Nothing to do with me this time

Nothing much to report about me and my training at the moment - everything is going well - so I'll post a few bits and pieces about other ultra related stuff.

First up is a piece I found in the Northern Running Guide recently which mentions that at the up coming Sheffield Adventure Film Festival there will be a screening of the recent 16 minute film about Scottish international Fiona Rennie made by her husband Pete and Helen Brogan.  Congratulations to everyone involved in that.  You can also read about the short film at the Diversity Films website.  Do watch if you get the chance ... it is rather inspiring.

Next weekend there are a couple of races of interest.  Firstly there's a rather unusual race taking place in northern France from 22 February - a 48 hr treadmill race to which six top ultra runners have been invited including William Sichel.  As usual all the details are/will be on his website.

And then there's the Espoo indoor 24hr in Finland which is hosting the Swedish Championships (but not the Finnish - don't ask [I don't know the answer]).  All the best to Anth Courtney and Torill Fonn who are both taking part.  I hope Anth gets to see the northern lights while he's in Finland.

Finally, it appears that at the start of this month the Australian Ultra Runners Association announced selection details for the World 24 hr Championships later this year.  Basically the qualifying standards are 210 km for men and 190 km for women.  One thing I noticed, which I think is a good idea, is that they are also offering performance bonuses, ie

50 Aus dollars for men who achieve 200 km and women 180 km
100 Aus dollars for men who achieve 220 km and women 200 km
200 Aus dollars for men who achieve 240 km and women who 220 km
300 Aus dollars for men who achieve 260 km and women who 240 km

and also:

50 Aus dollars for finishing third
100 Aus dollars for finishing second
200 Aus dollars for finishing first

I think that's a really good motivational idea, especially as the AURA funds are limited and travelling expenses are less generous than for UK teams - all the details are here.

Overall, if I had a choice, I think I'd prefer my country to pay travelling expenses though.

race coverage

Well done to all those involved in William Sichel's website for providing first class coverage of the Espoo indoor 24 hour race.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the race as events unfolded and, from a personal point of view, I was most interested to see how Paul Hart would fare.

I did feel a bit sad for him not reaching his target of 236 km after such a promising debut last October ... I am also a bit glad though as the selectors meet next weekend to choose the team to represent UK at the World 24 hr Championships in May and Paul's performance is definitely better for me.

At the moment I feel that I've about a 50% chance of being selected.  Still training hard though and I'm probably fitter now than I was this time last year.

news update

Still very cold outside.  Not running today but yesterday I still needed a hat and three pairs of gloves!!!!  There hasn't been any snow for a week or so now but the average temperature on my training runs has still been around zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).

Mike Blamires recently picked up on the item from my last post about the Melbourne to Sydney race of 1985.  His recent post compares the nutrition strategy of Yiannis Kouros in that race to my nutrition strategy during the Run To London.  Mike does know a bit about that as he was one of my helpers last May - he ran with me for 25 miles or so beginning at about 4.30am on the Sunday morning.  One thing he later said will always stay with me:  "I never thought I'd see a man run 200km in 24 hours and yet look so fresh."

Thanks Mike ... without your help I couldn't have raised well over £2000.

A few days into the future now and on Friday there's the Annual Presentation Evening of my club - Otley AC. The Runner Of The Year competition was won by Tom Hannah and the Handicap competition by Billy Rayner. I didn't finish in the top three in either of those competitions but I do think that the rules of the Runner Of The Year competition make it very difficult, if not impossible, for an ultra distance runner to win.

Although I doubt I'll be collecting any trophies this year it's still an enjoyable evening with lots of food, drink and memories of 2009 with the good company of over 50 members of Otley AC.   Unfortunately Fay will be absent this year, for the first time, she has another important meeting to attend instead.

Speaking of Fay ... she fell badly at lunchtime today and came home with torn trousers, a cut and badly bruised knee and a swollen hand.

On a final note all the best to William Sichel who's taking part in the Espoo indoor 24hr race in Helsinki at the weekend. He's using it as part of his build up to the 1000 mile race in Athens in March. I believe Paul Hart is also running in Helsinki.