Scotland has two entrants in the “Endurance” 24hr race. As well as William (from Orkney), Paul Hart from the Dumfries Running Club is also competing in the event.

While William is running “below” his preferred distance in this race (William specialises in multi-day events so 24hrs is on the “short” side for him), Paul is “moving up” in distance from his previous speciality, the 100km.

Paul Hart is generally regarded as an excellent 100Km runner and, having run for Scotland at this distance, has recently moved up to longer distances.

Paul had a great run in the 2009 West Highland Way Race (95 miles) coming 5th in a time of 17hrs 12mins 26 secs (for those who don’t realise, the West Highland Way is a very different kind of event from an indoor track race, so Paul is evidently pretty versatile).

Paul made his first serious attempt at 24 hours in the Tooting Bec, London track race in October 2009, coming 2nd with a very respectable 226.830Km.

Paul Hart will now be looking to better this distance and achieve the GBR qualifying distance (235Km) for the World 24 Hour Championships in May 2010, in Brive, France.

Thanks to Alan for providing some background on Paul Hart for this post (and the photo too).