In general, preparation for the MDS had followed a familiar pattern, considering my running history - train well for a few months; get my hopes up that I am becoming a super athlete; push myself harder; get injured; recover and begin the cycle again. Usually it was one or a combination of my shins, my hamstrings, my knees or in more recent years, my right Achilles tendon. Years of this cycle have taught me that I seriously need to strengthen myself and that running alone will not prepare me for longer distances.
My problem is that I rarely heed the lessons that are presented to me every time I go through this cycle.
So we are in June 2019...
Things were going well through the summer of 2019, as I pushed through 100 miles in June (including some mountainy runs), 108 miles in July (including long beach runs in France) and a plan to run 115 miles in August, pushing on from there in my MDS quest for the following April.
August started well and I rattled off 32 miles in the first week before my left shin decided it had had enough and became very painful. To make matters worse, my left knee joined in for the craic. I decided to rest it and see what happened. By October, I had not run at all and was beginning to panic about April 2020.
I knew deep down that my lack of additional strength and conditioning work was coming home to roost. Time for professional help and I had two options: go to my GP and get a referral for a MRI to see what was going on with my knee or go the less expensive route of visit my physio and hope that the issues can be dealt with that way.
I opted for the latter and found myself standing in front of Meghan in Performance Physio a few days later. She went through various assessments of my knee, hamstrings, quads and shins. I was put through several testing strength challenges, none of which I was particularly good at. The end result was that she was amazed at the lack of strength I had in my legs for the type of running I was doing. I, on the other hand, was not even remotely surprised.
I was immediately put on a strength programme, beginning with heel raises, bridges and squats. A week or two later, this had moved on to additional resistance work, again all based around improving strength in the muscles above and below the knee. I was also allowed to do some light running, so I re-joined my local gym (this is de ja vu from the MDS in 2014) and began to run a little on the treadmill.
Around this time, I popped a message on the 2020 MDS Facebook page to say that if there were any other Irish in the race, to let me know. A few days later I was contacted by Sean, who lived in Tipperary but was from Cork and more joined us afterwards. It led to an Irish MDS Whatsapp group as we all looked forward to April 2020.
As December came and went, I began to increase my mileage again, so I entered another Ballyhoura Midnight Challenge in January 2020. A respectable time of 5.40 was achieved and gave me some hope. The I went to Millstreet in February...
Slog through the Bog: Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai Ultra February 2020
Hope was what was in my mind when I entered the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai (SGM), a delightful 75km race from Kealkill to Millstreet in Cork in mid-February 2020. My mindset was that this was a major distance and it would prepare me both mentally and physically for what was coming in April. Sean entered as well.
It was an early start. You had to be ready to go in Millstreet by 07.00, as we were bussed to the start in Kealkill and were running back over several sets of mountains. I left home at 05.00 in reasonably good weather conditions. Sean had come in his campervan and had slept in Millstreet the night before.
After registration and a quick pot of instant porridge, we were off to Kealkill on the bus. It started raining heavily. I had two issues - a pinching sensation in my back which had been there for a few weeks and I had forgotten to use anti-chaff cream on the more delicate areas of my body. Sean gave me a cream, which had a strong deep-heat type smell. Not sure if it was ideal for my predicament. With no other option, I gladly accepted and was ready to go when we got off the bus.
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| Sean and Phil at the start of the 2020 Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai. It would not take long for the smiles to be wiped off our faces. |
The rain was very heavy as we eventually were given the all-clear to go and off we went into the mist. The first section which runs to Gouganebarra begins with a short sharp climb, followed by flat terrain before you reach Douce Mountain, a slog through the wet, boggy terrain that leads over to the hotel. The wind was very strong as we got near the top and coupled with the rain and the heavy going underfoot, it was not a pleasant experience.
Leaving the checkpoint, we had an undulating road section before turning off into a small wooded area that led to more open bog land. At times we were above knee deep in thick, wet mud as we slowly made our way across the bog. It was energy sapping. Eventually we hit the road again and continued on to the second check point in Ballingeary, about 20km into the race.
In Ballingeary, there were two race volunteers with maps who informed us that parts of the trail were under water and we were to divert through a road section. I was still a little shook from the previous section, so I was not paying much attention, so I hoped Sean was. We headed out of the village and along a river, which is normally nothing more than a stream. It was a raging torrent at this point and if you fell in, you would have no chance.
We came to a low road crossing, which the river had swallowed and we crossed it carefully. Again one wrong step and you were gone. From there we were back on the road again, albeit somewhat confused as to where we were to go. A group came walking back against the direction we were meant to go and we decided safety in numbers was a good idea, so we set off to around the flooded section.
The road we took eventually came back onto the main trail. It was only after the race that we saw photos of those who had taken the main trail, waist deep in water. I know ultrarunning is a bit extreme, but this was the wrong side of crazy.
The trail and road sections that lead into Ballyvourney were mountainous but pleasant and the rain had reduced to drizzle with the occasional downpour. The checkpoint was in the GAA club and it gave us sometime to access drop bags, have a cup of tea and assess our physical conditions. I was quite sore in certain areas and the cream that I had applied to myself had not really worked. I borrowed some more and it was shear agony to reapply it - a valuable lesson learned. We were just over 40km into our adventure.
Having reset ourselves, we set off from Ballyvourney. The trail was wet and muddy and had been churned up by those that were ahead and by those running the half SGM race. We slipped and slid our way to open hillside and forest trails that led up over the hills to the north of the village. Another 10km later, we found ourselves at the gates of a wind farm and we knew we had to climb up over another mountain to begin the final section of the race back into Millstreet. The hill was steep and long but we kept a decent pace and began to eat through the distance. At this stage, it began to get dark, so it was on with the head torches.
We switched from service roads for the windfarm to more trail which had wooden walkways in the particularly wet areas. My head torch was fairly useless, but Sean's lit the way as we scrambled through the bog again. We eventually came to a short descent and Millstreet open up in front of us. We had covered just over 65km at this stage.
I began to smile and my head was looking forward to resting. A couple of the volunteers at the gate we had reached said we had to stay on the trail, which was another 8km. Just what we needed. We followed a boggy trail that leads around the hills to the south end of the town, all the time looking down at the lights wondering when we would see the finish. Not a good idea - we struggled on for another hour or so before entering a wooded descent and finally seeing the sign for Millstreet. Sean was able to jog the last few hundred metres, but I was spent. I limped across the line in 12.39. Not my best performance, but it was a slog and would no doubt serve as good preparation for the MDS.
Two days later, the first case of Corona Virus was recorded in Ireland and at that stage it was beginning to have an effect on the world. Little did we know just how much it would affect us...
