Tracey’s journey to the SVP 50

In 2019, I decided, as I was going to be 50 next year, I should do something special. Why don’t I run 50km in my 50th year I thought! The Stour Valley Path (SVP) 50km ultra run is on my doorstep so I signed up.

I bought a pair of trail trainers in January in preparation, and had a half marathon booked in May, so I started training for that with the expectation that this would all form part of my SVP preparation. 

All was going well for a couple of months and then COVID hit. The half marathon was cancelled – having expected this, my training had not been particularly good since March anyway! I was also convinced the SVP would be cancelled, so my training was rather half hearted.

As it got closer to the day and I found out it was not cancelled, in fact they were optimistic it would go ahead! So I started to panic and had to ramp up my training. My husband is an ultra-runner and loves trail running, so he would take me out for long runs 15km, 20km, 25km. I was learning about fuelling during a long run but really struggled to force myself to eat anything. Mars Bars I found out, went down well!

The day dawned and I was absolutely terrified. I thought I would let myself down, I would let my husband down (he was running with me) and I would disappoint everyone I’d told I was doing it. We started and all was going well, but I soon found myself struggling from about 10km. With 40lm still to go I was becoming very disheartened. My mind was telling me I could never do it and my body was telling me it was never going to happen! We hit the first checkpoint at 18km and I knew I had to eat but I felt sick, so I forced a babybel down and some sweets of some sort.

The longer we went on the more I struggled. My hip was hurting and I told myself I was going to quit at the next checkpoint (30km). I told my husband I was going to quit and all he said was ‘let’s see when we get there’.

I arrived at the checkpoint and decided I’d had enough, but then my husband said we have 4 Parkruns to do and just over 4 hrs to do it in. Thinking of it in Parkrun terms made me think, actually that isn’t so bad. So I pulled up my big girl pants and carried on.

The last 20km were tough, my hip was sore, it was dark and I knew we were probably last but I trudged on. At the last checkpoint with only 8km to go I knew I could not give up. 

We made it to the end 15 minutes before the cut off time of 9 and a half hours. I wanted to cry with relief and exhaustion! The picture below of me with my medal clearly sums up how I was feeling I think!

Yes we came last, but I am really proud of my achievement. I was convinced after 10km it was never going to happen! It was harder than I thought and due to the expectation it would be cancelled my training had not been as it should. But I would say to anyone who wants a challenge, that with proper preparation you too could complete this (and the medal is awesome). For me, been there, done that, got the T shirt but will stick with 10k in the future! 

I am really pleased that I did it. There were some spectators scattered about the course but not as many as there would usually be, however it was great to see and get encouragement from some of the I Can Runners who were out supporting. 

My suggestions for anyone thinking of doing this are:

practice with different energy sweets/drinks to find something you and your stomach can tolerate! Try to run part of the route in your training 

Most important thing - find clothes that will not chafe when running!