Ultra-Veteran Lynn Newton emailed me a few questions a little while ago and I thought they might be of general interest, so I’ve paraphrased them and here goes…

• Q – Where exactly is the race?

• A – It is the (first) “Ultra Indoor Normand” or “UIN”, held in Evreux, France

• Q – So it’s indoors? isn’t that unusual?

• A. Yes, I believe it is currently the only indoor 48 hours in Europe.

The race entry system is slightly unusual in that it has specific categories for “runners” and “walkers” but the runners are allowed to walk if they wish/need. I don’t actually know if the “walking” category uses strict “heel-and-toe” style but regardless I assume that walkers aren’t allowed to run (!). Both the running and walking categories have men’s and women’s categories.

• Q. What’s the temperature inside?

• A.  At 8pm local time last night it was 17.3 degrees C. with 42% humidity – I’d assume a bit warmer around midday and a bit cooler through the night but I don’t have figures at present.

• Q. How long is a single circuit/lap/loop of the track?

• A. I don’t have the actual lap length to hand but I can give you an estimate based on two figures I do have. Alan told me at one point William was running at an average of 8.5kmh, and at a similar time he also mentioned that William had been doing 65 second laps. With a quick bit or arithmetic, I figure that would make the track pretty small at circa 0.15 km (give or take).

I subsequently did a quick translation from French on a sub-page of the race
site and found out I’m spot on, the track is 150 meters

• Q. I assume there are off-track facilities for runners to rest. Tents? Cots? Regular bathrooms or showers available? I realize that the more ardent competitors will be having very little downtime in 48 hours.

• A. The short answer is that I don’t have full details but doing a translation of the French site I can tell you the following :

• “The track is concrete and is 150 meters long. Runners change direction every 4 hours”
• “Sanitary toilet – Male and female toilets are accessible from the race location.”
• (I have no idea about showers but I note that some of the runners have been changing clothes frequently so I assume they have some sort of facilities)
• “Restaurant for runners – A free and varied supply of food is available for runners, and for accompanying crew.”

Although William will be on track most of the time he has taken a nap,
and Alan his crewman just had a longer sleep break, so I know there is space
at the venue for this sort of thing.

• Q. Is it just a 48-hour? No other race?

• A. As far as I am aware it is 48hr only, but as I say, split into Male-Running / Female-Running / Male-Walking / Female-Walking, all at the same time. At the same venue there are also 2 treadmill challenges (1 man and 1 woman attempting 48hr treadmill records), plus a 48hr exercise bike challenge being done by a triathlete, and various displays of martial arts, stunt cycling, music being played, and other entertainments – but no other runners on track doing other races to the best of my knowledge.
  

• Q. Is there a URL to the race with details? In English?

• A. Not in English – the website is here but in French only :

http://www.ultraindoornormand.com

But Google does a fairly good job of translation.

More anon,

Shaun