Energia 24 Hour
The club has had a strong attachment to this set of endurance races at the Mary Peters track since the event started in 2010, and have been previous victors in the 4 person relay event. This year in addition the relay event there was the full 24 hour, a 12 hour and a 100k event that was put on for qualification to Team GB in the World 100k Championships. In the relay event this year were event veterans Donadea, Le Chiele AC, the Great Outdoors sports shop and Orangegrove.
Running for OAC in the relay event were Gavin Marshall, Michael O’Donoghue, Selina Myles and Martin Doherty. All were experienced marathon runners and some had done Ultras. The experience of running for 3 stretches of 2 hours over an 18 hour period was new to them all. None had been in the previous relay teams for this event.
All found the first 2 hours straightforward enough and each did around a half marathon in distance with over 50 laps each. While impressive, Donadea were quite far ahead of everyone else and Le Chiele had opened up a gap of around 16 laps ahead of OAC at one point. The athletes found the second stretch tougher than the first and several had stomach problems, in part due to the constant eating instead of sleeping
This gap reduced markedly in the 3rd stretch. As support from other club members started to increase in number, Gavin Marshall brought down the gap to 5 laps and then the next 2 runners down to 1 lap. However, Le Chiele saved their best for last and managed to increase their lead at the end
Final Results were:
Donadea 660 laps (169.4 miles)
Le Chiele AC 602 laps (154.6 miles)
Orangegrove AC 598 laps (153.5 miles)
Great Outdoors 483 laps (124 miles)
153 miles is a great achievement for the team, and members are already talking about doing the 12 hour event next year!