Ishmael Burdeau recently completed a gruelling 100km race wth 2,700 metres of climbing and came an amazing 11th.
Well done Ishmael, thanks for representing vegan runners and veganism as a whole in such an awesome way.
Here is his report.
I am fairly new to ultra running, but with a confirmed place at the 278 mile Spine Race in January to prepare for, I knew it was time to step up from the 50km distance I was comfortable with and had recently raced in during the Peak Sky Race, and try something harder. As I live in the Peak District I was familiar with much of the route and also able to easily make the 6am start at Whirlow Farm, on the outskirts of Sheffield. The race was very well organised, with a good venue, a beautiful and very tough course and an allowance of three drop bags. The weather forecast indicated that the day would be a mixture of fog, wind and heavy rain with the occasional break in the clouds. And so I set off with the other 50-odd runners just after dawn, knowing I would not be returning to Whirlow until the evening, a daunting thought.
The first 30 or 40km went very smoothly, despite a missed turn after heading south from Ladybower, which cost me 10 or 15 minutes. I cursed myself for not having paid more attention, but was is 10 or 15 minutes in such a long race anyway? My fantastic support crew was ready with coffee, falafels and hummus at the midway point, just before the very steep climb up to Win Hill. So far, so good.
The second half of the race was all about trying to maintain a good pace, even though this was the harder half of the course, with a number of steep and difficult climbs as well as some very wet and windy weather around Kinder and Castleton. At the 75km mark I met up with my outstanding crew once again and was treated to hot soup and dry socks. Naturally in the last 25km of the race I could feel a few things beginning to hurt here and there, but it was simply a matter of pressing on. After 12 hours and 37 minutes I eventually crossed in the line in reasonable shape (only damage to speak of – a black toenail), feeling a lot more confident about the Spine Race.
1st John Bottomley 10:09:10
2nd Sally Fawcett 10:21:56
3rd Dan Shrimpton 10:42:56
11th Ishmael Burdeau (Vegan Runners) 12.37:49
