I finally become an ultrarunner....after 30 years.

Two years ago this would have been inconceivable, but having begun "proper" running in 1982 and despite many lapses over the 30 intervening years, on October 7th 2012 at about 1.45 in the afternoon I finally became an "ultrarunner". At 42.2 km in to the Ultrarace Nottingham Ultra, in the middle of Wollaton Park in Nottingham, I crossed that line into the zone of "more than a marathon".

How  Endomondo recorded the run.

Limitless possibilities now open up with the boundaries all being linked to preparation beforehand and mental approach on the day.

Many non-runners find it hard to grasp how you go about running for an hour, believe they can never run for the four hours needed to run a road marathon, and cannot contemplate further.

"Further" is where I intend to do some research over the next few years and the first taste of this new running delight seemed to go fairly well.

People had always told me that "ultrarunners" were different to the people who run city half-marathons and marathons. Now I don't hold a lot of store with that sort of stuff. I believe there's no such thing as people who can't run (due to some physiological disadvantage), or who can't run far. In fact I am firmly with the "born to run" camp - those who believe modern humans evolved as persistence hunters, with specific adaptations enabling us to run long distances in the heat to catch faster running, but less well adapted, game. So any of us can do it (and I think we probably should - but more on that another time).
But to be attracted to running much more slowly just so that you can travel longer and longer distances is, I have to admit, totally at odds with most of what the running industry is all about, and so ultra-running, by definition appears on the fringes of the running community - if such a thing exists.
Every Brit now knows who Mo Farah is and what a great champion he is, but I wonder how many know and admire Ellie Greenwood, Mimi Anderson or Ian Sharman (and his last post makes this one look a bit silly!). Never mind totally iconic athletes and role models such as Scott Jurek or the phenomenal Kilian Jornet - move aside, F.C. Barcelona, Kilian is the sporting sensation of Catalunya.

So the 60 or so people who climbed onto a double-decker bus just by Nottingham Castle at 7.15 on a sunday morning were, by definition almost, "outliers". But they were reassuringly normal sounding, although clothing and kit was not typical of your average 10k roadrunner. Packs of all sizes, bottles, and bottle packs everywhere, calf compression tights and almost everyone with some type of hat. Everyone, without exception was eating rather than drinking. A few were chatting animatedly and some were remarking about how many first timers there were. I have to admit to being slightly psyched - but luckily I am now very familiar with my running strengths and weaknesses, at least at distances up to the marathon, and, as it turned out with only 83 starters there was never going to be a problem with "running my own race". In fact from 12 km up to about 30 km, I only saw about 4 other people - and each of those several times as I (a) got slightly lost a few times, (b) had to "organise" pack, drink, food, camera(!), headphones, clothing (c) needed a pitstop.

So here are some impressions of what took a sunday morning to late lunch-time to accomplish. We started with a cup of tea and a number session in the Blidworth Leisure centre, not far from Mansfield.

Pre-race briefing

 New York Marathon take note - or maybe 48,000 bags bring slightly greater logistical problems....

Chuck your bag in here

The start - fast men on the right. Yours truly far left.

P*ss off that way and we (might) see you later

Once we were off, it was all pretty low key - just follow the bloke (or in my case, women) in front and try to spot the markings and no blow up.

Actually the route was pretty well marked throughout and the maps given to very runner were very clear and of good quality - no complaints there.

At 12 km - still in full ultra gear

I started off in (new) Asics Fuji trainers which are trail shoes with a tread pattern that seemed ok on the roads and the first 30 km or so did involve quite a few muddy sections and lots of really easy forest trails. A good choice. I also ran very conservatively early on, walking most of the uphills and trying to keep my pace above 6 mins per km. I zoned out while listening to episode 18 of Talk Ultra and only re-surfaced again after 2 and a half hours.

I had asked Debbie, my long-suffering other half to meet me at the 30 km checkpoint (there were 4, each providing water and snacks) so I could change shoes.

Here I decided to reduce my load to what I would take on a normal long run - just GPS tracking on phone and a drink bottle, plus some Clif Shots. So having started with a back pack, arm pack and bottle, I was now in "running free" mode, and this must have inspired me to get a bit of a shift on. I started passing people reasonably steadily from there on in to about 5 km from the end, although by now there were quite large gaps between runners.

The footpath / trail / field / lanes mixture started to end as we came into the city and, as I began to recognise the area around the hospital, I began to start to tire a bit, with thighs and hips beginning to complain a bit. Mentally I was OK, although in my head, I was beginning to expect the course to be a bit short and I found this a bit distracting. Some music for the last hour might not have been a bad idea, but my headphones were already in Debbie's boot!

I somehow kept a bit in reserve for the last 2 km or so and finished with a bit of a flourish, stuffed some proper food in and headed for Starbucks - that is the only part of the day I am a little ashamed of....

Uphill finishing sprint past 2 naive runners chatting.
Bandit!

Amazingly when the results came out online later in the evening I saw I had passed 27 runners in the second half and I came 34th out of the 83 starters, still 1 hour 40 behind the winner, but nearly 3 hours in front of the last man home (ouch!).

What's next? 5 miles on monday for starters.

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy