The London 50k - #99

There's a shortage of road marathons in the UK in winter and a surfeit of shorter traily ultras, largely along stretches of the canal ranging from 30 - 50 miles in length. Not having the chance for a whistle stop trip abroad for a race, the London 50k was billed as the lowest fat, shortest ultra on the calendar, plus, falling one week before Malta, provided massive incentive to finish. Unfortunately, after 15k of suburban streets and tarmac paths running through commons, we reached the first bit of mud through Wimbledon, not so bad but pretty greasy. After the wide open skies of Richmond Park, a nice bit of river and the Sunday evening historical-drama-worthy Syon Park which I'd never even heard of, Brent Canal was the beginning of the end. It got steadily grimmer through Ealing and Hanwell, what may have been Hangar Hill and other parts of London I've never heard of. The mud, too, was thicker, stickier and slippier, I fell over once, got covered in it and spent the next few hours looking like I'd been reclining on the side of a hill like those sunbathing lemurs in Madagascar. But in mud rather than on a sun-drenched rock.

At 37k, I entirely hit the wall. A run-walk thing worked for a bit until the big muddy hill presented itself, after that I just couldn't be bothered. It was cold but I walked the rest. Geordie Richard was very good company and offset my mood by being really very grumpy, especially when we missed the turn near the finish. Without him my mood would have been terrible. By the time we'd finished, we'd done a shade off 54k, had wet feet and were pretty cold. My hands were frozen solid and in no other circumstances would I have been glad to walk into the warm fug of the Quality Hotel (you know when a hotel's called Quality it's going to be anything but). My shoes went in the bin, they were too knackered to provide cushioning on the road and too roady to provide grip on the mud, it's a difficult call on this race. So it was pretty unpleasant, and slow, and left my right ankle very sore, but it did act as a sort of swansong for off-road long-distance races, I'll never do another one again.

So, it's all go for Malta on Sunday. Looking like there'll be at least 50 people in the bar which is fantastic, I'm very touched so many people are making the effort to be there. Just 4 days to not break my leg first.......