M2M ULTRA 2017

Today is rest day or at least it is to those of us who have finished early enough to have had some semblance of a night's sleep. As I awake, many are still out on the course and some of those will not finish until this afternoon. Some who have finished and are now in their various sleep positions around me are Sarah, Chris, Ian and Cecile. Chris has managed to injure himself not long after I met him and was reduced to a walk after that. Sarah eventually finished an hour and a half in front of me in race time but an hour and half behind me in actual time. It seems the second half of the course has been an extreme lick for everyone, which makes me even more satisfied with my performance. View from the tent We have been awakened by a familiar sound and hastily retrieve kit that has been left outside the tent. The rain quickly clears and the sun shines once more. As I look out of the tent window I am treated to a sight more associated with Hawai'i. The beach and ocean are bea...

Vision of hell We are up and about at 05:00 to get ourselves ready for the bus ride to the start of The Long Stage. As is the norm for multi stage ultras, people are a bit more quiet and reserved of a morning as they try and prepare themselves mentally for the test to come. This course certainly promises to be just that. Not only do we have to cover almost 50 miles but we have to climb almost 11,000ft. To put that into context, that is 38% the height of Mt Everest. We will reach a height of 9,200ft asl as we reach the summit of Mauna Kea so air will be very much thinner than at the start. All in all a pretty tough day ahead, or day and a half for those who will use the 34 hour time limit. We are hollered towards the transport and, if I'm honest, I am not looking forward to an hour cramped up on a mini bus. Fortune is smiling though as there are a number of 4x4s driven by the organisation and I manage to secure a seat on one of these. The convoy revs up and we are off. There i...

It is whispered quietly but we believe it has stopped raining!! A glance out of the tent door confirms this to be the case, although the sky is still a bit foreboding. No matter, this morning we wash and dine without the need for ponchos or dashes during gaps in the downpour. It is not all good news as the ground is still boggy and we are not yet at the point where we can walk barefoot. In spite of the improvement in weather, admin routines have not changed and we all dutifully go through our own processes. The course today is a full loop back to this very camp so there is no danger of arriving to find the camp not ready this time. There is a mere 916mtrs of ascent to deal with Lava, lava everywhere today but the downer is that it is all in the first half of the course!! The course book tells us that the second downhill part is mainly asphalt road, which potentially has its own sharp teeth as tired shins pound into the hard ground. Part of the uphill phase has views of the...