BRENDAN MORRIS has joined the ranks of the local running legends who have completed a solo 100 miles during Endure 24. Now, in his own words, he tells the enthralling story of his odyssey through the pain barrier and how he finally crossed the line with the help of a great Roadrunner pal…

I’M quickly establishing a theme in my articles; feeling terrible, lying in bed and not being able to make it to the toilet. My wife has had to help me out of bed twice in the night so I can make the groaning shuffle down the corridor and back.

Her suggestion after the second time was that I sleep in the spare room and wear adult nappies. Not a solution to our relationship I was expecting to hear just four years into marriage.

I think I’m feeling so terrible due to severe dehydration, but unfortunately I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol (apart from sipping some of Phil Reay’s beer as I ran past him about 50 miles in). 

I’ve done something far more reckless and ran (walked lots) 100 miles in under 22 hours at an event called Endure 24. The event has participants do as many laps of a five-mile multi-terrain course as they can in 24 hours. There are options to enter solo, as a pair, or as different-sized teams. 

Two years ago I entered this event as part of a team of five which included Ashley Middlewick. We both enjoyed the event and decided to enter as solo runners the following year, with the aim of supporting each other in training and on the day. I had to defer last year’s place though because it clashed with a friend’s wedding. I would have deferred again if they let me, as this year I’ve been struggling with a foot injury. 

Due to the injury I had not been able to do any specific training for this event. I had put in a 20-mile run three weeks previously and towards the end my left foot had started to hurt, so I was expecting something similar at Endure 24 and made the decision to not risk further damage and pull out as soon as I felt pain in my foot. 

My main aim is the Chicago Marathon in October and my recent training had revolved around Wednesday’s track sessions to improve VO2 max and 5k and 10k times. I was going to use this as an opportunity to put in a hard long run of about 20-25 miles, and then see how the foot was and decide whether I wanted to continue.

So on went the racing flats and off I went. The course is objectively superb (subjectively less so now), with a great mixture of scenery and terrain, lots of undulations and a couple of steep ups and downs as well. Though picturesque, it was definitely more technical than I remember; sharp twists and turns in places, the odd ditch to jump and tree roots to avoid. 

I went pretty hard in the first five laps (25 miles) and completed them in 2hr 53min. This obviously put me in the lead. No one in their right mind (bar David McCoy) would start a 24-hour endurance race at this speed. I walked the next lap with a rucksack on full of food, trying to eat as much as I could stomach. 

During the 70-minute walking lap I was assessing the state of my foot and it strangely seemed fine. I decided to try and run another four laps after the walk, then would take another walking break. 

But after just two laps into this next running stint though (around 41 miles) I really hit a brick wall. I suddenly felt dizzy and sick. I found the nearest tree to lean against and get my breath back, which is a lot harder to do when you’re reassuring every passing runner that you’re fine. 

I was not fine. I suddenly realised my hamstrings were killing me and lifting my legs just to even walk was painful. The enormity of what I had done so far also dawned on me, as well as the challenge that lay ahead if I was to make it to 100 miles. 

I walked the remainder of that lap with a couple of ladies who were also going solo. Their encouragement and distraction snapped me out of the pit of despair I was falling down and my legs loosened up a bit.

I decided to try and run the next lap as I felt a bit better. This lasted about 300 metres, or 50 metres into the first ascent (known as The Hill Of No Return). Again my body was rebelling and just wouldn’t move as much as I wanted it to.

I walked the rest of that hill and even found that difficult. I knew my days of running up the hills were over. I was seriously contemplating walking to the end of the lap (50 miles) and dropping out. I had gone further than I had expected and the pain was starting to outweigh the enjoyment.

Towards the end of that walking lap, I was caught by another guy going solo. We were walking up a hill together. He had done 35 miles, so was a couple of laps behind me. He said he had got to the stage where you walk the uphill sections and only run down the downhill ones. 

This kind of run-walk strategy was not one I had considered adopting before. With the legs feeling a bit looser, I decided to try it for the next lap at least and see how I got on. It worked quite well.

That lap took me 65 minutes and most importantly felt sustainable. I did a couple more like this, then walked a lap again to take on a good amount of food.

The run-walk strategy then got harder. I managed another two laps of it, but my quads were smashed to bits by this point and it felt more like I was stumbling down the hills with no control, rather than running. At 80 miles I had come to terms with the fact that I could no longer run.

I had made the decision at around the 65-mile mark that I was going to go for the full 100 miles. I still had over 12 hours to complete seven laps, and I worked out I would need to travel at around three miles per hour to complete the distance in time, so could probably walk it home if necessary. 

At 80 miles though, even walking became a great effort. The blisters I had created were suddenly very apparent and painful. The monotony of the course and the lack of sleep were starting to take their toll. I became irritable and once again was thinking about quitting after 85 miles.

I managed to continue though, and had the incredible good fortune of bumping into Ashley in the start/finish area at the 90-mile mark. His race hadn’t gone so well and at this point he had only managed 45 miles. He said that he would walk with me to 100 miles to make sure I got there.

Ashley’s companionship was key to me finishing the 100 miles. He started as a great motivator and distraction and evolved into more of a shepherd and guardian of a toddler-like man stumbling along whinging about how far there was left to go.

I was in a bad way by 95 miles. I was seeing double and feeling quite faint. I had to close my eyes at times while walking to fight the dizziness. I’m not sure I could have gone the full distance without Ashley’s stewardship. 

Finishing the 100 miles in 21 hours and 53 minutes meant there was probably time to walk another lap. I was thinking about the money I would need to be paid to even attempt to do it. I settled on a year’s wages. Due to the nature of the event, finishing is rather an anti-climax. Only Ashley and I knew that I had finished. I didn’t really have the energy to celebrate and couldn’t stop thinking: “How the hell am I going to take my tent down?”

Ashley put me in a chair. It was the first time I had been off my feet for 23 hours. It felt incredible.

For completing 100 miles there is a prize of… a tee-shirt! I’ve been there and got the tee-shirt, so there’s no need to return. Never. Ever. 

In fact, is it too early to put one’s name down to do the Ridgeway Relay in 2020 instead?

Pictures: Chris Drew.

Results: http://www.chipresults.co.uk/live24/index.aspx?cat=SM&eventId=30

LAST year it was a runaway victory, this year a thrilling close-fought battle as Roadrunners retained their Ridgeway Relay title. Ladies captain SAM WHALLEY, one of the architects of both successes, gives a blow-by-blow account of how the drama unfolded…

THE Ridgeway Relay is, for me at least, one of the best days to be a Reading Roadrunner. It’s the day when, for as many years as I am aware, we have had around 40 members running the length of the Ridgeway National Trail, with a couple of deviations along the way to avoid dangerous road crossings, or to finish at a more practical venue for a prize-giving than Overton Hill.

We knew a year ago that there would be a date clash with the ever popular Endure 24 event, so I was delighted to find 40 willing participants for this year’s race. (Note: there is no clash next year, so do bear this in mind before you sign up to run for 24 hours, solo, around Wasing Park, or even Comrades, or just a marathon every other week.)

Having run in the Ridgeway Relay for the past three years, I was slightly miffed at having to attend a wedding on the very same weekend (shh, don’t tell the bride), and my involvement was limited to putting the teams together with Grant Hopkins, nagging people for their predicted times, and then letting everyone know when they needed to be at the start of their leg. 

Some runners requested certain legs that they knew, ran all the time, or were on their doorstep. Others fancied the challenge of particular legs they had heard about. 

We set up a WhatsApp group for each team, and this enabled us to share locations, updates and stories throughout the day. With chairman Phil Reay following the teams in person, from start to finish, there was no shortage of information, and it was a really exciting event to be a part of, even without the running bit.

When I woke up in North Devon on Sunday morning, my phone was already well awake. The race had started, and there was a picture of a very chilly looking foursome on Ivinghoe Beacon. 

At that moment, I felt really chuffed that everyone had got up at the crack of dawn to drive all the way there, to run for us. That’s commitment, and we are really grateful. Enough of the soppyness, though, with it having rained a lot during last week, much focus was on the footwear — were we to go with road or trail shoes? 

The answer was that it really depended on which leg you were running, with each one being so different: some with stretches of road, others with steep ups and downs, muddy tracks, chalky sections….. the list goes on. Of course, if you have done your homework and completed a recce, you know what to expect. (I’m looking at you, Sarah Dooley.)

As expected, David McCoy, the younger (left), led everyone off down the hill for the A team, with Sarah Dooley for the ladies, late replacement Alan Freer for the vets, and Dan Coleman for the Bs. 

Having broken the course record with a storming run last year, the A team, albeit made up of different members this year, had a trophy to defend, and we may just have given that team a disproportionate amount of attention. 

At each checkpoint the questions were, What position did they come in at? How much of a gap was there in front and behind? And who did they have left to run? If we were to try to be competitive across all three categories, we would ideally have a team manager following each team throughout the day. Any volunteers?

At the end of leg 1, which was 11 miles, the A team was third, vets 28th, ladies 33rd and Bs 34th, out of 42 teams. Ask Dan Coleman why he might have been held up for a few minutes. Not my place to divulge.

Swindon Shin Splints had a five-minute lead, with a talented Tonbridge runner on their first leg (second-claim Swindon). This is completely legit — a runner doesn’t actually have to be a member of a club to run this race. St Albans Striders were in second, but didn’t seem to feature throughout the rest of the day.

Leg 2 is one of the shorter legs, at six miles, and seems often to be run by women. Not necessarily in this club though, and it was Mark Apsey (A), Ben Fasham (B), Miriam Coleman (ladies) and Susan Knight (vets) who took over, with the As coming in second, Bs 23rd, vets 26th and ladies 36th. Swindon were still in the lead. Mark (above) was the second-fastest runner overall on this leg.

For Leg 3, it was the first of the two required women for the A team, Laura Peatey (below), with Derek Cheng for the Bs, Gary Tuttle (one of the two allowed men) for the ladies, and Tom Harrison for the vets. In this race a vet is over 50; I don’t know how many of the teams had an over 80 raring to go! 

This leg was 9.4 miles and the As finished in fourth, Bs 25th, ladies 27th and vets 37th. Headington were now in the lead. Gary (for the ladies) was the fifth-fastest runner overall on this leg.

Leg 4 is the only other short leg in the race, at 5.4 miles, and this was requested by men’s captain Grant Hopkins for the As, Clinton Montague for the Bs, Sophie Hoskins for the ladies and Julie Rainbow for the vets. The uphill finish for this leg is brutal, and the As finished in fourth, Bs 22nd, ladies 26th and vets 36th. Vale of Aylesbury were now in the lead. Grant was the seventh-fastest runner overall on this leg.

Leg 5 is 10.1 miles, but it has a lot of downhill to the river, and is notoriously muddy and overgrown. Still, it is popular with A teamer Chris Lucas (right) as it is the closest leg to his house. For the Bs it was Belinda Tull, for the ladies Liz Jones, and for the vets, David Fiddes. 

At this point last year, the course-record-breaking year, the A team was already well in the lead, but the team remained composed. It was, however, time to pull out the big guns. The As finished in third, Bs 23rd, ladies 29th and vets 35th. Vale of Aylesbury were still in the lead, but Chris was the fastest runner overall on this leg.

Having recently realised that the race was actually on Sunday not Saturday, Rob Corney (below) was in the right place at the right time and ready to take over for the A team at leg 6, at 10.4 miles and including the climb back up from the river. 

“He’ll never maintain that pace,” laughed the Aylesbury team as Rob set off through South Stoke village like a rocket. Ahem. Don’t they know who he is? 

With Rupert Shute for the Bs, Chris Buley for the ladies, and Colin Cottell for the vets, things were getting exciting. Needless to say, the As finished first, putting Reading Roadrunners in the lead, with Rob the fastest runner overall on this leg, and even faster than his time last year. The Bs were 15th, ladies 21st and vets 31st. Rupert and Chris were eighth and ninth fastest respectively.

Leg 7 typically has a mass start for those teams whose runner has not arrived by 2pm, so all apart from our A team runner, Gemma Buley, were in this. For the Bs it was Bryan Curtayne, for the ladies, Claire Seymour and for the vets, Brian Kirsopp. At the end of the 9.1 miles, Vale of Aylesbury had given themselves back a four-minute lead, with our A team finishing second, Bs 13th, ladies 29th and vets 31st. Super Brian was the third fastest runner overall on this leg, and Gemma was 10th.

Leg 8 was my first experience of the Ridgeway. I like to call it the tourist leg, as it goes behind the White Horse at Uffington, and it is incredibly well signposted. I challenge anyone to get lost on this leg. Still, it is not easy, with chalky hills and narrow treads, and another brutal uphill finish.

Lance Nortcliff was up for the As, Angharad Shaw for the Bs, Belinda Drew for the ladies, and Peter Reilly for the vets. As they finished, Lance was still in second, but had had a storming run and closed the gap to two minutes, with the Bs 23rd, vets 27th and ladies 34th. 

Lance was the fastest runner on overall on this leg, but I still reckon that wasn’t as hard as trying to get changed afterwards with a flimsy towel in a high wind.

As I arrived at leg 9, I saw the Aylesbury runner leading off, followed shortly by Mark Worringham for the A team, whose legs were definitely turning over a lot more quickly than those ahead of him. Indeed, Mark had (above)checked the Power of 10 profile of his opponent while waiting, and knew it was in the bag. 

For the B team, it was Ben Whalley, en route from Devon, the ladies, Alice Carpenter, and the vets David Caswell, who had accidentally signed up during a post-Manchester Marathon celebratory drink. I forget nothing. 

No surprise that the A team took the lead and finished this very tough 10.7 mile leg in first, with the Bs 15th, vets 24th and ladies 34th. Mark was the fastest runner overall on this leg, and Ben was third. 

Alice incurred a five-minute penalty due to inadvertently taking a short cut, that I had inadvertently shown her as the correct way when we did a recce of the leg together. Oops. Fortunately the fate of the ladies’ team was not hanging on this fact, and I promise we will go back and do it properly.

And so the A team went into the final leg with an eight-minute lead over Vale of Aylesbury, and with Headington a further 28 minutes behind.

While our supporters were hoping anchor man Matt Davies could hang on for 9.4 miles, Matt (left) had other ideas, increasing the lead to bring the team home to Marlborough Leisure Centre nine minutes ahead of second place. He had run the fifth-fastest time for that leg. 

The trophy that Glynne Jones had come all the way back from family in Slough for, to unlock from the cabinet so it could be returned, was coming straight back to Palmer Park.

Meanwhile, there was another mass start for leg 10, at 5.30pm, and up were Ollie Watts for the Bs, Liz Johnson for the ladies and Pete Jewell for the vets. They finished in 15th, 32nd and 23rd respectively, with the ladies fourth Mostly Ladies team, and the vets second Vets team, only two minutes behind the winners. We definitely have the depth in this club to aim for more than one trophy!

Next year’s race will be on June 21st. Yes, it is always on Father’s Day, but what better way to spend it?

Pictures: Barry Cornelius, Phil Reay, David Fiddes.

Results: http://marlboroughrunningclub.org.uk/uploads/files/documents/Ridgeway%20Relay%202019%20Draft520Results.pdf

CHAUFFEUR, head cook, team organiser, runner and race report writer… SAM WHALLEY covered the whole gamut of jobs on the first weekend of the summer relay season. Here’s her report from our ladies’ trip to the Midlands…

IT WAS Helen Pool’s idea to try and get a team together for the British Masters Road Relays at Sutton Park, so we have her to blame/thank. 

An email was duly sent out to all women of an appropriate age, and we were delighted to have replies from seven who were both interested and available.

Team entries are based on the number of runners anticipated in each ten-year age group; V35 teams needed four runners, while V45, V55 and V65 teams only required three. 

The age spread of our women was one x35, five x45 and one x55, and with runners allowed to run in a younger age group but not an older one, we had to be organised into a V35 and a V45 team, with our three strongest runners put into the latter.

Disaster struck on the eve of the race, when Katherine Sargeant’s iffy hamstring was deemed unsuitable for the task of running 5k. 

This is when it would be really good to have a pool of reserves to call upon at very short notice. Alas, we had no such pool, and runners were only allowed to run once, for one team.

Nevertheless, we were all still keen to run, even with an incomplete team. Indeed, Claire Seymour was already halfway through her mini-break in Birmingham, and raring to go.

We were thankful for our 7am departure for Sutton Coldfield, when, for reasons best known to herself, the designated driver (that was me) veered off the blue line indicated by the sat nav and then missed the first exit that would have set us back on the right track, in favour of a half-hour detour down the M6 and back up the other side, in the average speed limit stretch, no less. 

I can neither repeat in print the words that emerged from my mouth, nor apologise enough to my passengers.

In spite of this brain malfunction, we arrived with the desired hour to spare, enough time to put up the tent, update our team declaration sheet, and prepare for the race, with the leg one runners on the start line at 10.30.

Helen Pool and Paloma Crayford did the honours for leg one, with Helen keen to beat her big local rival, and Paloma already chuffed to be trying something out of her comfort zone. 

With this being an undulating one-lap course, the first runners were due back after around 18 minutes, pretty swift for senior female athletes, let alone masters. 

The changeover line was a serious business. We were called from the holding pen in order, as our incoming runners appeared halfway up the finishing hill — oh yes, it finished on an uphill, why wouldn’t it? — and were told not to waste time looking behind us, as we would be given a three-second countdown and a tap on the shoulder when they had crossed the line.

This made me feel really nervous, and fearful of a false start. Lesley Whiley had already been told off for only having two pins on her numbers.

Helen was back in sixth place for the V45s, in 21:31, ahead of her nemesis — yes! — while Paloma felt the benefit of the inevitable leg one speediness and ran a fantastic 24:36 for 26th place. Had Paloma been running in her actual age category, this would have been 15th.

Lesley and I took the metaphorical baton for leg two. With numbers worn front and back, it should have been easy to see who we were racing against. 

From a personal point of view, those age group numbers needed to be quite a lot larger for me to be able to see whether someone was in my race or not, given that everyone had spread out so much over leg one, but as with any team race my aim was to run as fast as possible, not lose any positions, and pick people off if I could. 

Such was the nature of the course, that splits were somewhat erratic, and, while I felt like I should have been able to run faster, I was pleased to not lose any places — phew! — and come in at 25:16, while Lesley, running in an age group one below her own, slipped one place, courtesy of second-claim runner and former Reading Roadrunner Sarah Urwin-Mann. 

Lesley was still the eighth fastest V45 runner over this leg, with a great time of 23:43. This would have been the 12th fastest time of the day in the V55 race.

Lesley and I handed over to Julie Rainbow and Claire Seymour, respectively. Julie, who is in fantastic form at the moment, achieving PBs in some distances for the first time in many years, ran an excellent leg, the fifth fastest V45 time in that leg, with 22: 41, and brought the V45 team home in seventh place. 

Claire also had a great run, in 25:35, and gained one place, with the team finishing in 25th after the three legs.

As an incomplete team, however, we were then left hanging, with no final position listed, but could be pleased with our performance, and that none of us had got caught by the V55s or V65s, who had set off five minutes after us.

A relatively uneventful journey home had us brushing with travelling Manchester City fans and discussing the best marathon training plans, but mostly involved refuelling with sandwiches, salads and home-baked goods from Paloma and myself. See what you could be missing? 

We all agreed it would be a brilliant event to have on our regular race calendar. Note: You can see a copy of such a team race calendar on the noticeboard at Palmer Park.

Later, Lesley reflected on her best performance at the very same road relays, back in 1999, when she ran 17:57, and the Reading Roadrunners V35 women won the prize for second team — wow! Something for the speedier veterans among you to aspire to, perhaps? 

In the meantime, we will most definitely be back.

Results: https://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2019/bmafw19.pdf

Pictures: Bryan Dale