Uden, EC 24 hours
October 21st 2000, 14:30
Yesterday we had the opening ceremony at the Uden athletics stadium. The participating teams where presented to the spectators, and a guild from Erp (a little village 5 kilometres from Uden) showed an impressing sequence of things you can do with a flag. With some speeches and a song from a local singer, the opening ceremony was completed. Although the opening ceremony was the evening before the race, many people from Uden came to look, so we may expect many spectators during the race as well.
During the morning the records committee of the IAU had a meeting at Uden. For those events mentioned in the IAU constitution (accepted at the IAU congress at Winschoten six weeks ago), the IAU will keep record of the official IAU best performances.
Only half an hour ago, the race started (at exactly 14:00 hours local time). At our position, near the entrance of the Uden athletics stadium, the leading runners passed already for the third time, from which we observe that the pace for these athletes is a little bit more that 14 kilometres an hours. It would be news if we could report that everybody started with a realistic pace, but as usual some don’t. The general impression is however that most athletes started with an appropriate pace.
A rule of thumb is that the average 24 hour runner covers already half the distance in the first ten hours, which leaves an other 14 hours for the second half. We will see if we have an average race with respect to this. The amount of about 140 athletes at the start and the number of teams is certainly not average. The continuous grow of ultramarathon running is continued already at this championship.
About each three hours we will report intermediate results of the race, and a short impression of things going on on the course. For the moment the weather conditions are quite well. No rain nor sunshine; grey to be more specific.
Anton Smeets
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22 mei 2012
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