Day 1: Saturday 13th 19:00 - Sunday 14th 19:00.
|
The adventure begins!! Left Southampton on Saturday morning at 8am for Land's End. After a long and tedious trip through Devon and Cornwall, we arrived at at about 4pm at Land's End where me met the rest of the team and some of our supporters. We were slightly apprehensive having spent the last 3 hours driving down the roads we would later be running on; if anyone tells you that Cornwall is fairly flat - give them a slap! Cornwall is not only hilly but also its roads do not really cater for runners as we would later confirm! Nonetheless it was nice to get to Land's End and enjoy the beautiful coastline and to take a load of photos (coming soon!). A quick visit to the Land's End hotel to pick up official end-to-end challenge registration forms. In order to verify that the challenge has been completed, the team must collect stamps from several locations en route. |
And they're off!! |
|
|
The clock struck 7 and we got underway with the 1st mile of this epic relay run. It was agreed that the team would run the 1st and last mile together. Apart from these two miles, a 24hr day will be split up like this: |
|
| |
Night Team: |
|
|
Ed had been suffering with a knee injury about 1 month prior to the event so the very hilly country roads in the 1st part of the run really tested him. Luckily his knee was ok, he felt confident and ran well with Rich supporting on bike. |
|
|
Carlos took over at 21:00 while Ed cycled beside him for a few miles. The short steep rolling hills that had plagued Ed seemed to disappear at this point leaving a relatively flat 1st hour of running. Once on the A30 these flat straights were replaced by long shallow and arduous hills often about a mile long.Stretches of the road often had no soft verges or a hard shoulder - never mind a pavement! By this time, the run was in complete darkness but we were well equipped with reflective clothing and lights. |
|
Rich took over from Carlos at at 01:00 to run into the dawn! After some initial problems with lights falling off of his belt he eventually found a rhythm. He maintained a steady pace right up until meeting the morning team. This is despite the many 8% hills he encountered along the way; at one stage he had been running uphill for over an hour. |
|
|
The night team managed to get from Land's End to just past Bodmin (approx.65 miles) and we were thankful for excellent weather. We met Anna, Charlie and the rest of their team and the night team was now free to head to the B&B that the morning team had just left to kip for a few hours before breakfast at 09:00!! |
|
Morning Team: |
|
|
Morning team took over the night team on Sunday at 5 o'clock in the morning just past Bodmin on the A30. Anna and Charlie down the A30 with Gemma on bike. Anna and Charlie would follow the A30 all the way which was gently hilly but actually it was worse going slow on the bike than running. Anna and Charlie felt good (though I don't know how she found out from Charlie!) and had high hopes to be able to go again later. Anna reckoned that the mileage Okehampton might have been underestimated as they seemed to be a bit behing. For the second hours of Anna and Charlie's shift Rachel took over on bike. |
|
|
7-915 shift would be ran by Rachel again on the A30. Rachel was getting hot towards the end of the shift, she had enjoyed riding behind Anna. It was a good day, fantastic scenary and met all expectations so far. Gemma felt a little achy after riding, but started okay. Weather was very hot and she reckoned till have found every hill on Devon. After coming off at Okehampton the villages were really pretty making it more enjoyable, plus Gemma's parents drove past which was cool and patted her on the back for completing day 1. |
|
Anna took over again at 11:30 for her final hour of running to do. Anna found it hot but generally enjoyable. Gemma had got her to the top of a hill, so she enjoyed a nice downhill to start. Met Michael for the afternoon shift, about 40-45 minutes in so he backed me for a little while. Anna felt good, the girls did really well and Cheesey joined for the last half hour. |
|
Afternoon Team:
The first stint of the afternoon team began with Lesley at 12:30 taking over from the morning team at Bow. This section of the run was hilly and very hot. However, adrenalin spurred Lesley on to the extent that she found herself running faster than intented - she paid for it later!
Mikey took over from Lesley an hour later (13:30) from just after Morchard Bishop. Mikey found this part of the route to be hot (one of the disadvantages of running during the day) & hilly. During this part of the journey, the support team were having problems with navigation - it's a good job that Mikey knew where he was going!
Just past Wellington, Pete took over to start his leg. He had the pleasure of being able to enjoy some fine cycle paths and part of his run took him along the canals. Pete commented that even the A38 wasn't bad
Lesley, whom has been nursing a fragile achilles took over from pete approximately 4.5 miles before Taunton. She did the magical mistery tour of Taunton after reliving the delights of the end of the Taunton half-marathon. The dual carriageway out of Taunton was not very nice. Having gotten through Taunton, the batton was passed on to the night team after much struggle finding the runners. The night team will take this on board in future and make sure that they met up with the preceding team earlier to avoid delays!