'Lunatics' run double Southern Crossing

TIM DONOGHUE

Two Wellington athletes – described as "running lunatics" by a Tararua endurance race organiser – are feeling the pain after completing a rare double Southern Crossing run.

Laurence Pidcock, 33, and Chris Swallow, 29, completed the 74-kilometre run from Otaki Forks to Kaitoke and back in 16 hours and one minute last Wednesday.

The organiser of the 2011 one-way Southern Crossing Race, Mike Sheridan, described the pair as "running lunatics".

"Now that these guys have completed the double I have no doubt there will be other running lunatics out there who will want us to organise a double race in future.

"We could have a look at doing that."

The one-way record is held by British athlete Andrew Symonds, who completed the 37km distance in 4h 27m 20s in the 2006 event.

Sheridan said there was talk of a runner completing the double about 30 years ago, but little was known for certain.

Pidcock and Swallow had done people a favour by setting a time to beat, he said.

Swallow, a PE teacher, said the 74km run in mountainous terrain was definitely the longest run he had done.

"I ventured into some dark places. You learn a lot about the human spirit when you can't stomach food 'cos it makes you nauseously ill and you're only at Alpha Peak on the way back."

He said Pidcock, an experienced ironman athlete with a best marathon time of 2h 44m, was the fitter man. This was forcibly brought home to him during the obligatory stopover at a burger bar on the way home. "I lay on my back in the car park battling the urge to throw up violently as Laurence munched his meal in the car parked next to me."

Pidcock, a contract buyer for public sector organisations, admitted to being sore and tired the day after the run. "It feels to me like we achieved something."

A friend, Chris Martin, provided a pizza lunch for the pair in the Kaitoke car park at the halfway stage. "It was a huge gutsy effort for those guys not to get in my car at Kaitoke ... Inspiring stuff."

The pair ran the first leg in about seven hours, took 30 minutes for lunch at Kaitoke and did the return journey (via Alpha and Kime huts) in about 8 1/2 hours.