Martin Fryer ('the Flyer') posted a brilliant performance to win the legendary Surgeres 48 hours race on 22 - 24 May 2009 with 433.686 km. Martin displayed his normal coolness to conserve his energy while other runners chose to run faster during the early part of the event. By hour 6 Martin was in 8th position with just over 60km, some 6 km behind the race leader, Ryoichi Sekiya of Japan. At hour 12 he was in 7th place on 115km, now 18 km behind race leader Sekiya. By hour 18 he was still maintaining his average speed of 9.5km/hr but had moved into 5th place but now 23km adrift of Sekiya. At the 24 hr mark, Martin had moved to 3rd place but still 25 km behind Sekiya, his old adversary from past IAU 24 hr world championships. Would the strategy of patience pay off? By hour 30, Martin had moved to second place, now only 20km behind the race leader. Was the race now about to start? Would Martin remain strong? Would the leader falter? By end hour 32 the leader was still 16km ahead, but showing signs of slowing. At hour 33 it happened. Ryoichi managed only 1.510 km compared with Martin's 8.440 km. Martin overtook his rival during hour 35 and was never headed. The most remarkable feature of Martin's performance was that in no one hour was his pace less than 7.84km for the hour (hour 36). A very disciplined, well-planned and executed performance indeed! Final results were

1. Martin Fryer AUS 433.686
2. Ryoichi Sekiya JPN 402.321
3. Mamo Kudo (F) JPN 385.130

For more information, see Surgeres website.

Martin's report