I really didn't intend to go back to Deadwater, having had a great experience at the 2018 event, but sometimes these things have a way of just drawing you in. So I thought rather than just relate what happened this year I would try to reflect a bit on my race, and on the race itself, in comparison with my earlier visit.
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| Rainy start line briefing |
1. My own performance
I was a late starter into ultra running, completing my first event 14 years ago when I was 59. I reached some sort of respectability by my mid 60's, for example completing the Lakeland 50 in just under 10 hours and the West Highland Way in 22 and a half, but since then there has been a steady decline in my performances and these days I am very much a back-of-pack "completer" rather than concerned about any particular times. So I approached Deadwater in 2018 with completion as my only goal. I got to the end though it was touch and go at times, and this made me feel I needed to find a few ways to make things easier this year being three years older. I could improve a bit with kit and food but not much, the difference would have to come from race strategy. It occured to me that while the long days in 2018 had taken me a long time (on the longest I finished less than an hour before having to start the next day), I had plenty of time left in the evenings of the shorter days. So I should really take the shorter days, particularly days 1 and 2, easier, to leave more "in the tank" for later in the week. I was too indisciplined to carry this out to best effect. I was only about 20 minutes longer on Day 1 (though still came in last place) and 80 minutes on Day 2; I could and should have taken longer, though the weather on these days was not great giving no real incentive to hang around. The other tactic I decided on was to slow down or rest whenever the going felt tough, and not to bother too much about the time unless the next day's start became pressing. I knew from many continuous races that I can go for two or three days without significant sleep if necessary.
Overall the race went well for me. I never felt really tired except on the final two or three climbs of Day 4, and this was probably because I did the last 10 miles or so with another runner (Bev) at a pace faster than I would have sustained on my own. But also towards the end of Day 4 I was conscious of a pain on the top of my right foot. I assumed it was rubbing on the tongue or top edge of my shoe, but found it was due to a swelling from some sort of bite. This got progressively worse over the next two days, swelling much more, showing signs of infection and causing sensitivity at the skin and discomfort when flexing the ankle. Advice from the race medic Chris was that the best tactic at this stage of the game would be to carry on to the finish then get it looked at then. He examined it again before Day 6 and took my temperature halfway through the day to confirm this was still the best approach. With the benefit of hindsight this proved absolutely spot on. Any attempt at treatment before the finish would have had very limited benefit and cost a lot of race time. (I actually started on antibiotics the day after the finish and three days later they have only just started to have some discerible effect). It just made Days 5 and 6 a bit painful.
My total finish time was 82:13:33 compared with 81:08:37 in 2018 so I was pretty pleased with that. Without the insect bite I would certainly have done a better time than 2018 (for example Day 6 this year took me three and a half hours longer than in 2018), though the fact that I didn't have to use any "race time" for catching up on sleep this year was also significant (this is explained a bit further on).
2. The rest of the field
There were 20 starters and 16 finishers, at 80% a far higher completion rate than previous years. Times can't be compared directly with 2017 because part of the course that year had to be omitted because of really bad weather, but comparison with 2018 (18 starters and 10 finishers, a 55% completion rate) shows that the class of 2021 came to the event much better prepared. There were some seriously good runners at the front in 2018, three of them beating the 2021 winning time, but not much quality beyond that. The 5th place time in 2018 would only have got 12th in 2021, showing that a feature this year was good performances right through the field. I think this year will give prospective entrants a much better read on what to expect in the future. Good, competent, and "good enough" times for the race, and sensible targets for each day are getting much better established.
3. Course diffences
There were two course changes this year from 2018.
The first added a mile or so and a couple of hundred feet of ascent along Hadrian's Wall onto Day I to the new Camp 1 location at Winshiels rather than Haltwhistle. It then added another couple of miles through fields to Haltwhistle the following morning. This made the course longer overall, but coming between two of the shortest days I think made very little difference to the overall undertaking. I also felt the mile along the Wall added to rather than detracting from the race experience.
More significantly, Day 4 the "Long Day" had to be reduced by 10 miles to around 50 miles, with these miles being added back into the start of Day 5, again due to an enforced campsite relocation. At the outset this seemed to make the event intuitively easier, but there were plusses and minusses. It meant the route itself was different and more arduous for a couple of miles. Instead of the mostly easy-angled steady ascent taken by the Pennine Way from Calderdale to Stoodley Pike, the new route took a steep footpath up from the valley for several hundred feet to the overnight stop (actually a camping barn for this night), followed by a direct and more-or-less pathless ascent of steep side of the Pike first thing next morning.
For runners capable of completing the original Day 4 (Horton to Littleborough) in say 20 hours of less, I don't think the change was particularly significant. For those like me who are not, the difference is that the sleep you get (for me never likely to be more than 2-2,5 hours on this particular "overnight") could this year all be taken at the campsite so not in "race time", rather than after the following morning's start when it just adds on to your Day 5 time.
I'm sure the debate will continue on this one.
4. Weather
Weather can significantly affect your enjoyment of an event like this. It's more than just whether the actual running is pleasant or not, but much more about management of kit. Even if it's dry, stuff gets wet - shirts from sweat, socks and shoes from wet ground and so on. In good weather you have some chance of getting these dry again, in bad weather almost none. I think on average the weather in 2018 and 2021 was about the same, generally poor at the start and improving towards the finish. We had a drier day through the Forest in 2018 but a much bleaker day over Cross Fell, and Day 5 along the canals was really baking. I found the canals much easier this year in spite of having a sore foot. Runners have different tactics for dealing with the wet, I spoke to two who had brought clean socks for each day (to be binned at the end of the day). That's something I might think about for multi day events in future, though RD Richard has a penchant for finding routes which take you through some wet ground early on each day, so the benefit may be more psychological than real. We didn't have the continuous bad weather experienced by the 2017 race, so for that we should be thankful.
5. Atmosphere
What was really noticeable on both years I have done this event is that it was a really happy experience from start to finish. All the runners and support team were supportive and friendly throughout, there were no moaners, prima donnas or drama queens, everyone just got on with things and helped each other when they could.
This was true even though the support team, with just one or two exceptions, was completely different in the two years I ran. Even the systems varied, for example this year we chose our overnight tent companions at the start and stuck with them through to the finish, whereas in 2018 tent occupancy gradually developed through the event such that the faster guys (earlier to bed and later to rise) got together and slower people did the same. It didn't seem to make any difference to the ambience overall.
I can only put this down to the unobtrusive but clearly super-efficent way Richard runs the show.
Whether this atmosphere could be maintained with the maximum possible entry (50 starters), where getting to know everyone else on the journey would be much harder, I don't know, but I would hope it could.
6. The future
This is an event that deserves a future. It provides something that you don't find much in UK ultras, a really significant challenge that doesn't require a lot of running ability to complete. This genuinely is one where so long as you keep your head in the game and look after your feet, you'll get to the finish. Over the three years it has run, 34 people have now completed Deadwater, and I hope that all of them give it as much publicity as they can over the next year or so to make sure that 2023 get a big entry list and so becomes another success.
So to all my fellow runners and all the support staff on this year's event, a sincere thanks to everyone; it was a pleasure and a privilege to share your company along the way. Experience shows that somehow, the majority of us will stay in touch, I think Deadwater does that to you.
As for me, well 2 years is a long way away just now. But I did say last time that I wouldn't go again. I feared that after such a good experience in 2018 that 2021 might be an anticlimax. It wasn't............
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| Deadwater 2021 Finishers and RD Richard Weremiuk |
