into like a bay and then you cross like a little, it's not an estuary, that's the wrong word, but a little stream that leads out to the sea.

Paul: 59:17

I was gonna say estuary and stream are very, very, very very different.

Aimee: 59:21

You cross the little bridge and then you climb up back up onto the cliff path.

Paul: 59:26

That was where you could see... No it weren't. Was that where you could, the, the road went up beside and then it looked really steep? No. Or was that the one

Aimee: 59:33

No, that was the checkpoint four and a half.

Paul: 59:36

The one that was the little bit before the end.

Aimee: 59:38

Yeah. They didn't class it as a proper checkpoint, but I don't really know why,'cause it wasn't any different to the other checkpoints. I think they described it as just being a water station, but there was actually food there.'Cause they made me laugh on that checkpoint because that's where they've got the Tupperware containers with pieces of chocolate. They'd like broken up some big bars of Cadburys or whatever chocolate bar it was and put it in this Tupperware tub. But it had just completely melted, it was just like a pool of chocolate.

Paul: 59:58

Yeah. But it was like that the lighthouse one I thought,'cause I can remember seeing the Jaffa cakes and I was like...

Aimee: 1:00:02

I'll be honest

Paul: 1:00:03

If I pick one of them Jaffa cakes up, I'm picking'em all,'cause they're stuck!

Aimee: 1:00:06

I didn't really look properly at the food at that particular checkpoint. I just spotted at the end fig rolls.

Paul: 1:00:12

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:00:12

'Cause I like fig rolls. I just grabbed one of those and I didn't really look what else was there. I just grabbed and went. The lady with a hose filled my water bottle up.

Paul: 1:00:19

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:00:20

But I didn't really study the food at that one, but I did notice that at 4.5, which was just supposed to be a water station, they did have melted chocolate.

Paul: 1:00:28

It would've been hard though,

Aimee: 1:00:29

and melted jaffa cakes!

Paul: 1:00:30

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:00:30

Just stuck together!

Paul: 1:00:31

It was hot.

Aimee: 1:00:31

The sun was just blazing on them and they didn't have any shade, did they?

Paul: 1:00:34

No.

Aimee: 1:00:34

Bless them

Paul: 1:00:35

No, no. They kind of, fair play, you know what, but

Aimee: 1:00:37

Yeah. The other thing I liked about there as well, there was a lot of families there, but there was a little girl, I think you said she got you as well.

Paul: 1:00:42

Yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 1:00:42

There was a little girl and she was like trying to high five every runner that went past and bless her, she high fived me and then she went'you're doing really well. There's only two big hills to go'.

Paul: 1:00:50

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:00:51

Which I thought was sweet'cause there was more than that.

Paul: 1:00:53

She was positive to you.

Aimee: 1:00:53

There was two really big hills, but there was other hills. It wasn't just the two climbs, but from that car park there was a horrible climb.

Paul: 1:01:01

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:01:02

Which I ran.

Paul: 1:01:02

Yeah, I ran that.

Aimee: 1:01:03

I'm so proud I ran it. Slowly,

Paul: 1:01:05

ran that,

Aimee: 1:01:05

but I ran it.

Paul: 1:01:06

And then we knew we were coming up to the end.

Aimee: 1:01:08

And then it started to look a bit familiar, didn't it? And

Paul: 1:01:11

Yeah'cause you're coming

Aimee: 1:01:12

You knew you weren't far from Ogmore

Paul: 1:01:13

back to where, you could almost see the beach, but the terrain changed didn't, it went to grass and that and it was ah, it..

Aimee: 1:01:18

Oh it was an uneven camber wasn't it?

Paul: 1:01:20

It's on a camber and it's horrible. I find that really, it's almost like my feet want to come out the side of my shoes.

Aimee: 1:01:25

Yeah.

Paul: 1:01:26

So I feel like I'm almost trying to run up

Aimee: 1:01:28

Yeah.

Paul: 1:01:28

To come down and then went down and then I could see the wall where we'd walked in the morning, half a mile the wrong direction.

Aimee: 1:01:35

See, I spotted further back than that. I'd spotted the hall because in the distance they'd put all the Run Walk Crawl flags.

Paul: 1:01:40

Flags

Aimee: 1:01:41

and they'd assembled the finish line

Paul: 1:01:43

yeah

Aimee: 1:01:44

arch and everything. And I could see that from way off. And I could hear the cow bells as well. And I saw that in the distance and I was like, oh, that's the finish. I was actually talking to myself going,'you can see the finish, you've got this'. And I was just running along that wall thinking in a minute, I've gotta turn right. And then, oh my god, there's that hill.

Paul: 1:01:58

See, I didn't realize, oh, I must admit, I didn't realize really until the end that we were gonna have to run up the hill. Because a woman said to me at that four point half, you finish at the cafe

Aimee: 1:02:10

Four point half?

Paul: 1:02:11

Four point half... you finish at a cafe. Because I said, it is not on the beach, is it now? And she said, no, you finish at the cafe. And for some reason I was thinking, I can't remember seeing a bloody cafe, but that was, there's a cafe in the hall. So in my head I was just thinking, oh, we're just gonna run down there. And I thought what we'd probably do is cut across the field and go up a gradual. No, no, no, no, no. I think they

Aimee: 1:02:35

No you turned by the end of this wall.

Paul: 1:02:36

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:02:36

And it was literally up.

Paul: 1:02:38

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:02:38

It is a bit, it, it reminded me a little bit of the Arc finish, but it's not quite

Paul: 1:02:42

It was a mini one! Very mini.

Aimee: 1:02:43

It's not quite as bad as the Arc, but it's not as long as the Arc, but it's a climb.

Paul: 1:02:46

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:02:47

One hell of a climb to that finish line.

Paul: 1:02:48

I ran it all.

Aimee: 1:02:50

I ran most of it.

Paul: 1:02:51

Run it all.

Aimee: 1:02:51

It kind of was steep then. Really steep.

Paul: 1:02:53

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:02:53

Then it leveled off a little bit to the actual finish. I ran the first bit, then it went really steep. I did walk a little bit. And then you literally can see the finish line. And I was like, I'm not walking across that finish line. So I started running again.

Paul: 1:03:04

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:03:05

But yeah, it was great. You could hear, obviously there's lots of crowds there and, um, cowbells and really good atmosphere.

Paul: 1:03:10

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 1:03:11

So I stopped my watch I crossed the line.

Paul: 1:03:13

You got there first before me.

Aimee: 1:03:15

I did, yes. I had no idea what time I'd done, that was the problem I had because my watch said I'd done it in 5:48, which I was gobsmacked by because I thought I was into 6. I hadn't been looking at my time. I'd just been concentrating on not getting lost and just motoring on. I was, wasn't even

Paul: 1:03:31

Even though you got lost

Aimee: 1:03:32

thinking about time. So when I saw I'd done under 6 potentially, I was just over the moon. I was like, oh my god,'cause that would've blown my target out the water.

Paul: 1:03:41

Mm-hmm.

Aimee: 1:03:42

I wanted to beat the 7:06 that we did two years ago, but in my head I was gonna be six hours and something. I was thinking. To get under six would've just been amazing. But I didn't know whether I had. Because I wasn't sure how long my watch was paused for. So it could have been paused for a minute. It could have been paused for 10 minutes.

Paul: 1:03:59

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 1:03:59

So I didn't know, so I needed to know what my official chip time was to know whether I'd got under the six hours. So I didn't have a clue. So then I had this dilemma'cause I'd crossed the line, but to go and get your medal, it was a little bit odd, but you didn't get your medal at the finish line. You had to carry on up the hill and then cross the road and then go into the hall and that's where they were giving out the medals and they'd got a big wall drop thing for you to have your photo taken

Paul: 1:04:21

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 1:04:21

With the race...

Paul: 1:04:22

It was good. It was good

Aimee: 1:04:23

Run Walk Crawl logo and you know, it was a nice place to go and get your medals, but it was a bit further on from the finish line. And I was thinking, do I trek back up there, get my medal, and then come back down to try and see you finish? But I thought Sod's law if I do that, because I had no idea how far behind me he was. He could have been five minutes, it could have been an hour. I had no idea. So I thought, I don't wanna go up there and get my medal and then miss him finishing. So I opted to wait by the finish.

Paul: 1:04:48

You left me once in that race and surprised you didn't, you know?

Aimee: 1:04:51

No, I wanted to see you finish, so,

Paul: 1:04:52

Yeah. Well, you would've seen me finish if you'd have stayed with me.

Aimee: 1:04:56

I did see you finish.

Paul: 1:04:57

Yeah, I weren't that...

Aimee: 1:04:58

You really surprised me actually. I saw him coming up the hill and he was only

Paul: 1:05:02

Running

Aimee: 1:05:03

17 minutes behind me.

Paul: 1:05:04

16

Aimee: 1:05:05

17.

Paul: 1:05:06

It was about 16

Aimee: 1:05:07

17.

Paul: 1:05:08

Was it full on 17?

Aimee: 1:05:09

I believe so, yes.

Paul: 1:05:10

Oh, you probably know by the millisecond.

Aimee: 1:05:12

No, I don't.

Paul: 1:05:12

No. But yeah, 17 minutes then, or 16, one or the other. It was round 15 minutes. We round it off really. It'd be probably easier, but yeah, I come back from the death, the...

Aimee: 1:05:24

You did really well. You did. The way you were when I left you, I knew you were gonna finish, but I

Paul: 1:05:29

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:05:30

Didn't know how much you were gonna have slowed down. The thing is, I know that you can bounce back. I've seen you do it.

Paul: 1:05:36

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 1:05:36

So I was like, if he's bounced back, he could have really closed the gap and he might be just behind me.

Paul: 1:05:41

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:05:41

That, that was possible. When you are in really good shape, you are definitely

Paul: 1:05:45

Oh I can go quick

Aimee: 1:05:45

but you are faster on hills than I am.

Paul: 1:05:47

Yeah. Yeah.

Aimee: 1:05:47

So he could have easily closed the gap even more if he was doing really well.

Paul: 1:05:50

I could see you up front, but I wanted you to take the glory.

Aimee: 1:05:52

Of course. Of course you could darling! So then we walked up to the hall to

Paul: 1:05:58

Got the medals

Aimee: 1:05:59

Get our medals

Paul: 1:05:59

sorted. Yeah, we got the medals.

Aimee: 1:06:02

Medals.

Paul: 1:06:03

And then obviously Aimee... oh, we've got the

Aimee: 1:06:04

Got them here.

Paul: 1:06:06

Medal. It makes a fantastic coaster.

Aimee: 1:06:09

I'm not gonna use it as a coaster.

Paul: 1:06:11

They're good. They're like a coaster.

Aimee: 1:06:14

And I like them'cause they've got a year on the medal.

Paul: 1:06:15

Yeah, I was gonna say

Aimee: 1:06:17

the ribbons are plain, which I don't normally like.

Paul: 1:06:19

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:06:20

But doesn't matter because it's got the year

Paul: 1:06:21

Got the year on it.

Aimee: 1:06:23

I don't like it when races use the same medal and ribbon, year on year.

Paul: 1:06:27

No. 2025. 25. 2025? Oh that'll mean I'm 50 this year.

Aimee: 1:06:32

Really?

Paul: 1:06:33

On my birthday in April. Doing ultras at 50. Don't put a time limit on it. Or age limit. Right. So we've done that, got our medals, then

Aimee: 1:06:44

We went and had a drink in the cafe.

Paul: 1:06:46

Had a drink in the cafe. You

Aimee: 1:06:47

The first time I've ever seen you decline cake!

Paul: 1:06:49

Ah, you know what I, um,

Aimee: 1:06:51

And I was buying as well and he declined.

Paul: 1:06:53

No

Aimee: 1:06:53

Shock!

Paul: 1:06:55

People who know me know I like the odd cake, but I just needed fluid that was not electrolytes or bloody Tailwind. And they didn't have a massive selection in there. So I think I just saw there was, I dunno, just some cold drinks. I just

Aimee: 1:07:09

Fruity, fizzy can of something.

Paul: 1:07:12

I can remember looking at the cakes thinking, oh, have a cake, have a cake. I was just thinking. Nah. My head was going, you have them cakes, I can tell you now, lad, you are gonna be bringing it back up. Any more sugar that goes in your stomach. We don't want it.

Aimee: 1:07:23

Yeah, you did say you felt a bit sick.

Paul: 1:07:25

Oh yeah. Yeah. So we did that. Went out, back out, met up with a couple of friends, gotta give them a shout out to be fair, it was their first ultra

Aimee: 1:07:35

First ever ultra yeah.

Paul: 1:07:36

And they did really well.

Aimee: 1:07:37

They did. They smashed it, both of them. Lee and Debbie Matthews.

Paul: 1:07:40

Yeah. They did it really good. Obviously I let Lee beat me'cause I'd given him a bit of confidence. Not!

Aimee: 1:07:46

They're younger than us. Quite, quite a lot younger than us.

Paul: 1:07:50

Yeah. Oh. Don't make any difference. But they did they they did do it.

Aimee: 1:07:54

They smashed it yeah.

Paul: 1:07:55

Yeah. They had some ups and downs in it, but battled through so massive shout out to them two for giving it a go and completing. So then Aimee obviously wanted to find out where

Aimee: 1:08:06

Yeah. I wanted

Paul: 1:08:07

You wanted to find out your time, didn't you?

Aimee: 1:08:09

I wanted to know... All I wanted to know was whether I'd got under six hours.

Paul: 1:08:12

Yeah

Aimee: 1:08:13

That's, that's all I wanted to know.

Paul: 1:08:14

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:08:14

Because I couldn't rely on my watch time. So I went and asked the race director

Paul: 1:08:18

You did

Aimee: 1:08:19

Where we collected the medals. He was sat with his laptop. I went and asked him, are the live results available yet online or is there any way I can find them?' And he just pushed this piece of paper out, which had a QR code on it. Great idea.

Paul: 1:08:29

Have a look

Aimee: 1:08:29

All race directors should do that. So I was able to just scan it and Debbie was with me. There was no signal was there in the hall?

Paul: 1:08:35

No.

Aimee: 1:08:35

So I, it scanned, it wouldn't open the link properly, so we had to go back out to get it to load. And then I was able to search my name and my result popped up. And I was ecstatic because I had smashed 6 hours. I did 5:51, which I was so happy with. That means my watch was only on pause for I think it was just over two minutes or just under two minutes. Can't remember exactly, but it wasn't long. So 5:51 was my chip time, which I was absolutely thrilled with.

Paul: 1:09:01

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:09:01

That means I took off one hour, 15 minutes from my time in 2023. So

Paul: 1:09:07

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:09:07

That's really good. I was pleased with that. But I was looking at the result on my phone and I was showing Debbie and I said,'am I reading this right?' And she looked and she said,'well, that's what it looks like. Perhaps we should go and check'. Because I was just in absolute disbelief. But it looked like I was second female, which I just was not expecting at all. So I actually went back in at this point. Paul was like, what is going on?,

Paul: 1:09:29

Well, no, I had to come up.'cause before that, I think we were going off to get ice creams and so I'd wandered off.

Aimee: 1:09:34

Oh yes, yes, we were.

Paul: 1:09:35

And then turned round, I was like,

Aimee: 1:09:37

Why has she gone back in?

Paul: 1:09:38

What are they doing? Back up. Come on. Yeah. And then somebody here...

Aimee: 1:09:44

I asked and they, they looked a bit puzzled at first and then they were like, what was your bib number? So I told them, and then they looked on the laptop and they said, yeah, you were second female.

Paul: 1:09:51

Second female.

Aimee: 1:09:52

So yeah, I got a prize.

Paul: 1:09:55

Second female, got a prize. She got a prize!

Aimee: 1:09:57

I actually got a prize

Paul: 1:09:58

A money prize man!

Aimee: 1:09:59

A monetary voucher to be used in the running shop where we'd registered the day before. So that was unexpected.

Paul: 1:10:05

See, all my coaching is coming in well!

Aimee: 1:10:07

Ha! Your coaching!

Paul: 1:10:09

I have

Aimee: 1:10:10

I think we need to credit Joe.

Paul: 1:10:11

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:10:12

Joe Corcione.

Paul: 1:10:12

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:10:13

Not you.

Paul: 1:10:13

I know he's our proper coach. But what he does, he lays the foundations,

Aimee: 1:10:18

Which you...

Paul: 1:10:19

and then what I do, I help pass those foundations onto you and help you achieve your goals.

Aimee: 1:10:27

Yeah, I follow the training plan. You don't...

Paul: 1:10:31

Oh, that's a low blow.

Aimee: 1:10:33

Not to the letter you don't,

Paul: 1:10:35

Yeah but

Aimee: 1:10:36

You, you take a more flexible approach to your training.

Paul: 1:10:39

See, I think I should be your manager. No, you're giggling. You're giggling.

Aimee: 1:10:44

I don't need a manager.

Paul: 1:10:45

Yeah, you do.'Cause I'll get you on the big races,'cause I think, look, obviously you're getting these first, seconds, thirds, you're in the top tens.

Aimee: 1:10:53

It's very small races.

Paul: 1:10:54

It's irrelevant. You're getting good top... No you can't. Don't diss yourself. You're getting some good results. You stick with me, I'll get you on the big races. But we've gotta obviously talk about the old bunsen burner earner. You know, the reddies coming in. If I'm gonna get you in these big races competing with the likes of Courtney Dauwalter and that, you know what I mean? It's gotta be something in for me! Anyway, we'll discuss this off record.

Aimee: 1:11:16

Have you lost your mind?

Paul: 1:11:19

You've gotta go for these things. Look, look how easy the podcasts have been.

Aimee: 1:11:23

Yeah. They're not easy at all.

Paul: 1:11:24

No, because it's 11 o'clock at night and I am normally asleep, but we've just, yeah. Do a podcast, they said it'd be fun. I'm still enjoying it, but... Right, let's get back to business. So Aimee did really, really well, really chuffed. Yeah, she got a cash prize, second place female, smashed off an hour and what was it off your thing?

Aimee: 1:11:49

Hour and 15 minutes.

Paul: 1:11:50

Hour and 15. I, yeah, whatever

Aimee: 1:11:52

Are you going to say what your time was?

Paul: 1:11:55

Huh?

Aimee: 1:11:55

So you did it in 6:08.

Paul: 1:11:57

Oh yeah. 58 minutes. 58 minutes. I wanted to do an hour off. 58 minutes.

Aimee: 1:12:02

That's still impressive.

Paul: 1:12:03

Yeah. But I did, so

Aimee: 1:12:04

Taking 58 minutes off your previous year.

Paul: 1:12:06

I did say

Aimee: 1:12:06

Well, your previous two year time.

Paul: 1:12:07

But if you didn't mess around with them tablets, I would've got in. That's the way you've gotta look at it.

Aimee: 1:12:11

Well if we're gonna play that game? If you hadn't had that issue and slowed me down, I potentially could have been first lady.

Paul: 1:12:17

You know what? You know what? Joking aside, yeah, I think you would've got it.'Cause what did the first lady, seven minutes weren't it?

Aimee: 1:12:22

Six minutes. I think she beat me by.

Paul: 1:12:24

Six minutes. Yeah. If you wouldn't have messed around where you'd taken your top off, chucking everything outta your bag, getting lost four times...

Aimee: 1:12:32

If you'd have taking painkillers straight away

Paul: 1:12:34

Well, we can...

Aimee: 1:12:35

instead

Paul: 1:12:35

of waiting an hour! We can keep going'what ifs what ifs'. Right. But, we've gotta wrap it up now.'cause I should have been in bed like hours ago. As you know, I'm a bit tired, so moral of the story, to be honest. Look, these ultras, obviously Aimee's had a real good'un, I had yet again another not so good one, but with any of'em, you go, you go through ups, you go through downs, different problems. The key thing is en'it is problem solving.

Aimee: 1:13:03

Yeah.

Paul: 1:13:04

It is problem solving. And it's all well and good us sitting here going problem solving, but when you're in the thick of it, it is harder because your brain'ent... you know, I'm sat comfy now, I can go yeah, oh, I should have drank electrolytes. I should have done this. I should have done that. When your body's in a bit of pain and it's going,'I think we should sit down and have a little stop Paul. Why don't we just sit down on this little step here and have a little chat and just have a little rest'. It's not easy to think straight.

Aimee: 1:13:29

No

Paul: 1:13:29

but don't get disheartened. You're gonna go up and down a lot. And it is, like Aimee said, if you've got an issue, try and solve it there and then. Unless you have that magic stone that I had in my shoe that I took out six or seven times, and then it went into the other shoe. I, I'm telling you now, I had a, I had a little stone and I'm getting quickly sidetracked. I had little stone and even a little stone in your shoe. Everybody knows you try and move it around with your foot, don't you, to get it in a position where you can't...

Aimee: 1:13:54

Yeah, I've learned if you've got a stone in your shoe, you need to straight away stop and get it out. Yeah, don't leave it because that's just asking for a blister.

Paul: 1:14:02

That's what I did. So I've got this... It was only a little tiddler. So anyway, I've got the Boa shoes, so they're really easy to take off. I've got'em off, didn't put my foot down. Managed to get the shoe, shake it, get me hand inside it and get everything out. Wipe me socks, put my shoe back on, walk off, bloody stones back in there. So I'm like, oh, what, how is this happening to me? I've got a broken foot.

Aimee: 1:14:22

Could it have been a different stone?

Paul: 1:14:23

No, the same one. I just knew it was the same one. I could tell it was the bloody same one. So anyway, coming on a bit longer, I was like, just get the bloody thing out your foot,'cause that's, it's doing your head in. So no, did it again, wiped it out, got rid of it all, ran off. I'm like, it's, it's moved, it's moved into the other shoe. I'm telling you now, it was a magic stone that was just out to wind me up. And I think it was still in there. To be honest, I bet if you found my trainers, the bloody thing's still in there. But yeah, problem solving, get them to get those stones out your shoe

Aimee: 1:14:52

Try and get them out.

Paul: 1:14:54

Yeah. But all in all, it is a learning curve. And some races, it was hot, this one.

Aimee: 1:14:59

Yeah

Paul: 1:14:59

It was a hot race. So I should have banged up the electrolytes from the offset, really. But it all, it just comes with trial and error, doesn't it? It really does.

Aimee: 1:15:07

We're always learning.

Paul: 1:15:09

Yeah. You get some races that bang on others. Aimee gets races all really bang on. I...

Aimee: 1:15:15

They don't always go bang on.

Paul: 1:15:16

See, this is the way I'm doing it on purpose really so I can tell everybody. So I'm showing you what not to do and you're showing people what you should do. So it's working well really, working well. So I finished it. Not ideal, but

Aimee: 1:15:31

You did still smash it though.

Paul: 1:15:32

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:15:32

Compared to our performance in 2023.

Paul: 1:15:35

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:15:36

Considering the issues you had, you knocked a massive amount of time off.

Paul: 1:15:40

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aimee: 1:15:40

And that was our goal ultimately.

Paul: 1:15:42

Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was.

Aimee: 1:15:43

We went into that wanting to do it faster than we did it two years ago and we both did that.

Paul: 1:15:46

That is true. That is true.

Aimee: 1:15:48

We both did that.

Paul: 1:15:49

Yeah, we did. We did. So all in all, good race.

Aimee: 1:15:54

It's a very good race.

Paul: 1:15:54

All in all, Run Walk Crawl. Nice setup.

Aimee: 1:15:58

Great. Yeah, they're great races.

Paul: 1:15:58

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:15:59

Love them.

Paul: 1:16:00

Like said at the beginning.

Aimee: 1:16:01

Brilliant volunteers.

Paul: 1:16:02

Oh, the volunteers

Aimee: 1:16:03

Well organized.

Paul: 1:16:04

Yeah. All the volunteers were chirpy.

Aimee: 1:16:06

Yeah.

Paul: 1:16:07

And to be fair, even people running and that, it's the kind of nature of all us runners and that when you're in a race, you do sort of look after each other, ennit. You see some,'you all right mate','you all right?'

Aimee: 1:16:15

Yeah. I don't think it's the same in speed racing

Paul: 1:16:17

I suppose not in a marathon

Aimee: 1:16:18

like road marathons

Paul: 1:16:18

they're like'see ya mate'!.

Aimee: 1:16:19

I don't think it's the same. But... not that I've done a road marathon, so how would I know?

Paul: 1:16:22

But ultra running people do

Aimee: 1:16:24

Ultra running. I think the community is just amazing.

Paul: 1:16:26

Yeah, brilliant.

Aimee: 1:16:26

I mean like, just a silly little example, but you stopped to have a wee, didn't you? At one point you went behind a bush and I stopped to wait for you and a woman was running past and she sort of stopped and said,'are you okay?'

Paul: 1:16:38

Yeah, just waiting for me!

Aimee: 1:16:38

I said, no, I'm fine, thank you. I'm just waiting for my partner,

Paul: 1:16:41

Waiting for him again.

Aimee: 1:16:42

I'm always waiting for him. But yeah, she

Paul: 1:16:45

It is a good community.

Aimee: 1:16:46

People always wanna help they'll all check you're okay and if you run similar pace to someone for a while, you get chatting and

Paul: 1:16:51

Yeah

Aimee: 1:16:52

I, dunno, I love the ultra running community.

Paul: 1:16:54

It was good. It was good. But and another thing, it's a quick one. I was just thinking, whilst I was scratching my nose. I did have hay fever as well.

Aimee: 1:17:00

Oh, another excuse!

Paul: 1:17:02

Wasn't it? I had hay fever.

Aimee: 1:17:03

You did to be fair. Although actually you didn't seem that bad yesterday. You were bad on Friday.

Paul: 1:17:07

I was really bad on the race. You wouldn't know'cause you weren't with me. Right.

Aimee: 1:17:11

I was for over half of it.

Paul: 1:17:13

Yeah. And then it kicked off when we got those grassy fields. It was really bad. Do you know when you were off on your own?

Aimee: 1:17:17

Okay.

Paul: 1:17:18

On that note... we love it really! If you got to this far, thank you very much.

Aimee: 1:17:26

Yeah. Thank you for listening or watching.

Paul: 1:17:28

Yeah. And we will be back soon chatting about summat! We ain't got a clue yet.

Aimee: 1:17:32

I'm not quite sure when this one's gonna be launched.

Paul: 1:17:34

We don't know when that one's going out. When the next one's coming in. We've got the Arc Take 2.

Aimee: 1:17:38

We're doing the Arc in what? Just over two weeks. Sorry. Just under two weeks now.

Paul: 1:17:43

Well, if this is going out in May, we would've done it. But we don't know. So from when we've done this, it's a couple of weeks we are...

Aimee: 1:17:50

From recording this, it's less than two weeks we are doing our Arc Take 2.

Paul: 1:17:53

We're gonna go and do the Arc Take 2. Yeah. And my confidence is through the roof after this weekend, but, right. Anyway, thank you again for listening and watching. Oh, you have to say all that stuff, don't you?

Aimee: 1:18:07

Oh yeah. Give us a follow on social media. We are Solemate Runners.

Paul: 1:18:11

Yeah.

Aimee: 1:18:11

On both Instagram and Facebook.

Paul: 1:18:12

And it's the like and subscribe thing

Aimee: 1:18:13

And like and subscribe on YouTube.

Paul: 1:18:15

I've been through this.

Aimee: 1:18:15

Follow us on whatever podcast channel you are listening to us on.

Paul: 1:18:19

Been through this with her so many times and she gets it wrong. That's what

Aimee: 1:18:24

We don't know what we're doing.

Paul: 1:18:24

We don't. We don't. That's why it's, uh,

Aimee: 1:18:26

We're just having fun.

Paul: 1:18:27

10 past 11.

Aimee: 1:18:28

And we're recording this for the second time.

Paul: 1:18:32

Thank you.

Aimee: 1:18:32

Thank you very much

Paul: 1:18:34

and bye!