more media coverage

Received a letter recently from my MP (Greg Mulholland). Parts of it read:

"As I've previously told you, running is one of my passions, and it is great to see so many nations featuring at such a vibrant event [as the recent Commonwealth Championships]."

"I have tabled Early Day Motion 2193 ... I've drawn particular attention to the fact that there is, in my opinion, far too little coverage given of running on television. I hope that future Championships gets a higher priority which will in turn encourage young people to get involved in the sport."

The Early Day Motion can be seen here and on reading it it is obvious that he wants the sport of ultra distance running to have a much higher media profile - particularly on television. Let's all hope broadcasters take notice.

illness

You've probably all noticed that I haven't posted for a while. The reason is straight forward - I've been ill.

If you read my report of the Commonwealth Championships you'll be aware that as a child I had a recurrent papilloma on my larynx which I last had removed in 1983.

Well, my recent illness was diagnosed as a recurrent papilloma. To say this was a massive surprise is surely the understatement of the year. One good thing is that when I was younger the removal of the growth was by scalpel whereas nowadays they use a laser. This cuts down the recovery time substantially.

One minor operation later and I'm now back home and planning to start running (interspersed with walking) next week. Until December I've got to be careful to avoid heavy breathing ...

For the past few days I've been living on soup and ice cream - the chocolate & ginger ice cream that Fay found in Ilkley is wonderful. Almost worth having a throat operation just for this [or maybe not].

Shotz, ultrarunning and me

Jim at ASSIST creative resources [the people who have been kindly supplying me with Shotz since June] phoned me a few days ago to congratulate me on my performance at the recent Commonwealth Championships.

I had previously sent a copy of my race report to Steve Raven - the man at ASSIST who I had been in regular contact with - who forwarded it to Jim.

Jim then wrote a good article about me, Shotz and ultrarunning in general which he posted on two websites here and here.

Also today, Wendy Lynas (Team Manager for the Commonwealth Championships) emailed her Official Report of the event. It makes very good reading indeed and there's lots for me to learn from and take with me to any future championship race I may be selected for.

Wendy also forwarded an excel spreadsheet from the lap recorders on which are all the lap times for all the runners in the event. Fantastic reading for 24 hour runners who need to know exactly where things worked, where they didn't, where they slowed down, speeded up, toilet breaks, walking breaks, etc, etc.

All in all this is a fantastic resource to help planning future race and understand how I could have improved.

Tooting Bec ... update

I've just seen the official results from the Tooting Bec 24 hr race and it appears that Richard Quennell was just short of 235 km. Still a very good result for him though.

This means that the UK still has only two men over the A standard for the 2009 World Challenge. And now three men over the B (team) standard of 225 km, ie myself, Jim Rogers and now Richard Quennell.

This means, in theory that, if the qualifying standards for the 2010 World Challenge remain at 2009 levels then John Pares and Stephen Mason will be automatically selected based on their performances at the Commonwealth Championships.

Then, if UKA decide to send a full team, they can choose one or two or three from myself, Jim and Richard.

Now, having achieved a personal best in my first championship race is surely a point in my favour.

I know I can improve on that too - I just need a chance to prove it ... in Brive next May.

I feel a bit better than I did last night.

Tooting Bec 24 hr race

Congratulations to Richard Quennell who won this race with over 236 km (147 miles).

He's achieved a really good distance which relegates me to fourth in the UK this year ... and possibly means that I won't be selected for next year's World 24 hr Challenge in Brive.

For this year's World Challenge the qualifying standard was 235km and if it remains the same for 2010 the UK has three men ahead of that already - John Pares, Stephen Mason and now Richard Quennell.

Having the live updates on the website worked really well and it was good to be able to follow the race every few hours. It would have good if the Commonwealth Championships could have had something similar in place.

new training schedule, new sponsor

First of all I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to FitnessFootwear.com for supplying me with more shoes, this time for off-road training. About twelve months ago they provided me with a pair of New Balance MR1062 but now they've let me have some North Face Hedgehogs. They'll be very useful as I plan to train off-road more often in the future as it does lead to less injuries than road running.

Thanks also to Tom Meldrum for all his encouragement this year ... and for the comment on my report from the Commonwealth Championships (see previous post). I'm not sure about being described as a hero though. I hope he has a good race at Tooting Bec this weekend - and that his ankle holds up well. The webite indicates that there will be regular updates throughout the race. The address is http://uk.srichinmoyraces.org/ultras/24hour_09/home09

I now have a training schedule in place taking me up to May next year and, hopefully, the World 24 hr Challenge in Brive, France. After evaluating this year's training I've decided that a couple of things could do with improving: nutrition/diet and recovery between training sessions.

For the nutrition/diet element I know that the main thing is to increase the amount of fruit and veg I eat and also to cut down on the number of croissants [that will be difficult - but worth it next May].

For recovery I need to a proper post training plan in place which will include hydration, nutrition, rest, etc

I'm also re reading the articles by Frank Horwill and trying very hard to implement the nutritional advice he gives.

lots of pages updated

At last ... here it is ... my report from last month's Commonwealth Championships. As I mentioned in a previous post it was delayed due to death, illness, Annual General Meetings, etc. You can read all about the race here.

I'll also put a link on the left hand side, near the top. Which reminds me, quite a bit of the side bar has changed in the last day or so, and also there's been updated to all these pages:

Future Races
Help And Advice
Rankings
My Races
My PBs
Media

Hope you enjoy reading about all that happened in Keswick three weeks ago.

hope you're still waiting

Well ... "we're waiting" I hear you all shout. I know you mean my race report from the Commonwealth Championships.

It'll only be another two or three days - and here's why (without going into too many details):

- a death in the family held things up big time last week
- I've developed a horrible cold this week
- I've also been planning my training for the next eight months or so with lots of help from Alan Young
- other pages on this site needed updating too, more details soon
- had an AGM to plan for Otley Parish Church Scouts (I was the secretary, now chairman and newsletter editor)
- had to attend the AGM of Otley AC (I was the secretary and race director of the Otley 10, now vice president only)

As you can see I've hardly been idle.

Anyway, the wait is almost over. Just hang in there another few days.

world 24 hr challenge 2010

I've just been looking at the IAU website on which are the up to date world rankings - thanks to Andy Smith.

Looking carefully at the statistics shows that if those were the finishing distances and positions in next year's World Challenge then the UK men would finish as fourth team behind Australia, Germany and Russia.

That is a fantastic thought and surely on that basis John Pares, Stephen Mason, Jim Rogers and myself will be selected for the race which is on May 13/14 next year at Brive-la-Gaillarde in France

random thoughts from Keswick

I'm just starting to get a report together about the race but in the meantime here are a few random thoughts, in no particular order:

The camaraderie was absolutely fantastic, not just amongst English 24 hr runners, but amongst runners in all races from all participating countries.

Thanks to Wendy Lynas for making sure I didn't collapse/faint/pass out at the end of the race.

The staff at the youth hostel were amazing, particularly those in the restaurant who kept us fed and watered ... and laughed at the size of my appetite the evening before the race.

Learnt a lot from Chris Finill, at about 16 hours it became obvious that he was struggling and was having a bad time. He still continued though and kept plugging away right to the end for the sake of the team.

An amazing new pb from Sharon Gayter - 226k

And from John Pares - 244k

A Commonwealth Record for Martin Fryer - 255k

The temperature dropped to about 7 degrees C overnight and the sight of Arun Kumar Bhardwaj (from India) in multiple layers of hats, gloves, tops, etc was a sight to behold. At this time of year the night time temperature in India is about 24 degrees C.

Andy Eccles was a magnificent cheerleader.

Alan Young must have some stunning and amazing photos from all four days of competition and from the medal presentations too.

It was a pleasure to meet people whose careers I've followed in magazines for years, eg Bashir Hussain, Carolyn Hunter-Rowe.

Meeting an old friend in Keswick on Sunday afternoon. I hadn't seen Sharon since 1986 and to see her again was great.

Lots of local people stayed awake all night to watch and cheer the runners.

The smell from the portaloos at the end of the race ...

The weather was fantastic during the race and good for the other races too. Hardly any rain for four days in the Lake District - miraculous.

The Canadian mountain runner who, on Monday morning at 8.30am, realised he needed to be at Heathrow airport for a 12.05pm flight home. He had no transport arranged and no money either.

The speed of the 100km runners - sprinters !!!

The thought of Pat Robbins and Andy Eccles carrying Don Ritchie back to his hotel from the pub at 1.00am on Monday morning [this is true - it actually happened].

My fifth position in my first championship race - with a pb too (231k). Also my team silver medal.

Wow ... all those memories. Enough to last a lifetime - or until next time.