Participant: Ivan Davis (Australian)

Location: London U.K.

Total Funds Raised: £85 (aprox US $155) 

Total Distance Covered: 76miles 

Total Time Ran: 23 hours 34 minutes 

 Media Coverage: Press release issued by my employer – Salvation Army London Central Division.  One small local paper did an article with photo but I haven’t seen it.  No reply to eight emails/letters personally sent to editors of main national papers.  Possibly my personal distrust of media had something to do with this!?!?

Event Narrative:  I chose the site for convenience to my living quarters and to minimize costs as I fully expected that I would pay up out of my own pocket to meet a personal commitment of US $100.  As it turned out I raised a bit more than that by virtue of an entrepreneurial wife.  Almost the entire 4 mile loop of the course is on concrete paving and although I knew this could hurt I figured that as I had been running 60 miles/week for 8 months on concrete I would be tough enough.  There was extra training sometimes on the weekends but that was always on dirt or grass, which in retrospect may have been a mistake.  A personal goal apart from just staying the time was to do 25 laps or 100 miles.  This was realistic I thought given good training and even allowing for the crowds of tourists flocking the route.  Another factor was that the 4 miles was only a conservative estimate measured by GPS and in reality was almost surely a little longer.  This is due to the switchback stairways and pedestrian tunnels I was using.

The first obvious annoyance was the dust blown up into my eyes.  This took three days to clear but was really only just annoying.  At about 30 miles I realized that the damage being done by the concrete was going to be huge if I wasn’t really careful.  In the end the pain level was as high as anything I can remember going through and it took a bit of managing.  It was an incredible experience though seeing the moods of the city change through the 24 hour period.  I didn’t really notice the tide go in and out on the Thames as I normally do but certainly noticed people a lot more.  Odd little acknowledgements of encouragement came my way from a few folk - possibly brought on by rather outrageous front loading of my pack with bottles and food compartments.

My first lap took just 43 minutes and the last took over 2 hours.  That pretty much sums up the whole run.  There is no doubt that during the last 6 hours I was thinking that I wouldn’t bother running such times or distances again.  Three days later and recovery is almost complete so with some small sense of satisfaction for making a statement worth making I’ll go for a short run tomorrow.

      Participant Quotes:  Never ever - ever – ever run further than 20 miles on concrete.

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