It’s already been a month since the 2024 UK Centurions race and I still don’t really feel like writing my usual post-race race report.

The race didn’t go to plan.

In November 2022 I took a 24 hour flight to New Zealand, landed in Auckland on the Friday morning and less than 48 hours later I had completed the NZ Centurions 24 hour track race with a total distance of 178km and a 100 mile time of 21:32.

So going in to the 2024 UK Centurions race, which was also on a 400 metre track (actually 422 metres because we were racing in lane 4) I thought if I replace the 24 hour flight (and the 12 hour change in time zones) with a short train trip to Gloucester, then surely I could walk at least as fast as my November 2022 effort, and I targeted a sub 21 Hour 100 mile time and 183km+ 24 hour distance which would both have been good enough to break the 19 year old New Zealand track and NZ M55 records.

But it wasn’t to be.  And I still don’t know why.  The weather conditions were good – a couple light rain showers during the Saturday afternoon (after a 10am race start) but not too hot and not too cold, and no wind to speak of.

I enjoyed the first few hours and was walking the 7 ½ minutes per kilometre pace that I was aiming for in the early stages of the race.  Race favourite and eventual winner, Jonathan Hobbs started fast as expected but a group of four or five of us were walking a similar pace and settled into about fifth through nineth place walking as a group but in single file so as to minimise the distance walked around the curves at each end of the track.

My race plan has been to sit in behind Justin and Sharon Scholz – the two most prominent Australian Centurion walkers – who are well known for consistently walking the first 50 miles of a Centurion race in around 10 to 10 ½ hours, and then push the pace when necessary to pass 100 miles before 7am on the Sunday morning.

The race was being held in conjunction with the annual Gloucester 24 hour track race for runners, but walkers (there were 18 of us) were racing in lanes 4, 5 and 6 with lane 4 measured as 422 metres rather than 400 for lane 1.  Last year I competed in the 48 hour race at Gloucester which was a part of the same event in 2023. I passed 100 miles in 22 ½ hours and then dropped out of the race at 32 hours.  This year my wife, Ruth, had told me “Don’t come home if you drop out!” and after just six hours I had her voice ringing in my ears as my race started to come apart.

My lap times are below:

I completed the first 90 laps in just over 4 ¾ hours and then my lap times started to slow. The things is, I don’t know why I was slowing down.  For this race I was fuelling solely on sports carbohydrate supplements and was consuming 25 grams of carbs (100 calories) every 18 ½ minutes.  The 18 ½ minutes is because when I calculated my nutrition plan I had 78 lots of 100 calorie/25 gram drinks or chews and 24 hours divided by 78 is 18 ½ minutes.

The plan would ensure that I was consuming 75 grams of carbs per hour consistently through the race, which is something I have never managed in a race before because I have always eaten normal food and only recently started experimenting with sports supplements.  I had practiced consuming 75 grams of carbohydrate (and up to 90 grams) per hour in recent training walks ranging from 6 to 13 hours and was looking forward to using this strategy in the race.

I don’t actually think the nutrition was the problem.  I think it was more likely my mind.  I just wasn’t mentally strong enough to hold the pace I needed.

My pace steadily slowed for the next 45 laps (the next 3 hours) and at about 7 1/2 hours into the race I decided that some Coke and music would help.  I grabbed my phone and ear buds and switched on some high-tempo music, and over the next few laps I consumed a few cups of Coke from the aid station at the top end of the track.

I managed to bring my lap times down a bit, but not enough, and I continued to consume my carbohydrate supplements every 18 ½ minutes, occasionally switching them for more Coke.

I didn’t really have a plan B, other than to finish the race – Ruth wouldn’t let me drop out!  For a while I decided to target a finish time that would at least be faster than the 100 miles I walked on the same track last year, but soon I realised that wouldn’t be possible either.

Others were having problems too.  During the night, Jonathan dropped from a substantial lead to an eight lap deficit and was looking like he was on the verge of dropping out.  I encouraged him to drink some Coke and he was soon back in the race.  Others had already dropped out but that wasn’t an option for me.

For a while, in the early hours of Sunday morning, I was feeling good and walking laps with Jantinus Meints from the Netherlands, but that only lasted 30 minutes or so.  Most of the time I was battling against myself, trying to maintain a pace the would get me to 100 miles in under 24 hours.  I remember doing some calculations with 5 hours to go to ensure that that was still possible – 26km required in 5 hours – I can get there.

In the end I battled through to finish the 100 miles in eight place in a time of 23:19 (according to the official race timers lap times) or 23:23 according to the Centurions website, and continued through to 24 hours with a distance of 164.9km.  Either way, it wasn’t the time I wanted and it has taken until now to even consider writing this race report.

And the only reason I have written this now is that my next race, a 48 hour in Royan, France, is only two weeks away and I didn’t want to complete that race and have two race reports to write.  The therapy I received from writing this report has been good though.  Sometimes you just need to write things down to get the pain of a bad race out and move on to the next race.

Regarding Royan, I’m both looking forward to it and am petrified of it in equal measures.  I competed in the race in 2018, walking 278km. Since then, I’ve walked over 270km in the first 48 hours of my last three six day races but 278 remains my PB.  I’d like to beat that but if I have the problems I had at Gloucester, then 48 hours is a very, very long time – and Ruth has told me that if she hears that I dropped out, she will have the locks on the front door changed before I get home!

So if you are reading this race report in the future, and it is my last race report, then you will know that the race didn’t go well, Ruth locked me out of the house, and I never got to my computer to write another race report 😊