I always like to think I'm honest, and like to try and tell you about the good, the bad and the absolutely disgusting bits, so let's get started, the Suffolk Backyard Ultra. It's pretty simple, you run 4.167 miles, on the hour every hour in till there's only one person left. The last one standing 🙌
It definitely wasn't the best prep going into this event and was always going to be a bit of a gamble. It was only a month ago that I completed my FKT on the North Downs way. So training hasn't exactly been strong, more of a trying to tick over.
In typical Smevs form, there's always some kind of drama in the build up, so 12 days out I caught a bug which wiped me out for a couple of days and I took 3 days off all training 😬 that was a killer 🤣but we got through that, settled in to our stride again and then the Thursday before the race, the turbo on the car decided to go, so Friday was a pretty hectic day, I'd had a last minute Boiler swap come in, so I was changing that while trying to sort out a courtesy car. Mrs Smevs was at home baking! She always sorts me out with some amazing snacks. Cheese and Marmite swirls were on the cards, and triple chocolate brownies, the brownies are 👌👌 very naughty but good 🤤🤤 about 600 calories a block, so you can get some good calories back in you, plus they have Coffee in as well so it gives you a boost.
While I'm talking about Coffee, I'll mention that I did a 10 day Caffeine cold turkey, I had read Maggie guterls blog from when she won the Backyard Ultra, and this is why she did, it made sense at the time, and when I did get round to having Caffeine again during the race it would be a welcomed surprise. Or would it?
Anyway it was Friday afternoon, I'd been checking the traffic all day and surprise surprise, a bit of rain and it turns people into absolute idiots on the road, so accidents galore and an extra couple of hours on the journey. We delayed leaving as long as we could, just to try and beat some of the traffic, but it never happened, a good 3 and a half hour drive, so we didn't get to eat till gone 9pm, then it was straight back into the hotel, a quick blast on the Myoair leg compressors and time for bed.
The Big Day
The Race was at midday, but we were allowed to check in from 8am to get set up. The Body Clock decided it wanted me up at 4.30am though instead with zero chance of going back to sleep 😬
So we got ready, and left, straight outside the hotel was a Gregg's, so had to sample a bacon baguette, that's what proper athletes eat, well that's what I've heard 😉
First to arrive at the venue, so we got to pick where we set up, right at the front near the start pen, so no extra miles clocked up walking back and forth to the tent. We got pitched up, got the decaf coffee on the go and waited, and waited some more, then a bit more then I had a big bowl of oats with dark chocolate, then waited some more.
11.30 came and it was race brief time, all 121 runners together for the first time, some big names within Ultra running and the current Champion 🙌🙌 because of the amount of runners they had split the waves up, so there was a wave at 11.50, another 11.55 and another at 12, then at 6pm it was reducing to 2 waves and at midnight it we all joined together in one wave.
So 11.50am came and it was time for yard 1, the course itself was lovely, running through a nature reserve, loads of animals running around. The loop itself had the potential for a really fast time, but that wasn't the name of the game, it was all about slow and steady. Yard 1 I ran with Michael Nolan, the plan was to use each other for Morale and keeping the pace steady for us both and keeping us both going. After completing yard 1, I knew instantly that the course was going to kick my arse, it was flat, completely flat. I train on the North Downs so it's all about elevation, me and Mrs Smevs did a trail half marathon a couple of months ago and we only clocked up 100m of elevation and that really made us suffer, so I knew this wasn't going to be good. A 40 minute loop done for this first one, a quick bite to eat and the whistle blows for the next one, still trying to find our pace and settle into some sort of rhythm, loop 2 done in 43 minutes. But my legs were already hurting, it was all very forced, making yourself go slow, it's actually really hard. It completely changes your running style, which then makes you use a completely different set of muscles, so loop 3 I needed to open up the pace a bit just to try and make my legs feel nicer, I had only done just over 8 miles and my legs were asking me questions already.
So a faster loop 3 coming in at 35 minutes, and my feet were now hurting, I had started in my Orange Inov8 Terra ultra g270, I love these trainers but they were hurting, so it was show swap number 1, same trainers but my green ones, these had a lot more miles in them but the toe box has stretched out a lot more so feel a lot more comfortable. So loop 4 done a bit slower again with a 42 minute one. Only 16ish miles in and if I'm honest I was worried, my legs were really starting to struggle so I knew I needed a another faster loop to try and get things moving again, so a 35 minute loop and that was 5 completed. But when I got back, I was getting real pain pulling up through my IT band on my right leg, so it was time for a 2nd trainer swap, a lot of other runners were wearing road shoes so I put my Nike peagus 37's on, these are white and I had done such a great job up keeping them white, if they weren't in my feet, then they were away in the box. Loop 6 this is were it all started to come crashing home, only 20 miles in, my legs in pieces, the heat was savage and no one seemed to be dropping out.
From watching other events like this, the actual race doesn't really start till about 24hrs, it attracts some fun runners with milestone goals they look to achieve, the marathon distance, 50 miles, 100k and 100 miles, so normally this is where people start dropping, but it was as if everyone just wanted to stay and play.
Just trying mentally tick off the loops so we could get down to the business end of the race. Loop 7 passed, loop 8 and another trainer swap same trainer but half a size bigger and in black, my trainers were still white so I was pretty happy about that. Another couple of loops taking us to 10. Michael who I had been running with on and off came in for the final time, he had hurt his leg and made the sensible decision to ring the bell, it was 10pm and now mandatory to carry head torches, it was time for the night shift.
Loop 12, the 50 mile point, surely there's going to be people dropping out, this was also the point that we all joined as 1 wave, so out looked like there was loads of us still involved and I don't remember hearing the bell ring much at all. So then you start thinking to yourself ok, loads will drop out at 100km then, it's fine, a few more loops then we can see what the situation is. The next loop was all about the beef and tomato pot middle 🙌🙌 and a 10 minute blast on the Myoair, hoping that it would shift the pain in my IT band, but unfortunately no luck, at this point I had also changed my trainers back to the white ones as the extra half size was causing too much movement and I was getting a sharp stabbing pain in my toe
I had taken the massage gun and leg compressors and was trying to use these in-between loops, we were getting on average 15 minutes a loop, so I had Claire running around making me food and sorting my fluids, and Mrs Smevs inflicting as much pain on me as possible with the massage gun, but we just couldn't seemed to shift the tightness within my IT band, you could feel all the lumps and bumps in it, and it was starting to produce some heat. It just started to get to a point that after every loop there was something else to contend with. My 🍒 actually survived the chaffe this time round, but my bum was going to make up for it. 1 in the morning, shorts round my ankles and Mrs Smevs using antiseptic wipes on my green puss infected bum hole 🤢🤢
Writing my Blog for FKT was so easy everything was so fresh, and I was completely buzzing for days afterwards, this is a lot harder and the more I write the more I realise although I was there running it, I wasn't actually there at all, I was a million miles away, never settled into it at all, took me at least 7 loops to workout my pacing and by this time my legs were done because of the flats.
Anyway we carried on throughout the night, it was so hot and muggy while running but as soon as you came into the crew area it suddenly went freezing, people were still running in vests at 3/4am in the morning. You just had to keep yourself warm for that 10/15 minutes you had in-between loops.
4am it started getting light and we could ditch the headtorches, and by 4.30am the sun was coming up and it was getting hot again, I also knew that Mrs Smevs would be leaving soon, and this was playing in my mind. We only had our babysitter till 10am on the Sunday morning, so when I left for my 6am loop I knew this would be the last time I see her till Monday morning. We had a little thing going, a fist pump and a kiss every loop with Mrs Smevs and a fist pump with Claire and that's how we started each loop. It was 6am and the last of Mrs Smevs, this was a big kick in the 🍒 I would have preferred some chaffe if I'm honest.
So it was just me and Claire now, nothing was really going to change, I just wasn't going to get my kiss. Claire helped crew me on my FKT, and she's brilliant to have around, she's a lot like me, very black and white, but she has a lot nicer way of putting things. No one really appreciates how hard Ultra events are for the crew, they spend hours and hours awake, looking after the runner and people forget that, ok there not running, but there's a lot of pressure on them, if they get things wrong it could potentially end your race for you. Claire also brought her cooking skills with her and made an absolute banging Chick pea and coconut curry with cous cous, I could of had a good few helpings of this but had to be sensible as I'd already had to make a few extra stops in the portaloos, mainly due to going cold turkey in the Caffeine, and then having cups of tea, chocolate brownies and Blockhead Caffeinated chewing gum 🤣
So Mrs Smevs had gone and Lauren was heading down to cover the Sunday shift, Lauren is part of the Tailwind trailblazer team, and is an Ultra runner herself. We had spoke o
n the phone a few times before, but had never actually met so it was awesome to have her come down to join us. I may not of shown it at the time but I did appreciate her coming. But at this point, my IT Band was really feeling worse, my Achilles was really starting to hurt and the movement in my right ankle was very reduced, and to be honest if Lauren hadn't already arrived I could of quite easily told her not to bother as I was ready to ring the bell. I knew at this point, in fact I had known from loop 6 that there was no way I could win, and that was the reason I was there. But deep down I knew, the course was just too nice, and too flat. If it had had 200m of elevation per loop I would have been all over it. I'm not making excuses, if you want to be a competitive racer then you have to be able to adapt to what's Infront of you and I couldn't do that, up till this point I had spent so much time in the North Downs training for my FKT. I wasn't good enough, but that's fine, I accept that.
I was now stuck in a situation where I had had enough, give me that bell I want out and Lauren's only just got here, if I sack it off, she's drove 2 and a half hours to be here and I imagine she will be pretty pissed off. Lauren took over the duties of Massage Gun, and quite enjoyed inflicting some pain on me I think, but whatever we did we just couldn't shift it. We tried to KT tape it up, but where I'd had sun cream on and freeze gel, nothing was sticking to it, even tried to massage some CBD oil into it, but it was past the point of saving i. All I kept thinking about now was, I don't want to get injured, what if I can't run, I've got some more races booked up and some plans I want to see through, and I was ready to go.
So i finished loop 22 went straight into the team and I said "I'm sorry guys but I'm done, my legs hurting and I'm going to ring the bell" the reply I got was, ok so what do you want to take with you on the next loop? I had already briefed the crew a few weeks ago, above everything else
Rule Number 1
I don't care what I say or do, you make sure I'm on that start line every hour to go again.
What had I done! 🙈🙈 I knew I was only 2 loops off of 100 miles, but I didn't care, wasn't even bothered if I made 100 miles or not, I knew 💯 that I wouldn't make it through another night. So forced on to the start line and off we went for loop 23, I was hating life right now, just wanted to be home with Mrs Smevs and the kids, I hadn't had it yet but this was the emotional loop, same as my FKT I didn't actually cry tears, but the build up was there, the feelings inside were there, I just think I'm incapable of actually crying. If I could of sat down for 5 minutes there and had a massive cry, it wouldn't of stopped my leg from hurting, but it might have just put my head back in the game instead of it being firmly up my arse.
Loop 23 done, only 1 more loop for 100 miles, but I still didn't care. I wanted to quit, and told the team I wanted to quit again, I got a toughen up buttercup from Lauren, and a it isn't happening from Claire. I was actually getting really angry now at this point, no one was listening to me they were just ignoring me and throwing me back out on the line again. I took my phone and headphones with me this time, and I got out on course and phoned Mrs Smevs, I just needed someone to listen to me and I knew she would and give me the advice I needed. I told her I was done, that there was no chance of me making it through the night, there was no chance of me winning and my leg was pretty f**ked. I then hit a section of the woods and the signal went, Mrs Smevs had gone, but we had decided that a lot of people should drop out at the 100 mile point, so just do one more loop afterwards to assess the situation. If loads had dropped out and there was only 10 left then all of a sudden it's games on and the competitive side of a race that I felt was missing could then appear. So I got lap 24 done in an alright time as well, giving me 13 minutes to sort myself out. Watching people coming in and no one was ringing the bell, think we only list 1 or 2. There's was still a good 30/40 people in at this stage, I convinced myself to do just one more loop, so I phoned Mrs Smevs again, she was just as surprised as me due to the lack of drop outs and it just showed what a quality field of athletes were there. But I told her that was it, I'm getting in not even going back to the crew, I'm going straight to the bell and ringing it. I was 💯 sure this was the right thing to do. Obviously I don't like to quit, but it wasn't because I was mentally beat, if that was the case I'd have gone on loop 6. My leg was done and I just didn't want to risk getting injured. I pretty walked the rest of this loop, as I had thought if I got timed out it doesn't look as bad as quitting, but then I thought I'd lose that loop and 4 miles is 4 miles right.
So I crossed the finished line, 25 loops complete, 104 miles, I didn't even look at the crew, I just walked straight to the bell, picked it up and rung it. I thought I'd be gutted, but it actually felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, and I was sat there with my crew watching them all leave on loop 26 knowing I had made the right decision for me. My first ever DNF, more than likely not my last but hey, it's all part of learning and growing as an athlete.
There's a massive difference between Embracing the Suck and being sensible, I feel I was sensible for a change and I 💯 made the right decision. I didn't get the result i wanted, to be fair it was nowhere near what I was expecting from myself, but I put in a good innings and did what I could.
I'd like to say a massive thanks to the Suffolk Backyard Ultra for giving me the reality check I needed, and to my Crew. Claire Lauren and John you were awesome, also to Linda who was meant to be coming down sunday afternoon but wasn't needed. But Mrs Smevs you really are awesome, I couldn't do any of this without you so thank you so much, massive thank you to you all.
Would I do another one? Maybe! But it's definitely not at the top of my race list.
A few days recovery then it's back to it, got a massive race in August! I'll let you all know very soon 🙌
Smevs 👊