Tony Mangan set a 48-Hour World Indoor Record in Brno, Czech Republic in March 2007.
Below is an edited extract of his account of the race.
UNO IN BRNO!
The Japanese runner was watching me intently.
We were in the latter hours of the Brno 48 hour indoor international endurance race in the Czech Republic. Kenji Okiyama was a member of Japan's gold medal-winning team at the 2006 World 24 Hour Championships in Taiwan. While he had finished 7th overall, I finished 16th. But now I was 10km in front of him with only a few hours remaining in the race.
I moved faster, he moved faster. He was waiting for me to make a definite move of some sort. Finally, he charged off. This was his third attempt at cracking me. However, sensing he was near his limit, I matched his pace to demonstrate I was feeling strong. It resulted in a short attack: just one lap of the 250 metre concrete track of the indoor arena. Eyeballs-out-stuff, we ran it in about 70 seconds but it seemed sub-60. Most of my other laps were in the 1:30 to 1:40 region. At the end of this lap his hand went up in the air, almost as a sign of submission. I had managed to fend off his two previous attacks too, lapping him a few times when he faded.
We shuffled onward for a couple of hours, towards a finish line that was defined by our position on the track at 48 hours exactly. Refreshed with about two hours to go we spoke for the first time. Kenji told me not to worry about his faster pace, that he just wanted to go through 400km in style. All the same, I had to take his moves seriously because anything could happen to me, thereby giving him an outside chance of victory. He lifted his pace gradually, adrenalin-filled, running through the pain barrier. I watched him carefully from the opposite side of the track and matched his pace. He was clad in his white Japanese singlet and blue shorts and had a forward-leaning style that was easy to pick out amongst the other runners.
I wore my Metro St. Brigid's club singlet for the first 14 hours of this race. As it was St. Patrick's Day after midnight on the first day's running, I changed into my Irish national singlet . This was the first time in 20 years that I didn't wear my club colours throughout a non-championship race. It was my plan to change back at midnight the following day, but thought better than to alter 'the luck of the Irish' it was giving me.
After the first two hours of the Brno 48-Hour, I was in 26th place of the 51 runners. As the hours ticked by slowly, I gradually moved up the standings, passing other runners, one by one. By the 24-hour mark I was in 3rd place, later getting a presentation for that 'competition within a competition'. I had run 223km, almost identical to the distance I covered at the 24 H European Championships six months earlier where I had finished 9th.
For once, the weather could be guaranteed for a race. The arena, which is usually used for expos, had been heated to 17degrees C.
I wondered what my friends and family were doing at home. My club, MSB were hosting the St. Patrick's Day KBC Assets 4 mile road race in the Phoenix Park. It would be nice to run a shorter race I thought.
As a rule, I don't like to listen to an audio device during these races but prefer to concentrate on form, style and pace. A radio is never far from my ear in real life, so a long run makes for a nice break.
I took the lead with 10 hours to go. I was very focussed and a driving desire to win helped through that second long night. However, Kenjai was a formidable opponent with a courageous, never-say-die attitude. On each of his attacks, I managed to reel him in by raising my pace steadily so that he found it difficult to sustain his own. We had an incredible tussle!
During the race, I took a half-hour nap after 20 hours and another half-hour nap at 32 hours. Upon returning to the track after the second rest, I got sick and lost another 15-20 minutes. The only time I walked in the entire race was for 3 laps immediately prior to my first nap.
Peta - a young science student - had been assigned to look after me and give me my carbohydrate Sustained Energy drinks, Hammer Nutrition Gels and E-Caps. Also, Alan Young a UK athletics official was very generous with his assistance despite simultaneously crewing for William Sichel (who would go on to break the Scottish 48 hour record and finished 6th). These helpers were instrumental to my success.
The race was the first time I wore Injinji Tetratsoks and for the first time in 3 ultras I didn't get a blister. In fact, my feet hardly had a blemish.
The official aid stations were well stocked and included beer! As a non-drinker, I chose the alcohol-free one occasionally. Sometimes one finds it hard to stomach regular drinks, but beer is rich in carbohydrates and was a welcome refreshment.
Jaroslav Kocourek, a Czech runner, was the first to shake my hand and congratulate me on breaking his indoor world record at the finish. I knew I had broken the course record, but hadn't realised the course record was also the world record. It was a shock to me!
Kenjai and I hugged and exchanged flags and were photographed holding each other's flag. His second place total was 412.9km while third was the Czech runner Vlastimil Dvoracek with 374.9km.
I gave two television interviews and had numerous photos taken as the arena sign flashed a World 48 Hour indoor record: "Tony Mangan Ireland 426.178km" (264. 81miles). It was an amazing feeling.
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