Sichel takes third place in epic New York 6 Day race

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (58) became the first British athlete in history to make the podium in the 15th edition of the Sri Chinmoy 6 Day road race held in Flushing Meadow Park, New York from April 22nd – 28th.

William covered a total of 461 miles to finish in 3rd place overall (1st in the 50-59 age group) from a field of 23 starters. The race was won by the Ukrainian Galya Balatskyy with 481 miles with the Finn, Asprihanal Aalto just 9 miles ahead of William.

Severe weather during the first two days meant that this wouldn’t be a record setting event, but a competitive race to the finish.

“Conditions were really brutal, especially in the first 48 hours and this made it one of the toughest multiday events I have ever done. It was also the most competitive, with 3 strong runners competing hard right to the end. I also had to put up with a sinus infection, which developed during the race and didn’t help.”

William was an unexpected leader during day two and then remained in second place, right up to the last day, when a revived Aalto, picked up his pace and passed William to take 2nd place close to the end of the race.

“Aalto took me a bit by surprise, as it is usually me that has the strong finish. I couldn’t respond and he was a worthy 2nd place finisher. We all pushed each other during those final hours, no one wanting to give an inch.”

William is a member of the Orkney Athletic Club and is currently engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013. Currently William has set 58 records, including 6 World Age-Group records.

William would like to thank his crewman Alan Young and blog master Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe from ULTRAFitnessTraining.com who updated William’s blog during the race.

William is grateful to sponsors Loganair and Myprotein.

Photo: William Sichel

Editor’s Notes
www.williamsichel.co.uk
www.williamsichel.co.uk/blog
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1012282677
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/williamsichel
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/williamsichel

Hi All
Apologies for the waffling but I’m still really excited at running so far.
Thank you for the good luck emails.

UK Marlborough Downs Challenge 33 miles (32.2 actually, 7 pages of directions!)
‘Mostly off-road along tracks and footpaths through Wiltshire countryside.’
Sat 12th May 2012

My first ultra didn’t go quite to plan but I loved every minute of it: all 9 hours 48 minutes of the 36.25 miles – you can see it didn’t go to plan!
My friend Ro & I were running together. Out of the other 5 from our club, one came 3rd overall, another 2 did it in 6hrs 13. The other 2 we caught up with at
about 15 miles & ran with them til the end.

The weather was perfect, cool, not too breezy, blue sky but with a few clouds. After a lovely hill to walk up after only .3 of a mile, it was nice & easy
to the first checkpoint. Then it was through the bluebell woods, but I just couldn’t run through those without taking a photo. It was incredibly muddy and slow going due to the amount of rain we have had over the last few weeks and at this point, 2 of our little group of 4 went on ahead & over the next few miles we would only catch sight of them in the distance.

We made the second checkpoint with only about 10 minutes to spare (a combination of mud & enjoying the views) but at least underfoot was great now we were out of the woods. We chatted with dog walkers, horse riders who all wanted to know what we were doing, (& why!) & how far we were going.

Checkpoint 3 came & went, we topped up on jaffa cakes (Ro), fig rolls (me) and I put more carb powder in my water bottle. We were still in awe of the stunning views and the joy of just being out there, no pressure, enjoying the company & loving every minute. We were both fastidious in following the directions & checking with each other that we were on track, but there were loads of arrows directing us. We then had a lovely flat 3 miles along a canal towpath. We still had some walking breaks but managed to get our average pace up a bit (which was nice but not a big thing)

We found our friends at Checkpoint 4 after about 15 miles and stayed together from then on. We had all completed marathons (London or Brighton) in the last month & didnt know how we would cope with 33 – but that was half the fun, finding out).

Checkpoint 5 came & we kind of got complacent with the arrows, chatting, chopping & changing who was running with whom. After a couple of miles we realised we hadn’t gone through any gate over stiles etc & had actually missed nearly a page of directions! DOH!!! We had missed a gate only .3 of a mile after checkpoint 5 & had done an extra 3.5 miles by the time we got back to the gate. That was game over, no way we would make the next checkpoint in time (they were still there however & we topped up on supplies) but we were still aiming to finish inside the 8 & half hours.
That too went out of the window when one of the girls hurt her knee so it was then a lot of walking/running to the end. They said Ro & I should go on, but we couldn’t leave them.

The last 2 checkpoints were deserted except for a couple of policemen at CP7 who offered us a lift to knock of a few miles, but we couldn’t do that either. So only 7 miles of more beautiful countryside, stunning views, tiny lambs, and a few more hills ’til the end.

With half a mile or so to go, we get a phone call from the organisers as they needed to lock up the finish & our friends bags were still there, so Ro & I ran on ahead so they could lock up & go home, 9 hours 48 minutes after we started!

I don’t think our friends will do another but Ro & I are on the lookout for more.

I have already signed up for Caesars Camp 50 miler in October and with the legs feeling nearly okay, after a bit of swimming & walking I can’t wait to get back out there.
I definitely need new off road shoes though – I hadn’t done enough off road training in my trail shoes which usually give me sore feet after 6-8 miles so went with my road ones.
My dodgy hip which I have been nursing through the last few months was fine & feels better now than it has for AGES – very strange, but I’m not complaining!

A HUGE thank you to all the people on this email list for their inspiring posts which has got me just so excited about running. I NEVER thought I had it in me to go as far as I did on Saturday & the fact that I didn’t find it really hard means I know I have much more in me.

I presume it doesn’t count as my first official Ultra as we didn’t get a time as nearly everyone had gone home by the time we got to the end + we were timed out, but I don’t care, it was BRILLIANT.
We did have to stop off at a pub on the way home for water, lime & soda & peanuts as there had been no food or water at the finish + we had got lost almost as soon as we had left the car park so needed to stop for directions – we still didn’t care as we’d had such a good day.

Apologies again for the ramble and thank you for reading.
Rgds
Ju

50-year-old John is five days into his attempt to complete 450 miles in under seven days to steal the record for most miles run in a week. The record currently stands at 408 miles.
John hopes to raise £50,000 for Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW), the charity which runs a hospice at Wraxall providing care to life-limited children and support for their families.

John has created a 74 mile loop that passes Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol City Centre before heading up Park Street and Whiteladies road on his way to the Clifton Suspension Bridge before the route turns south and heads toward Bedminster. He then passes through the Chew Valley area, Wells, Shepton Mallet turning North again to Radstock and Bath, Keynsham and Bristol. There is a route map available on the website and an updated schedule of exactly where John will be at any given time.

The weather has been playing havoc with Johns feet and torrential downpours in the first few days gave him the chills. Yesterday and today the weather has improved though its getting colder today and tonight and although John has slowed his pace and his expected finish time has been delayed, he and his crew are confident that John will be able to complete the run.

The run will be passing through Bristol City Centre on Saturday evening so if you have the urge to take on a midnight run check the schedule for times.
There are phone numbers on the website to get live information as to where John is.

Links
Checkout the website at: www.championrun.org.uk/
Checkout the route on Google maps
Johns daily itinerary
To support John Reynolds, visit www.justgiving.com/championrun.

This is Bristol article:Inspirational John now sets sights on running world record

Ultra 56

Today is Day 14 of the race and Race Director Rory Coleman, who posts frequently on the race blog, reports that Rainer has less than 70 miles to go in the last two stages and looks like setting a new course record by several days.

Race results: www.ultrarace.co.uk

John O’Groats to Lands End (JOGLE) blog

Jez Bragg Photo by Tim Burton

438 runners took part in the 50th anniversary of the Fellsman 62 mile ultramarthon in Yorkshire which experienced some of the worst conditions in its history and after the suspension of the event at 1 am, the decision was made to cancel the event in the interests of safety. Jez Bragg was first man and Nicky Spinks was first woman home. Official results have yet to be posted on the race website which can be reached via the link below.

The North Face®, the world’s premier supplier of authentic, innovative and technically advanced outdoor apparel, equipment and footwear is pleased to announce that Jez Bragg successfully defended his Fellsman title on 28^th/29^th April 2012.

The Fellsman experienced the harshest weather conditions in it’s history. A bitterly cold northerly head wind made the finishing times slower than last year.  Jez was pushed all the way but was victorious in a time of 11 hours and 2 minutes.

Jez commented ‘I was delighted to secure my third win at the Fellsman in the 50^th birthday year, particularly given the hugely challenging conditions of this year’s event.  We did battle with a stiff northerly wind pretty much all day which meant a big effort was required to maintain even a modest pace, and that was the case most of the way round.  It was also a notably strong field with plenty of competition for the top ten places, and the gaps between runners much tighter than usual.  However as always, it was a great day out on the hills, pushing our hill skills to the limit, and requiring plenty of mental and physical fortitude to keep going. The result provides me with plenty of confidence for the busy racing season including TNF100 Australia, Western States 100 and The North Face® Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc®.

The race was eventually stopped at 2am due to the adverse weather conditions and all the remaining runners were taken to the finish by bus.

Jez will be flying off to Australia in 3 weeks to take part in The North Face® 100 – 2012 and later in the year will return to The North Face® Ultra du Mont-Blanc®.

Links

Race website: www.fellsman.org.uk

Guy Mawson’s race report: blogs.sandomenico.org.uk

Paul Brown’s blog post: Road-to-50th-fellsman

Grough.co.uk report

Web http://eu.thenorthface.com

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/thenorthface

The 2013 edition of the race has just been announced and the field limit has been raised to accommodate 100 runners and the distance extended to 40 miles.
Full results and all the details at: Born To Run

Helen James Womens 6 hour winner

The Crawley 6 & 12 Hour Race took place on April 28th at the K2 stadium in Crawley.

6 Hour Men
1 Allen Smalls 53.69 miles (86.70 km)
2 Paul Fernandez 50.21 (80.85)
3 Raymond Lanigan 45.98 (74.20)

6 Hour Women
1 Helen James 41.26 miles (66.45 km)
2 Jacqui Anderson 34.55 (55.91)
3 Loretta Daley 33.06 (53.59)

12 Hour Men
1 Richard Quennell 80.91 miles (130.21 km)
2 Eric Dol 76.19 (122.61)
3 Peter Simpson 64.56 (103.90)

12 Hour Women
1 Ann Bath 54.77 miles (88.14 km)
2 Kaja Kosla 50.82 (81.790)
3 Lorraine Fraser 50.62 (81.46)

Prizes were awarded as follows:-

6 hours

1st senior Man – Allen Smalls (Colchester Harriers)

1st veteran Man – Tim Boone (Arunners R.C.)

1st senior Lady – Helen James (Barrow Runners)

1st veteran Lady – Jacqui Anderson (Arunners R.C.)

Oldest finisher Robbie Wilson (aged 78) Collingwood A.C.

12 hours

1st Senior Man – Richard Quennell (Rugby and Northampton A.C.)

1st veteran Man – Peter Simpson (Liverpool Harriers and A.C.)

1st Senior Lady – Ann Bath (26.2 RRC)

1st veteran Lady – Lorraine Fraser (Eastleigh Running Club)

Oldest finisher Malcolm Knight (aged 66) Newbury A.C.

A cheque for £1200 was presented to Advance International Ministries.

Anne-Marie 'Arry' Beresford-Webb and friends on Day 2 of DragonRun1027

Welsh Physiotherapist Arry Beresford-Webb began running 1027 miles around Wales on March 24th starting in Cardiff Bay. Raising money for Velindre Cancer Centre’s Stepping Stones Appeal (http://www.velindrefundraising.com/steppingstones) and The Gozo CCU Foundation Respirator Fund (www.gozoccufoundation.com) .

Probably the longest running event ever attempted in Wales, the Dragon Run 1027 was originally planned with Arry and her running partner Guy Hicks who had to pull out for medical reasons and who decided to focus his energy on the logistics of the project.

Arry’s training program was intense as she also worked up to 60 hours a week and running 80+ miles a week meant little time for anything else apart from eating and sleeping. Taking advice from several ultrarunners and having contact with the Ultramarathon Man himself, Dean Karnazes, Arry has been preparing herself to run a marathon a day for 39 days and is currently 436 miles into the journey and approaching Barmouth.

Having the support of Welsh Rugby legend Jonathan Davies and Martyn Williams, both involved in Velindre fundraising has been a help in raising the profile of the event and local newspapers and Radio Wales have helped promote the challenge across the Principality and to raise £25,000 for the charities.

The project is timed to finish at the opening of the Wales Coast Path in Cardiff on 5th of May after completing the North to South Wales Offas Dyke path.

If you would like to run with Arry or donate or just follow her unique challenge checkout the links below.

Resources:

Follow Arry on Twitter: @dragonrun1027

Blog: Dragonrun1027.tumblr.com

Website: Dragonrun1027.wordpress.com

Facebook & Photos: www.facebook.com/Dragonrun1027

Donate at JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/dragonrun1027

• Elizabeth Hawker
• Emily Gelder
• Karen Rushton

There is no British mens 100 km team.
The race takes place April 22 2012 on a 20 km loop through the town of Seregno. There is a 12 hour time limit though it looks like the course will be open for 14 hours.
The IAU will provide live coverage with pre and post event interviews and updates throughout the race.

One of the all-time greats of ultrarunning, Yiannis Kouros, will be running for Greece.

Irelands team will be:

Men
John Byrne
Michael Collins
Daniel Doherty
Thomas Maguire
John O’Regan
Keith Whyte

Women
Helen Lavin

Resource:
Race website: www.centokmseregno.com

IAU website: www.iau-ultramarathon.org