So, who knows why we agree to do these things. For me it was all the positive talk from Endure 2018, and the relentless enthusiasm of Nick Hutchinson, Jon Watson and Steve Farrell. So signed up added to the last team, who is going to Captain. Nobody seemed bothered and interested to see if you can lead one of these things from the back, I agreed to step up.

To be fair I didn’t really know Kevin Reardon ­­­(He had said some positive words to me about Brad! But 2 week before we all got to share his Ultra experience live on Facebook), Steve Powell – I knew a little through his sister Sarah Powell (who is possibly the most capable novice runner in our club, if only she believed that to!) David Hayden I had exchanged smiles with at 6.40 whilst waiting for club nights to start, but Claire Hayden had run in the same groups as me and I remember, the positive words of encouragement she had shared with me when I first joined the club and was struggling with Group 4 speeds (New Group 5!) and when she waited with me at the start of the year when I popped my hamstring running intervals around St Wilfred’s Rd.

We all have our injuries and health problems, I’m no exception or anything special, but 4 weeks before race start I was in A&E with chest pain, 6th time in 5 years, very frustrating but tests all done and nothing majorly serious. I was still nervous about pushing my body. For most people racing and Endurance events are mental and not physical, ie you are able to push your bodies by learning to turn off the pain barrier, but I can’t do that any more. I need to stop or monitor my efforts and can only work to 60-70% otherwise I seem to get poorly for weeks afterward.

An advance party of 5 cars set off, from the Sun Inn, scandal from the start as Nick Hutchinson bribes/thanks Becky with a McDonalds, causing us to be late, but not really late. Balancing the role for Endure President/Diplomat with Fatherly responsibilities can’t be easy. We meet proper and final at the gates of Endure and all get out of cars at 7.50. I had wondered what Mrs Hayden would be like, I was not disappointed: bubbly, smiling, supportive, confident – perfect. Two hours standing in the cold shadows of the woods, 2nd in the cue of cars was time enough for us to share stories, a few laughs. And then the gates opened and off we went to reserve the best possible place for our team of 33 runners, with about 500 cars lined up behind us. So Nick knew exactly what he wanted and he dished out his orders and we dutifully complied; communal area surrounded by Teamed tents – 4 hours later done and the masses started arriving having left work early to help with preparations and start drinking.

For those of you that missed the Friday night you missed a treat, a very relaxed evening, Mark Bower fired up his barbecue, James Holloway made a massive Chilli and Nick made a Michelin star Paella on his fancy Cadac stove. Jo Derxhad made some fantastic Chicken Kebabs but she was so busy trying everyone else’s food, like me, she forgot to cook them. Jonathan Jones lit his fire and burnt his old bunk bed.

I was hoping Zoe Kerrigan and Karen could do a tag team support for our entire team, but Thursday morning, Nick was in my office discussing the Friday Barbecue, when he was receiving messages from Sam Charlesworth about her injuries and he just joked with Zoe, will you do it and she said yes, 22 years I’ve been married I’ve never had a yes so quickly. Voodoo I tell you, must be.

I had asked the team if they had any goals, I was hoping that one or 2 of them might want to smash out 7 or 8 laps, which would allow me time to take it easy, but they were all really chilled and all wanted to go with the flow and see how they felt.

And so the day began 1st lap down, wow it was hot, but still some great times from the 4 runners. I ran walked a 65 minuter. Lap 2 down and I had asked Kevin to go out of sequence so I got extra rest and could do a lap with Zoe, this ended up being Zoe’s slowest lap (Go figure!!) So Kevin had done 3 and the rest of us 2 laps. I had discussed with Steve him doing his 4th lap after Kevin, which would put back my 3rdlap. I fell asleep, deep deep sleep, the best sleep, only to be awoke by Neil Costigan shouting Zoe with a 25 minute warning. My brain is normally really good at working through times, adding subtracting and memorizing times, but I couldn’t work out when it was my time to run. I got up only to be met by an equally confused David Hayden who told me he was going next and then Claire. Putting everyone straight I did the 3rd lap which was he Night time lap, some of us had never run in the dark before. I was really nervous of tripping and went especially slowly, to start with but then I was treated to the sunrise and finished the run able to turn off my torch. Allowing David to do his 4th with Claire following. We all watched her finish her fourth she struggled to run up the hill, the anguish in her face was painful for me to see, but I could see her parents were really upset. She declared herself done, very brave. I had set a previous maximum of 3 laps but having watched the guys go through their 5th I decided to do 4 feeling really good going into the lap I was hoping to try and get a sub 1 hour run, but the body said no, everything started to seize up, there was nothing I could do, when whilst I was jogging 2 walkers over took me. And then a pat on the shoulder and Matthew Thomas Burnsovertook me with a double limp on his 6thlap, I could see his pain, I could feel his pain as we limped toward the finish line his lead growing steadily.

The night was something quite amazing for Zoe and me, most of you were pushing your bodies to the extreme, I decided to busy myself with manual work in the kitchen to fend off sleep. We watched Neil sleep with one eye open, Nick close his eyes but not sleep, but the prize for sleeping surely has to go to John Worthington who sleeps with his mouth open and a gentle snore that is as constant and reliable as a metronome.

So there are a number of proper athletes in the club and we all knew they would do well, anything sub 40 for a man is magnificent and ladies who run sub 45 incredible. But for me the efforts of others are equally as impressive; Our Solo runner Nicola Wilkinson, who I don’t really know, but appeared for short visits to Camp Danum overflowing with energy, 8 laps for Laura Sydney; when she outdrank everyone on Friday, was awake the earliest on Saturday and had the odd tipple throughout the race also. Neil Costigan, who would not want to be in his team, he was present at all the transitions, always positive. Jon Watson, leading a funky reduced team until Captain Adi Tuplin was able to come and help packing in 5 runs in 15 hours. But I have to say I was most impressed with Zoe nearly 6 hours on her feet negative splits, except when I slowed her down. We have been reading facebook posts all day yesterday, finishing each others sentences, who’d have thought it!!

The Hutchinson Family. Nick is Mr Positive always got a good encouraging and informative word to say, a true student of form and race prep. Lynn Hutchinson is a grafter, I watched as she mothered her girls cooking and looking after them. Very special intelligent young women, keen to help and support. I am not a dog lover, embarrassed to say I am maybe a bit phobic of dogs, but little Ruby seemed to steal everyone’s hearts, watching her lick Adi’s face for over a minute was something that made me cringe, but cringe in a nice way. Ruth Medlock interact with her own family was something quite special, a mother is always a mother, even when she is tired, you woman are amazing.

Monday, late to the party but not too late. The Kerrigans joined a farewell and didn’t we do well Breakfast at Toby Carvery, Edenthorpe. A nice time to reflect and share stories again.

What a lovely weekend and not a crossed word or argument in 3 days with 33 tired bodies, that has got to be amazing.

I will firstly explain the name and how the team was formed. Whilst on our Danum Harriers Running holiday in France 2018, five budding Harriers took the chance to get on the bikes in the evening and visit a local hospitality for a pint or two. The concept was born: Myself, Eleanor Bull, John Worthington, Lynn Hutchinson and Paul Wright later that year took part in Endure 24 in different teams.

After Endure 2018 the teams disbanded, so we took the opportunity to come together as the 6 o’clock club for 2019. Unfortunately Paul Wright had to withdraw due to injury. Luckily, Nathaniel Redcliffe stepped in with about six weeks to go.

I was very optimistic, as ever – I knew John and Ellie were in amazing form, I knew Lynn had taken a month off (after London Marathon, Outlaw Half Ironman and other events) so would be fresh, and Nathaniel had really started to post some impressive running in the six months leading up to it.

My only concern was the workload leading up to the event for Me, John and Ellie. This is where I made a pretty silly mistake – both myself and John had done a Half IM the Sunday before and Eleanor had pushed extremely hard on her sprint triathlon. I carried on my normal training and buried myself on the Wednesday before too at our local Duathlon race. Luckily for our team, John and Ellie did taper a little.

To the race! The weather was going to be very instrumental and I tried to factor that into our starting order, keeping the fresher runners away from the worst of the heat, at least for one of the first two runs. As it transpired, it was just as brutal for all. After the first round of runs I was both chuffed and worried. I had ran the pace I wanted to sustain for the 7 laps but was well aware I had to put far too much effort in. I looked at my fellow team members’ times and thought “OMG, we are not going to sustain this.”

Luckily they were in far better shape than I, and when we all did the second round everyone apart from me had maintained their effort under very arduous conditions.

By round 3 we were positioned top 10 out of 78 teams, so I was very pleased, although I had now been struck with immense cramping during my runs and rest periods, which prevented me eating properly. Having witnessed lots of others in previous years go through this, I knew it was going to be a tough night. All the rest of the team were just going about their business with smiles on their faces – master stroke no.2. Putting the 2 couples apart so they could look after each other, or should I say John and Ellie look after each other!! It was Lynn looking after me solely!

When darkness fell I knew the most important thing was for everyone to just relax and enjoy their runs, I tried to get this message across, but to be fair I didn’t need to – for the first time in 3 years all of us made it through till dawn with no serious problems. In fact I couldn’t believe what I was seeing from Ellie, constant 41 splits!! John just kept smashing low splits and looked a million dollars, Nathaniel had slowed a little, but this was more out of respect for the event and its distance, something that proved very wise over the whole 24 hours. Lynn just did her usual thing, every lap was within a minute of the best, and after a 1 months rest she was doing remarkably. Even I pulled one decent lap out as the sun rose and I thought I was back – ummm nope.

Then the race starts, 6 hrs to go – we were positioned 6th, my mind was wandering – how to get the magic 7 each in. Maths at 7am during an Endure 24 is almost impossible, but I knew it was on the cards if we all stayed fit. Once we had completed 6 each we had moved into 5th, and my attention was clearly focused on the goal.

We then had to see what Nathaniel had left, he pulled a decent last time out of the bag and it was on. If John could manage a 40 we were in with a chance. Of course he did – I’ve known John a while and have done some gruelling events with him – but seeing him giving everything to exhaustion on that final 400m, I was choked. Me and Ellie had 84 mins to get a lap each in. I set off like a man possessed, but after my fastest first mile of the 24 hrs it started falling apart and my heart sank. I tried my best, but I couldn’t go any quicker. I eventually struggled across the line to hand over to Ellie, she had an impossible task now and I felt so low.

Then Ellie smiled and spoke some kind words as she set off, I literally collapsed. After a minute or so, my mind had recovered, the enormity of what we had achieved took hold and I was beaming inside. Ellie gave it her all, and still posted a 42!!! I think Lynn was relieved ??. In honesty Lynn could have posted a 41/42, but after the previous year I felt it prudent not to push her.

We finished 34 laps at 12:04pm, a new mixed team Harrier record – we missed the magic 35 by a few minutes).

I cannot explain how proud I am of all my team , but I also have to thank many other Harriers for their support, in particular Anthony Kerrigan for looking after me and Lynn Hutchinson when we were low, Laura Sydney for making me smile all night and generally all Harriers for working so hard and inspiring us to work so hard. This is the proudest I have been as a Harrier – #loveyouall.