Last Sunday Keith represented NZ in the 2021 IAU 6H Virtual Global Solidarity Weekend at the Lovelock Track, completing a huge 76.6 km over 6 hrs. That's 191 laps! Here's his run report, eagerly awaited (we loved reading about his Auckland Marathon), and fascinating reading for anyone curious about the experience...Thanks Keith!
SimonM lent me his watch as he was the only guy I could find with the new 'track mode' feature. It worked an absolute treat and saved me having to remember to lap every 400m. (Thanks Simon), over 191 laps it was out by about 15m in the end I reckon. (full watch stats)
I had been planning on 1:55's, but I had let PeteK (who was on the early shift) know I may go slightly faster...
Some points:
Lap 7: school boy error, didn't double knot my shoe laces, 7 seconds lost.
Lap 41: This is likely when Dan Coates & Bethany appeared and the pace went North for a bit 😉
Lap 54: This is when I had a wee and got shouted at by a very angry man... 20 seconds lost.
Lap 101 for 25 of them: These were the Nick Moore laps, quite a few sub 1:50's here....
Then I was on my own for a while, it started to sting about 40 minutes to go, so lap 160ish onwards
Lap 170ish onwards: The Tim Mitchel laps, he got the rough end of the deal as I was not really speaking by this point and was slowing now to some laps being over 5 min k's. Though he stuck to his task dutifully on his scooter, basically being ignored 🙂
Lap 187.5: This was 75k, which was my target, so pretty stoked about getting there and beyond.
To give some context, this website lists the majority of NZ recent 6 hour runs. I am not in this list as I am registered as UK, not NZ). The record though is Richard Tout who apparently went 84k 🤯, for some reason he is not here.
Special mention to
PeteK for the early shift
Dylan (and Adam) for being a water carrier for 2 hours
JamesF for 17k post Albany 10k with a wonky Pelvis Simon of course for the watch, watching him come up to 4:50's pace after smashing an incredible 27k of 3:47's on the waterfront made me smile.
Nick of course for rolling 10k after an even more ridiculous paced marathon (but slightly shorter...) workout, he looked less pained than Simon...
JP for ummm, getting around about 3 laps 😉 (he had run 30k as well by this point).
And of course, everyone else who popped along mid/post run for a couple of laps. It all helped!
Jennie Parker and Nat, for late support and constantly picking water bottles off the track when the toppled over.
Less thanks to
The woman who asked me to get out of lane 1 at about 180 laps because her charge couldn't do her 200m repeat in lane 1.
The guy who went obstreperous for me having a wee.
The random woman who used my table for about 30 minutes whilst she did her stretches...
Here's how it looks at the end!
