Holland again dominates Great Barrow 10 in 10 Challenge
Adam Holland, who won the Great Barrow Challenge 10 in 10, an event he has dominated over the years. - Credit: Archant
The Great Barrow 10 in 10 Challenge, an annual event featuring 10 marathons in 10 consecutive days, was made even tougher by the brutally hot conditions, which were relentless throughout the whole series of races.
Andy Wilmot, in action during the Great Barrow Challenge 10 in 10. Wilmot completed his 750th marathon on day two. - Credit: Archant
But once again there was no stopping the remarkable Adam Holland, who celebrated his 10th official 10 marathons in 10 days event by again completely dominating on each stage. This was the fifth staging of the Great Barrow 10 in 10 Challenge event, first held back in 2014.
The Devon-based athlete, despite the energy-sapping heat, achieved an average time of 3hrs 02mins 39secs for the 10 races, winning each stage by a comfortable margin.
Held over a number of different courses, from The Academy at Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, Holland clocked 2:52:51 on day one (Circle course) before setting course records on the second (2:53:37, Kirtling course) and third legs (2:57:32, Clover course).
Holland, who is based at Tavistock, then won stages four (2:54:26, Wickhambrook course), five (3:18:26, from Thetford) and, six (2:59:04, Newmarket), before setting another course record of 2:53:56 (Barrow village) on the seventh day.
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He rounded it all off with 3:18:48 on day eight (Wickhambrook), 3:22:13 on day nine (Circle) and a course record of 2:55:41 (Clover) on the 10th and final day.
Holland explained: “Day five was one of the toughest marathons I have had to do. We didn’t start until 10am, due to health and safety reasons on one of the roads, so we were running at the hottest time of the day, with not much shade on the course.
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“Running 10 marathons in 10 days is not just a physical strain; it’s the mental strain as well, to get around all these marathons.”
Meanwhile, Andy Wilmot, a marathon machine from Halstead Road Runners, again completed the 10 in 10 Challenge, and this time he passed a notable landmark along the way.
Wilmot celebrated running his 750th marathon, an astonishing statistic, on day two of the 10-day series, before going on to rattle up eight more 26.2-mile runs, despite suffering from a sore hamstring.
Supver veteran Wilmot, aged 74, clocked 5:07 on day one, before chalking up his 750th marathon with 5:18 on day two. Club-mates John Warne (5:07) and Keith Thorogood (6:01) also ran that day, Warne having also run 5:07 of the opening stage.
Warne also ran on days three and four (5:03 and 5:38), while Wilmot went on to complete the series with times of 4:48, 5:10, 5:32, 5:03, 4:58, 5:37, 5:50 and 5:46 for the final eight days.
