Al Andalus Ultra Trail, 11-15th July 2011
After a run around Hardmoors 110 in June there were around 6 weeks left to complete some hard consistent training leading up to The High, to fly out for acclimatisation on 30th July. I wanted to run some hilly events to prepare as best possible for the long climbs that I would encounter as well as use the equipment from Alto-Lab to prepare for the low levels of oxygen saturation to be expected at The High. Having been abroad for a couple of races already this year and with India not being a cheap place to travel to our expenses were low (trying hard to save for a new vehicle, both our car and van are 10 years old now and becoming unreliable) and had to content myself with some local hilly races and had my eye on a couple in the Lake District that I thought would be a good challenge. Then, after an interview on a wonderful email came through from Paul Bateson about the Al Andalus Ultra Trail, 220km of hot and hilly trails over 5 days. It was very tempting and Paul Mott (a tent mate from the Marathon des Sables) had also emailed me to tell me his plans on running this in preparation for the Spartathlon. What would Bill think? Dare I tell him? I love the heat and love multi-stage events. This looked like nice size field of around 70 athletes, running to different places every night, semi-supported so that I didn’t have to carry a heavy bag and was just what I wanted.
I tempted fate and told Bill that night. He knows me well. There was no way he wanted to come. Paul had told me it was currently around 40 degrees in Spain and Bill hates the heat and with most of his holidays already committed with The High and other events he would have to stay home alone. As always, he saw the smile on my face and knew I wanted to run and knew it would be good training for me and would never stand in my way. The flights to Spain were very cheap, the deal for AAUT included 3 nights in a hotel, 4 nights camping, and there was little extra to pay on top of this other than any additional meals you required. I was in! I just had to sweat it out and hope my passport would come back in time now as I had just sent it away to get the visa for India!
Time flew by and before I knew it I was on the flight to Spain. I had a relatively easy week leading up to the event, only a midweek 10km race at Croft Circuit (42 mins 42 sec) and one last parkrun in the rain the morning before flying out 20 min 32 seconds. As my flight arrived in the evening I had been teamed up with three other athletes arriving from Germany and we were to take a taxi together. I was going to be the last to arrive and at 4pm when my flight was due to leave it was announced that there was nearly a two hour delay. I immediately emailed Michelle to see if there were any more later arrivals as it was unfair to make the men wait another two hours for me and would make them late to the hotel.
My flight was due to land at 20:05 and eventually landed at 21:50, but as I only had hand luggage ( I travelled light with 10kg) I got through customs pretty quickly and wasn’t quite sure now who I would be travelling to Loja with. I barely stood for a few seconds pondering where to go when I was greeted by Matthew, a fellow competitor that travelled from Germany and introduced me to Arend (from Holland) and Frank. They had waited for me! My message had got through that I was delayed but these three men had thought it unfair to leave me alone (sometimes it’s good to be a female) and had all agreed that we should travel together. How nice, I felt very privileged that they should give me so much respect and was a great relief to travel with them. The poor taxi driver had a long wait too!
It was warm when we arrived at the Manzanil Hotel and was immediately greeted by Paul Bateson and allocated my room. Motty was also there on hand for a big hug too, looking greatly slimmed down since our last meeting. It was around midnight and decided to unpack and go to bed.
Breakfast in the morning was 8:30 until 10:30am, so no rush to get down in the morning. After breakfast it was registration and a great goodies bag including suecos (kind of flip flops), race t-shirt, buff, elete (concentrated electrolytes) and a mule bar (liquorice flavour!). I took a walk out into town to experience the heat and was surprised just how warm it was. In the afternoon I couldn’t resist having a slow jog out for 45 minutes to feel the sun on my back, it was great. I knew this would be a hard race in the heat though.
At 6pm was race briefing, plenty of photos showing last year’s competitors out on the trails. There was nothing to worry about, the route looked well marked with pink paint or pink tape and patrolled by motorcycles almost the entire way. Checkpoints would be manned with water, ice and elete and spray bottles for keeping cool with plenty of medics around. At the campsites there would be hot and cold water available at all times for those making up dehydrated food, showers and toilets, kit bags were transported every day, tents provided(put up and dismantled by the crew) and there was always somewhere to get a hot meal too. Bags were provided to take overnight kit to the sites and all that was needed was a light bumbag or backpack with the compulsory kit for the day.
After the briefing I met up with Robert Treadwell who had made contact about being in a team together. Three athletes were needed to make a team and not really knowing anyone else there other than Motty we decided to see if he would like to join us to make a threesome. He was delighted and so were we, so we became Team GB. Dinner was later that evening and I was in bed by 11pm, all bags packed and ready for the morning.
Team GB: Motty, Sharon, Robert (just before the start on day 1)
11th July, Stage 1, Loja to Alhama de Granada, 37km.
Race start time was 9:45am. Breakfast was from 7:30am. The sun was beating down for the start right outside the hotel. So what did I wear for this one? Well I had only brought one pair of shoes due to travelling light and that was UK Gear PT-1000 road and trail running shoe, which were the recommended shoes by Paul Bateson for this event. I had got a pair through the post just two weeks prior to the event to test during the race. The few runs that I had run in them had shown no adverse affects with me and so was happy to wear these every day. They are supposed to be tough shoes to stand up to 1000 miles of running – that’s a good couple of months wear for me! I had a light blue technical t-shirt and running shorts as opposed to cycle length shorts. The other goal for this race was to even up the tan lines on my legs, since running in the heat of Athens in April I have been left with tanned lower legs that stand out every time I put running shorts on. I also had a sun hat with neck piece to protect me from the sun. I doused the hat, shirt and my head in water before the start every day to try to keep cool. I had heard there were 67 starters from 23 nations competing in this event – quite an international field! Although the majority were UK athletes.
We soon lined up and had a police escort for the first part out of the town. We had been warned the first 12km was some of the hardest climbing and was all up hill and to take care. In terms of drinks it was compulsory to carry containers for 1.5 litres of fluid. I had two bottles, a 500ml bottle with sports drink (perpetuem) and a litre bottle as backup that was half filled with plain water. I carried my usual bumbag with the compulsory equipment which was simply the maps allocated, compass, whistle, signalling mirror and food for the day, which in my case was three zip bags with perpetuem and a small bag of jelly beans. For first aid I had some small plasters, ibuprofen, immodium, anti-acid tablets and my asthma pump – plus a supply of tissues for the obvious!
Start of stage 1, right outside the hotel at Loja
There were to be three checkpoints on the first day of running of approximately 37km. With the first checkpoint at 12km this made the next two checkpoints significantly closer together. The start was reasonably slow with just a couple of athletes sprinting off in the distance. The tarmac soon gave way to a dusty track, with motorbikes streaming up and down creating clouds of dust. I didn’t count how many people were ahead but was aware of one female that had gone ahead in the first kilometre and was content to just settle down and run my own race. There really was only one goal for this event, and that was to have a week of being a full time athlete, having some good hard hilly training and finish in good shape ready for The High. The idea was not to beat myself up, push to my limits and stagger out each day for more punishment; it really was like a training camp and some great organised running.
The climb soon materialised and was a steady affair. The whole of the day’s route was good enough to navigate a four wheel drive vehicle over and underfoot was like a rough farm track with rocks and dust. The climb did get steeper and noticed a few people around that were walking, so decided not to work too hard while still acclimatising to the heat and walked too. Robert was around the same pace and had got some walking poles out to help on the hills. I don’t possess any and many races in the UK do not allow the use of poles, but am sure they were of help under these conditions. I had anticipated the climb taking around 75 minutes and was surprised as I rounded the corner to the checkpoint and glanced at my watch to see it had taken 88 minutes! My rough estimate of the day was that it would take around 4.5 hours of running as it appeared that each stage was about an hour slower on average than road marathon times. I refilled just the one 500ml bottle and added some perpetuem and the route continued on a great downhill section. The wind got up a little and felt much cooler now and even caught up with a couple of runners just before the next checkpoint. I took my hat off to take advantage of the breeze and that section was mastered in a mere 51 minutes!
There was a right turn at the checkpoint but had not seen the pink tape for quite some time. It seemed that on the long straight sections were there was no way of going off route that the markers were quite spaced out, but when you did come across a turning point the markers were plentiful. The route now gently undulated but was more downhill on wide dusty trails with easy running and came across a clean black tarmac section where the heat seemed far more intense. Apparently this tarmac had not been there two days ago, freshly laid to add to the challenge! The runners were well spaced out now and only now and then glimpsed the odd runner ahead or behind. It was shortly after this section a runner called Danny overtook and forged ahead looking strong. This was his daily routine, a slow starter and very strong finisher. By the third checkpoint I felt I was beginning to fade a little. I couldn’t face drinking any more perpetuem and simply filled my bottle with water, and drank a couple of cups while at the checkpoint. It was 7km to the finish now, the previous 9km taking 57 minutes.
The last section started on a wide track with more undulations on approaching the village. The last section took 39 minutes finishing in 3 hrs 57 mins and 02 secs. It was at a sports centre and on finishing there was ample cold water, coke, sprite, freshly cut oranges and water melon and ice available. The coke tasted great and water melon went down a treat. I sat around the corner where there were bowls of cold water to cool our feet. Absolute luxury! Robert arrived just minutes later and promptly emptied out his stomach, he had told me he didn’t go too well in the heat but he timed this to perfection! No time wasted out on the road and was back smiling again. It had only been two weeks since he had won the Cotswold 100 miles in record time, in very different conditions! It was great sitting around and catching up with the stories of the day. Richard Webster was there and it was only then that I realised we had been together earlier in the year in the Frostbite 50 in January and remembered the conversation we had while running along. He had also run the Osmotherley Phoenix the week before in a sub 5 hour performance which is a good time for that course. Riel Carol had won the event, his partner Helen Taranowski was second, just pipping ahead of Richard into third place. I was 10th person and 2nd lady.
Finish of stage 1, recovering and cooling our feet!
Inside the large sports hall all the tents had been erected in lines and bags allocated next to the tents. I found my number 30 bag and it was next to Helen and Riel. I had a protein drink, took a shower and had some couscous and tea to recover. There was an outdoor swimming pool that we could use and there was a presentation at 6pm. The first man, lady and team were presented with wine. Team GB were the first team, but Motty missed the presentation! We then walked into town to have a meal.
I had a great meal with a bunch of lads including Motty and Arend and it was getting dark by the time we returned. It was hard to sleep in the sports hall as it was so warm – and the music was still playing from the spinning class nearby. I took my mat and sleeping bag and went outside hoping there would not be too many biting insects outside. I didn’t need the sleeping bag but really struggled to sleep; it was a warm night and was pleased when dawn arrived.
12th July, Stage 2, Alhama de Granada to Jatar, 45km
Despite some lightning overnight and an overcast start to the day the sun was working hard by the time we started at 9:30am. I struggled to eat my porridge for breakfast, not usual for me and hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come. I had perpetuem in my bottle for the first stage but before the start decided that I really couldn’t even face this right now, all I wanted was water, so I tipped it out and eventually found someone with a bottle of water to replace it. The water in the sportshall had dried up, a minor technicality, probably not used to so many people using the facilities. My legs were feeling good after an easy first day and was anticipating a strong run today, but had been warned it was a tough day with some technical climbs and there were to be four checkpoints today with the course being longer. I started in the exact same kit as previously, the only change was a pair of clean socks. The start was fantastic, immediately into a gorge with high sided rock formations, the route jumping and twisting over rocks below and ducking and weaving between bushy bits. I soon found myself with Robert again and the route unwound and we arrived at the first checkpoint, only 67 minutes for the first section today and then off onto some more gently undulating trails. Checkpoint 2 was reaching some 66 minutes later and then the real climbing began. I was now using the elete electrolytes in my bottles and was pleased that this was totally tasteless but still added something to replace what I was sweating out. This had been supplied in the goodies bag at registration and was very easy and practical to use and was to go on to use this for the rest of the week.
Running through the gorge at the start of stage 2