Round and round and round and round and round....

Simple concept just run round a 400m tracks for 24hrs, every 6hrs swapping direction, welcome to 24hr track running...

During the summer i have been using the Brecon athletic track to train for the British Ultra Fest 24hr track race in Abingdon, i did a number of 4/5 hour runs on the track as training, a couple of these runs were on the same night as the Brecon lads football training I'd watch them all turn up chat for a while then train for a couple of hours and then chat so more before leaving to go down the pub all the time i would by running round and round the track I'm not sure what they made of me....

On the day my back/hip hurt from the off, i needed to be a little bit careful as i was off on holiday the following day and didn't want to be in too much discomfort on the plane, in the end i stopped after 223 laps and 55 miles in just under 12hrs, i loved every minute of it, you'd think you would get bored but there was plenty going on to keep you occupied, there was a 6 day event, 48hr and the 24hr i was doing and we were all on the track at the same time but strangely not as congested as you'd expect, some of the 6 day people were beginning to loose the plot a little which was amusing to watch...night time was interesting as the track was not flood lit and the lack of local street lights and house lights made it very dark, some people were using head torches some weren't, on more than one occasion you'd see two people just run into each other because a) they just didn't see them in the dark b) they were tired and not concentrating.

All in all i loved it, happy with 55 miles, not so happy that yet again my back/hip gave me so much grief, once I'm back from holiday first stop is the physio to see what can be done as it's becomingly more painful and annoying....  

And the winner is er me!!!

Training for the 6633 has has been far from ideal, I continue to have back/hip problems, continued stretching and the occasional pain relief keep me going, changing between hoka/inov-8 helps as does walking as apposed to running, so when I tipped up at the start line for the shorter 120 mile 6633 I didn't know what to expect, but from the off I felt good, I lead the race for about the first 65 miles and came into the first checkpoint 5 mins down on the leader, I never intended to stop at the checkpoints but I did have some food and put out a fire!!! Before heading out again, up until this point my back had been fine, hip a little sore, but the constant banging of the sledge waistband was taking its toll, I had a couple of short stops to stretch but my race was gradually falling apart, trying to not put too much pressure on my right hip gave me a huge blister on left foot, while sat on the side of the road I drained the large blister and contemplated another DNF, as I despondently dragged my sled in my hand I noticed that not wearing the waistband stopped my hip hurting and also enabled me to run which stopped my feet hurting, so I ran/walked the final 40 miles or so in this fashion dragging the sled in my hand all the way to the finish line, not only did I win the race but I also knocked over 4hrs off the course record!!!

I'm continuing to do the Likey's 365 challenge, we're on something like day 212, what has surprised me is that I have not found it a chore, even when my hip has been giving me a bit of grief or the weather has been cold and miserable and we get a lot of that in Wales(!) I've looked forward to my daily dose of fresh air...

Need to sort out some summer races, only planned event is another crack at the G24, Carole is doing the Trans Briton event in Sept. and I'm looking forward to training this summer with her...