Some runs come and go...some come, go and then linger in your thoughts. Thunder Run was the latter, to some degree. It came, messed with your mind and spat you out the other end...richer for the experience and adventure, despite the broken body and mashed brain...it was somehow a fun weekend. I have a few summary images that are coming into focus as time passes. Pete frantically, desperately rubbing his legs, pressing, groping and hoping for anything that would somehow make them work again...
...Aaron as he crossed the line of his final lap with the look of a man that had just been abused in the woods, sweating beads of sweat that I've not seen before, Mark as he appeared 15 minutes late to the changeover point muttering 'no more', with a look in his eye you'd never question else he'd kill you and Jeremy's ritualistic post lap body rebuild, ointments, creams, ice, powders, tape, gels...he infused them all...just so he could keep going. My dark moments came at night. A quite 'shout' from outside the tent telling me it's my stint again.
I lie there waking like a heartbroken teenager who just remembered he'd been dumped. An hours rest counts for nothing, I'm exhausted, already a marathon distance in my legs, it's raining, my feet are screaming at me and I have to go again. My second night run awaits. It's not quite 5.00am as I pull on my shirt. It's still wet, from a few hours ago, but it's the only long sleeved top I'd brought. Struggling with cramp as I bend to get my shoes on, I unzip the tent and stick my head out once again. This will be my 5th 10k lap.
The rules are simple. A team of 5, a 10k lap that is all trail, undulating, shall we say and rough under foot, run as many laps as a team as you can in 24 hours. 2500 runners in a variety of teams all camping out and running round the clock. This is my first experience at an enduro event like this. As the hours ticked by, it becomes obvious that this is about three things. Fitness...the sort that powers you through a run or race, but once that subsides, it's all about managing fatigue. How to rest and recover, re-fuel and hydrate. I had no concept of this.
Finally, and this is the big one...the mind. My oh my, I could have pulled out of this many times over. Once running it was fine, sort of, but answering the call in the middle of the night, twice over, that was tough. And finding the spirit after you got back to eat, drink, trying to get dry and warm and then finally getting some rest, it required a kind of discipline I've not called upon before in my running. But in that final leg of the night, I was rewarded. Rewarded with sunrise.
As the sun came up, the sky turned from a dark dank grey in twilight, to a deep fresh blue of a virgin morning. And with that, so too did my spirit brighten. Pete also, he found warmth from the sun to re-ignite his legs, taking the final glory lap of the race. 24 hours is probably all we had in us. And the wheels starting coming off from hour 1. Mark turned his ankle on the first changeover, and later lost his faculties in the woods. Aaron too, he took a 'turn'. They both talked of dizziness and disorientation, having to stop and regain composure.
Pete lost his legs at the beginning of the night, I lost my marbles and Jeremy's medicine cabinet was empty. These words don't really describe the feeling and emotions we experienced. Most of us had taken our bodies to a place they didn't want to go...and beyond. We didn't set out to do this. We went looking for adventure...and adventure found us, slapped us about a bit, then gently rebuilt us, somehow stronger and better for the experience. We came 6th out of 45 teams in our category. 6 laps each. Not at all shabby.
But already there's been analysis of the results and many 'what ifs'. It doesn't matter. We did what we did. But next time...
And what next? Well, it's rest for me in one sense, but the Olympics are here, then the Paralympics...and I'm busy with that. A trip to Loughborough yesterday to see Rich Whitehead, and as a bonus I got to gaze at the legs of Hannah England. Athletic! I'm a leg man...it's my job!
