Submitted by Tony Mangan.

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=7911

Individual and team results:  http://www.iau.org.tw/news_detail.php?Id=451

Full results:  http://www.iau-ultramarathon.org/news_detail.php?Id=452

Jo Blake has won the SCMT Team Brisbane 24 hr track race held on 27-28 June, with Meredith Quinlan 2nd with a stunning debut performance of 201k. Final results are

Hi Friends,

For the time being I will be taking a break from posting any items on this site.  If people send me stuff to post, I will post it, but I wont be actively looking for fresh content to post. I was hoping that PUM would become a group site where ultra runners and walkers would post information, stories, results from around the Globe, but that’s not happening. (There have been a few contributors in the last twelve months, but the lure of the open road or trail and not the computer monitor is stronger….I dont blame them!)

Doesnt matter though. It gives me more time to concentrate on my number one project. That is the Ultralegends website and some book writing. The book writing is related to the history of the sport in Australia and also a novel with ultrarunning in the 1800’s as the theme!

Keep moving forward.

Phil

Original link

WHEN Martin Fryer takes off his shoes and socks, even he cringes at the sight of his feet.

Most of his toenails have disappeared, there are blisters all over the bottom of both feet and there’s no skin on at least four of his toes.

With feet that ”would make most people vomit”, Fryer said it was all worthwhile, given he had returned to his Weston home with the unofficial title of 48-hour running world champion.

In an event most people would baulk at, Fryer ran 433.69km in the Surgeres 48-hour ultra-marathon in France last Sunday.

It was the first time the 47-year-old had broken the 400km barrier and when he flew back to Canberra yesterday with 40 hours of travel under his belt, his body was shutting down.

”There’s at least three or four toes where the whole skin and nails have come off and they look like they’re all kind of gangrene, but they’re okay,” Fryer said.

”If I showed you some pictures of [my feet], I’m sure it would make most people vomit. It’s hard yakka, I’m a basket case right now, to put it mildly.

”But I exceeded my expectations and I’m over the moon so it’s worth all the pain and fatigue.

”My body has gone into shut down, I’ve lost weight even though I’m eating like a pig so I’m not too keen to do one again any time soon.”

Race story by Martin Fryer:

Dear Cool Running, ACTrun, AURA and all of my brilliant Aussie supporters

I apologise for the delay in posting so late but there were no internet cafes in either Surgeres or the little town of Arcais that I went to for a few days after the 48h race to recover. Even if there were I was too zonked after the race to even compose a sentence. In fact, now more than a week after the race I am still sore and really tired, despite at least 12h of sleep a day and heaps of eating. Whatever I did in that race switched my body into post-race meltdown and 2 days later I was really scared that I had gone into some severe wasting syndrome – whole body pain, kidney function looked OK with clear urine and not too bad swelling but I had lost 10% of my bodyweight (down to 55kg from 61kg pre-race) despite eating as much as I could throughout the race. It took me 6 days to get back to 58kg and today I have made 60kg – so I have turned the corner, most of the pain is gone, and the muscles are healing,  though I have some significant tendonitis around the inside of my left knee- so no running for at least another week might be smart.

I finally got home Saturday lunchtime after about 40h of trains, planes and airports and have slept for most of the time since getting home but now at least I have enough energy to write and thank everyone here back in Oz for their fantastic support. I make no apologies for the random stream of consciousness musings that follow (not really a proper race report) as I am still completely wiped out physically and mentaly from the combined effects of the race and the travel.

It has been a blast to read the whole history of the threads and discussions on  both CoolRunning and ACTrun Yahoo group and I can tell you that during the race I was thinking about all of the people back home at and wondering how they would have been interpreting and speculating on the hourly updates. I can honestly say that the support and messages that I received from Oz did inspire me to dig deep and finish off the race with style, which I’m glad I did as I knew there was some significance about 433K and I was keen to give it a shot. I had been promised a local crew for the race but it was only intermittent and I largely self-crewed for Day 1, which did get me a bit frustrated, particularly when it got hot and I had to stop and mix up drinks. However, I did start getting some help from Tony Mangan’s ( Ireland ) crewperson –the Scotsman Alan Young- and by the second day and night he was fully crewing for me after Tony crashed out with some bad patches. So Alan became my guardian angel and egged me along with his Billy Connolly-like thick accent (even the French-English translator had trouble understanding him) and was just brilliant at providing me with a variety of food and drinks I hadn’t tried before (including non-alcoholic beer, which went down a treat).

I believe that there is no one correct way to run a 48h race – you need to have a broad plan but be adaptable – a bit like classic business strategic management which has the analogy of trying to kick a balloon full of water from one side of a room to another- you can move it in broadly the right direction with some effort but it wobbles about to the side occasionally along the way, defintely not in a straight line.. My key principles for the race that I had thought about carefully were the following: 1) Run my own race aiming for 400K,  2) Focus and flow rule supreme, 3) The Law of Averages -– you don’t ever have to do anything flash but you have to keep moving and minimise any huge hourly variations, 4) Use a run/walk startegy to preserve muscle groups and maintain better running speed for longer (I was the only one in the field to walk from the beginning), 5) Focus on the process of the race rather than the outcome, 6) Above all -  approach the race with good karma, show sportsmanship, be friendly to all and spread goodwill as an ambassador of Australia.

For me it was probably as close to the perfect race as I will ever have- even though it was only my third 48h race I used every bit of ultra knowledge and tactic I knew for every second of the whole 48h – I believe my ability to maintain focus was what got me through and I made the most of Sekiya’s time off track, even though I was extremely tired and sore myself. But it was not a fast track- at 301m it felt you felt like you were running curves a lot of the time- also, the race started at 4pm and it didn’t get dark until 10pm and we had 3 consecutive afternoons afternoons of 28 to 30 degrees C, which I had not anticipated and I had not acclimatised for- finally –the track was really dry and very dusty- I wore gaiters for the whole time and didn’t do one shoe or sock change- I also found the surface difficult to generate the walking speed that  I normally get. It was highly fortunate for me that Sekiya went so hard in the first day – I suspect he was chasing Kouros’ record and was looking for a 250/230 split.. Even better was the fact that quite a lot of the field went out ridiculously hard with him (averaging 11K/h through the first 12 to 20h) and I was content to do my run/walk (from the beginning- only one in the whole field) and gradually catch them and apply tactical and psychological pressure, one by one. I was blown away by the sheer quality of the field-  particularly the women who were strong and consistent and, aside from Sekiya in the Mens, I considered the Japanese women and Czech woman Dimitradou as the biggest threats to a podium finish as the race wore on. The Japanese are such a well disciplined and talented team and I do believe that with more even pacing Sekiya will be the most likely person to surpass my 433K total and perhaps even challenge Kouros’s record of 473K one day.

The last 4 hours of the race were horrendous as the sun broke out of a foggy morning and we had to endure 30 degrees again with no wind around to give any cooling effect. I had achieved my goal of 400K with 3 hours to go and had a big lead on Sekiya but I had had no sleep and I was absolutely trashed  -  all I wanted to really do was just walk it in and end up with a total in the 420’s. However, Alan started to feed me a steady stream of messages from home and I felt a strong sense of obligation to bring it on home in style- so I hatched a plan to stay steady for the 3^rd last hour and eat and drink well then maybe launch a final attack in the last 2 hours. A few times when the messages from home were read out to me I started to get emotional and felt tears welling up and the hair on my arms would literally stand on end as the enormity of the whole thing was embracing me. But I still had 3 hours to go in the heat and I battled to not let the emotions interfere with my focus and flow. With 2 hours to go I had changed my mind about running hard as it was really damn hot but then a few things happened- firstly, some unknown French bloke looking like a shady drug dealer kept walking up to me and telling me that I had to go for the record, though I was not sure what record that was. Then Alan poured the messages from home on to me thick and fast and told me that I was never going to get this opportunity again and that every K counted- “Embrace the pain” he said to me in a thick Scottish accent and then explained that I needed 2 hours of 9K/h to make 430K, which seemed to me to be doable and hence changed my focus to a more positive one.. With about 90 min to go the unknown Frenchman and Alan teamed up to help me – it was hot and on alternate laps they would give me a sponge or a swig of drink. As the runners had to wear a fluoro vest with the Sponsor’s name on it for the first and last hours of the race they planned a fast, Formula One style pit stop for me 5 min before the last hour started. They ripped off my shirt, sponged me off, put on my fluoro vest and told me that I had to do 1:45 per lap for an hour to make 430K. This was great help to me as even my poor tired brain could do the maths to realise that this was somewhere not too far under 6 min/K. I started pushing a bit and I didn’t see my lap times but Alan told me that I did not need to go any faster and not to overcook it too early in the hour (I suspect I was running in the 1:30 ’s). As the last hour progressed there was more and more noise from the crowd that was lining the circuit with shouts or “Allez, allez Martin” and lots of encouragement in general. However, I was finding it hard to have to run around many of the runners that were walking in pairs on the inside of the track, thus making me run wide- some showed consideration and made way but others couldn’t care less and I almost fell a few times trying to get the inside line when a small gap had been left.. With about 40 min to go I distinctly remembering the unknown French guy telling me I needed 4K in 25 minutes but wasn’t sure what this meant.. With about 30 min to go the announcer was getting hyped saying “C’est incroyable!” and I sensed I was closing in on 430K as I could translate the French. I was next told I needed “quatre tours” to break 430 and Alan told me I could just ease off and take it all in. Everyone went nuts when I broke 430 and then all of a sudden things went all quiet! But I knew there was some kind of record around at 433 and saw that I had about 18 min to go so I didn’t stop to smell the roses like everyone else was doing. I was quite totalled at this stage but locked into a steady but relaxed rhythm and tried to think how close it was to all of this being over. Tony Mangan had told me that at Surgeres they only counted full, completed laps and so with about 4..5 mins to go I went hard hoping for maybe 3 laps at a stretch, but knew this might not happen. As it turned out I did only get about 2.5 laps in before the gun and then walked around to pick up the Aussie flag and celebrate in front of the lap counters and officials and main crowd. I had managed over 11K in the last hour which capped off a hell of a run.

Some of the Cool Runners picked up from the videos on the Surgeres website that I managed to get some strange, dirge-like national anthem played at both opening ceremony and the prizegiving which, while disappointing, sort of summed up the absurdity of the whole adventure and I struggled hard not to crack up laughing in my great moment of honour on the podium with everyone standing and looking serious.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my result from a performance point of view but even happier for the publicity and recognition it generated about Australia overseas and the excellent diplomacy and sportsmanlike conduct that I believe I displayed which has left a part of Australia in a little French town forever. It was way cool to be King of Surgeres for a few days and the locals spoilt me rotten. I was really pleased that I had made the effort to relearn my French from 30 years ago – I listened and repeated French lessons on my MP3 during long runs and commutes over the last 3 months getting many strange looks indeed – but I am so glad I did now as it allowed me to engage more fully with the locals and not look like an arrogant foreigner. I had a great lunch the day after the race with the volunters and orgainsing committee and no one spoke English and amazingly my French just got better and better with each glass of Bordeaux red!

It appears that my performance should be ranked only 2^nd to about half a dozen or so all done by Kouros – so I’m pretty amazed by that.  I hope that this effort has helped to put fire in the belly of at least some other Aussie ultrarunners – I can’t believe what I have done and it can only go to show that we all have some performances in us well beyond our wildest expectations if we have strong self belief. My split of 224K/209K was better than the 220/180 I had planned. Tony Mangan told me that he believes that that are only 3 people in history to repeat 200+ in consecutive days – himself, myself and Kouros (many of the other 400K+ performances were lopsided efforts with sub 200K days on day 2).

Re: media- while I have had a radio interview for ABC Canberra and an article in Canberra Times it has been fairly quiet but I really don’t mind- as CR’s Whippetman perceptively pointed out- the recognition and accolades that flowed from my peers were brilliantly touching, greatly appreciated and are all that I need. I will not get the race prizemoney until my drug tests have been cleared (I was told about 3 weeks) and that will be enough to pay for my trip expenses, so that’s good, except the Aussie dollar is appreciating against the Euro.

It still hasn’t quite sunk in what I managed to achieve in Surgeres- it defies my own belief and seems like a crazy dream. Like all races I learnt many valuable lessons which should help me in races to come.

My most sincere thanks go to the race organisers (particularly Michel Landret) and the volunteers, the wonderful people of Surgeres and other parts of France that made my whole trip most enjoyable, the other runners and crews that I was priveleged to meet (particular thanks to Tony Mangan for donating Alan Young to crew for me on Day 2- Alan you’re a genius and I’ve helped boost your crewing CV), the unbelievable encouragement that poured to me from my running peers as well as complete strangers, the power of love from my wife Lynn and son Luke, and the lashings of blessings from the good Lord above-  all of these came together to provide me with the Race of My Life, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Martin “Flyer” Fryer

2 June 2009

We have finalised our new calendar of events for 2009-10 and I would like to know if it would be possible to add them on your events calendar online! I have listed the two ultra trail runs we are organising below along with the events’ logos, please let me know if you would like any pictures to illustrate these listings:
- 1-3 May 2010:

WildEndurance - A spectacular and challenging 100km teams-only trail trek in the heart of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park.  Raising funds and awareness for The Wilderness Society, this event is open to teams of 4-6 completing the full course or relaying the distance half-way through.  With a cut-off time of 48hrs and over 3,800m elevation, this course will require both commitment and passion for teams to complete.
www.wildendurance.org.au – 02 9282 9553 - wildendurance@wilderness.org.au
- 15-16 May 2010:

The North Face 100 - A 100km competitive ultra-trail running event in the Blue Mountains open to individuals.  This is the pinnacle of trail running events in Australia including a spectacular course, over 4,200m elevation and a cut-off time of only 30 hrs to complete the course.  Belt buckles for those finishing in less than 14 hours!  Test yourself, push your own limits and achieve something to be proud of!  Dean Karnazes, the Ultra-Marathon Man said this event was “the toughest 100kms [he's] ever done”.  For those not quite ready for the total experience, the Marathon Pairs option offers teams of 2 the possibility to relay the distance at mid-course. www.thenorthface.com.au/100/ – 0401 564 462 - info@arocsport.com.au

Thanks for your help!
Diane Chanut AROC Sport Pty Ltd

mobile: 0431 221 933

email: diane@arocsport.com.au web: www.arocsport.com.au

http://6-24-48-timer.dk/web62448/Pdf/Finalresults2009.pdf

Stop Press:

From Peter Bogevig

To your announcement there will be held a 6 days race next year and the race will be moved to the following dates:

2010
144H: 13th of june
48H: 17th of june
24H: 18th of june
6H: 19th of june

The 144H only if 25 or more participants

Good news for the sport in Denmark

Link

At 3.37pm on 12th July 1809 at Newmarket, Captain Barclay Allardice completed the final mile in an event that had started almost forty-two days earlier on 1^st June, since when he had walked a single mile in every one of the thousand hours that passed in between.

In doing so he made a fortune, because in addition to winning a wager, that he could walk a thousand miles in a thousand consecutive hours for a thousand guineas, he had also accepted side bets amounting to several thousands of pounds.

This feat of endurance and sleep deprivation captured the imagination of the people, who in the final days descended upon Newmarket in ”dangerous numbers” to witness the final days of Barclay’s triumph.

Forty-nine years later on February 18^th February 1858, on Newmarket Heath, Charles Westhall, acknowledged by many as the first real race walker, walked twenty-one miles in under three hours.

Sir John Astley was the driving force and founder of the Astley Institute, Newmarket which opened in 1893 and which today as The New Astley Club, still provides services and facilities for racing staff and the wider community. In the 1870’s “The Mate” as Sir John, a racehorse owner and trainer was known, promoted all kinds of sporting events, the most famous being a number of six day walk challenges where distances in excess of 500 miles were recorded.

So, whilst Newmarket is synonymous with horse racing, it also has a special place in the annals of Pedestrianism and the development of the sport of Race Walking, a discipline that has yielded more Olympic medals for Great Britain than any other track and field event.

A major part of the Bi-Centenary celebration is an attempt by Richard Dunwoody to re-enact Barclay’s amazing feat between 29^th May and 10^th July. Richard is a former national hunt jockey.

On the 11^th and 12^th of July the public have the opportunity to mark the Bi-Centenary by taking part in one of Barclay Walking Week-end events

If you need motivation, bear in mind that participants in the Barclay Walking Week-end will be making history, linking events of the nineteenth century to those of the twenty-first by doing the simplest and most straightforward  exercise of all – Walking!

This Friday, Craig Goozee will set out to run, cycle and paddle around Australia for cancer.

To read his web site, go here:

http://www.a2b4c.com.au/

Australian runner, Martin Fryer from Canberra , has won the 2009 Surgeres 48hr race with a final total of  433.686km.  Second was Ryoichi Sekiya from Japan with 402.321km.  The winner of the Womens event was Mami Kudo (Japan) with 385.13 km. (Could be a new Womens world record for 48hrs).

Fryer has had stellar 18 months which has included winning the AURA Australian Athlete of the Year Award in 2008, a previous PB of 393km at 48hrs and running over 230km several times at the 24hr distance. The last time was five weeks ago when he came second at the Coburg 24hr with 234km.

This win has certainly brought Martin Fryer to centre stage at the world ultra arena and he should be congratulated for his awesome performance. The Surgeres 48hr has been the unofficial World Championship for the 48hrs distance for several years  and has seen several of the sports champions win in previous years.

Full results can be found at the Surgeres Web site  ( not posted here because the link will come up as spam).

The North Face 100 reveals a new endurance champion for the 2009 edition

Returning to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains for the second year, the extreme endurance race was deemed a huge success and saw an incredible 333 solo runners and 31 pairs embarking on an exhausting but ultra-rewarding journey.  They came from the four corners of Australia and beyond with runners hailing from across the Tasman, PNG, Hong Kong and Europe.  Determined and geared up to face gruelling hours of running through the absolutely relentless terrain and rugged environment, the 395 ultra-runners departed on Saturday 16th at 7:00am in crisp and cold conditions, with blood pumping and feeling more alive than ever!

Winner Andrew Lee, 39, from Warrimoo in the Blue Mountains, powered through the whole race and conquered the torturous distance in an amazing 10 hours, 20 minutes and 51 seconds beating last year’s record by only 2 minutes! Surprised by his stunning result as he had never run longer than 45 km in his life, the father of 4 was just hopeful of finishing around 11 hours.

“Winning and picking up the race record was a real bonus and I am pretty happy about that. I was in the Six Foot track marathon a few weeks ago, and that was a 45 kilometre race where I came second. After that I kept up some training for the Canberra marathon and straight after focused on The North Face 100 so I did a fair bit of trail running near by at home for the past 3-4 weeks, leading right up to the race. I didn’t know what to expect. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be too hard, but it is a tough and gruelling course, relentless at times, particularly coming out of the Kadumba Pass up near Wentworth falls. It was a bit of pain coming up some stairs, I was getting sick of stairs towards the end; the last leg was really hard. Overall it was a really good day: the scenery is amazing, the organization very professional. I would recommend the course to anyone who is into this type of endurance.”

Following less a minute and a half behind was Tim Cochrane who finished 2^nd in the Open Male category in 10:22:21 after an amazing acceleration between checkpoint 5 and the finish!  He also thought that a good recovery strategy would be to ride his bicycle to the prize ceremony on Sunday from Parramatta, a return trip of over 150kms!  Branden Haywood took third place in 11:39:22, leaving the first two winners far ahead.  Defending champion Andrew Kromar was forced to pull out due to a pre-existing ankle injury after pushing it hard to the 54th kilometre.  A shame as he was flying on track to beat his 2008 record.  A notable feat is that of Wayne Gregory, winner of the veteran category (over 50) in a time of 12:37:47, who went back to Sydney to run the Sydney Half-Marathon on Sunday morning before coming to the prize ceremony in the early afternoon!  James Pretto won the under 25 category in a time of 13:35:39.

Special guest Dean Karnazes, who stepped off a 14 hour flight from his hometown of San Francisco a day before, set a steady pace and arrived approximately four hours behind the leader with a final time of 14:42:56.  The ultra marathon man, who had warmed up with a 350km race in the U.S. the weekend before, and ran The North Face 100 in China two weeks ago, said of the race: “I would rate this race as the toughest hundred kilometres I’ve ever done without a doubt, so I applaud anyone who finished”.

John O’Regan, maybe trying to emulate DK’ 50-50-50 (50 marathons in 50 US States in 50 consecutive days) travelled for this event all the way from Ireland to complete his 7 ultras in 7 continents, finishing in 15:51:56.  The question for him now is “what’s next?”.

The women’s race was taken out by New Zealander but ACT-resident Julie Quinn who smashed the record in an outstanding 12:13:45, taking 8th position overall.  She was followed in second position by Beth Cardelli in 13:34:53 and Robin Cameron in 14:16:48.  First female under 25 was Margaretha Fortmann in 16:03:05 and first veteran (over 50) was Ann Mackie in 16:33:48.

In the Marathon Pairs relay event, Team Blackheart (Liam Davies and Alex Stuart) came back to win a second year in a row in 11:03:18 in the male category.  Team Live Strong (Nicci Drew and Kellie Epis) took the female category in 12:23:50 while the first mixed team was Team Landsedge (Rhett Doyle and Fleur Harmelin) in 15:21:10.

Runners continued to trek throughout the night and into the morning, with some finishing the race up to 26 hours and 30 minutes after they had begun.  They were all greeted by a BBQ on arrival and received a certificate celebrating their achievement for posterity!  All together, 282 participants made it over the finish line.  Congratulations to all!

A huge thank you goes out to the partners and sponsors who made this event possible.  First and foremost, The North Face for having the vision to create this event and support it.  All the people who allowed this event to happen: the private land holders in the Megalong valley (the Carlons and the Friends), Bryan Ries and Tony Garbellini at National Parks and Wildlife Service –Blue Mountains and Blue Mountains City Council.  A huge thank you to the over 60 Blue Mountains SES volunteers who manned the checkpoints and timing, as well as the search and rescue crew.  Organisers would also like to thank all the other volunteers for their energy in supporting the runners, David King, Gundungurra Traditional Owner, son of Aunty Mary King, Gundungurra Elder for the Blue Mountains for his spirited Welcome to Country, Lucas Trihey and his team for setting up Tarros Ladders and our generous sponsors without whose support this event would not be what it is: York Fairmont Resort & Leura Gardens who welcomed the runners in style, Petzl headlamps, Therm-a-Rest mats, Euro Optics sunnies, Casio watches, Kiehl’s since 1851 skincare and bodycare , Runner’s World Magazine, Chirosports, Endura drink, pb sports gels, Bounce Balls, Go Natural cereal bars, Fantastic instant noodles, soups and mash potatoes, Banana Boat sunscreen, Hero Energy drinks and Jiffy firelighters.

The North Face 100 is sanctioned by the Australia Ultra-Running Association, the governing body for ultra running in charge of promoting the sport in Australia and is a qualifying event for the North Face Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc.  It is also supporting Leave No Trace Australia, a national non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting and inspiring responsible outdoor travel and recreation through education, research and partnerships.

For any media enquiries and photo requests, please contact Anik Labreigne-Wallace: E  anik.labreigne-wallace@truealliance.com.au – T  +61 (0) 2 8306 3352 – M  +61 (0) 406 467 457

Photos taken by www.inciteimages.com -  Mark Watson).