In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great – on the plains

We had been told at the opening race briefing that the race was one of two halves – the physically tough stages in the mountains, followed by the mentally draining stages across the plains. We were warned the plains were very flat and we would be able to see runners tens of kilometres ahead.

However on the morning of the fourth day it was definitely the physical challenge that was concerning me. This was the long day, 64km. Granted there was only 50m of up and 250m of down to contend with – and the promise of real beds and showers at the finish – with but my slightly altered gait from the day before had left me with incredibly tight calves. I started the day hobbling around the campsite – not a good look for someone hoping to hold on the fifth place and the men’s over 60 title…

The only ‘good’ news was that I effectively had an extra hour for my calves to loosen up as the day started with a split start. The top 15 would start at 7am, everyone else would start at six.

Miraculously my calves did indeed start to loosen off a bit and by 7am I was moving a bit more freely. The vast majority of the downhill, such as it was, was at the start of the leg, dropping out of the last bit of the valley and onto the plains proper. I was hoping that this meant that any discomfort from my calves or blisters would be mainly at the start and that I would be OK for the rest of the stage.

Once we started running I felt surprisingly good…

… and after about a hour I started to catch the first of the 6am starters.

The later start was a definite advantage for me as it meant the boredom of the plains was broken up by passing the earlier starters. everyone was very friendly and encouraging as I passed them and I tried to be as friendly and encouraging as I could be. Some of these guys were going to have a VERY long day and would finish after dark.

After about two and a half hours I arrived at checkpoint two by a lake, one of the few ‘features’ on the stage. However I was very sad to find Sharon sitting at the checkpoint. I expected to catch her at some point during the day but not quite so soon. She had been sick and wasn’t feeling well. It’s not completely unusual for Sharon to suffer on long stages in the heat, but given she had felt great after the previous days stage and it was still relatively early in the day, this was disappointing to say the least.

Haydar Ko’l is a natural lake located in the Jizzakh Region of Uzbekistan, and very beautiful. Due to the somewhat flat nature of the terrain it was quite hard to take a decent photograph of, so I didn’t.

After making sure Sharon was OK (she wasn’t but she was going to continue anyway) and topping up my water, it was back to the plains.

We had been told there was a shop en-route where we would be able to (hopefully) buy a cold drink.

There was indeed a shop! The course marking team had helpfully sprayed ‘SHOP’ on it’s bottom left hand corner – I assume the owner didn’t mind.

I bought a Pepsi and drank it whilst walking through the village back to the plains.

I was starting to struggle a bit. It was getting very hot, temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius were mentioned. At the next checkpoint Ollie (I think it was anyway) thoroughly doused me with water to cool me down and I pressed on.

By the final checkpoint I was really struggling. I filled up my water and left when the volunteers said they could see the next runner coming in. I desperately hoped it wasn’t Peter and staggered back onto the dusty track.

By now I could hardly run at all. Every time I did I started to feel lightheaded. As there was nowhere to get any respite from the sun I just had to do a run/walk sort of thing, with the amount of run constantly decreasing.

Although the kit requirements said we had to be able to carry two litres of water, I had only been carrying one. This was the first point where I almost wished I had more. I say ‘almost’ because the water I had left was almost hot enough to make tea with and as I didn’t have any tea bags with me it wasn’t exactly pleasant to drink.

Not far into the leg the next runner caught me up. This Mike, which wasn’t so bad because, whilst he could push me down the overall standings, he at least wasn’t in my age group. He asked if I wanted to try and work with him to get to the finish but I knew by that point I was spent so I thanked him and watched him disappear into the distance. About 10 minutes or so later Harri overtook me. A couple of minutes after her it was Peter’s turn to pass me.

Eventually I could see the Yurt camp and made some sort of attempt to run across the finish line. I was 10th overall (two of the earlier starters had stayed ahead of me), by far my worst finishing position. The only good news was that Peter had only taken about two and a half minutes off me so I was still first in my age group.

I was able to have a shower and even better, the camp had an air-conditioned bar/restaurant!

However, despite all this luxury I wasn’t able to relax. Sharon was somewhere out on the course and I wasn’t even totally sure if she was still running. No-one seemed to have heard she’s pulled out so I was hopeful she was still running, but I had no idea what time she would finish.

Dr. Ryan could see I was wandering around like a lost tortoise and offered to tape my feet. Just as he was about to start he was called away to a medical emergency. One of the runners (Chris Lewis, a regular volunteer on GL events and also Way of Legends) had collapsed on the last leg of the course and had hit his head. Fortunately he hadn’t sustained a serious injury, although the Yurt camp did call an ambulance – much to Stefan’s displeasure. The ambulance turned up just as Dr. Ryan was about to try and sort my feet out the second time…

Eventually the medical excitement abated for long enough for my feet to be rebuilt. The hope was that this would last until the finish. Stefan had laid on another plov for us this night so I used some of the time waiting for Sharon to eat.

Sharon finished about three hours after me, comfortably still in daylight. She had been very sick since I had seen her at checkpoint two. She had had a 30 minute lie down at the last checkpoint. She said it was quite hard to carry on as a few people dropped out there and cars were sent to pick them up. However she resisted the temptation to get in one and soldiered on to the finish. She had a shower and even managed to eat some plov.

About ten people had failed to finish the stage, quite a high proportion for a Global Limits race. Frances was last to finish in 15 hours 25 minutes and 2 seconds, after dark (9:25pm) but well before Stefan’s prediction that the last finisher would be around midnight.

Day Five promised to be much like Day Four, only shorter, 38km with 390m of climb and 190m of down. Sharon wasn’t feeling great but was ready to carry on. I didn’t feel amazing but I was hoping I’d be able to keep running for 38km.

I settled into fourth place for the first few miles.

It’s fair to say that today wasn’t the most exciting day of racing I’ve ever had. I took a photo of the course…

…and one an hour later.

I’d love to say the scenery changed between the pictures – but I’d be lying. I did see a tortoise though.

The biggest excitement was at the second checkpoint, where I had to negotiate some goats.

To be fair there were a couple of sections of interest – one where I managed to go the wrong way until Valentin (who overtook me for fourth place) called me back and one where I though I was probably gong the wrong way but the flags and paint were correct, it just didn’t look like a path (it wasn’t, but it was the route).

About two or three miles from the finish I heard barking behind me. I’m not sure if the dog was actually chasing me or not but I did find discover I still had the ability to hit 7:30 minute/mile pace!

We had been told that the campsite was in a plum orchard so any group of trees was hopefully surveyed in case it was concealing the finish. When the correct group of trees came into view the course turned off onto another ‘non-path’ across a field to the finish.

The trees provided some welcome shade and coolness but also numerous opportunities to bang ones head, which I took full advantage of. My head had taken a battering the previous night too, as I seemed incapable of remembering how low the yurt door was.

Although I felt I struggled a bit, I still managed another fifth place, about 50 minutes behind the stage winner, Bryan. Benjamin was second, Kurt third and, as previously mentioned, Valentin was fourth. Peter was tenth. I know had a 27 minute lead over Peter, which I thought should be enough to take the over 60’s male title unless the last day went badly wrong.

Sharon was still suffering a bit but managed to finish with a smile on her face.

The camp had a large irrigation tank we were allowed to dunk ourselves in if we wanted. Many people did but I decided against it.

I was just too tired to be able to summon the energy to play in the water. Plus, if I had, the dressings would have probably come off my feet and, whilst I’m sure Dr. Ryan would have redressed them for me, I was grateful for all the attention they had been given already and didn’t want to create unnecessary work for him.

I think one of the main reasons I found this day so much duller than the first day was the fact we all started together. This meant I spent quite a lot of the day on my own and didn’t get to say hello to the other runners in the same way. It’s only when I’m totally on my own I realise what boring person I am to be with.

The last day was a short stage of 17km, finishing in the ancient Nur Fortress, built by (or more accurately, for) Alexander the Great in 329 BC. There was 330m of up and 190m of down. This should be fairly straightforward but I thought that about the last day of the Global Limits race in Bhutan – which had 800 steps and a section running on the edge of a water channel with a sheer drop off the side. However given the fairly flat nature of the part of Uzbekistan we were in I was hoping this really would be fairly easy.

It was made a little complicated by the fact we would pass through a very large cemetery. To respect the local culture we had to have shorts that were at least knee length, tops that covered our shoulders and we had to walk through the cemetery. I had some longish shorts but was advised that the pair I had brought as camp shorts, which were actually some very old zip-offs, would be better as they were definitely knee length.

In order to compress everyone’s finish times (there was a three hour coach journey to do after the stage) there would be three start times, 5:45am, 6:30am and 7:am. Sharon was on the 6:30 start, I would start at 7:00.

I haven’t said too much about the local support crew – they were excellent, always on the ball keeping us supplied with hot water, getting tents set up, digging latrines and probably a hundred other things we were blissfully unaware of – even Stefan didn’t shout at them much! Oh, and most importantly, they managed to supply cold beers and Cokes every evening.

I’m not sure I’d stirred out of bed when the 5:45 group set off.

Having seen myself in this photo, I think I should have stayed in bed…

Sharon departed with the 6:30 group

I was left as part of a small band of people still at camp. Even Stefan had decided that the last group could be left to it’s own devices and wouldn’t need him to point it in the right direction.

After I’d dropped our bags off I picked up a few bits of litter in our tent and threw them in a bin. As I bent forward towards the bin my back did a slightly painful spasming type thing. This was worrying. None of my scenarios for the day involved me not actually being able to physically run the leg – that would mean no fifth place, no age group win and no finishers thing (Global Limits don’t do medals, I didn’t know exactly what I’d get for finishing but I knew it would be something from the country and quite nice), I’d be a DNF!

My tent was still up so I went inside and rolled around doing the back stretching exercises I should have been doing all week but hadn’t. It seemed to loosen off and I was just praying to all the deities I don’t believe in that it would be OK for another few miles.

As Stefan wasn’t there to start us, we had a ‘Who can do the best Stefan impersonation competition’ – unless Stefan is reading this, in which case nothing disrespectful happened and we just got on with it.

We all set off across the dusty plain one last time.

As we closed in on the cemetery I caught up with Chris. He had recovered from his episode on the long day and was running the last day with everyone else.

Stefan had told us that the cemetery was huge with a worryingly large amount of ‘room for expansion’ – he wasn’t wrong.

As many of you know, I like exploring graveyards but as I was still technically in a race, I restricted myself to a few photos. Whilst longer clothing was required in the cemetery we had been told it was OK to take photographs.

After the cemetery we were allowed to run again and soon something sort of familiar appeared – the gate into the fortress complex. The reason it was sort of familiar was that it was the background for our race name bibs.

As I came towards the last few hundred metres I passed a few of the earlier starters. I quite like a bit of a sprint finish so I hope they weren’t too annoyed as I flew past them.

There was a banner at the finish line – I wasn’t sure whether to go through it or jump it so I sort of fell over it – however, I was a finisher of the first ever Uzbekistan Ultra!

Sharon was already at the finish when I arrived – she had a much more stylish finish line technique apparently.

We had a small amount of time before lunch and the bus back so we had a quick look round the fortress.

After a lunch we had a long coach journey with a driver who was surprisingly reluctant to make toilet stops until we arrived at Bukhara. Our hotel was in the old town so we had to walk the last 100m while our bags were transported on small buggies.

After about four changes to our return flight, we were having to leave Uzbekistan the very next day so we went out for a quick look around Bukhara. I took some photos, not entirely sure what some of them were of but it all looked very nice.

All that was left was the final dinner and prize giving. This didn’t occur in quite the order it was supposed to but – apart from Stefan berating the bar staff for not having enough beer in the fridge – it all seemed to work.

After the meal we went outside for the prize giving. Normally everyone is given their medal individually but due to the numbers of people only overall and category winners had presentations. I had kept my fifth place and my male over 60 prize so I had a presentation.

We also got to see some local dancing and a great sunset.

This is the bit where I give my thoughts on the race…

Am I happy I did it? Yes, Uzbekistan was amazing, it was great to be part of the first ultra race in the country and the people were so friendly. The mountain scenery was stunning, the plains were impressive for there sheer size, although, it has to be said, a little repetitive to run across.

The race was hard. I don’t do that many big stage races these days, and when I do I seem to end up racing. This race gave me something extra to race for in term of an age group prize. Not everyone understood why I was pleased that I had genuine competition in my age group. It means I feel I earned my prize. Although I beat Peter in the end it is interesting to note that on the two hardest stages, the first and the fourth, he beat me.

Would I recommend the race? Yes, provided you have the mental capacity to deal with the plains – and the physical capacity to deal with the heat of the plains. The country is a wonderful place with fantastic architecture and mountains. The people are friendly and welcoming and, I think, find us quite novelty once you leave the cities. The organisation is excellent and the local team very efficient. I would say do it sooner rather than later while Uzbekistan isn’t a major tourist destination – it has everything to make it a ‘must see’ country.

Obviously a big thank you to everyone involved in putting this race on. A special thank you to Dr. Ryan, I really thought it was game over after what I did to me feet on the second day. I should also give Sharon a mention. We worked well together in camp and looked after each other. It was very sad she became ill on the fourth day or she too could have won her age group – she was on course to do so after the first three days. However she is tough and didn’t give up and finished in a very respectable 37th place overall and 12th female.

The reason this episode of my blog has been delayed is because last weekend I was back on the Pennine Way with Sharon. We did a little recce from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Dufton. In a little over two weeks time we will be back for the Spine Summer challenger North. I suspect there will be a blog entry about it – once again the Only Way will be Pennine!