A Flyers Eye View of the Southern 50

It’s 5am, it’s minus 15 degrees outside, and we have just been rudely awoken after a few hours sleep with the prospect of a 50 mile stroll in the Chilterns ahead of us- why ??!!

Our start time is 6.30am and after plotting some grid references we are off into the cold – and boy was it cold! At our team meeting the night before we had agreed that it was best to take it easy at the start, it’s a long way, we needed to manage our bodies and let muscles get warm before doing too much; so why within 2 miles were we running ? Well it was just too tempting, – downhill across a closed golf course with virgin snow to leave our mark on – great stuff!

Soon we noticed a bit of a problem, all of the pipes from our water bladders had frozen, so we had no water, also the isotonic drinks (‘go juice’) were like slush puppies, but we could drink them. The early checkpoints were also struggling, frozen water, frozen gas – they weren’t happy bunnies! It was also very icy and during the day all of us fell over at least once at some point.

It was the coldest we had ever been out hiking and we kept every stitch of clothing we had firmly in place and tried to keep moving to generate some warmth. But when the sun came out, and the ice crystals sparkled as we trudged across a frozen field, it looked glorious, and there were some wonderful winter scenes along the way. But enough of that, we were racing!

The start had been fairly flat, and we pushed on to make the most of the easy terrain, passing a few teams along the way. We knew that the team that started just after us were the firm favourites, as locals and winners of the 50 miles for the last few years, and we didn’t actually see them at all, but as we feared they disappeared off into the distance.

As we were 50 miling this time we did give in to the charms of the checkpoints a couple of times, taking on board a very tasty sausage roll, and later on a hot dog – much needed they were too. We did make one navigational ‘faux pas’ and passed the same team twice as a result, but it wasn’t far and apart from that the navigation was pretty spot on. Then we heard from our 50k team, they had got to half way in about 4 hours so were doing really well, although we didn’t hear from them again till the end.

It became apparent that we were in a race for second place with team 9, who had started ahead of us and so meant we had the advantage of knowing how far in front they were as we came into the checkpoints. They had started 14 minutes before us and at one point they were about 25 minutes up, which meant they were beating us. We thought is was the ‘Undertakers’ team, but we met up with one of their 50k teams at a checkpoint and they said their 50 mile team had dropped down to the 50k, so who were they? So we pushed on and started to see the gap reduce, down to about 15 minutes – it was getting close.

Just after we passed the 25-mile mark (half way) I broke out the secret recipe bread pudding to celebrate and raise morale a bit. As we came up towards Ivinghoe Beacon we hit the 30-mile mark (so we would have finished if we were doing the 50k!) in just under 8 hours. But we still had 20 miles to go, so we push on, up a lovely steep hill. The section from 30 to 40 miles seemed to drag on for ever, and it was during this that we started to hurt. Martin had blister problems, as did Joe, as the old man of the team I was aching generally, but specifically the left ankle, lower back, right hip and left hamstring, Justin’s dodgy knee seemed to be holding up and he was generally setting the pace.

We were now 5 minutes behind team 9, but couldn’t seem to get and closer, the checkpoints were saying they knew we were chasing and were worried, so again we pushed on, we wanted to catch them!

And then we found them, we had just run down a hill and reached a gate at the bottom, and there was a team just the other side. What team are you? They asked – we told them team 16, and they were not happy! We then trailed them for a while, keeping them in sight and despite their tactics to shake us off, we stuck to them. Then it started getting dark, and the temperature plunged again. We were suffering a bit now, but decided to push on for the finish, and so went past the ‘Ten Gallon Dixie’ team and on towards the finish. We were a bit surprised at checkpoint 18 to find that there were arrows to show the way to the end – what was that about? – but carried on into town, past the station, and then a run (probably more a fast hobble) to try and get in under 12 and a half hours.

Sitting down (for the first time since before the start) was nice – but then we had to stand up to get a cup of tea, not so good. We met up with our supporting driver Stephen and then our 50k team came over for a tea as well. They weren’t too happy as they had made a couple of navigation errors and had been slower in the second half, finishing in over 10 hours, although Stephen still thought they had done well.

After a warm shower and a brief lie down our chauffeur Stephen kindly drove us into Amersham for a celebratory curry – that went down well and was much deserved for both teams. As a whole we didn’t feel as bad as we had expected to, although all of us were very weary and aching, and a lot of hobbling going on, so then it was back to the school and a well earned sleep.

The next morning we found out how well we had done – our 50k team were not expecting to have done much, possibly somewhere in the top 20 (out of over 40 teams). Well the top 20 passed, then we were into the top 10, still going, top 5 still not called – then the top 3 and they were on the stage! It turns out they finished third, and won 3 trophies! The novice trophy, fastest mixed team and fastest team all under 25. Then it was our turn, and yes we finished second, in 12 hours 31 minutes, winning 2 trophies as the runners up and also the County Trophy for fastest GLN team (we should have had the novice one as well, but can’t be too greedy!). Well done to our rivals from team 9 who came third – respect guys – they helped to keep us going and finished with their best ever time – well done guys. As for the winners, we think there should be some random drug testing brought in – they beat us by an hour and 40 minutes!

Our respect and gratitude go to the checkpoint staff – we were freezing cold and moving at reasonable speed to generate warmth, what it was like sitting around waiting for teams to turn up can’t have been nice, especially those who had to stay in place into the night! Also to all the team involved putting on such a big event that always seems so well organised and run. Many thanks to our driver Stephen, it was nice not to have to drive home!

Well done to our 50k team – Gemma T, Gemma P, Giacomo and Alex – first attempt at the 50k and coming third out of over 40 teams is a brilliant result, so a big well done. But there is still room for improvement, so next year guys………..

And so to the 50 mile team, well done guys for a good race and for dragging an old man round with you. All we have to do now is work out where we can get another 1 hour 40 minutes from for next time……….. if there is a next time!!

Mark Thompson, Phoenix Flyers, 201^st Islington.