12 Fixes for 48 Hours

By James Adams who is British and rather funny

Usually by now I'd have forgotten how awful I felt during a race but this last one is sticking with me quite clearly.  I watched that movie about a woman stuck on a rock with a shark circling her for days and thought shit, if that was me I'd be screwed, I'd have given up.  She didn't even have access to an aid station every 2.5 miles or a bag of mini Twixes.

It's time to move on and decide what's next.  There are two choices - accept 100k as my limit or try again. Fuck it, let's try again. I have unfinished business with this race.

Here's the list of things I need to fix before going back at it in February 2019.

Contact points

Blisters - try combinations of Ininjis, wool socks and wider shoes.  I'm planning to try Altra Torins to keep cushioning but add more space for my toes, the side foot/toe blisters I had were ridiculous. Ideally looking to have 2 different shoe types to change things up so sticking with my larger size in the Hoka Cliftons also.

Blister plasters - fucked this up, need to figure out best time to apply them.  Ensure I take action (and the right action) early in the race.

Some kind of chafing/itching cream - imagine a nest of angry wasps in your pants, ones that cause itching.

Weight - there should be less of me, current weight is exacerbating all other problems and making me generally feel bad. Lose some fat lbs.

Food = mood

Shop better for specific food - have a list in advance for picking up the day before the race. Think it through in the year prior, try stuff out in training.

Lay food out in view - apparently during a race if I can't see it, it doesn't exist.

Eating schedule - plan the calories required, package things into small bags to carry around.  Cannot forget to eat.

Drink my calories - I'm going to try Andale in training runs.  Change it up with nuun during race maybe?

Training

Run a lot consistently.  My training follows an hours based regime, not kms based. There will be hiking/walking/running.  All races geared toward February 2019.

Time on feet when tired, important training for mental toughness.  Do some stuff I hate.  Push through it.

Try everything out well in advance on long runs/races - trial runs with full nutrition/hydration and footwear.

Work on being positive after long hours - I must tell myself I'm a clever sausage whenever I get low.


I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to go from 24 hours to 48. That's the thing about pushing yourself though, it's never boring, always surprising, sometimes absolutely fucking wonderful and frequently fucking terrible.  It's never ever going to be easy, that's what makes it worthwhile.  Choose Ultras.