Lining up at 4am on Saturday morning I was super excited about the day that lay ahead. I had trained hard, felt fit and was ready to race. I normally go off at the start of races like a maniac with a “Go to you blow” approach but I decided to be sensible this time, hold back and chill and let the race unfold a bit before I put the hammer down.
Earlier this year Mike had hinted that he wanted to give a 100 miler a go. With his birthday looming I thought this would be a great birthday present…well I actually thought he might kill me but I entered him anyway. Mike started to train hard for the 100 miler entering 24hr races and getting in the zone. He then asked me if I would pace him
I would run along the Surf Coast Trail from Torquay to Anglesea then hop on the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay and from there get onto The Great Ocean Walk to the Twelve Apostles before hopping back onto The Great Ocean Road to the glamourous finish in Allansford. Ta da, I had a plan!! Who needs months to plan an adventure anyway!?
But I had no idea it was going to be that hard! Leading up to this years Comrades was a bumpy road, in March I got diagnosed with a stress fracture in my Fibula. This was frustrating as my training had been going so well and I was feeling super strong but hey these things happen. I knew it was a bit of a long shot but I had 3 months to race day!
On the same day I found out I had a Stress fracture I had to have root canal and it got me thinking that I needed to get to the bottom of why I had a stress fracture. It is really important that with any injury that you get they you try and figure out the cause. There is no point resting doing rehab and then cracking on like normal.
Turns out I had signed myself up to something quite ridiculous. We were going to attempt to run 90km a day for 20 days and on the final day compete in the Comrades Ultra Marathon. I was so bloody scared of what I had signed up to do but also intrigued to see how far my body could go.
Waking up at 6am and looking out the window to a flurry of snow falling from the sky you know that running 58 miles is going to be a challenge! Without thinking much more about it I donned my running shoes chucked on my back pack and headed into London to Marble Arch where I would start my little journey to run to Paris!
In celebration for the release of Paddington 2 five pop ups appeared around London. this was calling out for a pre work challenge, to see how many we could reach before getting to work on time! Adam made an awesome video of our morning which you can see here:
Sitting at home on a Thursday night Matt and I started to conjure up a plan to go and do a Microadventure. After a few ideas were thrown about we decided to go and attempt the Vanguard Way (VGW). This is a 66 mile long distance walking trail that goes from Croydon to Newhaven.