The treadmill challenge organised by Sweatshop and Nike was postponed from this month to sometime in feb, exact date is not known yet. I have decided to use this time to get some extra treadmill training in so last saturday I went to my gym and aimed to do a few hours work. Unfortunately I had chosen to use one of the treadmills in a section of the gym usually dedicated to training juniors (this was a quiet separate room so I could listen to my own music etc and not be distracted), this meant that the treadmills were set to do a maximum of 10 mins at a time which was incredibly frustrating and I couldn't cope with the constant stop and starting. It was impossible to get into a rhythm so after 2 and a half hours I called it a day. Next time I will make sure I can override the settings beforehand as I would like to do a 6hrs session and a 12hr session before my attempt to get used to running on the treadmill rather than outside, getting used to the pace I will hopefully be able to keep up for 24hrs will obviously be vital for the attempt.
In the meantime I have the 2nd Beacons race (www.beaconsultra.com) to look forward to on the 5th december. This race was great last year so am expecting it to be another enjoyable event

Last weekend I did a race called Caesar's Camp 100. This was a race based on MOD land in Aldershot and consisted of ten laps, a 50 mile and 30 mile option was also available. The 50 and 100 mile runners all started at midday on saturday while the 30 mile runners would start at midnight- I heard one runner doing this distance call it the Fun Run, only in the ultra running world could a 30 mile race be referred to as a fun run!
My aim going into the race was to beat the previous ladies record, it stood several hours longer than the male record so knew the chance of breaking it was good.
The course was a pretty tough one with several hills and very little in the way of flat ground. My first few laps were quick but I knew I would have to slow down once it got dark as heading down some of those hills in the daylight was tricky enough never mind when it was pitch black. I felt pretty strong for the first 60 miles of the course and only started to struggle a bit on the 7th lap when I was feeling sleepy. Thank god for the copious amounts of coffee available at the checkpoints to keep me going.
Going into my 8th lap I ran with Dave Baker who was on his 7th lap and we pushed each other on, having someone to run with when it is dark did make it seem a lot easier and I think we both managed a quicker lap than our previous one. After that lap he rested for a bit while I decided to push on and get the last 20 miles done. The first half of that lap was done alone but once I reached the checkpoint at half way I met Iveagh who was doing his first 100 mile race and had also completed 8 and a half laps already. We ran the last 15 miles together keeping each others spirits up. It helped us both to know that we were not the only ones in pain (or seeing things through lack of sleep) and somehow we managed to push on. At this point the downhill sections were actually the most painful but we decided to run these as fast as possible to get them over and done with, the uphills were almost a pleasure at this stage.
This was a fantastically difficult race and during it I swore I was never coming back to do it again but somehow I found myself saying yes when Henk, the race organiser, said I had to return next year to defend my title and break the ladies record again. hmmm we will see about that one.
Thanks to Gilly and Mark for their support during the race and to Rob for the lend of this headtorch after he realised my torch was getting on my nerves.
Also well done to Oli Sinclair for breaking the 50 mile course record