The race began at midday with an understated 'go' and without the usual bleeping of watches being started. We set off (about 30 of us) at a pace each deemed to be 'sensible'. Having trawled the net & taken advice from the experts my plan was to try and average 5mph, consisting of 20mins slow running with 1 rest walking lap between and 5-20minutes rest per hour. The leaderboard was updated hourly and occasionally my lap counter would relay significant distances to me, i'll try to insert these at the appropriate point in this report.

Between 2pm & 3pm was lunch time! Bizarre as it was to be munching a jacket potato so early, i was actually hungry. After a few walking laps to let it go down it was back to the plan.

Now here was the first highlight! Every 4 hours we got to change directions. I'm not sure if this was for the track's benefit or ours. This first one was a little traumatic as my brain had got quite accustomed to going the one direction.

With the marathon distance completed i was heading into unknown territory!

50miles complete which is a little ahead of schedule, although to be honest i'd expected to have ditched the plan by now!

Coming up to 1am my first real low point. I sat by my tent and can remember saying to andy (my 'handler') 'i'm screwed'. Taking a realistic look at the situation i hadn't eaten anything significant for around 5hrs. Andy fetched a rice pudding from my crate which i didn't really feel like eating but knew i needed. Having eaten half of it i decided a could at least be walking round whilst i ate. After the rice pudding and half a can of redbull i perked up amazingly quickly.

With 60miles down and 10hrs to go i decided that averaging 4mph was a good enough target. Three laps running followed by one of walking made a mile, do it four times and so long as each set was less than 15mins i knew i was banking rest time. This worked great for a couple of hours anyway as i thought about nothing else, someone described me as 'floating round' at this point, i guess this is what they call association (or have i just been reading too many running books?).

At around 3-4am came my next low point. Despite being in tracksters, thermal top, windproof, cap & gloves the temperature had dropped markedly, meaning even one walking lap left me freezing cold. I did have warmer clothes in the tent, but not really the presence of mind to fetch them. I got a coffee & warmed up in the changing room but another couple of laps left me cold again. This time i warmed up in the medical room where they suggested some soup, and a warmer hat (doh)! I did, and despite looking stupid with a bizarre combination of clothes on and spilling soup all down myself, it worked.

Not sure when breakfast actually was but i don't think anyone was really in the mood for breakfast by this point, although the smell of toast was tempting. I forced down some porridge and a couple of peices of toast.

At about this point my left calf had tightened, making running quite painful. It was all i could push myself into to walk round. I gritted my teeth and set my sights on getting to 80miles.

With somewhere round 80miles completed i took my longest break of 30mins, during which i had an agonising massage on my calves. I was hoping this would have magical effects, it did help but not quite enough! However i now had 90miles in my sights if i could only average 5mph again, the speed i'd started out at 22hours earlier! By breaking the track into straights and bends, and alternating walking and running (of a kind) the sections i managed to make some progress. By this stage i was again totally concentrated on my goal, head down all i saw was the white lane marking that i only deviated from when i needed to overtake.

With an hour to go and my band of supporters regrouping for the big finish i was still single minded. I was persuaded to pause for some pain relief gel on my calf, which meant i could force myself on.

With 10minutes from the end of the 24 hours my lap counter told me i had 2 laps to go to 90miles. I was ecstatic and although i probably didnt look it, i managed to run those last two, and a few more as i'd been advised in case of lap counting error!

With 90miles complete i was happy, the next lap round each person was accompanied by a marker person and when the whistle went the 24hrs was up and where we stopped marked our final distance. 24hr: 14th: 90miles 577yards

Needless to say i could barely walk to get the train home, thanks to my wife who manhandled all my kit as i hobbled alongside. Feeling like death i finally got home and back to bed after 37hrs! With the monday off work, muscular recovery was surprisingly quick over the next week with joints and tendons taking longer to recover. So how do i feel now? has it changed me? would i do it again? Despite the fatigue, the pain and the generally gruelling experience i'm really pleased to have done it, mentally and physically it really was an amazing experience. Other than reinforcing my like of slightly sadistic challenges i don't think i'm much changed. I've gained the hindsight from training and taking part in this kind of event and some more proof that almost anything can be acheived with preparation & a considered approach. I promised myself on the way home that i wouldn't do it again..... not in 2004 anyway... but in 2005 maybe, i can see where another 10miles could be had! I'm absolutely positive this report doesn't encompass even half of the magnitude and atmosphere of the event or even half of the emotions i experienced, but i hope it's at least a taster.
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