CHANNELING RON ON A DESERT STATESIDE SHUFFLE
Words by Luke Douglas and Tom Reynolds
Desert dispatch from the all-British Peak Divide team who took on an all-American journey from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in April’s Speed Project
I’m pretty confident Ron Hill would’ve been into the idea of running 500km, continuously, day and night across the Mohave Desert.
Dr Ron was, perhaps more than anyone else on the planet, a man for whom just getting out to run, no matter the weather/time of day/niggles, was a non-negotiable.
Beginning in 1964, he ran consecutively for 52 years and 39 days in day, night, ran, sunshine and everything in between.
The Peak Divide’s Speed Project experience channeled a little bit of Ron energy - and at times felt similarly interminable. The Peak Divide is a two-day supported social trail run across the UK’s First National Park - it’s an ultra fun run that is known for being a journey not a race. The Third Edition will take place on 26-27 April 2025.
It has no clock, no winners or losers, and the feed stops feature gnocchi and tiramisu not energy gels and jelly babies.
The Speed Project is a little different.
It’s an underground, unsanctioned relay race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Moving quickly is its MO.
Starting at 0400 at Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles one of our Peak Divide team of six was to be running for the next 40 + hours.
It was an exercise in attrition.
In getting out of the RV and shuffling a kilometre or two often when you really didn’t want to.
When your legs, and mind, were pleading with you to just lie down and sleep. to get in some speed sessions when I can. Trying to get down to the track. 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters repeats, and I hope it's going to pay off.
There was blazing sun, driving rain and snowfall.
Yes, snowfall in the hottest place on earth to contend with…
Depending on your attitude/mindset/current energy levels the night shift offered some of the best moments.
When it’s good there’s something a little wonderfully unhinged and adventurous about setting out on a run in the early hours of the night.
It’s a feeling we channel in our second Peak Divide event of each year.
The ONEr - the same 76km from Sheffield to Manchester. Just in one long day out each September.
It deliberately starts at 0400 to experience the weird camaraderie of quietly shuffling out of Sheffield heading off on an adventure surrounded by the rowdy revelers just getting home from theirs.
There’s a joy in the slight madness of movement when pretty much everyone bar the bar stragglers are tucked up.
When it’s bad, well then you just have to, in the spirit of the man who dreamt up the split shorts we were all wearing, head out and do it anyway.
And, as the race wore on, do it in the manner that the man himself did towards the tail end of his 50-year streak.
Ron Hill famously ran at least a mile a day.
By the end of the Speed Project - mile repeats was about all we could manage before handing over our relay baton to another of the six-strong team.
TSP is an emotional rollercoaster. Forty plus hours of constant movement. Crazy highs, big lows and every single possible emotion in between.
Mile after mile. Hour after hour. Ocean, desert and everything, and mainly nothing, in between.
No matter the outcome, putting yourself through the process of training and being there on race day is a win. Let alone finishing the race! This is a true victory. And slowly, steadily, our crew of runners from the Second City (Manchester) set eyes on Sin City (Las Vegas).
Bad days, good days. Happy days and frustrating ones. Running, in the same way as life, has it all.
Like the Peak Divide ONEr that brought us together and first sparked an interest in running alongside revelers in the city streets, appropriately Vegas welcomed us in the same way.
Long beyond midnight as a convoy of six we shuffled the last mile together up to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign - the Speed Project’s finish line.
Finishing alongside the group you’d shared a 300 mile journey with was a beautiful moment.
The noise of Las Vegas juxtaposed with the quiet, crazy-tired souls shuffling along the US sidewalks in the dead of the night.
One last mile of a 300+ mile journey from the ocean to the desert with the spirit of Ron in our minds and his kit keeping us safe, warm and dry. Cheers Ron.