Pennington does the virtual ultra double

In our first race report for a while, we have two detailed reports on virtual ultras from Steve Pennington. Steve ran the Centurion 50k, winning the V50 category in a fine time of 3:26 (going through the marathon mark in an impressive 2:55). Two weeks later Steve and his girlfriend Lisa ran the Endure 24-hour race, and together they completed 123 miles.

Centurion 50k

Having recently joined Heathside, I’d been training with the 9am group preparing for Boston marathon. Then those fateful few days in March happened and the spring majors were no more. After a few years of poor races, I was devastated not to get the chance to run my bucket list race, then my two back up marathons were cancelled, followed by the postponed 124th marathon becoming a virtual.

Having carried marathon fitness from chasing the Heathside Strava competition and 5K TT I stumbled across Centurion running and noticed a virtual race offering distances from 5k to 100mile over the span of one week. Initially I thought great I’ll go for the 100 mile and knock out some fast runs over the week but I then saw it was incremental time so thought why not try a 50k in one go. With three weeks to train what could go wrong? I strung together a few long runs and with advice from my long-distance running girlfriend, Lisa, I did two back-to-back weekend runs up to 24miles and a few quick 15 milers during the week.

With my untrained body I hatched out a plan, a lap of Regent Park and then lap St James Park until I hit 31.08 miles. I really had no idea how to pace this or what kind of form I was in so my plan was run the first five miles on 7min/mile and then if I could, to up the pace.

Lisa and I parked up north of Regent Park with a plan of her appearing every 45mins with water and gels. Off I went and was worried as the first mile clicked by in 6 minutes. I settled down into around 6:50 pace and comfortably knocked off a few miles. I got onto the St James loop and pretty much held 6:40 pace.

Having had all my marathons cancelled this year I think I held on to a fitness level I never knew I had, so was feeling better than I thought. I got a great boost from my girlfriend on the laps and from one of my running friends popping up, and I was running far better than I thought I would. I think this helped me go through 26.2miles in 2:55. On to the last few miles and I was over the moon as they clicked by on 6:30 to 6:40 pace. I finished in 3:26, just 2minsbehind the GB running legend Dan Lawson and won the V50 group.

Endure 24

This was my downfall, I had crazy disillusions of ultra-running and that night after a drinking celebration Lisa suggested the idea of running Endure 24 as a mixed pair. Stupidly we entered there and then in a Barnet & District / Heathside partnership.

Two weeks recovery from the 50k, no real training and straight into 24hour running, what could go wrong?

Saturday came around quickly and a warm and sunny day faced us, midday arrived and out for my first five miles. We are situated in Barnet at the top of a hill so every lap had a series of rises before we could get to the flat lands of Oakhill Park. I went around in about 8min/mile and handed over to Lisa. Not long later Lisa was back and I went off again for a double lap, 10miles at just over 8min/mile and I kept thinking, this is too fast. Back again and handed over to Lisa.

I had no idea what to eat, what to drink so I did what I’m used to - gels and flapjack and hoped for the best. I got ready for Lisa’s return and she arrived after putting in a hard leg. I suggested I do a long one so off I went again. Into the afternoon now and I negotiated a one hour run to give Lisa a bit more recovery. It soon came around and off I went again, I did a little longer run and put in almost 11 miles to get to 33 miles just before 8pm. Lisa, an experienced long distance runner, was now coming into her own and went out in full ultra running gear including Ultimate Direction backpack and nailed a solid two hour run. I didn’t want to go out again but on her return I did a further six miles, dragging myself around at nine min pace. Lisa was up next and it was approaching midnight so we decided to go out and walk four miles together. Barnet at that time of night was funny - we saw BBQs, bedroom raves, oversized lockdown parties, groups of teens. We called it a day at 1.30 as we were both really tired and set the alarm for 6am for a restart.

I rolled out for 8.5miles and managed to just about hold on for 8:30min/miles on very tired legs giving me almost 50miles. I handed over to Lisa and she really was in her element, another solid run from her and handed over to me for my last blast.

I just about managed 10miles to give me 61 miles and vowed never to run again. Lisa skipped off into the distance looking far too fresh. We arranged to walk the last few miles together in traditional Endure24 style and had a lovely walkup to Friary Park and back to give us the last two  miles. That was it, my first go at 24-hour running - 123 miles over around 19 hours of running (63 for me and 60 for her) and over the moon. Last year’s race at Wasing Park in Reading was won with 140 miles so we immediately thought 2021, let’s enter and go for the win.

I was amazed how far you can run on minimum training and for me I ran this using marathon endurance from Jan – April. This has left me thinking, what can I really do on a proper plan, go for a fast 50k, a hard run at 100k?

I’ve now had six races in 2020 cancelled and its looking like I won’t get to race a marathon this year so I’ve signed up for another virtual challenger – the Race to the Stones 100k. Anyone like to join me?

Report by Gavin Evans. Thanks to Steve Pennington.