It’s been a couple of weeks since the EPONA 100 and I’m looking ahead toward the EPONA 100 2025 already. Not looking forward to – looking ahead to!
On the Monday, following the weekend of the event, I was tired, achy and pleased to have checked off a 100 miler and thought never again. By Tuesday, I was feeling fresher and still on a high. Pleased it was done with no intention of doing it again. On the Wednesday, entries opened for the 2025 event. On Thursday – I accidentally on purpose entered!
There were a few things I felt I could have done better to have finished higher up the field. With that in mind, I thought I’d follow up my previous blog with this one looking toward the EPONA 100 2025.
This will hopefully be informative to those who are half decent ultrarunners – but not legendary, (Mike, Luke, Rhys, Izzy and Sean – I’m talking about you guys) which may bump an hour or two off your time which I am aiming to do. Obviously, the winners Mark and Dan you guys are on another level and I ain’t finishing this in 25 hours anytime soon!
I did a lot of training, so I’m not knocking my efforts – just looking at what I can improve to make the experience even more enjoyable.
On this years’ event, I had aimed to be at the sleep station by around 11pm, stay for the maximum of 4 hours (eliminating the need to negotiate the route in the dark and also feel fresher to tackle ‘day two’ if you will. However, I was only at checkpoint 4 at nightfall – so my best laid plan went to shit! There was a stretch of flat along the canal towpath, so I was thinking if it was getting dark, I could speed up along here. However, when I was on it around half past midnight, I was too tired to do anything more than a stumble along the seemingly never ending towpath!
Something I was desperately afraid of was seizing up at the rest stops. With space at a premium, I opted to bring my massage gun to loosen up my muscles at every opportunity. This idea was a Godsend. I reckon I wouldn’t have finished it without it. Having a 20-30 minute stop at the checkpoints without access to the drop bags then a little longer at the ones I could access my gun helped me recharge to go again. There were no easy bits of the EPONA 100. Even the bits that I thought were going to be easy weren’t because of where they fell – canal towpath is a glowing example of this! I envisaged bombing along here – IRL this was NOT happening! Hopefully, the EPONA 2025 will be a tiny bit easier now I’ve had a bash at a 100 miler!
I was tired, hurting and angry. Just. Needed. A Rest.
Food wise, I had prepared (and spent a fortune on!) hearty keto meals, including a tuna and pasta bake, keto pasta dishes and a beef soup. By the end of this, I hadn’t touched ANY of these and I had to bin them as my ice packs only offered a limited amount of refrigeration. The leftovers however made for excellent meals during the two day recovery. Chuck ‘em in the microwave, no faffing about. I didn’t have the energy to make wholesome recovery meals so that was a blessing having those – which I did enjoy post-event.
I packed ziplock bags with a keto roll (my filling of choice in these 1.2g net carb beauties was mozzarella, pepperoni and jalapeno a solid fat and protein hit), keto crackers, a small tin of flavoured sandwich filling tuna which I dipped the crackers into. Plus, I had a protein bar and a keto treat.
Like an old school packed lunch, I started with the savoury and finished on the sweet stuff and that hit the spot.
I found it an easy way to get 400-500 calories on board with ‘proper’ food, ie, not a handful of nuts or a Fatt bar etc. That I will not change and will be reinvesting fair amount in the excellent Keto Shop once again.
One thing I will be doing for the EPONA 100 2024 is building on the training I undertook for this year’s event. It seemed to work pretty well. I’ll just up the intensity, up the mileage and thrown in a few more events to get fitter and stronger. My calves pretty much gave up on me at 90 miles and my mile per hour dropped to painful levels and that’s what killed the overall effort. So, a bit more calf work to help them go the distance!
Otherwise, nutrition and hydration seemed to be on point.
I had electrolyte and salt sachets to add to my water which were needed more on day two as the temperatures soared in the Black Mountains, along Gospel Pass and along Offa’s Dyke. Hot! I can forgive my calves for cramping at 90 miles. It was a pretty good innings so can’t complain too much! Although my calves did NOT thank me for having to go up… And back down the Sugar Loaf… Again… In the fucking dark! The downhill bits were hell on them. Everything else was fairing OK, it was just the calves! Also, watermelon with lashings of salt is a strangely welcome treat at the checkpoints!
I bought a brand-new pair of Hoka Speedgoat 5s. They were broken in a week before the VOGUM, 2 weeks before, in preparation for the EPONA. I wrap my feet, and after many lessons learned on ultra events, I fortunately don’t suffer from blisters to much. Only problem area I have is the knuckle on my little toes rub on my shoes. As trivial as it sounds, it fucking hurts despite being wrapped to fuck! So, I opted for some 2E (wide) Hokas – which are fucking awesome. No such issues!
I also packed my watch charger cable – in case of an emergency.
With crazy stupid battery life on my Coros Apex 2, I hadn’t anticipated it almost running dry. I had the navigational mode on screen the whole time. It went from 100% to 5% in about 20 hours. I juiced it up but when it beeped ‘low battery’ along the aforementioned towpath I nearly shit myself! I can’t do these things without my trusty watch! Phone also took a caning but at the sleep station, I knew plugs would be at a premium. I came prepared with powerbanks and juiced everything up while I napped.
Speaking of napping, I’m not one to moan but if you’re in serious need of some shut-eye – take some earplugs!
I mean that with the greatest of respect to the participants and volunteers. It’s an emotional place 56 miles in, it was pretty lively even at 2am, so I’ll know for next time. A 40-minute nap worked, so if I can get more than that next year, it will aid the performance massively.
There were a couple of niggly navigational discrepancies too. Two of which were close together. The route to Clydach had a turn off going left, signposted ‘Clydach’. Somehow my watch was neither taking me that way (which I went originally knowing I was heading to Clydach). However, it was off course, so went down the road which was also saying I was off route so I was a bit confused but soon realised that it was straight on. After the Clydach checkpoint, my watch was not taking me anywhere near where I needed to be after crossing the main road via the bridge. An extra way marker would’ve been handy here before turning left up the steps which we a bit tricky to find. There were lots of steps on the left. Steps that just lead up to people’s houses, the arrow (which I eventually found) wasn’t easy to spot!
I took the opportunity to change my entire kit before I took a nap.
Instead of going to bed grubby, despite all I wanted to do was lie down, I prepped my shit, got changed, plugged everything in then I was gone. Only thing I didn’t do was freshen up my foot wraps. They were doing a job and I didn’t wanna undo this. Kev was doing an excellent job at tending to everyone’s feet at the sleep station. Awesome help was at hand still.
I woke up, still pretty fucked. However, I had packed a breakfast of sorts – a bowl of keto porridge with some protein powder, Skinny maple syrup and a coffee. There was almond milk on hand and a volunteer (I forgot his name – but what a legend), nuked my porridge. I anticipated on necking it, but instead ate a steaming bowl of mush instead which felt more substantial. Plus, it was something else to eat – I didn’t want to get ‘bored’ of eating, so it was great to have something that resembled breakfast at breakfast time, around 4am at least!
Also, Chub Rub is your friend.
My arse cheeks would have been rubbed raw if it wasn’t for a generous dose of butt balm every couple of miles! The application is the hardest part. Gear down around your knees, semi-squat pose, cheeks spread – you gotta do it properly or you’re gonna be sorry! The walkers by the Blorenge probably wondered WTF I was doing, I was NOT expecting people to be around. Whoops!
With all this in mind, a few less meals swapped out for hearty nibbles, some sleeping aids, a little more training. There’s not much more I can think of to improve on this year’s effort. The only difference is – the EPONA 100 2025 event will be in REVERSE. So, I’ll have to wait for 2026 to beat this year’s effort!
One final note, I framed my medal, buckle and race number myself.
Since I took that pic above, I ordered a plaque from Etsy to add a bit of detail to the EPONA 100 wording and event date – take a look, looks pretty cool!
If you want to frame yours, download the template below. Order a 2mm A3 card version from Printed.com. Mount everything on top of the black sections with the white borders. I’ve done the hard work measuring and laying it all out so feel free to use. I ordered a deep box frame from Amazon that it sits in perfectly. The only work you have to do is cut a little letterbox opening at the top of the BLACK medal outline. Then thread the ribbon through and stick it down behind the board. I had to cable tie the buckle in place. It kept slipping so be creative, double-sided tape only gets you so far! I needed something cool to mark my first 100 – I don’t have much wall space for much more so the EPONA 100 2025 won’t be as lucky!
Thanks for reading. I’ll end with a raw, unapologetic, unflattering but genuine finish line photo courtesy of the excellent and legendary Claude Compere. I’ll try and get a better one on the EPONA 100 2025!
