Category Archives: Race Reports

Thames Path 100 (a walk beside the river)

Race Reports

Was I tired or did I just have very sore feet?Thames Path finishers buckle

It has been a couple days since I finished the 2015 Thames Path 100 mile ultramarathon – a running race from Richmond (near where I live) to Oxford along the Thames Path – and I honestly cannot remember why I slowed down so much over the last 20 miles.

They say that you quickly forget the pain of an ultramarathon and only remember the good parts, and that is how you end up entering the next race – because you can’t remember the pain, the swearing, the absolute exhaustion of the last race, and can only remember the new friends you made, the generosity of the volunteers and organisers who helped you in your hour(s) of need and the amazing scenery (this last part doesn’t apply to all races – I’ve done two 100’s on a 400 meter track and the scenery in a track race can become is a bit repetitive).

So I am writing this race report now, before I forget any more of what was a great weekend.

Pre-race preparation

The TP100 was my fifth race of 100 miles or longer and my first trail ultra longer than 40 miles.  It was also my first 100 miler without an aid station at least every 2 miles (two of my previous 100’s had been on a 400m track and two had been on short road circuits) and the first in which I had had to carry anything with me (see mandatory gear list).

So the first thing I had to do was ‘preparation’.  Something I am not overly keen on.  I have always preferred to just get stuck in rather than plan anything in any real detail and I don’t particularly like to spend money either, so having to buy a compass that I may never need, a map of the Thames Path that I may never need (surely it is just a case of following the river from Richmond to Oxford) and a Goretex jacket that I may never need, as well as a spare head torch and various other things seemed to me to be a bit over the top.  Read on and you will find out that it wasn’t ‘over the top’ at all.

I also didn’t really put any thought into race-day nutrition.  When I did my first 100 miler I went overboard and bought heaps of food for myself and my support crew (my three sons) and then fed myself as I went past the food tent on the far side of the track every 400 meters, and in my next three 100’s I pretty much took a relaxed approach to nutrition with a combination of some food that I took with me to the race and some that I picked up as I went past the aid station every lap.  It was only at about the 5 mile mark that it suddenly dawned on me that in the TP100 the first aid station was at 11 miles and the next one was at 22 miles followed by 30 miles (there were 13 aid stations in total) and that maybe I should have been a little more prepared than I was!

The first half

Because the race start was only a couple miles from home I had the luxury of driving down to race registration, doing the pre-race check-in and then going back home for a second breakfast.

I then caught the bus back to Richmond with my wife, Ruth, in time for some pre-race chat with some of the other competitors including Louise Alying, Christian Maleedy and fellow UK Centurion race-walker Mark Haynes (Mark was planning to run the TP100 which meant that I was probably the only person that was planning on walking the whole 100 miles from start to finish).

Shortly before 10am we listened to the pre-race briefing, and then we were off.

Thames Path 100 start
And we’re off!

In all my previous 100’s I had gone out fast as I was racing for a time, but I had decided before I started that the TP100 was going to be more about walking from Richmond To Oxford and adding a new route to my ever-growing ‘Richard Walks London’ map than going for a specific time – although it would be nice to keep to my record of never taking longer than 24 hours to walk 100 miles.

My Map as at 3 May 2015
My Map after completing the TP100

So I started at the very back of the field and in the early stages I had company from Catherine Marriott (who unfortunately withdrew at 38 miles) and Welshman, Alan Mann who was using the TP100 as a part of his training towards the Grand to Grand multi-day race in the USA in September.

Because I hadn’t thought through my nutrition strategy I had to make some immediate changes (to the nutrition strategy that I hadn’t thought through) when I realised that I wouldn’t get any food or water until the first aid station at 11 miles (2 hours 20 minutes from memory).  My basic plan was to alternate between a sachet of Generation UCan every 2 hours with fruit and biscuits every other hour.  But I ended up going through to 11 miles with nothing and then finding that the first aid station didn’t have any fruit!  They may have had fruit earlier but I was still in about 255th place out of 265 starters at this stage and they had run out.

no cokeFortunately I love chocolate chip biscuits and every aid station had heaps of these.  I started on the UCan at about 3 ½ hours, and this and water was the only liquid I consumed during the whole race.  The first time that I have gone more than 12 hours in a race without coke.  In fact, possibly the first time in a very, very long time that I have gone more than 12 hours without coke fullstop!

Apart from getting lost at about 23 miles and losing about 8 minutes as I backtracked to find the correct turnoff, I felt good throughout the first half of the race. I listened to a couple podcasts and a bit of music, chatted to a few runners and reached the half way checkpoint (actually 51 miles) in Henley after 11 hours and 27 minutes just as it was starting to rain.

At half way I had moved up to 207th place.  35 runners were behind me and 23 had dropped out.

The night section

The Henley checkpoint was checkpoint number 6 and was the first time that I actually stopped.  At each of the previous checkpoints I had been in and out within a minute.  On arrival at each checkpoint the fantastic volunteers refilled my bottles whilst I put some biscuits into my pocket and grabbed whatever other food I thought I might like to eat during the next mile or so – often my cupped hands were fill with a combination of crisps, chocolate, biscuits, fruit, etc.  I pretty much ate the same thing at each of the 13 checkpoints.

But at Henley I stopped for a total of 15 minutes to change into some warmer night clothing (I had only been wearing a long sleeved running shirt up until now), re-apply 2Toms Anti-Blister powder to my feet (which were still in good condition) and also put my head torch on.

I absolutely loved the night section and powered through the course. It took me 5 ½ hours to cover the next 20 miles through to Checkpoint 9 at Streatley and during that time I passed 54 runners!  That is pretty much one every 6 minutes minutes!

In fact I passed some runners twice because after leaving checkpoint 12 I went the wrong way and ended up in a graveyard at 2am, losing about 12 minutes in total.

I would have got lost many more times throughout the race but whenever I was about to go the wrong way I would hear someone behind me call out.  And I did the same a couple times when I saw runners in front of me about to go the wrong way, or noticed a turnoff that the runner behind me might miss.  At one stage I was under a bridge and I asked the runner next to me which we he thought we should go.  Before he could answer a “voice from above” called out “up here”, and we headed up the stairs onto the bridge that crossed the river.  (I have since found out that the “voice from above” belonged to Graham Smedley – thanks Graham).

I arrived at Streatley (71 miles) just before 3am.  It wasn’t the end of the night section yet, but the results page doesn’t have split times again until 91 miles – by which time I will be telling you a different story about the race!

Flying – 71 to 83 miles

A selfie at 100km
A selfie at 100km

I had passed 100km in just under 14 ½ hours – my slowest ever 100km but based on how I felt I thought I should be able to complete the race in under 24 hours, and this thought was driving me through the night.

According to the results, out of all the runners in the race (182 finished) I was the 86th fastest over the segment between 58 and 71 miles and then, incredibly, my fast walking was faster than all but 46 runners between 71 and 91 miles.  I was on fire!

Until 83 miles that is.

The long slow slog to the finish – the last 17 miles

The sun had come up and I was still feeling good.  I caught up with my friend, Louise Ayling, at around 80 to 81 miles and suggested to her that we had a good chance of getting under 24 hours.  She was probably struggling a little at that stage and kindly gave me some credit for her incredible finishing burst when I saw her again at the finish.  Her last 17 miles were a  show of absolute mental willpower and determination that saw her beat me by 53 minutes over the last 17 miles (to save you the maths, that is 3 minutes per mile faster than I would manage).

Struggling
Struggling!

I don’t really know what happened.  It started to rain a little heavier and that is when I realised why the organisers insisted we carry a Goretex jacket – if I hadn’t of been able to put that on I suspect I may not have finished.  The terrain was not would I would call ‘friendly’ either.  In many places we were walking in long grass, and when we weren’t on grass, because of the rain we were walking on mud – and I was wearing road shoes with no grip.

I could make lots of excuses, but at the end of the day I just didn’t have the mental strength that I expect of myself.  Whilst I only lost one place between 91 miles and the finish, after being the 47th fastest between 71 and 91 miles I was only the 133rd fastest over the last 9 miles.

The finish

It is always a relief to finish a long race.  I had nothing left and whilst it had stopped raining and the sun actually came out, I found myself shivering even after a warm shower.  I put on all the spare clothing I had and sat in the sun watching the rest of the runners finish, but without really seeing anyone.

Mark and Christian who I had spoken to before the start both finished while I was watching (probably) but I didn’t see them.  And I didn’t see Alan (the Welshman) finish either.

I called Ruth and she offered to come and collect me rather than me having to catch the train home.  That was a real relief because I hadn’t really put any thought into the logistics of getting home after the race – other than to take a credit card with me.

My feet hurt like hell.  The last few hours on the uneven and muddy ground had caused them to blister badly and they were also swollen (like every other runners feet were).  Don’t worry. I was too ‘out of it’ to take any photos of the blisters – but if you check out some of the race reports I have listed at the bottom, you will find some nice photos.

I commented to a few people that I couldn’t see how I could possibly line up on the start line at the Grand Union Canal Race (145 miles from Birmingham to London) in three weeks time.  I was using my blisters as an excuse in the hope that someone would agree with me and I would feel that I could politely withdraw my entry.  I can’t remember whether anyone did agree with me but I do remember Louise telling me in no uncertain terms that I was definitely not to withdraw from the race!

So, there you go.  I now have three weeks to rest and recover, and then I will be doing it all over again – plus an additional 45%.

One final comment

If you are looking for an adventure, then despite what I might have said in my ramblings above, I absolutely recommend that you enter the Thames Path 100 next year.  The volunteers and the organisers did a fantastic job, and it was worth every penny.

And if you want to buy a cheap Thames Path map – still in its original packaging….

I almost forgot…

I ended up finishing in 25 hours and 2 minutes. My slowest 100 miler to date – almost 3 hours slower than my PB.  It was a very tough course, but as the only person in the field of 265 starters that walked every single step, I think I can feel proud to have finished in 113th place out of 182 finishers.

My split times are below and you can click here to view full results on the race website.

My race split times

And being a bit of a ‘stato’ I have downloaded all the results into Excel and done some analysis that shows each runners time and relative placing for each separate split.  You can download my spreadsheet here:  TP100_results_analysis

My own analysis looks like this:

My race split analysis

Other than the last nine miles I was completing each segment faster and faster compared to the other competitors.  I have always said that when an ultra-runner walks due to to tiredness, they will walk slower than a race-walker, and I think the above stats confirm this.

 

Other peoples race reports

A number of other competitors in the race have also written interesting race reports so having read my report, why not click on the following links and read these:

 

A few more photos

The Thames Path - 100 miles from Richmond to Oxford
The Thames Path – 100 miles from Richmond to Oxford
Me - before the start
Me – before the start
One last wave to Ruth as we leave Richmond
One last wave to Ruth as we leave Richmond
Walking with purpose! At Hampton Court - photo credit Nigel Rothwell
Walking with purpose! At Hampton Court – photo credit Nigel Rothwell
We saw plenty of very nice houses along the Thames
We saw plenty of very nice houses along the Thames
This one belongs to the Queen - Windsor Castle
This one belongs to the Queen – Windsor Castle
The race even went though the middle of a cemetery (Church yard).
The race even went though the middle of a cemetery (Church yard). At least this one was in daylight hours. The next cemetery I ended up in when lost was at 2am!

 

Les 24 heures de Chateau Thierry

Race Reports,

The 36th Chateau-Thierry 24 hour race-walking event was held on the 28th and 29th of March 2015.

Chateau-Thierry 24 hour race (Les 24 heures de Chateau Thierry)

For me, this was going to be a big event.  My first race in six months and, with plenty of training miles in the bank, I felt that I could achieve my goal of going under 21 hours for 100 miles and completing a total distance of 115 miles – both of which would beat the current New Zealand records.

The weekend started off when Zac (my 14 year old son and support crew) and I collected Suzanne Beardsmore from the Richmond railway station for the drive down to Dover to catch the ferry to France.  The drive to Dover was 108 miles.  My current PB for 24 hours was 107 miles.  Was this a good omen that a PB was on the cards?

The trip to Chateau-Thierry was uneventful, consisting of driving a total of 330 miles with a ferry trip in the middle, although I do remember that there was a group of motorcyclists on the ferry wearing Hells Angels jackets and we wondered whether their planned weekend’s activities would be harder on the body than ours.

We didn’t arrive in Chateau-Thierry until early evening and went straight out for dinner before getting a relatively early night.  I slept soundly for 9 hours which was excellent.  I remember struggling to sleep before my first 24 hour race in 2013 and only managing 2 hours sleep that night.

After eating as much as possible at the “all you can eat breakfast” in the hotel’s restaurant we headed down to the race village where we met the other two English speaking competitors, Karen Lawrie and Tony Mackintosh from the Isle of Man.

The international competitors tentThe four of us (Suzanne, Karen, Tony, and myself) set up our food tables within the “International Competitors Tent” and gave Zac our last minute instructions regarding support requirements.  Zac would be our only support crew until Karen’s husband and brother arrived about 10 hours after race start, and I can’t comment for the others but I know that Zac did a fantastic job of looking after me during the race – thanks Zac.

Before the start: Suzanne, Me, Karen, and Tony
Before the start: Suzanne, Me, Karen, and Tony

The course:

Chateau-Thierry is a small town of just 15,000 people located about 50 miles north of Paris and the 24 hour race-walk is a big annual event for the town.

The race itself starts in the town square and competitors walk 1,300 meters before starting on the course that they will be lapping for the remainder of the 24 hours.

At the end/start of each of the 2,400 meter (1.5 mile) laps the walkers go through a local sports hall where they cross the electronic timing mats and see their name and current position/distance on the TV screen before walking through the “Village des Marcheurs” (race village) where support crew are located in large tents (which provide shelter when it rains from time to time).

Inside the sports hall
Inside the sports hall

This section is the only flat section of the course and is probably no more than 400 meters in total.

After leaving the race village we turn left and walk up a short, sharp, steep hill that seems to get steeper with every lap.  But what is worse (at least for me) is that when we reach the top of the hill we then go down a shorter steeper hill before turning right and starting the gradual incline up to the top of the course about 1km away.

On the way up to the top of the course we pass the aid station which has a selection of drinks (water, sparking water, orange juice, coke) as well as food (fruit and a few other things although I can’t remember what was there as I only took water, coke and oranges from the aid station).  When racing it France it would be nice to speak/understand French but as I don’t, regardless of what the people at the aid station said to me, all I could say in reply was “Merci” (thank you) which after 20+ hours sounded more like “Mercy”!!!

Shortly after the aid station we reach the top of the course which consists of some traffic cones in a circle that we walk around and a few men in a van noting down our race numbers (to ensure that we have completed the whole lap I assume).

The church at the top of the steep hill - Chateau-Thierry
The church at the top of the steep hill – Chateau-Thierry

And then it is all downhill back to the end of the lap, and through the sports hall, race village, and back up that short, sharp hill again.

This was the first time I had done a race of this length (or any walking race come to think about it) through suburban streets, and it enables us to focus on something other than the race itself as we watched people going about their lives as we walked past their houses every 20 to 30 minutes.

At the top of the steep hill at the beginning of each lap there was a church on one side of the road and a pub on the other side of the road a short distance further on.  On Saturday evening people came from everywhere to go to church and it appeared that they were having an outdoor church service.  But on the next lap everyone had moved inside – and I think it may have started raining shortly after that.

And then during the night you would see people coming and going from the pub right through to the small hours when the local baker arrived to open up his bakery.  And then a few laps later people started arriving for church again.

The race:

For me, it was definitely a race of two halves.  I had big goals and despite finding out on race morning that the course was much hillier than I had expected, I went out at my planned race pace and managed to hold that for about eight hours before starting to slow slightly.  I passed through the marathon in about 5 ¼ hours and 40 miles in a shade over 8 hours.

The pace started to drop a little after that as it always does in darkness and I passed 50 miles in 10 hours and 12 minutes, and by 12 hours I had slowed to the stage where I knew I was unlikely to achieve my 185km (115 mile) target – 93.3km in 12 hours. But I still felt reasonable and was coming out of my bad patch.

But a while later my right shin started to hurt and progressively got worse through the early hours of Sunday morning to the stage where I was in serious pain every time I lifted my foot off the ground and every time I put my foot back down again.  The short, steep downhill section near the start of each lap was probably what caused my injury, and after 18 hours I was really struggling to walk down that particular hill.

Mentally I was really struggling to keep going.  I was feeling very tired (having been awake for about 22 hours already) and another 6 hours of this torture was not a pleasant thought. But I thought I still had a chance of at least achieving a PB and I had put a lot of training into getting this far.  I wasn’t going to stop now.

The pain got worse, and worse, and worse.  Painkillers weren’t helping and a few hours later I was finding myself stopping involuntarily every few hundred meters to try and reduce the pain.  I remember thinking that a grandmother on a Zimmer Frame would be able to walk faster than me right now.

After a steady but conservative start that had seen me lapping in 20th/21st place for the first 1 ½ hours before slowly moving up to 10th place at 9 hours, I was now gradually going backwards through the field.

But one of the great things about a race like this is that everyone becomes friends.  For several hours during the night I had battled against #34, Jeremy Dandoy.  At one stage he apologised to me for not being able to speak English.  I was too stuffed to try and apologise back for not being able to speak French.  But without being able to say more than a word or two to one another, we enjoyed each others company for what seemed like several hours.  In reality it may have been much less than that as in a 24 hour race you start to lose all sense of time.  He would get ahead of me occasionally and we would acknowledge each other as we passed in opposite directions at the turnaround at the top of the course, and then I would catch him, we would walk together for a bit, and then I would get ahead of him for a while.  It was good fun and a distraction during what was becoming a long race.

But as the pain got worse and I started slowing to a speed of less than 5km (3 miles) per hour, walkers whom I had lapped hours earlier were passing me and many of them, regardless of the language they spoke, would try to give me encouragement.

Three of those walkers were my English speaking friends, Suzanne, Karen and Tony.  Suzanne had been leading the women’s race from early on and Tony and Karen had been walking together from the start.  I had lapped Suzanne once and Tony and Karen twice, but during the last six hours not only did they all unlap me, but they started to lap me several times over.  Whilst I was getting slower and slower, they were all getting faster (or so it seemed to me).  They were definitely walking strongly and would finish the race in 9th, 10th and 13th respectively, with Suzanne taking the overall women’s honours and Karen finishing second in the women’s race.  A superb effort by all three of them.

At the finish: Tony, Suzanne, Karen, and me
At the finish: Tony, Suzanne, Karen, and me

At 23 hours we were diverted on to a smaller, dead flat, 500 meter lap for the last hour.  This was so that we would all be within a short distance of the sports hall when the 24 hour finish siren sounded.  I remember arriving at the hall at the end of my last big lap just a few seconds before the 23 hour mark to find about 3 or 4 competitors waiting outside.  Not being able to understand what they were saying I continued into the hall and was the first person to be diverted on to the small loop.  Immediately I realised that the walkers waiting outside were waiting until they knew it was safe to enter as they, like me, had had enough of the hills on the big lap.

I finally passed the 100 mile mark at 23 hours and 42 minutes and was in so much pain that I wanted to stop then and there.  But Zac talked me in to continuing and I hobbled another mile over the next 18 minutes to finish with a total of 162.514km – exactly 101 miles.

This was my worst result from my three 24 hour races – 400 meters less than my first attempt – but I am proud to have completed the full 24 hours.  It was definitely my most painful race but I am hoping that the mental toughness that I needed to get me through the race will help me in future long distance races.

In the end, the race results show that Chateau-Thierry wasn’t a course in which I would have achieved my 115 mile target, even if I had had a good race.  The race was won by Eddy Roze with an impressive 197.757km, from Cedric Varain (193.607km) and Pascal Bunel (182.901km).

Only nineteen of the fifty starters managed to complete 100 miles or further, and I finished in 18th place.  18th place also happens to be the same placing I got in my last race – the Roubaix 28 hour event last September (when I passed 24 hours with 171.212km – my current PB), and is my worst placing in a race-walking event.

The future:

I am writing this race report five days after the race.  My right shin is recovering slowly – today is the first time I have been able to stand without pain – and to a certain extent, writing this and creating the two videos below has been therapeutic and helpful with the mental recovery.

I am looking forward now to competing in the Thames Tow Path 100 mile race from Richmond to Oxford in another four weeks time, and three weeks later I will be doing the 145 mile Grand Union Canal Race from Birmingham to London.  So April will be all about recovery.  Hopefully I will be back training in another week but there is no rush.

Videos and photos:

Before the race I decided that it would be fun to record short ‘selfie’ interviews with myself every couple hours during the race.  My intention was that they would record the ups and downs that an athlete goes through during a 24 hour race, but in the end they recorded the downs and downs.  There were no ups.

This video shows the suffering that I went through and if you are contemplating doing a race of this distance I recommend watching it.  An ultra-marathon is as much, if not more, about mental strength than physical and as this video demonstrates, I really did have as much mental strength as I thought I did.

And this video comprises of all the photos I took during the race plus a few that Zac took, along with my commentary on the race.  The background music is “Walk Away” by Anthem In.

 

And these are some of the photos I took during the race:

Our Food Supplies
Our Food Supplies
The Start
The Start
Selfie with Tony and Karen
Selfie with Tony and Karen
Listening to music through the night
Listening to music through the night
All through the night, every time I saw this 'pay and display' parking machine, I thought it was a man peeing against the wall. Daylight confirmed that it wasn't.
All through the night, every time I saw this ‘pay and display’ parking machine, I thought it was a man peeing against the wall. Daylight confirmed that it wasn’t.
This is the TV screen we saw at the end of each lap - showing the names of the last few walkers to finish their laps together with their current position and distance
This is the TV screen we saw at the end of each lap – showing the names of the last few walkers to finish their laps together with their current position and distance
Almost finished!
Almost finished!
Finished!
Finished!
My Garmin wasn't 100% accurate but with each kilometre beeping throughout the race, it helped to keep me going.
My Garmin wasn’t 100% accurate but with each kilometre beeping throughout the race, it helped to keep me going.
Back in the hall 24 hours after starting
Back in the hall 24 hours after starting

 

 

UK Centurions race 2014

Race Reports

Date: 10th January 2021
I found this race report which I wrote after the UK Centurions race at Southend-on-sea in August 2014, so thought I would add this to my blog.

 

I was waiting until the results are finalised before writing my race report from last week but it looks like it will be next week before the final results are published.  The good news is that it sounds like the organisers have agreed with my lap recording and that means that I did complete an extra 5 laps and will probably be moved up one place in the results and my official time will be around 22:39.

Before I analyse my race I need to thank Zac for his support throughout the whole race – even if we did almost get disqualified when the judges suggested that he was pacing me for the 3 ½ minutes that we were watching the games 1,500m final on his cellphone on Saturday night!

Zac went to bed just after I finished my first bad patch at around 80km but couldn’t sleep and was there to support me when I really needed it over the last 60km – so thanks Zac.

The graph shows my average lap times throughout the 407 laps. I took a split time every 5 laps so each bar in the graph is the average time per lap during that 2km segment.  For the first 46km there was only a 5 second difference between my fastest and slowest (2:58 to 3:03 – 7:30/km pace). From 52km my times started to steadily decline through to 80km when I was down to what I thought (at the time) was a slow 3:26 average lap (8:35/km pace) and I was going through my first (and worst) bad patch.

I noticed that most of the other competitors were listening to their ipods – something I have never done in a race before – so Zac gave me mine and within seconds I was 15+ seconds a lap faster!  But that only lasted through to 100km which I passed in 13:06.

My second bad patch didn’t last long but I drifted out to over 4 minutes per lap and starting thinking I might not make the 24 hour time limit so at 110km I got my ipod back from Zac and again my lap times came back down – for a while.

The rest of the race was a mixture of ups and downs but overall I felt reasonably good but just couldn’t go as fast as I wanted (needed) to go.

My ‘A’ goal was sub 21 hours which I think my physical fitness was capable of but on the day I proved to myself that I still need to do a lot mentally to be able to achieve that sort of time – the plan was to average 3 minute laps for the first 10 hours but while I was back to 3:05’s at 12 hours I lost a huge amount of time between 8 and 11 hours and slowed too much after passing 100km to have any chance of that goal.  My ‘B’ goal was sub 23 hours which I achieved.

A couple other things from the race:

  • I had intended to do an easy 5km walk at Southend parkrun last Saturday morning before our midday race start (I couldn’t miss the opportunity to do a new parkrun), but the parkrun was cancelled after 800 meters when the course was closed off after the discovery of an unexploded bomb on the course – which used to be an old artillery testing site.
  • One strange side effect of the race was that my tongue became ulcerated and a little swollen and I couldn’t taste anything until about 24 hours after the race finished.  Probably a side effect of my diet during the race which consisted of fruit, business, sweets, ham, code, soup, and probably other things that I can’t remember.  Lots of calories but also lots of sugar.
  • The toilets were about 70 to 80 meters off the track so I managed to limit myself to just three toilet stops (64km, 102km and 128km) which meant a total of just 7 minutes off the track during the race.  In Auckland last year I had four stops but only had to walk a few meters from the track to the toilet.
  • I had heaps of sleep before the race but really struggled with tiredness and trying to keep my eyes open between 5 and 7am on Sunday morning. Last year I didn’t get much sleep leading up to the 24 hour race and had no problems with tiredness during the race.  Doesn’t really make sense.
  • I became the first New Zealander to walk 100 miles on a track in the UK.
  • Lastly, thanks to everyone who supported me via facebook during the race and also to my wife, Ruth, for putting up with my training – the 3am starts on a Sunday morning, the lack of work around the house due to training commitments, etc, etc.  I’m taking a month off now and then training begins again.
  • I’m going to do another 100 mile race in May next year but that is a trail race beside the River Thames (from Richmond to Oxford) and I will then have another attempt on the track later in 2015.