Lets play "How far can The ZMan run"?
Well its 5 weeks until the next crazy race. The Carkeek 12 hour. The premise of the race is simple. How many times can you run round a 1.93 mile loop in 12 hours. I start at 6am in the dark and I end at 6pm also in the dark. Only whole laps count. Just to make it interesting the trail has 430 feet of elevation gain including a flight of stairs and a nasty hill. This is going to be a real leg killer.
Here's some blog posts about previous races:
http://runningfurther.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-love-smell-of-dead-salmon-in-morning.html
http://2runandnotgrowweary.blogspot.com/2008/11/carkeek-12-hour-well-85-anyway.html
and a cool video http://mhansonphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/carkeek-12-hour-race-stopmotion.html
So here's the competition. How many laps do you think I will do. And how long will it take me. Time will only be used as a tie break for people who guess the same number of laps. Time will of course be less than 12 hours! No I dont have any prizes other than I will mention you in the blog which is pretty special.
Since many of you will like to be analytical in your calculations here's some facts.
If I run at my best paces for other races these would be the distances I could cover in 12 hours:
5k pace = 92 miles / 47 laps
10k pace = 89 miles / 46 laps
half marathon pace = 82 miles / 42 laps
full marathon pace = 75 miles / 38 laps
50k pace = 63 miles / 32 laps
The longest I have been on my feet running for was 7 hours in a treasure hunt type race with lots of stops and lunch/dinner breaks. I covered 26 miles in those 7 hours and was still in good shape. I could have kept going but I don't know if it was 5 hours worth of 'keep going'.
The course records for this very hard course are 54 miles (28 laps) for women and 62 miles (32 laps) for men. I am not even close to the calibre of the people who did this.
430 feet of elevation in 2 miles is considered pretty hilly running.
Stairs are leg killers. My plan is to walk (briskly) the stairs on each lap becuase there's no point in running the first 2 just for the hell of it.
I have been running a training loop which is about 4 miles, 350ft of elevation and 220 stairs once a week to prepare my legs. Hills and stairs have got noticable easier to do.
I will have supporters cheering me every loop and running buddies have promised to come and run/walk/crawl some laps with me to help. This may not be as useful as you think if I am down to 20 minute miles on bloody stumps.
My personal goals for the race are:
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Go further than I have before (31.6miles/50k) and run for longer than I have (7 hours)
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If #1 looks good then I would like to hit 40 miles (about half way between a 50k and a 50 miler)
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Other than injury or fatigue like I have never felt before I intend to go for all 12 hours - walking as needed
Remember - how many 1.93 laps and how long to complete those laps.... post your comments..