“We got this”
Running hills can be fun. I swear.
Breathe shortening; heart stopping; hallucination inducing; mentally draining… that might just about describe it.
What was I doing? Flatline 10. A road race put on by EnergyLabs BTS that involves 10 laps of Swains Lane. I guess this is the part where I alert the cyclists that might be reading this, we were on foot. Running. Some cyclists seemed stunned as to why anyone would do this. To the uninitiated: Imagine a 222ft ascent over an 800meter stretch (of 1.2km total) — and then down again. Ten times. Ten miles. It’s not for the feint hearted and absolutely is as formidable as it sounds.
Chris Lancaster managed to convince me this was a good idea from his blog post on his experience. It’s a must read. Back? Cool.
The thing is, Flatline 10 is also life affirming; heart warming, high five generating, grin spreading and most of all: challenging.
We all arrived around 10am. As I live fairly locally I thought it’d be a nice ride up, Google however, flat out lied and said the journey was mostly flat. I could handle that. However, what turned out to be a lifesaver was bumping into Michelle and Hannah along the way. Without their cue to buy a gel I wouldn’t have brought any with me and also walking with them prevented me from riding up Swains Lane on my bike. You see, I probably would have been even more nervous if I had to ride up that ascent.
Barbara (EnergyLabs founder & race director) gave us our pre race briefing which I don’t actually remember any of, but it must have been good as it calmed my nerves quite a bit. Useful considering we did a ‘preview’ lap, where I thought it was best to not run and conserve as much energy as possible. 222ft is bloody steep.
My ‘plan’ for this race was basically going to be follow Dion’s pace as we run in the same group in RunDemCrew and basically we know each others running ability pretty well. However, the thought of going for a Strava King of the Mountain was too much for him and he set off super quick. I decided I wasn’t going to get dragged around this course and settled into my own pace. The start-line being at the top of the hill, rather than the bottom, proved to be a blessing in disguise. Although working out how best to run downhill (where my housemate described it as ‘if you fell over, it’s basically a concrete slide’) was difficult, but it was infinitely preferable to the first uphill climb. You spend the first half of the initial climb thinking ‘ah, easier than I thought’ and then you hit the gradient change and it’s as if you just stepped into a bowl of treacle.
Luckily, Flatline vet Richard was on hand to guide me down my second lap. He recommended leaning in and attacking the descents, as previously I was only maintaining a pace. He said that if I thought of the descents as recovery then it would help me on the climbs. I smirked and said that’s basically a Jedi mind trick he was asking me to do: but I’d try anyway. Thing is, it worked. I hadn’t really acknowledged this as a race yet, mostly because I was still wrapped up in the ‘oh god this is hard’ phase but after lap three I’d realised I really could chase people down on the descents: so I did. It must have been around this point I caught Dion, I’d built a steady pace.
By this point, as the course was lapped, I’d already been eye-to-eye with almost everyone. In a race situation you might think this is off-putting, but in something as challenging as this — the high fives that people were giving each other at the start of the race really did help out. You’d catch peoples smiles, grimaces, but you’d see everything and they’d see everything of you. It really was a ‘we’re in this together’ kind of vibe and it’ll be really hard to replicate elsewhere. Later on Barbara had mentioned this is why she likes keeping the race small (a maximum of 30 participants) and it totally makes sense. I felt like I was getting to know people through the joy/pain/pain in their faces on every pass.
But back to the race. By the time I’d passed Dion I basically knew I was on my own. I flashed him a smile as by that point my willingness to talk had reduced to nothing. I probably talk too much during running but this completely took it out of me. It’s around the fourth lap where the doubts set in.
Can I do this?
What the fuck possessed me to do this?
What would happen if I jumped on my bike and went home?
That sums up the fourth lap. And the fifth. Probably the sixth too, but I’m sure I was fading out at that point. What got me through? The incredible levels of enthusiasm coming from Rachel! I was trying to keep my head down to get through these laps but every time I passed she was shouting and going for high fives. They definitely helped but I was secretly hoping that this burst of energy hadn’t spread to the rest of the group because I’m not sure I could have hacked twenty-plus high fives a lap. I barely had the space to breathe so I was glad it was only her who had this energy.
The next three or so laps were a grind. Not in a particularly good or bad way, just my mind and body had adjusted to the motions and I was getting on with it. My cadence was consistent, I’d mastered the art of flying down the hill, I’d even begun smiling and high fiving people again. Lap nine was my favourite, I felt a sudden rush off energy I hadn’t had all day.
The final lap was tough. I had just seen a couple of people start their final ascents and gulped hard. When sports coaches shout ‘dig deep!’ on the football field I never really knew what it meant until that point. Each stride on the final climb was difficult, but by the time the steepest gradient I summoned everything that I had for a final sprint.
The sprint was literally 20 meters but it felt like 100. I was done. As I had no time goal I was genuinely curious to see how I did, it also hadn’t occurred to me where I finished. There were some astonishingly fast people in front of me, I’m fairly certain James won it. Somewhere during the event I completely forgot it was a race and basically decided it was my mind and body against this hill. I won that challenge.
Overall? I came 4th with 1:21:19. Once I found that out… well… This is what a total climb of 2220ft does to you. Thing is, then the smile broke out. That was fun. That feeling is part of the reason I run; seeing just how far that rabbit hole goes.
And “We got this”? That would be the phrase that everyone was repeating whilst passing each other. When they had a spare breathe. Similarly insane/keen? EnergyLabs BTS have you covered — send an email over. Why should you do Flatline? Finding the true meaning of resilience. That’s being able to drag yourself back up that hill for the tenth time. My tip for newcomers like myself would be preperation. Get some hill sprints into your training and your legs will thank you.
Until next time.
Picture credit / Azra
Thanks to EnergyLabs for putting on the event. To RunDemCrew for keeping me running. To Chris for persuading me to sign up. To Azra who baked those amazing cakes. Finally to everyone who came out to run. Couldn’t have done it without.
ps, Strava geeks? Click here.
