Emily, one of our fantastic supporters, has completed her final ultra run in support of Devon Freewheelers.
Over the past year, she’s completed a series of ultra runs to raise money for Devon Freewheelers, including a 100 mile run and a 50 mile run. She finished off her epic challenge with the Granite 50, a nearly 50 mile run around Dartmoor.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Emily, this is an incredible achievement and she’s been able to raise a fantastic amount of money for Devon Freewheelers.
Here Just Giving page is below:
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/emilyrunstrails
Below is a blog written by Emily about her experiences on this latest challenge:
On November 11th I embarked on the OuterEdge Events Granite 50 a “half circle” around the edge of Dartmoor. If this wasn’t challenging enough already, the event only provided two aid stations across 48 miles. This meant running almost 2x marathons back to back completely unaided.
Despite 4 weeks of rain making for a very muddy underfoot the day itself proved to be “perfect” running weather. The sun was shining, there was little to no wind and the temperature was the perfect amount.
Not everything went to plan on the day, I was faced with some trouble with nutrition & ran out of water between two of the checkpoints. Luckily, the support of the ultrarunning community shone through and I was saved by another duo of runners who gave me some water.
I started out fairly far towards the back of the pack. However, despite the issues I had as the race went on I found myself slowly creeping further forward. I got to enjoy the company of lots of runners that day. All were full of interesting stories & adventures to keep me entertained as the miles ticked by. I had a great time running with a group as the night drew in who kept me company. Navigating through the woods in the dark meant for some incredibly technical and difficult conditions underfoot. The rain hadn’t helped as there were large amounts of flooding and very muddy bogs. But as I found myself knocking on the door to the pain cave I felt both lucky and grateful that I was able to push myself to this kind of extreme.
I managed to keep my mantra going helping me continue to push through. I eventually started overtaking a few of the women ahead of me. Before I knew it the rest of the miles were behind me and I was navigating one last technical part with another runner. As we came out just at the end a wrong turn left me having to clamber down an incredibly dense part of the forest onto the finishing field.
I was incredibly relieved to cross the finish line & even more thrilled to see my family waiting for me at the finish line. The best part of crossing the finish line was receiving the biggest hug from my mum & sitting down to enjoy some celebratory chips. I was shocked to find out that I had come 3rd lady so it was an absolute honour to cross that finish line whilst raising money for Devon Freewheelers.
