Sunday 31 st May 2020 – a long day.
At 6:00 our first five runners took to the streets of wherever they were to try and run as far as they could in one hour before NOT passing the baton to the next set of runners. And so, it continued through the day right through to 11:00pm by which time 39 Tri-Anglians had notched up 331.77 miles in a combined total of 53 hours. Alongside 43 other clubs a total of 11964.53 miles were run by 1964 runners. 1964 was when the last Tokyo Olympics were held- don’t read anything into that.
As ever there are lots and lots of stats that go with the event and judging by many of the comments during the day on the race manager’s Messenger page a lot of people were working hard to build tactical advantage. My impression was that the best strategy was to make sure that every hour slot was well covered and to have some very talented runners on your team. Anyhow, we did very well by coming 22 nd out of a field of 44 clubs with a total of 120.61 points. First place was taken by Lowestoft Road Runners with 196.453 points. But I don’t think that really tells the story of our runners so I’ve pulled together a list everyone’s distances to help out;
| Hr1 | Hr2 | Hr3 | Total | |
| Amy Shawcross | 5.7 | 5.7 | ||
| Anna Ruth | 6.86 | 6.86 | ||
| Carl Jenkins | 7.88 | 5.22 | 13.1 | |
| Coral Theresa | 5.23 | 5.23 | ||
| Frances Bowen | 5.2 | 5.84 | 11.04 | |
| Frank Ellis | 6.34 | 6.34 | ||
| Hannah Rees | 6.98 | 6.35 | 6.34 | 19.67 |
| James Tully | 6.31 | 6.31 | ||
| Janice Coglin-Hibbert | 6.02 | 6.1 | 12.12 | |
| Jo Love | 5.95 | 3.01 | 8.96 | |
| Jon Rowden | 7.54 | 7.54 | ||
| Jonathan Kemp | 7.85 | 7.85 | ||
| Karen Doak | 6.13 | 5.68 | 6.58 | 18.39 |
| Kevin Mace | 7.38 | 7.38 | ||
| Kevin Robert Burgess | 6.84 | 6.84 | 6.9 | 20.58 |
| Kirk Hunter | 6.52 | 6.52 | ||
| Kirsty Ferris | 5.11 | 5.11 | ||
| Lesa Easton | 6.58 | 6.58 | ||
| Liz Clues | 6.02 | 6.02 | ||
| Mark Clues | 8.03 | 8.03 | ||
| Mark Fryer | 6.34 | 6.34 | ||
| Mark Saunders | 8.77 | 8.77 | ||
| Nathan Risby | 8.05 | 8.05 | ||
| Paul Saunders | 6.05 | 5.55 | 11.6 | |
| Paul Scibilia | 4.73 | 4.73 | ||
| Paula McGrath | 6.44 | 6.44 | ||
| Penny Edwards | 6.3 | 6.3 | ||
| Pete Dean | 5.29 | 5.29 | ||
| Pippa Joy | 5.74 | 5.74 | ||
| Rob Lines | 7.36 | 7.09 | 14.45 | |
| Roly Shaw | 7.17 | 7.17 | ||
| Russell Clarke | 5.8 | 5.8 | ||
| Sharn Lynn | 7.03 | 7.03 | ||
| Sim Ottoway | 8.02 | 8.02 | ||
| Stephanie Waterman | 5.29 | 5.29 | ||
| Steve Pitman | 5.75 | 5.75 | ||
| Tony Wenlock | 7.21 | 4.8 | 0.98 | 12.01 |
| Tracey Marsh | 6.82 | 6.82 | ||
| Vernon Anderson | 6.84 | 6.84 |
First off let’s remember we are triathletes, we do speed (I mean velocity) but ours is an endurance sport so all those distances look very respectable to me when stacked against an event average of 6.1 miles per runner.
It’s worth picking out a few people. Russell Clarke was originally going to put in a 3 hour run but pulled out with a calf injury, luckily, he tested his enough shape to cover one slot. Then Paul Scibilia pulled up with a calf cramp but walked on to complete the hour. Roly Shaw put in two more hours on behalf of other clubs so spent a lot the day in wardrobe changes. Jo Love put in one effort in the morning before adding a family run in the afternoon and I even added in walking the dog for one of my efforts.
And those with yellow highlight? All those distances were actually part of the top 25 distances recorded in the timeslot when they ran – something to be pleased with there. Amongst these it was Rob Lines’ second run of the day that figured amongst the best 25 – that’s got to be some sort of negative split.
The top distances of the day were run by Kevin Burgess and Karen Doak who both put in continuous 3 hour efforts – both great efforts and both probably sub 4 hr marathons if they’d continued. Third longest was Hannah Rees who ran once at 6:00am and then returned – full of enthusiasm – for a 2-hour stint in the afternoon.
For myself I really enjoyed the interaction with everyone on the day – and reading all your comments on Facebook (which IMO is built to deliver miscommunication) it was like being in a quantum reality, I could only imagine whether people were out running, and this became real when their run distances came in. . But beyond that, for me the best part of the day was when I hit the road just after 8:00pm to run in the cool evening air, enjoy the sunset, dodge the bats do what everyone one else had done – my best. And here’s tip, singing the Proclaimers’ 500 Miles as you go along does wonders for your run cadence.
So, as I said, together, as a team we ended up just above the half way mark. Average? I don’t think so. We were brilliant.
