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Sharon Gayter, the ladies British 24 hour champion writes about her experience in Worshach this summer, 2005. This is a short excerpt from her account. World and
European 24 Hours By Sharon Gayter
Preparation for this years championships had gone well, after a long build up including a 100km race in Dublin in May I was confident of a new personal best and getting back into the worlds top ten performers. There had only been one slight problem in the training in May when I was struggling to get my work done for the Masters and training was a little inconsistent and could not afford the time off at weekends to race, this was for about three weeks. Also I had broken my left index finger a couple of weeks prior to the race, but was used to this as I had a broken thumb for last years race and would not be a problem, it just made my autograph a bit scruffy. On paper the race looked perfect, a small loop of just over 1km, reasonably flat and not many corners. On arrival it was evident that a lot of work had been put into this race, each team had a little wooden chalet for the helpers and the course was roped off to avoid any outside interference. The first concern was the width of the course, especially in the feeding zone where helpers also clog the course. With 32 nations entered this event was also the biggest event ever and was confirmed that this was now a more popular event than the 100km, very surprising, this also meant tougher competition with many countries sending the full team allocation of 6 athletes and a further 3 they could nominate for the individual championships.
Read the whole of Sharon Gayter's story on her website |
