The seconding tables in the London to Brighton are stocked with each runners' own drinks, supplied by the participants to the organisers before the start, and which are then taken to each table by the organisers. While this has huge advantages, on the down side, the tables are spaced at 5-mile (8 km) intervals, which is a bit sparse if a runner is to rely entirely on the seconding tables for fluid and carbohydrate intake. Ideally, one would want to ingest approximately 500 - 600 ml of fluid per hour. With the tables situated as they are, this means ingesting 300 ml of fluid at every table at 6 hour pace. Since only the race winner runs at that speed, it represents a problem for the slower runners who will be reaching a table at much more timely intervals. One way of overcoming this problem is to take two bottles and to run a short way with one of the bottles after quickly drinking the first.

Since I had a personal seconder and therefore not reliant on the tables, I was able to drink in a more optimal pattern. This consists of ingesting around 150-200 ml of fluid every 15-20 minutes. The drink consisted of a 10% glucose polymer solution which tends to not cause nausea or gastric distress which is often be a problem in long races. A combination of the polymer, with occasionally some "Coke" for variety, supplies adequate fluid and carbohydrate. Ideally a runner should ingest almost 1g of carbohydrate per minute and the regimen just described meets that requirement. It should not be necessary to ingest any solid food during long distance races. Obviously, there is no way to avoid the increasing fatigue due to the distance of the race, but optimal carbohydrate and fluid intake during long distance races can minimize the extent of that fatigue.

Long training runs over very hilly terrain to build leg strength meant that the long climb up Ditchling Beacon, although late in the race (about 75 km), was not a major problem, although I was very tired at this point of the race. Although tedious, the long training runs are the key to a successful ultra: Ultimately, training has to be specific so that the physiological adaptations that occur as a result of that training are appropriate for the race and goals that are being attempted. It is in this area that science can offer a lot to the art of coaching.

The climb up Ditchling Beacon was "interesting". Wind-driven rain, road awash, cold, and visibility down to about 50m, highlighted how important the mental component of ultra running is. Interestingly, some of the latest ideas on fatigue are centering more and more on the brain involvement in fatigue, in a theory called "the central governor". In this theory, we suggest that the brain computes how far and for how long a runner can continue at a certain speed before there is the risk of inducing some form of "damage" to the body. The computation is based on a huge number of inputs, including things such as prior experience, temperature, muscle and liver glycogen stores, altitude, etc. This is combined with sensory signals received from the muscles, tendons and pain receptors. Thus the runner is prevented from causing damage to the body. However, the best runners can probably over-ride this built-in protection mechanism to some extent and push just that little bit harder. Therefore, in the final 20 km or so of a race such as the London to Brighton the brain probably plays a major role in determining whether someone attains an optimal performance or not. Thus the running pace is pre-determined, and fatigue and subsequent slow-down occurs when the brain's computed "end-point" is reached.

Although there is a long downhill of approximately 2 miles (3 km) to the finish, I was unable to use it to my advantage as by this time the blister was quite impressive in size and running downhill was very painful. At least my legs were not too sore as I had included some specific downhill running in my training. Anyone "racing" an ultra should include some downhill training to condition the thigh (quadriceps) muscles to withstand the increased eccentric component of muscle contraction that occurs during downhill running. This helps prevent the extremely painful thigh muscles so often experienced at the end of ultra marathons that can reduce speed to a painful jog. The "protective" effect of appropriate downhill training can last for many weeks. But protective training runs were far from my mind as I crossed the finish line in 7 th place.

The next day I was very stiff and sore from delayed onset muscle soreness. While most people think that post-race stiffness is due to lactic acid in the muscles, this is not the case. The soreness is actually the result of damage to the muscle fibres, with resultant oedema. There is not much that can be done to speed up this aspect of the recovery process, but there is some evidence that increased protein intake may be beneficial in the long term. Further research will establish whether this is, indeed, the case. For now, however, the best advice is to ingest protein and carbohydrate, and to rest. Start running only when the body has recovered from the post-race stiffness, and then at a greatly reduced load compared to normal.