Barry 40 Mile Track Race 2005

Sri Chinmoy AC Results:

Tarit (Adrian) 5.57.14   

Roger 6.13.48

The Barry 40 is organised by Mick McGeoch and his colleagues at Les Croupiers Running Club - its a race with a long  history including a 54 world records. This year myself (Roger) and Tarit (Adrian) entered the race months in advance, but we found ourselves at the start line with very few miles of training under our belts - still, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say, so we ran the race anyway and had a great day.

As you can see from the picture, we had a gloriously sunny day - what the picture doesn't show is that temperatures were only marginally above freezing! The atmosphere at the race was superb - the volunteers who count and help the runners with drinks etc. were very dedicated and gave their vocal support to all the participants. I'd especially like to thank Fran for counting both me and Tarit for the full 6 hours in arctic conditions. I also found the cameraderie between the runners a real help - as I was one of the slower ones I was reglarly lapped, and the faster entrants coming past had lots of words of encouragement for me, which really helped.

Tarit ran a steady race, while I made the classic novice mistake of going off a little too fast then hitting a massive all at 26-30 miles (down to 14 minute pace - ouch!) but we both held on to finish reasonably well - Tarit even won the M50 medal. Ths pic shows him receiving the award from Dave Walsh (right)  and Mick McGeoch.

Ultra distance legend Geoff Oliver broke a world record for M60+ over 40 miles - in accepting his medal he made the point that he would like to see the younger runners threatening records too - this year's fastest times from winner Stehen Pope and runner up Stuart Buchan were very impressive, but not close to the sub-4 clocked by Mick McGeoch and others in 40 milers of years gone by. The record remains in the hands of the immortal Don Ritchie (3.48.35). Both Don and Lynn Hughes (who was the first to break 4 hours for this distance) have received the Lifting Up The World With A Oneness Heart award from Sri Chinmoy for their achievement and service in the world of athletics.

In the Welsh Championship event Les Croupiers runner Andy Cleves came first in 4.48.22 - the third time he has been crowned ultradistance champion of Wales.

As 17th out of 19 finishers I myself wasn't in line for any medals, but I was pleased to get the "Barry 40 Finisher" mug which all 19 of us were awarded just for completing the course. Having just missed the official cut off of 6 hours, I'm toying with the idea of coming back next year to get under 6.00 - hopefully with a genuine winter training schedule behind me.

Full results are online at the Les Croupiers web site, and more pics are available in our gallery.