3.51.11

A new club record for the 100 miles was set in the Team Swift - Allsports event in Yorkshire on Saturday afternoon, my helpers and I had a long drive up from Leicester to the Boroughbridge course based on the A168/19. The course covers a 16 mile section 3 times between Disforth and the Northallerton, in this wet and windy summer it was great to stand at the start in a skin suit wondering if it would be too hot in an under vest (I wore it anyway) a fresh NW wind did not detract from near perfect racing conditions.


Taking more than 6 minutes off the old record set by Paul Alderson last year and improving my PB by nearly 9 minutes I recorded a time of 3.51.11 putting more than one mile per hour average on what I had done before. This was my last chance of the year to improve my 100 time for the British Best All Rounder (BBAR) season long competition.
After starting too fast in the WLCA 100 a month before I was determined to have a more even paced race and went through 25m in 57 minutes, and I do not think my average pulse rate went over 90% during the whole race. I took two bottles at the start, one of carbohydrate mix and one water, by half way I needed another of mix but my mouth was getting 'claggy' and my water going on my legs and head and i took another. I had nothing solid during the race (I had stocked up on porridge and bagels for breakfast and a honey sandwich before the off) but a caffeine gel with a bottle of coffee saw me to the finish as my stimulant meter went off the scale. My time at half way was 1.56 having done two sections into the wind and one down, for the second half of the race this was reversed and the two long downwind sections helped the second half of the race as I pulled ahead of my schedule to be at 75 miles in 2.52.


I knew I only needed to keep my into the wind speed to break 4 hrs. The last 10 miles to the far turn was all into the wind and tough, there were quite a few people packing (18 DNF's!) which i was surprised about as racing days do not come better and It's the effort that makes it hard! I was beginning to cramp up with the heat and using a big gear (my minute man i usually beat by 5-6 min but his 116 fixed handy capping himself i feel 4.12.43) but I turned at the far end with 12 miles of downwind to go and an av. speed of 25.5 mph so barring accident or mechanical failier I had the record. As I crossed the line my computer just nudged 26 mph av. and I'd covered the last ten miles in 20.30


I was overjoyed at beating 4 hours and by such a margin, my time was more than I could have expected having gone close to beating the elusive 4 hour barrier three times this year. The event was won by Carl Ruebotham of the promoting club with 3.43.27 from another top three BBAR contender Oliver Jones who recorded 3.45.17 My result included in the standard BBAR distances of 50, 100 and 12 hour gives me a more than 25 mph average for the three distances, these results should be good enough to put me in the top 20 in the country at the end of the season, I have entered the Yorkshire RC '50' on the same roads as Saturday's event in two weeks time, if I feel I can improve my 50 time.