‘Overdrive’ races astonishing 886km over 10-day period
TEN days and 886.747km of running would leave most runners looking bedraggled and in need of a long holiday.
Not so Tim Stones who recently returned from Pretoria's Winter Running Festival where he conquered the often harsh elements; the incredible repetition of the same 804m circuit on a hard concrete surface, nestled on the estate of the Hillside Golf Course; sleep deprivation and numerous physical challenges experienced over that period.
As Stones recounts aspects of his journey he in fact looks relaxed, largely satisfied and considering of future adventures of perhaps a similar nature.
Going into the challenge Stones admits “goals were difficult to assess and as a novice I soon realised they would need to be constantly reassessed, as there is no substitute for experience”.
The longest race Stones had ever run previously was a 48-hour event and this was set to be five times longer in duration.
The first two days were run according to plan and 211km later he was feeling good.
Thereafter unchartered territory awaited and the plan was to tread cautiously. “Maybe too much so” he reflects. “Looking back I perhaps could have done better on little things like four rather than five hours sleep or dinner breaks of 30min rather than an hour.”
The entire run was broken up into sessions and Stones along with his second, Dean Almeida, a long-time mentor and friend, planned as meticulously as they could.
The hardest adaptation throughout, both the 900km of training in six weeks prior to, plus the event itself was learning to run slow. It is something