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Three Lewes AC runners complete Downslink Ultra
On 4th October 2015, Gustavo Iriarte, Karen Morse and Rachael Hornigold of Lewes AC took on the Downslink Ultra, an annual 37.5 mile off-road race from Guildford to Seaford. Congratulations to all three on completing the race. Here is Gustavo’s report on his run.
I signed up for the Downslink ultra-marathon unaware that it was happening a week after the Berlin Marathon. I mainly did it because Rashaad, a friend of mine, convinced me after many failed attempts, and because I thought it was a good idea to give it a try.
When the day finally arrived, I was quite relaxed as I hadn’t thought much about the race. My mind was busy with all the excitement post Berlin marathon (which I ran in 3:13:51). The weather was nice and I wasn’t looking for any particular time, but sub 7 hours seem like a reasonable goal. My main concern (as usual) was cramping half way through. But then I took a piece of advice from Rashaad: he said that he trains low on sugar, but races high on it. So I thought it was worth giving it a try. After all, I had nothing to lose.
I had no race strategy, so taking my tired legs into account and that the route was quite flat, I calculated that I would be able to run every 10k in one hour. This way I would make it an enjoyable run for a finish time of about 6 hours.
I spent most of the route running by myself, just me and nature and I honestly loved it. Running the ultra-marathon high on sugar did the trick for me, not a single cramp. The last 5k were a bit painful but I managed to survive. In the end I finished in 5:56:42, place 20 out of 104. I still can’t believe I was able to run that far but I will definitely do it again. I don’t know when, but I will.