Back in May I was contemplating running a 100km to post a qualifying time for the 100km World Champs later this year. I was coming off a really good 4 weeks of training where I had run a couple of 2:23 marathons 2 weeks apart. Although my marathons didn’t go as I had hoped I figured they lay a really good endurance foundation so I made a last minute decision to give the Red Bull Wings For Life World Run a crack. It’s a race where the finish line chases you down in the form of a “Catcher Car” that starts 30 minutes after the runners and gradually speeds up until it has caught everyone. Another unique aspect of this race is that it starts simultaneously around the world in 34 different locations. So 1 week after the Dusseldorf marathon I finished my first proper ultra where I outran the “Catcher Car” for over 4 and a half hours, covering 43 miles. I managed to win the UK race and ended up 5th in the world which was a decent result considering the UK course was far tougher than the other courses ahead of me!
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| Caught by the Catcher Car after 69.37km ©Nathan Gallagher |
So after dipping my toes into the longer stuff I was keen to try a low key 100km to get the qualifying time but the available events didn’t really work in the short time frame I had so I decided to shelve the idea and stick to the shorter stuff. This plan was going well and I was slowly getting faster, confirmed by my first ever sub 2 minute 800m performance. I was stoked to knock that one off the list as the best I had run when at school was around 2:03.
The day after my sub 2 minute 800m I was out on the Purbecks with Steve Way to (try to) keep him company. I had previously mentioned to Steve that I’d be keen to keep him company on one of his long runs in his commonwealth marathon buildup and it fit perfectly in with this weekend. So one day I’m sprinting around a 400m track a couple of times, the next day I’m busting my ass as we run a hilly multi terrain 17.5 mile loop a couple of times. The 800m / 35 mile combo has to be one of my zaniest weekends of running. The 35 miler went well and we held a really good pace but my previous days efforts (800m, 1500m, 5000m in than 2 hours!) caught up with me and I couldn’t match Steve’s pace increase over the last few miles and he put a couple of minutes on me. Still, 3hr 52 for 35 miles is pretty decent in my book. I’m certain this run was the key to Steve’s awesomeness at the Commonwealth marathon where he smashed his pb and the UK V40 record along the way with an envious 2:15:16.
It was actually the day before this run that Steve’s club mate and England 100km man Jon Sharkey mentioned that the 100km qualification had been extended which planted the seed for me to have another look at options. There were 2 weekends left in the qualifying period so there was potential for me to run a time. I was very keen on the idea of having a time but I wasn’t that keen on the idea of actually running the time as I was quite happy with what I was doing and where I was going and didn’t want to set myself back with extra recovery. I couldn’t let it go though so I made contact with the selectors to see what my options were and it became obvious that to have any chance of selection I would need to post a 100km time. The first weekend didn’t have any real options but the 2nd weekend did have a glimmer of hope… the Energia24 track race.
I say a glimmer as the race itself is an IAU silver label event for the 12 hour and 24 hour races but there was no option to run 100km. However, after a few emails with Ed Smith, the Energia24 Race Director, it was confirmed on Tuesday evening (3 days before the race) that they would be able to give me an official 100km split that would count. I’d spent the last couple of days being a bit unsure about it, especially as I was doing it off very little specific training other than a coincidental 35 miler, but the confirmation of getting the 100km split made it a real option now and it would have been rude not to go for it after the trouble some people had gone to in making it a possibility. So on Wednesday morning I booked my flight to Belfast, finally fully committing to it with a little over 2 days to “prepare”. I made a pathetic attempt at carb loading for a couple of days and given I was a couple of kgs heavier I could only assume I’d stored some extra glycogen and water. If not, then at least I had some extra fat to call on during the race;-)
I had a 7am flight from Heathrow which meant a nice and early pre 5am wake up call. Normally this would be fine for a race that starts at 9am or 10am but I had a whole day to kill until my 6:45pm race kick off and with an expected finish time of around 2am I knew I was in for a long day. I killed most of the day by making use of the free wifi at the airport where I was able to get some work done which made the time pass quickly and before I knew it I was on my way to the Mary Peters track. The track is quite new so it’s really nice and has good facilities. The track also sits at the bottom of a basin so it is well protected which would help if it got a bit windy.
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| Arriving At Mary Peters Track |
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Mary Peters Olympic Gold Pentathlon Munich 1972
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The race itself is really well organised and it is obvious this is a favourite race for many people who are repeat runners in the 24 hour event. As a newbie to this type of event I wasn’t sure of any table etiquette when it came to putting your nutrition out but it was pretty relaxed and new tables kept popping up if they became full so I was sorted with sharing a small table. It’s quite random the things people bring along to potentially eat, some had near 3 course meals!
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| My modest (compared to others) food table (right half) |
In fairness to them they were planning on running for 24 hours. I limited myself to having a few options which included energy bars, gels, carb/protein drink, electrolyte drink and water. I also had some bagels and snickers bars just in case. We had a race briefing about an hour before the 6:45pm start. There were 50 starters in the 24 hour race so it was going to be busy in lane 1 (and turns out lane 2, and lane 3, and sometimes lane 4!).
Time was ticking by so I had to get ready. First thing I wanted to sort out was my watch, well 2 of them actually. I wore 2 Garmins to help keep me focused, or maybe distracted is a better word! I had a 610 on my left arm which I took off auto lap and decided to lap it manually every 5 laps / 2km to keep me awake. My plan was to get under 7 hours without killing myself which meant 8:20 per 2km, or roughly 100 seconds per lap, twice as slow as Rudisha when he eventually smashes the 100 second barrier for 800m! On my right arm I had a 910 and I went with the “lap by position” option which I’ve never tried before. I walked a couple of laps barefoot which was quite relaxing knowing that I was going to be running in shoes for the next 7 hours and the “lap by position” seemed pretty accurate as it was more or less lapping at the start of each lap. GPS is notoriously poor with distance on a running track but I wasn’t concerned with that and this type of auto lap meant I would get all 250 splits without pushing a button.
By now I was getting short on time so I quickly got changed. My shoe of choice ended up being an old pair of Mizuno Wave Ronin 4s that I had rescued a few days earlier. They had over 1000 miles on them and were in a box ready to be thrown out but I didn’t really have any other suitable shoes other than a few pairs of brand new Mizunos and even I didn’t think it was a good idea to christen them with a 100km. Anyone who knows me reasonably well has probably encountered my relaxed “cutting it fine” attitude towards race start times and this was no different. So with a few minutes to go I finished getting ready, made a quick pit stop at the loo, and then rushed back to the start line to tie my laces, another all too often trait of my pre race routine!
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On the start line, the favourites for the 24hr race.
No 1 Eoin Keith, No 3 Eddie Gallen, No 2 (Yellow tshirt) John O'Regan.
Oh, and me crouching down on the left tying my laces like usual! |
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| And they're off! |
After 3 whole days of mental preparation for the race, we were off, only 250 laps to go. The first lap was a bit quick at 1:30 but I quickly adjusted my pace so that by lap 2 I had settled into the ~1:40 pace I was after. It wasn’t long before I began lapping people. Even though the instructions in the race briefing were for slower runners to move out to let faster runners through, I was never quite sure how this would work so I didn’t bother to alert people I was coming which meant I ended up going wide around people. Imagine shouting “LANE ONE” every 10 seconds! Generally this wasn’t too bad but there were some rather large groups to navigate (multiple times) and it was reasonably common to have to go into lane 3 to pass and even lane 4 on occasion. What’s an extra few metres here and there every lap when you’ve got 250 of them to enjoy;-)
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| Large groups to navigate early on |
The laps were slowly adding up and my pace was pretty even at around 1:38 per lap. It was about 35 laps in that I felt the urge to pee but I thought it may go away so I kept going. I couldn’t hold it off so after 42 laps I finally gave in and I made a quick pit stop at the infield portaloos. I lost about 25 seconds but wasn’t bothered as I was already ahead of target and made up a little time over the next few laps anyway.
I remember thinking to myself at around lap 80 “what the hell am I doing”. Not the best mindset with another 68km to run but I think the monotony of what I was doing started getting to me and this was not helped by the long day I’d already had. Luckily those thoughts quickly faded as lap 100 was on the board and just around the corner was marathon number one which I went through in 2:54:35. I was feeling pretty good again but 10 or so laps later I started to get slight stomach issues. I tried to run through it but when I noticed my lap times slowing by a few seconds I decided to make pit stop number 2 at the end of lap 124, just before the 50km mark. For obvious reasons this took a bit longer but I only lost around 50 seconds and went through the 50km mark in 3:28, still well on track for a sub 7hour.
The next milestone to look forward to was the 4 hour mark which was when everyone was due to change direction on the track. This was to happen every 4 hours but I only had to worry about this once since I’d be finished before the 8 hour mark. It worked out well for me from an ocd point of view as it coincided with my 2km lap split at the end of lap 145. It also meant there were 105 laps to go which is 200m shy of a marathon. At this point, my 2km Garmin distance went from a very consistent 1.27/1.28M to 1.30/1.31M. Basically because my inside arm became my outside arm and was travelling more distance. The first few laps were a little bizarre having run for 4 hours in one direction and I found it difficult to run the racing line clockwise which no doubt also contributed to slightly longer splits. A few laps later and I had completed 150 laps in just under 4:10 which meant I was more or less down to double digits of laps left to run. Some quick arithmetic and I had 42:30 up my sleeve for each 10km which was not much of a buffer when I broke it down to 8:30 2km splits but at least I was still running approx 8:20 per 2km.
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| Big screen with elapsed time and laps helped with the calculations |
I was quickly approaching the 70km mark which would be the furthest I’d ever run and maybe knowing that I could run 8:30 2km splits was a bad thing as my 60-70km split was just under 42:30. Other than my splits slowing slightly nothing much happened for a while, well, other than pasta being served track side at midnight! I was lucky enough to run around watching people casually tucking in whilst walking around the track which seemed to carry the smell everywhere, torture! It was now my mission to get some pasta payback when I finished. Up until now I’d only had a couple of energy bars and some electrolyte and carb drinks due to the earlier stomach issues but with my splits slowing a little I grabbed a plastic cup of jellybeans to try to perk myself up a little as I didn’t want to risk a gel or anything more substantial. These worked a treat as they were tiny bits of sugar that I could get into me slowly and over the next 10 or so laps I munched away.
Running was getting a bit harder but the few seconds lost each lap seemed more from being able to really focus on things rather than my body giving up. I started regularly grabbing water bottles and was tipping them over my hat and basically throwing it over my face which was rather refreshing and a good way to try to wake myself up a bit. The next milestone was lap 200, or 80km, which I went through in 5:34:30 and just over 42 for 10km which was pleasing to see as it meant I wasn’t slowing even more. I was constantly working out how much time I had left and the splits I could run and with 20km left it was getting easier to calculate and break down. It was now 42:45 per 10km and 8:33 per 2km.
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| Refreshing water, lifesaver! |
With only 50 laps left I finally felt like I was on the home stretch but this is where I started going a bit crazy and began talking to myself. Not too crazy, just constantly reminding myself how many laps left or the splits I needed to keep me focused. Something like “50 laps, 50 laps, 50 laps” or “830, 830, 830”. There was a 12 hour relay runner running in lane 3 beside me for some time and after a while I turned to him and said “You must think I’m crazy running along talking to myself!”. It wasn’t until then that I snapped out of my trance like chanting mode and got on with things explaining to him that “I'm just trying to stay focused somehow as I’m trying to break 7 hours for 100km!”. I didn’t realise it at the time but during that 10km I went through my 2nd marathon in 2:58:30, so nearly 4 minutes slower than the first one. It was probably a good thing to miss that detail on the night, though I was already well aware that I had used up any buffer I had from the first half. As I mentioned above, I had 42:45 for each of the last 2 10km splits so no surprises as to what my 80-90km split came out as…42:45 obviously.
I had just posted some of my slowest 2km splits but I was feeling ok, just a little tired, and with 25 laps remaining I was just waiting for the right moment to push on. I knew that the 42:50 I had left to run the last 10km was going to be enough so I was content with keeping the effort levels the same and plug away for a few more laps. My next 4km were bang on 42:50 pace (8:34 per 2km) and with 6km to go I finally decided to put a little more effort in and the next 2km was back down to 8:20. With 4km/10 laps to go I decided to kick for home. This was the fun bit.
The other runners on the track knew I was approaching the 100km mark and they offered some great encouragement as I came past and they were making a real effort to free up lane 1 for me. Due to the increased speed I was now running at it was not always a good thing for people to suddenly move out of lane 1 as often I was already lining up to go around them in lane 2. Luckily there were no accidents! The next 2km was by far my quickest so far in 7:40 and with only 5 laps left I kept pushing. The next 4 laps averaged 85s and with 249 laps down and 1 lap remaining I tried my best at a sprint finish and managed to post an 80 second last lap. I crossed the line in 6:57:22, under the 7 hour target I went into the race with and well within the 7:02 individual standard set by British Athletics for the 100km World Championships. Job done.
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| FINISHED! |
After a bit of a post race interview I managed to get some protein into me courtesy of some High5 protein bars. I then ducked off and had the best shower ever, even if I did have to press the water button every 20 seconds! After spending a bit too long just standing under the hot water I emerged and tracked down the leftover pasta and quickly destroyed a couple of bowls. I hadn’t taken on many calories during the race so was in need of topping up. By my calculations I only took on about 1000 calories which consisted of 2 energy bars, 2 carb/protein drinks, 2 electrolyte drinks, water and some jelly beans. All of this was in the first half except for the jelly beans which is probably not really enough but I guess I managed ok since I wasn’t 100% all out.
I wasn’t feeling that tired so I got a really good massage which basically reset my legs back to normal. I sat around for a bit and watched the other runners do their thing but around 4:30am I figured I should try to get some sleep. Most people had come prepared with tents which were neatly pitched on the infield but I didn’t have that luxury as I don’t own a tent! I had my sleeping bag with me and I was just going to try to catch a few winks in one of the buildings that were available but some kind people who were there supporting their brother/son offered me their tent to sleep in since they weren’t using it. This was a really nice offer so I thought I’d take it up. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make full use of it and I only managed to get about 90 minutes sleep as I was woken by the constant beeping as people crossed the start/finish chip mat which reminded me of an alarm clock. Not to worry as I had an early flight to catch and my plan was to catch the bus back into the city and then onto the airport. Little did I know that this was a silly idea on the weekend with less than reliable buses and my tent saviours came to the rescue again and kindly offered me a lift to the airport, amazing kindness, thank you so much to the Brownlie family!
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| Getting some much needed R&R! |
I’d only been in Belfast for a little over 24 hours but it’s a 24 hours that I’ll remember for a long time. The Energia24 race organisation was excellent, the supporters were amazing, and all the runners are legends for putting themselves through 24 hours of 400m laps!
The best thing about all this is my last minute dot com plan paid off as I have been selected to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 100km World Championships in November, see
British Athletics World 100km Selection Press Release. The team is very strong and consists of 4 Men and 5 Women and I can’t wait to pull on the GB vest against some of the best in the world! As an added bonus I get to be team mates with my mate Steve Way so I’m sure we’ll be seeing a bit more of each other over the Purbecks in the coming months.
A massive thanks to Ed, the
Energia24 Race Director, and also Glenn from
ChampionChip Ireland for making it so easy to accommodate me at such late notice. Also, thanks to
NIRunning and Gareth Heron for capturing a few of the photos I've used above.
Now for the geeky stuff...
2km splits:
8:05 8:16 8:14 8:16 8:19
8:16 8:18 8:16 8:30 (pit stop 1) 8:14
8:13 8:12 8:22 8:16 8:17
8:19 8:12 8:18 8:20 8:21
8:13 8:14 8:20 8:24 9:09 (pit stop 2)
8:18 8:19 8:25 8:20 8:29
8:28 8:25 8:36 8:31 8:27
8:20 8:20 8:26 8:31 8:33
8:31 8:26 8:32 8:39 8:39
8:36 8:34 8:22 7:39 7:00
10km splits
41:11 41:34 41:20 41:29 42:20
41:51 42:27 42:11 42:46 40:10
50km splits
3:27:54
3:29:25
