World run 2017 Cambridge Video and update

So last Sunday I took part in the Red Bull, wings for life world run in Cambridge, The event itself takes place in twenty five other countries. What makes this race so unique is the finish line moves. So those unfamiliar with the event it basically boils down to this all the runners start at the same time be it 12:00 in the UK or 3:00 in the morning in Florida. After thirty minutes a car driven at the same speed globally sets off in each country, when the car passes the runner that runners race is over.

The event is fronted by Red Bull and all proceeds of the entry fees go to a fantastic charity Wings for Life. They are a charity that specialise in Spinal cord injury, the event has the tag of “running for those who can’t.” This year over 150,000 registered runners raised over £5.7 million for the cause. Cambridge itself had 3000 runners on the day which is considerably more than the thousand or so that I ran with in Silverstone three years ago.

This year the two global winners were Aron Anderson from Sweden, running the UAE race, who won the men’s race running a ludicrous 92Km, that’s over 2 marathons in a time of around 5hrs 36mins that’s over 10MPH! to put that into context that’s only around 3 miles an hour less than the world’s best marathon runners, or 1 Fatboy marathon. For the women it was Dominika Stelmach from Poland running in the Chilean race who ran 68KM. The Cambridge winners were Polish runner Jacek Cieluszecki who ran 68.8Kms for the men and Croatian Nikilina Sustic who ran just over 55Km for the women.

As for the Fatboy well I went in with a plan to run 10k and pace myself accordingly, the good news is that I managed to run the 10k in around 1 hour 6 mins, the bad is that I did struggle a little on the day, the biggest culprit was not warming up properly before the run which cost me twice in the first mile. Firstly I struggled at the start, the only problem with this race being in Cambridge is the start is very tight and narrow so it was hard to find any pace, so when the course does open up you feel the need to pick up the pace and waste energy to try make up the lost time. Secondly Castle Hill is evil I have always hated and struggled with hills and it didn’t help that my calves were already tight from the start of the race being so crowded. After stretching it out for a moment it was not so bad. I also struggled finding a decent pace, I found myself being overtaken and then overtaking the same group of people throughout the run as I probably slowed down to walk a little more than I would have liked, due to failing to pace myself properly. This is a shame as I normally pace myself very well on the day and rarely overdo it.

The important thing for me to remember is that I am not race fit yet carrying over two stone more than I would like. However this is one of my favourite runs and I will hopefully be back again next year, running I hope closer to the 18k I managed the first year I ran this run.

I have posted a video at the top of the blog that shows up the sped up run from Sunday, annoyingly just as the car was catching us my batteries died in my camera and I did not have time to change them. To make things worse I would have gotten a nice wave from David Coulthard at the end of the clip.

For more info on this race and its great cause go to http://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/de/en/