Last summer I was casting around for a race in Bedfordshire and I came across a really fun sounding race called Bingo Race. What happens is: Your running number is a 3 number bingo card. Each runner has their own bag containing bingo balls. You run a loop of 2 miles, then pick a number out of the bag. If it's on your card, you cross it off and do another loop. When you've crossed off all your numbers, you're done. Obviously this might take a while.
Unfortunately at the time I was training for A100, my first ever hundred mile race. I sent a begging message to my coach:
Alice: I really want to enter Bingo Race
on 12/9. I’ll take it easy I promise! It’s 5 weeks before A100 and it
may/probably does involve 10 hours of running on a flattish course.
Please let me <praying emoji>
Coach: Hey
Alice, I have a few questions for you - Do you think this race is going
to add to your A100 training? How
many hours on your feet is that going to be? what sort of impact is that going to have on your energy
levels going into the A100?
Reluctantly, I agreed that this was probably not ideal, even though it sounded FUN.
One of the other runners being coached by my coach had recently run the Greensand Country Ultra and recommended it. It was nearly a year away but fit in with my plans so I entered. That year has rolled on by and here we are...
A week or two before the race, the race director sent an incredibly detailed email with all the instructions including the GPX in multiple formats (other races could learn from this!) and the race day briefing video. I watched the video and everything seemed familiar. The Race Director. The signs they use. The every-last-detail organisation. I was sure I'd done one of their races before. Eventually I realised it was Chiltern Ridge Ultra - my first post-Covid marathon! I remember the torrential rain well!
I also remembered it was impeccably well signposted, which bodes well for this race. The weather forecast was good and the race was a mix of trail and tarmac, but the RD said in the pre-race video that although you could get away with road shoes, he'd still recommend wearing trail shoes. I packed my trusty Saucony Peregrines and set off bright and early for Bedfordshire. On arrival, predictably it was super-organised. They had even proper printed maps of the route they were giving out to everyone!
The
race was right next to an airfield, which just so happened to be where
Ben keeps his plane. He has a private pilot's licence and a share in a
lovely old Cessna so we'd planned for him to (hopefully) fly over me
during the race. When I arrived it was pretty windy - fingers crossed it would be OK for flying later. The wind was also making it feel pretty cold - despite the sunshine I wished I'd brought gloves.
I collected my number - it was a 50k so being number 50 was kind of cool - and had time for a really nice cup of coffee before the race started.
The race began with a short loop around Shuttleworth before heading out into the Bedfordshire countryside. The first section was all on grass and I remember being glad I was wearing trail shoes.
As with Chiltern Ridge, there was a race photographer taking (free!) photos - got to love that. Here's one of me near the beginning in the woods:
The wooded section didn't last long and we were soon out into farmland. I was settling into a comfortable pace by now and got chatting to the guy in front, who turned out to be called James. This was only his second ultra and he was wearing white cotton socks. I'm wary of offering unsolicited advice to runners, but cotton socks are a disaster area so I went out on a limb and gently suggested he invest in some proper running socks. A decent pair are almost as effective as a new pair of trainers in terms of comfort and will help prevent blisters and moisture damage. Well worth a tenner in my opinion.
Luckily, James took it well (!) and we ran together for a few miles after that. He was local and lived not far from where we were running. He pointed out Cardington Hangars, which he told me was where they used to build airships which he used to see all the time when he was a kid in Bedford. I grew up in Milton Keynes and also remember airships being quite common - nowadays I only see them in Fortnite!
We chatted about races, and running generally - he has 3 young kids so unsurprisingly finds it more difficult to get all the training in. I told him about Bingo race and it turned out he actually knows the RD of that race (James Adams) - I follow him on Strava so knew he was from Bedfordshire too and have read his book - small world! Anyway it turns out that it is on again this year, in October. James told me he was already signed up. I was delighted at this news and promised I would sign up when I got home - James, if you're reading this, I'm in! It seems to have been shortened to a 6 hour race this year but that's probably a good thing :)
We continued through really lovely countryside:
After a few miles I lost James, but stopped to take this picture of Cardington (the big green warehouse in the middle of the picture). There were a lot of beautiful cornfields in this race.
At 11k, I finally felt warm enough to take my jacket off. The first aid station was at 15k - delightfully it had a huge selection of really nice snacks including Tribe bars, oranges and bananas and also proper indoor toilets. I took advantage of these and when I came out I saw James's wife and children had come to cheer him on at the checkpoint - awww!
This was taken just after the checkpoint. The field to the left was scattered with poppies and the path was quite narrow and overgrown. Around this point, I turned on my Glympse so that Ben could see where I was in the hope he might spot me from the plane.
More fields followed. The paths were very, very hard as it hadn't rained for weeks and I was starting to get a bit of pain in my calves - unusual for me so early in a race. My trail shoes don't have much padding and the trails were so hard they were almost like road. Hmm.
I came to a field which looked like crops, but they definitely weren't potatoes. I ran through, peering at them, annoyed that I couldn't identify them. I sent the first picture to my mum whilst running, asking if she knew.
The font of all knowledge very quickly replied, resolving my annoyance!
I passed the official photographer hiding in a bush. He must've taken this picture after I passed - sometimes it feels a bit like the paparazzi! Nevertheless I love this shot. Somehow he's managed to make me look quite elegant and dramatic, neither of which I was feeling at the time!
I turned a corner and could see a purple field in the distance. I wasn't sure what it was, but could see other runners in the distance so knew I would be getting closer shortly.
Definitely purple:
When I got close enough, I could see they were just small purple flowers. Weirdly they didn't look big or purple enough to have such a big effect from a distance.
The next section was on a tarmac path and by now my legs were really starting to hurt. I was quite grumpy about it and not really looking forward to another 25k of this. You can see three men on the left of this picture - I leapfrogged them for much of the rest of the race.
I think somewhere after this was the 30k aid station (the aid stations were at 15, 30 and 40km, which happen to match the scoring in tennis and made it very easy for me to remember where they were!) I remember moaning to the people there about being advised to wear trail shoes.
Shortly afterwards I was running on some extremely unpleasant gravel and chatting to a chap named Guy. He had some Kendal Mint Cake flavoured gels - I'd never even heard of them but how exciting that they exist! I took a (not very good) photo so I could find them on the internet later:
An example of the signage, which was utterly fantastic again. An arrow sign points the right way, backed up with the orange tape, with a 'Wrong Way' sign in the distance for the avoidance of doubt.
Shortly after this I saw Ben's plane fly overhead! Unfortunately I only saw it when it had already passed, so it was too late for me to do anything except wave my arms wildly and take a photo. I looked up on Glympse about 30 seconds later and he was already far away - planes are a lot faster than runners, haha.
There were some runners just behind me who saw me leaping about and they caught up with me as I stood trying to get my breath back. I explained, "That's my boyfriend up there in that plane!" and one of them said, "Well he could have made an effort!"
The race continued. There were a few short sections on road, which I was bitter about. I took more paracetamol, playing hard and fast with the maximum dose limit. I texted Ben to let him know, just in case something bad happened (spoiler: it didn't).
Here's the three lads again. As you can see this is 'trail' but it may as well have been concrete for all the softness and bounce I was getting off it.
Shortly after this I started running with a girl whose name I didn't catch. It was her first ultra - she was supposed to be running Race to the Castle but it had been cancelled so she was doing this instead. She seemed to be doing fine to me but nevertheless seemed worried about finishing. We had a nice chat and she asked me casually what the furthest distance I'd ever run was. When I said '100 miles' she was awestruck. Shortly afterwards we arrived at the aid station and she told the people there - including the RD! - how inspirational I was! I was quite embarrassed but it was also a huge compliment. I still find it surprising that people would be inspired by me - I genuinely think anyone could do what I do. (With the caveat that they have to actually WANT to).
After the aid station it was only 10k til the end, which seemed manageable.
At one point I saw a pedestrian taking a photo of one of the ribbons. I stopped and asked if everything was alright and reassured him that the race organisers would be taking down all the ribbons once the race was over. It piqued my interest though so a bit further on I stopped to take a picture myself:
I heard my watch beep and looked down to find a text from Ben: "Flying over you within 5 mins". I replied, "DON'T TEXT AND FLY!!!" and untied my coat so I could leap up and down and wave it around. This time I saw him coming and was ready, flinging my coat in the air and waving frantically.
A girl caught me up and asked, "Are you OK? I wasn't sure if you knew someone, I thought you might be signalling for help!?" I explained. She thought it was pretty cool. I got my phone out and looked at the track:
Ben would be landing shortly and I still had a little way to go. I turned down the road we normally cycle down when we're going to the airfield and then ran through some fields and around the bottom of the runway. Back through the forest and into Shuttleworth proper. Not far now.
On the home straight. I could see the big house on the left and I knew the finish was just through the trees:
I crossed the line and collected my medal and took a photo. Then I drank some water and sat down on the grass and took my shoes and socks off. I couldn't see any blisters but they really hurt.
A few minutes later Ben appeared. He asked if I wanted anything - sadly the unbelievably fabulous pizza van they had at Chiltern Ridge Ultra had been replaced with a Pancakes and Waffles van. Now I love pancakes and waffles as much as the next person but after nearly 6 hours of eating sugar it was the last thing I wanted. I couldn't face coffee or hot chocolate either, so in the end we just walked back to the car and went home.
Thanks Bedfordshire. See you in October for BINGO!
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