Springwell Running Club - Press Release – 9th September 2018
Atlas Running ‘Last One Standing’
The Atlas Running ‘Last One Standing’ started on Saturday 1st September at midday, in Florencecourt, Co; Fermanagh. The event is a very simple concept – you run a 4.2 mile lap once every hour until all your competitors have dropped out and you are the ‘Last One Standing’. Simple, until you hear about the distances required to win such an event.
55 runners started the event at midday on Saturday and it wasn’t until 48 hours later, at midday on Monday 3rd September that the winner was eventually declared. The final few hours of the event saw Springwell RC’s Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes, match each other lap for lap until, after 2 days and 201.6 miles of running Peter did not start lap 49, leaving Guillame to complete a solo lap and 205.8 miles to win the event.
Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes at the Atlas Running ‘Last One Standing’ (Photo – Atlas Running)
This was a truly world class exhibition of running from two athletes who have completed some of the most challenging races in the world. In the past two years Peter has finished both the Marathon Des Sables through the Sahara and the Grand 2 Grand Ultra in Arizona. Frenchman Guillame, who currently lives in Los Angeles is a veteran of many Ultra races, including the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc and is the current champion of the Big Dog Backyard Ultra, another ‘Last One Standing’ event that takes place in Bedford County, Tennessee. To win that event he had to run for 59 hours and almost 246 miles to win.
Peter and Guillame have just over six weeks to recover from their exertions before they face each other at the 2018 Big Dog Backyard Ultra, which takes place on the 20th October.
Springwell RC had two other members at the event with Fran McFadden running for 15 hours and 63 miles and Alistair Shaw completing 79.8 miles in 18 hours.
The Great North Run
The world’s biggest half marathon, the Great North Run took place on Sunday 9th September with over 57,000 runners taking part in the 13.1 mile run from Newcastle upon Tyne to the coast at South Shields. This year 10 members of Springwell RC took part in the event with many of them raising much needed funds for charities, including the Boom Cancer Foundation, Prostate Cancer UK, the Alzheimer’s Society and the Foyle Hospice.
Springwell RC Results - 873rd Jimmy Stewart 1.34.05, 4746th Mervyn Thompson 1.51.12, 5538th Aífe McSheffrey 1.53.21, 9415th Clive Bradberry 2.02.27, 12852nd Adrian Proctor 2.09.12, 13380th Trudy Walls 2.10.12, 20028th Andrea Proctor 2.21.24, 24798th Roisin Walker 2.19.07, 32687th Jenny Moore 2.47.44, 32295th Gillian Craig 2.57.02
Godawari Running Festival
Godawari is a district in Nepal approximately 20 km to the south of Kathmandu. The Godawari Running Festival, which took place on the 8th September, consists of a variety of obstacle and trail races, over various distances through the Himalayas. It goes without, saying that as you’re in the Himalayas that the runners will have to deal with a certain amount of altitude. Springwell RC members appear at events all around the world and this was no exception with club member Peter Fleming taking part in the LA Sportiva 15 km trail race.
Starting and finishing at an elevation of 5000 feet the course followed a clockwise route through the mountains, rising to a maximum elevation of 5500 feet and although only a 15 km race it was considered challenging enough for the organisers to place checkpoints every 3 km to ensure the safety of the competitors. Taking on the challenge for Springwell RC Peter finished in a time of 1.46.00.
Killyleagh Half Marathon
Friday night’s Killyleagh Half Marathon in County Down had one Springwell RC representative at the event with Martin Smith running a 1.37.17 to finish in 22nd place.