Moraghan Training - Stevie G

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  • PeteMPeteM ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Reg; I'd take a win in an egg and spoon race these days ;)

    Seriously it is the inclusivity and the encouragement of joggers, walkers, kids and dogs that makes parkrun the success it is. Not the same as proper races of course, but it doesn't want to be or try to be. That said most events have a sprinkling of fast runners to always make it feel like a race at the front end (if not my one today :)).
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    The joggers and walkers thing tickled me  :D
  • SG and Dachs are running Endure24 as part of a male team of 6-8 and appear to be doing OK.

    http://www.chipresults.co.uk/live24endure/index.aspx?eventId=42
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    It's gonna be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnngggggg report!!!

    Bit further than expected LSR today, having got lost in one of the woods near Walter's Ash!  14.6M and a 47M week - both the longest since the first week of March.  It's odd - hamstring has been fine running this week, but still painful sitting at the desk.  Still, better that way round than the reverse I guess!
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Yep that's the best way round Bus!

    Family outing to Dunstable Downs parkrun. I presume it's one of the highest in the South as the start at the visitor centre is 243M ASL. Presume Wendover is a bit higher? The kid was pleased with his 26.05, better than I thought he'd do as he's been a bit lazy in lockdown! Being 11 he wanted to run on his own...so I dropped back to the missus and she shunned me too! Had to run on my own until the kid allowed me to join him for the last K.

    Did a hill session after, then 15.5 yesterday. Feeling nearly there after last weekend.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Right, let's try and cover Endure 24 off, without taking 73 pages to do so  :D

    Having been to the Wasing Park location in 2019, I had a good idea how it'd be, but this year I wanted to milk the experience a little more, so knew I'd definitely go along on the Friday, but wasn't sure if I'd camp there overnight as well.

    Some of our club are a bit mad for Endure, so they get there about 8am (!) in the keenos rush to secure the first dibs on camping location for the weekend.

    We take about 50 people across a range of teams, and it's all a huge event for us.

    I didn't like the look of how super tight the routes in were, so to avoid any risk of driving out down a single track road as loads were driving in, I devised a slightly oddball plan to park in Mill End car park, and wander in across Hambledon Marina, and secure an easy route out later. Three of the gang did the same, albeit taking 1 car to the carpark, and the other 2 drove 1 car in to stay there for the duration, with the plan being all 3 would leave together.

    Nice scene at this location 


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    In the end on Friday, I stayed from about 11am to 8pm (!), which was a long shift, on a gloriously hot day.
    Not so glorious, was ending up imprinted with the sun's handiwork, despite using sun cream :)

    Felt a little sad to be leaving even at that time, but realised attempting to run 30 miles with barely any sleep during the event was enough of a challenge, without guaranteeing another crap night's sleep and lack of fuelling 2 nights!

    Still managed to replicate a crap sleep at home though :disappointed:
    But I did miss a few storms that night, one that took one of our gazebos away :blush:


    Saturday was the real deal then, up at 6am, there by 9ish.
    Arriving to this decent view



  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    We were glad to have a full complement of 8, having had someone pull out injured midweek. We'd tried such a range of people over the months of planning, and had a late swoop for Joe B and Reg, but understandably late notice.
    Unbelievably, we made the stunning signing of Dachs! I was proud to bring news of that one home to the gang :)

    Only small caveat was working out how to do our schedule versus Dachs, and led to a few hasty re-writes.

    Back in 2019, we simply had 1-8 in order, no idea how many laps we'd do each and just see how it goes.
    This time we'd have 1-7, Dachs doing roughly a 5pm sat leg, sitting one out, then a 6pm leg, leaving, and coming back for 3 cosecutive legs 6.40am Sunday.

    While I was captain, Rob F was the genius behind the schedule, and reckoned we'd average 30 in the light, and 32 in the evening. 
    Schedule thus written, and excitement building to the huge off at 12pm.

    Quick overall club photo taken, and a last organisation of all our gear in the tents, as we were on a schedule of 4hours rest after leg 1, but then it dipped to a mere 3hours for the next 4 legs.




    Two of our 8 designated to do 7 laps, 2 of them 5 laps, me in the middle.

    The make up of the team was 5 super stars of the local scene, then 3 solid guys, including Wool, who often used to pop in here, though hasn't for a while.

    Knowing the youngun in the gang (decade younger than even the youngest of us now V40s and up) was doing 5 laps, I was expecting to be 7th fastest at best - having been 3rd so in 2019.

    A huge upgrading to the team all in.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The route is stated as 5miles, but the organisers kept the "no contact" handover, that they'd used at Leeds.

    This meant that only solo-pairs-multiple consecutive lappers actually did 5miles per lap, and everyone else probably doing 4.9miles. Not much odds, but needs to be factored in when talking lap times.

    I was due to be 5th off, as we entered a 1-7 rotation, and then would start 1 & 2before Dachs burst in for his 2 laps out of 3, then disappear again.

    We'd then be down to 7 until 6.30am, but would get a 3 lap Dachs salvo to help things along.

    Due to being 5th it meant I'd get the pleasure of the first night lap.

    Our boys made a ludicrous start, with the first 4 all booting 27xx laps!! 

    We quickly realised that the big rivals Bracknell didn't have a full team, and wouldn't be the rivals this year.
    A crack team who won Leeds 2019, with the all time Endure lap record would be :o 

    However, we're off to a brilliant start and smashed a lead from the off.

    I quickly kill the 27xx vibe, but put in what feels a strong start, with a 29:48.

    I know the young lad will see that as a target, and he puts a bit quicker in for 29.40, and Wool keeps us going with a 31xx.

    The rivals look to have some talent in their team, but no-one quicker than 28 in their first run through.

    We remember that 24hours is a hell of a long shift, and not to get excited 3hours 30 in!!

    I kept reminding everyone of that, and like they say in football don't pay too much attention to tables early doors, don't get too excited until we're at least past the night time!!

    Eating and drinking has to be carefully managed at these things, so I almost panicked when realising I'd left my bag of 10 bananas at home :open_mouth:

    Luckily, I nicked one off the team, and a lifesaver lad in the team rolled in from Tesco with 2 bunchloads for me. Perfect.

    I did lash out £7 for this tiny portion of pasta with actual sauce on though ;)



    I definitely left others to it when they booted stuff like the below out


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The schedule was built to allow the fast lads all to have 2 solid laps in the light, and I'd be the first night lap.

    It's quite a surreal thing monstering around with a headtorch in a race, but with my 450 lumens number, purchased properly this time, after borrowing one last time, it was wonderfully clear out there.

    This pic, ironically doesn't look that clear, but is one of the few dark pics I could find on the fb groups, not helped by taking it as a pic on my phone too!


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    The route itself had to make a bit of compensation to having less room than the Reading version. But despite fears of it being too "samey", they did well.

    You started in the race village, then did a fussy half mile of bendy doggy legs round and about the solo lines of camping. Then a long straight past the river (but no that close, sealed off from the public footpath), past the Marina, and then onto the road that leads towards the Flowerpot pub, but not actually going past it, instead up a hill through normally sealed farmer's field and then climbing a bit.

    Quite a deceptive hill, and funnily enough felt harder each lap!

    By 4.5km it was always superb, as you had a bit of a mostly down ridge with 3 lanes to monster along.
    While being well down the team pecking order kept me humble, in reality on route, I was drilling past 80-100 people each lap like they weren't there.

    At 5km you have a lovely long down, which turns right towards the carpark.




  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    At the bottom of that section, you have this really shoehorned in 200m or so up, about turn at a cone, and back, and then a left through an arch to 6km.

    By now you can create a "worst case" 4min per km and know you're nicely on the run in.

    Where we'd camped everyone could give you a cheer, and then you had a couple more bends and were at 7km, and a really nice run in, ticking it off into a 200m and two 400m mentally!

    And that glorious run in sight


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Cameras pick up your number and image, and your next runner can watch on the screen/see the name, and then work out when to set off.

    More challenging than the physical hand over, and I certainly messed up one of the laps, and pissed about with the watch on another, but nothing to worry anything.

    Later on we adopted screaming the team name of "JOG ON" :) which was a much better tactic.

    Screens had live results, as did the website, and it was all very nicely handled.

    You could also key in your race number and get this view below


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Some of our lads were doing some incredible times with consistency.

    I was very aware Reading had been a 3mins 40 drop off fast to slow for me, so i was expecting similar.

    By 3 laps in I'd already done the best part of 3mins :D 

    29:48 to 32.40, so I didn't know how this would go from there.

    However, going marginally quicker for the 2nd lap was a good boost, and those night laps felt fairly relaxed as you knew you had license to drop a little!

    Fuelling in between tended to be a banana or 2 and a couple of times pasta, with loads of water, and a bit of lucozade. Plus any sweets hanging about!

    Having started my runs at 1.50pm , 6.10pm, 9.34pm so far I knew it was a case of hang on for lap 4, and grab 2 hours sleep after that.

    Getting in at 1.40am was weary and was a quick banana stuff down and setting 2 phones with the alarm, but knowing there was a system of the runner just coming in, gives you a 30min warning.

    The idea of missing a handover was worrying, as that'd be the worst way to lose time.

    Just get to the light, and get to Dachs getting his 3 shifts in was the plan.

    Except we were all well ahead of schedule, which caused a problem, as Rob had the plan of giving the young lad 4 laps in order, then a huge rest (7hours 30!) to finish on a huge one. 

    Because we'd chisseled about 25 or so mins out of the eta, it would mean that our front 2 would have 2hr 30 or less rest if they went again, and getting Dachs there half an hour earlier wouldn't be fair.
    Hence the sensible decision to move the young lad's lap up one!

    It worked well, Dachs arrived and averaged a ridiculous 6.05 or so for 15miles, and were going superbly still.

    As the team behind us were still so consistent, bar 1 of their team, we still had to keep it honest, and you never know if someone will suddenly drop, as if someone drops, you all lose recovery time, it's a risky business. 
    Not to mention if someone trips/gets injured mid leg and has to walk back :o 

    By lap 5 you're getting tight, and I was glad to get it done, as I knew there was a 4hour recovery again after this one, first of that length since after lap 1.

    33.10 felt a decent result versus my 2 night time ones in the 32.37 average, but I had no idea on how lap 6 would go.

    Because we were ahead of schedule, I actually ran half of lap 5 in darkness too. But once back into the tent at 5.18 (!) could have a proper feed up, which was glorious.

    The fast boys kept cranking their unbelievable efforts out, so I just needed a solid one at 10.27 to see us in nicely, with no alarms.

    I was pleased to see a 33.22, so a mere 12 secs off the last one, and kept me nicely inthe 3mins 40 sort of range of fastest to slower as per Reading.

    Wool saw his home, then 2 of our lads put in astounding 7th laps, to give us the final picture of the event

    (not sure why they tripled up on the names, they didn't during the event!

    An insane 48 laps then, averaging seconds over 30mins a leg.


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    We'd done it, by over a lap!
    And managed to set the Endure all time lap record - even against the flatter Leeds course.

    Two very strong other teams, with 47 and 45 laps, which on another event I'm certain would be well clear of others.

    But with 5 of the best runners on the local scene, all of them coming into quality form at the same time for probably the only time in 4 years, Wool and the young lad keeping really consistent and strong, and me putting in some solid stuff, it was a superb set of work, privileged to be part of it really.

    (Shame Dachs had to get away long before the below, but that was the tactics, in and out for 2hours or so each day, which was a life saver).

    The presentation started at 1pm, and we were still there well past 2pm revelling in it all, so needless to say it was one knackering weekend.


  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    We also had a podium in the mixed 6-8 team.
    I helped to put their team together, but the original idea was a team of ladies to try and get top 3 in that

    In the end they were struggling for that so got 2 blokes in, but as a 6 piece with 4 women, and potentially against teams of up to 7 blokes and 1 woman, in the category that always has most  teams, I didn't expect much.

    However, despite 2 injuries, some sulks, some abysmal tactics, and overworking a few of the team, one of the injured guys sucked it up and put a last lap in when it counted, and they finished 2nd.

    We also had an XXL team win by miles, but that's a sort of fun, non trophy category, but still nice for them.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Delighted to get that done, and what a weekend bonding with the club. Good to soak up that extra day on the Friday too.
    Although I remember now I didn't half feel tight in the back for the bits in between the first 3 laps. That disappeared later, to be replaced by the tightness you'd expect in the legs, by laps 5 and certainly 6!


    Therefore, I'm an absolute knackered shell at the moment, glad I had the foresight to take today off, and will put in an absolute minimum of 3-4 days total rest, as I remember 2 in 2019 was not enough.


    No certain plans on races/structure after this, so might as well properly replenish and see what we're looking at next :)

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    ps Bus, well done on the moving thing, I hope it makes everything easier. And obviously doesn't end the race trip arrangements. Although we've averaged about 1 every 2 years recently!!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    pps Classic Pete cynically researching the parkrun all in pot hunt 1st place ;)

    Gonna be an animal when V60 comes around!
    Might as well just have your own massive shield and get them to add their race on each time you turn out :D 
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Great report and a massive win SG - very well done to you and your team!  A cracking guest appearance by Dachs too - 15M on that course at 6:05 pace is testament to his quality for sure!!

    I was "watching" your laps on Strava and couldn't decide whether it would have been harder to do multiple laps in one go or do one, get a bit of rest and then stiffen up and try and find the will to go again! Personally I think the latter would be harder but, either way, a quality performance and a great write up too! Seems the weather was a lot better than it might have been too (blown down gazebo aside!).

    Just the 21 laps/105M by Sam A though - another level of insanity!!!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    The supposed heavy rainstorms never arrived, but there was a bit of rain here and there.
    Quite hot on a few of the laps, unsurprisingly.

    I was so pleased to get that 6th one done, and enjoyed a good min or so down on haunches.
    We thought about the double lap idea, but I think Dachs' situation aside which had to be managed around other plans, you either all do it, or none of you do.

    And a 10miler is a real mental battle, knowing you're out for 2 laps. I think the pace reduction would counter balance the gains overall. That must be the widespread thinking, as all the top teams, when you look through do the singles approach in general.

    Sam only came 3rd woman which is the most mad thing!
    And you do wonder how she does it, one weekend racing 10k, then the next in for 100miles!

    I saw her 2 or 3 times on the course and it's amazing how different our two tasks were!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Just re-read and a couple of slight errors...

    "2nd lap a bit faster"  = 2nd lap in the dark, ie 4th one :)
    "10.27 started 6th lap" - more like around that time FINISHING my the 6th lap

    Otherwise it looked like a "generous" 5 hours recovery 5th to 6th. We'd have been lucky :D 
  • PeteMPeteM ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Epic SG; your great individual showing, the detailed report, the enthusiasm for the event, the camaraderie in your club, but most of all your team's performance. I have never really been impressed by anything in the Ultras type world (as you know ;) ) but for a team of 8 to run average 6mm pace for 24 hours truly is superb. Really well done and great to see someone loving their sport so much.

    A few questions for you;

    1. As there was no proper handover how did you know when to start? Was everyone honest and waited till their team-mate could be seen on a screen crossing the line or something?

    2. Was it fair that the course was a full 8k if you did it as a solo, but more like 7.8k if it involved a switch? Wouldn't that alone steer teams to only run 1 leg at a time and if so makes Dachs' efforts even more commendable?

    3. Did you and/or your team-mates get any real sleep? Reading others' posts it seems not many do, which makes the event sound even more grueling than I had thought.

    Re my parkrun it was (honest gov!) an attempt to source the quietest and most spaced out event local to me, not go for a 'win'. The latter a nice bonus though ;) I think some people are still wary of parkrunning though (or just not back 'into' it yet), based on overall attendances which were typically down about 30-40% on pre pandemic levels. As for v60 prizes when I reach that milestone, there are still many in that cat better than me so prizes won't be a given. A recent Yateley 10k had a guy of 66 running a low 37 :o

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Over a day on, I don't feel particularly enthusiastic, feel utterly knackered and depleted :D 

    There was a screen that showed your runner coming past the last turn, so about 100metres out, and once over another sensor it picked up their name on screen too, but not always!
    We also had the advantage of knowing we could go on the pace of someone storming in as a spotting tool.
    However, you then needed to wait xx seconds until they got to a certain point (which wasn't 100% easy to judge) before going.

    Even with our planning of know the exact time someone left/earliest they come in, with those checks above, it was still stressy awaiting them coming in!

    I went very slightly early one time, and then slightly late another, but once we started shouting JOG ON as an extra check we were ok.
    The night handovers were the hardest as the screen was very difficult to utilise as you just saw massive lights all over the screen and couldn't pick much out at all.

    But we pretty much nailed it.
    Just in one of our other teams, they had 2 runners out for a full 6k, so one had to stop and traipse back furious! And another of our teams had someone go NINE minutes early! Which is comedy!

    The team in 3rd logged a 26.30 split, which is certainly false as he had been running 30/31 before, so no chance he'd suddenly booted that for lap 3!
    I laughed when I heard one of their guys try and say it was "flat out and he's spewing now", but we checked his power of 10 and there's no way he's someone who could do the pro rata of say a 27min 5miler, offroad, having done 10miles previously. He's simply bungled it and gone too early by mistake - and cut off say 3-4mins until his man is over the line.

    But generally it's all done on trust and a good spirit of the event.

    I tended to get the legs about 4.85 to 4.89miles, but I'm sure 4.9miles is a fair assessment on people in the main, and that sounds about right from our walk round the day before (although they hadn't marked a switchback on that day).
    It did take me a while to realise, of course, 5miles will be the bit inbetween as well!
    Just as well those are accurate as the 100 mile thing is huge at Endure, and they dish t shirts etc out.

    Over the course of the weekend I expect I covered 50miles to be honest...all the back and forwards, to the parking (Mill End one too) and back, to the toilets/water tap/watching people etc.
    Certainly 30miles all in of running, as the 600m or so under 30m on the laps was made up for with warmups etc.

    In a team on our set-up you're looking at about a 2hour sleep after lap 4 to be honest.
    A lot of time lying down and resting, but 2 hours max sleep I think.

    Other less serious teams could probably build in decent blocks, with slower runners etc.
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    edited July 2021
    Great effort SG, a stroke of luck getting Dachs last minute, I will take some credit for turning the opportunity down allowing you to get him  :D 

    I didn't realise it was in Henley, had I known, I would have gone along to watch for a bit.

    When I did it Pete, I did get some sleep, obviously not loads but a couple of hours. Early on you're still buzzing from the team spirit so it's difficult to sleep until you're well into the night.

    Nice to see Parkrun back I have to say. 

    I am home alone this week so should get plenty in this week. Went swimming last night and when I arrived most the pool was filled with women doing aerobics of some description. That left two lanes between about 12 people almost none of whom could swim properly. In some ways it was helpful as I generally got given way to but there was one guy doing some gimpy underwater breaststroke/caterpillar dance that really needed to just fuck off out of the way  :D 

    Also, there was a woman of hippoesque proportions, we're talking seriously big to the point that it was noticeably more difficult to squeeze past her in the opposite direction. She was so big she actually created a lot of turbulence!  After 30 minutes my triclub turned up for their session, taking up three lanes so I moved into the un-laned area to practice my sighting and swerving, somehow managed to do 4km in among all this chaos. It was kind of fun actually.
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Well done SG and your crew. The smallest guy in your podium line up looks vaguely familiar.

    Reg - Looking forward to going to the pool again, especially Sunday afternoons after a long run. I only usually do 8 x (4 x25m lengths) front crawl up and breaststroke back to get a bit of breath. I'm one of those 5-6/10 swimmers. It's like running with weights on your arms.
  • Reg WandReg Wand ✭✭✭
    Like a lot of runners, I used to get out of breath after 25 metres when I started triathlon, once you learn to relax and stop kicking like a madman the difference is huge.
  • DachsDachs ✭✭✭
    Well hello everybody.  Since my name has cropped up so many times in the last page or two, I thought it was only reasonable to make some kind of appearance.  I thoroughly enjoyed SG's report there, and I can confirm that his enthusiasm for the event was clear, as was that of the whole team - although by the time I rocked up again at 6 AM on the Sunday, it was also fair to say that collective enthusiasm was flagging.

    So yeah, SG came to me last minute on Wednesday to try to get me on board.  As with every other year when Endure 24 comes up, my initial thought was "piss off".  This is usually for three reasons.  Firstly, I have done more than enough camping in my life thanks.  Secondly, the whole idea of having to race over and over again for a whole day makes me feel nauseous - I like my pain to be sharp and then over.  And finally, and probably most pertinently, most summers I have worked hard to be in good track shape for 5000s etc and don't want to spunk that by putting 40 miles in my legs over the course of a weekend.

    However, as Simon mentioned, I am in shit track shape, as shown when I DNFed a 5000 at Milton Keynes last weekend.  And I thought that, as it was only 15 minutes drive away from home, I could probably fit Endure in if I just ran the distances I would probably have run anyway - i.e. around a 10 on Saturday PM and 15 on Sunday, and worked it round other commitments, including going back to my own bed in between.  After a bit of negotiation, this changed to 2 x 5 miles with a lap break on Saturday and the 15 straight on Sunday.

    I was slightly worried that I might annoy some Reading Roadrunners, having always refused to take part for them, but no-one much seemed to care, or at least no-one has moaned about it yet.

    So yeah, did a couple of fastish ones on Saturday, albeit not quite as quick as some of the faster chaps in SG's team.  Think the 2 x 5 miles worked quite well, I would have preferred that to a 3 hour rest, as it didn't give me enough time for my legs to stiffen up much.  Then back for my 15 in the morning, which was tough, but the pace still seemed OK.  I think to be fair SG I wasn't running a huge amount extra by doing 3 straight laps, as the distance between the start and finish point was a lot less than 0.1 miles.  Probably only 50 metres?

    Anyway, it was nice to be invited and, great to be part of the team, who were very welcoming to me, and all seemed to be running out of their skin.  Nice to meet Wool too after occasionally encountering each other on here for years.  Pleased to be able to help the team out and defend the honour of Berkshire from outsiders.  However, I think that might be my Endure experience done and dusted now.  I've been in the scouts, so I've spend enough time in a tent wishing I was somewhere else.
  • SCoombes2SCoombes2 ✭✭✭
    Good report Dachs - great to catch up with you again at MK.

    SG - Did I meet Wool at Gravesend, the southern relays?
  • The BusThe Bus ✭✭✭
    Good work Dachs - I'm sure there is a football substitute analogy somewhere, but buggered if I know what it is!!! Oh, and do post more often - god knows I could do with a few more laughs at the moment, and your posts always manage to give me a giggle!!!
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