Running The Worcester and Birmingham Canal /// A Soggy Ultra Marathon

It just so happens that Brum to Worcester is exactly 50k. This is fate isn’t it?

Mack, Sam and I took on the mud to try and get this long distance path run in one go.

Good craic!

Let go of your limits!

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[Music] a [Music] well good morning all welcome to Birmingham and happy New Year today we’re on a little Adventure so we’ve got Mack over here and Sam and we’ve got the train into brm and we’re running back to Worcester the the idea is that we’re going to stay on the canal the buring and Worcester Canal the whole way and hopefully hopefully we won’t get lost yes hopefully you boys won’t see what I’m really like on an ultra hopefully hopefully after about 5k you we’ll be swinging for each other but I’ve never done a really long run in company before so apologies in advance if I’ve become a bit crabby apology accepted the only one so yeah it’s going to be a good crack I think today we’re um just heading up to the start of the Run the official route is on sort of gas Street Basin and the end of the route we think might be flooded so we might have to swim we might have to swim but there is talk of a uh finished line M Donald’s so that’s already an incentive so let’s crack on and see how we do let’s do it let’s go let’s [Music] [Music] go right are we ready hang on hang on has everyone got their that’s watch is syned yeah watch is ready ready to go head south right so it’s fin the map is doing we just start out with 7 Minute miles and then we’ll just we just build into it we’ll finish it with some six six six Flats right three two one go we’re going do you know what was funny so when we started this run Mac said to uh said to Sam he said right we are going to just go do a 7 minute pace aren’t we and some went that’s a bit quick in it Max’s talking in kilometers some thought we were going to do 7 Minute miles for 50k hopefully not hopefully [Music] not [Music] right so 10K is up we’ve been going for just over an hour making steady progress which is nice route so far has been dryish weather’s been good so can’t really Grumble how you feeling boys yeah we’re all good we’ve only had one near fatal dog attack with Mac who literally just nearly got bitten by an alation so that was good but apart from that so far so [Music] [Applause] [Music] good it is where’s Augustus Gloop looks like probably looks like a river of chocolate doesn’t it tunnel there it is oh that’s the end of the tunnel you’re in there [Music] oh come on Mac boy concentrate Mac come on well done yeah B is not nobody wants to go first today nobody wants to go in the Le come across any rexie Bridges you got it back you do I know are we going to go full Rambo mode yeah where’s your GPS now this wasn’t on the map good struggle okay struggle Street what are you doing Macky going through it surely it’s getable we’re going to get a bit muddy but yeah he’s up we get under oh Max says we get under it’s not that far there’s four branches you just got to be careful and get hand he’s done it superb I mean the wow this is an adventure ah right I if you want to go under I’ve got a hand like well whatever about like I can get you right this is coming off once I need to pull you I can pull you up H I don’t think I I’ll I think I just need to I’m going to Chuck this oh my D it’s all coming off hopefully they’ve got a good angle just thinking should I go under forwards get on your back I’ll freaking eat you up no you mean like crap oh my God just get under it mate no don’t just get under it oh mate watch your below a bit lower that’s how we like it real good angle there mate man right now push can you get my hand just get up get up get up get up get up get Jesus idea is this I don’t want to get anything dirty mate late for that incident detected hold any key to cancel innocent incident detected Soldier down okay oh my good I’ve gone no you dare Fu away for me to move I have an Andy on me this is terrific how am I going to get down to this next hold cuz m is now in the H I’m going to have to justy I’m going to have to Sledge into that I’m going to have to do a fill bab into that this cannot be the best way down surely please just go down on your ass slow all right don’t you dare nice couch dude fingernails in if you need them please go down on your ass please go down on your ass these sound bites how did you get down the next bit what I did is I broke a branch and then slam my my lower back into it Jesus Christ I literally will not care of a myself now because I’ll probably look no different right I’m going to make don’t worry mate I’m not going to fall actually can’t guarantee that jump don’t you jump back yeah I mean just sort of fall we got you right I’m going to take a little technical tactical Yes trees next tree now oh we bonded here boys aren we right okay some just got a ticket yeah this just supposed to be a straightforward Canal run that’s like be Grill stuffff just doing it for the content a dream in [Music] it morning [Music] mate okay quickly and we’ll make a move we’ve just rolled over 20k um ma is getting the coat on rain yeah we we have got a bit of a bit of the wet stuff but so far well the last 5K was interesting wasn’t it there was a a section of um let’s just say uh awkwardness yeah with a fallen down tree but we’re at 20K so we’re nearly halfway we’re not nearly halfway we’ve got another 5K to halfway but that’s the way we’ve got to think about this but it’s going well so far is it it’s all right Eno very enjoyable we’ve still got the locks to go 58 locks yes which means a lot of downhill a lot of down Hill which we’re all very excited for so let’s Press [Music] On [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it’s not the best place to put a sign it go oh he’s gone I’m so good there yeah Mac the adrenaline junky I was to go beautiful boys 20 23 1/2k hopefully it’s majority downhill from now is that is that correct Mac it is he’s saying it is the locks begin big lock 58 bring on the locks 58 to go 58 locks to go yeah here we go well you spotted your first lock beautiful things it’s been 3 hours but we’re here there there’s literally not been a lock that lock that boat in better days there’s not been a lock between here and the cube it’s taken me taken me taken us 3 and 1 half hours 24 24K and we haven’t seen a single lock and now we’re about to see 58 Y in Rapid 20 K yeah so uh that’s how flat the first bit of this run has has been and then the second half hopefully is nice and downhill under descent towards the river 7 and what’s you all right nearly had a broken ankle there from Sam but he’s recovered well nearly ended up in the canal yeah the Reser so here we are at the Queen’s head I’ve been saying to Sam since Birmingham since the cube when we get to the Queens we’re can have a cheese sandwich are you having your cheese sandwich as well I’ve got miked actually yeah Marik sandwich right okay um are you digging into anything any lunch no cheese no cheese sandwich for me no basically the Queen’s head here this is where all the poses of Bronze Grove come to have a drink so if you’ve got a a Range Rover you’ll probably want to go for a drink there but we are I can’t turn my watch over cuz I’ll Dro me Che sage in the canal 17 mil in 17 mil in 31 in total so quite a bit over halfway now aren’t we about just over half marath to go oh getting there yeah baby I can do that so what is it 137 or we’ll do that we’re cooking on gas tell you what you never appreciate a choose sandwich more when you do an ultra phenomenal seene phenomenal thanks to our sponsor at Cathedral yeah Cathedral City get in touch [Music] ma’am don’t worry though I’ve got gortex shoes so I’m fine I’m not fine fish [Applause] sh the gortex review let’s see how much water is in there this is why you should all have gortex Trail shoe nice that was disappointing that was disappointing felt like there was a lot more ed in just [Music] BX so it’s 35k down for us now we’re about according to the nav about 14k away from the end of the trail which officially is the last lock on the River on the canal before you hit the river 7 now if we can get down there we will uh but it’s very flooded in W at the moment so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes but 35k in you’re probably wondering why are you doing this and I don’t think any of us three have a valid reason to do it but Mac let me just bring Mac in hello hello so Mac well all three of us are actually in training for a marathon and Mac over to you what are you training for this spring Manchester Marathon looking to uh get a PB sub four hopefully but we’ll see oh sh am I you’re all right mate I’m all right sorry I’m all right bloody I thought I was in the canal then but this will be my longest ever run so my first Al I guess so what do you have to make did you say a sub a sub four four I that’s what I’m training for uh so hopefully you know and it’s a return to Manchester you were there SEC last year weren’t you it is and I used to go school there my parents are there so awesome so yeah here’s hoping so in uh midday is it about the 415th or something yeah 14th yeah yeah so week one of my training get a 50k in that’s how we like to do it so Sam let’s catch it with Sam what about you mate you’ve got a uh Spring Race what is it training for um Paris 7th of April awesome so uh yeah should be decent yes have you uh done Paris before no no on the unknown so I’m not sure how it’ll go but um yeah fingers cross and get around about the 334 333 Mark so will that be a PB for you it would be yes yeah so what’s your uh PB currently 334 334 okay may may even try and go for sub 3:30 yeah how it goes wow okay so Sam training for Paris Mac training for Manchester and I’ll be training for Newport at the end of April so I’ll be watching these boys smash their marathons and at the end of April it’s my go it’s a day like this it’s a day I really would have missed it’s getting real dark in here feels final spring 6 hours 13 minutes 31 seconds Mar and we’re stopping for a little bit of we’re going to stop here 42.2 approximately 7K to go I think all four all all four of us that’s how that’s how I’m feeling I think all three of us are feeling absolutely blasted oh man my legs this has been our crap it’s been tough yeah tough tough Marathon I’ll say yeah yeah are we getting there we are familiar territory now back to wer back home back home dark so we are at 2 km to go but it sounds even shorter in Miles how long how long is that uh don’t know what’s that mile and a half is it I’ve got Ultra brain I can’t work that out maybe someone can tell me in the comments what’s 2K miles I can’t bother to work out we’ve done 48k we’re all broken well I am Mac is like a spring chicken look at him ready the is it the sit and kick yeah he’s ready to sit and kick how you feeling dude you all right Sam yeah we’re all right just very uh very steady isn’t it yeah I think it’s been good the point is this is just a I guess this is just like a a social very long run pretty much there’s no pressure on performance today we can just sort of just get it done however long it takes it takes priority one was not getting injured on your first week of marathon training and I think 50k is kind of not very sensible on its own and I think we about 10 15 minutes to go hopefully that’s going to happen we’re going to all get through this unscathed so uh by the way the bin that we said we’ run at was about a mile ago so we better [Music] go [Music] so as we’re closing in on the big 50 final thoughts from the boys got a bit of fun we’ll do it again what’ you reckon Sam yeah we good not too bad really yeah it’s been hard graphed is it yeah but uh ma said to me a little while ago you fancy doing that route from Birmingham to Worcester and I kind of went yeah sounds good and I said to Sam at Park when the other day me and Mack going to do a 50k do you want to do it and he sort of said yeah all right so here we are so we’re kind of feeling all a bit grateful that we can do this yeah you know we haven’t massively trained for this but I think this bows well for all of us that we’ve got the fitness to get through a training block so yeah good fun to do this sort of Adventure it’s been a misadventure at times isn’t it yeah a lot of obstacles yeah it’s very challenging yeah absolutely it’s been really really tough in places especially underfoot but we’ve laid down a time now that we can have a go at trying to beat in the future maybe in a drier day we can knock an hour off this easily maybe not easily I take back the word easily 10 minutes maybe sub seven next time yeah sub seven next time hold on boys 50k up as we head into diglas Marina what so what lock what lock number is that that’s two does it say two on it is that side there we go there’s another two Jesus okay we’re trying to get to lock number one I don’t think it’s going to happen and then I guess we’ll go that way just to finish off just like that’s the river seven oh man well we can you can see it sticking up out the water so you probably won’t be able to see this on the gopr but there’s like a little A-frame a little black A-frame and that’s the top of the lock I’m pretty sure which is just a little foot Bridge there so we are what 50 m away from it 50 m short I think we can call it here boys yeah yeah let’s call it should we hit it yeah what everyone is yours over with or you letting it yeah I’ll just let it run a all right what’s up yeah 50.3 I’ve got there we go I wouldn’t stopped it then hold done boys yeah everyone that was great I miss completely on my word oh well done Lads that was a good that was a good old Mission look at the state of the river man we’ve made it to the promised land yes under water just there it’s like a dream sequence the state of my hands man it’s going my hand so we made it to lock number one almost lock number one because we couldn’t actually get to lock number one because it’ve been so flooded and the the amount of water in the seven was quite shocking wasn’t it yeah most it’s been for a long while yeah but we’re kind of used to that living in wor are you shivering by the way I’m freezing just ran a 50k run and now I’m in the freezer Co M yeah so what’s happened is body temps have just just hit the floor I think because we’ve just G and got a machis in a nice warm restaurant and now we’ve come back outside after having sat down legs are killing and now we’re freezing but um all in all it’s been a cracking day hasn’t it so I think we did it just over 7 hours but 715s I think we did 716 which I think is a damn good time for that course because we faced some serious adversity today we we the mud there was some there were some quite even though it was a canal run there were quite a few Hills to to navigate and negotiate but it was mostly the mud the and uh landslides are taken down trees just re had to rroo several times so but it’s just really good above all just a few mates going for a run today yes a slightly longer run than normal but that was really good so it was a really good way to kick off the year man yeah marathan block bigun yeah so you’ve begun your Marathon block and that was your first ever Ultra wasn’t it it was it was Fest I’ve ever ran so yeah that’s pretty Mega so we’re going to sign off thanks so much for watching I hope you’ve enjoyed this video 2024 running with Andy videos are off to a flyer cuz that was an awesome video an awesome video 10 in fight there cuz that was an awesome run really enjoyed that so we’ll see you on the next video take it easy wherever you are in the world see you soon t [Music] oh