At lunchtime today I was talking about fruit to my wife and elder daughter (I have been working at home checking and approving Module Delivery Sheets – the forms that Module Leaders have to complete to request the teaching sessions and rooms that they need for the 2018-19 academic year). There was a difference of opinion about whether the satsumas that they were eating tasted ‘really nice’ or ‘a bit sour’ (for the record I had my regulation lunchtime apple and banana). This set me thinking about the best fruit I have ever tasted and brought me to the realisation that ALL of the best fruit I have tasted was (any of) the fruit that I have eaten while running ultramarathons.
When I ran the Dartmoor Discovery in June 2016 (my first ultra) I found myself absolutely, and as I then thought inexplicably, craving oranges at about the 26 mile mark, and so it was rather remarkable when I passed a supporter of the runners with her car boot open full of goodies who asked me if there was anything I wanted and, when I said ‘oranges’, grabbed a plate of orange segments and offered them to me. Those oranges were the best ever, the juice literally exploding into my taste buds as I crushed them in my mouth.
And then last year, on the Somerset Flat 50 Miler and Mendip Marauder 30 Miler I found that at pretty much every aid station I was drawn first to the fruit pieces – oranges, melon, pineapple, strawberries, water melon. My oh my, just thinking about it makes me start to salivate and feel a tingling sensation in my mouth. The strawberries at Mile 32 of the Somerset Ultra were incredible – popped in whole, crushed in my mouth, juice exploding, unforgettable.
So, for anyone who likes fruit but wants to taste really good fruit or for anyone who doesn’t like fruit and can’t see what all the fuss is about I have one piece of advice – get some fruit, chop it up into bite size chunks, stick it on a plate and go out and run 25-30 miles before sampling it. You might think this is a bit of an extreme way to get more enjoyment out of some of your ‘5 a day’ (or is it supposed to be 7 a day now, I have lost track?) but believe me, you really need to try it. Honestly.
Tim O'Hare 