Fellsman 2026 part 2 - post mortem

 Claire and I have (obviously) talked a lot about how the weekend panned out. Both of us had firsts to learn from - she'd been nervous about walking the whole thing and it turned out to be a massive success.

For my part, I wanted to understand what had gone so wrong that I never recovered at Cray. I've struggled at that point before, but not to the point of having to retire.

From the start, I thought I was managing OK. My pace was similar to last year, I consciously slowed down when I felt like I was overheating, but the wheels still fell off.

Here are what I think were the key failure points:-

1. I struggled with the scrum at Kingsdale. It was overcrowded and there were people (and poles) everywhere. I found it really intimidating and got out as soon as I could. That probably meant I didn't eat or drink enough. What I did eat was a couple of biscuits.
2. I was flustered at Dent by losing my survival bag (it turned up later - I'd mixed up the dry bags in my kit when repacking on the Friday night, my driving licence and survival bag were left behind). While rationally I knew once they'd said I was OK to continue that I was going to be OK, I just wanted to get out of there. Didn't eat or drink enough. The veggie option of cheese and onion rolls always makes me a little queasy, so maybe skip those next year.
3. At Stonehouse I stayed until I felt a bit better, but I still didn't eat enough. My baseline for "OK" was too low - similar at Redshaw.
4. Fleet Moss I stayed until I felt quite a bit better, but I could have eaten more bean stew and had a cup of tea and that might have made the difference. The cramp and the altra gaiters made it hard to change my socks (in spite of the incredibly kind help I received from another participant) and that wasted a lot of time I could have spent eating.
5. It's a long long way from Marsett to Stake Moss. I delayed eating because I was focusing on getting to the CP. I should have had food in the front pockets of my bag, at all times.
6. I had no conception of time at all at Cray. When the medics asked what I planned to do, I was saying "I'll feel better soon, and then maybe I could carry on". It wasn't until they told me I'd been there 2 hours that I realised it wasn't happening. If I'd remembered my glucometer I'd have been able to see what a shambles I was.
7. When I did eat, it was mostly "my mood is going, better have something sweet" then I never followed up with protein/fat/starch. 

Point 1 - feedback to the organisers, part of this is just the layout of Kingsdale lends itself to chaos. Also, carry a filter bottle. There were plenty of streams along the way, I could easily have replenished water as I do when out on my own.

Point 2 - keep spare/alternative stuff in a separate bag to the kit check bag. Once I've repacked the kit check bag should be empty, that tells me I haven't forgotten anything. That's what I've done in the past, but I was just rushing this year.

Point 3 & 6 - carry a glucometer. Check at defined, planned times.

Point 4 - Altra gaiters are no use at all on the Fellsman

Point 5 - I have front pockets in my bag. Use them. For proper food.

Point 7 - Unsurprisingly, this is the crux of it.

It's interesting that I have a harder time under event conditions where there is support than I do solo. I should stop taking CP food (I mostly didn't last year). I used to have a rule that I didn't eat sweet stuff on a race at all. In the last couple of years I've had some success eating tiny quantities of sugar to lift my mood. I think that's  tricked me into thinking I can get away with it, and this time I massively misjudged it. Each time I eat sugar to lift my mood the resulting crash is a little bit worse until I'm too ill to carry on.

The vomiting was unusual. I suspect dehydration was the culprit there, although I do have my doubts about the strength of that coffee.

There were multiple points where I could have avoided problems, mostly by drinking/eating more or waiting longer in CPs. I was worse at Cray than in previous years but avoiding any one of the failure points would probably have made the difference between "bad but finishing" and DNF.

Action points:

Carry a filter bottle

Carry a glucose meter

DO NOT EAT SWEET FOOD!

Write an explanation sheet, and carry it. Medics & CP teams rightly assume that someone presenting with diabetes-like symptoms should be treated as diabetic, and that won't help.