Escape from Meriden was tough!!
I wasn't as recovered from GUCR as I thought I was. Usually I get to at least 20 miles before any signs of struggle but here it was about 12 miles. By 15 I was walking more than running and hip and feet were in pain. My knee would also join in the fun occasionally with sharp stabbing pains. I was also struggling to stay awake.
One thing keeping me motivated was that someone behind me was following the exact same route as me. Every time I checked the tracker they were a bit closer and it would spur me on to try and run a bit more. I got to around 25 miles (about 6am) and decided to sleep on a random bench in the middle of nowhere. I set my alarm for 15mins and must've only slept for 5 minutes of that. I didn't have a sudden burst of energy but the strong desire to sleep had now gone. I also spent about 10 minutes here re-taping my feet and changing socks again.
When I checked the tracker expecting to see the other guy had gone past I was surprised to see he had made a detour to motorway services and was now only slightly ahead of my route. I started to chase and now I felt much better and able to run for longer between walk breaks. Everything hurt still but not quite as much as earlier. I was gaining on him. At 30 miles there was a 2 mile section along an a-road. About half of it has no path and so the sensible thing is to avoid that road but the detour adds a couple of miles. Nemesis guy took the detour and at this point I was close enough behind that I could see him crossing the road in the distance. I planned to take the direct route thinking that it would be quicker even if I walked and dived to the side everytime there was a car. It paid off as the road was surprisingly quiet 7am on Saturday and I made good progess here.
32 miles I stopped at Tesco for much needed breakfast and water topup. I didn't have any space in my backpack though so walked a couple of miles whilst eating 10 mini beef pasties. Nemesis guy had not needed to go to Tesco and so his detour was actually not as much a detour as it would have been for me. He was now about 2 miles ahead. I was chasing again and feeling like I could run faster than I had so far.
Within about 6 miles I had caught up. He was almost within sight. Then my knee really started to hurt and I suddenly couldn't run. Then I couldn't even walk comfortably. Then I was limping and every step was agony. Race was over but I carried on limping for 3 hours in the hope that things might get better. I decided to get to Bicester and take a train home. Nemesis guy had same idea and his tracker went black. I got there 2 hours after him (I was doing 40 minute miles!) but went an extra 100m past his stop point for a small victory
Train home was agony and knee is still very sore this morning.
I have no regrets about the race, definitely couldn't have done much more and I didn't stop until I was sure race was over. I made it 50 miles actual distance (about 44 ATCF) not great but not terrible.