Anyway, I digress. I am happy to be writing this blog, having taken part in my 3rd consecutive Thunder Run. The whole process started in October last year when I experienced a couple of tense hours just after midnight trying to register our team. Fortunately I managed to get our team registered.
Last year (and the year before) I was part of a team of 5. The team this year was myself, Brian, Matt, Dan & Derren (we were the five man team 'A Kick in the Blocs' last year) and we were joined by Susie, Claire & Kellie, Brian's, Matt's & Derren's wives respectively. Claire being a relatively late replacement for my wife Mich, who had to drop out due to injury.
The 8 of us made up team 'Runner Beanz & Has Beanz'
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| Team 'Runner Beanz & Has Beanz' |
Having pegged out my ground sheet and getting the tent laid out, I realised that the pump was sitting in my parents conservatory 150 miles South of my current position. With hundreds of people setting up camp, I knew there was a high chance of somebody else having a similar tent. Better so, that said family were virtually next to us which was very welcome as the rain had begun to fall.
Lesson No.1 If you purchase a new state of the art inflatable tent, once you have practiced erecting it at your parents, ensure that you pack the required pump back into the bags.
Over the next 3 or 4 hours the rest of the team arrived one by one and we all mucked in to help put up each other's tents of various shapes and sizes in the persistent rain until our last team members Derren and Kellie turned up.
Our tents so far varied from 3 man to 5 man man tents with extensions, separate bedrooms etc. There was much laughter when Derren's pop up tent was put up in approximately 4 seconds. This was to be the abode for the next 2 nights for himself and his wife. We all thought it was funny, Kellie was less impressed!
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| The Tardis. Plenty of room for 2 adults and all the gear needed for 48 hours! |
So come 5pm our area was home to 8 tents, 2 gazebos, 13 adults and 8 kids.
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| Base Camp (photo taken Saturday morning) |
It is a well known fact that top athletes ensure that they hydrate and eat well before an endurance event, so despite the rain, we huddled and ate and drank. Although there was no Quorn on the BBQ and I am not sure of the electrolyte content in real ale, lager and wine?
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| Athletes and support crew in preparation |
Saturday morning we were greeted with sunshine and light cloud.
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| Some of the kids fuelling for a long day of cheering and High-Fives. |
Derren went to collect the T-shirts, numbers, timing chips and the all important baton were collected. We were also provided with a selection of deodorant and shower gel. Maybe a subtle hint that 24 hour race runners smell?
We had a chat about team tactics and started to get prepared for the event, which obviously required a the obligatory team photo. As you can see our racing entire included an accessory.
At 11.20a.m we wandered down en-mass to the start area for the pre-race briefing which included a introduction to the Pioneers. These are the few hardy souls that have taken part in every Thunder Run since its inception in 2009.
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| Getting ready for the start |
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| Not often you see a man in a pink tutu at the front of the pack! |
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| A Runner Bean - Quite literally |
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| The Sugar Plump Hippo |
Dan & Derren then followed with laps of 57:58 & 46:32.
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| Lap One, still smiling |
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| Derren swooping in for some High Fives |
Now it was the turn of the girls. Claire was out first and this was not only her first ever Thunder Run, but also her first ever 10k. Nothing like a baptism of fire. The route despite being 10k long is quite compact with a lot of switchbacks. I suggested that we made our way to the 6k mark to give Claire a surprise mental boost by cheering her when she wasn't expecting it.
As she came round the corner, we went radio rental and her two young girls were delighted to see her. We then went back to the 9km to cheer her home. En-route back to the 9km I suggested we keep it quiet what we had done and repeat this surprise for the other two girls. So it was explained to the kids that they musn't say anything to the other mummies, yet it was Matt who nearly let the cat out of the bag. Claire completed the course in an excellent 1:28:53
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| Claire coming up the hill at the 6k mark |
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| Even the knee tape was colour co-ordinated |
The final team member to run was Kellie, I think she was a bit nervous being the last person to run, but once again was given load of encouragement at the 6k & 9k markers and she completed her lap in 1:09:32. We were about 40 mins ahead of our schedule.
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| Kellie on the final k of her first lap |
So we had now all completed one lap each, which meant that we would all get a medal. Now the next task was to work towards the 25 laps which we had worked out we wanted to do pre-race.
Once the race begins, there is a constant hive of activity, as each runner comes back, they have their own schedule of maybe showering, eating, resting and getting ready for the next lap. The wives/supporters have to eat and look after entertain the kids. There is no routine, but that is what makes it fun. We would all plenty of time spend time cheering on strangers and just have a laugh.
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| Brian became quite attached to his tutu and even completed some domestic chores whilst wearing it! |
The solo runners, yes people that run the event on their own (also known as fruit cakes in my book) have different coloured numbers, so they always get extra support from the crowds.
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| Two of the SOLO brigade. Big Mike (Spiderman) one of the Pioneers along with Little Chris (Batman) |
Myself, Brian & Matt even managed to squeeze in a mid race beer from the Bar/Bus. Well it was sunny and technically we were on holiday :-)
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| Bus/Bar.... What a perfect combination |
The next phase would be two cycles of the 5 gents. Brian did his lap, Matt went out on his lap and I was next up. I got ready as normal and started to make my way to the start/handover area. However nearing the area and without beating around the bush, I needed to take an emergency toilet break. This took a lot longer than I wanted and resulted in me not being in the handover point when Matt finished his lap.
I have seen this happen a lot over the last 2 years and it is possibly understandable at 3am in the morning. But this was at 9pm in the evening and I am still not sure how we missed each other?
Matt tells me he was at the handover shouting Ray, then because of no response he started shouting Derren, Dan etc. This is where the macabre humour sets in and others in the handover area started questioning Matt asking if he was just making names up. So Matt decided to (and was encouraged by all accounts) to run another lap.
I honestly could have only missed him by seconds? So I am standing there thinking, blimey Matt is taking longer than expected, he must be injured, 10 mins pass, 20 mins at 30 mins I am panicking. So I speak to a volunteer on the water station with a radio asking if there has been any reports of an injury? I am asked for a desciption and number. "Er I think 2427, erm about the same height as me, darker hair, no way near as fat as me, oh and he is wearing a pink tutu" After some communications on the radio, she tells me that there are no reports of anybody injured.
About 5 minutes later, Brian turns up at the handover area saying that they didn't see Matt either at the 9km mark. Now, I am having visions of Matt lying in a ditch somewhere and nobody can/has seen him. Brain checks the medical area and then goes to the food tent and types in Matt's number and comes back to tell me Matt completed a lap in 44 minutes. We are both confused and concerned, but this now gives us hope that somehow we had all missed him and he was doing a double lap.
And so it transpired, Matt had indeed gone out on a second lap, it also transpired that Matt was not wearing his tutu.
Lesson No.2 Have a plan for such a situation. You would think this being my 3rd year, this would have been considered. If we get in next year, we WILL have a plan.
Lesson No.3 If you have a team outfit of a pink tutu. Wear it every lap :-)
I trundled out into the darkness, still confused by how we had missed each other, but also relieved that Matt was OK. As I got halfway up the 1st hill, a Marshall called me over. "Are you the missing bloke with the tutu?" "Ah no, misunderstanding, all good, team member alive and well" At the next Marshall point "Are you the missing tutu man?" I had to ask the next marshall to radio back that 'tutu man' was alive and well. Despite being questioned multiple times, It does show though the great organisation of the event that all marshalls were aware of the situation.
Due to the morning dew the conditions were 'claggy' that is the only word I think that can describe it. It wasn't particularly slippery but the mud was trying to suck the shoes of your feet.
So now the scheduled plan or runner rotation was out of the window. It was 00:50 when I handed over to Dan. Getting back to camp I woke Derren we had a chat and I said, miss Matt out of the next cycle so he can get some extra sleep.
I tried to get some sleep, but probably only got an hour as missed handover was playing on mind (my wife will tell you, I hate being late for anything) plus in a slightly fatigued state I wasn't 100% sure what time I would be next running. Eventually Derren stuck his head in my tent, said that he had handed over to Brian and Brian would be doing a double-lap. What I didn't realise at the time, is that Derren had also run a double lap as well.
So i went out for my third lap at 05:40. In the post mortem afterwards, Matt told me he woke at around 6am and was also a bit confused as he was originally scheduled to be running. But as a team we had all decided (even if not collectively) to give Matt some extra Zzzzz's due to his unscheduled double lap. If you ask me, a sign of a great team.
I pretty much knew this would be my last lap as my knee was really beginning to ache and having done virtually no training, longest run being a parkrun. My body was saying time out. I did offer to walk shuffle another lap, but was overruled by my team mates.
Despite losing some time, we were still on schedule to complete our planned 25 laps and at around 11:25 Matt handed over to Brian to complete the last lap. It had now been raining for the last few hours and was getting heavier, so conditions were deteriorating.
Brian finished his 6th and final lap for him and our team at 12:09 and was joined by some of the team and supporters crossing the line (Others were sheltering from the pouring rain)
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| 25th and final lap |
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| Winners! Every one of us. |
Brian and I had already decided before the event that we would stay camping on the Sunday night, so once the rest had packed up and departed, we went with our families and got some lunch and a few beers for the evening to accompany our take-away pizza!
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| This is mine, not sure what you lot are having? |
So another great Thunder Run, I just want to say a massive Thank You to my team mates, my wife and all all of the other supporting crew and kids. Thanks to the organisers for another great event.
Well done also to Karien & Emma who completed 8 laps between them.
If I am fortunate enough to get my team registered again next year, we will all be back for more.
Oh, Lesson No.4 Larger Gazebo to cope with the traditional British Summer weather
Cheers
The Hippo.
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