This post marks the first of a new series I’ll be calling The Other 90% in reference to the common saying that exercise is 10% physical and 90% mental.

With the clock ticking away the hours and minutes and there only being five and a half weeks left until the UTLD100, I’ve decided to revisit last years performance and start some mental preparation. After reading my blogpost about what went wrong, I decided to look at the results and my timings. I noticed that the section from Howtown (CP9) to Mardale Head (CP10), where I pulled out, took me 4h17m to complete. The section is a toughie, no doubt about it; at 9.4 miles it’s the second longest section and it’s got the highest ascent with 765m – all on the big climb up Wether Hill. It took me 4 hours and 17 minutes to complete. Ouch!

Out of curiosity, I checked how long it took the 100th place finisher to complete that section (I chose 100th because I arrived at Mardale Head in 101st place). He did it in 3h28m. The chap who I arrived at Dockray with, Philip, completed it in 3h29m, Andy Cole (who I bumped into at Dalemain) did it in 3h35m and Mick Wren completed it in 3h31m. Compared to all these finishers, I took 45-50 minutes longer on the Mardale section. That got me thinking.

I was aware that there were a large number of dropouts at Mardale – 16 to be precise – and I wondered if there was any correlation between the dropouts and how long it took them to complete that section. The break down went like this:

So, roughly, 80% of the 16 people who dropped out at Mardale Head took over 4 hours to complete that section and only 40% of people who took over 4 hours went on to finish (compare to 80% who took between 3h30 and 4h00 and 100% of who took less than 3h30.)

So does this mean that if you take over 4 hours to plod from Howtown to Mardale that you’re – pardon the vernacular – screwed? I don’t think so – but this is a good chance for another table and even more numbers!

What’s clear from this table is that the half way stop at Dalemain is the place where people are likely to drop out. Year after year, it’s claimed more runners than any other checkpoint, no doubt because it’s at the end of the longest section and is where people can grab their drop-bags, have a sit-down, a meal, perhaps a massage and… yeah, a good point to stop. There is a cut-off time but at 22 hours, it only claimed 5 of the 21 DNFs.

The CP with the second highest DNF rate last year was Buttermere. A couple of likely reasons are a) it’s the first cut-off point which accounted for perhaps half of the dropouts and b) it’s the checkpoint after the first serious ascent (Black Sail Pass and Scarth Gap). Mardale, on the other hand, only featured heavily last year and in 2009 and while there it is another cut-off point, no-one got caught by that. So my feeling is that people dropped out because of the mental toll that was exacted by the climb over to Haweswater. The longer that climb took, the more likely the possibility of a DNF. Sure it’s a long old slog and sure it’s physically draining but let’s not forget what else it is:

90% mental.

There is a risk, in all this analysis, that if I take over 4 hours on that section again (barring any mishap or failure to get there in the first place) that I will be depressed about not being quicker. That’s the reason for going over these numbers. As I said in my reflections last year, I gave up because

I lost focus on my goal, I let the negativity build up and I did not make any attempt to deal with it.

A lot of that negativity built up during the last section – the heat, the discomfort, the climb, running out of water, the tricky path around Haweswater. I know now that the best thing to do is make sure I leave Mardale. It gives me a focal point should I be feeling bad and not wanting to carry on; just concentrate on leaving Mardale and don’t worry about what happens after that.

In the meantime, I think I’ll up the hill training…