Winter Downs 200

The Rich Tea Adventure

I turned 50 in 2024; a bit of a land mark and a cross roads to be honest.  I figured that I could either look down into the menopausal pit of despair or I could rise up and find a challenge to celebrate; something in the winter as I’m not great at winter running and something long which is still a running race so that I can see just how far I can run before it stops becoming a running race for me (if that makes sense).  Winter Downs 200 by Centurion Running seemed like the obvious solution as I know that their races are always good, always challenging and, most importantly, always well organized. 

The first issue was making sure that I had the right kit; so I watched the Centurion kit video, researched, researched and researched,  and ended up with lots of equipment which I was hugely confident in and a few bits which I was a bit worried about.  Something which is fantastic on a 9 hour recce could be completely different at the 170 mile point.  So it was with quite a lot of sorting, child care phaff’ary, kit check and a good nights kip in a nearby hotel, I was finally at the start line and wondering to myself ‘can I do this?’. 

It’s been quite a long time since I had that thought, I know that I can run 100 miler but had no idea if I could get this challenge done.  I had a plan, I had a crack crew who had completed it last year and I had quite a lot of miles and squats under my belt so I knew that I was well prepared and good to go. I’m also pretty good at getting on with things so I knew deep down that I would just get it done.

Hitting the VGW

The first 10 miles of these races are always horrendous, I feel unsettled and don’t quite know what to do with myself but my plan was to find a comfortable pace and just try to stick to it which is what I duly did.  After a few wrong turns and three off us bashing through some undergrowth to find the path, I felt ok.  Doing a recent recce of the VGW soon became gold as I was able to whizz through each potential navigation point of this leg of the course with very few difficulties and Berwick station came up pretty quickly.  It was at this point I recognized that my decision making capabilities were diminishing as I saw the red light of the train tracks and decided that meant I could still cross, it was only half way across that my brain recognized that red means stop and that I did not in fact have clearance to go. Luckily I figured that out before the barriers came down and could back track, using the waiting time to eat a bit and chat to Scott, as well as taking a long hard look at my decision making skills.

The SDW was fabulous as ever, the wind was with us and the trails were perfect albeit a bit muddy but that’s where the GI distress kicked in for me.  It’s an issue that I have always had and will always have, I’ve come to terms with it now to be honest.  When my crew said. ‘Rachel you can’t run the next 10 miles on fumes’, I know that I could because I have before and I will inevitably have to do again at some point.  So the rest of the race became about trying to get calories in and keep them in.  My crew have ended up with pictures in their heads of me that they didn’t need but made for funny stories in the end.  I suspect that my most inglorious moment was coming off the SDW up Beacon Hill, not saying a word to my crew but just crashing in the back of the van, getting up, running off, vomiting and running off again to shouts of ‘she can’t be throwing up, there is nothing left’.

And it was really on the SDW and beyond Beacon Hill where one of my other goals started to kick in; the goal to stay positive throughout the race.  There is so much science behind the power of positive thinking and it is something which I truly believe in.  Firstly I had a crew who had given up their precious time to look after me, they really didn’t need me being a grump the whole way around.  This is also this is my hobby, I’m supposed to be enjoying it so why get annoyed when it gets hard; its supposed to be hard.  As Scott and I ran through the muddy fields of wherever we were in the unending dark, we were discussing just how privileged  we are to have the physicality to do what we do.  We ran through people we knew who would do anything to be able to be where we were and we reflected on the two members of the Centurion family who would have loved to have been running there with us. I always try to think like this when I am running.  There is some fairly strong science to support positive thinking, research which suggests that, if we say something positive to someone when we are doing endurance events then we get a small dopamine hit; this really works. I am a firm believer that the trails are for everyone and I always try to acknowledge other users who nearly always give me encouragement in return. This kind of etiquette is important to me and science tells me that it helps me too. 

Throughout the race I had people telling me where I was, what time I was doing and how far I had come.  I personally prefer to tick off land marks in my mind telling me that I have gone past a point which I never have to run past again. My crew were superb on this, they kept telling me where I was in relation to my plan, i.e. they were telling me where I was in relation to me not in relation to anyone else on the course which is exactly what I needed.  They then put it into context ‘you are two hours ahead of your plan, so if you need to take a bit longer at this CP, then crack on’.  This was perfect.  In fact, everything that they did was spot on.  Zero phaffing but lots of useful activity; small bits of kip, waking me up with a coffee, kicking me out of the van with a smile, genuine upset when I bought their rice up again, bits of hilarious sarcasm, lots of laughs, confusion at seeing army friends pitching up to cheer me on, feeding me small bits of rich tea like a toddler (rich tea saved the day), big hugs, lots of kindness but lots of arse kicking too; couldn’t have asked for any more.  Thank you, we made a good team.  

My final goal was to see how far a running race is for me, I tried to keep running as long as I could, unfortunately I couldn’t fit my tractor tyre like La Spotivas back on again after the northern stretch as I had stubbed my big toes too many times and the souls of my feet were too bruised; I  couldn’t even bear the cushioned La Sportivas which I had in reserve which was a bit of an issue on the mud of the NDW .  After losing any dignity I had left on the lake crossing and obstacle course on Sands golf course, I was all over the place on the muddy, tiny trails which seemed to go on forever.

180 miles in. Water over my knee

I finally made good progress running down through the vines and before I knew it I was on Box Hill.  I loved that hill; yes its steep but its not actually all that long.  I generally make a point of not thinking about the end of a race because I believe that’s the wrong place to focus, I generally aim for small goals such as the next CP or the next tree depending on how far into the race I am, I then go for each one individually.  But Box Hill had felt just so far away for so much of the course so I did dwell on it a bit.  When I was finally  on it I made the conscious decision to enjoy the moment as I had earned getting there and in my mind, the Vines, Box Hill and the bit down from the folly were really the finale of a great event.  So enjoy it I did!  Clearly I managed to convince myself that I was lost on the way down from the top (which I wasn’t) so added a bit of phaff’ary in there. So the last two downhills felt pretty (relatively) good showing that all that gym work had paid off and my legs were strong.  Downhill running is hard and takes some different kinds of training but I had put the work in and it showed. And then it was the finish, seeing the RD James and my crew, and being given tea and being put to bed before a double fry up and the trip home. 

On reflection I could have saved time with a more recent recce of the northern trails but summer school holidays is when I had the time so that’s when I went.  I could also have done with recce’ing the NDW but hey, life!  I think that if I had sailed through every nav point like I did in the VGW, it would have saved me quite a lot of time but checking and double checking turnings towards the end was better than getting lost.  Clearly having more calories in me would have also allowed me to run faster, but I couldn’t so it’s not worth getting upset about.  At the end of the day, I had a fantastic adventure, I challenged myself to the next level of hurt which is always good, I met some great people, I was second lady to a bloody awesome runner and 4th overall, took 9ish hours off the previous course record and, most importantly, I found a unique way of celebrating my 50th; not too shabby for an old bird I don’t reckon.  I have also confirmed in my mind that having a great coach who forces me to train smarter is invaluable and getting into the gym and Lifting Heavy Shit is non-negotiable as we get older. 

In conclusion, this race took me to a different place of hurt and proved to me that so much of these events are in your head, you just need to train smart, lift heavy and keep it all in perspective. I had a wonderful few days with really special people within my crew and within the Centurion / Ultra family. My kids have also given me a tiny bit of credit for doing something hard, that’s never easy to achieve. So anyone looking for a challenge or just a few days away from the kids, this is one which I highly recommend and which I look forward to watching from the comfort of my sofa in years to come.