Running for me

Transgrancanaria 2023 was a great race. I have now taken on 3 different distances at the race: 30K in 2020, 65K in 2022 and 84K in 2023. It is traditionally held early in March but this year was a week earlier at the end of February. I finished 1st in 2020, 4th in 2022 and 5th in 2023. I have always enjoyed racing on the island with the mostly rocky terrain and lots of amazing single track.

Racing the 30K in March 2020

The race started in the lovely town of Agaete in the North part of the island. I did a short warm up out and back from the start and had some nice chats with runners in the start pen. It started with some road running and then once we got on the trails, a 600m climb over 5K. There were so many runners and we looked like a big conga going up the mountain. We then had a fun technical descent into my favourite place in the island (Lomo de San Pedro).  I also discovered an amazing restaurant near there this year – Casa Romantica – which had a lovely tasting menu filled with local, seasonal cuisine.  As I ran into the village, a kind man involved in the organisation told me I was 11th to which I said, with a smile “Ahhh! Thank you!” as it is always helpful to get information out there!

I genuinely had no idea how many people were ahead of me and I also wasn’t too worried. This race was about me and for me. There was also still a very long way to go. Even though I had received information about my position I remained very focused on myself and just running my race. I didn’t question my plan or get influenced by external factors to change what I was doing. We then had a long climb up to the first aid station at El Hornillo (another 5K with 500m elevation which was mostly packed into about 3K). I felt like I faffed a lot at this very busy aid station but I made sure to top up my water. Thankfully, Kris and Anwen, who had kindly offered to support me, would be at the next 4 aid stations to help me do less faffing! I arrived into Artenara (22.6K and 2117m into the race) at bang on 3 hours with legs that felt good and were moving a lot better up hills than I often felt in training. I knew the next part of the course pretty well since it was mostly in the race in 2022 plus I did a recce in January. I kept fuelling and hydrating well, making sure I was hitting at least 90g of carb and 500ml of electrolyte every hour.

It was quite warm at points. An hour and a half after Artenara, I felt the heat coming into the next aid station at Tejeda. I got a little lost on the way coming into the village and missed a marker which took you down a steep slope. I don’t think I would have been the only one! Some time was lost but I just cracked on. There was still a long way to go. I had been saving a bit of effort for the next section as when I did the recce, I had found it incredibly hard! There was 1110m climb over approx. 10K (most of the climb condensed into about 8K) which took us to a key point in the race at El Garanon camping area.  It also is the highest point on the course and I had felt the altitude a bit on the recce when up this high but I didn’t notice it in the race thankfully. I expected to feel really crap but I was actually feeling pretty good considering I had just done 45K with approximately 3900m of climbing. It was a great boost and so was knowing that I only had about 600m climb left over the next 40K of the race which meant a whole load of fun downhill.

The course profile

Kris and Anwen were awesome at the aid stations giving me wee snippets of information that kept me working hard and reassured me that I was still moving really well. I wanted to work hard this race. I didn’t feel I did this to my best in Thailand (among a few other races) and I wanted to work on it here. In long races like this, you will not always be hitting the absolute sweet spot effort wise. For me it has helped to accept this as I have been quite frustrated in races where I feel I haven’t spent long enough in ‘race effort’ and have taken it a bit too easy. I think it is realistic to say sometimes you will be going too easy, sometimes you will have it just right and sometimes you will be going too hard. Rarely do I overcook it - maybe this is the next experiment…. I wanted to minimise the time spent below the sweet spot effort in this race and the information about people being not far ahead that looked a bit tired really helped me!! I used it as positive fuel only but also didn’t obsess over it, instead getting back to focusing on what I could control such as fuelling, hydrating, and my technique (I was trying to stay relaxed and flowing!). I have woken up the day after races with an incredibly sore neck (and pain free legs) and I am convinced this is from being tense and straining subconsciously! In this race I focused on relaxing from the shoulders down. That said, the next day it was my jaw that was sore!!! I need to focus on relaxing from the top of my head down next time.

Meeting a friendly donkey near Artenara in January whilst doing a recce of the course

The next aid station was Tunte (58K, 4200m climbed – 7h 54mins) which was the final point in which I would see Kris and Anwen. I restocked my gels and electrolytes and they told me there were two females not that far ahead. I had lost track of where I was in the field by this point so I didn’t know I was 7th. Even though I had been getting information about position it was kind of going in one ear and then out the other as I guess I am getting better on focusing on what’s in my control. I did say to Kris and Anwen before the race that it would be amazing to finish in the top 5. The field was really competitive and a finish like this would represent a really good day out for me. This is what I desperately wanted after a disappointing 2022 due to health challenges. I struggled a little more than I would have liked to on the climb out of Tunte. I thought my legs were ok but I found bits of it quite hard. I knew it was a super short climb though so I just got it done. I had a feeling I saw a female Spanish runner ahead but I couldn’t be sure so again just put that thought out my head and focused back on my effort and working hard. A few kms later I caught up with her very quickly, much to my surprise and we exchanged support for each other having raced against each other at the exact same point last year.

I faffed some more at the final aid station where I was again left to my own devices. As I was leaving the aid station the Spanish runner was coming in. She must have got a second wind after I passed (or I had a really good faff…). I then headed off on the final climb of the race and felt pretty good. I could run the majority of it and then started the technical descent into the river bed. I had thought there was 11K to go from here but it was more like 9K. BONUS! There were a lot of small things in the race which I had expected to be a lot worse than they ended up being which was an unintentional yet really helpful strategy. I will probably use this again! Be gone with positive thinking – prepare for the worst and you might just be pleasantly surprised like I was! I sneaked a couple of looks at my pace on my watch in the final river bed section and that was probably a silly idea. I had not looked at my watch all race, except at the first couple of checkpoints to know if I was on track against my rough timetable and therefore be comfortable that I was taking on sufficient water until the next stop. If I was going much slower I would leave aid stations with additional water.

I had ran about 4K out and back from the finish line a couple of days before the race and I remember feeling like it was forever to get to the point where I turned around. Shortly before that point I quite quickly caught up with - and then passed - Eva Sperger. We didn’t exchange many words… I didn’t really know what to say and we were both working very hard to keep pushing to the end at this point. I put a shift in, trying to not look back although I definitely sneaked a couple of quick glances. I couldn’t see Eva but it wasn’t the brightest light at this point so it was hard to see. I ran the final 27K with 650m climb in 2hours 40 minutes.

I reached the finish line and saw a very happy Kris and Anwen as they knew the running order of who was ahead of me much better than I did and they massively helped me to achieve my goal of a top 5 finish! I turned the corner into the finishing shoot and the atmosphere was electric! It was an incredible feeling and a super fun finish!

I waited to see Eva finish and congratulate her and could see that Kathryn Gotz had finished very close before me as she was still getting her breath back. I then gave Kris and Anwen big sweaty hugs of appreciation for their support throughout the day. This was swiftly followed by a wee trip to the medical tent as about 10 minutes after finishing I started to projectile vomit a lot of my fluids! I have never had this before so I will need to try and problem solve that one. I felt so great for the entirety of the race so it came as a bit of a surprise but another 10 minutes after that episode I felt good again (well, as good as you can).

If I am to be honest, I did not at all expect to have the day I had. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the race in its entirety (I enjoyed the recce but that was with an evening's rest inbetween all the climbing in the first half!) and I thought I would have a mental battle on my hands. The first half was brutal in terms of the elevation gain. It was just relentless! This doesn’t play to my strengths or really what I enjoy – I like to run more than hike. It seemed to pass quite quickly though and before I knew it I had only 40K to go. I knew I could blast it out as I didn’t overdo it in the first half and my stomach was happy. I was able to fuel and keep energy levels up for the long haul and I love descending so I could just enjoy that part of the race to the finish. My mood was really good throughout and I had no mental battles whatsoever.

Why did I run so happy and well that day? I think a key bit was having some goals for the race that I could control and that I was excited about going for. I had no expectations and I wasn’t focused at all on things out of my control. Yes, the race would be considered for GB selection for the World Champs but prior to the race I very sensibly got my head around the fact that I had very little control over that outcome so should waste no time, energy or stress on it. What I did want to do was have fun on the trails in a beautiful place doing what I love. I invest a lot of time, money and energy into my training and the travelling to races (self-funded) and I wasn’t going to have a miserable day out when I do this!! I had control over this. Getting my head in this good place was game changing. I slept the night before race day (this rarely happens), I enjoyed the week before the race and I know I would have been happy whatever position I finished if I had ran the way I did. I gave my best, I surprised myself and I am excited about the next adventure.

A few final plugs and thank yous (I cannot mention everyone today and will share more of the team in another blog!)

Dymlab, PhysioRun – these two amazingly knowledgeable and experienced professionals look after all my sore bits and are fantastic support in my team

TORQ fitness – I love their products and highly recommend – TORQ gels and TORQ hydration fuelled me through this 10.5 hour race

CurraNZ – a health supplement that works – my recovery was so good – use code MERYL for 25% off your first order

Kit – I ran in the TRAILFLY ULTRA G 280 – an amazing shoe for this distance from INOV-8

Big thanks to my coach – David Roche!