I have never taken part in an Ultra Marathon before and always wanted to do one, so when th chance to enter the Bewl Water Ultra Marathon (considering its the same cost as a number of other marathons) was an offer I could not say no to.

I never necessarily trained for the 37.5 miles, but continued my Brighton Marathon training from a few weeks previous, so arrived at the gorgeous Bewl Water lake on the day of the race feeling confident.  I had taken some good advice from my friend, Darren 'Runners Knees' Smith about the nutrition I needed to take on and after picking up my race number and going to the start, I felt ready to go.

The pre-race briefing for the Ultra runners was superb and although I had never did a race of that distance before, I was feeling really confident I would complete the distance and the race.  After the loud horn and the music blared, we were away and around the trails that surrounded the lake.  As mentioned, I had never done anything like this distance-wise before and just decided to run at a pace that I didn't feel that was overdoing it and was just comfortable.  Twisting and turning around the uneven underfoot and ducking under tree branches added another little bit of character to this race and after a few miles, I found myself in second place.  I was starting to feel anxious that I set off too quick, but did a few breathing techniques and just kept going as I felt comfortable.  After visiting a few aid stations and stocking up, I kept going and finished my first lap still comfortably just behind the leader.  I quickly had a pit stop and grabbed a few bits off of the Avery fan club who had come to support me and then started the second lap.

I was still feeling good, although the legs were feeling slightly happy, but the second lap was slightly different as we were now joined by the half and full marathon runners.  Although this made the race busier, the support was amazing from these guys and girls and they cleared pathways and was shouting ahead that the ultra marathon runners were coming through which was lovely.  The one thing we did not expect was the huge downpour halfway through the second lap which left me feeling absolutely soaked to the bone and miserable.  I crossed the line to signify the start of the third lap and still found myelf in the top three, I was feeling really good and although some who would have been in this position and dropped out of the places would have been disappointed, to be in with the shout of a prize on my final lap is something I would have bit you hand off for at the start of the day.

This final lap was really tough and I really had to dig deep on that last 12 mile lap to finish the race.  My legs were like concrete and my rucksack had rubbed to a point that the skin on my shoulder had started to bleed.  With around seven miles to go, the chap in third place had caught me up and after him overtaking me and then me overtaking him, we agreed to run the last seven miles together and push each other as much as we can.

We made our way to the last few hundred yards and although he willed me to run up the hill with him, I simply couldn't do it so let him go on ahead.  I ran/walked to the top and after turning the final corner, I finished my first ever Ultra Marathon in 3rd place!  After collapsing to the floor and recomposing myself, I got my medal and trophy and posed for the photo for the website.  I had never got a trophy before for a race and was over the moon.

This was a great race and one I would do again, but lets hope it doesn't rain next year!