Is it possible to beat Joss’ time – post run analysis

Before I set off I thought the way to beat Joss was to have less rest time. I obviously did manage to beat Joss’ time but my pre run thoughts turned out to be completely wrong as the analysis below will show.

Before the run I stated

“My plan is that I should really only be either sleeping or moving, I should be trying to eat as much as possible whilst moving.  So below are Joss’ timings and my planned timings


Joss total time = 169 hours
Joss resting time = 44 hours
Joss moving time = 125 hours


Steve planned total time = 158 hours
Steve planned resting time = 25 hours
Steve planned moving time = 133 hours

I am planning on resting lots fewer hours (25 compared with 44 for Joss). So although I will be moving slower I will beat Joss’ time. It all sounds great in theory but it will be a lot harder in practice. It will rely on really good support and me coping with 4 hours sleep a night.”

This all started to change after a couple of days. I was needing lot of treatment on my feet so by the 3^rd day onwards I was often spending around a hour at the end of a section (it was not completely wasted time as I was also eating and drinking well in that hour). I also struggled to sleep the first couple of nights so from then onwards I gave myself another hour at night. So the final totals are:

Steve actual total time = 157 hours
Steve actual resting time = 42 hours
Steve actual moving time = 115 hours

What is interesting about this is when I was moving I was clearly moving well. The route is basically 5 Bob Graham rounds so when I was moving , on average, I was faster than 24 hour BG pace. I was also, on average, moving faster than Joss. At the start I was slower than Joss but my speed dropped off less than Joss so by the end I was moving faster.

My feeling is that I was over ambitious in how fast I could do a transition but if I had not needed treatment on my feet I could have saved a lot of time.

However, it does make me think there is potential to reduce the record. If someone can move at the speed I did but manage to avoid any blisters or injuries they could reduce the resting time and break the record.  It sounds easy! Any takers?

Note, actual split times can be seen on the right side of the blog