Enigma Quadzilla 4 Marathons in 4 Days Challenge – 9th-12th February 2012
Steve Edwards never expected to come here and win the event, and he was aware of at least two better (and younger) runners “on paper”, one of whom held the course record; however, had to withdraw at the last minute due to injury.
Steve’s plan was to just try and be as consistent as possible and of course aim to get all four under 3:30, towards his 500 target. With sub-zero degrees temperatures for most of the event and snow/ice on the course to contend with, this made conditions difficult for everybody. The course was 7.5 laps of Caldecote Lake in Milton Keynes which also made it more mentally difficult each day.
By day 3, Steve had a 24 minute lead over his closest rival, Roger Hayes from Teignmouth Harriers, which meant that barring a disaster on his part or a storming run on Roger’s part, the positions wouldn’t change. Of course, one still has to go out and get the job done, so after feeling pretty tired after just 3 laps and finding it more difficult to hang on to Roger as time went on, Steve had to err on the side of caution and let him go. For the next couple of laps Steve managed to keep him in his sights, but after lap 5, he started to pull away further so he was out of sight. His competitive instincts made that a hard decision to accept, however Steve knew that if he tried to go with him, he could totally blow-up and end up with the disaster scenario. However, if he just kept going at his current pace, not only would he record another sub 3:30 but also take the Quadzilla title.
In the end Roger took 6 minutes out of Steve, finishing in 3:19, and Steve very tired in 3:25, so Steve won by 18 minutes overall.
Looking at the bigger picture and more importantly, it’s another 4 sub 3:30s towards the goal, so just 25 to go!
Highlights
475 sub-3:30 marathons completed, just 25 to go!
Steve Edwards wins the Enigma Quadzilla:
Day 1 - 3:21:35
Day 2 - 3:24:42
Day 3 - 3:24:22
Day 4 - 3:25:35
Other reports may be found on our recent race reports page.