GREENMAN NIGHT RUN/WALK.
FRI24TH AUG 6PM -SAT 12PM.(18HOURS)
completed by Rob and Sarah.
This night attempt is something we both have wanted to do for along time after many hours spent training on the GM throughout the year. Our first complete GM was the ultra running event in March. We both felt a GM attempt @ night would add an extra challenge to an already challenging course taking in account the terrain and navigation involved. Only after many hours spent on the course already in the dark usually around 5am on a winters morning did we feel able to consider doing this all night. We were right to be cautious as navigation @ night is difficult across many fields in which it isn’t obvious which direction you need to go when tired and its dark. The experience held many highs and lows, this was an experience we would definitely repeat.
The highs were running with the moon as a light source most of the time. We both were quite amazed that we didn’t need are head torches a lot of the time as our eyes adjusted to the light and in fact we found the head torches quite dazzling especially after many hours. The stars were more prevalent certainly more than what you can usually see in your back garden in the centre of Bristol. The quiet of the night was enjoyable, the only noise you could here was the cows munching on the grass.
The lows were being chased by cows, quite scary really a whole herd chased us near Walnut Farm due to there being young cows in the field, we decided to walk.
The tiredness was very difficult, we spent 2am- 4am virtually sleep walking. We both found it difficult to hold a conversation – we had slurred speech – couldn’t finish sentences – we both were shutting our eyes uncontrollably and both even started hallucinating. It was really odd, but it did pass once the sun started to come up again. I think the extreme tiredness was due to both having got up 4am on the Friday morning worked a full day and then leaving for our attempt 6pm in the evening when we were already tired, a mistake, next time you definitely need rest and sleep before starting.
It may be interesting to add that there are water taps @ all the churches on route which we found helpful. We ate chicken wraps after experimenting with other foods, these worked for us. A change of socks with a bit of talc to dry your feet was nice to stop “trench foot”. We even had time for a cold foot bath in the river @ Keynsham. We were fortunate with the weather – we had one down pour, but that was covered by our ponchos, which we carry with us anyway.
We have just completed GM again in 15 hours, this time in the day and going in the opposite direction on the 22nd Sept 2012. We chose to do it in the opposite direction as on May bank holiday 2013 we are planning on doing both ways at the same time which will give us a total of 90miles, a good indication for our training for a 100 mile attempt @ another event @ the end of July.
If anyone would like to join us or support us with our attempt in May you are more than welcome.
Sarah Sweeting and Rob Dickson
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