Tracey Owen SDW 100 miler race report

Here is a post from Tracy Owen one of our very long-standing Arena members. For those of you that don’t know of Tracy, and not surprisingly as she now lives in Eastbourne, Tracy was a part of the ladies golden era and was one of the Arena quintet that represented England in a 15k race in Italy back in the 80’s (see here for the full story https://arena80.co.uk/arena-club-history-part-4-its-ladies-day/).
Such is Tracy’s running pedigree, that she still holds the ladies 4th fastest 10 miler record set back in 1994 with a time of 61.11. (club records here)
Tracy is still very much active with her running and she has just completed the SDW 100 mile race at the weekend. Here she has posted a quick overview of her race, very nicely done in a quick and easy to read format.
Here is my simple overview of why or why not anyone would want to run 100 miles in one go ????
This weekend I completed the SDW100 ultra in 23hrs 21minutes, and won the  first female over 50 category with the bonus of being a less than 24hr finisher (A target aim for many allegedly).
I can honestly say it was the most challenging event i have ever done (physically and mentally)!
10 points no one tells you about running 100 miles:-
1. For six months you need to take a day off work to train with the aim of building up to a 45 mile run in one go!
2. Your life savings goes on all the mandatory kit and footwear you get through to do it!
3. You will probably be sick at 80 miles into it ????
4. The checkpoint and aid stations are absolutely awesome (if only one could really tuck into all that food available and still continue to run after ????)
5. You will have no concept of time past 50 miles
6. You get chaffing in places you never knew existed ????
7. Flat cola becomes your friend, you begin to dream of the next checkpoint
8. The ultra running community becomes your social media life and family
9. Strangers you run with during the event suddenly know your life history, and you knows theirs….yet you can’t quite remember their name at the end of the event ????????
10. You can achieve something you never dreamed was possible????????✔
Would I do another one? ……maybe????????????
A big thank you to Tracy for this most amusing run report and congratulations on one epic race, such an amazing achievement to have achieved, you still got it girl 🙂
If you have a race report you would like to share with the members of the club then please send it to me at as we would love to hear all about it and it gives great insight to races that some members would never know about or maybe they are thinking about doing. No race report is a bad report and it can be as short or as long as you like.