Surrey Circumnavigation – Walking a lap around Surrey County

August 11, 2020Walking Adventuresadmin

Until a couple weeks ago I thought I lived in Surrey. I moved to England in 2008 and have lived in the village of Ham, beside the river Thames halfway between Kingston and Richmond for most of the last 12 years. And in all that time, I have put ‘Surrey’ at the bottom of my address.

But a couple of weeks ago I discovered that we don’t live in Surrey at all.

My discovery came about because Management at work (which I also thought was in Surrey but it isn’t) asked all staff to think about doing something in August that would challenge us. For me, the word ‘challenge’ means doing something that I don’t know if I will be able to complete, and my first thoughts were that it would need to be a long walk – maybe a walk around Surrey.

My attempt at baking Ruth a Birthday cake - I forgot to add the eggs! — My attempt at baking Ruth a Birthday cake – I forgot to add the eggs!

My manager told me that the ‘challenge’ didn’t need to be physical, although most of my work colleagues seemed to be choosing challenges such as couch to 5km, running a certain distance in under a certain time, or cycling, rowing, etc. She even said that the ‘challenge’ could be something like baking a cake – I wondered if she was referring to my attempt to bake a Birthday Cake for my wife back in March when I forgot to add the eggs to the cake mixture – but again, my idea of a challenge is something that I don’t know if I can achieve, and I know I can bake a cake if I really want to.

So I decided that my work challenge would be to walk a lap around Surrey, and it was then that I discovered that I didn’t actually live in Surrey!

How could that be? The Surrey County Council offices are in Kingston. I have passed them many times over the years. But Kingston isn’t in Surrey?

Well it turns out that Kingston was ‘moved’ into the county of Greater London in 1965 (55 years ago) but the Surrey County Council decided to remain based in Kingston, and most residents still refer to Kingston as being in Surrey.

So I actually live in Greater London, and not Surrey.

Not to be deterred, I decided that I would still walk a lap around Surrey as my challenge for work and I set about mapping a route that would be suitable. In 2016 and 2017 I walked a lap around the outside of the M25 motorway and my rule for those walks was that I had to walk as close to the motorway as possible, but I couldn’t cross under or over it, and obviously couldn’t walk on the motorway itself. I set a similar rule for the Surrey Circumnavigation – I had to stay on the outside of the Surrey border during the walk, but keep as close as possible to the border throughout. The idea being that I would walk a lap around the outside of Surrey without every crossing into Surrey itself.

Surrey circumnavigation route – the black line is the Surrey county border and the blue line is the route I planned to walk

As with the mapping of the M25 routes, and some other walks I done over the years, I used MapMyRun.com to plan my route. But this time, I switched the map view to use ‘World Topo’ view which showed me the county boundary lines. I measured an initial route and discovered that there were many other places where I would have to walk many extra miles to avoid what would have been a much shorter walk if I took a shortcut into Surrey, but rules are rules. My initial mapping showed that I would need to walk approximately 209 miles (337km). This would be my longest walk outside of a race, and my 5^th longest ever.

I decided I would do the walk during the first weekend of August as a) that met the requirements for our ‘August challenge’ at work, and b) I didn’t have any commitments at work during the first week of August so could take a couple days leave if needed. I booked the Monday off work as annual leave and marked the Tuesday as ‘Annual Leave TBC’ in my calendar in case I needed the Tuesday as well.

I also re-mapped the route I would take, starting at Grayshott which is a small village on the Surrey/Hampshire border, just off the A3 meaning that it would be easy to get to via car. The benefit of starting in Grayshott was that I would be able to meet my wife/sons for a decent feed near Kingston on the Sunday afternoon/evening, and also change clothes, and pick up additional snack food, etc. It also meant that I would have to finish, as I would need to get back to Grayshott to collect the car.

And that was about as much planning as I did – identify a start/finish location, map out a route and download it to my phone, pack the food and equipment I would need for the walk plus additional supplies for when I would meet Ruth on the Sunday, and then wait until the morning of Saturday 1^st August 2020 for the walk to begin.

Grayshott to Gatwick:

On the Saturday morning I woke when the alarm went off at 4am, had my normal breakfast of porridge and yoghurt and then drove down to Grayshott, about 40 miles away by car. I found a quiet, safe looking street to park the car and a suitable ‘landmark’ to use as my start/finish line – the Grayshott village hall – and after taking a ‘start’ selfie I headed off on my adventure at 6:35am.

Surrey circumnavigation start selfie — My ‘start selfie’. Note the date/time stamp in the bottom right of the photo.

Within two minutes I had missed my first turnoff and had stepped into Surrey! I had downloaded my route to the MapMyRun app on my phone, an app that would be my guide throughout the walk, and when I checked it for the first time I realised that the village hall was closer to the Surrey boundary than I thought. When I mapped my planned route I was going to start nearer the center of the village and walk for a few minutes before the first turning. Additionally, on the phone the map didn’t show the Surrey county border so, unlike the M25 in 2016 and 2017, I was actually circumnavigating something that was invisible. On the assumption that I was in fact now in Surrey (which checking the map while writing this I know I was) I backtracked back to the turnoff I had missed, which was named ‘Boundary Road’ (a bit of a giveaway really) and headed off down the unsealed road.

As it was, when I mapped out the route there were three occasions during the 200+ mile walk when I would have to spend a minute or two in Surrey, and the first was when crossing the A3 at 4 miles where the only safe way to cross the A3 was by following the underpass – about 150 meters of which was in Surrey. In mapping the course I decided that this plus the other two occasions (at approximately 53 and 141 miles into the planned route), which were both less than 50 meters would be acceptable exceptions to my rule of not entering Surrey during the walk.


Crossing the A3 near Grayshott requires a short excursion into Surrey of about 150 meters	Felbridge Road/Crawley Downs Road crosses a corner of Surrey for no more than about 50 meters	Crossing the M25 motorway near Wraysbury involves walking through Surrey for about 50 meters

In mapping the course I had decided against using Google streetview because I wanted a combination of roads and trails and if I had stuck to a route that had streetview, I would have been solely on roads. That said, I did use streetview when the route had me walking on any A roads so that I can check that they looked like they would be safe to walk on. Most were, and if they weren’t I identified a safer route. The only exception to this was a duel carriageway which would have been unwalkable if it wasn’t for the fact that I was walking on it at 1am – but more about that later.

Almost immediately after starting I was into the hills on off-road trails and almost all of the first leg through to Gatwick was either off-road or on narrow country lanes. It wasn’t overly hot, but fortunately I was walking in the shade most of the time. I was carrying 1 ½ litres of water and plenty of snack foods but it wasn’t till I had cover 40 miles that I reached a shop where I could buy some food, and I was lucky with that too as they were in the process of closing up when I arrived.

Surrey circumnavigation — According to Google maps this was a road, but in reality it was a trail. I walked plenty of trails like this, especially during the first 36 hours

I passed a few country pubs along the way so if things had been desperate I could have stopped there to get water and food. But on day 1 my intention was to stop as little as possible and I walked for ten hours before my first proper rest which was at Ruspur where I had a small picnic outside the village general store.

Surrey circumnavigation - Rusper — In the UK, in August 2020, we have to wear face masks when we go in to shops. This was my first stop to buy food.

After about 30 minutes rest I continued through to Gatwick where I hoped to buy something substantial for dinner.

Arriving at the southern boundary of Gatwick was the first time that my route planning let me down, although it wasn’t anything major. The route I had mapped had me walking along a private road inside the airport boundary, and a sign said that pedestrians would be prosecuted so I backtracked a little and followed an overgrown footpath alongside an A road instead.

As expected, this was the biggest town I had come across so far and I had a selection of takeaway meals to choose from by taking a short detour off my planned route. I chose Pizza and sat down for my second, and longest, break to date – about 45 minutes.

Surrey circumnavigation - pizza for tea — Pizza for dinner

Surrey circumnavigation leg 1 map — Strava map of leg 1

Surrey circumnavigation leg 1 elevation — Elevation profile of leg 1 – total elevation change was 923 meters

Gatwick to 100 miles:

I was just short of 50 miles when I stopped for dinner, having covered 47.5 miles (76.5km) in exactly 12 hours. And I had already had 920 meters of the expected 3,000 meters of elevation change – a hilly first (just under) quarter. I always walk slower at night but it looked like I would make 100 miles in time for a late breakfast. I was happy with my progress to date.

This leg of the adventure would see me continue east across the bottom of Surrey before turning north and heading up towards Croydon before reaching 100 miles near Old Coulsdon.

It would be fair to say that the walking started to get hard now. I had been walking all day and going into the night it was still warm (20+ degrees). The route for the night section was almost entirely country lanes which was good. No need to try and navigate through trails in the dark, and narrow country lanes are possibly safer at night than during the day because headlights from approaching cars warn you of their arrival before they come around blind corners, giving time to move out of their way.

Just before midnight I reached a small village called Cowden. My water bottles were almost completely empty, and I knew that I couldn’t afford to leave this village without refilling them. The village wasn’t very big and appeared to consist of the road I had followed into town and two roads leaving town. There were a few shops but no sign of life anywhere and no sign of water either. I wandered up the street leaving town that was off to the right, rather than the one I was supposed to take, figuring that I should check that out first in my search for water. But nothing.

I walked back towards where I had come from and turned off to the north – the route that I was supposed to take – and spied an oasis. It was a hose tap on the front of a house below what looked like to be a bedroom window. Given that it was midnight, and I was effectively trespassing on to private property to ‘steel’ some water, I turned off my headtorch and my flashing front safety light and snuck up to the house as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake anyone. I filled three water bottles, drank one, and filled it again, and then snuck back to the road. I could now continue with the knowledge that I had enough water to get me through the night.

I really enjoyed the night. I always enjoy walking at night. I had a full moon lighting the countryside and was mostly listening to music and just having a good time. Occasionally I would see people but mostly I was alone.

The full moon as seen from the top of Crockham Hill in Kent

And then just before 4am I looked up and saw a sign – “Welcome to Surrey”!

I was in shock. I needed to walk another 100 meters or so before turning right but my rule said that I couldn’t enter Surrey (except for the three exceptions I have already mentioned). I checked my map on my phone. I wasn’t lost. I must have made an error with my route mapping. Or so I thought. I had been awake almost 24 hours and walking for over 21 hours and it never crossed my mind that I might be on a boundary road between two counties. All I knew is that I couldn’t enter Surrey. I walked back a few meters looking at the map on my phone to identify where I was.

There was a vineyard beside me and the map indicated that maybe I could walk through the vineyard and out on to the road that I wanted to be on. The other option was to backtrack what looked like a mile or so. I went with the vineyard option.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked on the map though. I managed to get into the middle of the vineyard but then found that I needed to jump down and over a small ditch – a one way option because I don’t think I would have been able to get back up the bank if I had had to. I walked alongside some vines for a while and eventually made it to the road. The only problem being that there was a tall blackberry and bramble hedge between me and the road. I decided to follow the hedge for a while hoping to find a gap that would allow me to get through to the road, and that is eventually what I managed to do. Reviewing my journey via Strava it appears that I was only in the vineyard for about 1,000 meters. Much better than backtracking to find another road, but completely unnecessary if I had thought to myself that it was a boundary road and I could have continued along my mapped route. But it was all a part of the adventure and gives me something to write about.

Surrey circumnavigation vineyard bypass — The blue line is my planned route and the black line is the detour I took through a vineyard because I didn’t realise that the road beside the vineyard was actually a boundary road and therefore I could walk along it.

Soon after the vineyard incident I was looking for water again. It was 5am and I in Biggin Hill looking for hose taps and again I found one under what looked like someone’s bedroom window. I didn’t desperately need water but I figured that it would be better to get some now while I could steel it from someone’s hose tap than to run out when back out on country lanes. I still had about 18 or 19 miles until my next planned rest, which would be when I reached 100 miles – now likely to be around 27’ish hours into my adventure.

Surrey circumnavigation - sunrise — Sunrise!

Water bottles refilled, I was on my way again. For the next few hours, through until I reached 100 miles, I really started to struggle. The route was still very hilly, and I wasn’t enjoying the walk as much as yesterday. I was tired and wasn’t looking forward to what promised to be a long day. I always forget in these events, the second day of any multi-day race/walk is always the hardest.

I finally reached 100 miles just as I was entering Old Coulsdon and took that as an opportunity to stop for only my third decent rest.

Surrey circumnavigation - 100 miles — 100 miles! Taking a break in Old Coulsdon

Surrey circumnavigation leg 2 map — Strava map – leg 2

Surrey circumnavigation leg 2 elevation — Elevation profile leg 2 – total elevation change was 1,178 meters

Old Coulsdon to Kingston:

The direct route between Old Coulsdon and Kingston is only 13 miles. Only a half marathon. But for me it would be a very slow and painful 33 miles (53km) that would take almost 12 hours. As I said above, the second day is always the hardest.

I only rested for about 30 minutes in Old Coulsdon before heading off on sore feet. I can’t actually remember a huge amount about the Sunday other than that my feet hurt and I was very slow. I maintained reasonable progress in that I didn’t stop along the way, but it was slow. Throughout the day I averaged a pace of about 3 ½ miles (5.7km) per hour. It was still hilly and at times pedestrians out for a Sunday afternoon stroll would pass me!

My intention had been to arrive in Kingston sometime between late afternoon and early evening to meet Ruth and Jarrad and/or Zac for food. But I realised early on that that wouldn’t happen and made arrangements to meet them in Chessington at around 5pm as I thought a decent feed of macaroni cheese might be just what I needed. As 5pm approached I realised that I wouldn’t make it to Chessington in time either and called Ruth to change our meeting area to Tolworth. I’ve been through Tolworth hundreds of times over the years, both in the car and by bike and walking, but I was so tired and struggling to think that I couldn’t comprehend where I was arranging to meet them. In the end, I found a side street just off the road I was walking along and sat down outside a garden centre. I called Ruth and asked her to find the garden centre on Google maps and said I would be there.

Surrey circumnavigation Tolworth — A picnic in Tolworth – thanks to Ruth and Jarrad

Surrey circumnavigation leg 3a map — Strava map – leg 3a

Surrey circumnavigation leg 3a elevation — Elevation profile leg 3a – total elevation change 405 meters

Ruth and Jarrad arrived after I had been resting for 15 to 20 minutes. Ruth had made macaroni cheese as promised and had also brought some hot water and facecloths to enable me to have a bit of a wash. I also repaired my feet, popped and taped a couple blisters, and changed socks and shoes.

After a total break of just over 1 ½ hours I headed off again. And I felt great! For about 20 minutes.

It took me almost an hour to get through to Chessington at which stage I had to turn left for the long out and back stretch down towards the M25 onramp which was just over the Surrey border. My plan was always to keep as close as possible to Surrey without crossing in to it, and as tired as I was, I stuck to my plan walking a pointless 4.7 miles (7.5km) return trip down to the M25 and back.

The hills were now finished (for the time being) and it was all downhill through Surbiton to the river, and then up to Kingston to the bridge over the Thames. But I was extremely tired now. I had been walking for 38 hours and even going downhill my average speed was about 19 minutes per mile (11:45/km). Additionally, going through Surbiton I found myself wandering all over the roads, and missing turnoffs.

Surrey circumnavigation leg 3b map — Strava map leg 3b

I got to the Kingston Bridge a couple minutes before 10pm but decided that I would continue past the bridge and walk an additional 2 miles downriver to home where I would have some sleep. My original plan had been to walk through to at least 150 miles before sleeping because in races such as the Thames Ring 250 and Lan Las Ultra the first decent checkpoint for sleeping in at 150 miles, and I thought I would use this adventure as preparation for those events next year. My justification (in my exhausted state) for walking home to sleep rather than just sleeping on the side of the road was that if I stopped now I would get cold very quickly, so I either needed to keep walking or get indoors for a sleep.

That last 2 ¼ miles from Kingston Bridge to home took me 48 minutes! I was really struggling.

Once home, I told Ruth that I was going to have a shower and go to bed for a few hours and that I wasn’t going to set my alarm. I would just get up and go again when I was ready. If I was ready.

Surrey circumnavigation leg 3b elevation — Elevation profile leg 3b – total elevation change 152 meters

Kingston to Aldershot:

Fixing my feet — My little toes were both sore so I decided to trial these Corn Wraps

I ended up sleeping for 9 hours, and when I after waking I took my time before heading out again. I had porridge and yoghurt for breakfast again, and then spent ages sorting out my stuff, fixing my feet again, and generally mucking around avoiding what was coming up. At one stage I made a comment to Ruth along the lines of “can you tell that I am putting it off” and she replied something like “well, it’s not a race” and that was all I needed to remind me that I was doing this for fun and adventure, and it didn’t matter how long I took (to complete the walk).

I finally restarted a little after 11am and took 36 minutes to walk back to Kingston Bridge. My ‘detour’ has taken a total of 13 ¾ hours.

The rest was just what I needed though, and whilst I was still walking at a relatively slow pace of a little under 4 miles (6.4km) per hour I was really enjoying myself. I walked for 6 hours before stopping beside the M25 at Wraysbury to eat a white chocolate magnum. I sat in the sun for about half an hour thinking how lucky I was to be able to do this. A year ago, I was just out of hospital after suffering from two blood clots and a lung infection, and now I was walking something in excess of 200 miles just because I can.

Surrey circumnavigation Wraysbury — Stopping for a white chocolate magnum at Wraysbury

Surrey circumnavigation Blackberry picking — I ate plenty of blackberries along the way

An hour or so after restarting I reached Datchet and bought a sausage and chips for dinner, and then at 7:30pm I turned into Windsor Great Park. I had walked through Windsor Great Park before but hadn’t realised just how big it was. It took about 1 ½ hours to walk from one side to the other, although at the pace I was walking, that was only about 5 miles.

By the time I exited the park it was getting dark and as the night went on it got quite cold – down to 12 degrees if that could be called cold. I found myself shivering and put all my spare clothes on, which wasn’t a lot. I had a thermal top and a light rain jacket, and also a buff that I put on my head. I knew that I couldn’t afford to stop walking though because if I stopped, I would cool down very quickly. As always, just in case anything did go wrong, I was carrying a foil space blanket. I had learnt just how valuable this piece of emergency equipment was when I had to stop in the middle of the final night of the TR250 last year, and I always carry a space blanket when doing long overnight walks now.

Around 1am’ish I turned on to the A322 which turned out to be a duel carriageway with no shoulder, and it was two miles long! I was walking towards the traffic which was very light with one or two vehicles every 30 seconds to three minutes, but it meant that every time a vehicle came towards me I had to step up on to the grass beside the road and wait to for the vehicle/s to pass. It wasn’t easy to walk on the grass which was long and uneven, but if I had been walking on this road during daylight, with heavier traffic, that would have been my only option.

After this section the rest of the night was relatively uneventful. I wasn’t going fast, but I was enjoying things the best I could. My feet were sore and it would have been nice to stop, but stopping wasn’t an option as I needed to keep moving to keep warm.

It was a battle of mind over body and the mind was winning easily.

One of the things that people often say about long distance running/walking is that you need to know your “Why”, and my Why was that I had to complete this walk to get to my car. Stopping wasn’t an option and as such, negative thoughts never entered my mind.

During my long walks and races I have become known for stopping at any McDonalds that I pass along the way, but this walk had been largely along country lanes following closely to the Surrey border, and it wasn’t until I arrived in Aldershot on Tuesday morning that I came across my first McDonalds. Just in time for breakfast.

I bought a couple Bacon and Egg McMuffin’s, a hash brown, and an orange juice and went and sat in the sun across the road for one last rest before the final leg through to the finish.

Surrey circumnavigation McDonalds Aldershot — McDonalds for breakfast

Surrey circumnavigation leg 4 map — Strava map – leg 4

Surrey circumnavigation leg 4 elevation — Elevation profile leg 4 – total elevation change 602 meters

The final leg – Aldershot to Grayshott:

One of the issues I had had from the beginning was that every time I charged my Garmin, the stopwatch would stop recording and couldn’t be restarted while the watch was charging. I’m sure that I used to be able to recharge it whilst in use, but for some reason that was no longer possible. As a result, I had recharged the watch while eating dinner at Gatwick on Saturday night, at my 100 mile rest on Sunday morning, at Tolworth on Sunday night and again at home on Sunday night, and now while having breakfast on Tuesday morning. This time I worked out that at the most I needed 40% charge in the watch to get through to the finish. I could probably finish with less than 30% but I didn’t want to take the risk so I rested until the watch was back up to 40% charge and then set off on the final 24 miles (38.5km) just after 8am, after a 1 hour rest.

Normally, even at a slow training pace, 24 miles wouldn’t take anything more than 5 ½ hours but this 24 miles was after I had already walked 195 miles (314km) in the previous 73 hours, and it also contained another 500 meters of elevation change.

I was still enjoying it and I was seeing countryside that most people will never visit. This was probably the best adventure I have ever had.

As much as I was enjoying it though, I was struggling. I was managing to walk about 3 ¼ miles (a little over 5km) an hour and was walking an even pace without needing to stop.

After just over 6 ½ hours I worked out that I had about 5km to go – only a parkrun to go. I wasn’t sure of the exact distance but when I crossed the A31 a couple hours earlier I knew that I had roughly 11 miles (18km) to go, and that was 8 miles ago.

It was just after 2:35pm on Tuesday afternoon, just over 80 hours since I started on Saturday morning. I figured that if I pushed the pace a little, I could ensure that I would finish in under 81 hours – because finishing ‘under’ x hours would be that much better than finishing ‘over’ x hours.

I picked up the pace the best I could, not realising at the time that I actually had 5.7km to go and that whole 5.7km was up hill!

I was feeling strong though. As strong as one can feel after almost 220 miles of walking, and the kilometers passed quickly. Coming in to Grayshott I still has five minutes left before 81 hours would be up. There was still probably 500 meters to go and it was all up hill.

I kept walking as hard and as fast as my legs would go. I arrived at the village hall and took my ‘finisher’s selfie’. The time; 3:34pm. 80 hours, 59 minutes and 14 seconds since I left the hall on Saturday morning. Total distance: 352km, 219 miles.

Surrey Circumnavigation completed.

Surrey circumnavigation - finishers selfie — Finisher’s photo! 80 hours 59 minutes and 14 seconds after my start photo

Surrey circumnavigation leg 5 map — Strava map – leg 5

Surrey circumnavigation leg 5 elevation — Elevation profile leg 5 – total elevation change 589 meters over just 24 miles with all of the last 5km being uphill

Some final thoughts:

Throughout the walk I relied heavily on the route I had mapped out using MapMyRun. Using the MayMyRun app on my phone I could see where I was relative to my planned route. I couldn’t have done this walk without this technology, especially given that I was effectively circumnavigating an invisible line.

In order to keep my phone charged throughout the walk, Zac had lent me his powerful USB charger. It weighed almost 500 grams but was probably the most important piece of equipment I carried other than my phone itself. I was using the phone so much that the battery would only last six hours without charging, and for a lot of the walk I just kept the phone charging while walking. The USB charge contained enough power to recharge both my phone and watch every time I needed it, although I did recharge the charger whilst at home on the Sunday night.

According to Strava analysis, actual walking time was 65 ½ hours.

Before starting, I had initially thought that I might have been able to complete the whole walk in around 65 hours, which would have seen me finishing late on Monday night. I think that if I had kept my Sunday night sleep to a minimum then I could probably have finished in under 75 hours. If I had managed things better and slept rough rather than taking the detour home, then that would have saved another 1 ½ or more.

Total distance walked was 352km/219 miles. When I measured the route on MapMyRun, it was 337km/209 miles. Approximately 50% of the difference was due to my detour to home, and the rest was due to miscellaneous course changes, getting lost, etc. Overall, I think I did pretty well keeping the actual mileage as close as I did to the planned mileage.

When I started on Saturday morning, I needed 350km to complete the double crossing of the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee which I started on 1^st May. During the Surrey Circumnavigation I moved from 715^th place in Tennessee up to 320^th, which was about the same place I was in when I completed the first crossing of Tennessee back in June.

One of the things I hadn’t realised when planning the route for this walk was just how few shops I would pass along the way. This was especially the case on the first day. I was carrying plenty of food through the walk though, and it was only water that I was ever concerned about running out of.

Total elevation change for the 352km/219 miles was 3,846 meters.

What’s next?

I wish I knew. Races are still being cancelled although some races are now starting up with social distancing rules. I enjoyed this adventure so much though that I am thinking I might do another county circumnavigation before the summer is over.

The Quarantine Backyard Ultra 2

July 19, 2020Race Reportsadmin

With races still being cancelled throughout most parts of the world the people who organised the first Quarantine Backyard Ultra back in April organised a second on the weekend of 11^th and 12^th July.

A Backyard Ultra is an elimination race in which all runners (and me as a walker) start together every hour and run/walk a 4.16667 mile (6.706 kiometer) lap before reconvening at the start/finish area ready to start the next lap at the beginning of the next hour. The winner is the person who completes the most laps. Everyone else is a DNF (Did Not Finish).

It isn’t necessarily the fastest athlete who wins. In fact, I won my first race of this type, Last One Standing – England, in 2018 outlasting all runners in 36 hours. As long as you complete your lap (the lap distance of 4.16667 miles being 100 miles divided by 24 hours) within 59 minutes and 59 seconds, you are allowed to start the next lap. If you don’t complete your lap within the hour, or if you complete your lap but decide not to line up for the next one, then you are a DNF.

The original Backyard Ultra was created by the legendary Lazarus Lake who created the first race in his own backyard in Tennessee in the early 2000’s. He named the race after his dog, Big, and called it Big’s Backyard Ultra. There are now hundreds of these races worldwide, or at least there were before Covid-19 came along, and Big’s is considered the world champs.

In April we were in complete lockdown in England which, among other restrictions, meant we were only allowed outside for exercise once per day. I purchased a second-hand treadmill and walked on it until it died after 29 ½ hours, finishing the first Quarantine Backyard Ultra with 29 laps. The winner did an incredible 63!

Now, in July, we are allowed outside as much as we want (in the UK). For me, the second Quarantine Backyard Ultra would therefore be 100% outdoors and in the weeks leading up to the race I measured out three separate courses that I would use during the weekend.

The first was an out and back course that would be in the shade for about 50% of each lap. If it was sunny, my plan was to use that course during the day.
The second was a combination of off-road and river trail which went past my house at about halfway and would enable me to collect additional food/water mid-way through each lap if required.
And the third course was my night-time course, 100% on road with reasonable street lighting meaning I wouldn’t need to wear a headtorch. This course was effectively an out and back with a small loop at each end and passed by house at about 2 ½ kilometers.

The big, and obvious, difference between a real race and a Quarantine (virtual) race is that you are alone in the Quarantine Backyard Ultra and to a certain extent the organisers rely on the honestly of the athlete to complete the required distance on foot themselves and without outside assistance. The rules required us to be connected to a Zoom meeting so that we could be seen starting and finishing our laps, and to upload our GPS maps to Strava at the end of each lap. We were also encouraged to take photos of the distance/time readings on our watches at the end of each lap in case of any challenges as to whether or not we were completing the distance.

Quarantine Backyard Ultra - Zoom call 45 minutes before start — Quarantine Backyard Ultra – Zoom call 45 minutes before race start

To enable this I set up my start/finish area just inside the front door of our house with my laptop connected to the Zoom meeting and showing all comings and goings from our house – both me every hour, and my family as they walked in and out the front door every now and again.

Next to the computer I had a shelving unit that I relocated from upstairs, stocked with all the food I would need for the race and my family periodically refilled my water bottles for me.

Quarantine Backyard Ultra - my start-finish area — My front door. The start/finish area for the Quarantine Backyard Ultra

The race:

Being a virtual worldwide race, the second Quarantine Backyard Ultra started for UK residents at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. It was sunny and around 22 degrees Celsius, so whilst not too hot I decided that the shaded course would be my best option for the first few hours. My intention was to walk through the first afternoon and night taking it easy. I didn’t expect the race to take too much out of me in the first 24 hours by which stage only the serious races would be left. Since the start of May I had been doing another virtual race, the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, and had done more mileage in May and June than any other two month period in my life. I knew I had good endurance and was ready for what I thought could be a 48 hour race – although to complete 48 hours I would need to walk 200 miles and my 48 hour PB is only 173 miles from Royan in 2018.

You Know You Are A Runner When... — Image reprinted with permission from the creator (me) of “You Know You Are A Runner” which is available on Amazon in kindle and paperback

It wasn’t to be that easy though. After just a few kilometers I was suffering from gut pain and after 5km I had to dive into the bushes for some quick relief. At the completion of that first lap I then had to run up two flights of stairs to get to the toilet, finish the business, and get back down to my front door in time to start the second lap at the top of the hour. This was not the way I had expected to start this race!

A few laps later, and another quick run up to our third floor bathroom (we live in a terraced property on the second and third floor) in between laps. I didn’t need this additional mileage and stair climbing!

As well as the 1,200 athletes who entered the Quarantine Backyard Ultra having different start times and different weather conditions depending on where they were in the world, different athletes no doubt had different distances between their start/finish area and their bathroom. When deciding on the courses I would use during the weekend, one of the important factors was the quantity of nearby bushes should I need them. All three courses had plenty of privacy for a number one if needed, but I hadn’t really expected to need anything more than one or two trips upstairs during the whole race, so two in the first few laps was not a good start.

Fortunately, things started to settle down and whilst I continued to have pain in my abdominal area for the first 12-15 hours of the race, I was able to manage things a bit better.

Fallen tree on Quarantine Backyard Ultra course — Another problem I had was a fallen tree that I had to get past twice per lap on my shaded out and back course. Not ideal, but better than spending too much time in the sun.

On completion of the first five laps, which had all being relatively easy at an average of just under 55 minutes per lap, my wife gave me a pizza cut into 2×2 inch squares for dinner. The pizza was in a tinfoil container like what you might get from a Chinese takeway. Easy to hold and the small pizza squares were easy to eat while walking. What a fantastic support crew!

Pizza for tea in Quarantine Backyard Ultra — Pizza for dinner – takeaway style

I switched to course two with the idea of doing three laps of my alternative day course before dark, just for some variety, and then switching to my night course. Those three laps were all significantly slower, averaging 56 minutes, but in fairness, the course was off-road for a part and on the first of those three laps I was eating dinner, and on the last it was semi-dark.

With 8 laps completed in total, at 10pm I switched to my third course and put in a couple 54 minute laps before finding that my left quadricep muscle was starting to hurt after the short break between laps. So I decided to slow things down a bit to reduce the rest breaks. I really enjoyed the night. 12 hours (50 miles), 15 hours (100km) both came and went. Daylight arrived way too early at around 15 hours and I decided to stay on my night course for a few more hours. It had been reasonably cold overnight and a heavy dew was on the cars and grass. I was feeling good and didn’t want to go on to my off-road course, get my shoes and socks wet, and have to stop to change them between laps.

Quarantine Backyard Ultra - rest between laps at 50 miles — A short rest between laps at 50 miles – feet up

Quarantine Backyard Ultra - on the road at night — I really enjoyed walking the streets during the night

The only thing that went wrong during the night was that I didn’t eat enough. In most races I like to eat every 30 minutes but I found myself forgetting to eat and am sure there were occasions when I went 90 minutes or more without eating. I think this may have contributed to my downfall later on.

When I completed lap 18 at 8am my wife presented me with a cheese omelette for breakfast. Again, it was cut into small pieces and in another tinfoil dish. I switched to my alternative day course again and consumed breakfast while walking alongside the river. The lap took me a shade over 57 minutes and was my slowest of the race other than one deliberate slow lap in the middle of the night. I put the slow lap down to the fact that I was eating but the following lap was almost as slow.

I was starting to feel the pain that only an ultra-distance athlete know. I wasn’t tired, but I just couldn’t make myself move forward any faster. I switched to my shaded day course in the hope that the change would help me speed up, but it was just starting to get harder and harder to maintain the same speed. I was only on lap 21. It wasn’t meant to be hard yet!

Lap 21 took 56 minutes and lap 22 was a minute slower. I was now finishing after the three minute whistle (to warn runners that the next lap is about to start there is a whistle blown at 3, 2 and 1 minutes before the bell which is run at the start of each new lap) and was now starting to struggle mentally as well. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, I think I was suffering more mentally than physically now, and my mental weakness was resulting in me walking slower and slower.

I had switched to sugar immediately after breakfast, drinking coke at the end of every lap, and eating chocolate, jelly beans, jelly, etc, but it wasn’t working. Lap 23 took 57 ½ minutes and I told myself that whatever happened, I needed to complete lap 24 in under the hour in order to complete a sub 24 hour 100 miler – the minimum I would consider acceptable for my weekend’s efforts.

In the end lap 24 was to be my last. I just wasn’t mentally strong enough for the race this time around. I finished the lap in 59:06 to complete 100 miles in under 24 hours – the 15^th time I have walked 100 miles in under 24 hours, and the 30^th time I have walked 100 miles or further in the seven years since my first 24 hour race in October 2013.

Of 1,200 entrants, about 47 of us finished lap 24 but only 36 started lap 25, and two laps later there were only around 25 runners left in the race. I wonder whether I could have kept going for a few more laps if mentally stronger. Perhaps if I had switched to my night course which I think was the fastest of the three courses, I may have made a few more laps. But in reality, I just wasn’t up to it.

I might have built good endurance during lockdown, but I have almost zero speed. Most of my training over the last few months has been done at 8 minutes per kilometer or slower. Faster than the required pace for the race, but with no speedwork in training I was unable to kick in a bit of speed when I needed it to get me going in this race. In most races, when I start to struggle I will listen to some high temp music and use that to speed up my cadence, but my legs are no longer used to a fast turnover and the music didn’t help this time.

After the race my legs were in serious pain, worse than I remember them after any of my previous races. I’m not really sure why they were so sore, but after a good night’s sleep on Sunday they were recovered by the following morning, although it did take me most of the week to fully recover from the race and want to go for another walk.

Quarantine Backyard Ultra Lap splits — My lap split times – actual times and cumulative average

What’s Next?

With plenty of uncertainty about upcoming races I am thinking that rather than planning for an upcoming race, maybe I need an adventure. I don’t know yet, but I’m currently looking at doing something long in August.

The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee #GVRAT1000k

June 14, 2020Race Reports, Training, Walking Adventuresadmin

Before lockdown I never thought I’d do a virtual race. I mean why pay for the privilege of recording your mileage/time on a random website in return for a finishers medal that I would just put in the drawer with all the other finisher’s medals I have received over the years. Virtual races seem to have become popular in recent years and for many people they are actually a great pathway to ‘real’ races. But not for me. For a start, as an accountant, why would I want to pay for something that I can do for free? I pay to do real races, but that is different. Or at least that is what I thought.

That was until Covid-19 came along and all races worldwide were cancelled.

I found myself competing in my first virtual race, the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, in early April and not long after that I heard about a virtual race across Tennessee which would be starting on 1^st May. Runners and walkers would have four months (May through August) to complete 1,022km (635 miles) from the bottom left corner of Tennessee and finishing to the top right corner. For those who wanted a bigger challenge, there was the option of the double crossing of Tennessee within the same time period.

GVRAT map

The race was being organised by the famous Lazarus Lake, founder of events including the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard Ultra. He initially thought that a couple hundred runners might be interested in virtually crossing Tennessee. Little did he know that over 19,000 runners and walkers (including me) would toe the virtual start line and the event would raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help feed the homeless people of Tennessee.

With no actual races on the horizon I decided to enter the double GVRAT – there and back – rationalising that walking approximately 500km per month for four months would be great training for when races do finally resume after lockdown (I’m still hopeful that we will have the opportunity to do a real race before the end of 2020). 2,000km would give me about 50% of my normal annual mileage in the space of four months, and recording my daily mileage and watching my runner icon slowly move across a map of Tennessee would give me the motivation to keep going. I’m the sort of person that needs a race goal to motivate myself to train, and with no upcoming races I wasn’t sure how motivated I’d be during the summer.

Of course, staying healthy and social distancing during the Covid-19 crisis was always going to be number one priority.

The race:

The race started at midnight on the 30^th April local time. This meant it started in New Zealand first and for us in England it started about 11 hours later, and for those in the US, even later. But when the race finishes on 31^st August, it also finishes at midnight, so everyone has the same amount of time to complete the distance unless they happen to change time zones.

Because of this it meant that race times would only be recorded in full days but that didn’t stop a few people starting their race immediately after midnight in their local time, and the first people to finish treated the race as if it was a real race, running as much mileage as they possibly could each day. The first person to finish the race took just 12 days!

For me, my initial aim was to take eight weeks for the first 1,000km (actually 1,022km) across Tennessee and then eight weeks for the return journey, and treat the event as high mileage training. I also had a full time job to fit the race around.

GVRAT week 1 progress map — GVRAT week 1 progress

The race started on Friday 1^st May and I started at 5am with a 37km walk before work. By the end of week one though, I had completed 162km (101 miles). A 100 mile training week. The last time I had walked 100 miles in a week that didn’t include a race of 100 miles or longer was in 2014! I have never been a high mileage athlete when it comes to training, but this race was enticing me to walk farther than I normally would, and also farther than the 125km weekly average I had planned for the race.

But surely this was a one-off. My weekly distances would now settle back to my required average of through the summer. Just enough weekly mileage to get me through 2,000km in four months.

GVRAT progress map week 2 — GVRAT week 2 progress

Week 2 – another 100 mile week. Another great week of training. After just two weeks I’d completed just under one third of the one-way journey across Tennessee and I was in 304^th position out of 19,000 athletes. I’d started checking the online results on a daily basis to check my placing and had even started graphing my daily mileage and analysing how my average daily mileage since 1^st May correlated to my current position in the race.

GVRAT progress map week 3 — GVRAT progress week 3

In week 3 I purposefully reduced my mileage as I had never walked back to back 100 mile weeks and I was concerned that a third 100 mile week could bring on an injury. I was purposefully keeping my average speed to a above 8 minutes per kilometer (12:50 per mile) due to my shin injury from the Thames Ring 250 last year but in the first two weeks of May I had already walked further than my average monthly mileage for the first four months of the year. Even so, at 133km week 3 was still longer than any other training week (non-race week) in over a year!

By the end of week 3 I had dropped to 448^th place and with a rest day for day 22 I dropped another 100 places. I started to think about ‘racing’ through to the finish. Lockdown restrictions in England were being reduced slightly and I was able to walk farther and farther away from home.

GVRAT progress map week 4 — GVRAT progress week 4

The 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th May was a long weekend in the UK so I walked 165km in three days, starting between 4 and 5 each morning. Week 4 mileage was 198km (123 miles) which coincidentally was the same distance I had completed in the Quarantine Backyard Ultra. I was now just short of two thirds through the one-way trip across Tennessee and started thinking seriously about two more 100 mile weeks to finish in 6 weeks total – or at least make it to the half-way turnaround for the double crossing.

One of the things I really enjoy about ‘real’ ultramarathon races is walking through the night. There is something special about walking huge distances while everyone around you is asleep, and I was missing this. So the following weekend I decided to do an overnight walk through London. It turned out to be a 104km walk starting at 10pm on the Saturday night, walking from home up through London and through towards Stratford (where the 2012 Olympics were) and then across the top of London before heading back home.

I started using a website called CityStrides a while ago which shows streets you’ve walked previously on a live map so that you can identify which streets you haven’t been on previously. I’ve spent the last six years exploring areas all around greater London and the website makes it easy to see whether you have ‘been here before’ – although quiet often I will recognise a street that I might have walked down months or even years ago.

The website shows how many completed streets you have walked/run along and has a leaderboard for different cities around the world as well as showing the percentage of each city/borough you have completed. So in a way, it is a little like a virtual race in its own right. After each walk the website would show how many new streets I had walked. During the whole GVRAT event I completed 902 new streets including 161 new streets during the 104km overnight walk.

GVRAT progress map week 5 — GVRAT progress week 5

Week 5 mileage ended up at 173km and I was now in 368^th place with just under 200km to go. One more big week to get to the finish.

The race had started on a Friday meaning that each of the above weeks are Friday through to Thursday. Week 6 started with a rest day, my ninth rest day since 1st May. Over the weekend I walked 32km and 52km on the Saturday and Sunday respectively leaving just 112km to finish the race and five days to do so if I wanted to complete the race in six weeks.

Throughout the race I had been working fulltime from home which meant fitting the race around work hours. All of my rest days had been on workdays during which I would work longer hours so that I could work shorter hours on the days I wanted to walk long. I decided to have a tenth rest day on the Monday leaving me three days to walk 20km, 30km and then 62km to finish on the Thursday. The plan was that the Tuesday and Wednesday walks would be before work and I would finish work early (3pm’ish) in order to get the final 62km completed before midnight on Thursday, day 42.

After the Monday rest day the results showed me as being in 398^th place. 20km on Tuesday and I slipped to 401^st place. I now had 92km to finish the race and decided that I would do all of that on Wednesday, day 41 of the race.

The only problem was that Wednesday was a workday and I had several meetings to attend (virtually) with the first starting at 9:30am and the last finishing at 3pm. So it would be a short workday sandwiched in between a 35km morning walk starting just after 4:30am and a final 57km after work.

The 35km went fine. I had to message my manager just before 9:30am to tell her I would be a couple minutes late for our meeting, but that was fine. I had woken at 4am and had breakfast before my walk and I had an early lunch straight after my 9:30 meeting. A second lunch a couple hours later before an early dinner straight after my workday finished at 3pm, and then I was off out the door again.

For the whole of the last 41 days I had managed to avoid rain when training. It had tried to rain on the 1^st May during my first walk of the race, and I had carried my jacket on one other day, but other than that, the weather had been perfect. Now, at 3:45pm as I was preparing to head out for my final walk of the race, the heavens opened, and it started raining. But this wasn’t going to stop me. I had set my mind to completing this race today and I needed 57km before midnight. My average pace for the whole 41 days had been a shade over 8 minutes per kilometer so if I left home before 4pm and maintained that same pace then I would finish the race before midnight, before the end of day 41.

GVRAT progress map week 6 — GVRAT progress week 6

And that’s what happened – I completed the 57^th kilometer at about 11:45pm and then walked one last kilometer, crossing over the Teddington footbridge across the River Thames, the same bridge I had walked over at the start of the race on the morning of the 1^st May, and back to my home where I recorded my daily mileage for the last time.

Or at least the last time for the one-way race across Tennessee. There is still the return journey to do.

I finished 305^th and took 137 hours to complete the 1,022km. I did 32 walks at an average of 32km (20 miles) each, in 31 days with 10 rest days. Great high mileage training. The virtual race is giving me what I wanted from it.

Photos:

During the last 41 days I’ve taken a few photos as I walked the streets of South West London, London and North London. These are some of my favourites:

5am on day 1, walking across the footbridge at Teddington Lock less than 1km into the 1,022km race

M3 motoway during lockdown 3rd May 2020 — The M3 motorway during lockdown on 3rd May. Not a car in sight.

One of the private roads in the Wentworth golf course resort

The M25 motoway during lockdown 3rd May 2020

Crossing London Bridge with the Shard in the background – 16th May 2020

Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast – 16th May 2020

Pall Mall during lockdown - 16th May 2020 — Pall Mall during lockdown – 16th May 2020 – hardly a tourist in sight

Buckingham Palace during lockdown - 16th May 2020 — Buckingham Palace during lockdown – 16th May 2020 – hardly a tourist in sight

Walk like a penquin — Walk like a penguin – early morning walk on 21st May

Abbey Road Studios London — Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road pedestrian crossing London — Abbey Road pedestrian crossing. The Beetles walked across it in the 60’s and I walked across it on the 23rd May 2020. Abbey road Studios are in the background.

View of London from Epson Racecourse — View of London (15 miles away) from Epson Racecourse – 24th May

Where I walked 1st May to 10th June - GVRAT — Where I walked 1st May to 10th June – 1.023km in South West London plus a small amount of North London

GVRAT graph place versus daily mileage – average of 15.5 miles per day for 41 days, finishing in 305th place

And one last screenshot. I posted on facebook in the GVRAT facebook group after I finished the race. This was by far my favourite comment, and also one of the reasons I write these race reports.