The race I didn't run

By all accounts the weekend's race in Steembergen, Netherlands was a hard one.  At one point there was a facebook post by the Aussie team which read:

"at the moment we're having four seasons worth of weather ... every 15 minutes."

No doubt about it that is the stuff that makes things very difficult in a 24 hour race and, I guess on average, performances will have been reduced by about 5 % and the winner's distance was probably not as far as expected in a World 24 hr Championship race.  Previous winning distances (men) are shown below and full results can be found on the DUV website.

2013 ... 269 km
2012 ... 277 km
2010 ... 273 km
2009 ... 257 km
2008 ... 273 km
2007 ... 263 km
2006 ... 272 km
2005 ... 268 km
2004 ... 269 km
2003 ... 270 km
2001 ... 275 km

Some of the UK performances seem to have been quite amazing in those circumstances ...

Steve Holyoak ... over 246 km and a new pb
Robbie Britton ... over 239 km and a new pb
Sharon Law ... over 226 km and a new pb
Karen Hathaway ... over 210 km and a new pb

Sharon set new Scottish records for 200 km and 24 hours (on the road).  Amazing.

Debbie Martin-Consani, Emily Gelder, Pat Robbins, John Pares, Matt Moroz and Lizzy Hawker had less successful races and, unfortunately, I wasn't there so I can't really comment as to the reasons for that.  Perhaps an injury or two.

Congratulations also to Torill Fonn who beat her personal best by almost 5 %.

Overall, as I'm a recovering injured ultra runner, I found it quite difficult mentally to keep up to date with all that was happening in Steenbergen ... I guess I'm just missing the racing a bit.  I'm glad I persevered though as it has given me some much needed motivation for racing next year and training in the second half of this year (with perhaps a race thrown in ...).

Full results here.

Keir and the World Championships

Woke up this morning to find lots of snow all around - I guess it must have been 10cm or so, everywhere.  I know that isn't particularly deep but for this part of the world, near the end of March, it's lots.

Apparently there are only two places in the whole country with so much snow at the moment - Yorkshire and Northern Ireland and the consequences are that Leeds Bradford Airport and Belfast City Airport were both closed.  They are open now ... but only just and with many flights cancelled or delayed.

Keir is coming home from university today for the Easter holiday.  He is at Ulster University and is flying from Belfast City to Leeds Bradford.  There are three flights today ... he's on the third but the first two have been cancelled.  I think it's fair to say we're a bit worried at the moment.

Apart from that, news has recently appeared from British Athletics [new name for UK Athletics ... not sure why] about the team for the World 24 hr Championships in Steenbergen in May.  On the men's team is John Pares, Pat Robbins, Matt Moroz, Robbie Britton and Steve Holyoak.  If John is fit he should do very well - he's is capable of a top 5 placing at his best.  Pat and Steve are both capable of over 240 km and I don't know too much about Robbie and Matt except that perhaps they prefer the trails.  I really do hope everyone has an outstanding race though.

The women are represented by Lizzy Hawker, Emily Gelder, Debbie Martin-Consani, Sharon Law and Karen Hathaway.  Lizzy broke the world 24 hr road record in her last race of this type (Llandudno - Sep 2010), Emily finished third in the last world championships and Debbie is the Scottish record holder.  An excellent team and, again, I wish them all every success.

My recovery seems to be going well at the moment too.  On Wednesday I had to forego my strength training and cycling though as I had to do some emergency DIY repairs in the bathroom.  Without going into great detail I had to replace the light fitting, pull cord and part of the ceiling.  Managed 20 minutes through the snow this morning with the same tomorrow and all in all everything seems OK.

too busy recently

After work and training I seem to have had too many other things to do recently which has left no time to update this blog ... apologies for that but things should be back to normal now.

Visiting far flung relatives ... being a volunteer postman with the local scouts ... having the gas fire repaired ... meeting Keir at the airport ... a couple of Christmas parties ... and attending an awards ceremony at which Keir received a shield for best overall year 12 student from his old school.

The ankle seems to be holding up well to increasing training loads and I'm hopeful of being able to actually enter a race next month.

Still keeping up with the rehab exercises three times a day (which are not detailed in the 'training' tab above) and remembering to ice the area at least twice per day - although I suspect that is not really so important anymore.

Interesting to read about last weekend's Barcelona 24 hour race.  Fantastic result from Matthew Moroz who finished third with 234.893 km and Robbie Britton in third with 231.392 km ... both have now qualified for the UK team at next year's World Championships in Steenbergen.  WELL DONE TO THEM BOTH.

I suspect John Pares may have learned the hard way that he wasn't quite as fit as he thought he was, despite immense training in October and November.  He was sixth with 222.638 km.  I have no doubt he'll be ready for a good one next May.  Also well done to (not so) new mum Vicky Hart who ran 164.125 km which is a new pb.

I'd like to end this post by saying that typing this hasn't really been easy after injuring my index finger this afternoon.  Doing some DIY for my mother in law.  She wasn't impressed to have my blood dripping all over her new carpet.  I wasn't impressed by her worn out tools and lack of first aid knowledge.