The School Run

by Garry Perratt

On 15th July, 1999 I was sponsored to run around my children's school field for the entire school day. I completed 176 laps in 6:00:31 for a total of 41 true miles or 44 metric "miles" (1500m). Each lap was 375m which made counting metric "miles" easier than true ones. Much of the field was long grass (heavy going, even at the end of the day) and the field is on a slight slope so I reckon that my metric "mileage" was a pretty good equivalent to the true mileage I would have achieved had it been good going.

My splits are shown in the graph with some notes below.

• The first lap was relatively fast as I always start too quickly before settling into a sensible pace!
• I got a little faster once I had flattened the long grass after about ten miles.
• I felt really comfortable for the first 30 miles although I progressively slowed after the first eleven.
• After that started feeling pretty tired and needed a loo stop/rest/mental recharge after 34 miles.
• I then begun walking roughly one lap in six as I was pretty knackered by then. I tried to ensure that every other mile or so was run without any walking to gauge my running pace. I managed to get the last three in without walking.
• I originally intended to rest for a few minutes or at least walk a lap every ten miles or so. On the day I decided to see how far I could run without a stop (apart from retying a shoelace): it was 34 miles. If I had rested as planned I would have lost a few minutes every hour and I'm not sure that I would have been running fast enough at the end to make up the distance (but I may well have enjoyed the last few miles a lot more!). Any comments from ultra runners out there?
• I ate nothing but drank a mixture of squash, sports drink and sweet, black tea. It was a warmish day so I think on balance that one lap walking every hour would have both rested me a little and given me the opportunity to get more fluid down.