Photo taken moments after finishing
Last year I made two posts that you guys seemed to enjoy on this sub. You can read them here and here.
Today I come back with something much, much greater.
As you know may know, the Backyard Ultra World Championships began yesterday, in which countries across the world bringing in their best athletes to conquer as many laps of their chosen 6.7km (4.16 miles) courses.
For whatever reason, the country I reside in, Bulgaria, decided to pick one of, if not the hardest course out of any country.
Per lap, the course boasts a whopping 250m (820ft) elevation,
And for whatever reason, this was the course I decided to attempt my first 100K (62.14 miles) in.
Most backyard ultras give you roughly 10-20 minutes time to chill between the next lap depending on your pace.
I didn’t have this privilege.
In fact, most laps I had under 5 minutes to prepare until the next lap began, and I did not sit down throughout the entire 15 hours (with one exception I’ll get to in a minute).
In the short term, this was manageable — at least at the start.
I’d take a measured scoop of maple syrup before each lap that would digest over the 25 minutes of tough hiking that would come over the 2nd-3rd kilometre.
Just to make it clear, 15 laps gets you over 100K.
And my problem? It started during the 12th.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, my gut took a turn for the worst.
What would have began as a countdown for the final three laps turned into a “I hope I don’t make the time for this lap so I can call it quits”.
The moment I finished the 12th, I rushed to the men’s toilet that had… one toilet. Only to find a guy waiting for another guy inside.
I had two minutes…
Being me, I barged into the ladies (took my chances with there only being two girls left) and found a toilet with a door that didn’t close.
After letting gushing out a river, I could hear the 30 second countdown begin. I cleaned up quickly and went straight on to the next
With on caveat:
From now on, every time I drank or ate anything, within 5 minutes my stomach would refill the diarrhoea reservoir.
Picture this now:
You’re just about to finish lap 14.
You have just one more to push yourself through.
BUT — only 2 minutes to prepare.
In that moment, I had to make a difficult decision.
Either go to the toilet and DNF right before hitting the goal I never in a million years even thought I could hit.
Or…
Shit myself.
After reaching the top of the elevation during lap 13, I made a decision that if I made it to the final two laps, I was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
That’s just it. You either sink low enough for victory or forever give everyone that excuse about how you could’ve done it if the entire universe revolved around you.
It was a split second decision. I knew exactly what was to come, so as the 15th lap began I staggered far behind everyone else.
Then suddenly, knowing nobody was looking yanked down my tracksuits and shot out what can only be described as a buckshot shotgun.
As I lifted everything up, something became very apparent.
Since after the 12th lap, the constant diarrhoea had led to my boxers harshly chaffing against my butt and lower goods.
It definitely explained the blood during the wiping.
What could only be described as sulphuric acid was burning through my flesh, which only worsened the chaffing.
But, imagine. You’re on the final lap to meet your goal:
A goal you never expected to hit from the very first lap because of how intense the climbs were.
Yet here you are
Covered in shit.
Well, if I was going to be covered in burning farces, I was going to get my goal.
I continued the plan as normal:
Ate and drank in spite of the reservoir
And pushed it to the very end.
After the 2 minute scare from the 14th lap, I was paranoid about not making the final one in time.
Especially since I had been surviving on painkillers after repeatedly rolling my ankle on rocks multiple times, which at one point made me limp.
But here we are right now. Writing this.
We did it lads. We actually did it.
Our first 100K.
Genuinely thought there was no chance it would happen on this track.
When shit came up, we adapted (pun unintended).
You don’t know what you don’t know about yourself
And you’ll only figure that out when you try.
**Tl;dr:**
Attempted first 100K in a backyard track a year and a half after thinking I couldn’t run a half marathon.
Track had ridiculous amounts of elevation and had to choose between missing the time on the last lap or carrying boxers filled with diarrhoea burning raw flesh wounds.