Kent AC does UTMB (sort of..)
Firstly, thanks so much to the team captains for making this a great weekend. Secondly, thanks to Peter Lighting – has anyone ever been so gripped by a spreadsheet?
On Thursday Race HQ was worried, the early reports were that the competition was too hard, people weren’t going to make it. The rumour was that the plot had been well and truly lost. When, we looked at Strava on Friday morning and couldn’t quite believe what was unfolding; Adam Paterson had been spotted in Sydenham wearing a Camelbak, we were told he meant business and he did! 50 reps on ‘Hell Hill’ – wtf number 1. And he wasn’t alone out there, Mandy Nio was smashing out the Hell Hill reps to get team 3 going.
On a normal day, Calum’s 22 mile run around Hilly Fields would’ve been a talking point but Jake Herrera ran 50km around Hilly Fields at the same time. Then Will Pitt managed over 5,000ft of elevation on one hill in Greenwich Park
But surely, this couldn’t happen for a second day? Not to be outdone by Friday’s runners, Adrian Dracup registered the second 50k of the weekend. Len Reilly managed to bag 10 points for the steepest run of over 5 miles of the weekend on Saturday afternoon. (Honourable mention has to go to Mike Stewart who had the overall steepest run of the weekend)
At 8am on Saturday, I arrived at Canonbie Road to meet Rob and Nathan. When we got there, George had been there for a while and he was there for quite a while after we left. It’s fair to say that every member of team 1 ran well, but as a captain’s performance, George’s run ranks alongside Alan Shearer twice putting Newcastle ahead of Inter Milan at the San Siro in 2003 (I’m sure he remembers this well). 23 miles and over 9000 ft of elevation in one run.
There was also the bonus competition to take some Strava crowns which all of the men shied away from, not Amelia and Sarah H who both gained an extra 3 points for their teams.
This could go on forever and there are a lot of people who I’m sure will feel that they’ve been hard done by because they didn’t get a mention, but that is how competitive this was. We have been contacted by a couple of people to make this particular challenge an annual Kent AC event, regardless of social circumstances – we’re keen.
All the best,
Barny and Ben