28/07/2022
Hi Folks,
A massive thank you for your sponsorship! The fundraising team have raised £45k so far, an outstanding amount fueled by your generosity in support of my cycle race and a 24 hour community led cycling extravaganza run simultaneously in Broughton, Hampshire.
Another massive thank you to my support crew (Dust - driver, Vito - hydration , Ed – carbs and Colin – vision and temperature) who followed me for 17 hours ensuring my glycogen, electrolyte and hydration levels were in check.
A number of you have asked how I got on, so here is a quick summary and a few photos (taken by Ed Crispin and Justin Bidwell):
Getting to registration in Les Saisies (nr Chamonix). We had two cancelled flights, the third flight was delayed to 8pm on the Thursday, it then changed to 11:00pm and at 11:30pm we were notified it was cancelled. After queuing up for an hour (after midnight) at customer services in Heathrow, we discovered it was delayed to the following day at 11am. We eventually took off at 1:30pm on the Friday. We got to registration with 1 minute to spare. I also managed to leave my hand luggage at the bag drop which was hugely stressful and I was left feeling incredibly vulnerable as I only realised that I was missing my bag at security and could not get back into the airport. Luckily it turned up!
Sleep deprivation – we ended up eating at 11pm and going to bed at midnight prior to the race. After 2 hour 45 mins sleep for the second night in a row we were heading for the start. Not ideal but we were happy, positive and fuelled up with caffeine shots.
Start and first third of race (4 climbs, France into Switzerland) – it went really well. The 600 hours of training had paid off. My pace was up in the top 10% of the race.
Mid section (2 major climbs – from Switzerland into Italy and back to France.) There is a long straight drag at about 6% up to the St Bernard Tunnel followed by a 15k climb (Col Du St Bernard). There was a brutal head wind and the temperature hit 38 degrees. Despite the 1.5 litres of electrolyte per hour I started to cramp up on the drag before the climb, the pain was disabling and dangerous as I did not want to fall into the traffic as it is a very busy fast road which serviced the main access from Switzerland into Italy. At this point I remembered why this is the toughest one day ultra race on the planet. I had a huge fear of failure, I was convinced that I would have to retire from the race. I lost a couple of hours on this section until I got to the guys at the foot of the climb, thank goodness. I took some slow sodium tablets, a couple of litres of water and had a huge amount of encouragement from the boys and finally the cramps subsided. I recovered well through Italy and over Col Du Petit St Bernard back into France working back through the field.
Final Section – I felt fast and strong and was in the top 10% of finishers on the final 15k climb up to the finish in Les Saisies.
Post race – burger and chips that I could not face and the boys forced me to hike up a mountain the following morning after an amazing breakfast in Megeve……..
In summary, we have had few bumps in the road. However, thanks to team work, detailed prep and positive perseverance we got there. The heat cost me a couple of hours despite my condition.
Some numbers:
-30 litres of electrolyte
-4 TNT shots – don’t ask!
-48 energy gels
-huge number of bananas, digestives, Jaffa cakes and slow sodium tablets
-500 starters
-357 finishers
-I finished 207th in just 17 under hours - should have been 15 ☹
-no fatalities
Thanks again,
Paul
