Brecon to Cardiff Ultra on a vegan diet

I never thought I would run an ultra. I’ve been running since 2012 and I had a vague sense that this thing called ultra-running existed. I saw and heard club mates talking about it, but assumed that they were made of sterner stuff or were maybe just a bit mad. For me, running challenges meant working hard at the track, completing 5 and 10ks and maybe a marathon once a year.

Then last summer I read Andaharnad Finn’s Rise of the Ultrarunners and was captivated by the adventures involved and the mindfulness that follows running for a long time. I looked at some of my friends who have finished ultras. They didn’t seem to do as much training as me and were pretty human (although amazing). If they could do it, surely I could too?

I looked around for races. Top on my list was minimal navigation given my reputation in the club for taking the wrong turning on our weekly club runs, and having added 3k onto a long trail race in the summer having missed a turning. The Brecon to Cardiff ultramarathon was advertised as well signed, with a large portion on the Taff trail. It was badged as “beginner friendly” although you might apply that term quite liberally to a 70km ultra.

The training
I ran a personal best at last year’s Abingdon marathon so I knew I had a reasonably good endurance base. However, since September 2019 I’ve had a niggle in my hip and SI joint that comes and goes. It seemed to hurt more when I was running fast, so my physiotherapist advised against doing too many track sessions or faster races like 5k or 10k. “Cool,” I said, “I’ll train for a 70k.” “I’ll be seeing a lot of you then,” he replied. That’s not really a good sign.

Over November and December, I mainly followed advice – lots of long steady runs, with as many on trails as I could manage. As the days got shorter, this meant running with a headtorch which was really good fun. During the week, I tried to train twice a day – a run in the morning and a gym session or yoga class after work (or the other way round depending on what I had on). I did a handful of track sessions, prioritising longer repetitions, depending on the pain. At weekends, I did back to back long runs so my total weekend mileage got close to the distance I would cover on race day. My biggest weekend was 24 miles on Saturday and 17 on Sunday.

Sometimes I ran parkrun on Saturday, but always as part of longer runs, so it was slower than I was used to. I did two longer races – the Portsmouth Harbour 50k in 4 and a half hours, and the Gloucester marathon in 3h26 (not far off my PB) which were good confidence boosters.

Diet
I didn’t change my diet that much as I was already running high mileage with the marathon training and used to working out what I needed to fuel long runs. A vegan diet includes lots of complex carbohydrates like vegetables, wholegrains and legumes which is ideal for endurance running. I also made sure I ate healthy fats like nuts, seeds and avocadoes. It is very difficult to obtain B12 in a vegan diet, so I took a supplement. In the months before the race, I tried intermittent fasting – where you only eat for an 8 hour window each day. This meant I had my first meal around 1pm as I tend to eat dinner quite late. The idea being that my body would get used to burning fat as an energy source. I managed well some days, other days (when I had a longer run in the morning) it was harder and I didn’t stick to it 100%.

For running fuel, I try to avoid plastic as much as possible and it is a bugbear of mine that the main runners fuel – energy gels – are wrapped in plastic. They do make a difference to how I feel on race day so I did use some, but tried to keep them to long races only. Lots of people offer runners jelly sweets that aren’t suitable because of the gelatine. I experimented with fresh and dried fruit and made energy balls from dried fruit, nuts, coconut oil and extra ingredients like raw cacao or hemp protein. During the 50k, I craved salt towards the end of the race so had some tortilla chips at an aid station – bliss! Generally, I only needed to take fuel during long races and for runs over 22/23 miles – water was fine for most runs. The ultra didn’t use plastic cups (yay!) so I got a hydration vest with two flasks that I could use for long runs

A friend gave us a block of membrillo – a Spanish quince paste for cheese. Idly, I wondered if it would make good running fuel and put it in my race pack before the ultra. I ate the whole thing in one go at around 33 miles on race day!

Race Day
The week before race day I heard the news – Storm Ciara was forecasted for the weekend. Two months of rainfall in a day, 50mph gusts, a chance of snow and hail – not exactly ideal running conditions. Some local races were cancelled, but the race organisers told us that the ultra would be going ahead. I decided that there was no point stressing about things that were out of my control – like the weather – and instead focus on things that I could, following the organisers instructions and getting my essential kit together.
Also, Ciara is Italian for Clare so maybe it was a good omen.
I stayed in Cardiff with my husband the night before, who dropped me off at race HQ at 5am – bright and early in order to collect my race number and course map- and join one of the organised buses to Brecon.
Halfway up the road to Brecon, the bus pulled over, the door opened and the driver got off. After a little while, a couple of guys got off to find out what was going on and told us that the bus had broken down and they called the race organisers to get things sorted. Again, completely out of my control – I was sure that it would be sorted eventually. 45 minutes we were on another bus and on our way to Brecon.

The Course
We started a little later than planned, which meant more time for the excitement to build up! The first 6 miles were on a canal path, which was pretty crowded and I started quite far back – this is good as I have a habit of going off too fast! Then we reached a 7 mile climb into the mountains, nothing too steep just long. I passed quite a few people here and felt strong, remembering to keep drinking from my flask and taking some fuel every 50-60 minutes or so. It was wet and windy (some side winds on the canal) and very muddy - but not unmanageable.
Once we got to the mountains, the weather got very interesting as I ran into a headwind and hail blew horizontally into my face! At some points, it felt like I was barely moving because of the headwinds but it was fun, felt like a proper adventure! We took a detour around the Pontsticill reservoir due to a fallen bridge – it was really beautiful (although windy).

The third checkpoint was 25 miles in at Merthyr, we stopped at the third checkpoint where we had the option to change into road shoes that the marshalls transported from the start. My husband also met me with some bespoke snacks – raw cacao and fig energy balls, kombucha and lentil crisps. I changed my socks as my feet had gotten very wet.

The next 10 miles were my strongest stretch of the race – it was pretty flat along the taff trail with a bit of mud but no technical terrain. I passed quite a few people and maintained a sub 9 minute mile pace. It even stopped raining! However, by the time we reached the final checkpoint at Pontypridd, I was very cold and had started to shiver. I put on a base layer which was a bit tight and awkward over my wet clothes, and took a bit of time. I found it quite difficult to get going again and took some walk breaks in the final stretch. Because of the wind, there were quite a few fallen trees along the trail which I needed to climb over – it became a hurdles race!
Between mile 41 and 42, I ran with a small group of guys and we used one of their GPS routes to find the turning off to Nantgwr. The final mile seemed to go on forever – I could see the leisure centre where we finished, but kept taking turns on the road to reach it. Finally, a marshall signalled me in to the finish line – I saw the finish and my husband waiting for me. I couldn’t stop smiling.

Results
My watch read 7.19, but the official “gun” result was 7h21 as it took me a little while to get over the start line and get my timing chip scanned at the end. There were about 600 entrants – over 200 didn’t start the race and about 70 retired on the course. Of the 336 finishers, I was 31st and 5th woman which is much better than I expected.

I have caught the ultra bug and absolutely want to run more – hopefully in better weather next time. I have signed up for a 50k in June and the Summer Green Man – which is 45 miles around Bristol, it will be fun to do a local race. Before that, I want to spend a couple of weeks trying to get some pace back (if my hip allows) over shorter runs and I’d love to run a good race at the Manchester marathon.

I was so impressed with the organisation of the race in the challenging conditions, and thanks so much to the marshalls for standing out in the cold wind and rain all day – if I was cold, I can only imagine what it was like for them. Thank you also to training partners at Great Western and Vegan Runners for company on training runs. Above all, thank you to my husband Fidel for supporting me on the race, and for loving and believing in me.

Clare Marez