I work up bright an early for a Sunday morning. About 5:50am enough time to get some food and start re-hydrating ready for a 9:00am start.
The night before my Left ankle and right knee where both playing up. It was entirely psychological, so I got off to sleep about 12. Slightly later than planned, I had packed my bag earlier in the evening and then I went out for dinner in town with 2 friends. Got home about 10:30 and thought I best double check tube times to get to Perivale for 8am. Just before I shut down my laptop I had one last check of the instructions (about the 8th time I had read them) to suddenly find Perivale was the Finish. In my mind the race started in North West London and finished in south east. It would have been a very lonely race, as the race actually started in Grove Park (South East London) about 50km away. Back to the drawing board and re-plan my journey to the start.
Repacked and checked my bag, now full of everything including the kitchen sink, I had more energy products, water and kit needed for when I actually run the Marathon Des Sable. Did I use any of the extra kit, liquids, energy products, No, well apart from the water, but that was only to reduce my pack weight as I would have got more than enough from the guys on the way round. It was useful, I got to run for the first time with my OMM back pack and the extra weight I was carrying will put me in good stead when I head out to the desert. 
The Morning of the race, I actually felt really good, I had not run out side since the 4th December and actually only clocked up about 200km on the treadmill due to my continues bout of injuries. I was really looking forward to this, people say that running the Marathon Des Sable is a mental more than physical challenge, so it was probably quite appropriate that; the first run in nearly 3 months, would also be my first run with a weighted back pack, first time I had put on my brand new shinny trail trainers (the blisters from breaking in trainers are not normally pretty), o and the first time I had ever run over 26.2 miles.
In some ways I did not think I was going to be that tough, arrogance, maybe, although I would say more naive. It was a perfect day for running; the sun was out, cold but not too cold, a bit of a head wind but not strong.
How hard could it be, it was only 7-8 miles longer than a marathon, umm, considering I have passed out on the finish line on 2 out of the 3 marathons run, 7 – 8 miles does actually sound like a long way. Maybe my 4 hour estimate was a bit too quick, so I decided to run with a group that looked like they knew what they were doing and get whatever time I get.
The Race
Off we went, I had moved fairly close to the front, over the first couple of miles a small group of 6 formed I was not sure how many people where ahead but it was only a small handful, somehow, the group I had ended up with where not armatures, they where regulars on the circuit and very good. It also did not take me long to realise that wearing trail shoes was the worst thing I could have done, taking away from the fact they where brand new, it was all on roads, no padding, means it gives you a tough hard ride. I carried on with running with the group, quickly realising that this was not going to be a fun walk in the park. I was the only one caring weight and the hills in east London are steep. After a while, just after mile 11 check point, I really wanted to drop back a bit, my heart rate had been up in the 188-190 range for a while and I still had a long long way to go, but realising I had no idea where I was, if I lost them at this point, I was well and truly lost, I hung on to mile 18 check point where I could find myself again and run at my own pace, around 12 – 12.5 km/h.
What a mistake, by this point, we had opened up a fairly big gap on the guys behind so I ended up running most of the next 7 miles alone, this was also the hardest part of the course to navigate, it was Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, not flat, over rough ground with little markings and mile 18 - 24 are hard mentally.
I get lost on well signposted roads, so how the hell would I find my way out of Richmond park, I entered the park in rough 10th place, I left in about 30th place, I did not see a single person pass me, however, I went completely the wrong way, spent 15 minute getting really angry at people telling me I was next to a lodge, I knew I was next to a lodge, that was however not on my map. Just tell me what the road is call over there. One lady pointed to some people, I think to get rid of me, and said look they have numbers on. Joy, I found two other runners who had done the same thing as me, and where also lost. Together we worked it out and left the park, I spend the next couple of mile trying to catch people who had gone the correct way.
Going through the 24.5 mile check point my heart rate had started to come down to about 174 bpm. I found 2 guys running around the same speed as me so stuck with them. This is the bit that gets confusing for me, my breathing was under control, I was hydrated, I wasn’t in too much pain, but I just could not make myself run any faster, I was only going at 6.5 mph and all I wanted to do was stop. It was odd, normally what makes me want to stop is the fact I hurt so much, I had been running for about 3:20 and physically could have stayed on track for just over 4 hour finish. But try as I might, I just could not go any faster, 4 hours came about mile 29. Only 2 miles to go and running at 10 min miles, great I thought, 4:20 is still a good for a first attempt. The navigation was easy, just follow the river someone said, looking at a map, how true that was.
I carried on following the river, and followed it some more, mile 31 came and went, and so did 4:20. Ops, 2 runners ahead, stopped taking with the maps out, this is a bit odd, we just follow the river, look closer at the map, the river forked over a mile back, I, with several other people took the wrong fork, and this really was mentally tough. Back on myself, to then go the right way, I had given up and have to admit I walked a couple off 100 yard, ran a couple of hundred yards. Until I saw two people ahead, which gave me the motivation to run again, running through the finish at a respectable pace. 
It was a great day out and really want to do it again, if I can crack map reading and do it as a race rather than a training piece, I think I could get a good finish position. I am really please with 28th but always room to improve.
Ultra runners get a bit of a bad press, people think they go into ultra running because they are slow runners, I don’t think you can compare, do people take up marathon running because they are slow 100m runners. I would say, before casting judgment, get out there and try it, see how mentally tough this is, so fare I have only managed one 50km (+ getting lost) race. Doing 155miles in 6 weeks is going to be hard, very hard, and yes I will be slow, but then again, it’s a very long way.
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