40 minutes ... and a UK team

On Friday, and today, I ran for 40 minutes.  Non stop.  I managed 7.6 km and 7.8 km respectively but the pace wasn't important in the slightest.

The important thing was that that 40 minutes was the longest time I've been able to run since last September. Although 24 hours is a bit longer than 40 minutes.

Feeling good at the moment though.  And next there's 50 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday and then 60 minutes on Saturday - which will incorporate a 5k race.

And now I can also begin strength training with the legs.  Very small weights at first though, but it is progress.

The UK team for the European Championships 100km has recently been announced and I was amazed to find that no men have been selected.  Four women but no men.  After thinking about this for a few days perhaps the reasons are:

- the Anglo Celtic Plate 100km is only weeks before the European Championships
- qualifying times are not easy to come by, especially as there are very few 100k races in this country
- few races partly because of the increased difficulty in staging road races (stringent licencing requirements, etc)
- few races also because ultra trail races seem to be ever more popular, more people enjoy those apparently
- many runners capable of achieving the required standard would rather run an enjoyable ultra trail race in the UK than a long road race abroad

I'm not sure what can be done to reverse this trend but I do believe we should be represented (men and women) in all championship events.  Congratulations to Emma Gooderham, Susan Harrison, Karen Rushton and Helen Taranowski.

Otley - home of the ultra distance runner

First of all a big well done to Phil Robertson of Otley AC who has completed the West Highland Way Race (95 miles) in just under 28 hours - an amazing achievement. He was with Paul Tranter [another Otley resident] who has now completed the Marathon des Sables and the West Highland Way Race in less than five months.

For more details about Phil Robertson see his blog at http://www.runtothehills.blogspot.com

Just noticed, on the UK Athletics website the selection criteria for the IAU European Championships and World Cup 100k to be held in Etruschi, Italy on 8 November. Basically they are only considering individuals if they are confident of a top 15 placing. This means they have set standards of 7h 05 for men and 8h 15 for women. In the last 18 months only one man and two women have achieved this (Jez Bragg, Adele Salt and Emma Gooderham).

They have also set lower, team standards, of 7h 20 and 8h 30 but, again, I think that perhaps they are setting their targets a bit high as no other British runners have achieved this lower mark in the qualifying period which began on 1 January 2007.

I wonder what the criteria will be for the 24 hr World Challenge in Korea on October 18/19.