10 in 10 Day 7 - 5'49

Today was a very very tough day. It still felt like an incredibly long way to go this morning even though we'd already done 6 plus the cumulative tiredness had been building up and even though lights were out by 9pm I couldn't sleep at all. I was pretty knackered at the startline. After only 4 or so miles I'd hit the wall and was finding anything more than a walk hard going. By the time we got to the big hill at 7m, it was apparent that it was going to be an extremely long day and that I just didn't have the energy. I hadn't eaten enough yesterday after the race or for dinner, and was struggling to get any pace up. I walk/shuffled to where it gets properly hard just after 13 miles and thought that if I could get through the next 4 it would all seem more tolerable. Unfortunately, shortly after that it all got a bit blurry. I was so low on energy and so sleepy that my eyes were closing and I was finding it difficult to stay on the side of the road, I was weaving all over the place. Playing chicken with the traffic is never a good idea, if only because it probably adds a few hundred yards to your distance.

I saw Mac and two of the physios, Katie and Lucy at 16, and they gave me a bit of coffee. I thought it would do the trick but when I saw two other physios, Roxy and Paul shortly afterwards with a mat laid out I just had to get the opportunity to shut my eyes for a few minutes. They seemed more concerned than I was, I just wanted to sleep but they were very keen to get a lot of food and liquids down me and sort out my Achilles which has really been playing up today, it's very tight and creaky. I must have spent about 20 minutes there, drinking coffee, tea and water and eating jam sandwiches and jaffa cakes. This set the tone for the rest of the marathon, I had someone in the car right behind me to protect me from the traffic and at every stop they were force feeding me. This sounds worse than it was, I can't complain about being given endless jam sandwiches and even an ice cream in Bowness!

I managed to keep a shuffle going through to the finish, with a bit more energy and caffeine inside me and the physios right behind me at least I didn't have to provide my own motivation. Having given up all thoughts of the finish time, I was pleased to have got round sub 6 in 5'49. Tomorrow's another day.

Race start, a mix of race officials, physios, supporters and a few runners. L-R: Shell Atkins, Dave Wintle, Steve Edwards (back to camera), Aly Knowles, Jim Meta, Chris Heaton (back to camera)

10 in 10 Day 6 - 4'34

Cue Geordie accent: Day 6 in the Big Brathay House, the sun is shining and the TiTs are hobbling. Well, not quite, we're all holding up surprisingly well, though we were very very sad to see Phil pull out today. After an epic struggle home yesterday with horrible shin splints, he took perhaps the bravest decision to call it a day. And he was man enough to be out on the route cheering us on.

I had a bit of a hysterical patch today and decided mooning was the way to maintain team morale. With apologies to Chris, Allan, Dave A and the cameraman, and the physios and video man, I guess we'll find out if it makes the uncut video footage....... Sorry Mum, consecutive marathons does strange things to your brain.
It was good to get well over the half way point today and the first 14 miles went by pretty quickly, having Allan around to run with and Joe and his mum on bikes occasionally was a top motivator. I'm getting pretty tired now and more and more sore, I can now add my left knee to the list of niggles. The physios are working wonders and Graham even persuaded me to go in the ice bath today (I traded in being let off the ice bath for a large wodge of cake yesterday) so hopefully with lots of attention they won't get too painful. I was wondering out on the course today just how it's possible to run so many miles, I've only been walking the stiffer uphills. I think you have to get to the point where you can run at a very low rate of exertion, and get into a stride rate that almost feels more comfortable than walking. Then don't let yourself walk. For me, it's the thought of being out there for double the time if you start walking that keeps me moving, my running pace has definitely dropped off but at least I'm keeping some heat going and covering the distance a bit quicker.
Things are being set up for Sunday's Windermere marathon now and the atmosphere is building. It's still a long way to go for us TiTs before we get there, but it finally feels like we're going to get to the finish line.

The wonderful physios: L-R Graham Theobald, director of The Body Rehab, Sue, Paul, Roxy, Lucy, Jim (10 in 10 runner), Katie, Nicola, Stevo, Maria)

10 in 10 Day 5 - 4'26

Today was a much better day, I felt pretty wiped out yesterday and today energy levels were much better, something to do with the food intake, a bit extra sleep and being a lot more relaxed about times perhaps. We were treated to dinner at the Three Shires in the Langdales yesterday and I was lucky enough to be on the drinkers' table with Ray, Foxy, Jim and ooh arr Dave. We had a great laugh over a few pints of Coniston Old Man and it was a good opportunity to get to know each other a bit better.

Support today was fantastic, and helped me enjoy my favourite marathon of the 5 to date. I gave my sister a big hug at 10 miles to share a bit of the good feeling I was enjoying, she's getting me through the bad times so deserves to know about the good ones too. It was brilliant to see Mum and Brian my Wicked Stepfather (we wouldn't call him WSF if he weren't anything other than a sterling bloke) too and my dad was there too. He's been an angel and has cooked me a giant curry for this evening, I can't wait for dinner time! The icing on the cake was seeing Allan turn up just after half way. He's driven all the way from the other side of London to support us, just amazing. It's incredibly humbling to have all these people behind you.

The race itself wasn't too bad today, I walked more of the hills but had more energy to keep a steady pace through the gentler uphills, flats and downs. I came in about 50 seconds quicker than yesterday which is very pleasing and am delighted to report there are no serious injuries (yet), other than a bad toenail, a few aches and pains and a few things the miraculous physios are preventing from getting remotely serious, I'm holding up remarkably well.

Half way now and I'm feeling good about the next five. What a course to run them on, I can't wait for everyone else to get here on Sunday and experience it with us.

Before the start on Day 10: Adam (back to the camera), L-R Ray, David Bayley, Dave Wintle, me, Steve Edwards

10 in 10 Day 4 - 4'26

Today was a new day and a new week, so I was treating it like Day 1. It's easier to handle the concept of the whole 10 days if you simply don't think about it. Since it's a bit too late to get any more preparation in, the most I can do is put off thinking about the marathon until the moment the gun goes. Then, during the race itself, to think only of that race. Thoughts of having to do it again 6 more times, having already done it 3 times, would just be too much to cope with. One mile at a time and enjoy the scenery, as someone once told me. 

Luckily there are a dozen or more ways to divide this race up: my usual 10 + 10 + 6, 5 to Hawkshead, 2 to the monster hill, 3 to a gel, 4 to seeing my family, 3 more to the end of the killer switchback section, 3 more to another gel, 5 to Ambleside and the last 1.2. That stretch from half way to 17 miles is an absolute monster, and really got to me today in mile 16. I must have crashed straight into the wall, an incline that is nowhere near the most severe brought me virtually to a standstill, and my heart and breathing rates went right through the roof. It was the worst wobble so far, but the thought of Catherine and Mum less than 1/2 a mile ahead with a cup of tea and a warm hug got me through it. Catherine also donated her dog walking gloves, I'd been incredibly cold today (think the depleted reserves means all the energy is used for running rather than generating heat) so they were most welcome.

There was a notable milestone today, we passed the 100 mile mark at the top of the "speed bump" at Miller Howe at 21 miles, where I celebrated with a swig of beer. My approach to nutrition is becoming more and more low tech. Having had a wobble yesterday with regards to food, I'm feeling better about it. I had a great dinner yesterday with lots of deep fried starters, curries full of coconut milk and mountains of rice, and a glass of red, and felt properly full. Today I managed one of my 2 gels, but otherwise had water, beer, whatever was in a bottle close to hand and half a jam sandwich. And when I crossed the line, my family had supplied me with two cheese and onion pasties from Greggs that I washed down with a chocolate milkshake. Poor Robin from Team Nutrition would be tearing his hair out if he knew (oh, he does now). Electrolyte drinks, carb loading drinks, sports gels, dried fruit bars, Trek bars (I've just had a discussion about these, we don't know what's in them but they're meant to be good for you), vegetables, bananas etc etc. No thanks, there's not much of me and cheese and onion pasties work for me. You can take the girl out of the north........

Dibbing to record my time at the finish, and sporting pink kinesio tape on my knee

10 in 10 Day 3 - 4'22

After pushing hard on Day 1 and racing 16 miles of yesterday, I was knackered going into today. Anna and I had a good chat yesterday and cleared the air so my intention was to just run how I felt and hopefully by myself, I'm getting really really claustrophobic among 11 other runners and needed 4 hours with noone else around. If she ended up with me again, I'd just stop to retie my shoes. Luckily, Anna shot off ahead and I settled into a pace that was comfortable but a lot slower than yesterday, about 9'30 for the first few miles. At that rate, sub 4 was never going to happen.

Within a few miles, I recognised that the world record is going to be Anna's and deservedly so, she's strong, has the endurance of a shire horse and has been getting very speedy lately. I've readjusted my aims ranked by how achievable they are: a. the finish, b. sub 45 hours, c. sub 41 hours (we can both break the world record, she'll just do it by more than me), d. sub 40 hours. At the moment I think only a. and b. are possible. I found a fairly comfortable and sustainable pace today and finished in 4'19. If I'm lucky, I've recovered a bit of energy today having run more conservatively.

As expected, I'm finding it very hard to get enough calories down me. The food here is great, top quality and very healthy, but I'm craving fat - pizza, melted cheese, rich curries with loads of rice. It's also hard to cope with self service - I'm fine if someone gives me a plate of food to eat, but trying to balance enough food for the event, what I think is socially acceptable, what really is socially acceptable and what I actually want to eat is proving just too difficult. I find it easier to eat more frequently, but when the third person in a row said "still eating?" this morning 30 minutes before the race, it was a bit too much.


Positives from today: I enjoyed the race a lot more than days 1 or 2, it was nice to be able to look around me and appreciate the views and all the support rather than worrying about times and race positions. Great to see so many people out there, and if you wondered whether it really was warm enough for the crop top, it wasn't, the vext I'd worn dozens of times before had started to chafe so it had to come off. Well, at least it got a few more cheers from passing cars.

A well earned beer after Day 2

10 in 10 Day 2 - 3'55

Day 2 of the TiT, 3'55, two minutes up on yesterday but it felt like a race to 16 miles of it as I had Anna right on my heels before she dropped me. I find it really stressful having someone breathing down my neck and asked her a few times if she was going for a time or if she was going for the win, but she said no, 4'07 would do to average 4 hours and she was out for the personal achievement, not the win. I think though anyone would be crazy not to go for the win if they were strong enough, so perhaps it's psychology. Or perhaps she was just having another very good day. Either way, I have to revise my game plan. I think I can still break the 41 hours, and I'd still like to break 40 hours. If Anna breaks it by more than me then that's the way it is. Today though was hard as I was pushing it for the first 16 to see if I could drop her. I was absolutely knackered in the last 10 miles so hopefully I can be a bit more even paced tomorrow.

Today's highlight was the laser therapy treatment. The physio team here are so dedicated to getting you through this event that when I mentioned a touch of pain under my left heel and wondered if they'd have a look at it during my massage, they got me straight into "triage", ice massaged it for the vaso-constriction, then decided to laser it for vaso-dilation. When they proposed lasering my foot, I imagined a Blofeld style amputation, surely it wasn't that bad. It's very clever - the ice contracts all the blood vessels, stops all the internal bleeding and cools everything down. However, you need blood flow to encourage healing, though you don't want to heat the area, hence the laser that opens up the blood vessels without heat. Plus you get to wear cool glasses. This place is super high tech, we feel very pampered.


The very very positive side of today was my sister, mum and other members of my family who've come up to support me. They're just superb, they've got balloons and pom poms and Team Naomi t-shirts, even my sister's dog was wearing a Team Naomi t-shirt with Support Crew on the front, and are always there with a hug and encouraging words. And my sister has surpassed herself. She made up a scrapbook with my blog all printed out with all the best photos, and a great Eddie Izzard cartoon at the back. It's going to be a great way to pick me up in the bad times. She's given me a pack of cards, one to open each evening before the next race, which have brought a tear to my eye every time. And when I come over the finish line, she presents me with a rosette with Team Naomi and the number of the race on it, 1 for yesterday, 2 for tomorrow. We don't get medals every day so she wanted me to have something. I want a full suite. So today's for Catherine. Love ya big sis!!

Me and Catherine at the finish

10 in 10 - Day 1

I was really excited to get going this morning but didn't really get the chance to think about the race until a few minutes before 10.15am. It was hectic getting a superb, though lengthy, massage in, then dribbling through a straw for 5 minutes to produce a saliva sample, filling in a questionnaire, being stuck with a needle for a blood donation (some of which dripped on the questionnaire, guess they've got a DNA sample too) and being briefed on other research stuff we have to do. I managed to grab breakfast, reply to the dozens of good luck texts (thank you!), sort my kit out and get down to the start where our official vests turned up 15 minutes before the gun went. We had a fake start on the lawn in front of Brathay under the banner which was great, though I'd forgotten my timing device and had to leg it back indoors. It looked a bit like I was doing a runner..

The race started off fine, I was feeling great and full of energy and it was brilliant to see the route again in good weather. Sunny intervals today and a bit gusty, and no rain, hoorah! Anna was running with me for a lot of today, I was leading to about 14 when I stopped for a cup of tea, then I let her do the pacing for a few miles after that before she dropped me. I'd been hit by Sudden Onset Horrible Back Pain (that's a technical term), my period certainly knows how to make an appearance at the worst possible moment. This made the second half really really unpleasant, and I had to kick myself to keep the pace going. And I'd forgotten how hilly it is, much hillier than Connemara, I take all that back. I finished in 3'57 and I'm hoping today is one of the inevitable bad days.

Highlight of today: the professional ice bath, cooled to 6 degrees. Pro footballers can only last 3 minutes, I managed a minute before it felt like my feet were being gnawed off my a thousand tiny piranhas. Excruciating.

Front runners L-R: Ray O'Connor, Steve Edwards, Dave Wintle, Adam Holland