The Great Orbital Ultra Run

Leg1: Premier Inn Thurrock West to Brentwood Holiday Inn (10.5 miles approx.)

Writing this from my room at the Brentwood Holiday Inn, which indicates that I have managed to complete the first leg of ‘The Great Orbital Ultra Run’ in one piece. Not without some rather arduous encounters and negotiations along the way including having to cross a very boggy stream to the point where I was submerged almost up to my waist and had to haul myself out of the water by grabbing onto some branches of an overhanging tree. And that was very near the beginning. It lost me alot of time and may have ruined one of my video recording devices, which got submerged (amazingly the footage was intact). It’s drying out now and I’m hoping it will be okay.

The live image stream from my mobile phone however, worked a treat at both ends (mine and at the gallery’s) apart from the fact that because the run took me longer than I had anticipated, I had to change batteries about half an hour before the end. GPS tracking worked too and shows my route as a strong black line right alongside the motorway- quite impressive. Thanks again to Matt and Isadora (the gallery attendant), who between them made sure it was working as it should be. Strange feeling that I can’t actually see it for myself as I’m here, but I got a sense of it by going onto the www.toomanylegs.com website (no pun intended- it’s the name of Matt’s host website).

Feeling pretty tired and a bit sore- not so much from the running but from the multiple scratches I received from ploughing my way through brambles and climbing fences with barbed wire. I am strangely excited and encouraged though by the fact that I’ve managed to get through the first day. It’s certainly given me a taste of what’s to come. What’s for sure, is that it will take me longer than a normal run- what with the terrain I’m having to negotiate- this certainly ain’t no road run, plus the fact that today was one of the windiest and I was running (half walking) against it quite alot of the way. Oh and I also crossed two railway lines- the junctions I was worried about weren’t so bad after all.

Tomorrow, I make my way to the Bell Hotel, Best Western, near Epping- a distance I have predicted is 12.9 miles, but which will probably work out at least one more, if today’s anything to go by. Even though today’s junction crossings were pretty straight forward I AM worried about the huge one, Junction 27, which is where the M25 and the M11 cross paths! Am hoping that like today they may not be as bad as I think.

Will sign off now and leave you with a few photographs to mark the day.

I’m adding this paragraph somewhat belatedly as I’ve realised that I have said very little about the project in the intro. other than that it consists of an extended run around the boundary of the M25 Orbital in 9 stages over 9 days. The live relay consists of a stream of still images and GPS tracking that are being streamed from my mobile phone to the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich as I run. I am also attempting to record video footage with sound. Each day I will make my way from one identified prebooked motel located in the vicinty of the M25 to another as I make my way round. As well as providing much needed rest and sustenance, these stops are an opportunity to take stock of the project in progress and also to recharge equipment batteries and my own.

As well as being an art project, I am also raising money for the mental-health charity ‘Mind’ as following this challenge I will be taking part in the London 2012 Marathon. Please support me by making a donation at: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/veroniquechance

I’m writing this post on Sunday 4th March, from my room at the Premier Inn, Thurrock West, the night before I start the first leg of my run. Feeling somewhat apprehensive about the task I’m about to undertake and what I’m letting myself in for, but I’m also perversely excited at the same time, about the sense of the unknown and what I’ll encounter and have to negotiate along the way.

The launch event at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery last Thursday went very well, although not entirely stress-free due to the logistics of the live interface being ready for the start of the run tomorrow. Just as well that it didn’t feature as part of the pv. A large map made from 9 pieced together 1: 25,000 Ordinance Survey maps with an overlaid drawing delinates the route. It fills the central wall of the left side of the gallery as you enter the room. This will serve as the projection screen onto which the live GPS route and streamed photographs will be projected. No photographs yet, but you will be able to follow the run from the following link:

www.toomanylegs.com (click on ViewBlankMap)

This should show both the GPS tracking and the images as part of the same interface. I’m anticipating a few possible minor teething problems as we get things underway tomorrow for the first run, but all looks good so far. A test we ran on Saturday showed that everything was working as it should so I’m fairly confident that once we get things going it should be fine (bar a few natural technological hiccups along the way). Thanks so much to Matt Watkins and Robin Shackford without whom none of this would have been possible.

Tomorrow’s run be from here to the Brentwood Holiday Inn, which works out at just over 10 miles. Not a bad distance to start (the others are all longer) and will give me a taste of things to come.

Tomorrow’s post will be able to speak more comprehensively from experience. What I’m most nervous about is negotiating the junctions- even though I’m running on the inside of the boundary (in the adjacent landscape; not on the moterway itself), I will still have to cross the junctions or approaches to them at some point. I start near Junction 31, running anti-clockwise and have two others to cross tomorrow (no’s 30 and 29).

Meanwhile I’ll say ‘goodnight’ from the Premier Inn Thurrock West (photo to be added tomorrow).