Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (59) overcame the effects of serious heat, during the Hungarian 6 Day road race in Balaton, Western Hungary to achieve 5th place overall with a final distance of 469.22 miles.

Temperatures rose to the high 20’s centigrade during the first part of the race stressing runners excessively in this incredibly gruelling event.

“I was satisfied with my heat training in preparation for this event and I was pleased with how I responded in the heat.  There is however, a limit and late on Friday, after the sun set, a sheet of cloud came over and the area became like an oven with very high humidity too.  I sensed a strange feeling of the whole body ‘heating up’ especially around the neck and head – not a pleasant sensation.”

William responded by wrapping himself in wet towels and by resting more to allow for sufficient cooling.  Time and distance was obviously lost but the condition had to be treated properly before he could continue.

William came back strongly and for many hours see-sawed between 3rd and 4th place.  A final surge from the Hungarian Pula Tamas saw William drop to 5th place which he held onto until the finish.

The Balaton event is the strongest in-depth multiday race held so far this year and William’s performance puts him in 7th place on the overall World Rankings for this year.

William also enjoyed a near perfect nutritional strategy using almost 12 litres of ice cream during the race along with some bacon and eggs.

“It was great to be so well fuelled and have no stomach issues at all.  It makes a big difference if this can be achieved in these long events.

William doesn’t have much of a break before he tackles the first 6 Day race to take place in Britain for 23 years – The British UltraFest 6 Day track race to be held from August 11th – 17th at the Radley College, Abingdon near Oxford.

For some years William has been engaged in Project 60@60 in which he was attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013. The two 1000km records, achieved in Monaco in November 2012, marked his 59th and 60th records thus achieving  his target 10 months ahead of schedule.

William will announce a new ambitious project at some point in the future.

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (59) returns to the Hungarian 6 Day road race in Balatonfured, western Hungary, next week to defend the title he won 2 years ago.

Starting at 11am (UK time) on Wednesday May 8th and finishing at 11am on Tuesday May 14th the event has once again attracted a strong international entry with runners from 16 countries including South Africa, Germany, Finland and the UK.

William won the event, with an outright British record of 518.31 miles in 2011 and hopes to perform well again this year.

“I’m well prepared, healthy and fit so I’m looking forward to putting in a competitive performance again this year.  The competition is strong so it might need a bigger distance to win it this year. It is a great event, very well organised and an excellent course so I’m looking forward to it.”

The 900m tarmac loop runs around a holiday park on the shores of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe.  Conditions will be warm during the day with current temperatures in the high 20s.

William is grateful to his crewman Alan Young and blog master Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe from ultrafitnesstraining.com who will update William’s blog www.williamsichel.co.uk on a regular basis throughout the race.

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (59) will put the finishing touches to his preparations for the Balaton 6 Day road race, to be held in Hungary from May 8th-15th, with a Training Camp in Kirkwall over the weekend of April 6th and 7th.

“I find it really useful to re-locate for a few days of specific preparation. This is the third time I have done this and each time I have found it worthwhile.  Precise rehearsal of my race nutrition and pacing is really beneficial and boosts confidence going into these immense challenges.”

For some years William has been engaged in Project 60@60 in which he was attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013. The two 1000km records, achieved in Monaco in November 2012, marked his 59th and 60th records thus achieving  his target 10 months ahead of schedule.

In September, William will announce a new Project with an incredible record target for the next 5 years.

William is grateful to sponsors Orkney Micro Renewables, Loganair and the Orkney Islands Council.

Listen to the extended interview (1 hour 20 minutes) that William did recently with the popular podcast TalkUltra. His interview starts at 42 minutes in.

http://www.marathontalk.com/archive/talk_ultra.php

Find out more about William and his achievements – click here

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (59) was runner-up (1st in his age group) in last weeks Monaco “No Finish Line” 8 Day endurance run, recording a personal best distance of 633.62 miles, just 13.5 miles behind the eventual winner Didier Sessegolo.

William had dramatically closed the gap, from a peak of well over 30 miles, in the closing stages, but eventually ran out of time to catch the 48 year old Frenchman.

In the closing stages William broke the British and Scottish, age group, 1000km/621.37 miles record he had set last year, by a margin of over 78 minutes, recording 7days 19hours 31minutes 43seconds.

For some years William has been engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013.

These 1000km records marked his 59th and 60th records thus achieving  his target 10 months ahead of schedule.

“It’s fantastic to have got the 60 records so far ahead of my 60th birthday – it hasn’t sunk in yet.  Also to still be setting personal bests at my age is really quite something – it was a huge effort over so many days.  I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest now.”

William was running for charity as part of the Hotel Metropole Fashion Team, and they won the team event with a combined total of 9042.2 miles to which William’s distance will have been no small contribution.

This year’s event reached new heights of popularity with over 8700 people buying a chip to run laps of the 1300 metre course around the new pier in the centre of Monaco.  A record total of 275 000 euros were raised for children’s charities.

Presentations were made by Charlene Princess of Monaco.

William would like to thank his crewmen Alan Young and Tim Rainey as well as blog master, Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe, from ULTRAFitnessTraining.com who updated his blog during the race.

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (59) will return to the Monaco “No Finish Line” 8 Day ultra marathon this week to defend the title he won there last year.

In last November’s race (which had over 6,000 participants) William won the event outright and set a new course record becoming the first person to cover more than 1000km/624 miles during this event.

The Monaco event will be started by Princess Stephanie of Monaco, at 1pm UK time on Saturday 17th.  The final gun will be fired at 1pm UK time on Sunday 25th, after which, Albert II Prince of Monaco and Charlene Princess of Monaco, will present the prizes.

Normally William and his team operate on a shoe-string budget for the race, but this year one of the world’s leading hotels – Hotel Métropole Monte-Carlo will be sponsoring William and his support team’s participation in the event.  William will also run for the Hotel Métropole team for the first time.

“It will be good to have some local support and back-up, as we usually operate in a very low key manner for this event.”

William is still looking for two more records to complete his Project 60@60.

“There will be a number of opportunities for records in Monaco but, because the course gets extremely crowded for long periods, especially at the weekends, it isn’t really conducive to record setting.  Having said that, I’ll be doing my utmost to set more records.”

The 8 Day race is part of a huge festival of running which, last year, saw a total of over 6000 participants, lap the 1 mile circuit around the port in central Monaco, over the 8 day period.

Every lap completed generates one euro for children’s charities, donated by the Government of Monaco.  The vast majority of participants come and go, during the 8 day period, amassing a huge sum for charity.

William is a member of the Orkney Athletic Club and is currently engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013.

Currently William has set 58 records, including 6 World Age-Group records.

William would like to thank his crewmen Alan Young and Tim Rainey as well as blog master, Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe, from ULTRAFitnessTraining.com who will update William’s blog during the race – www.williamsichel.co.uk

2XU Head office have posted a great article about Mike’s double gold success at the ITU World Tri Champs in the 50-54 category where he won both the Sprint Distance Tri and the Aquathlon! Read the article here.

Mike was the first 2XU distributor outside Australia, and Mike has been involved in the brand from day one. Mike said ‘It’s great to be part of a brand where you actually are part of the development and can have an input into what’s happening; we can develop things we need specifically for the UK market, and see the whole concept through the development, distribution, and final sales’.

You can see the 2XU UK range and find a local retailer at www.2xushop.co.uk

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (58) took 5th place overall (2nd in age-group) at the Skovde UltraFestival 48 hour track race which took place from Friday August 24th until Sunday 26th.

Despite suffering from a stomach upset in the middle of the first day William covered 95.2 miles in the first 24 hours and then continued strongly for the second 24 hour period running another 93.5 miles for a total of 188.50 miles in the 48 hours.

“That was the 3rd best, second day distance of all the competitors so I was pleased with that and it demonstrated my strength and endurance.  I finished strongly and on a high which is always encouraging.  The problems in the first day reduced my distance by those extra miles I needed to get more records, but that is why records are so hard to come by – a small problem and the chance has gone.”

The weather was a real mixed bag for the runners competing in any of six events from 1 hour up to the 48 hours duration.  The hottest day was Saturday when a warm and humid 23ºC was experienced.

The race was won by ultra running legend Yiannis Kouros from Greece who covered 231 miles.

“The 48 hour event is at the ‘short’ end of my spectrum of events these days – I’m much better at 6 Day races and longer.  However, I still feel I can improve on my current 48 hours records and will try again.”

William is a member of the Orkney Athletic Club and is currently engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013.

Currently William has set 58 records, including 6 World Age-Group records.

TCL Sports are proud to support William with 2XU.

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (58) makes his first trip to Sweden this week to run in the Skovde UltraFestival 48 hour track race on Friday August 24th until Sunday 26th.

The Skovde UltraFestival is a well established event held in the home town of Volvo cars, about 100 miles north east of Gothenburg. The Festival offers a whole range of ultra races including 6 hours, 12 hours and 24 hour races, as well as William’s 48 hour event.

“I want to tackle more track records at the 48 hour distance and I have identified this race as one that’s well worth going to. Even if it rains heavily, I know the track is very well drained and that is the main thing.”

Last year William set a number of 48 hour records when covering 207.89 miles to win the Cologne 48 Hour World Cup race in Germany, despite the cinders track becoming very badly flooded for an extensive period of time.  The modern, all-weather facility in Sweden is an ideal venue for this type of event.

“The chips are down now.  I need to cover more than 208 miles to get any more records at this track distance – it’s as simple as that!”

A select group of about 16 starters will toe the line at 11am, UK time on Friday, endlessly circling the track, almost non-stop, until 11am on Sunday.  Amongst the runners will be Frenchman Serge Girard, who holds many transcontinental running records and England’s Richard and Sandra Brown who have competed successfully at long ultra distance events for many years.

William’s last ultra distance race was in late April, when he became the first British athlete in history to make the podium in the 15th edition of the Sri Chinmoy 6 Day road race held in Flushing Meadow Park, New York.  William managed 3rd place overall (1st over 50) covering 461 miles in the 6 days.

William is a member of the Orkney Athletic Club and is currently engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013.

Currently William has set 58 records, including 6 World Age-Group records.

William would like to thank his crewman Alan Young and blog master Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe, from ULTRAFitnessTraining.com who will update William’s blog during the race – www.williamsichel.co.uk