My main goal for 2023 is the Tor de Geants, a 350km circuit around the Aosta valley in Italy which includes around 25000m of climbing. The race is continuous, so where and when you choose to sleep is up to you. 

Having completed several multi-day stage races and 24 hour rounds in recent years, I know how I handle these fairly well now, so the big unknown for me is what happens beyond that 24 hour stage. 

 
The Northern Traverse gave me a great opportunity to give this a go and see what happens on a race that could take me 48 hours, rather than the 100 hours that it might take me in the summer. With this in mind I had planned a sleep schedule that would push me right to the limit. I intended to get at least as far as Richmond, 180 km in before getting any sleep, but hopefully to  Lordstones at 232km or even all the way to the finish. An experiment in sleep deprivation. 

 
I had a great start to the running year, out in Catalonia enjoying dry trails and warm weather (compared with the highlands). As my preparation was built on Tor de Geants I focused on getting a lot of climbing in the mountains. Averaging around 75km and 3000m a week, plus some great road cycling. 

It was therefore not a great surprise that my legs didn’t immediately feel amazing in the early parts of the Northern traverse, which was very flat in comparison, I enjoyed the climbs through the Lake District but to be honest, wasn’t feeling great as we ran into the first night. 

At this stage I had a decision to make, I was clearly not going well enough to be truly competitive in the race, so what was my goal? If my main motivation was to complete the course, it would have made sense to slow down and take a more conservative approach in terms of rest. If I was to stick to my aim of using this as preparation for Tor, the only thing to do was press on. 

 
Some fairly grim running in the dark and clag over Nine Standards Rig, with it’s freezing bogs got me over the watershed into Swaledale where I ticked over the 100 mile mark, the first time I’ve ever done that! After a good feed and a sit down in Richmond I set off across the vale of York around 3.30pm. 31 hours into the race and still without sleep. I wasn’t feeling fresh but was able to move along at a steady enough pace once I got going. This section is pretty flat, along quiet lanes and through ploughed fields. If I’m honest, it wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had on a run and resorted to a few podcasts to keep me entertained. 

In terms of sleep I was doing totally fine until the sun went down. The moment it got dark my body started to tell me it had had enough! Ideally I would have just stopped for a micro-nap, 5 minutes trail side, unfortunately the temperature had also dropped to freezing and I was already wearing everything I was carrying. It would probably have been fine to do, but I didn’t want to risk getting too cold so decided to press on to Lordstones. 

 
The decline of my body at this stage was pretty rapid, I developed a big blister between my toes and my ankles started swelling up, significantly reducing my mobility and making running almost impossible. A long trudge over the final hills, with early 2000’s trance hits blaring out at full volume to stop me falling asleep!! A significant factor here was the lack of any other runners, I wonder how different this would have been if I had other people to talk to! 

 
By the time I descended to the checkpoint at Lordstones it was clear that my race was over. I had come as far in my experiment as was productive, any continuation beyond this point would be solely destructive, doing damage in terms of tenonitus and other injuries that could take months to recover from. 

Without hesitation I handed my tracker to the marshals, tucked into some food and got sorted for some sleep. 

 
Lessons learned 

1. My aim for the event was to gain insight that I can use to improve my chances come September in Italy and there is no doubt that was successful. It was abundantly clear that an all or nothing attempt to push on with no sleep is not realistic for me at all. As my aim for Tor is firstly to finish, my strategy needs to be much more conservative and I will now be much more relaxed about making conservative choices, knowing the alternative is sure to fail. My plan will be to go no further than 36 hours, possibly 24 without some sleep, even if it is only 10 minutes. 
I will take every opportunity to lie down in the aid stations, to reduce swelling in my ankles and get a 1 hour sleep minimum each subsequent night after 36 hours. 

2. 232km is a really long way! 

Longer term I am also thinking about my goals for 2024 and beyond…… perhaps a change of focus to races that are measured in minutes rather than days might be fun for a while!! In the meantime, I’m all in for Italy!!