Thanks for the explanation Mr B ~ I knew there'd be a sensible reason.
I've never done a Super Long but have done Borrowdale, Langdale and 3 Shires a couple of dozen times each. Pity that doesn't count.............
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My pleasure. The 3 Shires was my favourite fell race.
The expression Super Long was conceived by my chum Brian Martin as a neat way of distinguishing between, say, 3 Shires with a record of 105 minutes (Gavin Bland); and Ennerdale (Kenny Stuart) and Wasdale (Billy Bland) with records of 200 and 205 minutes respectively, which incidentally have stood for 30+ years and probably with good reason.
When all is said & done, one can only go with conditions on the day.
How many races have there been where someone was within seconds of the record and would have beaten the record if there had not been a head wind, or if conditions under foot had not been "heavy going"? Que sera sera!
True, but it was technically a different course ;)
Well before I started running, just remember being told it in the pub a few years ago.
Mark Roberts was telling RhysFR (the previous year's winner in 3:45ish) that he was 4th in 3:25ish in 2000. A discussion about runner quality vs. depth of competition to push towards these record times was in the offing, but everyone was too pissed so it stopped at 'you younguns are just slow'
Mark did 3.26.19 behind Gavin and Jonny Bland and ahead of Robb Jebb, Mark Rigby et al: so not too shabby.
Btw there were 223 runners in 2000 because it was a British Champs race but only 38 entries in 1999. F&M wrecked 2001 so Brian Martin and I started the LCT in 2002.
Simon was only seconds of the Borrowdale record about 10 years ago too.