Becoming A Race Director

Its been kind of quiet for me since Caesars Camp. It was the end of my racing year to all intents and purposes and I always intended to have some down time and properly recover after it. I have to say though having laid off for a long period after Badwater and not training particularly consistently for Caesar's, I feel like I've got a renewed energy for running again which I didn't expect to have right now. The last two years I've come into November off of the back of Antarctica & the Sahara Race with months and months of racing and training before hand, which has meant that I've been ready for a proper break by the time winter sets in. But not, it appears, this year. I'm already thinking about getting stuck in to early 2011 with some late season training starting again maybe really soon indeed....

My efforts are 100% focused in a different way at the moment. After years and years of scouring the resources of the best races in the world, deciding which ones to do, longing for the 100 mile scene in the UK to grow a bit so I had to a little bit less of a journey to get to more start lines, I finally decided to take the initiative and put on some of my own races instead. About 3 weeks ago I had a kind of epiphany where I realised I knew quite simply what would really work in terms of a new race/ race series and where there is a gaping hole in UK running. That is 100 milers. So I am 90% there. A company has been set up, a website built and a race series divised. The first race course has been recce'd, a date set and all of the legals and permits arranged. It's down to a few finishing touches including nailing down a startline and we will have a brand new 100 mile race on August 13th 2011 over potentially the best marked and most underused trail this country has to offer. We will be putting on 100, 50 and 26.2 mile races all kicking off at the same point albeit at different times and I will finally get to see what being the other side of the fence is really like. I'm looking forward to it immensely. Keep the date free.