Today, May 2, is the start of the 2009 24-Hour IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) World Championship and IAU 24-Hour European Championship in Bergamo, Italy.
The course is on an 1,133.945-meter loop that runs through the city centre in Bergamo. The course is relatively flat and is run mainly on asphalt.
Top runners in the Men’s field include (based on 2007-2009 performances):
1) Fabien Hoblea (FRA) 267.074 km
2) Yuji Sakai (JPN) 264.389 km
3) Anatoly Kruglicov (RUS) 257.358 km
4) Vladimir Bychkov (RUS) 257.327 km
5) Mohamed Magroun (FRA) 257.018 km
Top runners in the Women’s field include (based on 2007-2009 performances):
1) Anne-Marie Vernet (FRA) 239.685 km
2) Anne-Cecile Fontaine (FRA) 239.252
3) Lyudmila Kalinina (RUS) 236.848 km
4) Connie Gardner (USA) 233.84 km
5) Brigitte Bec (FRA) 233.137km
I’ve been interested in this race due to the attendance of Jaimie Donaldson aka AltitudeUltrarunner, who placed #3 in the 2008 Badwater Ultramarathon and placed #5 in the last December’s 24-Hour IAU World Championship Endurance Women’s Overall Run held in Seoul, South Korea. She was able to run a total of 221.015 kilometers/138.134 miles in the said race.
In this race in Bergamo, Italy, she encouraged her friends and students to guess her number of kilometers/miles she would be able to finish in the said race. As for me, I am confident that she will finish a total of 237.6 kilometers or 148.5 miles. For news update about the race, you can visit at http://www.iau.org.tw/mediacenter.php.
In Marin Headlands, California, Miwok 100K, an ultratrail race will be held today with a cut-off time of 16.5 hours. A Filipino ultra trail runner-blogger, Rick Gaston will be joining this race. I wish him luck and strength to have another PR for the said race. Due to his past finish times in this year’s ultra trail races in the San Francisco Bay Area/Northern & Southern California Ultra Trail Races, I predict he will place on the top 20 finishers with a time of less than 10 hours. More power to you, Rick!
Jael Wenceslao of Team Bald Runner-Professional Group will be participating in the 3rd Annual Eugene Marathon (Eugene, Oregon) which will be held on 03 May 2009. As I stated in my previous post, he will try to improve his PR in the marathon race from his last December’s SC Singapore Marathon. I told him, before he left for USA, that he could easily have a finish time of less than four hours.
Tomorrow, I will be joining the Southern Race Alabang Town Center 10K Run just to bring back my running legs & feet into action without any plan of improving my PR. After being a spectator for the past races, it is about time to start training again for my future road and trail races.
Bald Runner 