Matt Field’s new GB 24-Hour Record

On the weekend of 24/25th August, Matt Field set a new GB 24-Hour record of 281.303km or 174.793 miles. It betttered the previous distance of 277.439 km/172.392 Miles. set by Robbie Britton in February 2023. He achieved this by running 703 laps of a 400 metre track in Gloucester.

It is also the world lead for 2024. I chatted with Matt to find out a little more about him  and his rapid progress from his first ultra just 18 months ago, to a World class 24 hour-distance.

WHO IS MATT FIELD?

AS. Matt. First of all, congratulations on your new GB record. It was a cracking run.

MF. Thank you.
 
AS. I was checking in on the live track. With about four hours to go, I looked at it thinking, “Wow!” He’s going to reach 280K.” I told a couple of my friends, and they said, “No way!” But you held it together incredibly well, I have to say. Anyway. More of that later. 
 
AS. Whereabouts are you just now?
MF. I live in a town called Wem, near Shrewsbury.
AS. On the English/Welsh borderland.
MF. Thats right.
AS. What do you do for a job there? You’re not a full-time athlete?

MF.No. I’m a construction estimator.
AS. Do you have a family as well?
 MF. I do. Wife, three children, dog. Busy life. 
AS. Well, that’s impressive trying to balance work, family, and 100 miles a week. 
MF. It’s tough.
AS. It’s a balancing act, I know. For those that don’t know you, describe how you got into running.
 
 MF. I did a bit of sport as a youngster. As a junior, I did a bit of cycling and a little bit of triathlon. I revisited triathlon in my late 20s for one season. I competed in three races and then hung up my wheels again. I piled on the pounds and enjoyed partying and festivalling a little bit more than I should have.
That came to a head two years ago when I decided I needed to make some lifestyle changes. I was too heavy to cycle to the standard I wanted. The carbon wheels I had kept hold of had a weight limit of 80 kilos, and I thought, “Well, I need to lose a bit of weight first.” So I started running, and I haven’t found my way back to cycling since.
 
AS. So when you say you started running, how did that start? Was it just running around the block? Did you do any local park runs?
 
 MF. It went through all the usual lines of 5k, 10k, 10 miles and walking back home because I had overdone things. A lot has come on in the seven or eight years since.  I was diving into YouTube to find training tips and watching all these fitness influencers, as you do, and stumbled across a couple that had done ultras. They were all talking about training really slowly and running really slowly. I quite liked that idea because I’m not a fan of interval training. I just started running more and more. 

FIRST MARATHON AND FIRST  ULTRA.

AS.. How did you get led astray into ultra-running in the first place?
MF. I was starting to run further, and getting inspired by videos  around August time and by November, I started thinking, “I fancy having a go at an ultra.”
 To run an ultra, Most race organisers expect you to have run a marathon before. The one I was looking at was the Chester Ultra—a 50-miler. I entered the Liverbird Marathon in Liverpool, held on New Year’s Eve, 2022. I put together a bit of a training plan, which was just mile after mile. Very little quality work. Just high mileage.
It all escalated rather quickly from there. 

AS. What time did you do in the marathon?
MF. I ran two hours, 59 minutes, 13 seconds.

AS. Oh! Perfect timing. 
MF. I had gone in aiming for 3.07. I didn’t think I was capable of a sub-three. I wanted a sub-three. Then, the little chimp on my shoulder took over, and the first Kilometre was four minutes. I managed to hold on by the skin of my teeth for that sub 3.  

AS.  You then ran the Chester Ultra and won it in March 2023.
MF. I did.
AS. How did you find the step up from marathon to 50 miles? Or put it another way. What was your longest training run beforehand? 

MF. I had run 40 miles in training. I had even run 40 miles in the build-up to the marathon. I’d gone out with a full hydration vest, aiming to do a long morning run. I got to about 15 miles from home, and I was like, there’s still quite a bit left in me, so I’ll go a bit further. Then I got to 20 miles, and I thought I probably should turn around now because it was along the canal, so it was out and back.
And I came back having run 40 miles, 64k as it was, and quite enjoyed myself.
 
AS. So, after Chester, you ran another 50-mile race just a month later, in April 2023, the Manchester to Liverpool on the Trans-penine Trail. You finished second.
MF. I did.

STEPPING UP TO 100 MILES
AS. Then you made a step up to 100 miles. 
Did your training change at all?
 
MF. I think I had started a bit more tempo running because I wanted to push myself. I realised there are only so many hours in the week. My midweek runs were becoming a bit faster. I’d also started doing a few interval sets of 800 reps because that was easy to work out in the park I was training in. There was still no real structure at all. If I fancied doing ten reps. I’d do ten. If I wanted to go long again, keeping quite high mileage I did. 
 The 24-hour running looked fun, so I entered the Gloucester race, having not even run 100 miles at the time. 

AS. You ran the Thames Path 100, in May 2023, not long after both of those 50 milers. All part of building up to your first 24-hour in August. You ran 14:52 for the 100-mile race, which is very respectable for your first 100 on a trail. How did you find the 100  miles as a race rather than just a training run?
 
MF. It was a race, and it was fun. I’d had competition at Manchester to Liverpool with Leo. He’d gone off at the start, and I’d been chasing. I’d gone the wrong way, and eventually, he won by a few minutes. 
But I’d got the taste for that bit of competition.
 At the Thames Path 100, right from the start, there was a group of five of us at the front, all working hard, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed having to work for it. I didn’t enjoy it so much towards the end when I was thinking, “Should I be walking through this puddle?” or should I be trying to run still? I came away sore but happy.
 
AS. You obviously weren’t intimidated by being at the sharp end,
 
 MF No. I’ve said a few times now, in that sense, ignorance is bliss at times.
 If you’ve never run 100 miles before and people say, “Oh, you’ll feel sick at 70 miles, and you weren’t sick, so you can take that with a pinch of salt.
,
AS. Do you think Sometimes people can think about it too much, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy?

MF. Definitely.

FIRST 24-HOUR

AS. Did you have a plan for that first 24-hour race at Gloucester?

MF. I had a plan which I didn’t stick to. At one point, I think I was 20 minutes up on my A race schedule, thinking this was brilliant and I would smash every target going. A couple of hours later, I was asleep in the tent, having a power nap. I eventually finished with 235 km and 1st place. 

AS. The Experience didn’t put you off?
 
MF. No, I’d got the bug for the 24s then.
Whether you’re running around a track or a road loop. It’s controlled, and it’s measured. You can delve into all the stats, and look at all your splits. You can have everything you need on hand. So no, I wanted to do more of it.
AS. You did Chester again in March 2024, and then you ran Crawley 24-
 hours, where you didn’t go so well. Tell us about that race.

MF. You can’t really DNF a timed race, but I did DNF that race. I made a few mistakes with my nutrition and a lot of mistakes with my hydration. I think it took a lot of the field by surprise that day how hot it was.
 
AS. The stats obviously never tell the whole story, and never relate to the weather conditions, but it seems your 100-mile time was very good at 13:19:16, and then you just tailed off after that.
 
MF. Yes. I’d had an issue after about five hours. I wasn’t drinking enough and had started to cramp a little bit. I’d stopped and got a drink and took some salts on. I got going again, but the damage was done. I’d obviously got a bit of a deficit there, and once it came to the push at the later end of the race, I had nothing.
 There was nothing left to give, and my legs didn’t want to bend, I effectively called it a day.

AS. Fast forward another four months, and you jump from running 235km at Crawley 24 hours in April 2024, to running 281 kilometres at Gloucester and setting a new British record.
 MD. Yes.
 AS. How did that happen? Discuss!!
 

THE 24-HOUR RECORD RUN AT GLOUCESTER.

 MF. I had taken on board my habit of starting races too quickly.
The aim for Gloucester was to get a GB qualifying distance.
AS. Very ambitious but very good. 

NOTE. GB guideline qualifying distances for men have been set at 254km/157.828 km for individual standard and 245 Km/ 152.235 Miles for the team standard.
Full GB 24-hour policy HERE 

MF. I was aiming for 260 kilometres.  We were going to go out, and if we came away with more than 260km, it was going to be a great day at the office. We set off more conservatively than the past two events and were fairly regimented with that. It was 4:45 a kilometre pace, 1 minute 54 a lap. I would stick at that for as long as I felt comfortable and accepted that coming into 100 miles, I’d have faded. We wanted to get there around about 13 hours, but fresh.
 
I came in a little bit slower. It was about 13:20 for the 100 miles. I felt good. I’d had a bit of a wobbly patch before then, but I was back out of it. I was on top of my nutrition, on top of my fuel and my drink. We then expected me to fade progressively through the evening, and have to pick it up or push on the last few hours. That fade didn’t come.
 There was no nausea.  
There was no massive tiredness. I was just to hold that steady pace at around about 2:04 minute to 2:08 minutes a lap.
 
AS. In the build-up, did you change anything in your training compared to building up to your previous 24 hours?

MF. There were a couple of changes. I’d introduced more
strength work straight away after Crawley. I’d got a few niggles that I needed to work out, so I was spending a lot more time in the gym, just doing big compound lifts, a little bit of mobility work. Previously, when I was looking to bolster my mileage, I was sticking on 40 or 50 minutes at the end of a session in the week to give me a very long midweek run of an evening. I changed that so I was doing those sessions in the morning, effectively double running three times a week where I could. Very slow, very steady.

I’d like to have a cereal bar so I wasn’t totally fasted. Something to get me going first thing in the morning. I was going out at just five minutes a kilometre for that 50 minutes to an hour.
 

TYPICAL TRAINING WEEK
AS. If there is such a thing as a normal training week, what does a normal training week roughly consist of?

MF  We’ve got Monday, which is usually a rest day or an easy run. Tuesday will be a 90-minute run at a slightly quicker pace, slightly above race pace, with a few strides. Wednesday will be a quality session. I have a habit of doing sessions on the treadmill because it’s difficult to find people to run with who want to do the sort of intervals. I’m doing and fit things in. Thursday is an easy run. Friday, easy run or rest.
 
Saturday is my long run day, and Sunday is usually a shorter long run or a hills session.

AS. So you’re not too into doing back-to-back long runs at the weekend?

MF. No, that’s something that I have never been a fan of.  I’ve been working with Nathan Flear for the last 12 months. He’s moved me away from that. That was one of the training zones I used to do with as many hours as possible on Saturday and then the same again on Sunday. 
 
His preference is for a more structured, faster run on Saturday. Still long, but with a definite maximum time rather than just going for as long as you feel like. We follow this with a slower, shorter one on Sunday.
 NOTE Nathan is Nathan Flear. Experienced ultra runner, GB 24 hour runner with a 24 hour PB of 248.655 km/ 154.507 Miles, Spartathlon and Comrades finishes amongst other achievements.  
 
AS. Nathan is obviously finding what works for you. There’s no wrong way of doing it. You’ve just got to find what works for you and your lifestyle and how you recover from the hard efforts.
 
MF. Indeed. We seem to have struck gold this time.
 
AS You just answered my next question, “Do you have a coach?” Are you calling Nathan your coach? Or is he just advising you?
.
AS.No, Nathan’s my coach. He sends my training. I’ll go back to him with anything I don’t understand, or I think we need to change.
 
AS. Well. You’re certainly doing something right. Hopefully, you won’t change too much going forward because you have found something that works. Something’s going well.
 
MF. Yeah.

FUELLING FOR 24 HOURS
 
AS. Did you have a fueling plan at Gloucester, and how religiously did you keep to it?
 
AS. I did. I’ve got a drink mix that is my staple for the event. It gave me 105 grams of carb drinks an hour. I was aiming for 105 to 135 grams based on the drinks, and one solid food piece every hour. All of which I had tried in training. Things like rice pudding, instant rice pots, tortilla wraps with jam, Turkish delight chews, a few other sweets, and other drinks give me a bit of variety when I need it. 
 
So we set off the first six hours on the 135 grams. I had to change out every other drink after a couple of hours to an extra solid food because I was getting the early signs that it was too much, and I was a bit cramped, and a bit uncomfortable when I was running. The times had dropped a bit, so we dropped it back down to just 105 grams of drink for a few hours. I stuck with that and then a bit more food towards the end.
 
AS. Looking at your splits, you didn’t seem to have any major breaks at all. 

MF. No. The only times I  stopped were for the toilet and changes of kit. I was summoned over to put sun spray on at one point, and I had a blast of the massage gun about half four or five in the morning to give my legs some relief. 
My crew did a fantastic job of keeping me moving.
 
 
AS.How many crew did you have?
MF. I had a staple crew of five people.
A few others visited as well. My wife and my youngest daughter, two of my best friends and one of their wives.

 
AS. Were they on duty all the time, or were they taking it in shifts?
 
MF. They took it in shifts. I think my wife did the whole 24 hours though.
There was always a rotation then after the first few hours with people getting their heads down.
 
AS. A question for the shoe geeks. What shoes did you wear? 

MF. I wore the Alpha Fly 2’s.
AS. All the super shoes have come on the scene since you returned to running.
Do you feel they make a difference? Or have you got nothing to compare it with from previous running exploits when you were younger?
 
MF. No. I have run in a pair of old-school racing flats since I returned to running. I had them lying around. I’m a bit of a hoarder. They do make an amazing difference to your stride and you feel so easy on your feet. If you compare my record to Dave Dowdle’s, 30-40 years ago. He’s in a league above that, running 170 miles in low-profile, old-school racing flats.

AS. Like Dave, Don Ritchie, from that era, who also has times at 100k and 100 miles, which have stood the test of time, and only a handful of Supershoe performances have bettered them. 

BEST 24-HOUR RACE ADVICE?
AS. If you’re talking to somebody who is thinking about doing a 24-hour race. What’s the best advice you could give them?
 
MF. Go slow, slowly, and then go slower.
 
AS. That’s the same advice I was given for my first 24-hour race about 40 years ago.

MF.  It’s advice I was given, that I ignored. That, and do whatever is necessary and take whatever is necessary with you. Don’t do too much or take too much though. Finally, delegate to your crew. That one took me a while to get my head around. Trust your crew, who are observing you slowly disintegrating, and if your crew tell you to do something, you do it. So have a plan for your crew, and spell it all out for them in advance, but on the day, if you’ve told them what you want, you’ve got to trust that they’ve got your best interest, especially towards the latter stages when you’re fatigued. I mean, my crew lied to me. They told me I’d got more laps to run than I had to break the record. So I didn’t know I’d broken 280k until after the race because I’d lost the ability to do mental maths. 

AS. Some would say, that’s a perfect crew!
 
MF. It was. I can’t thank them enough, because as soon as I got to 700  laps, I thought I would have a little walk, and I never got going again. 

AS.The perfect crew. They should be able to tell white lies with a straight face. They did a grand job. 

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED FOR 24-HOURS
AS.With ultras, a huge amount of it is just like a mental game. Yes, you’ve got to be fit, but do you think a track is a different sort of mindset?
There’s a concept amongst coaches that you have got the outer runner and the inner runner. The outer runner is all about being fit, getting the training in, and executing on race day.
The inner runner is all about being in the moment and dealing with issues as they arise.
How does Matt’s “inner runner,” cope with a 24-hour race going around the track? How do you keep yourself in gear? 

MF. My first thought is, ”It’s not a 24-hour race.”
I think. Once I start, I have my goals and my benchmarks. So the initial pace that I’m setting off at, I’m going to run 31 laps in this first hour. And then the next hour. So hours are a good benchmark, especially in the later stages. The first few hours, they kind of while away. You’re saying hello to a few people you’ve not seen for a while. You certainly listen to a podcast, but when you are say, seven or eight hours in, you start thinking about laps and laps for an hour, and then that’s it. You’ve only got 18 little races left. If you have a bad hour, that’s one bad hour. If you have one bad lap, It’s one bad lap. It’s behind you and it’s done. You can’t do anything about it. You can’t let it ruin the rest of your race.
 
So if you drop a bottle and stumble, you lose 10 seconds. But that’s 10 seconds on one lap, which you’ve now completed. You’ve still got the rest of the race to go. 

AS. That’s a great attitude. You’re telling us that you’re being, “in the moment, every moment.“ but sometimes realising it, and sometimes not realising it, which is the perfect place to be. 

MF  I can remember sections of that race vividly. Then there are hours, two-hour blocks, where I don’t really remember anything, which is good.

What is Next for Matt

AS. What is next for you now?

MF. I’m going to try and get some more speed and strength in my legs.   I would love to have a go at a straight-off fast 100. My 100s to date have been on the trails or a split time in a 24 hr race.

AS. I’m sure the opportunity will arise, but it’s hard because you’ve usually got to do it on the track as there are so few road events around.

MF. Yes exactly. 
I’m going to try and get some more speed and strength in my legs. We’re going to look at 100k, with the Barry Track 40 in early March. I’ve got an entry in for Crawley for the 24-hour. Then there is also the option of the ACP, the 100k nationals in May. There’s only three weeks between those two. So some decisions are going to have to be made. It needs a bit of juggling, but I don’t want to go into a 24-hour having prepared for 100k. It would knock my confidence tremendously if I wasn’t to do as well as I have this time.
 
AS. Nathan will give you good advice on this I am sure, but history shows, if you study the stats, there are only so many stellar 24-hour races one can do in an all too short career.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of, “If I train harder, I can achieve more?”
Sometimes that works, sometimes it leads to overtraining or injury.
Trust your coach and the process that has got you this far, and tweak little things while taking a long-term approach.

 
MF. I felt a lot more relaxed going into Gloucester this year, compared to previous races. I mean, yes, my pre-race nerves are usually horrific to the point that it can be a Park Run, and I’ll say get ready, and I’ll be shaking on the start line. I’ve always been the same, but I wasn’t at Gloucester this time. I felt like I was ready.                                                                                                                        
AS. That’s a good place to finish this chat. Thanks so much for telling us about yourself, your training and that record run.
 MF. Thanks for the chat. 

Note A Separate  post charting a brief History of the GB 24 hour record is underway and will be posted soon.

Read about Robbie Brittons previous  24 hour record  HERE

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Adrian Tarit Stott.

The author is a former GB 24 hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions.  He has also been involved organising ultra distance races for over 30 years.  Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Running Advisory Group (URAG) and part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams.He is also a freelance writer in his spare time, contributing articles and reports to several websites and magazines including Athletics Weekly and Irunfar.