Rather than write about the experience I thought I’d add some video. My Daughters both got GoPro’s for Christmas so I ‘borrowed’ one and recorded some footage throughout the day. What do they say a video tells a thousand words ?

First offering is the start. You’ll notice we actually deliberately go the wrong way as it’s tradition after last years navigational cock-up when the whole field went left when they should have gone right. Not a good start to a 200 mile race when you get lost in the first 1o metres ? It’s amazing any of them even found the finish line !! I was actually following Jen on this footage and we ran together for most fo the fist 70k before she dropped me and ran an amazing race to finish second female and top 5 finisher. I should have hung on for longer ! (https://vimeo.com/396109352 )

Next we are an hour or so into the race , still smiling . I think at this point we were top 10, mainly because everybody in front of us got lost.  Discussing our breakfast which consisted of waffles with bacon, ice cream, poached eggs and lots of maple syrup. The joys of ultra running. (https://vimeo.com/396110335 )

Fours hours in and still enjoying it, lots of walking and running, it was starting to heat up at this point, just before midday and after aid station 1. Certainly underestimated the distance between aid stations. ( https://vimeo.com/396112207 )

Four and half hours in and we’re starting to have second thoughts !!! Scenery is still awesome but I regret not putting on sunscreen around this time ! (https://vimeo.com/396113019 )

Around eight hours in and we’re both goosed ! Really hot at this point and some serious walking ! ( https://vimeo.com/396108801 )

Eight hours in and we’re starting to worry ! Realising we’re not even 10% into the race… oh dear.! (https://vimeo.com/396113815 )

This was after the 75k aid station, not happy , quads were locked solid. !! Around the 10 hour mark, still loving the scenery but dehydration and lack of nutrition was starting to take its toll. (https://vimeo.com/396109049 )

An hour later legs were good, pancakes and bacon finally kicked in. Probably around the 80 mark, eleven hours. ( https://vimeo.com/396114361 )

Sunset , feeling pretty good at this stage, 6k into the next aid station and had managed to put together a good 10k of running. Legs had recovered at this point but unfortunately I went through one more aid station before pulling the pin. (https://vimeo.com/396114936 )