This race report was supposed to be a follow-up to my successful race at Last One Standing England last June in which I completed 36 laps and felt like the Duracell Bunny – in that I felt like I could have kept going for many more laps if I had had too.

In fact, I was so confident in my ability that I had ignored the race organiser’s comments that Last One Standing Castle Ward was not a course that could be walked as easily as Last One Standing England, and I booked two flights home – one for Monday night and one for Tuesday night in case the race went longer than 52 hours.  It turns out that I should have also booked a flight home for Sunday night – or even Sunday morning!

The Last One Standing concept:

The idea of the Last One Standing events is that athletes have 1 hour to complete a 4.17 mile (6.7km) trail loop and be back on the start line for the next lap at the top of the hour.  If they don’t finish their lap within the hour, or are not on the start line for the next lap, they are eliminated.  The winner is the person who completes the most laps – the Last One standing.

Athletes can go as fast or slow as they want/can, providing that they don’t take more than an hour.  It becomes very strategic.  Do you go fast and have more time to rest, feed yourself, go to the toilet, etc.  Or do you conserve as much energy as possible by going slower, but being careful not to go too slow, and have less rest between laps.

Last One Standing Castle Ward is held in mid-February in Northern Ireland.  It gets cold in Northern Ireland in February, and colder at night.  This also needs to be taken into consideration when deciding on how long your rest breaks should be.  It might be better to keep moving and keep warm, than to rest too long and cool down.

This was my second Last One Standing event and my first winter ultra-distance race – I prefer to avoid cold conditions.  Unlike the runners, I wouldn’t get too much choice on how long my rest breaks were.  At Last One Standing England my lap times had ranged from 53 to 57 minutes and had averaged 55 ½.

The course:

This year’s Last One Standing Castle Ward was on a new course (not that I had competed in previous years) with a new start/finish area outside the ‘Bunkhouse’ in the Castle Ward National Trust property near Strangford in Northern Ireland – about 25 miles from Belfast.

From the start we ran/walked downhill for a few hundred meters before turning right and heading up a long gradual climb into what became a strong and cold headwind during the first night.

At the top of the hill we turned almost 180 degrees and onto the trails through the woods.  The trail was mostly single track and with 121 athletes almost everyone was forced to walk many sections of the early laps due to their inability to easily pass those in front of them.  This made the first few laps very social and I enjoyed talking to old and new friends as we walked.  When the runners could, they would run ahead of me but I would catch them up again when they were forced to walk because of other runners in front of them also walking.

The course seemed to wind its way all over the place – lots of zigging and zagging.  After about 1 mile we were back within 200 meters of the Bunkhouse, which made it easy for spectators to watch the start and then walk a couple hundred meters to see us again.  And then at about 2 miles we again came within a short distance of the Bunkhouse before heading downhill to the only road section of the course – and the only section where, as a walker, I could really pick up any speed.  The road section was only about 500 meters long, but in the later laps I used this to change my muscles and walked at ‘race pace’ usually closing the gap on any runners I could see in front of me.

This took us to about three miles and from there it was mostly up hill through to a short lap of about 300 meters and a final 100 meters slightly downhill to the finish.  Overall, it felt like a very long course and being so undulating/hilly (110 meters of up and down hill during each lap), it wasn’t an easy course.

The race:

As with Last One Standing England, I spent the first few laps working out what times I needed at different ‘checkpoints’ in order to finish each lap in around 55 minutes.  My first lap was too fast at 51:49 but was also very social, talking to other athletes.  I decided that the 180 degree turn at about 1 mile would be my first checkpoint and worked out that anything in the mid 13 to high 14 minute range would be an ideal pace for me.  The next checkpoint would be at 2 miles when we came off a single track trail and turned left to head downhill.  Ideally 25 ½ to 27 ½ minutes would be my target time.  As it turned out, on most laps I forgot to check my watch at this checkpoint.

And the third checkpoint would be at the start of the road section – 34 minutes on the first lap, 38 minutes later on.  Finally, with roughly 500 meters to go I timed how long it took me to get through the small lap near the finish and through to the finish at the Bunkhouse – 4 minutes on the first lap taking it easy and 3:30 on the second lap walking harder.  This would be important to know when/if I started struggling later in the race.

The reason I walk is that I have a long-term impact related ankle injury which makes running uncomfortable (sometimes painful) and unenjoyable, but I figured that if I got to the ‘500 meters to go’ point with less than 3 ½ minutes until the top of the hour, then I could run to the finish if necessary.

121 athletes started the race and for all athletes things went reasonably well through the first few laps.  The race started at 12 noon and when darkness fell early on lap 7, all 121 athletes were still in the race.  But for me, and many others, the race changed the moment we put our head torches on.  119 athletes finished lap 7, 116 finished lap 8, then 110, then 102.

By the completion of lap 12, 50 miles, there were 87 left.  A lap later, 59 athletes remained.

For me, I never really felt good from the start and when darkness arrived my 55 minute laps became high 56’s and 57’s.  At 9 hours I had my first Coke in the hope of picking things up, and at 12 hours I had another as well as chocolate.  In all my races I try to go at least the first 12 hours without processed sugar, preferring fruit and crisps.  In the case of Last One Standing, I expected to be walking for a minimum of 30 hours so didn’t want to be consuming too much sugar too early.

I also switched from listening to podcasts while walking to listening to high tempo music.  On courses where I have control over my speed (i.e. courses that are not constantly changing from downhill to uphill to downhill again) I find that high tempo music helps me to keep my cadence up, and therefore keep my speed up.  But I quickly realised that the Last One Standing course was not going to give me the opportunity to use music to control my cadence.

Neither the music or the Coke/sugar were helping as must as I hoped.  My lap times were holding steady in the mid 57 minute range, but 2 ½ minutes wasn’t enough time to do much other than grab something to eat and drink.  I had stones in the bottom of my shoes but no time to empty them.  On lap 15 (2am to 3am) I started thinking that I need to get through to daylight (7am) and then my pace would naturally pick up and at that stage I would have time to sort out my shoes.

But lap 16 was my slowest yet.  It took me 59 minutes and 43 seconds.  I crossed the finish line and walked the 20 meters straight to the start line in time to start the next lap.  No time to get any food, and most unfortunately, no time to change my head torch which was almost flat.  There were still 34 of us in the race so I turned off my head torch and relied on the light from the other runners’ torches to show me the way.  This meant going faster than I had been down the hill from the start and then up the hill into the strong headwind.  The benefit of doing this though was that with the faster start I should have a faster overall lap time and hopefully time to change my head torch at the end of lap 17.

As soon as we reached the 180 degree turn at the top of the hill, the runners started running and slowly pulled away from me.  I turned my head torch on and focussed on staying upright on the trails which were by now very familiar but not familiar enough to walk without light.

I finished lap 17 in 50 minutes and 51 seconds – 9 seconds to spare!

On both laps 16 and 17 I arrived at my final checkpoint (500 meters to go) with a shade over 4 minutes remaining.  I’m so used to walking that I completely forgot that I could try running to ensure I completed the lap in time.  Maybe on lap 18.

I started lap 18 in the same way that I started lap 17 – with my head torch turned off and going hard to stay with the remaining runners.  When the runners started running at the top of the hill though, I had nothing left.  16 minutes at the 1 mile checkpoint and 32 at 2 miles.  My race was effectively over.  It was highly unlikely that I would complete the last 2.2 miles in under 28 minutes so I decided to turn off my music and enjoy the quiet of the night during my final half lap.

My lap 18 time – 1 hour and 17 minutes.

My race was over at 75 miles.

The DNF’s and the Last One Standing:

In a Last One Standing race there is only one finisher – the winner – the one that completes more laps than anyone else.  Everyone else is a DNF (Did Not Finish).

After getting some sleep I joined some of the other DNF’s inside the Bunkhouse to support the remaining athletes.  At 30 hours, 125 miles, there were 8 runners left.  By the end of lap 34 there were only 5 runners left – Defending Last One Standing Castle Ward champion, Peter Cromie who completed 48 laps at Last One Standing Florence Court last year and 36 laps at Castle Ward; Richie Hinson, second behind me with 35 laps at Last One Standing England last year; experienced Last One Standing competitors Andy Persson and Sean Nickell; and ‘unknown’ Florian Nattero from France.

They all looked good and we were preparing for a long night of supporting when we heard that Sean was going to drop out upon completing the 36^th lap (150 miles).  Richie was looking good and then he was looking bad, and then good again.  Florian was keeping to himself.

Things changed dramatically at the end of the 36^th lap.  Only Peter (52 minutes), Andy (54 minutes), and Florian (55 minutes) finished within the one hour time limit.  Peter and Andy had their short rests and walked to the start line for lap 37.  Florian held back – his race was also over.

Lap 37 saw Peter finish in 51 ½ minutes and Andy finish 45 seconds later.  The following lap, Andy finished a few seconds before Peter with both taking 51 ½ minutes.  It looked like they were both going to continue for many hours and most of the DNF’s decided to get some sleep.  It was 2am after all.

My plan was to sleep for 1 ½ hours then watch them both complete lap 40 at 4am.  Instead, I woke up around 6am to find that the race was finished.  Andy had started lap 41 but was totally spent and dropped out mid lap.  Peter finished lap 41 to learn that he had won an awesome race.

Analysis:

On the flight home I did some analysis of the results, because if I can’t win at winning, I thought maybe I could win at losing.

I discovered that of the 120 DNF’s, only two of us completed a lap in 59 minutes and change and then gone out for another lap.  Anne McGrane took 59:39 for lap 7 before being timed out on lap 8, and I completed lap 16 in 59:43 before taking 59:51 for lap 17 and then being timed out on lap 18.  So I won first and second place for slowest laps completed and going out for more fun (punishment).

Interestingly, only 33 of the 120 DNF’ers were timed out.  The other 87 completed their last lap in under an hour but for various reasons they were unable or unwilling to start the next lap – Although the results don’t show if someone started a lap and didn’t complete that lap, so that probably accounts for some of the 87.  Last One Standing is very much a mental game, and whilst the forced rest between laps can be helpful, it can also be mentally difficult to get started again.

What’s Next:

I don’t usually race this early in the year as I don’t like the cold, especially overnight.  In fact, the last two years I’ve waited until late April before competing in any races, but this year I have the opportunity to compete in the first Belfast to Dublin to Belfast ultra race.  This 214 mile, 346km race is organised by Atlas Running, the people who organise Last One Standing Castle Ward (and Florence Court) and co-organise Last One Standing England.  It starts at midnight on Wednesday 27^th March, and I’ll be on the start line!

I wonder if I can stay awake for 48 hours.  Actually, I wonder if I can walk for 48 hours without needing any sleep.  This is what I was thinking as I prepared for the 2018 edition of the Royan 48 hour race.

After finishing the 6 jours de France 6 day race in Privas, France six weeks earlier I had decided that my last race of 2018 would be an attempt to walk 200 miles (322km) in 48 hours on the fifth anniversary of my first 24 hour race – the Sri Chinmoy 24 hour race in Auckland, NZ, in 2013.  200 miles is a hell of a long way but if you don’t set big goals, you will never know just how far you can go.

I had never competed in a 48 hour race but had an ‘official’ 48 hour PB of 241.1km from the first 48 hours at Privas this year, and an unofficial PB of 254km which was the distance I walked in 44 hours when circumnavigating the M25 motorway last year.

Based on those results I figured that I should easily be able to walk 290km and if I had a great race, then I thought I could go significantly further.

I had an experienced crew supporting me too, and that would make a big difference.  Kathy Crilley, an experienced long-distance race-walker and fellow Privas competitor would be supporting me before and after the 12 hour race that she was doing on the Saturday, and Jim Hanson, supporter of many athletes in many races including Privas, would also be my support crew.  There job being to ensure that I lost as little time as possible when it came to eating, changing shoes and clothes, etc, and to give me encouragement when I needed it.

The race:

There were 34 runners and 17 walkers entered in the 48 hour race, starting at 10am on the Friday morning, plus another 67 runners and walkers in the 12 and 24 hour races starting on the Saturday.

Our hotel the night before the race was just a couple hundred meters away and after a restless night’s sleep I went into town in the morning to buy some last minute suppliers before going to the stadium to prepare for the race.  Because my feet hadn’t fully recovered from Privas I decided to use a combination of tape on my heels and 2Toms Blistershield on the front of my feet, and would wear just a single thing pair of Injinji toe socks rather than the double layer pairs of socks that I often wear in races.  I sat in the sun and prepared my feet.  It was already starting to warm up but the temperature wasn’t forecast to exceed 25 degrees – a cool day compared to what we had endured in Privas.

The course was interesting, to say the least.  Based almost entirely on a 400 meter track with an ash chip surface similar to the one that rips my feet apart every year in Privas, the 1.1km circuit included two 180 degree U turns and three sharp 90 degree turns per lap.  The only time we left the track was just before the end of each lap when we walked down a gentle incline, turned a sharp right followed by another sharp right 5 meters later, then up and over the gentle incline again and a sharp left over the timing mats and into the 60 meter stretch of the track that was like a tunnel through a long marquee where all athletes had their food tables.  It was not going to be a fast course.

The race started at 10am on the Friday morning.  As usual I started near the back and let the runners and some of the faster walkers go ahead of me.  At the end of the second lap I was in fifth place amongst the walkers and without increasing my pace it was only a few more laps until I was in second place with three other walkers, including last years 48 hour winner, Dominique Delange, whom I had raced in Dijon in April, and last years 24 hour winner, Gerard Durand, not far behind.

As the race progressed it became clear that a) this was a slow course and any chance of 200 miles was highly unlikely (I passed 50km in 6 hours 47 minutes which was below the pace I thought I would need), and b) the two walkers I needed to concentrate on were Dominique and Gerard.

I reached 70km in 9 hours 47 minutes and had lapped everyone in the field except for Dominique who was about 50 meters ahead of me.  My shoes were beginning to fill with grit from the track so I decided to stop to empty them.  This was my first stop in the race, and whilst it only took less than 5 minutes, by 80km Dominique had not only caught me but had passed me and put almost 5 minutes on me.  I wasn’t feeling great.  The 20km from 50 to 70km had taken 3 hours – 9 minutes per kilometre – and I started to let the negative thoughts creep in to my head.  Thoughts like “I’m not cut out for these long distances” and “This race is too close to Privas and that is why I am struggling”.  It was way too early in the race for negative thoughts, and in an attempt to get me out of my slump I had my first coke and some chocolate at around 10 hours.  Much earlier than I would have liked but I needed the sugar boost.

Fortunately, the bad patch didn’t last too long and then it was Dominique’s turn.  I noticed that although I wasn’t walking any faster, the gap between myself and Dominique was decreasing with every lap.  After walking over the timing mats at the end of each lap the electronic scoreboard would show your name, position and the distance between you and the competitor ahead.  Slowly the time between Dominique and myself decreased until I had almost caught him at about 88km, and then a blister on the baby toe of my left foot popped.  I have been having trouble with blisters on the small toes of both feet all year.  I think they are caused by my shoes having a little less toe room since I got my orthotics, and this is something I am going to need to address over the winter – either larger shoes or a different model.  Anyway, I hobbled around to the end of the lap and changed my left shoe for the one that I had cut the front out of at Privas.  This meant for the first time in my life I was going to be wearing unmatching shoes.  They were both Brooks Adrenaline but how would I account for this in my spreadsheet that records how far I have walked (or run) in every pair of trainers I have owned since 2006?  I headed back out onto the track worrying about this and working to close the gap on Dominique again.

I caught Dominique somewhere before the 100km mark (passed in a slow 14 hours 36 minutes – over an hour slower than what I was hoping for) and we began walking together.  Dominique is shorter than me and without speaking we quickly worked out that it worked best if he walked behind me rather than in front.  Walking side by side wasn’t really possible due to the five tight turns every lap, and given that Dominique didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak French, there was no real need to walk side by side anyway.  Walking with me behind him often resulted in my lead foot touching the back of his trailing foot, so we moved into a position whereby I led and he sat right in behind me.

We walked together for over 10 laps before I realised that he had stopped briefly at his food table as we completed a lap.  Without looking back I started to increase the pace and between 110 and 120km I managed to lap Dominique, and everyone else in the field, twice.  I was feeling good and during the next eight hours I grew my lead as my competitors took breaks and possibly had short sleeps.

At 131km my mental problem with wearing shoes from two different pair was resolved when a blister on the baby toe of my right foot popped and I decided to change my right shoe as well.  I also put a folded up sock on top of my left foot to give some additional padding between my foot and the shoelaces as I was feeling some pressure in the top of my foot.  Nothing too serious, but enough to make my foot a little uncomfortable.

By around 7am I started calculating whether I would make 100 miles before 24 hours was up.  I had 21km to go to get through to 100 miles (161km) and three hours to do so.  I was walking 10 to 10 ½ minute laps (9 to 9 ½ minutes per kilometer).  9 minutes per kilometer would mean that I would miss the 24 hour target by about 8 or 9 minutes.  I needed to walk 8 ½ minutes per kilometer or faster so started to pick the pace up a bit.  The faster I went the better I felt, and by the time the 100 mile mark arrived I was well ahead of schedule, passing 100 miles in about 23 hours and 44 minutes – which was just a couple minutes slower than the time I walked for my first 100 miler five years ago this same weekend.  In that race I completed 162.885km in 24 hours and today I completed the 24 hour lap with a distance of 162.554km, just 331 meters short of my very first 24 hour race.  To think that I could do that in the first half of a 48 hour race shows just how far I have come in the last five years.

I checked the online results on my phone and was surprised to see that Gerard had now passed Dominique but more importantly, they were 20km and 21km behind me respectively.

I knew it would be highly unlikely that I would achieve my goal of 200 miles, but 300km was well within my reach.  Jim mentioned that the race record was 307km and I worked out that 9 minute kilometers would be sufficient to get the record.

I reached 200km in 30 hours and 18 minutes.  I was still leading Gerard by exactly 20km and Dominique was a further 13km behind Gerard.  If I walked 10 minutes per kilometer I could still go close to the race record.  I stopped for a celebratory coke and chocolate bar and that is when the rain started.  Not just light rain, but a heavy downpour.

I had been struggling mentally with the pressure of walking 9 minute kilometers on what was becoming an increasingly hard course.  My feet were so sore that every one of the five sharp corners per lap was hurting, especially the two U turns.  With the rain being forecast to last all afternoon and night I decided that this was my excuse to stop chasing the record and simply concentrate on winning the race.  I had a lead of 20km  (18 laps) and there was just under 18 hours to go.  All I needed to do was walk at a speed no slower than 1km an hours slower than Gerard.

For the rest of the day the rain was extremely heavy and blowing sideways for about 10 minutes at a time.  It would then stop and the wind would dry us all out again.  And then it would rain again.  It took over 5 ½ hours to walk the next 30km.  An average speed of slower than 11 minutes per kilometer, and that was without taking any significant breaks!  I wasn’t enjoying myself, but I wasn’t not enjoying it either.  It was simply a case of walking around a track and making the most of what we had.  I reached 230km just before the 36 hour mark and Gerard was still exactly 20km behind me.  He was walking faster than me, but was also taking more breaks than I was.  We now had 12 hours to go and if he was to beat me he would need to walk 1 ½ laps per hour faster than me.  I was becoming increasingly confident that I would win and wasn’t at all concerned about the distance.  In fact I was now at the stage where I was thinking I would try and win by walking as few laps as I could.

Often in races of 24 hours or longer I have seen walkers (and runners) develop a lean either to the left or the right.  This is caused by weak core/abdominal muscles and can be quite comical to watch at times.  During this race a couple athletes had developed leans and had a lot of difficulty navigating the U turns, and in other races I have seen two walkers walking together with one leaning to the left and one to the right.  I don’t think I have ever had this problem in the past myself, but for some reason I developed a forward lean during the second night of the race, and whilst I was fully aware of it, there was nothing I could do about it.  I kept trying to walk tall, but would quickly end up leaning forward again.  Not badly, but enough for it to make my lower back sore.  I don’t know what caused this.  It could be due to not having fully recovered from Privas, or perhaps it was due to the many tight corners I had navigated.  By the end of the 48 hour race I had completed 250 laps.  That is 500 U turns and 750 sharp 90 degree turns.  1,250 turns in total, or one turn every 2 minutes and 18 seconds for 48 hours!  No wonder I had developed a lean!

Whilst Gerard didn’t speak much English he spoke a little, and at about 6am he told me that at the end of the next lap he was going to stop.  Thank God, I thought.  We had gone far enough that I would win and he would finish second even if we didn’t walk another step in the next four hours.  He sat down at his food table and I did the same.  After about ten minutes I walked back to see him and to confirm that he was definitely finished.  Fortunately, Charlotte, a runner from London who spoke French was at the table next to him.  She translated for me and the response was that we still had four hours to go and he was just taking a short break.  Bugger!

Daylight arrived around 7:30am and there was no sign of the rain letting up.  It was also bitterly cold and we were all saturated.  Many runners and walkers were off the track and I had convinced myself that it was actually dangerous for us to be out on the track as we were all so cold and wet.  I thought the race organisers should abandon the race.  I also, for some strange reason, thought that each lap was 5km in length and that in the time it took to walk a lap we could suffer severe hypothermia.  For some reason I had forgotten that we were walking on a 400 meter track and could easily make it back to the warmth of the marquee and adjoining hall if things got too bad.  I wouldn’t call it an hallucination, but I was definitely struggling to think clearly.  I have no idea what speed I was walking but the pain in my feet meant that I wasn’t walking fast enough to keep pace with Gerard or to burn enough energy to keep warm.

At the end of the next lap I decided that I had had enough.  I was too cold and if Gerard could walk the 12 or so laps that he was behind me in the time we had remaining, then he could have the win.  I was done!

I walked in to the hall and compared to outside it was like a sauna.  I changed out of my wet clothes, putting a thermal top and dry long sleeved top on, and also changed my socks and shoes.  My feet looked terrible.  Huge blisters.  But I was quickly warming up and decided to go back out and walk some more laps.  I had noticed a plastic table cloth on the ground beside our food table, and with Jim’s expert tailoring we made a jacket to go over the top of the jacket I was already wearing.

I walked for an hour or so.  Nothing fast, and with a few short rests at the end of most laps.  Once I got to 47 hours I decided that was definitely enough.  I still led by about 8 laps and didn’t think that Gerard could possibly walk 8 laps in the final hour.  I also rationalised that if I finished early, I could see the medics to get my blistered feet dealt with without having to wait in a queue, and I could have a shower and then a short sleep before the awards ceremony.

I was sitting talking to Jim and Kathy and to a French race-walking official whose name I don’t know, but I have seen him at many races over the years, and they suggested that perhaps I should go out for just one more lap.  I would look silly if I stopped an hour early and Gerard caught me before the 48 hours was up.

So I walked another slow lap and then came back into the marquee to sit down again.  “What about one more lap just to make absolutely certain”, someone said.  I agreed.  What if Gerard could walk 10km in the last hour?  He would catch me.  So one more lap it was.

And then on completing that lap I only 30 or 40 minutes to go, so no real point in finishing early.  Why not just walk another couple laps?

So in the end I walked right through to the 48 hour finish.  Somewhere on the last lap Gerard caught me and we agreed to walk through to the finish together.  A fitting end to a great race.

My final distance was 278.466km (173 miles) against Gerard’s 271.784km.  A win by only 6 ½ km, but a win is a win.

Some thoughts about the race:

• Whilst I won the race, I am a little disappointed with my attitude and mental strength during the last 18 hours. It is easy to say afterwards that I could have gone further, but I do think I could have achieved 290km if I had been mentally stronger and continued to chase a distance rather than just the win.  Given the weather conditions, 300km might not have been possible, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t push myself to find out what I could have done.
• I can say with absolute certainty that I will never do this race again. The surface, combined with the 500 U turns ripped my feet apart.  The only thing I liked about the race was that because of the compact out and back nature of the course we got to see how the other competitors were going.  Twice per lap you could see where you were compared to others and unlike other lap courses where I have focused on my lap times, I spent most of the race focusing on whether I had gained or lost ground on the various walkers I was watching during each lap.
• At Privas I found that I was unable to eat any chocolate. I just couldn’t face the idea.  At Royan it was the complete opposite.  After around 34 hours I found that I couldn’t swallow any food.  Regardless of what I tried to eat, I would chew and chew and chew, and then have to spit it out.  But chocolate – I couldn’t get enough.
• I managed a new single day PB for the most Fitbit steps in a calendar day – 167,000 steps between midnight on Friday and midnight on Saturday. This beat the 156,000 steps I walked in the same period during my M25 circumnavigation last year.
• In total I walked 316,000 steps during the 48 hour race.
• From when I woke up at 7am on the Friday morning (6am UK time) until I went to bed at 11pm on the Sunday night after arriving back home, I had been awake for 65 hours with just a 5 minute nap before the awards ceremony and a 45 minute restless sleep on the flight home. This has given me confidence that I can do races of 48 hours or even longer with no sleep in the future.  My next race will be the 214 mile (344km) Belfast to Dublin to Belfast race in March next year and based on this I think I could possibly do that race on no sleep.
• I need to create a checklist of all the equipment I should be taking to races. For this race I forgot to take cotton T shirts for the hot weather on the Friday, although that wasn’t really a major issue, and didn’t take a jacket to survive the cold and rain on the second night.  I also forgot my elastic belt that I attach my race number to.
• From my first race of 2018 in Dijon in April through to this race, I have competed in five races this year, totaling 11 ½ days in duration. I have finished with three wins, a 4^th and a 5^th  Not a bad year.
• Full race results are here: http://www.48hderoyan.fr/resultats

What’s next:

This is my last race of the year.  I need to have a proper break to recover from some minor injury complaints and most importantly, to give my feet plenty of time to full recover.

I’m unlikely to do a six day race in 2019 and instead I would like to do six or seven races ranging in length from 24 hours through to 250 miles (400km), but other than Belfast to Dublin to Belfast I’m not yet committing to any races for 2019.

Some photos:

My blisters – click on the photos if you want to view the bigger image: