Alex Milne added yet another global medal to his collection when he took the bronze at the 2026 IAU100km World Championships in Ames, Spain on 20 September, leading the Great Britain and N. Ireland team to the silver medals in 6:17:50, a new British road record and PB by 25 minutes.
By his own admission Alex arrived in Spain a little short of peak shape owing to a few months of niggles, but riding high after a phenomenal few months in which he broke Chairman Dave Clarke's long-standing marathon record in Seville in February in a time of 2:11:41, won the World 50km title in New Delhi in March in a European record of 2:46:09, and finished fourth in the Comrades Marathon in South Africa in June, completing the 85.77km from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in a PB of 5:22:29.
And lest anyone think individual goals trump Club commitments, such achievements slotted into a cross country and road racing season in which he finished the Surrey Cross Country League campaign as individual champion, was first home for the six-man team which clinched the title at the Southern (SEAA) Cross Country Championships in January – the first since 1970 – and was a key member of the bronze-medal winning 12-stage team at the Southern Road Relay Championships only a fortnight after winning the 50km title.
Despite the niggles, in the ten weeks prior to Ames Alex still managed to average 163km a week, and underlining his analytical and methodical maths-teacher's approach to every detail, he acclimatised to the tedium of a 6-hour, 20 x 5km road circuit by running laps of Battersea Park for up to four hours. (Before the Comrades Marathon he took a similar approach, this time repeatedly running back and forth between Debbie's vineyard and Box Hill.) Heat training involved a combination of hot baths and saunas, 'about 15 sessions in total over the 3 weeks prior to the race'.
In Ames the race started at 8.30am with the temperature at a friendly 14°C but over the course of the race it rose to over 30°C – hotter even than Delhi. Nevertheless Alex was able to complete remarkably consistent splits, running the first 50km in 3:06:40 and the second in 3:11:10. 'Around four minutes slower in the second half was better than I’d expected', he says. I held back early, keeping the heart rate controlled and trusting that those ahead would come back later.'
These ultra Championships over repetitive laps, rather than point to point races through changing scenery, 'are more of a mental challenge', admits Alex, 'as the perception is of time passing more slowly. 60-70km was probably the hardest mentally as I was getting really tired but still had a long way to go. At 70km I knew I had only six laps left but tried not to think about the fact that this was still two hours of running'. His coping mechanism was to 'focus on a family member on each lap to get me through the pain, thinking about all their good qualities and how I was running for them. The technique worked well and helped to pass the time. I got more motivation from passing other runners and thinking I was in about eighth place, and an extra boost when I heard I was fourth.
'I had my usual flickering vision and tingling fingers on and off for the last four laps so took on extra sodium and tried to get more carbs down. It got pretty bad on the last lap and I probably lost some time from this', he says, however the upside of a lap race is of course 'regular access to fuel and ice bandanas. The GB team staff were superbly organised and seemed to have an endless supply of ice'.
'The support from the team, spectators and fellow athletes got me through some very tough patches', says Alex. 'I felt like I was close to collapse near the end so made a huge effort to stay focused and on my feet, and was very relieved to make it over the line!'