submitted by Einar Cyvin

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In July 2005, two young Aussies Chris Bray and Clark Carter plunged inside the Arctic Circle to travel unsupported across Victoria Island, the world’s ninth largest and largely unexplored island. After 58 days of hauling, paddling and dragging 250kgs of gear behind them in their home-made aluminium kayaks with fold-down wheels, they were only 1/3 the way across! It was such an incredible adventure though - including wolves, polar bears, artefacts, blizzards and unseen landscapes - that they vowed to return. After two years of thought, The iiNet 1000 Hour Day Expedition is shaping up for May 2008.

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AS Christian Cullinane admitted, it was no place to have the pedal fall off your bike. With temperatures touching minus 30C and the white wilderness of Alaska stretching as far as the eye could see, there was nothing for it but to push. Which he did for 175 miles.

The Iditarod Trail Invitational Race, held in the middle of winter from Knik Lake to McGrath, a 350-mile route out north west of Anchorage heading towards Nome, is billed as the ultimate endurance test for runners, skiers and cyclists. It is contested by the super-fit, the over-adventurous and those verging on the crazy.

Its website describes it as “the world’s longest ultramarathon and the least supported” and there’s obviously a reason for that. Possibly something to do with the fear of collapsing with exhaustion out in the middle of nowhere with only gale force winds and swirling snow storms for company.

Although to be fair, no one has died during the eight years of the race, a good few have not finished as they started, if they finished at all. Frostbite has claimed various appendages and only this year the leader of the foot race, a woman incidentally, was discovered wandering blind after the bitter cold damaged her eyes. Evacuated to hospital, she recovered, but it was a close call.

All this is a world away, a continent at least, from Christian Cullinane’s day job as commercial director of the consultancy arm of QinetiQ, the defence technology company based in Malvern.

From his office window, he can see hills, but these are molehills compared with the Kuskokwim Mountains of the Central Alaskan Range, which, as the Anchorage Daily News warns, represent “the powerful and untamed environment of wilderness Alaska.”

Cycling over them in mid-winter equates with putting your head in a lion’s mouth or walking a tightrope over Niagra Falls. It’s something best left to others.

But for Christian it’s completely in character. An extreme sports enthusiast, the 36-year-old married father of three gets going when even the tough shudder to a halt.

What do you do if your pedal breaks in the middle of any icy wilderness? Christian Cullinane started walking…

A schoolboy rugby player for Harlequins, he got his first taste for what are called “adventure” sports at school in Surrey.

His favourite two at present are ultra running and adventure racing. The former are extra long foot races - “I never do less than 100 mile events these days,” he replied, throwaway - while the latter involve mountain biking, running, kayaking and even rope work across ravines. In New Zealand, he took part in, and completed, a six day non-stop adventure race.

“Yes, I was a bit tired,” he said. “But it’s what you train for.

“What’s the attraction? Because I love the adventure’ aspect. It’s a challenge to be completed.”

With a degree of understatement, he said: “I think it’s fair to say everything did not go to plan on the Iditarod Invitational. But then if it does where’s the adventure in that? I went to Alaska for an adventure and I certainly got one.”

The “not going to plan” bit involved one of the pedals breaking off his bike around the halfway stage, somewhere in the bleak emptiness between Rohn and Bison Camp, and there was no way of mending it. That’s when push came to shove.

Although this was not so much a disaster as it may appear, because from soon after the start Christian had difficulty cycling through the powdery snow.

The problem was the thinness of the tyres, something he had worried about before the race. All the other riders had ultra-fat 4ins tyres, but the thickest Christian could fit to his machine were 2.5ins and that meant they kept bedding in.

“In those conditions it became less exhausting to push the bike than to ride it,” he explained.

“I think in the first 130 miles I must have pushed at least half the time. I got to consider the bike as some sort of mechanical mule or even a wheelbarrow. In fact, by the end I only rode about 70-80 miles in total. The rest I walked using the bike as a trolley cum snowplough. It was tough, because I didn’t actually train’ for walking at all.”

Forty-four people set off from Knik for McGrath on February 24 and only 28 made it all the way to the finish, over the Alaska ridges and across the desolate Farewell Burn.

“Most of the racers came from overseas or outside’ looking for adventure,” wrote the Anchorage reporter. “They all got it. Winners or losers, they all suffered. Some endured and triumphed. Others went home beaten to lick their wounds, tell their tales and perhaps even vow to return and try again.

“The Iditarod Trail can lead people to do some serious soul searching and asks the ultimate question.”

Like why am I here!

l As a spin-off from his participation in the Iditarod Invitational Trail Race, Christian Cullinane raised £1,200 for Winston’s Wish, the national child bereavement charity. Anyone wanting to add to that can do so through his website www.cool-biker.com and read even more about his remarkable adventure.

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More than 350 runners and walkers will take to the high ground of the Yorkshire Dales this weekend to tackle one of the most challenging long-distance events in the country.

The Fellsman (it’s dropped its ‘Hike’ sobriquet) involves 100km (62 miles) of running or walking across almost every sizeable hill in the Dales national park. More than 3,350m (11,000ft) of ascent are involved in a route that can take more than 24 hours non-stop walking to complete.

Last year’s victor and ten-times winner Mark Hartell told grough he will be challenging for the Fellsman Axe trophy again. If he succeeds, he will enter the record books for the most wins of the gruelling event. The super-long-distance expert and instigator of the Vasque Ultra Running Championships says he will face stiff competition this year.

Hartell said: “I will be there for sure. I’m expecting to be about 95 per cent because I had a horrible cold and virus about ten days ago, but I’ve rested lots and ran today and felt frisky.

“Without knowing for sure it looks as though I am going to have some serious ‘Steve’ competition: Steve Birkinshaw winner of multiple mountain marathons and two minutes ahead of me at Calderdale and Steve Pyke, 2006 [Ultra Running Championship] series winner, Scottish 4000s record holder, Everest base camp to Kathmandu record holder and just too fit at the moment.”

The Macclesfield Harrier told us he has a few tactics prepared for the race and expects the ascent of Buckden Pike to be the crux of the event.

He is a great fan of the event, and waxes lyrical about the scenery of the Fellsman. He told us: “I am looking forward to a great day out in ‘God’s Own’.  Spring has been slow to arrive this year but the abundance of wildlife is a joy to behold and, whatever happens, it will be a privilege to run in those hills and benefit from the support of the dozens of helpers.

“ It’s also highly gratifying to see that numbers are back on the up – over 350 this year – and to think that it is in part due to the Ultrarunning series.”

The runners and walkers set off from the community centre in Ingleton and ascend, in turn, Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth, Great Coum, Blea Moor, Great Knoutberry, Dodd Fell, Middle Tongue, Buckden Pike and Great Whernside before finishing at Threshfield near Grassington. The event, now organised by Keighley Scouts Service Team, has been running for 46 years, missing only the foot-and-mouth disease years of 1967 and 2001.

The first Fellsman Hike attracted only 57 starters, of which a mere 15 finished the course. In its heydays in the mid 1980s more than 400 hikers regularly started. Entry numbers are now on the up again, after a dip around the early 2000s, many entrants now choosing to run most of the route.

Only the fastest runners escape the night-time sections, with navigation across the morasses of Fleet Moss and Middle Tongue holding particular horrors in the dead of night for Fellsman competitors. The last man home in 2007 was 65-year-old David Evans, who took 29 hrs and 12 mins to slog round the 62 miles.

Hartell is pursued by the top runners during last year’s race

Last year’s weather was cool and, at times, very wet. This year looks like being an improvement, with temperatures forecast for up to 18C and only an odd spot or two of rain, which will come as a relief to the men and women wanting to make their way across the blanket bogs of the Dales uplands.

Places are still available on the Fellsman, but be warned: it’s not an event for the unprepared. Full details, including route, rules and costs are available on the event’s website.

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coasties-awards

See attached. Well done Vlastik.

Mile 18 of the Avalon 50 Mile Race was where I first met Donn.  He and his friend Jim Green were trying to play catch up after starting slow at the beginning of the race.  Coming back from an injury, I didn’t think there was any way I would be able to stay with them for as long as I did, but boy, am I glad that I did!  It is amazing how easily words flow with strangers in events like these.  I learned so much about the two of them for the next 20 miles.  It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship with people that would soon become my regular running partners. 

When Donn was young, he never excelled at sports, in fact, he despised running.  Graduating from high school was a relief because it meant that he would never have to do those torturous laps in gym class ever again. He officially hung up his running shoes until his early 30s.  He began to run a few miles in a local park every Sunday.  Both of his brothers were marathon runners, but Donn had no intentions of going that direction.  One day at work, he struck up a conversation with one of the temporary employees.  He shared with Donn that he liked to run 50 and 100 mile races.  This was crazy to him, but he never forgot that conversation.

In 1999, after being happily married for 9 years, Donn’s wife suggested that they join a local health club.  Damien loved the gym and it soon became a way of the two of them spending time together.  One day, a fitness instructor told the class about a local 10k trail run.  Donn was the only one interested in doing the race.   He ran it and loved it.  Shortly thereafter, his spinning class instructor told him about a 7.8 mile run in Griffith Park and he signed up for that one as well.  He was officially hooked.

In 2002, Donn participated in his first marathon.  Damien also joined him for runs and they would spend time together on the weekends on the dirt trails in the Santa Monica Mountains.  In 2005, he decided to take his running one step further and entered his first 50k at Lake Hodges.   Although Damien questioned his sanity at times, she was incredibly supportive of his running goals.

On November 6, 2006, life changed forever for Donn.  Damien suffered a massive brain hemorrhage while getting ready for work and never regained consciousness.  His wife and best friend for the past 16 years was gone.  Eventually, Donn turned to the trails for comfort.  Before long, he had joined both the Phidippides ‘Fun Runners’ for week day runs and the Santa Monica Goats on the weekends.  The loss of his wife made him realize that life is too short not to do the things that are important to him.

Damien passed away shortly before the Santa Barbara Nine Trails race, a gruelling 35 mile run thats difficulty level mirrors that of a challenging 50 mile race.  Instead of dropping out, Donn still ran the race, and the time that he spent on the trails made him feel closer to her with every step.  He now does this race every year. 

Donn never forgot the conversation that he had with his co-worker almost 15 years ago.  As his race distances progress from 50 miler to 100ks, he now feels ready to take on his first 100 miler.  “I want to live life to the fullest and experience some of the great 100 mile races out there,” says Donn.  “Along the way, I would like to make more new friends that share the same passion about ultrarunning that I do.”

On July 19, 2008, Donn will be running his first 100 mile race, the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run.

article by: Summer Wesson

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Final day - Hargrave, Chester to Liverpool: At the time of writing this, I’m sat with Adam on a wall outside Woodside ferry terminal soaked in sweat and shivering like a dog tied to a lamppost on a freezing January morning - but I’m ecstatic. Liverpool’s majestic three graces stand proud a mile away on the other side of the Mersey and in a little while we’ll be over there, where our exhausting journey will meet its end. Today’s 21.2-mile home leg was never going to be a problem. I didn’t bother wearing any shin or knee supports and hardly stopped for a break all the way through to Birkenhead. The Wirral was teeming with mods on ridiculous scooters. One stopped me, I presumed, to ask what I was doing and to wish me luck. But I was mistaken; he asked me where he could get petrol! Unbelievable. I’ve worn a face like death for a week, I’m kitted-out in a MacMillan vest, I’m blowing bubbles and I’m accompanied by a support cyclist, and he still thinks I’m the man to ask. Get over Quadrophenia.

Submitted by Tony Mangan. www.tonymangan.com

A busy 5 weeks for Yiannis Kouros on his European tour. 3 weeks after winning the Brno 48 hour indoor race with a modest (for him)  408km he went on to win a 24 hour running 261km in Ciserno,Italy!
If that was not enough! The Greek legend took out his shoes in Austria last weekend and stormed to victory in the Gosler 48 hour with a remarkable 423km.

http://www.kondis.no/index.php?akt=ultra%20

http://www.steppenhahn.de/download/gols2008.pdf

http://www.yianniskouros.com/

Bangalore Ultra 2008

After its remarkable success last year, Runners For Life brings the longest run back to Bangalore.

Are you keen to break the mould and do the unthinkable? Then the Bangalore Ultra Marathon is for you!

Bangalore Ultra 2007 had participants from all over India. It is without doubt on its way to becoming one of the premier running events in the country. The scenic trail route is a welcome diversion when compared to several other road running events in India.

The second edition of the Bangalore Ultra Marathon will be held this year on November 16th, 2008. Registration for the Bangalore Ultra Marathon will be open from August 15th, 2008 onwards.

Considering the fact that last year’s event was sold out, make sure you don’t miss out on it this time around!

In the meanwhile if you have any queries, you can contact the organisers at bangaloreultra@runnersforlife.com

Bangalore Ultra - Its Tough. Are You?