The Essex Way...

After the success and enjoyment of my last solo ultra I thought the summer holidays would be an ideal time to try something else. The Essex Way (81 miles) has been on my 'to do list' for some time so it didn't take long to come up with the plan to give it a go. I decided doing it over two days would be more realistic and doable! The route crosses the road at Cressing, just a couple of miles from home and conveniently is almost half way on the route, so it made sense to do Epping to Cressing on Day one, run home, eat, sleep etc then back out to Cressing the next day to carry on into Harwich. Always sounds so simple sat at your laptop!

Day 1...

Packed and ready to go

 After a week of record temperatures I was pleased it had cooled down, not so happy about the forecast day of rain, but no point stressing about the weather. Andreea had very kindly agreed to drive me to Epping stupidly early and so at 5:45am I was outside Epping station excited for the journey ahead!

At the start

It took a few miles to settle into the running and to become focused on the navigation, a few minor navigation errors soon had me concentrating and all was well. My only concern was because of the previous days rain I had wet feet from practically the beginning. I had spare sock and knew footcare would be paramount during the day.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first day, the footpaths were well maintained and the majority was runnable. I kept my pace slow as the second day was going to be slightly longer and I hadn't ever run back to back ultra distances before.
I didn't pass anywhere to fill my drinks bottles but had plenty with me and I knew a friend was going to join me for a mile at some point, so I asked her to bring some water. Erica and Arthur joined me at Great Waltham with my favourite ultra running snacks, custard and salt and vinegar crisps and it was lovely to have some company for a mile.

Erica and Arthur

I considered changing into some dry socks but had been pre-warned that there was a field in this section that is always boggy, and with no way round, you had to suck it up and go through it, the advice being if you just go for it it's only ankle deep! (This advice was spot on, thanks Baz!)

My left foot in particular was feeling a little tender around the heel by the time I reached Cressing but with just a couple of miles to go before I was home I carried on, not sure anything I could do at that point was going to make a lot of difference anyway. Ten hours with warm wet feet was never going to be great!

So after 41 miles and 10:13 running I was home with plenty of the day left to eat, drink, give the feet some TLC and prepare for day 2.

Day 2...

I slept reasonably well which I was pleased about as I often don't after an ultra and woke early as I wanted to get going, day 2 was going to be about 48 miles and Andreea had again agreed to scoop me up in Harwich and get home. Optimistically and overestimating my speed for the day I said I would be done about 7pm, maintaining about 4 miles an hour would get me done in that time. The legs were achy but not horrifcally so and the feet seemed good, no blisters or obvious sore spots when I put my trainers back on. Happily I left home and headed back to Cressing to pick up the Essex Way where I had left it.

Watching the sunrise on day 2

The first section of day 2 was the toughest running of the whole thing, brambles and stinging nettles for what seemed like miles and due to the early morning dew my feet were wet again with the left one feeling slightly tender, it was a lovely sunny day and I figured the ground would soon dry so made the decision to change socks once that had happened. After the overgrown section the next hazard was crossing the A120 at 8am on a Monday morning. I actually said 'I am gong to die' out loud! Eventually there was a gap big enough for me to sprint (yes I did sprint that bit!) across and so I survived to continue on my way.

The footpaths improved and in general I have to say the Essex Way is well maintained. My pace was considerably slower than I had thought but I was moving forward so wasn't too concerned at this point. Being a much warmer day, I got through my drink much quicker and needed to find somewhere t buy some more. By about 15 miles I had, had enough! Everything hurt, my foot was sore and I still had a very long way to go. I spent several miles convincing myself that if I got to 20 miles that was a good enough distance and I would call it a day. No one would really care if I finished or not, why was I putting myself through this etc etc. The usual negative thoughts that can hit when you're doing these runs. I hit 20 miles as I reached West Bergholt, there was a Co-op on the route so I went in and bought loads of drinks, some food and just had a break to decide what I was going to do. In a race you would have a checkpoint, and lovely volunteers would boost you up, feed you and there may be a medic to patch up your feet. Not having that I decided to use the power of Facebook, within minutes I had so many encouraging messages that I could no longer justify quitting! My mood lifted and I decided I had at least another 10 miles in me. Those messages and tat online support really did save my run.

Just a few of the many messages that saved my run

That was the only point of the day that I thought about giving up, my mood stayed positive after that, and eating and drinking regularly, buying extra treats when I could helped me stay focused. The views in that last 25 miles were stunning, some of the bits around Stour Valley I knew from running the Stour Valley marathon a few times, the rest was all new to me. My favourite view of the day was running up a hill though a field and getting to the top to see this view of Mistley...

This view was amazing

 I was low on drink again as I entered Mistley but a well placed ice cream van saved the day, it was probably the best can of coke and Cornetto I have ever had! By this time I knew I wasn't going to make my 7pm finish but just kept moving, eating and drinking. I knew I would make it now.
After the village of Ramsey there was a path that ran out to the see wall, it seemed to go on forever! As I got nearer to the sea wall I could see huge cows along where I was going to have to go. I don't like cows, scary, unpredictable creatures! I stopped, swore quite a lot, looked at the map to see if there was an alternative route. There wasn't I was going to have to brave the cows. As I climbed up the bank and turned along the sea wall for the final few miles into Harwich, these are the cows I encountered...

Not scary cows!

They weren't giant cows at all, they were perfectly normal sized sheep! I laughed hysterically, blamed tiredness and dehydration (I had run out of drink!) and carried on. Slowly but surely I ticked off those last few miles, Andreea met me with drink about a mile from the end, so after a brief break I headed off to finally touch that lighthouse.

So close

It was almost 9pm and after 15 hours and 22 minutes covering 51 miles day 2 and the challenge was completed. With the extra I added on to run from Cressing to home and back and a few navigational errors I covered 93 miles during my two days out on the Essex Way. Other than the section before West Bergholt I thoroughly enjoyed my adventure. My left foot had some nasty blisters and I have since lost a toe nail but am already planning the next one!

Finished

Thank you to everyone who has donated money for our sensory room at Beckers Green Primary School, if you haven't and would like to the link is here here.

Thank you again to Andreea for driving me to the start and home again and to everyone for the online support, I read every message, and they were paramount in my keeping going. I had an amazing two days running/walking/shuffling and am still smiling that I finished it.

Happy running xxx