Bislett 24 Hours, Indoor Track Race
6th – 7th December 2008
After sustaining a stress fracture to my left hip while running the Surgeres 48 Hour Race in France I missed my big race for the year in Badwater. I finally resumed light running by the end of August and after 3 easy weeks, 3 hard weeks and a 2 week taper I went to Tooting Bec, London to attempt to maintain my status as GB Number 1 for the 12th consecutive year. I always knew I was pushing my luck with fitness and the contingency plan was to assess the distance covered by 12 hours to see whether I was fit enough to achieve my goal. There had been one good performance so far this year by Pauline Walker at 210km so knew I had to beat this.
I ran well for 11 hours and then started to stiffen up in the hip region and my pace began to drop. By 12 hour it became evident that if I continued to slow up then 210km was beyond me and was not prepared to fight hard with a body that was not strong enough to deliver the goods and so turned to plan B which was to stop at 12 hours while still in reasonable shape and give myself another chance later in the year to try again. Vicky Skelton went on to pip Pauline by one kilometre finishing with 211km; both ladies ran very good personal bests to achieve these distances.
Within days of returning home I knew I could not give up without a fight and scoured the internet for one more attempt at a 24 hour race this year, with Winter closing in the cold months are not my best time, I suffer with Asthma in cold and windy conditions and wasn’t sure that I would even find a suitable race until I came across the Bislett 24 Hour Indoor Race. Now that fascinated me, I had never run indoors, it took out the weather conditions, no wind and rain, no wet feet, it sounded perfect. A quick look at the website and saw the first obstacle, the race entry had closed back in September with a full entry and waiting list for those waiting for a place from anyone that may drop out. I emailed the organiser anyway in hope that as a foreign athlete with a good distance to back me up I may gain entry. I was in luck and got an amazing email back, not only did this person already know who I was he sent a picture of me running at Tooting Bec running past my sign written van with Darlington Building Society and immediate entry into the race.
The training began and extra gym work for the hips, racing twice most weekends with a short blast in the regular 5km time trials at Albert Park, above 80 miles during the week, hill reps and weights. I had another 7 weeks to get fit. My 5km times improved initially but then took a nose dive on the last two weeks due to the cold conditions and the asthma took control.
The weekend finally arrived and was in good shape, no niggles at all, all planned training complete and a new bonus thrown in to challenge me – I had found out that the British Indoor 24 Hour Record stood at just 207km as set by Eleanor Robinson while running a 48 hour race. Other information had also come to light on selection criteria and so I was going into this race with five goals to spur me on:
Goal 1 - 200km, Selection distance for Commonwealth Demonstration event
Goal 2 – 207km, British Indoor Record
Goal 3 – 212km GB Number 1 for 12th year
Goal 4 – 213km UK Athletics “A” standard for World 24 Hours
Goal 5 – beat personal best of 217.5km
Our journey began leaving home in the snow early on Thursday morning for the drive to Stansted, by the time we reached Stokesley we were down to 20mph and the roads were treacherous and still snowing heavily. There was hardly any grip and the snow was getting deeper and deeper and saw several cars that had slid off the road. I thought the dual carriageway at the A19 would see improved conditions but it was only marginally better with lorries as well as cars slumped in the central reservation and hard shoulder. I began to regret not travelling down on the Wednesday as I had seen the forecast but luckily did have an extra day to play with if we didn’t make it in time. We progressed slowly and by the time we reached the A1 had already lost over an hour off our normal travelling time, but we had set off far earlier in anticipation of a slow journey. The snow was now beginning to easy as we headed south and reached Leeds. After some road works the roads were just very wet and the snow was turning to rain and finally began to pick up speed. The rest of the journey was great and easily arrived on time for our 3pm flight. Oslo Airport greeted us with deep blanket of snow and temperatures of minus 5. Quickly onto the bus for the 2 hour drive to the centre of Oslo and a short walk to the hotel. Clean, basic, but expensive.
Friday we visited the famous Bislett Stadium, it snowed all day. The track we were to run on was amazing, it runs under the main seating area and was just 2 track lanes wide, at points there were exit doors to the main 400m outdoor track that was about 10 steps above where we were to run, but they were all locked and the track obviously not in use. As for our running track there were several athletes training here already doing some sprint work. It was a 545m track, in the clockwise direction there was one downhill section and two shorter uphill sections and the track was not uniform, there was one straight of around 100m which also had a parallel 4 lane straight track to the side, the rest all appeared to be on a slight curve that varied in the angle of the curve, but far less severe than a 400m track. There were also several sets of open double doors to run through and one section was heated and classed as a “warm zone” of approximately 40% of the track, the remainder 60% as the “cold zone”.
Luck would have it that the first person I approached was the organiser Bjoern, I had not recognised him from Tooting Bec as I only ever saw the back of athletes and never saw their faces. He had supplied me with lots of information and photos of the track beforehand to help me understand this race. He was also very aware of my goals for this race and how important it was to me. As an ultra runner himself I just knew this was going to be a well organised race and the previous results spoke for themselves as some very good performances had been set here. My last request was for a table and chair to set ourselves up for Bill to support me during the race, this was supplied immediately and we chose our spot in the “warm zone”. There was 120 athletes competing, 36 of these were in the 12 hour race that started at the same time so space may be of a premium. Everything in place it was now back to the hotel for one last massage and relax and eat.
Saturday arrived and it had finally stopped snowing, but was bitterly cold and was even cold by Norway standards, reports were of minus 2 degrees for the day and minus 9 degrees for the night. It was hard to know exactly how cold I might feel with the continuous cycle of “hot, cold, hot, cold” but Bjoern had warned me this race would be cold and is more important to dress for this, especially as the race progresses and the pace drops. He was not wrong.
We arrived around 9:30am for the midday start and sat at my table drinking coffee. The temperature was reading 17 degrees in the warm zone. I met several friendly faces, Kim, who I had raced with in Libya and was a member of his National Team and Per Lind, the Norwegian Team Manager whom I had met several times in different countries. I was number 82 and had a personalised number with my name and national flag printed on it, very nice. The not so nice bit was having two very large championchips to strap to each ankle. These were different from all other chips I had seen and just knew they may cause a problem resting on the tendons on the front of my ankles later into the race, but the good news is you can concentrate on the race and not worry about a lap recorder missing you.
At 11:30 we were called to the starting area for a small opening ceremony, this was very nice, each athlete was grouped by Nationality and their name read out and National Anthem played. I was the only GB athlete and so felt very proud that my National Anthem was played just for me.
The race finally got underway at midday, I was feeling relaxed, my schedule had been written to achieve 214km, but on a good day could stretch the odd couple of km if a pb was within my reach. The starting pace is the key to this and had planned this precisely, no faster than 3 mins 05 seconds and no slower than 3 mins and 10 seconds. I got close to the front knowing this was a big field and hoping that I was one of the best in the field. I was aware of Sharon Broadwell, she had run 211km at this stadium last year and was ranked one below me in the world rankings last year (I was 11th and she was 12th ), so could prove to be a good battle.
Off we went and after starting in the warm zone we ran into the cold zone and down the slope and bang! Shock! This was really, REALLY cold! I was wearing long tights, a long sleeved shirt and a short sleeved shirt; it was absolutely freezing and could feel it take my breath away and cold on my arms. I needed another long sleeved shirt on was my immediate reaction, this was far colder than I anticipated, even indoors. I was told it should not get below plus five degrees, but an athlete who slept in the stadium the previous night told me it got down to minus 5 degrees in the cold zone and would be even colder tonight. Bill was sat waiting for me to circle, “get me the long sleeve blue shirt for next lap, it’s too cold”, the warm zone was good to get back to but did not last long, second lap round and I took off my t-shirt while running and tucked it in my tights ready for putting on my extra layer, Bill smoothly handed me the shirt and continued on my way. Three top layers on now, would this keep me warm enough?
I now went back to concentrating on the clock and getting my pace right, it was 3:20 for the first lap and 3:20 for the second and had noticed that Sharon Broadwell had overtaken me while putting on my extra shirt. One more lap and it was too slow, this is very rare for me the first couple of laps are usually too fast and am usually slowing myself down, was this a bad omen that I was not as good as I thought or was the cold having an immediate affect? I increased the pace slightly and got onto the tail of the other Sharon, she was with a big group of around 15 athletes and bit the bullet and overtook the lot to get into free space, 3 minutes was the result, settle down and relax now I was telling myself and soon the laps were like clockwork, spot on 3 mins 05 secs. The laps ticked by but was struggling to completely relax, it hadn’t taken that long to catch up the back markers and a continuous overtaking phase began, there was no chance of running on the inside of lane one, I was more often on the outside of lane 2, then weaving between runners. It was not great and you had to concentrate and be careful to anticipate runners who suddenly moved out in front of you to overtake an even slower runner in front of them.
I soon just got used to this, not completely happy and relaxed but this was the race and was what I had to do, at least it would thin out as time progressed and the 12 hour runners stopped. The hot and cold zone was a novel experience and was surprisingly easy to adapt to and did not cause any real problems. The track was also one of the most weird experiences ever, it is hard to describe and put into words, but part of it felt like running through someone’s living room, carpeted with a warm feeling and low ceilings, lined with tables full of athletes personal items, then through a set of doors and a kind of “tunnel experience” almost “Dr Who like” the walls were immediately either side of the two lanes, white and with low ceilings you could almost touch bending around an arc, then another set of doors and out into the shocking cold, downhill and a massive communal food/drink area from the organisation. The was probably one of the best displays of food and drink I had ever witnessed in a race, really long tables lined up, cups of drinks ready, hot and cold, all kinds of suitable foods on display, hot food available at certain time, masses of room for the runners to easily access the tables without tripping each other up and getting in any ones way, it was excellent.
After this was the first short uphill on a bend and then through another set of doors and then long straight which almost felt like an underground car park with big concrete pillars holding up the stands above, then the curve began again that led to the next short uphill, enclosed by white walls again and through one more set of doors and back into the warm zone. Noise, music, cheering, a large screen with runners distances flashing on it, and then Bill and my table draped with the Union Jack. Round and round and round, I somehow didn’t feel in a race, I was aware that although my pace overall for time was stable I was often putting in small spurts of speed to get by a group of runners or squeeze between runners two or three abreast, there were only a few occasions where I did hit a complete brick wall of runners and requested to come through, which was always courteously done.
The clock continued to tick away and the first 4 hours complete, 41.9km was the distance and 1st lady with Sharon Broadwell 4th lady, some 4km adrift and obviously not in top form, my schedule was for 41.4km, so 1 lap ahead of schedule, just 545m over after 4 hours of running was very pleasing. I was in 6th place overall in the race.
The next 4 hours ticked away easily with absolutely no problems and the result was then 82.8km compared to the schedule of 81.7km, so now 2 laps up on my schedule and moved up to joint 2nd overall. The championchips did cause some source of puzzlement initially, when running through the warm zone the lights on our ankles flashed red, obviously recording data and when leaving the zone stopped flashing again. There were also quiet little beeps as you entered and exited the recording zones, but better than the loud “chirp chirp” that is heard from the more common championchips. I saw many runners trying to look at their ankles to see if their lights were flashing.