Race to the Stones 100km 2023 - Run Report

They say the Ultras are like childbirth - you need to forget the last time before you can consider doing it again. And that's definitely how I feel about this year's Race to the Stones, even though I ended up with a time that was close to a 1 hour improvement on what I ran last year. Afterwards I was very much of the opinion 'never again' and told various people that if they ever saw me running it again, then they had permission to shoot me, or words to that effect, like Steve Redgrave. I even deleted my interest in running Western States from my social media profiles 😅But here were are, 4 months later, and there's just a little spark of fancying giving it a go returning.......

So back to the race. I stayed in High Wycombe again, and shared a taxi with a couple of guys from the Premier Inn to the start. The weather this year was a lot cooler than last year - pretty decent for an ultra I would say. Kept it pretty disciplined for the first 30km, although started getting a little bit ahead of myself after that point, towards check point 3 and then halfway. Overtook a few people and was still running long stretches uphill, and probably overdoing it just a tiny bit. 

I think I was into halfway at around 4:50, so around 30-40 minutes slower than last year, which was positive. I wasn't completely cooked at this point, but I was definitely tired and my pace wasn't much more than a slow jog. Came through together with a guy (on his first RTTS attempt) who was aiming for 10 hours and still thought he was going to do it....he was running ahead of me, then stopping and walking, and I would then catch him up, before the pattern repeated itself until after a few kms I left him behind. It wasn't really ever going to happen for him sadly. 

Found myself going slower and slower, but pretty much still running apart from the hills (of which there are quite a few). In increasing discomfort, and doing calculations in my head, I'd pretty much let go of the 11 hours goal when a group of guys came past me, I think at around 87-88km, including Richard, one of the guys whom with I'd taken a taxi in the morning. They were the first group that had passed me all day, and they encouraged me to join them. With gritted teeth I did so, and the first minute of running with them was torture, I just wanted to stop. But I dug really deep and stayed with them, and from running maybe 7min/kms, I was back to running 5:15-5:30kms, and then actually pushing the group ahead at times. This was all on very rutted paths - tough to run on. We descended down to Avebury and at this point I realised that even with a jog/walk, I was going to break 11 hours, and so I let them go - mentally I was then toast. 

But I continued with some walk/running and made it to the finish in 10:53 which was 52 minutes quicker than in 2022. Afterwards I was really broken, physically and mentally. Just sat there feeling shattered. Richard was talking about running a 100 miler later in the year which I have seen recently that he did in 19 hours - respect. But I couldn't really think about that then. We took a bus to Swindon, and I got off and hobbled back to the AirBNB where Mum & Stephen and the kids were. Couldn't eat any dinner because my mouth was too sore from being open all day (a common problem among ultrarunners apparently). 

And yes, at that point, I felt like 'never again'. Too much pain running long, the pleasure of movement taken away. But now, at some distance from it again, we will see.......

Have recently seen some video footage of Kullamannen and it looks utterly hideous. Not sure if that is ever going to be my think! Bernie did it this year in 25 hours - going to speak to him about it. As for me for 2024, if I'm going to get another WS qualifier, it might have to be RTTS again, for the third time. Let's see......