On Saturday I took part in the Crawley 24 hr race. This involves running laps of the athletic track at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley. The aim is to run as many as possible during a 24 hour period. The race started at noon, with a finish time of 12:00 on Sunday. For a bit of fun they make runners reverse direction every four hours. Harriers at the Tonbridge track may have noticed me running the wrong way on a Monday evening as practise.
Unfortunately I’d picked up an injury three weeks before the race, and despite a lot of treatment, rest and ice it rather unsurprisingly came back during the race. I limped round the track for the last few laps to finish with a nice round 200 laps in 8 hrs 41:10.
I wouldn’t normally write a report for a DNF, but this was a race against time and i finished – just a lot earlier than expected, and a long way short of my 200km target.
The race was won by Peter Windross with a superb 567 laps (227.010 km)
Cat Simpson was first lady, and second overall with 553 laps (221.435 km) – a distance which exceeds the qualify standard for the GB team.
Hopefully I quit early enough to have not done too much damage and will be back running very soon.
David Barker