Wychavon Way Ultra

Race: Winter Wychavon Way Ultra Marathon (40m)
Time/Position: 7.14.28 (14th from 116)
A muddy traverse of Worcestershire, and a very nice way to notch up my 10th ultra marathon. It will be the last one for some time, I think, as I try to regain a bit of speed. It was doubly pleasing as an event, as I hadn't done any serious distance since the Fellsman last April. As a result, I was dependent on all the long mountain days last year along with the usual muscle memory. Peter and I stayed overnight in Evesham, and after a pleasant evening woke early for the drive to Broadway. I'd been to its immaculate Cotswold streets before, in the summer of 2014 en route to a family holiday in Cornwall. We got the bus all the way back to Droitwich, always a psychologically damaging part of an ultra as the drive is so long! We left a murky Droitwich at 8.30, carrying a slightly absurd amount of compulsory kit. It was muddy almost immediately, for a long canalside section leading to muddy (and flooded) fields around Goosehill Green. I am still too much of a traditionalist to download routes but this is increasingly an unfeasible approach now, as I discovered following the Wychavon Way markers through an overgrown section before finding fellow runners again for a long road section through Earls Common before miles of draining boggy fields led to the first CP at Flyford Flavell. This became the day's theme, very muddy throughout, on clay soil which my new Hokas picked up like a concrete pancake round the base of the foot. All rather draining. The next section was the same, numerous wet fields through to Church Lench along with the occasional millionaire's half-timbered period property. The route then turns west towards Wyre Piddle and the River Avon before running right through the centre of busy Pershore. Ahead loomed Bredon Hill, the day's crux, which took an age to actually arrive as the route twists and turns through little hamlets and Avonside paths. In fact, its steepish slopes (for this part of the world) provided a nice break, and the murky weather turned to light drizzle, quite cold, cresting the 'summit'. The views would have been extensive on a clear day, but the descent gave the best running of the day - drier and wonderfully undemanding, gently downhill more or less all the way to the third and final checkpoint at Sedgebarrow. I was tired, but generally pleasantly surprised to be able to keep a good plodding pace ticking over, similar to Brecon-Cardiff last February but with far less specific training. I had fallen in with Colin from Oxford, and we paced each other very well. It was obvious that we'd broken the back of it by now, and the run-in back east to Broadway was good, apart from a few rutted quagmires. We picked up three or four more places for a fairly respectable finish. A great day out, and an enjoyable journey through what for me is unfamiliar territory, always a key motivation.