Dealing with the DNF

The psychological blow of my failure to finish the Brecon 40 has been much softened by the fact that retirement was fortuitous in an unexpected way.  Nonetheless, I had to consider what lessons I could learn from the experience.

Lunch break "training" today consisted of a shuffle round the car park, a feat I was incapable of yesterday.  Up until now long fell runs had given my leg injury no trouble.  Pain, delayed onset or otherwise, had been related to fast road running only.  I don't know why Saturday should have been different, but my leg started to stiffen about five hours after I stopped, got worse the following day and by Monday I could barely move.  I shudder to think what I would have suffered had I run the remaining 17.5 miles.  My calves may not look "carved" in marble, but they certainly felt as hard until last night's visit to the Physio.

Retirement

I retired at Checkpoint 4 (22.5 miles) because my fingers had become so cold in the last five miles that I could not operate the fastenings of my ruck sac or grasp anything.  I knew that returning to the exposed ridges without eating/more body cover would have resulted in hypothermia.

Stopping at the checkpoint and burying my hands in my groin might have been an option.  As I was wearing shorts and minimal upper body cover, I thought this was also likely to result in hypothermia (or arrest) long before my fingers thawed.

I was disappointed, especially as I have never felt so strong at such a distance and that without eating!

Planning and preparation

I planned fairly carefully for the event, I studied the route map, studied the weather forecast, recce'd using Google Earth and worked out nutritional and hydration needs.  

I made sure I had the minimum kit requirements and more besides (full leg cover other than over trousers, a long sleeved micro fleece, spare socks, buff, plastic bags to wind proof my gloves) I even carried an ultra light down jacket and one of those puff up aluminised bivvi bags!

I carried two 500ml bottles of coke, four hot cross buns, two egg and cress sandwiches, four low fat muesli bars, dextrose tablets, hydration tabs and a litre of water.

While better gloves would have helped, some competitors did without any.

So what went wrong?

Above are the facts, it was only while relating the story yesterday that I noticed the blindingly obvious.  Why on earth had I run that far without eating?

My hands froze during the last five miles, Checkpoint 2 had been bright, calm and about seven and a half miles away, an ideal opportunity to refuel and change.   I should have consumed two of the buns and two of the bars by Checkpoint 4!

Weather

The weather beat me in the end, despite the fact that I was well prepared for it.

Because I was uncomfortable in the wind and rain I ran blindly on instead of using my head.  Food and warm clothes are of little use if they remain in your sack until you are incapable of using them.


I am struck by the similarity of the fact that I had prepared to avoid a navigational error earlier in the race, yet had made the error anyway (see post below).