{"id":856538,"date":"2025-09-11T16:35:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/?p=856538"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:38:00","slug":"grand-union-canal-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/856538","title":{"rendered":"Grand Union Canal Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 25 May 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

145.4 miles (234.0 km); 5,827 feet (1,776 m) of ascent<\/p>\n

Starters:\u00a0 103<\/p>\n

Finishers:\u00a0 48<\/p>\n

Retired:\u00a0 55<\/p>\n

First Man:\u00a0 Chris Kelly;\u00a0 M41;\u00a0 Vegan Runners UK;\u00a0 24:02<\/p>\n

First Lady,\u00a0 9th overall:\u00a0 Melissa Venables;\u00a0 F49;\u00a0 Spa Striders;\u00a0 34:11<\/p>\n

Steven Jones:\u00a0 joint 45th;\u00a0 M61;\u00a0 Dark Peak Fell Runners;\u00a0 44:52<\/p>\n

I travelled to London the day before and stayed there ready for an early start.\u00a0 I was up at 4 am and caught a pre-booked taxi to the registration and start.<\/p>\n

The route basically followed the Grand Union Canal from Little Venice in London to Gas Street Basin in Birmingham.\u00a0 Diagrammatic route maps were provided, which were sufficient to navigate the route itself plus a few detours.\u00a0 These included sections to get to checkpoints and diversions on paths and roads for tunnels without pedestrian access.<\/p>\n

The race started at 6 am on Saturday with blue skies and sunshine.\u00a0 The warm day made it more tiring and meant lots of liquids were needed.\u00a0 The nine checkpoints were about 15 miles apart.\u00a0 Supported runners were assisted by their own crew who provided refreshments along the way at intervals to suit them.\u00a0 The unsupported runners (which included me) could access drop-bags at all checkpoints apart from the last one.\u00a0 All runners were allowed water at all checkpoints but only the unsupported runners were given food.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the start, a few runners were in front of me and they were pulling further ahead.\u00a0 However, I seemed to be keeping up with the leaders surprisingly well.\u00a0 Perhaps I was starting out too fast and the runners easing ahead were pacing themselves well for the long distance ahead?<\/p>\n

The first checkpoint was encountered with a bit of a surprise since I had run over 12 miles without walking and still seemed to be going well.\u00a0 I was there in good time and well ahead of the cut-off.\u00a0 Although I slowed a bit, the second checkpoint came and went and I was still feeling good.<\/p>\n

With a minimal kit-list and the regular checkpoints, I had just taken a bum bag.\u00a0 I was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a desert-style hat with a large peak and material on the sides and back to keep the sun off.\u00a0 From time to time I had been offered water from other runners’ supporters, which was a bonus.\u00a0 I was very grateful for the extra assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I sat down and ate well at the third checkpoint, which was at Tring Reservoirs.\u00a0 By now, I was feeling the pace.\u00a0 My legs were aching and I was feeling tired.\u00a0 It was a bit of a struggle to get up off the chair when it was time to resume the run.\u00a0 Quite a few runners had come in after me and left before me.<\/p>\n

Later I was alternating running and walking with Dave and we chatted and encouraged each other.\u00a0 He was confident that we would have an early finish with plenty of time to spare.\u00a0 We entered checkpoint 5 together, which was at Cosgrove Village Hall.\u00a0 I sprawled on the floor with stiff and painful legs.\u00a0 Some very helpful checkpoint staff attended to me, offering me refreshments and providing a mat for me to lie on.\u00a0 It did seem that I would not be able to continue and I rested for as long as I could.\u00a0 One of the rules is that there is a maximum of 40 minutes’ stoppage time at any point.\u00a0 I stayed as long as allowed, trying to rejuvenate myself but also conscious that losing time to resting increases the danger of being timed out at a later checkpoint.\u00a0 Dave had left quite a while before I staggered out of the checkpoint.\u00a0 Whereas there had been blazing hot sunshine at the start, it was now night and the temperatures had dropped significantly.\u00a0 There was also some light rain.\u00a0 I hadn’t gone far before turning back to retrieve a waterproof jacket from the drop-bag before setting off again.<\/p>\n

The canal path had started as tarmac and pavement but now there were areas of mud and quite soon my feet became wet.\u00a0 I was dawdling and sometimes walking and at other times running slowly.\u00a0 There was a diversion where the canal went into Blisworth Tunnel.\u00a0 This involved what seemed like a large hill up and over a road and then down again to re-join the canal.<\/p>\n

It was daylight again and I ran past several cafes and small shops offering ice cream and other goodies.\u00a0 There was a huge temptation to stop but at each one a small queue deterred me.\u00a0 I didn’t want to spend ages waiting to be served while the clock was ticking away.\u00a0 I resolved to stop at the very next opportunity for refreshments.\u00a0 A particularly inviting cafe was right on the edge of the path, but there were too many tourists there, so I pressed on.<\/p>\n

I saw Dave standing by the canal.\u00a0 He said he had packed in which surprised me since he had been running well.\u00a0 He said he had been moving too slowly and was having trouble with eating.<\/p>\n

At the Heart of England checkpoint (number six and at 92 miles) I slumped in a chair.\u00a0 My legs didn’t seem to have any life in them and by now some blisters were developing from the wet and muddy sections earlier.\u00a0 I asked about the possibility of retiring and being transported to the finish.\u00a0 I was informed that there would be an eight-hour wait for a lift due to the various duties that the marshals were involved in.\u00a0 I decided to continue and if necessary I could always retire later and maybe there would be less of a wait to get a lift to the finish.\u00a0 The checkpoints were mostly in remote places far from public transport.\u00a0 With the state of the canal path now being quite wet and muddy, I changed into Walsh fell running shoes and carried on.\u00a0 Not far behind, Jon was going to continue and he was supported by his wife Shirley.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, at Braunston I took time out to visit a shop and purchased an ice cream and chocolate, which made me feel better.\u00a0 The next section of the route had some quite muddy paths and the fell running shoes proved to be quite useful.<\/p>\n

At the Birdingbury Bridge checkpoint, I sat and rested for a while.\u00a0 I changed into road running shoes and fresh socks.\u00a0 Blisters were forming but were not too bad yet.\u00a0 We had been well fed and looked after at checkpoints.\u00a0 I was ahead of schedule and the cut-offs were not looming.<\/p>\n

However, at the next checkpoint at Hatton Locks, I realised that I was slower than I thought and closer to the cut-off.\u00a0 I was doing calculations in my head as to how far there was to the finish and how much time was left and, accordingly, the average speed needed to finish.\u00a0 There was a torrential rainstorm while at the checkpoint and I sheltered there, topping up energy supplies.\u00a0 Jon arrived shortly before I set off and he didn’t waste much time before setting off.\u00a0 We went at a brisk walk along the edge of the canal, on muddy waterlogged paths with vegetation blocking the way in places.\u00a0 The mud and obstacles could be avoided by running on the concrete edge of the canal.\u00a0 Amazingly I didn’t lose my balance and fall in despite wobbling due to tiredness and lack of sleep a few times.\u00a0 From time to time Shirley appeared on the route with refreshments for Jon and she kindly gave some to me too.\u00a0 I was mostly in the lead, forcing the pace, and it looked like we could finish with a few hours to spare.<\/p>\n

As we approached the final checkpoint at Catherine-de-Barnes I was running out of steam and struggling to walk at a decent pace.\u00a0 I was slowing a lot and Jon had gone ahead and I just couldn’t keep up at all.\u00a0 At the checkpoint I had planned to have a coffee and sort out some blisters before the final section to the finish.\u00a0 However, Jon insisted that we keep going without resting.<\/p>\n

The canal path after Catherine-de-Barnes would normally be hard-packed gravel and a great surface to run on.\u00a0 After the recent rain the terrain underfoot was waterlogged, muddy and very slippery.\u00a0 By now I was back in road running shoes and I was sliding around from side to side and struggling to get a grip and grind out the last few miles.<\/p>\n

Somewhere on the edge of Birmingham we caught up with Lynne, who was running towards us.\u00a0 She said that she had been going around in circles and was lost.\u00a0 She was a bit disorientated and we agreed to all stick together to the finish.\u00a0 Then Alan caught up with us and he had been moving well.\u00a0 The four of us plodded on and on and on.<\/p>\n

We were approaching the City Centre and I recognised some of the surroundings.\u00a0 I had only done a recce of the last few miles and since I was familiar with this part of the route it would now be easy.\u00a0 Inspired by the knowledge that it would be easy and the finish was very close, I had a sudden burst of energy and started sprinting ahead and coming back to encourage the others to run to the finish.\u00a0 Doing the sums and calculations at the time, it was apparent that there was less than half an hour to the finish.\u00a0 Even at a slow pace this would enable us to finish well within 44 hours.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that, the canals had junctions and locks and various bridges and I was completely bamboozled and I hadn’t got a clue where to go.\u00a0 Miraculously Simon appeared out of the dark.\u00a0 He had been supporting Lynne and I had seen and chatted with him a few times earlier in the race.\u00a0 On and on and on we went and it took ages with no end in sight at all.\u00a0 Nothing was familiar and I began to realise that we may well finish after 45 hours.\u00a0 To count as a finisher there was a strict cut-off at 45 hours.\u00a0 Even a few seconds over would not be allowed.<\/p>\n

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the finish was in sight. \u00a0We all finished together hand in hand.\u00a0 Our time was 44 hours and 52 minutes.\u00a0 It felt amazing to finish after being so close to being timed out and despite a few niggling injuries.<\/p>\n

It was a terrific event to be part of.\u00a0 The organisers and volunteers did a great job of looking after the athletes.\u00a0 There was a great sense of camaraderie amongst all the runners, support crews and organisers, with everyone doing what they could to help when needed.\u00a0 On occasions I had been short of water and luckily a supporter would appear and offer very welcome refreshments and words of encouragement.\u00a0 Everyone was very friendly.\u00a0 This was particularly the case earlier on in the race before runners became more spaced out (both in terms of distance and mentally).<\/p>\n

Shirley gave me a lift to the Travelodge where I was staying, which was very kind of her.\u00a0 I had a good sleep.\u00a0 I sorted my blisters out in the morning and had a large cooked breakfast at a pub across the road.\u00a0 Then there was the train journey back home and more sleep.<\/p>\n

Overall it had been a great event, despite the relentless forward motion and little scope to rest and recuperate or slow down, due to the risk of being timed out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday 25 May 2024 145.4 miles (234.0 km); 5,827 feet (1,776 m) of ascent Starters:\u00a0 103 Finishers:\u00a0 48 Retired:\u00a0 55 First Man:\u00a0 Chris Kelly;\u00a0 M41;\u00a0 Vegan Runners UK;\u00a0 24:02 First Lady,\u00a0 9th overall:\u00a0 Melissa Venables;\u00a0 F49;\u00a0 Spa Striders;\u00a0 34:11 Steven Jones:\u00a0 joint 45th;\u00a0 M61;\u00a0 Dark Peak Fell Runners;\u00a0 44:52 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultrarunning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856539,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856538\/revisions\/856539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}