When i ran 70 miles

My short running story

As some of you know, I was overweight back in 2010 and had a very sedentary lifestyle. I was getting out of breath when I had to walk upstairs and that shows how unfit I was.

When I decided to change my life and lose weight, my first goal was to sign up for a 10k race. That sounded almost impossible at the time as I couldn’t run more than 5 minutes without stopping.

But I was determined that I would run the 10k without walking.

Initially I visualised it in a time perspective, I knew that 10k would take me about 50 minutes so I started running on time without bothering how far that was.

I eventually managed to run the 50 minutes without having to stop to walk. And At that point I thought that if I could run 50 minutes then I would be able to run longer than that.

So instead of signing up for a 10k, and because some work mates were going to sign up for the Swindon half marathon, in a moment of craziness I signed that for a half marathon.

So, at that point, and instead of running for time I started training for distance.

I knew that Swindon half marathon was a tough one, a very hilly course, so I chose a hilly route to do my training, a very hilly one.

I eventually managed to do the full distance on my training prep.

As the race day arrived I was ready.

I tried to pace myself in the beginning of the race as I was waiting for the hills to come and didn’t want to burn myself out.

I left my work colleagues behind as my pace was faster and finished my first ever half marathon in 1h:46m.

I was very pleased with my time and the fact that I managed to finish the race, especially as I knew that only few months back I couldn’t run more than 5 minutes without thinking that I was going to have an heart attack.

As that first goal was achieved, I didn’t want to stop there.

So I started to run, and run and run I bit more.

By 2014 I was bored with my running and decided to aim for a bigger goal. I wanted to change my body shape.

At that point I was already hating my running.

I started weight training and I was enjoying to see my body shape changing but I was aware that my cardio wasn’t helping me.

I was bored of running but decided that I would have one last year of running to achieve my biggest goal.

I wanted to finish an ultra marathon.

So again in a moment of craziness I signed up for the 70miles Rat race ultramarathon.

This was a race starting in Carlisle and finishing in Newcastle.

That race was happening in june and I was in January.

I was Super busy with work and as I also was a spinning instructor and was teaching 6 days a week with only one day off.

So was hardly possible to fit in my training for the race.

I know, I should had planned it properly before I signed up for the race, but I was teaming up with some mates from work, and they were both an inspiration to me.

They were both so much older than me (sorry Iain and Richard), with super busy lives, and loads of responsibilities.

One of them had a serious health issue.

But he was ready to fight.

He didn’t want to give up and play the victim like many people do.

He wanted to prove himself (and his son I reckon) that he was capable of doing what the majority of people can’t.

Start a ultramarathon and run it till the end.

There was one option to run it in two classes: The tough runners, that would do the distance in two days, or the experts that would run it in one single day.

70 miles.. in one day.

Guess which one he wanted to do?

Yep, the experts one.

So if they could run the race, I couldn’t give up and had to overcome my non- existent training plan.

My plan was to keep fit cardio wise and run as many races as I could in preparation to the “bad butt” one.

I started the year with two mud races, the typical rough & tumble and the terminator.

This last one as the name suggests was a tough one.

We had run up Mountains(?), go through freezing rivers with water up to my chest( maybe on a 6”3 willl be up to the knee, I’m compact), mud, and more mud, you call it. 18 miles of hell.

After that I signed up to the Lisbon half marathon in March where I beat my PB for a Half Marathon. 1H24m, I know that for you pro’s it’s a slow time, but for me an ex- chubby fatty beer belly, I felt like Mo farah.

And that took me to May, the month before the big long race.

That was my last chance to see how would I do in a longer race.

And so I signed up for the Stratford Marathon.

My first time running 26 miles in one go (still three times less than the ultra the month after).

I started that race not really pacing myself, I was feeling super fit and fast and after 13 miles I beat my half marathon time with 1h18m, and still with plenty of fuel in the tank.

I started to feel the euphoria when thinking that I could finish with a cracking time.

And started to increase my pace.

At mile 18 I started cramping. First my left calf, and then my right.

Had to reduce my pace and started to suffer really bad. Then my quads started cramping.

I managed to run up to mile 22 and then after that I couldn’t run anymore.

I couldn’t stand the pain and had to start walking.

I had 4 miles left to walk and started to realise the my time was going to be embarrassing. With a lot of suffering and even tears I managed to finished with 3H:46m. not supper bad time but I paid the price for being a smarta***.

And the big, unwanted race finally came.

Won’t go through much details but I can tell you that was the worst day of my life.

We ran it as a team and managed to finish it with a lot of pain and suffering, physically and mentally. I think that by the last 9 miles we were all hallucinating.

We were in the dark, in the middle of a dense forest. Miles and miles without knowing if we were running the right way or if we were lost. All of us high on painkillers( me specially as I’ve finished mine and started taking Richard’s painkillers. I was running since mile 35 with my knee bandaged and sore), badas** blisters everywhere, but a lot of laughing and a truly great experience.

I got a bond with them two as I did when I was in army with my mates. Iknow that they’re there if I need them and they know that they can always count on me too. We finished in 19h32m.

And that was my last running experience. I enjoyed it and I’ve achieved my goals.

My cardio stopped there then and I stated to dedicate myself to weight training.

But that is a story for another day.

See bellow a link to a paper article about our ultra and pictures of my running year.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11283350.Trio_get_set_to_take_on_ultra_marathon/

Filipe