I woke the day after having to pull out of the ultra event in a dark place.
I felt a little stiff, but other than being very hungry and thirsty and having a couple of manageable blisters there seemed to be nothing wrong with me. In my mind not only had I failed to attain my goal, I had let myself and more importantly my team down. I checked in with the team who were still going but in a lot of pain.
I picked up my phone and started making notes.
Where had it gone wrong?
What could I have done differently?
How do I make sure when I do the event again next year I do not fail again?
To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail
A lot of preparation had gone into the event. All the science behind our efforts had been calculated. New boots had been bought and worn in. Training had been done, unlike other events I had participated in.
Wait.
I had trained, this is true, but other than frequent long walks I had only really done two sessions of any consequence – a 20km walk at 20% faster than intended pace, and a 44km walk over much harder terrain. I hadn’t checked out my fuelling strategy robustly. I hadn’t done the event distance over a number of days so I could find any potential physical failings. If I am honest with myself I just hadn’t put enough miles into my legs and feet to be as confident as I was, and I am most definitely not in the best shape of my life!
Of my walking companions there was one training for an Ironman, one who is in the gym every day and goes running, and the third who had done many long training walks.
OK, change number one is more training, as close as possible to the event situation as possible.
Plan the dive and dive the plan
As mentioned in the previous post we had our plan: walk at 12min/km for 21 hours; 10 mins per intermediate rest stop; 20-30 mins per major rest stop; 10,000 calories over the full day; 500ml of fluids including electrolytes per hour.
When we set off there were bottlenecks, so we walked around them, through heavier underfoot conditions. It had rained heavily the day before so there were parts of the course which were treacherous, and we were barely moving. So when we got the opportunity we strode out. We were walking at 10 min/km on the flat, 11 min/km up some pretty steep hills. We discussed that maybe we were walking too fast, but we justified it to ourselves as making time up.
We certainly weren’t following our plan as far as speed was concerned.
The first intermediate stop went just as planned. The first major stop we were more or less on the extent of the time we had allowed ourselves, preparing for what was going to be the longest leg between stops.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face
The third leg was deceptively brutal.
We set off just after lunchtime and the sun came out to greet us. A warm sun, with a nice cooling breeze. For 2 hours we walked on friendly terrain, pushing the pace along as we enjoyed the sunshine. I realised I didn’t have enough liquids for the roughly 3 hours it was going to take us, but I felt fine, so I didn’t see a real issue. We even walked past some shops where I could have bought some extra water, but I pushed on regardless at a relentless pace.
Then we hit the mud.
We walked uphill through a wood, glad of the shade to stop my arm from burning any worse than it already had in the spring sunshine, but the mud was relentless. We had to go off the path in places – even with good walking boots on there just wasn’t enough traction. We slowed right down, and started using muscles in our legs we wouldn’t normally have to use when walking.
My fluids ran out. By my calculations we still had at least an hour to go until the next checkpoint. When we got back onto some friendly terrain I struggled to get my legs moving again. They ached, and I felt terrible. One of my friends managed to procure some water from a passer by which he shared with me, drinking half a litre in one go, and suddenly I found the energy to push on to the next stop, but when I got there I felt awful.
I managed to drink another litre of water, refill my bottles, and get a little food inside of me, but not enough. We set off again for the midway point after a much longer than planned intermediate stop of half an hour or more. I was feeling much better but that was not to last. We pushed the pace again, I faded again, unable to eat, and slowed to a crawl.
A different formula
I got to halfway and had to drop out. I “did” rather than “tried”. I followed the “formula for guaranteed success”. Yet I still failed.
Why?
The “formula for guaranteed success” does not allow for “punches in the face”. It is a solid plan as long as everything goes smoothly. But things very rarely go smoothly, and so we need a different formula.
One which allows us to use the data we gather, apply that to our original plan, and deviate from our course to achieve the same goal.
Again, and again, until we succeed.
Next year I will use the modus operandi of INTO THE WIND when I take on the Ultra again:
