Ultra running - 2 news stories, one good, one awful

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Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
A marathon is just about in the ability of most casual runners, but ultra running is beyond me And i guess most of us.

Tragic news from China with 21 runners dead in a field of just 172. It seems the weather turned and the runners just froze to death on the mountain. What a tragedy. These were world class athlete sent off to die by poorly organised officials.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57216601

Then the good news. John Kelly Running the Pennine Way, 260 miles in 60 hours, in the weather we had last week. Bloody bonkers, but he had a full support crew, which the poor Chinese athletes didnt have.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-57155473
 
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Bit harsh about the Chinese event. Let's see what the inquiry finds out.
I wonder if there was any mandatory safety kit insisted on ?

Tragic news and I'm sure a lot of organisers will be taking extra precautions.
 

DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
https://www.therhinos.co.uk/2020/12/08/incredible-support-for-sinfields-7-in-7-challenge/
In a similar vein former Leeds Rhinos captain did 7 marathons in seven days, a total of 183.4 miles in just over 25.75 hours total to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease charity, in support of his team mate Rob Burrow, who was diagnosed with MND, the 7 in 7 challenge was because Rob’s squad number was 7, he set a target of raising £77,777 but ended up raising over 2 million pounds for the charity.
 

Chislenko

Veteran
The one that always surprised me was Eddie Izzard, something like 40 odd marathons in 50 days. Remember watching it on the news few years back.
 

Stephenite

Membå
Location
OslO
I wouldn't be too harsh on the organisers.

A few years ago i was at the norwegian national championship in ultramarathon - as a spectator with the kids. The start/finish was basically in the back garden of the 'summer cottage' in Telemark. We saw the runners off. Some doing the half and some doing the full 82km of a very up-and-down route (I have/had ambitions of this sort of thing). After about a couple of hours the heavens opened. Absolutely, chucking it down. Me and the kids were at the 41km kilometre mark and i was helping out with the soup and most of the full distancers quit at that point as they were shattered. There were about ten or twelve who went on. A couple put on a thin long-sleeved top but the others wore just shorts and t-shirts. Now, all the competitors had gps tracking but it would have taken, potentially, hours to find and get to one person who had come into difficulty. Nevermind, several people spread out along a mountainous forested route.
 

Rocky

Hello decadence
Hmm. I'm peeved about John Kelly.
I was timekeeper when Mike Hartley set the 1979 record.
Ah well; records exist to be broken.
And Hartley ran it in one of his work shirts, as I recall
 

Rocky

Hello decadence
Talking of running ultras in strange clothing - @rich p do you still see that lad who ran the South Downs Way 80 in a duffle coat, hat and gloves? It was back in late June 1992 and the hottest day of the year, as I recall.
 
And Hartley ran it in one of his work shirts, as I recall
He ran it in a variety of clothing. Changed repeatedly. He even borrowed one of the pacers shoes when his feet swelled up.
I was there, all the way down.
He's writing his memoirs and is picking my 🧠🧠🧠
 
Here's a photo of Mike near Thwaite. This certainly ain't a work shirt.
590318
 
Does that mean he and Kelly have come to an agreement/truce??
Not sure about that, but Kelly won't be in any shape to go for C2C so soon after PW, or will he?
Kelly is reportedly planning to do all the Wainwrights inside 7 days.
He is also thinking of having another go at the three rounds - Tranter's, Bob Graham and Paddy Buckley and cycling between them.The weather stopped him last time he tried.
 
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