This is a review of my first place finish at the Phoenix Events PRDNDTS 6-hour race on 9th February 2020.
I also managed to achieve a NEW 6-hour RECORD for all of the Phoenix events!
The article includes:
An overview of the event itself - My second race of 2020. It includes tips and advice if you’re thinking of entering it too
What was my nutrition strategy and what kit did I use?
A FREE pre-race checklist, which you can use to prepare for your own races. I use this for my races and it’s helped me feel calmer and more prepared. And it was certainly a massive factor in my performance in this race!
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What is the PRDNDTS 6 Hour Event?
The PRDNDTS ultra was a 6-hour race organised by Phoenix Running Events.
The race took place on Sunday 9th February 2020 at the Elmbridge Leisure Centre in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
It was a simple out-and-back 3.28 mile (5.3km) looped course. And there was no elevation gain at all.
Which meant that it should have been a fast course…
Although that was before Storm Ciara decided to come to the UK!
To be a finisher, and get the coveted and famous Phoenix running medal, all you had to do was complete 1 loop.
But you could complete as many as you like, in the 6 hour time limit.
A lap only counted in you fully completed it. So if you did 10 and three-quarters, that would count as 10.
This format made it really interesting because there were so many runners with different goals for the race:
Many entered just to complete 1 lap and get the medal
Some entered to complete 4 laps and a half-marathon
If you completed 8 laps, that was the equivalent of a marathon - And many runners did that on their way to achieving their goal of reaching the famous 100-marathon milestone. Or another target like 52 marathons in 52 days
Some wanted to complete the full 6 hours, to see how far they could go
And I entered it as a training race, for some bigger events that I’ve got later in the year
So it was great to run past people during the event and question about what each individual’s person’s objective was.
But that wasn’t the biggest question I had.
The biggest question before I had was ‘what on earth did PRDNDTS stand for?!’
Well, after some fairly lacklustre Googling I still couldn’t find out.
And it was only when I got the race bib, that it was confirmed - PRDNDTS = Phoenix Running Do Not Do T-Shirts.
The mandatory pre-race photo with your bib number for social media purposes. This bib was more informative than usual though. Because it helped me to finally confirm what the name of the race actually was - PRDNDTS = Phoenix Running Do Not Do T-Shirts!
PRDNDTS Race Review
I’d heard a lot of good things about Phoenix events.
People who took part in them seemed to love the laid-back atmosphere and the community feel that the event had.
And that was certainly my experience.
But the reason I ran in this particular event was because I’d had to pull out of another Phoenix race that I’d entered in November.
I almost didn’t make the start line of this race either though…
Blood Blisters, Sepsis and a Night in the Hospital
After my 5th place finish at the Country-to-Capital Ultra in early January, my little toenail on my right foot had decided it wanted to grow in, rather than out.
And that developed into a severe blood blister.
But being an ultra-runner, I’d developed many blood blisters before. So wasn’t worried about it…
Until a ominous-looking red line started to make it’s way up my foot… And then further up my leg…
That was when I started to wonder if something was wrong.
So after a trip to the doctor to get some antibiotics, I thought everything would be fine.
But then, two days later, I woke up at 6am and couldn’t walk.
And it was time to go to the hospital.
After waiting in A&E for 4 hours, I was wheeled off to a ward and told that I had a very bad infection.
I was also told that I was only a few hours away from getting sepsis (which is apparently quite bad).
And so I was put onto intravenous antibiotics.
After many doctors debated whether I would need surgery or not to open the blister (WTF? Can’t I just pop it myself?), one came by and told me that he was “going to take the roof off of it”.
“I’m just going to take the roof off”
I thought that was a great way of describing a minor operation. Which he did whilst I laid in the bed in the ward.
Surgery avoided!
This common sense approach to dealing with a blood blister was only made possible because the doctor had down ultra-events before.
And so he recognised that it was standard.
After popping and covering it, I could almost immediately begin to hobble. When I couldn’t even walk previously.
But I still needed to stay in overnight to have an IV.
Fortunately, they decided I could leave the next day. I would need to come in for 5 days to receive IV antibiotics. And then on to tablets.
And due to marvels of modern medicine, I was back up and running within about 7 days from when I originally went into hospital.
Note - I’ve deliberately excluded pictures of my toe before and after. But if you’re inclined to see them, I posted them on my Strava account here.
So I missed out on about 2 weeks of decent training for this event, which wasn’t ideal.
But at least I was going to make the start line.
Or was I?
Storm Ciara Almost Blows Us Away
Just days before the event, Storm Ciara threatened to bring 90 mile per hour winds to the UK,
Some other races in London were cancelled. And they were even shutting the Royal Parks, which is something I’d never heard of before.
But there was excellent communication on the Phoenix Running Facebook page, which meant you could keep up to date with their thoughts.
Most runners seemed to be more concerned with how they were going to travel to the race, rather than running in the storm itself.
And despite the threat of a storm, the race was going ahead!
The out-and-back lapped course meant that on the way out we were running into the severe headwinds of Storm Ciara… Although the return was with the wind behind you. Going out was extremely tough. But I didn’t realise how bad the weather had been until I went for a recovery run a couple of days later and came across some major blockages on my usual run along the Thames!
Practically Perfect Pre-Race Prep
My pre-race preparation is one of the things that I pride myself on.
Despite my relatively disappointing performance at the Country-to-Capital 43-miler in January, my preparation for it had been one of the best I’d had.
I put this down to my very thorough and very structured pre-race checklist.
I’ve used this checklist for a lot of my races for the past few years.
And it all began with my 1st place position at the Autumn 100-mile race in October 2018.
It covers all of the kit, equipment, food, drink, travel, logistics and everything else I need to think about.
The checklist covers what I need to do in the days before the race, the day of the race and after the race too.
It makes getting ready for races much less stressful. And much quicker and easier too.
One of the best things is, once you’ve done it once, it’s quite easy to replicate again and again.
You can grab a FREE copy of the checklist that I use - Just send me a blank email, by clicking here or the button below.
After the mandatory pre-race Instagram kit-layout post (below), I was ready and raring to go for the event itself.
Thanks, as always, to Saucony, for providing me with my Kinvara 10 running shoes. As well as a load of great new kit.
I’ve been using the Kinvara running shoes for years. A long time before I was officially sponsored by them. And they are the best shoe that I’ve even run in.
And, once again, they didn’t let me down.
My pre-race prep has been very good for the last two races. Despite not having raced for about 15 months. I put this mostly down to my pre-race checklist which I’ve used for most of my last races. It’s long and thorough. But it helps ease my mind and makes the final few days go very smoothly. You can grab your own copy of the checklist using the button above
The Race Itself
The registration for the race was extremely simple, but effective.
It was ideally located in a sports centre. Which meant we could relax and make use of the facilities. Including toilets, showers and even lockers for our kit. That helped pre-race preparation and nerves hugely.
Again, massive kudos for Phoenix Events for thinking that through so well.
And it felt like the registration process was so well executed because Phoenix run so many events. So they’ve clearly become experts.
After a very brief race briefing (which is always good), about 150 of us walked down to the start line.
There was a very small tent set up where we could each drop our nutrition, water or whatever else we needed.
Phoenix events also have a really unique way of providing water for the event.
Each athlete has a designated numbered ‘cup’ that they can refill from the ‘watering hole’. And the watering hole was basically a massive tank of water, where you had a personal tap with your number.
It certainly sounded like an innovative way of dealing with hydrating loads of runners.
Unfortunately the ‘watering' hole’ was a bit out of place in this environment. It wasn’t exactly like the African Plains from The Lion King, as Storm Ciara was beginning to whip up a storm.
I didn’t make use of this system though. As I’d prepared 3 bottles of pre-mixed Tailwind Nutrition.
I’ve only recently switched to using Tailwind as my main nutrition source for ultra-running.
But it’s working very well so far.
And I’d highly recommend it. it makes nutrition and fuelling a lot simpler for long races.
All you need to do is mix in the powder with water. Each ‘scoop’ of powder has about 100 calories.
And the beauty of it is that you can mix almost as much as you like into a bottle.
The more you mix in, the more of a gel-like substance it becomes.
The most I’ve included before is about 10 - 12 scoops in a bottle. When I’m on extremely long distance runs.
For this race I chose to have 3 water bottles, with 6 scoops of Colorado Cola Tailwind in each. Which means I was going to consumer about 1,800 calories over the course of 6 hours.
This is quite a lot more than the Tailwind guidance of 200 calories every hour. But from previous experience I know I can generally handle more calories than most.
So, after setting down my bottles next to the ‘watering hole’, it was time to go.
Here I am looking pretty worn out after the race with my three water bottles and medal. Unfortunately all of this got stolen from my car later that night when we were having a celebratory dinner with my family!
i set off on the first loop with 2 or 3 other very nice chaps.
We stayed together for the first ‘out’ and then on the ‘in’ part I went a bit ahead.
The race format meant that it was a bit difficult to judge how you should be running compared to others.
Because some people were aiming for one loop. Others for a half-marathon, marathons, or the whole 6 hours.
But I had some clear personal goals for the race.
As usual, I had set myself three tiers of goals - ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. I talk more about setting a race strategy with 6 steps in this blog.
My ‘A’ goal was to complete 15 laps. Which would have meant me running at about 4:30 minute/ kilometre.
And I managed to set off at about 4:25, which felt very comfortable.
My plan was to try to stay feeling comfortable until about 4 hours. If that was the case, I knew I would have a chance of achieving my ‘A’ goal.
And I did manage to keep this pace up for about 10 or 11 laps, which was more than 4 hours.
To be honest, most of the laps were uneventful.
But I love a looped race, as you can easily judge your pace.
I never really suffer from boredom from a looped course either.
But it’s hard to get bored in a race like this. When you have great volunteers at the end of every lap, cheering you on, despite the horrendous weather.
And when every single runner I passed had a smile on their face. Despite the incredibly strong headwinds on the ‘out’ leg.
There was one guy who was even singing at the top of his lungs whenever I went past him. Which was a great morale boost. I hope he achieved his goal. Because he certainly would have helped others achieve theirs!
“Things started to get tough at about lap 11 or 12, more than 4 hours in”
Things started to get really tough at about lap 11 or 12. There was torrential rain at one point. And the headwind seemed to get stronger. Although I’m sure that was just me starting to struggle a bit.
I also started to get a bit of bloating. Which I think is because my mix of Tailwind wasn’t concentrated enough. And I was taking too much water on.
All good learnings for next time.
At about lap 13, I knew that I wasn’t going to achieve my ‘A’ goal of 15 laps. But I should comfortably achieve my ‘B’ goal of 14.
So it became a bit more of a ‘coasting-in’ final few laps.
As I was coming in at the end of lap 14, I saw the incredibly uplifting sight of my beautiful wife, Catherine, and her sister, to cheer me in.
That was a massive surprise that I wasn’t expecting at all. But it was a huge boost, when I was soaking wet and tired.
I came in at the end of lap 14, rang the bell to say that I was finished and was handed my medal.
It was at that point that I was told I had just beaten the Phoenix 6-hour running record.
I had no idea I was even close to it.
People had completed 14 laps of 6-hour events before. But I’d done it quicker.
So it was a great way to end the day.
Especially considering the weather conditions. And that I had been in hospital a few weeks before, barley able to walk.
Here I am with Catherine, my wife. I’m incredibly wet and wind-blown after a fairly good day out. And quite pleased with a decent performance in difficult weather. A first place and a new Phoenix Running 6-hour record! But there were still plenty of things to learn from. Which is also important
What Went Well?
I always like to do a thorough post-race analysis to see where I can improve. And I think that other people should do them too.
So first, what went well?
My Pre-Race Preparation Was Strong - It feels like I’ve nailed my preparation for these races now. Including being really clear on my race strategy, my pacing, nutrition, kit, logistics, timings and everything else. One big part of this is my pre-race checklist. You can get a copy of it to use for your own races simply by sending me an email here or clicking the button below
I Executed Well - Compared to the Country-to-Capital ultra in early January, my race execution was a lot better. In my previous race I made a stupid decision at half-way to increase the pace. Which ended up with me having severe cramp for 10 minutes and fading badly in the last 20km. This time I paced myself a lot better
I Adapted to the Conditions - I knew it was going to be very windy and I adapted to that quite well. When I was going into the ‘headwind’ on the way out, I made a specific decision to conserve energy and take it easier. I also tried to physically make myself as small as possible! On the way back in with a tailwind, I tried to take advantage by running faster and opening up my arms, like a kite to take advantage of the wind. Disclaimer - I’ve got no idea if that tactic actually works!
What Do I Need to Improve for My Next Race?
And, more importantly than what went well, what did I learn?
1) I need to keep tweaking my nutrition strategy - I don’t think that you can ever be 100% certain of a nutrition strategy in ultra-races. Because there are so many variables that can impact how you deal with food or water on the day. And it feels like Tailwind Nutrition has been a massive help for me recently. That said, I suffered from bloating a bit in this race. Possibly from having too much water. Because I only had water bottles at the end of a lap (roughly every 25 minutes), I would find myself taking a big swig of water to get my calories in.
2) I need to change socks more frequently! - In training I often wear the same items of clothing for multiple runs. Often up to 5 or 6 times. I know this is smelly. But because I often run twice a day, the impact of wearing new clothes every time would be massive. On both my electricity bill, but also on the environment! However, after my foot infection, there’s a big learning that I should be changing dirty, wet running socks more often. A simple, stupid thing, but an effective one!
3) I need to keep training my mind - Towards the end of the race, I was in a bit of a difficult situation. I knew I wasn’t going to get my ‘A’ goal. And that I would easily get my ‘B’ goal. So I started to take it easy. In bigger races, I can’t let my focus slip. And so I need to go back and look at the psychological tips and tricks that have helped so much previously.
What Kit and Nutrition Did I Use?
I often get questions about what I use in training and races.
So here is the key kit and nutrition that I used in the PRDNDTS event.
I’ve used the Saucony Kinvara shoe for years and love them.
My first one was the Kinvara 5. And now I love the latest model - The Saucony Kinvara 10.
It’s a minimalist, lightweight running shoe that is great for everyday training.
Disclaimer - I’m a Saucony athlete. But only because I was wearing their shoes for years. I don’t wear them because they sponsor me.
I use the Polar Vantage V sports watch every single day. Even when I’m not running.
It’s got incredibly long battery life. Perfect for multi-day races.
It also has a wrist-based heart-rate monitor, meaning you can track your effort easily.
And it has a feature called ‘Training Load Pro’. Which is a really simple way to tell when you’re over-trained, under trained or just at the right level.
The Hilly Twin Skin running sock has been my go-to running sock for years. Combined with the Saucony Kinvara 10, they make a formidable team!
These socks have two liners which means that it’s a lot more difficult to get blisters.
I’ve recently started using Tailwind Nutrition for my nutrition for longer runs and races. And I’ve found it works really well.
It’s a lot easier and less faff than trying to cram lots of food into a running vest for races.
And it’s also a lot easier to drink it, especially in the later stages of long runs, when your body doesn’t want to take in solid food.
I’ve been using the caffeinated Colorado Cola version, as it can give that extra buzz to your performance.
You can adapt the amount you used based on your specific needs and the race requirements too.
One of the great things about it is that you can make a gel-like substance with it.
Simply mix a lot more scoops of powder into water. And you can go for much longer, without needing to refill.
What’s Next in My Race Calendar?
This year I’m focusing on racing again, and already have an exciting schedule coming up.
Centurion Track 100-Mile - This is the most exciting event I’ve got lined up. The Centurion team have the objective of organising an event where the best in the world come and try to break world-records. And this year they have an unbelievable field. Including Zach Bitter, the world 100-mile world-record holder. And the 24-hour world-record holder too. This is going to be an exceptional opportunity to learn from the best-of-the-best!
The Self-Transcendence 24 Hour Track Race in Tooting - I entered this race in 2019, but didn’t start the race because of injury. So this is a race I’m really excited about to see how far I can push myself.
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What Should You Read Next?
Read about my 5th place at the Country to Capital ultra in my first race in 15 months
Find out how I could Help You Improve Your Performance through coaching
Read about my first place at the Autumn 100 mile race - Including a FREE pre-race checklist