THE ONER - results, report and photos here.........
The Oner 78.6 miles in 24hrs along the Dorset coast path. Following the route of the Jurassic Coast Challenge. August 1st and 2nd 2009 ‘The Oner’ – an event that came from the fact that a triple marathon in 3 days on arduous coastal terrain is just not tough enough for some! Back in 2007 as the classic 3 day Jurassic Coast Challenge was starting to gather momentum we received an interesting email that read something along the lines of ‘Can I do the JCC in one go please?’ Cue a phone call from Ben to Andy: B: ‘Andy some guy wants to do the JCC in one go, totally non-stop, shall we let him?’ A: ‘What he wants to do it in one day?’ B: ‘Yeah just wants to do it in a oner’ A: ‘Why not. We can call it the Oner then!’ B: ‘OK we’ll call it the Oner and open it for other entries – see how many more nutcases there are out there.’ And that was that; the Oner was born. 2007 In that first running of the Oner only a handful of the 20 runners actually made the finish within 24 hours. Many simply did not quite realise just how hard covering over 75 miles on that sort of terrain would be. The meat wagon at the back of the course did a lot of running around that year..... 2008 Fast forward to year 2 and the big man upstairs decided to intervene and provide Force 8 winds and torrential rain to the start of the event. Despite the idea of it being a ‘challenging’ undertaking we had to draw the line at putting lives at risk so the Oner became a 6 mile run, followed by a kip in a pub and then a double marathon the next day. Still a tough event, but not the ‘real thing’ of covering the 3 marathons within 24 hours. 2009 Moving the event to August 2009 was a tactical decision to relieve pressure on the Jurassic Coast Challenge event logistics and reduce the likelihood of terrible weather intervening in the run. On Saturday morning it looked like despite this we might be starting in the wet anyway! Luckily however the skies brightened as we gathered at the finish point (Studland, Nr Poole) and started the process of registering and kit checking the 39 brave individuals about to embark on one of the most challenging foot races the British Isles has to offer. Once the mini bus drop off had transported everyone to the Cobb in Lyme Regis 39 runners (34 men and 5 ladies) started the event with Ben’s briefing and the phrase; ‘We only expect about 10 of you lot to finish’ ringing in their ears as they left at 6pm on Saturday, bound for Studland. At the first CP in Seatown the runners had already spread out with a lot starting the event at a walk to conserve energy for later on. At the sharp end Graham Booty and George Bownes were making their intentions clear splitting off the front and running at a very impressive pace. The early hills took their toll on one or two with injuries (Adrian Holloway previous finisher sadly had to drop out with a heel spur at CP2) but the majority of athlete started the night time section in good shape and good spirits. Coming up to the first full marathon (Fleet) Graham and George were clipping along in the lead with the others mostly spread out into small groups, working hard to get their navigation right in the dark. With no more retirements at this stage the odds were looking good for a lot of finishers. In fact Austin driving the meat wagon was a bit out of work early on! Portland continued to stretch the field out more with the hills and navigation exerting their own challenge which was met with varying degrees of success! The weather was being very kind though with a tailwind and relatively warm and dry conditions so most people were coping very well indeed. Weymouth sea front was encountered in the wee small hours and the drunks, hen and stag parties had a great time shouting their own form of ‘encouragement’ to the runners before the flat stuff ended and the rolling hills towards CP 7 (just over half way) at Osmington Mills began. Hot pasta as well as the usual Gatorades, tea and snacks greeted the runners at Osmington and it was here that the wear and tear of the event was becoming evident. Helen Bennett in particular having to perform some fairly major blister surgery in the dark before hobbling off not far from Jacks Howe – the pair of them trading the lead in the ladies race. T he relentless ups and downs to Lulworth Cove came next and the CP their represented 2 marathons of the 3 done. It was getting light at this point and this seemed to lift the spirits of the competitors and the CP staff as the night section was done and dusted. A couple more retirements came at this stage but the majority of the field were still going very strong…..Ben’s 10 finishers prediction was starting to look very shaky! Graham and George were predictably first to arrive and leave Lulworth – almost 90 min ahead of the next bunch who included Helen and Jacks the first 3 ladies. Standing at Lulworth you could tell that it was a big boost for the runners to ‘only’ have 1 marathon left, and with one really hilly section to go they were digging in deep to get stuck into the final climbs and descents. It was up for debate talking to them at this stage whether the hard work of the ups was worse than the pounding on the legs of the descents – either way it was clear that this event was every bit as tough as most of them had feared it would be! Kimmeridge Bay welcomed the athletes with 19 miles to go and bounced them onwards to St Aldhelms head of the penultimate check point. Young James Leith was going great guns at this point in 4th place – having never run anywhere near a marathon before this event – but shortly after had to pull out completely exhausted; showing how all of a sudden anything can happen when you’ve been on your feet for 15 hours plus. Still there were over 30 runners still on route and hitting the check point timings so it was up to Ben to start counting those finishers medals to see if he had got enough in…. At 11:11am Graham Booty arrived at the finish point on Studland to a great round of applause, a hand shake from Ben and the staff and a well deserved cup of tea! He had just completed 78 miles of running in 17hrs 11min and beaten 38 others who had tried to do the same – an incredible achievement. George Bownes had dropped off from Graham’s pace in the last few miles but managed to come home second in 18hrs 14min and was quite rightly delighted with his efforts too. Phil Sparkes was 3rd in 19 hr 11min and the first over 40 – Phil don’t forget to claim your £10 off hip replacement surgery voucher from Ben for that. It then wasn’t long before Helen Bennett came in 5th overall and winning the ladies race in an incredible 19hrs 59min having overtaken Jacks Howe in the final miles. From there on in finishers were arriving and being welcomed home in small groups and ones and twos throughout the rest of the day. In all 29 finished within the 24hr time limit with a further 3 bravely keeping going to complete it not long after. Completing the Oner is something that all of the competitors should be fiercely proud of. It is a true test of fitness, endurance, determination and mental strength. All at votwo tip our hats to the finishers and hope that this week you will wear your t-shirts with pride, and explain to people who ask why you are limping like that exactly what you have done! Next year the rumour is that we might start the Oner in March again alongside the ever growing Jurassic Coast Challenge 3 day event. Watch the website over the coming months to see if that rumour gets confirmed. Provisional results are on the excel sheet on the right of this page as are some photos. Any arguments about or comments on the results please direct to pippa@votwo.co.uk and ben@votwo.co.uk and they will certainly have a polite discussion with you about them. Next up for votwo is the comparatively easy Bournemouth Long Swim event on Sunday 9th August. Be there if you fancy getting wet. |
