Twelve members of the public, 12 walks of life, but one thing unites them. A single word: apprehension.
“That’s the best way to describe it,” says Nicola Noble over her 4am coffee. At 29, Nicola’s a seasoned duathlete, but along with her fellow athletes is struggling to remember why she’s about to run 54km, pedal 1,309km and ascend 10,568m in a bid to get from Buckingham Palace to Edinburgh Castle and back in 50 hours.
To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of running one and a quarter marathons up the Eiffel Tower, and cycling 12 times around the Isle of Wight while ascending Everest with Ben Nevis for dessert. To put that into words? That’s the Fitbit Fifty, and today is the first time this challenge will be attempted.
Blazing trails
Stage 1, from Buckingham Palace to the Olympic Park, starts at 6am to a cacophony of beeps from the athletes’ Fitbit Surge fitness trackers, which are literally on hand to count up the kilometres and down the hours. Split into two teams of six – Challenge and Adventure – the athletes will complete the five running stages together but tackle the bike stages in pairs.
Professional teams take years to bond personally and tactically; these amateurs have met only a handful of times before today. Undoubtedly this will play a huge part. Each team has a bus on which to change, eat and sleep, but otherwise little stands between them and the road.
First in from the 12km run is a group headed up by 32-year-old Londoner Jason Lawrence. With barely a bead of sweat on his brow, he’s happy to answer that perennial question once more, why? “I just like the idea of doing something crazy! Plus, I’ve never been to Edinburgh before.” With that, Jason swings a leg over his bike and disappears up the road.
Light and dark
“Easy” is a comparative term, but if one stage could be described as such it’s the 333km from the Olympic Park to the village of Riccall, 16 clicks south of York.
Holly Seear, 40, who “only started exercising aged 30 after having two kids” confirms that the riders are feeling good, and there’s sportsmanship in the air.
By Riccall both night and temperature has fallen, so it’s by head torches and plumes of steaming breath that the teams tackle the second 10km run before remounting bikes at Bishopthorpe.
Up from Adventure is Elise Downing, who at just 24, ran around the UK coast in 301 days. She seems unfazed at the prospect of the bike leg, even having found time to match her socks to the orange accents on her Fitbit kit. “Just because you’re exercising doesn’t mean you can’t be fashionable,” laughs Challenges’ Natalie Doble as she sets off in pursuit of Elise.
By Northumberland National Park the mood has shifted. Grunts have replaced chatter, heads are down, it’s pitch black and it’s raining. The park is remorselessly undulating and by the time the sun rises over Edinburgh some look like they’ve had enough. But hang-dog expressions belie some serious mental fortitude. “I once pulled out of a marathon due to injury, and hated it,” says Adventure’s Mike Jones,“I’m not about to pull out now.”
In the shadow of kings (and the Queen)
Both teams are operating as a four on the road. In another event that might seem strange, but here it’s totally fitting. Despite the freezing cold 2am start, the athletes are united in the face of one common enemy: the clock. “It’s been a dark tea time of the soul,” says Will Lockwood, 30, with a wry chuckle, “but we’ll get there.”
All that stands between the athletes and that goal is a 12km run through London. Onlookers and supporters have already gathered on The Mall, and as the athletes round the Victoria Memorial Statue, the crowd erupts. The 50-hour mark may have passed but somehow they’ve pulled out a run that’s bettered their first by eight minutes, to arrive, tired but triumphant, at a shade under 60 hours. As Holly jokes, “Fitbit Sixty has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”
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The Secret Weapon
Each of the athletes was equipped with a Fitbit Surge, a GPS-enabled activity tracker that logged and analysed everything from distance to heart rate to sleep – with some awe-inspiring results.
Holly, for example, clocked a max heart rate of 191bpm during the final run; Rick Jenner contributed a whopping 612km to the overall effort, and Will spent a cumulative 21hrs 23mins running and cycling on an average of just 2.5hrs sleep a night. It’s an old cliché, but in endurance sports data is king, and here the Fitbit Surge proved the key to the castle.
The Fitbit Fifty By The Numbers
