Rising to the Challenge

This week we feature two valiant solo challenges taken on by two HW athletes, Lisa Thomas and Richard McDowell, who in the absence of organised competitions, decided to test themselves in very different ways.

Lisa, who is the current W50 European and British Masters Champion and British record holder for the 2000m steeplechase, topped the World Masters Rankings for her age group in 2019 with a time of 7:50.15 set during the Herne Hill Open Meeting at Tooting Bec in August. She also finished the year ranked number one in the UK over the 1500m steeplechase, and second in the world – and number one in the UK – over the 300m hurdles. This outdoor season she moved into the W55 category with her sights set on breaking the world record of 7:58.43 for the 2000m steeplechase set by Margaret Orman of New Zealand back in 1979. But with all competitions cancelled or postponed, there had been no opportunity to test herself over the barriers – until the weekend before last.

Photo courtesy of Yvonne Dunne photography

After the cancellation of the 2020 World Masters Athletics (WMA) Championships in Toronto, which were due to take place at the end of July, the Worldwide Virtual Masters Challenge was conceived as a way of enabling athletes to compete and connect in various categories that catered for different circumstances and stages of lockdown in countries around the world.

Lisa chose to run her favoured event, the 2000m steeplechase, under Category B, which allowed the timing and judging to be done by friends/coaches rather than qualified officials.

HW coach Anne Hegvold kindly agreed to wind up her Sunday morning training session early, in order to leave the track free for Lisa's run, and under the watchful eye of Mick Leigh, HW's Covid-19 co-ordinator, stadium manager Richard Weston and coach Dermot Dunne, with a small band of helpers and supporters, cleaned and set up the barriers in line with Covid-19 guidelines, filled the water jump and cheered Lisa on at a social distance!

Of course, should she have run a world record time, it would not have been recognised in the official rankings, but having only just graduated from 'easy distance running' to some sprint training, Lisa knew she would be some way off her competitive best. Friends may have been billing her solo run as a 'world record attempt' but in reality it was designed to be a valuable time trial that would help her judge her fitness and put her in the right frame of mind to stay focused in the competitive vacuum.

Even without the spur of an actual race, however, she negotiated the 18 barriers and 5 water jumps in an unofficial time of 8:04.41. So when 'real' competitions are allowed to begin, the world record looks sure to topple. 'Of course, like many athletes, I was disappointed when all competitions were put on hold due to the pandemic. In particular, I was preparing for the World Masters Championships in Toronto, which is my university town', says Lisa. 'So now the goal is the European Championships in Tampere, Finland in 2021, and achieving an unofficial 8:04.41, which would smash the current W55 British record of 8:38.29, has given me the benchmark I needed to carry on training through all this uncertainty. So thank you to the HW Committee for giving me the green light to set up the track.

'If there are other competitions of a sufficient calibre before Tampere, I will do my best to break the record before the Championships, because, for me, international competitions are all about bringing a medal home for my country; the time is secondary. That's what I concentrated on in Venice last year at the European Championships (during which she broke her own British record) and it really helped to diffuse the pressure I was feeling in the lead-up to the event'.

Alongside training for the steeplechase, Lisa also plans to focus on the 300m hurdles. 'That has been the real surprise success,' she says, 'and I want to thank both Dermot and Geoff Walcott for giving me the confidence to pursue the hurdles at international level'.

In the space of a fortnight in August last year Lisa lowered the British W50 2000m steeplechase record an amazing five times, from 8:08.38 at the British Masters Championships in Birmingham, to her current record of 7:50.15, set at Tooting Bec.

Thanks to live tracking, a friend was able to capture a couple of moments of Richard in action, while studiously avoiding any kind of support or encouragement, in line with the rules of running unsupported!

Taking it to the limit... one more time

Those of you who follow this newsletter may remember distance runner and marathon specialist Richard McDowell's 'little jog' over 60K along the Jubilee Greenway route back in June, a distance beyond anything he had run before. The challenge he set himself then was to better the record posted on the FKT (Fastest Known Time) website, which features best performances for trails all over the world. The route began and finished at Buckingham Palace and for some of the way overlapped the much more daunting and hilly 126K (78 mile) Capital Ring (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/capital-ring) which he had dismissed as a bit too serious!. But that was in June, and a lot can change in a month! 'The step up to the Capital Ring seemed huge at the time, but the seed of possibility had been planted in my mind' he says, 'and over the next few weeks it flourished into a plan with a purpose. Going after a new record, he admits, was probably spurred on by his virtual rivalry with fellow M40 distance runner Paul Martelletti of Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets AC, who as Richard predicted, broke his FKT record for the Jubilee Greenway by 6 minutes just a week later.

'As had been the case for the Greenway, it seemed as if it should be a formality to improve upon the existing record (11:57:13)', Richard surmised, 'partly because it had been set by the same runner whose Greenway record I had snatched away by nearly an hour (before Paul Martelletti weighed in!).

The FKT guidelines allow for three different categories: 'supported', in which a friend or crew may supply sustenance and any help, barring physical assistance. If someone runs or hikes alongside for any distance then the time must be classified as supported. The second category is 'self-supported', in which no pre-arranged people can help, but food or drink can be cached in advance or bought or begged along the way. The final category, 'unsupported', means no external support of any kind, so you must carry anything you need with you from start to finish, as Richard did while taking on the Jubilee Greenway. 'The only exception is picking up water from public taps', explains Richard. The Capital Ring record had been set 'self supported', but while Richard was planning his challenge the record was lowered again by another runner who completed the circuit in 11:33:32 minutes, and this time ran unsupported. 'So clearly I had to do likewise', says Richard.

'My major unknown was at what pace I could run while still letting my GI system operate normally. This wasn’t just simple arithmetic, i.e applying a formula to my marathon time to factor in the increased length and keep an equivalent aerobic exertion level. To keep going for this length of time I needed to be getting fuel and more importantly fluids in, otherwise I wouldn’t last the distance, certainly not at a respectable pace.

'This would require slowing down considerably, but by how much I had no idea. I managed to tap into some knowledge from Robbie Britton, a very well respected ultra-marathon runner who corroborated my suspicions and suggested that a 5-minute walk break every hour would give my body the opportunity to cool down a bit and get nutrition in easily.

'After creating a spreadsheet (there is always a spreadsheet involved in my planning!) and playing around with a few numbers to determine my final time, I settled on a goal pace of 4:40/km or 7:30/mile which is a 3:17 marathon pace', he says. 'Along with multiple stops for water, which varied in duration depending on how much I would be taking on board at that point, the total time came out at almost exactly 10 hours 15 minutes. This seemed like a fairly achievable goal in theory and would knock a satisfying 1 hour 18 minutes from the record.

'As the route is twice as long and much more complicated than the Greenway, I decided that a recce would be highly beneficial. On Saturday 11th July I headed out on my mountain bike to ride an entire lap and recorded the whole thing on my GoPro to review subsequently. I had the opportunity to check out the various points where I would need to stop for water, for two of which I needed a British Waterways Key on the Grand Union Canal and River Lee. While some of the sections I already knew (Crystal Palace to Richmond, Stratford to Woolwich) there were a lot of areas I had never ventured through, and getting the lay of the land in advance was highly beneficial'. However even riding the route took over 8 hours and a few days for the legs to bounce back.

'After all the planning it was time to pick a date for my attempt. I thought a weekday would be less antisocial, since abandoning the family for yet another silly running challenge at a weekend was sure to wear thin eventually! I was keeping an eye on the weather and it looked as though there would be a slight drop in temperature on Monday/Tuesday 20-21st, so given my work diary was empty on Tuesday, I booked a day of holiday.

'I jogged over to the start which I had chosen as the West gate of Wimbledon Park (although the route officially starts at Woolwich Foot Tunnel, being circular, it can be started and finished at any point). This meant I wouldn’t have any issue with parks being locked at that time, and after sending a live tracking link out, began my run at around 6:15am', he says.

'The route takes in dozens of parks and green spaces, often linked with sections of suburban housing around London and is a great way of seeing the contrasting areas around our capital. It heads across Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, along a stretch of the Thames before heading up the Grand Union Canal and then branching up alongside the River Brent. A bit of a hill at Horsenden Park is followed by a bigger one at Harrow on the Hill, heading east through North Wembley, Brent Cross and East Finchley, climbing up to Highgate Wood. An old railway line then takes you to Finsbury Park and through Stoke Newington to reach the River Lee. It is then pancake flat along the river, connecting to the Greenway out to Beckton and North Woolwich. After crossing under the Thames the route then climbs significantly up to Shooters Hill and across to Eltham. It then climbs again from New Beckenham up to Crystal Palace, dropping through Upper Norwood, Streatham, Tooting Bec Common, Wandsworth Common, Earlsfield and back to Wimbledon Park.

'It was around half distance that I started to feel fatigued, ironically on the flattest part of the route. I was half contemplating abandoning the attempt, but I managed to push doubts to one side and keep plodding on, as I was fairly confident I could set a new record even if I did slow significantly. Some caffeine certainly helped to perk me up a bit before hitting the hills south of the river. Quite a few walk breaks ensued on the ascents, and even on the flat sections, but I managed to hold it together physically and mentally to the end, and remarkably finished within a minute of my spreadsheet prediction in 10:14:55.

'The tracking meant that my phone battery died somewhere around Eltham, so I was unable to call an Uber to get home, but the two and a half mile walk probably stopped me from completely seizing up immediately. I have to admit that I was an utter physical wreck the following day, and the stairs presented a major challenge to getting around, but by Thursday I was feeling much closer to normality again!'

See Richard's record at https://fastestknowntime.com/route/capital-ring-london-uk