YORKSHIRE EVENING POST
THURSDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2008

I've been known to get the train – then run 50-miles home...
By Rob Stanworth (photo by Tony Johnson)

For most people, 30 minutes on a treadmill is long enough to leave them feeling shattered.
However, one member of Otley Athletics Club is a step away from guaranteeing his place in the inaugural ultrarunning Commonwealth Championships next year.Chris Carver only needs to complete one more ultra distance race – which is any race longer than a marathon – to prove his fitness after finishing third in a 24-hour race held in London last month, passing the tough qualifying standard of almost 140 miles (225km)."The chief timekeeper told me I had passed my personal best and I knew then that 140 miles was within my grasp," Carver said. "I remember breaking down in tears at 11.05 am, 23 hours after we had started, when i knew I was going to make the standard." The feat is made even more remarkable by the fact that Carver suffered from both testicular and lung cancer in the mid-1990s. He needed two operations, where part of his right lung was removed, and six months of chemotherapy followed."When I found out that I had cancer, I eased back a little bit, but it never entered my head to stop running," Carver revealed. "I think most of my personal bests have come since then, so it hasn't really affected me."I have been running since 1972 and I did a couple of marathons but didn't find them all that hard. I thought, 'what's the point?' So I started looking for the next challenge and took up ultrarunning."House-husband Carver, from Otley, admits that his family find him a little eccentric, as emphasised by his highly unusual, but adventurous, training routine."I have been known to get the train to York, or Dent on the Settle to Carlisle railway, and then run about 50 miles home," Carver explained."I do two long runs a week around the 25-mile mark and then, occasionally, do one at 40 miles just to keep me going."Running for 24 hours places a lot of strain on the body, something that Carver shrugs off as "mechanical wear and tear". He admits that it takes him a number of weeks to recover and says he is sometimes unable to walk for up to three days after an event due to muscle stiffness.After a good rest, next up for Carver is a European race in the spring to prove his fitness to the England selectors prior to the 24-hour Commonwealth race in Keswick, Cumbria. He also plans to use that race as an opportunity to raise money for a cancer charity, something that is naturally very close to his heart.For more information on ultrarunning, or sponsorship, please go to www.thoughtsofanultrarunner.blogspot.com