Have you ever wondered if you could take on an Olympian?
How far do you reckon you could run before they sped off into the distance?
Well, it's time to see how many average runners it takes to take on an Olympian.
We've called in some friends from Garmin HQ, plus a very special guest who you might
recognise, to give us a fighting chance.
First, though, if you're new around here, please do hit subscribe and tap the bell icon to make sure you get notified when we
release new videos all about running.
You ready? [Cheering]
Our very own Andy Baddeley set the men's parkrun record back in 2012 with a
time of 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
Now, for most of us, that is a time that we can only dream of.
But if we club together, can we beat his time?
Well, in 2019, that is exactly what a group of parkrunners from South Africa did.
They joined together and ran the race as a relay.
15 runners from Brianstone ran the distance running around 300
metres on average, and they did it, so we thought it was about time we gave
this a go ourselves.
And I'm very happy to introduce our special guest Harleigh from Garmin, who will be heading up as
team captain.
Yeah, so we put together a team of runners from the office to take on Andy today.
He's not quite doing his record time, but we are trying to beat his 16 minutes over five K.
I think it's still pretty fast. That's ridiculously fast.
So each runner will be running a different section of the relay, and the distance that they run will
be dependent on their pace and ability.
Andy will be running the full five K distance and going up against us.
So we worked at the distances and timings meticulously to try and make this is
even as we can.
And I guess it's just down to what happens on the day.
Do you think we'll do it?
Stay tuned to find out.
Oh, let's do this. Let's see how fast we can go.
Okay, three, two, one, go. We're off.
Brings back nervous memories.
Oh, my God, This is so fast.
Come on, we've got this. We're heading up to the first changeover.
Had you practised this?
No.
And as you can tell, we definitely should have.
Yeah, definitely haven't practised that. There was no, it was just a stop.
And then a run.
But then looking at him, he's absolutely rolling, this is leg number two.
I had a little lead, and then that lead has gone. Absolutely rapid.
Okay, onto runner number three. Slightly better hand over.
Yeah, couldn't be much worse.
So you had the lead at this point, and then I could just ease hopefully at a similar pace to what
I was already running, straight past here and hope that I could build up another little lead before, you
know, potentially other, faster runners with maybe shorter legs had,
had the chance of catching back up.
Still looking pretty comfortable here.
You sound a little bit of pain, but looking relatively comfortable.
Yeah, I don't like running on my own. I don't enjoy a time trial sort of environment.
I much prefer racing head-to-head.
So at this point, I was just trying to focus on keeping my heart rate down as much as I could, running at a steady pace
I knew I could hopefully maintain, but still ambitious enough to, you know, try and win.
You got this, smash it. Go, go, go!
It was amazing as well, as average runners
we were sprinting as fast as we possibly could,
And you could just clock the speed on the watch on the baton going,
I've never seen numbers that low before.
Oh, knew I'd get the hilly bit.
Really starting to get a sense of pace, but the guys chasing me down, every second you're eating into my lead.
Yeah, it's not yet.
Oh, can you take it for me?
Do a little bit.
Oh, Uh huh.
Go.
Yeah.
I'm not going to lie,
That's, uh, really tough.
Was he in your sights?
First 50 metres or so, we're catching him.
And then my legs went, it's gone, all uphill.
How do you think you'd fare out on the full five K?
I'd have him, no worries. Kate really going through the gears here?
She had a slightly longer leg because she is a faster runner, used to endurance and recently ran a few marathons.
So she's definitely clawing back some time here. Taking the corner like a
pro, chasing you down. Yeah, and her leg speed and cadence you can tell that she's definitely closing the
gap. So when I'm hurting, I find that my watch is a really good gauge.
I'm looking at my heart rate to make sure I haven't completely buried myself too early.
I'm trying to monitor my kind of live pace, but also my lap pace per K.
Which is how I like to make sure I've got a nice, consistent pace.
Jack's taken over there.
Jack had been giving me a lot of stick before the run.
There'd been a lot of banter, and he has absolutely set off there. Look at how much gap is put between himself and the
bike that's following him.
I know, I mean, he was giving you stick, but rightly so.
He's smashing this.
Yeah, I think I deserved it.
That's Jack.
This is an incredible shot and I could hear him at this point
I'm sure so, yeah, as I come into shot at the top there, the gap is just closing every
second that he's running. Yep, you can see the little red dot getting closer and closer.
Yeah, and this is the gruelling thing, right?
You can see Jack flagging here, but he's just about to hand over to someone else and I'm already flagging, and I can't do
anything about. That is the beauty of this race.
You have fresh legs taking over each time.
The teamwork.
That was a pretty good handover as well.
Yeah, that was smooth.
You can see, I think just with the movement of the bike and the runners,
you can see the pace is picking up here.
And I was trying to do the same because I knew we were inside
probably the last two K or so here.
We're definitely over halfway.
I'm hurting, and I'm just trying to get faster, and I'm struggling to do it.
Yeah, put in such a good effort, taking the lead. And I'm just desperately trying to hang on.
It really changed my mindset.
I was actually grateful to have someone to hang on to, to stop thinking about my pace and my effort and just go as hard as I
could to maintain the gap and not just go away.
This guy put in a real shift.
I know there was a few longer legs in there, and this was a longer one.
So that was- made a real impact into their lead that
you guys were stretching away.
And now we've got four runners to go.
So still all to play for really.
Yeah. And it's clear daylight there.
But then, actually, as we came to the top of this peak, I managed to close that gap just before this takeover.
Go go go! Go!
Ah, god, I've got to stop.
Go, go, go.
Let me beat you! No!
No!
Oh, Iwan next.
The problem here is I knew what was coming next.
I knew he was going to take the baton. Yeah, our secret weapon.
Just to ensure you didn't get an easy ride home in the last 500. To ensure I didn't get
an easy ride? There you go.
Iwan Thomas takes the baton. Olympian, multiple medalist over 400
metres, literally his specialty.
And he's going to run a three or 400 metre leg here, and it's just incredible to see him in full flow.
You can see why he is who he is.
Look at the leg speed.
You can just see the confidence in how he's running. Just the power, like he's obviously a big guy and
just to be able to power past me like that.
He did run past me then like I'm standing still and I'm running at this point
at sub-three minute K pace, and you can see that his splits are even faster.
It's only 200 metres.
Thank you.
Then we hand over, last leg, Harleigh, team captain
trying to bring it home. Trying to bring it home
but I'm confident at this point I can see her.
She's close enough, and I'm giving it everything I've got.
And then I knew that she'd gone too soon.
The finish is closing in and I'm closing her down with every step.
Can you do it?
Can I do it?
No. No, you can't.
No I can't. Reliving it is painful.
I was gutted on the day. So close and I'd gone-
that was everything that I had.
Well done! Harleigh,
how did you find that? Horrible.
So close.
Literally two or three seconds.
Probably two or three seconds
more and I could have had her. Ah, gutted. I'm done. I'm done that That's me done.
Good job. Well done.
Oh, that was close. Really close. I looked back as well and I shouldn't have
You set off,
and I was like, oh, I've been bluffed here because I was thinking when Iwan handed it over to you I had a chance.
You're so good. If you had paced yourself
I might have caught a little bit more and buried myself trying to do it but I just had no chance.
I could feel you behind me. And you had two runners to go and I'm in the lead.
Then Iwan Thomas pops up.
I was going as hard as I could go and
it was so difficult to pace myself nice and evenly against people, kind of yo-yoing past me.
That was the hardest bit like just having a judge of pace, which is not necessarily my forte.
We absolutely smashed that. Andy, you're a little bit out shape.
How did you find that?
Thanks very much and you're suitably smug as well.
So it was really tough.
It's really hard to gauge my pace with people passing me and then slowing a little bit as well.
And then I thought I had it until right at the end, when they pulled out the 400 metre record holder.
Yeah, that was incredible.
And Harleigh, you took that sprint finish and the win.
How did you find it?
That was epic - super hard but, like what
an amazing team effort.
Like we, I guess, pulled it out the bag.
And I just can't comprehend how fast you run.
Like I only did 500 metres and I'm knackered, like five K, fair play. Yeah 500 metres for the glory leg.
And anyway, Harley's got my back here.
She seems to think I'm fast enough Sarah.
Yeah all right, well done Andy, well done. So there we have it.
It takes 12 runners to beat an Olympian.
But what should we do next?
Let us know in the comments down below, and we will see you next time on The Running Channel.