UltramarathonMike

A long while back I got an email from Keith who runs ultramarathonrunning.com asking about putting a link on here. His email pushed me to have a look at what is a rather unkempt part of the site, the links section, it should be full of links to helpful resources like this, so here I am trying to make some sort of amends (and rambling on horrifically).
So, now there are a few new links on the right now and I’ll try and keep it up to date!

As far as training and race listings links go it’s a fair bet to say that Ultramarathonrunning.com is probably the most comprehensive resource out there and will be useful for pretty much anyone. Chris Carver has recently highlighted a link which I managed to read this lunch, it’s a study of the race time nutrition of ultrarunner Yiannis Kouros’ Sydney to Melbourne run. see, http://run-to-london.blogspot.com/. What I really found interesting about the article was how similar it seemed to be to Chris Carvers plan on his Run to London.

If you’re beginning to think that Winter is only about bare minimum training and dashes out between the rain/snow/wind/ice then Jez Braggs excellent report on a Winter run of the West Highland Way may just make you rethink. Although good I’m not sure the 80 miles of the Wolds Way will be quite as magical in a couple of weeks! Jez is making another appearance at the Western States 100 this year, going by last years ever increasing performances I can imagine he has it in him to deliver an even more amazing run in than 2009 … that would be incredible.

In the mean time enjoy this excellent video from James Jarvis:

The results have been posted here and they make great reading.

I got a text from Chris the other night with his position and result, but didn’t see the rest of the results until now. Chris put in a great performance of 231.506km/143.8miles netting him 5th overall, 1st England position and leading in the silver team, exceptional. His thoughts are posted on his blog.
Sharon Gayter took 1st place in the 24h hour race and second place was also held by England runner Vicky Skelton. Bethany Clague also managed to put in a new PB with 176km/109.3miles. Great effort.

The mens 100km was dominated by the England team taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with Jez Bragg taking 1st in 7hours 5minutes.

Just wish I had been there!!

The Lakeland market town of Keswick is currently hosting the Mountain and Ultra Commonwealth Championships, this inaugral event sees athletes competing in 100km, 24 hour, 8k and 12k uphill-only and 12k looped course.
Sadly, my trip up with Megan had to be curtailed when it twigged that she would be at School. It’s great to see these disciplines join the Commonwealth games.

In the 100k the only runner I know anything about is Jez Bragg who is young, unstoppable, sponsored by North Face and has had a great year. His race starts tomorrow, two laps of a rather tough course …

Getting 3rd place in the brutal Western States 100 comes with serious bragging (no pun intended!) rights so if Jez thinks 24 hour races are crazy, they must be!
The 24 hour race was held between the 17-18th September (finishing yesterday) but I haven’t yet seen any results. I am waiting to hear how well Chris Carver has done, he worked hard and put in some excellent performances to get to the championships. In addition to Chris, Sharon Gayter was running for the women’s team and I found out today that Bethany Clague was representing the Isle of Man after her performance in the East Hull 24 Hour Race. Speaking of East Hull, Jim Rodgers of the local East Hull Harriers was also on the 24 hour team, again after a qualifying run in the East Hull 24 Hour Race.

For more information on the Commonwealth Championships can be found on the official site at http://www.cumbriacommonwealthchampionships.org/