no-longer-in-Belfast 24 hr 6/7 July 2012

menoscemo

Thomas is up to 200k (125ish miles) with half an hour to go, holding onto second. Wounded knee is on 129 miles and looks safe at this point.

Dunebuggy

Well Done to Aisling Coppinger, 6th overall - 1st lady - over 100miles!!

liamo123

Now that the dust had settled on what I can only describe as an epic event here's a few personal thoughts...

First and foremost everyone who competed, crewed, organised and volunteered are hero's in my eyes. We had to endure about 14 hours of what can only b described as monsoon type conditions. The track flooded and even the best quality tents leaked..

http://www.twitvid.com/UBS17


My race started to go downhill after about 3 hours with the recurrence of a hip injury and despite visiting the physio's tent 3 times by 12 hours my situation was hopeless.. Carried out til about 18 hours when I pulled the plug much to the relief of my parents and wife tough my 6 years old daughter had absoulely no sympathy and kept asking her dad why he quit the little monkey


As I said earlier everyone associated with this race deserve huge credit but a special mention a few ;



Woundedknee : Great performance by John .To watch him keep up a steady pace hour after hour was amazing. He knew I was in bother from early on and despite being focussed on his race he slowed up to give me huge encouragement and advice every time he passed . Really appreciated it John.


Enduro : Despite having stomach difficulties early in the race he kept up a good pace so it was a pity to c him having to retire.


Aisling Coppinger aka the Duracell Bunny : Great performance and only for some stomach issues would have went quite a bit further.


Paul O Rourke : I grew up with Paul and we decided to do this race together. He was flying up to 8 hours and was 2nd for a period of time but went through a bad patch but kept it going and got over 100 miles.


Hot to Trot : Not long back from injury and came very close to winning the the 12hr race. Well done girl


TFBubendorfer : What a performance. With Hunnymonster doing a great job Thomas stuck to his plan and got stronger as the race progressed . Well done sir .

hot to trot

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

And Enduro to give him a good run for his money

Such Humility...... TFB to give him a good run for his money:D.

Awesome performances in dreadful conditions. I was very thankful that Ed let me do the second 12 hours seeing as I was unable to make the first 12, so I didnt have as prolonged a time in the rain.
Lovely to put faces to names especially from boards . Will do race report soon ( short one

Congratulations to Wounded Knee, TFB, Eddie,and everyone for such inspirational running and support in my own race and Liamo for getting my bag.
Enduro, Ha, now I know who you are.;)

hot to trot

Official results http://www.precisiontiming.net/result/view/id/211

Oisin11178

Well done everyone that ran. Very surprised that only 7 went over 100 miles and that the winner of the 12 hour was 66 miles.

hot to trot

14 participants versus about 45 last year? 8 in the final tally this year included the individual totals of the relay runners.

You also have to factor in the weather which was truly atrocious. Many were just frozen, wet and exhausted trying to keep body temp up and morale I reckon. The numbers might not have been as high but the mileage was worth more for the effort required to get there.

You coming to take the 100 title next year. You'd be great for it?

Oisin11178

hot to trot wrote: »

14 participants versus about 45 last year? 8 in the final tally this year included the individual totals of the relay runners.

You also have to factor in the weather which was truly atrocious. Many were just frozen, wet and exhausted trying to keep body temp up and morale I reckon. The numbers might not have been as high but the mileage was worth more for the effort required to get there.

You coming to take the 100 title next year. You'd be great for it?

Id never get close to the boys at the sharpe end of these races. Id have gotten over 110 this year i reckon. We will never know now i suppose. Why was there only 14 running it this year. Thats a massive drop in numbers in one year.

hot to trot

I meant you would be a great bet for the 12 hour title. You'd be massive at it .

Oisin11178

hot to trot wrote: »

I meant you would be a great bet for the 12 hour title. You'd be massive at it .

Ill be up there next year i reckon but would love to do the 24 hour again. Would feel like i wasnt getting my moneys worth just doing 12:D

hot to trot

I'd love another shot at a 100k. Is Portumna , the trail one in Fermanagh, and the Oxfam trail one the only ones we have ? Not used to trails :-(

hunnymonster

We could organise a low key one ourselves h2t?

Oisin11178

hunnymonster wrote: »

We could organise a low key one ourselves h2t?

Would love to do a point to point 100km but for obvious reasons they are alot harder to Organise. The lakelands 100k is fairly tough according to the lads that did it. Would love to do one fresh and finally get under 10 hours.

Enduro

Well that was a great race overall.

Unfortunately from my own perspective it was as bad a race experience as I've ever had.

Some outstanding performances on the day.

Hats off to John O'Regan. He's always got a very well planned approach and this was no exception. He exectuted it from the off and adapted it as needed as the race unfolded. Another superb win for him.

Thomas Bubendorfer was a revelation. He has found his natural distance. A fantastic performance, and even more so for being his debut, not that you would have been able to tell that from his racing performance. Anyone who can hold off Eddie Gallen is doing very well indeed. It will be interesting to see how he builds on that!

Aisling Coppinger was the other stand-out performance. She also executed a nearly perfect race strategy and gave it her all, physically and mentally. She was another debut racer to the distance who raced like a veterern.

It was good to put a few more boardsie faces to names. The highlight of which was HotToTrot's glamourous entrance onto the track in the midnight monsoon

My own little race nightmare started almost from the off. Gastro problems had me loosing at least 800m every hour, which adds up fairly quickly as a problem in itself. The bigger problem was that this led to my diaphragm being quite sore and occasionally spasming, so that breathing became very difficult and laboured. That eventually reached a tipping point where I could no longer run because of it, so I walked a lap or two and even at that was breathing with difficulty, so sat down with the support crew for a bit, who got in some outside opinions. The medics strongly advised that I withdraw, and for once I listened.

The sense of frustration is huge, as even with all the problems, the weather etc, I was running very well and I know myself it would have been a great race between John and myself in different circumstances... next time!

Big thanks to the support crews who made it all possible for all the athletes. A huge thanks to my own pair (shared with John) of Jarlath and Des, who were fantastic throughout.

TFBubendorfer

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I have been pretty much off-grid for the last few days and only returned home yesterday.

The race was unbelievable and an unforgettable experience, both for the result and the pain I had to go through to get there.

Right now I'm still firmly in the "never-run-another-step-in-my-life" camp.

If you are exceptionally bored and have a lot of time on your hand, I have finished my race report. http://rubbishrunner.blogspot.ie/2012/07/round-and-round-in-circles.html . But consider yourself warned. This one is long enough to reflect the race.

Krusty_Clown

Thanks TBB and congrats again. I'll set aside the weekend tor read the race report.

hot to trot

Fantastic race report reflecting a fantastic performance.
Congratulations once again. You were a total gentleman on the track yourself , encouraging the rest of us " down the back ".
Look forward to seeing you on the long mile again.;)

PaulieYifter

Been waiting for this and expected it would be a longer wait for a longer report for your longest race. Absolutely epic Thomas - Maybe I'll try that biting the tongue trick at some stage. Well done.

dev123

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I have been pretty much off-grid for the last few days and only returned home yesterday.

The race was unbelievable and an unforgettable experience, both for the result and the pain I had to go through to get there.

Right now I'm still firmly in the "never-run-another-step-in-my-life" camp.

If you are exceptionally bored and have a lot of time on your hand, I have finished my race report. http://rubbishrunner.blogspot.ie/2012/07/round-and-round-in-circles.html . But consider yourself warned. This one is long enough to reflect the race.

Unreal running TFB. You definitely captured the mood of what it must feel like to run around a track in the early hours of the morning, in the rain.

Out of curiosity are they a pair of Green Silence that you are wearing in one of the pictures? If so, how did you find them over the course of the race?

RayCun

Great report.
But you are completely insane :eek:

TFBubendorfer

dev123 wrote: »

Out of curiosity are they a pair of Green Silence that you are wearing in one of the pictures? If so, how did you find them over the course of the race?

Blimey, you have a good eye. Yes, I wore a pair of Brooks Green Silence and found them very comfortable. It was a choice between them and a pair of Nike Elite Plus and I picked the lighter ones because I thought every gram counts over such a long distance and I have no need for stability features.

I would have changed them at any stage had I felt like it but in actual fact they remained comfortable for the entire 24 hours.

dev123

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

dev123 wrote: »

Out of curiosity are they a pair of Green Silence that you are wearing in one of the pictures? If so, how did you find them over the course of the race?

Blimey, you have a good eye. Yes, I wore a pair of Brooks Green Silence and found them very comfortable. It was a choice between them and a pair of Nike Elite Plus and I picked the lighter ones because I thought every gram counts over such a long distance and I have no need for stability features.

I would have changed them at any stage had I felt like it but in actual fact they remained comfortable for the entire 24 hours.

I have the same pair, the blue and green ones. Thats how they caught my eye.
For what is regarded as a minimalist shoe they lasted the distance for you. I saw Mick Rice in a pair recently so it seems they are well suited distance running.

Aimman

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I have been pretty much off-grid for the last few days and only returned home yesterday.

The race was unbelievable and an unforgettable experience, both for the result and the pain I had to go through to get there.

Right now I'm still firmly in the "never-run-another-step-in-my-life" camp.

If you are exceptionally bored and have a lot of time on your hand, I have finished my race report. http://rubbishrunner.blogspot.ie/2012/07/round-and-round-in-circles.html . But consider yourself warned. This one is long enough to reflect the race.

Well done on the race Thomas , thoroughly enjoyed the race report too, brought back good and bad memories. take it easy for a little while, the recovery is a long process from this one.

tang1

Two & half pages on this in this months Mens Running, focusing on John O' Regan.

hot to trot

Sharon Gayter won the inaugural Grand 2 Grand ultra this week. First self supporting stage race in the USA in and around the Grand Canyon.
Bit dryer and warmer than belfast