• At 32 hrs William had reached 144.82 miles / 233.06 km
• At 33 hrs William had covered  145.61 miles / 235.94 km
• At 34 hrs William has now reached 151.38 miles / 243.62km

It’s great to see William break the 150 mile mark with 2hrs to spare before the 36 hr (three-quarters of the way) point. At the current rate, he should set a good time for 200 miles.

To give a context for his performance so far, William’s current personal best for 48 hrs was set three years ago in 2007 when he achieved a distance of 213.92 miles / 344.267 km to set the current Scottish Overall (i.e. all ages) record for the indoor 48hr race.

Naturally William is looking to set a new M55 Scottish record but preferably also to beat his own Scottish Overall record for 48hrs indoor (set when he was in a younger age group). There is still a long way to go, but at present he is looking capable of it.

To break his own Scottish Overall record William has to cover approximately 63 miles / 101.39 km during the next 14 hrs.

This means he has to average  4.5 mph / 7.24 kmh for the next 14 hrs.

“Average Speed” can be a difficult concept to grasp so it is worth highlighting it a little. In the context of a race of this kind the “required average speed” is the speed that would be achieved if a runner (in this case William) were running continuously throughout the period  (in this case 14hrs). In reality just about no-one ever runs literally continuously (they might need to go to the toilet, they may take a rest break, they may be using a run/walk split etc).

Any time off track (answering the call of nature, stopping for food, taking a nap etc) means that zero distance is added to their total during the time they are not running; the required average speed for the full period remains the same, but the actual speed when running must increase to make up the difference due to lost running time during a break.

I’ll try and give a simple example. If William requires an average speed of 4.5 mph / 7.24 kmh for the next 14 hrs, but if he also hypothetically during the next 14 hrs, for one reason or another (toilet stops, rest, food or whatever), was off-track for a total of 2 hrs (which may sound like a lot but can easily happen e.g. 3 x 10 mins going to the toilet, 1 hr nap and 2 x 15 min food breaks), then this would leave 12 hours of actual running time –  meaning that to achieve an average speed of 4.5 mph / 7.24 kmh for the next 14 hrs he would actually have to run at 5.25 mph / 8.45 kmh (to make up for the 2 hours of lost running time).

William covered circa 72 miles during the first 14 hrs of the race (when of course he was at his freshest, and during which time he took no rest breaks at all) so he is not in a position of needing to run what amounts to a negative split (running faster in the later stages than in the earlier stages), but obviously William won’t be as fresh after almost a day and a half of running and he probably will take a short break or two during the next 14 hours.

So a new Scottish Overall record is a possibility, but in current jargon it is “a big ask”.

It is going to be very interesting to see what happens during the final half-a-day of the race….

More soon,

Shaun