So after the magic of the finish line on the seafront in Dover, I got myself changed quickly into some warm clothes, and my running slippers. Yes these are actually a thing and are brilliant, I've got a set of North Face ones.There like a sleeping bag top with a hard outside sole on, sounds a bit weird but there not I promise. Really warm and soft so great for when you've just abused your feet for 28 hours 🤣.
So after playing a game of load the car unload the car, it became quite apparent that, all 7 of us, Bruno the bulldog and all the left overs of the Tesco food shop, plus horrible smelly sweaty clothes weren't all going to fit in. So a quick re-juggle with friends and a child lighter we headed home. I don't actually remember the journey much it was all a bit of a blur, but what I do remember is pulling up outside the house an hour later.
Help
So we pulled up directly outside the house, I'd kept my legs moving as much as I could in the car, but I opened the car door to get out and my legs just flat out refused. I couldn't move, it actually felt like I'd lost the use of my legs. Mrs Smevs (Wifey) and Daisy my eldest daughter 12 at the time had to take an arm each and quite literally pick me up, drag me into the house, up the stairs and pretty much just threw me onto the bed. There I lay for probably an hour, knowing that I needed to get into the bath with some CBD oil bath salts very kindly supplied by Leaf Organics. They actually sent me an awesome care package, some oil, muscle rub, bath salts and some tea bags 👌👌
2 hours prior to this, the last thing I could think about was food, but now all I could think about was food. All I wanted was a Sausage, bacon, hash brown, egg and cheese baguette, it's all I was thinking about. So Mrs Smevs the absolute legend that she is, went off to the shops to pick up some well needed supplies. Bear in mind, she had been awake just as long making sure I was fully loaded at my pit stops, changing me and force feeding me custard, so she can't of been feeling all that great herself. But as an absolute trooper, she got the supplies and started to cook up a feast.
In the mean time upstairs I was contemplating life, asking myself if it was actually all worth it, obviously it was and I'll never tell you any different, but at the time I just wanted the bed to suck me in end the suffering. But I was still needing that bath I was talking about and made the effort to get my arse up off the bed, the 5 metres to the bathroom took me a good 5 minutes to get there 🤣🤣 would have loved a zimmer frame.
CBD oil bath salts in the bath and in I got, instantly I could feel the wob monster coming for me. For those thinking what the hell is the Wob monster, it's a term we used in the military for tiredness. I knew it would be dangerous staying in the bath too long feeling this tired and was just about to get out early, when Mrs Smevs crashed through the bathroom door, with a cup of tea, a Tailwind Recovery Shake and a fully loaded baguette 🙌🙌 Absolutely smashed the hell out of it, I put Bruce bogtrotter to shame. 15 minute muscle soak, a full belly and I dragged myself back to the bed and off I feel to the land of nod, only slept for 2 hours though, that's all I could manage and I felt guilty knowing Mrs Smevs was tired and having to looking after the 4 kids of her own. So off I went downstairs, thank goodness for the double handrails we have otherwise there was no chance of getting down.
I had originally said I was going to leave everything till Monday, but I was up so jumped on the computer and submitted my results to FKT for approval and then tried to work out how to start writing a blog or put loads of waffle on a page for you all to read, whichever way you want to look at it. I then sat on the sofa for a few hours writing my blog, trying to get as much detail in as I could while it was all still do fresh. Of course I had to sample another fully loaded baguette at this point, I'd burnt over 15,000 calories in the last 24 hours, so it made sense to try and get 20,000 back in 🤣. Proper bed time soon came around and after the struggle to get up stairs, the struggle to get on and off the toilet, I finally made it to the best bed ever. A few drops of CBD oil and I was ready to go to the land of La La. I must of had 2 hours sleep before I woke and the bed was actually soaked, thought I'd pissed the bed at first, but it was sweat and I was absolutely freezing, not wanting to wake Mrs Smevs I went and grabbed a towel from the bathroom put it down over the soaked sweat patch and got back in, to then be woken a couple of hours later with even more sweat, a wet bed, and a wet towel, things weren't good at this point, and all awesomeness that I had felt had disappeared and know I was just a sweaty mess that couldn't walk. This actually went on for the next 3/4 nights 😬
Bank Holiday Monday then appeared and I pretty much spent the first 5 hours of the day drinking coffee on the sofa and writing my blog in my pants 🤣 that's what Bank Holidays are for right? Mid afternoon came and I knew I needed to get out the house for a bit, so I put my music and went for a walk, nothing too long, only 15/20 minutes around the estate, after a couple of minutes the legs really loosened up and started to feel semi normal again, don't get me wrong, I couldn't of gone and run another 126 miles again but I was walking and it didn't look like I'd shit my pants. So that was a win 🙌🙌 As I walked around the block literally 100m from the house, there's a slight decline and as I was walking down it, the wind picked up and was pushing me down the hill, making my legs move a lot faster than they were capable of going, while everyone that was in the park seemed to me watching me, God knows how it looked 🤣
I'd booked the week of work, so Tuesday came and I did the school run, a few of the mums had been following on social media so were asking me about it, which was cool. That's pretty much all I can remember for Tuesday, I was too excited about Wednesday I was booked in for a tattoo, I'd been waiting for 2 years with the bloody Covid thing and moved appointments, and by this time now my legs were starting to feel pretty normal again, well the one that was getting tattooed didn't feel normal at all 🤣
Mrs Smevs was sitting her practical exams for her PT course, so I was on little Nelly duty, she's our youngest who's 18 months, a bit of a handful but she's absolutely amazing. We went to the park, did some jobs, post office trip as we had to post the tracker back.
But it was Thursday this meant my first run since the FKT, it was on my plan as optional so I could have easily just not bothered, but I'm not like that, I needed to get back out running, to be honest I was missing it, I was already suffering with a pretty extreme case of Ultra Blues, and the only way I can cure it is by booking or planning something that is going to give me a buzz, a purpose, something to train for. I need something to train for, I love the fact that there is an end result, I think that's what has made it hard over lockdown, training for a race, only for it be cancelled, which actually is why the FKT came about because of a cancelled race. But it was run time, was only an easy 30 mins, but it was good to get going again, and by this point I had already booked my next challenge, I'd actually done it on the Tuesday just 2 days after the FKT
A lot had gone on that week, the FKT was approved and made official, I got a shout out on Run to the hills podcast, our local paper did a piece on me online and in the paper, but the best bit was going back through the hundreds and hundreds of messages and comments on Facebook, there was literally loads. I was still coming across new posts on the Friday of this week it was actually insane and really blew me away, so a massive thank you to everyone for that.
The next run was Saturday, it was a bit longer, an hour. Now for an hour I'd just normally hit the tarmac and trot out and trot back, but I was missing the trails, so I headed over to Ranscombe and did a 30 min out and back, I loved it, back out on the North Downs, some quality times reliving my youth with the Americana album from The Offspring 👌👌
This weeks training has been back on, and a few more sessions added, a few strength and conditioning sessions, and 4 runs. Hit the gym Monday and Wednesday, Monday I did a heavy leg session and the legs felt really good, was hard to believe I'd ran 126 miles just a week beforehand. But I've seemed to of recovered really well, with the help of my new toy from Myo Air, these have been brilliant and have helped massively, I've started to introduce these into my daily routine, 30 mins a day seems to keep the Dom's away. 🤞🤞 This week has also seen me go back to work, straight into installing a full central heating system, so nice and easy 😉 it's also my eldest Daughters 13th birthday today, so had so far a pretty fat day, she had me at McDonald's this morning picking up breakfast, plus it's pizzas tonight, where no doubt I'll eat till I feel really ill, but as long as you enjoy it, then it's all good 🤤🤤
So what's next?
Well I have an actual race, it's a race with a massive twist and there's only 1 winner and everyone else gets a DNF but it's a race.
When I first got into Ultra Running which as I said wasn't all that long ago, but I've watched loads of Ultra documentaries on you tube, and there's a few races that have really stuck with me, and races that I would love to go and do, all 3 in America, Badwater135 Western states 100 and of course the Famous Barkley Marathon. So while I was feeling sorry for my little legs at home, my running coach tagged me in a post for this particular race, because as crazy as it sounds while I was 74 miles in to my FKT, to take my mind off that challenge I was telling her all about my plans for the next 🤣🤣
Is always good to have a dream, so when you get a chance to take some steps towards your dream, you go for it. So on June 5th I will be taking part in the Suffolk Backyard ultra, this is a 4.167 mile route, and on the hour every hour you run that loop till there's only one person left. The Winner then receives a Golden Coin which then gets them into Bigs Backyard Ultra in America in October, so this would be absolutely unreal on its own, but then the winner of that one gets a place in the Barkley Marathon. I'm not saying I'm going to win this, then go to America and win that, I'm not crazy, but it's the start of a running dream I have and I'm ready to explore my options. This type of event will really suit my strengths, I don't have to be faster than anyone, I just have to last longer, I just have to have the mental strength to keep stepping over that start line again and again, till it's just me left. Can we do it, who knows, but we will find out soon enough, 3 weeks Saturday it's on. 👊👊
Mr Smevs 👌