The sky’s the limit

THERE are more people than ever running in Guernsey, according to This is Epic co-founder Philip Smith. Since he and Warren Mauger ran their epic Seven Marathons in Seven Days back in 2014, they’ve noticed there’s been a huge growth in the sport.

‘It’s not formal members of athletic clubs necessarily,’ says Philip, ‘just the volume of people you see out running, weekends, before and after work.’

In his own case he’d never run a marathon before embarking on the charity challenge. ‘My first ever marathon was the one on day one,’ he says, referring to the 2014 challenge. But now he’s well and truly hooked on running.

‘You can start with any level of fitness,’ he says. ‘It’s irrelevant whether you’ve run before. It may take slightly longer and be harder work if you haven’t got a base of running five or 10km runs. But really, there’s no restrictions.’

Philip believes that people are pushing themselves to go to greater lengths. ‘Those that ran 5kms are now running 10kms, and from 10kms to half marathons, and from half marathons to marathons. Then people say, “what’s the next challenge?”’

Inspiring other people around him to take up running has been an excellent by-product of what started as a fundraiser with a £20,000 target for This is Epic and The Hub (they actually exceeded £21,000).

‘Actually seeing people like Jenni and Josh taking on challenges is tremendous,’ he says, about Jenni West, who is running the London marathon, and Josh Davies, who is tackling the Chester 100.

Philip’s own next challenge is taking him, and the family, to Morzine in France, where he’ll be tackling 51km at an altitude of 4,000m.

Skyrunning

Officially in the ‘skyrunning’ bracket, the trail of the Hauts Forts will see Philip tackling ‘proper mountain running’.

Skyrunning was founded in 1992 by Italian Marino Giacometti, now president of the International Skyrunning Federation. The federation regulates the sport worldwide and boasts the tagline: ‘Less cloud. More Sky.’

It defines skyrunning as ‘running in the mountains above 2,000m altitude where the climbing difficulty does not exceed 11° grade and the incline is over 30%’.

From sea to sky, skyrunning spans the great outdoors, across the world’s mountain ranges. It’s gripped the imagination of thousands of participants and fans, and is a sport born in the wild, where the logic was to reach the highest peak in the shortest time from a town or village. Today it represents the peak of outdoor running defined by altitude and technicality and counts some 200 races worldwide with around 50,000 participants from 65 countries.

‘There’s a couple of other guys from Guernsey doing races in Switzerland and Italy,’ says Philip. ‘Our cliffs are perfect for training. They’re rocky and there’s loose terrain and steps as well.’

The family are going too. ‘We’re his crew – we’ll be at each of the stations, feeding him,’ says his wife Louise, who is running the London marathon for the third time this year.

‘Louise persuaded me that we needed a family holiday in France and I managed to plan the dates perfectly so I could run this at the start of the holiday then have a few days’ rest,’ he smiles.

That rest will be most welcome after what will surely be a gruelling run.

London marathon

Skyrunning, with its demanding terrain, is not for everyone. Many prefer road running, which is essentially where marathons take place.

The London marathon – first run in 1981 – is fast and flat. It starts in Blackheath, heads east through Charlton and Woolwich for three miles, turns west and passes the Cutty Sark in Greenwich after six to seven miles. It crosses the River Thames at Tower Bridge and then loops around the east end of London, past Canary Wharf in Docklands, before heading west again along the Highway and the Embankment to Parliament Square, Birdcage Walk and the final corner in front of Buckingham Palace.

People line the streets cheering on competitors and there’s always a few fun characters thrown in the mix.

‘There’s people sitting on their lawns with crates of beer, shouting your name, which they can see on your running top,’ says Louise. ‘It’s really motivational.’

She and Jenni have both run the London marathon before. This year, they got their places completely independently. Louise explained that, as a charity, This is Epic holds a silver bond place, for which Jenni applied and was chosen.

‘I wanted to run for charity and run with my sister,’ says Jenni of her reason for entering.

Her sister is now expecting a baby, so Jenni will be running on her own.

‘I love the level of support at the London marathon,’ she says, explaining that last time, her watch was buzzing with WhatsApp messages of encouragement.

This time around, she’s downloaded a 14-week training programme from the internet, which she is following religiously.

Like Philip, she extolls the virtues of Guernsey as an excellent training ground, especially enjoying running along the front and the west coast.

Jenni and Louise will both be running in This is Epic vests and raising funds for the charity.

The London marathon takes place this Sunday.

• See www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/ for further information

Chester 100

The fourth, but by no means the least, of this running quartet, Josh Davies, is going a step – or rather, 73.8 miles – further than a marathon.

He and his brother have entered the Chester 100, a 100-mile ultra-marathon that, according to its website, ‘takes in the very best trails the region has to offer’.

Josh and his brother have previously run a 50-mile race and, a bit like Philip, that was the first time he’d ever run such a distance.

‘My introduction to ultra-distance was the Epic 12 back in 2016, when a friend asked me if I wanted to join him,’ says Josh. ‘It was a six-mile loop from Vale Castle to Town and back for 12 hours. I was a bodybuilder, I weighed 15 stone, and the most I’d ever run was seven miles. I ended up running 44 miles over 12 hours.’

Despite tearing a ligament in his knee, Josh became interested in ‘the distance thing’.

His aim for the Chester 100 is simply to complete the course.

‘It’s not a marathon, when you want to get from A to B in the fastest time,’ he says. ‘With an ultra-marathon you have a bit more time – more leverage. I don’t race, I’m there just to finish, which is always a good goal to have. So much can go wrong in the middle, so completion is the ultimate goal. So I’ve got more time to play with in the middle – for eating, walking, and resting. In terms of nutrition, it’s all laid out – we’ve figured out how many calories we’re going to need every hour. You need to replenish calories when you’re on the move. It’s all about having a really good plan in place for you – everyone is different. I’m quite lucky as I have a personal trainer qualification, so I know how to do all the mathematical equations in terms of calories expenditure, output, input. Training has gone well over the last five or six months, it’s just a matter of doing well on race day.’

His aim is to complete the course in 27 hours.

I wonder out loud about sleep deprivation, but Josh laughs: ‘I have a seven-week-old baby,’ he says. ‘It’s been great training.’

Like the other three, he says how fantastic Guernsey is as a training ground. ‘I’ve done lots of cliff work to get conditioning in my legs. But lots of flat runs too, as you need to hit tempo runs. You need to move quicker over flatter ground so that on race day you can move slower for longer periods of time. The programme I’ve been following is between 24 and 26 weeks – I gave myself a two-week buffer for the birth of my baby, but the week she was born I ran the longest distances.’

Josh is also running for This is Epic and says that if you’re having a rubbish time and you go through all the variables of why you’re doing it, sometimes doing it to get fitter works, but at other times it’s good to know you’re running for a higher purpose.

The Chester 100 takes place on Saturday 18 May.

• www.gbultras.com/chester-ultra-100/.

This is Epic – what they’re running for

This Is Epic exists to see positive change in the lives of people, families and communities worldwide. The charity is passionate about empowering people to overcome poverty in a sustainable way through savings and loans projects. They have been involved in projects in Africa for more than 10 years. They bring people together in savings and loans groups, teach them how to save and loan their own money as a group and empower them to start income-generating activities and small businesses.

• www.thisisepic.org.uk