Monday 28 February 2011

Hope

For a while now I've been living in hope that the injury I sustained to my shin as a secondary issue at Rocky Raccoon isn't as bad as it may appear. There is a difference between hope and denial here and I would consider myself not to have ventured over to the much more dangerous area of denial.

For the past couple of weeks each time I've commenced running the pain in my shin has varied between mild and excruciating. The calf feels as tight as a drum and a particular point in the tibia is extremely sore leading to shooting pains in my leg with each foot strike and push off. At times the pain has almost completely subsided. Plenty of times in the last fortnight I've run for half an hour in a hobbling fashion only for the leg to loosen up as it gets warm and for the pain to die right down. It's meant I haven't been able to do any fast running but that I have been able to get in some decent slower mid length runs (12 - 16 miles). I have added a lot of bike, spinning and strider machine to my weekly regime all of which have been pain free and are helping me build all round strength. 

Nevertheless every night I go to bed hoping that I will wake up in the morning to find the physios work and my stretching, icing etc will have brought the pain down to a lower more manageable level and that I can resume running freely and properly. Today my shin was screaming at me as I got on the treadmill for a short test run of 20 ish minutes. I got off and went back to the physio tonight. 

The prognosis is not good. Best case I have chronic shin splints which will take a couple of weeks no running to get over. Worst case I have a stress fracture that will put me out for up to 3 months. On Wednesday night I will get an MRI to determine what state the damage is at. Until this point I have followed the advice of the physio 100% and he has always managed to get me back on my feet quickly and without further problems. This time I think even he has conceded the problem goes deeper than he had thought and than I had hoped. 

So I have resigned myself to the worst possible fate of having to be off running for a considerable length of time, a longer break than I've had since the MdS in 2006. In that case anything better is a bonus. Relinquishing hope that things are ok when really they're not is actually a weight off of my mind. I have decided that my body knows best and that when the pain is how it is something is clearly badly wrong. If I can cross train in the meantime I will have a hope of keeping some of my half decent fitness levels. If not well then I'm going to have a hell of a job to get ready in time for Comrades and the Grand Slam. Umstead in 5 weeks looks to be a pipe dream right now. 

Good luck to everyone taking part in the Atacama Crossing starting this weekend. In the meantime to those reading who are also injured out there, rest up and heal up good and proper. I am going to try to that's for sure. 

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Heroes

There are a lot of people in the ultra-running world to look up to. A lot of them are listed in my blog roll down the bottom right hand side of this page. Some of them train obscene amounts and achieve incredibly fast race results. Some of them train a lot less and are even faster still. Some of them have been running for 10 or 20 years and performing at the top for a good proportion of that. They are all incredibly impressive athletes which help to inspire me and many others to go a little bit further, making what would otherwise seem to be impossible seem suddenly human.

Of all of those people the one that I look up to the most is Marshall Ulrich and although a lot of people have heard of Marsh and his exploits over the years I think he's about to become a whole lot better known in the near future with the release of his film and long awaited book. The reason I look up to Marsh more than anybody else is because of Badwater last year. Marsh raced the Gobi March in 2007, my second desert and that was the first and only other time I had the pleasure of meeting him, even then Jim and I really just admired from afar as he made seemingly light work of the course. His demeanour exuded total relaxed control of the race, respect for all of the other racers and for the environment, local people and the opportunity we were all fortunate enough to have, to run in such a remote location.

At Badwater Marsh started about 4 hours ahead of me and had a difficult first section of the course. I passed him on the way up Townes Pass maybe 50 or 60 miles into the race and he was dragging his feet along like he was out for a stroll in the park. He was clearly having a difficult time but made sure to tell Frank and I what a great job we were doing and to keep it up which gave me a huge boost. He then stormed down the hill into Panamint and overtook me leaving me for dust (he was 59 at the time of the race). I carried straight on where he took some time to tend to blisters and made his way on when he was ready. Right at the top of Mount Whitney Portals about 2 miles from the finish Marsh came past me again with a slap on the back and words of congratulations we're almost there you're doing awesome. That meant an awful lot coming from him. Even then he had a smile on his face and was pretty much on his own just doing his own thing at his own pace, totally unconcerned about anything else.

The reality is i'm not sure I can really begin to list some of the things he's achieved as there have been so many but I will certainly be buying a copy of his book. He recently mentioned he has only in the last year or so felt he was qualified to put his experiences down on paper which may just be the craziest thing I've ever heard. When he passed me at the top of the last hill at Badwater it was on his way to his 22nd finish on that course which has included a number of wins (5 i think). he has run Leadville 13 times. He was one of the first people to race and finish the Grand Slam and did so in astounding times. He raced all of the eco challenge adventure races before they came to an end, climbed the 7 summits including Everest in a calender year (he also ran Badwater just a few days later) and has completed over 100 races of 100 miles in length.

Have a look at the video trailer and read a little about him if even you feel like you need a little inspiration.

http://www.marshallulrich.com/

Sunday 20 February 2011

Weekly Summary Feb 14 - 20

Monday - 4 miles 40 minutes
Tuesday - 4 miles 45 minutes
Wednesday - Rest/ Physio
Thursday - 4 miles 28 minutes
Friday - 4 miles 28 minutes & 20 minutes Strider
Saturday - 8.7 miles 1 hour 11 minutes
Sunday - 14.6 miles 2 hours 4 minutes

Total - 42 miles 5 hours 58 minutes

This week began horribly and got a lot better. Saturday was the first day I've been able to walk around since the race without pain in one or other part of my legs. I've had ice on my knee and shin on and off for about 2 hours of each day and spent a lot of time stretching both legs out. Saturday evening I managed just over an hour and today I ventured out for 2 but was baked by 90 minutes and struggled the last 5 or 6 miles. The 76 miles are still clearly taking their toll but I'm pretty familiar with this process. After a week of total rest and the problems I had in the early part of this week I'm pretty pleased how the last few days have panned out. A painful physio session paid huge dividends again mid week and turned me back around from a hobbling wreck to a functioning runner again in the space of 48 hours.

6 weeks until the next 100....

Sunday 13 February 2011

Rehabilitation

I had a great week this week, lacking nothing but my beloved running. I took the opportunity to rest as much as I could, catch up with people and stay off of my feet and knee as much as possible. I saw the physio twice in the week and heeded the advice I was given, don't run but the overall prognosis was way WAY more positive than I was even optimistically hoping for.

On the massage table yesterday my shin splints felt better, my feet, whilst still sore when I apply pressure, are causing no problems when I walk around but my knees were both pretty sore. I have iced, stretched elevated all week long and this evening I felt strong enough to spend 30 minutes on my feet, about 20 minutes running and 10 walking.

This week I will ease back in slowly with cross training, swimming and some very light experimental running. I know I won't be able to get over the disaster that was Rocky Raccoon until I cross the finish line at Umstead 100 in 7 weeks time so I have decided just to get on with it and dive back into focusing on that from now until then. As mentioned in a previous post I do need to tell myself that out of 6 more goal races this year, this one is the 6th most important but it is essential I have a good race there to get my year back on track before the big races kick in beginning with Comrades in late May. As such if my training goes to plan in the next week or so of gradual build up then I will drop back in to a couple of longer runs the week after and finish off running the majority of the course/ planning the second 100 miler in the Centurion series which I'll be putting on in March 2012. After that I have some pretty cool weekends planned with races on some of my favourite trails and some shorter local ones which will give me a chance to push up my leg speed. All in all if things go to plan I am aiming to fit in a few 50ks and a couple of marathons in the 6 weeks leading up to April 2nd. If I stay positive and sensible the physio believes that it should be possible.

I haven't really said much to anyone up to this point about my DNF at RR100 other than reflecting on it in the race report on this blog. The fact is my opinions on DNFs are a little controversial and hence probably better kept to myself. I received a lot of good wishes from friends, family and particularly runners after Rocky, but the underlying fact is I failed to finish a race and in my book that's not really acceptable unless you literally have to be dragged off of the course. Undoubtedly my decision to drop was the right one but given that hypothetically, although traveling excruciatingly slowly, I 'could' have finished with 15 hours left on the clock, I'm very far from delighted with the outcome. Of course I went to run a PB/ to see how fast I could run 100 miles and not just to finish at any cost given that I'd done that there once before but that doesn't make the decision any less 'right'. It's an area I don't really want to get in to as I say as frankly it's done and dusted and it affects no-one but myself. If you're interested in the debate over DNF-ing have a look at this post from AJW which kicked up a bit of a storm (if you're a real geek read through the comments which is where this subject gets interesting) http://ajwsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/dnfs.html

Tuesday 8 February 2011

The Day After/ Wasatch Lottery

My leg feels significantly less swollen today. Decided to see the physio tomorrow to give the general swelling an extra 24 hours to reduce enough for him to be able to give me a steer on the level of damage I've caused. I am hoping for a prognosis of under 4 weeks before I can commence build up again but that may be a little hopeful.

What I do know is that my hunger to get stuck in to Umstead in 8 weeks time is pretty huge. I cannot abide DNFs. This wasn't my first, in fact I have DNFd two other ultras before, both due to debilitating injury, but that was a first for 100 miles and my first since August 2007. Mentally rather than rock my confidence it's just made me more resolute about my strategy and goals for Umstead. Of course I have to get healthy again first and it will be about  being patient to allow a full recovery before I get into it.

I see I wasn't lucky enough to be drawn in the Wasatch 100 lottery but am guaranteed a place as a Grand Slam runner should I complete Western States, Vermont and Leadville. Some big names did get drawn including Tony Krupicka and Karl Meltzer who both also toed the line at RR100 last weekend. I think both those guys are also doing UTMB which is a mere 13 days prior to Wasatch so they will have 7 days less than me to recover from an even more mountainous 100. Fair play to them for throwing their names in for both. Also running are two Brits, Nicole and Ryan Brown and it will be great to share some British company at another one of the major US 100s this year.

Congratulations to everyone who finished Thames Trot, Pilgrims or Rocky Raccoon this weekend, there were some stellar performances out there although I have to say I don't think anything will come close to Ians somehow!

Monday 7 February 2011

Rocky Raccoon 100: DNF

Arrived back from Houston this morning and sadly I had no internet access from my Hunstville Motel Room hence the delay in posting any kind of news on here.

The journey out to Houston was as uneventful as I could have hoped for. The 10 hour flight went like a dream with no interruptions and I managed to get some good rest spread out across three seats in the very back row of the plane. The new airline formed out of the merger between Continental and United has left behind probably the best carrier service I've flown with for a very long time. We were told on taking off that the weather in Houston was horrendous with mixed freezing snow and rain icing up the runway. About an hour before landing the pilot let us know that the storm was sufficiently far south for us to land without issue and that hiatus was actually enough time for me to collect the hire car and make the hour drive up I45 to Huntsville where the race is held. I hit the sack straight away not wanting to change my body clock as per the last time I was there for the race. The idea of that being that given the 6 hour time difference if I got to bed at 6pm and woke up at 3am, I would time things perfectly for race morning when we would start at 6am.

I got up at 3am on Friday and went outside to make the drive over the I45 to Wal Mart and stock up on supplies. Unfortunately the entire car was engulfed in a quarter of an inch of ice. It had been blown on by freezing cold winds and was rock hard so it took me literally half an hour to get moving. The roads hadn't been gritted so were extremely slippery. When I turned up at Wal Mart obviously there wasn't  a soul in sight but this is America and it was a 24 hour store. I went inside and spent an hour cruising around buying tortillas, turkey, cheese, chips, fruit, bagels, water etc etc most of which were for the race. I spent the rest of the day watching tv in the room waiting for Ian to arrive and for the pre race meeting to start. Ian got in around 2pm and we hit the streets of Huntsville for a 3 mile - ish slow run just to loosen up before the morning.

We got to registration and the race briefing was in full flow, so we snuck around the side and checked in to collect our race numbers and swag bags. At this point Ian met up with his crew for the race, Paul and Meredith Terranova and we spent some time out in the hall with Meredith chatting about different races and his plan of action for the morning. Ian has been running at the top level for a while now. In the lead up to the race we spoke a lot about the speed the other guys in the field had vs his own success on road in particular and how this course might suit him better. Knowing what happened now makes this post from a few weeks ago a little more pertinent!!!! http://runthroughtime.blogspot.com/2011/01/11-days-to-go.html

Meredith and Paul were obviously extremely accomplished runners, Paul recently finishing 2nd just behind Ian in TNF50km in December. They had also had success in pacing runners to success on this course helping 4 previous runners to wins with some breaking CR's in the process. After a massive pasta dinner I left my drop bag with supplies for the Dam Road aid station at mile 6.5/ 12.5 and head back to the hotel for the night.

I got up at 3am for the race with a good nights sleep under my belt. Having run this one before and having done a number of races significantly more challenging since I didn't have pre match nerves. I knew I was capable of running the time that I wanted as long as things went to plan and I really didn't have any other pressures on me than that. If it all worked out then great and I would have the pleasure of watching some of the greats in the sport battle it out up the front of the field due to the lapped format.

I got to the start at 4:45am and it was 23 degrees F outside or minus 5 centigrade in English money. I jumped out of the car and checked my name off of the list and after 5 minutes outside I was freezing cold and shivering. Not a nice start to the morning. I stayed in the warm until 5:54am and then jogged over to the start, switched on my headlamp and joined the Ian a row back from the front. I looked at the line of runners in front of us and left to right picked out Tony Krupicka, Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer a couple of unknown guys and Zach Gingerich on the right. Ian looked ready with his camelbak on and we wished each other good luck before Joe the RD set us on our way at exactly 6am.

The pace at the beginning was slower than I'd expected. I say that with the exception of Zach who sprinted away down the 100 yard straight and wide trail from the start/ finish line. He was out of sight within 30 seconds and that was kind of a shock to see as I imagine it was for all of the other guys. As we got into the first little section of narrower trail the lead guys began to pull away and I was running in maybe 20th spot with a group of 4 guys running together. As we spread out even a few yards it became apparent that my head torch was pitifully weak. I'd changed down from my heavy duty Petzl to a smaller model as I knew I'd only need it for about 45 minutes but it did nothing to cut through the pitch black of the woods. I tripped a few times on the prominent roots and nearly crashed into a tree by one of the many boardwalks in the first 2 miles or so. Neverthless I made good time to the nature centre at mile 3.1 in about 25 minutes and as we got on to the trail to the Dam Road Station at mile 6.5 the sun began to come up and reveal a beautiful day on the trails. The rest of the first 20 mile loop just disappeared in a flash and I was back to the 2 mile out and back section to the start in about 2:45 or so. At that point I knew I would see the front runners coming back past me and sure enough there was Zach running at mile 21.7/ 18.3 for me which put him on roughly 3:05 marathon pace. A couple of minutes later, Ian came past and I gave him some words of encouragement. Directly behind him were Scott, Hal, Anton, Karl, Mike Wolfe and a couple of other guys all running together. Scott was the only one to exchange words as we went past and I kind of guessed that figured as they were all working so hard. I hit 20 miles in 3:02 in 30th spot.

My pacing strategy was simple and was to go 20 hours split down as Loop 1: 3 hours. Loop 2: 3:30. Loop 3: 3:30. Loop 4: 4:30. Loop 5: 5 hours. At 4 mph for the last loop I knew I'd have plenty of fat in there to push towards my best case target of 18 hours. I knew that would be enough for top 20 even with the strength of the field in question and I felt it was achievable before hand.

For loop 2 I grabbed a handheld bottle and some more gels and made good speed out of the gate. I'd run the whole of the first loop including all of the 'bumps' (not really long enough to call them hills). It would be wrong to describe this course as flat as there are some minor undulations which amount to about 5500 feet over 100 miles but you just wouldn't find a trail flatter than this unless you look at canal towpaths which clearly offer the fastest possible terrain, short of road, on which to run. Loop 2 I began to speed hike some of the slightly longer shallow inclines to conserve energy. The heat came up a bit and I hit the marathon point in about 4:05 which was spot on. As I made it out to the 50km point I could feel the ITB in my right leg, ever present in all of my training, tighten up particularly on the downhill sections and it certainly put the fear in to me a little. I tried to protect it where I could but with shin splints in my left leg in the run up to the race also, it was really about balancing the whole situation so that neither became my undoing. I felt a little like I was running on a knife edge and that either could cause a big issue at any time. Still I made decent progress on lap 2 and came back in to the start finish in 6:32, 2 minutes off of target pace and still in exactly 30th place.

Loop 3 I intended to continue running as much of as possible. My legs felt a little weary but as is natural after 40 miles of running and everything else was running as smooth as I could have possibly hoped. I allowed myself to start to think about how many problems with injury and illness I'd suffered in the 12 week build up to this race and how I had always hoped that things would just come together on race day and that the big guy upstairs would allow me to travel the course without any single problem coming to a head. I power hiked the inclines, made it through the 50 mile point in 8:09, stayed sensible with my nutrition and hydration, taking on lots of enduralytes as the heat came up a little towards the low 60s and made good progress back to the 100km mark in 10:27 about 3 minutes up on my plan. By this point, Ian had already come past me on his 4th lap and looked fantastic, flowing freely and easily in a bouncing fashion right down the track. He had a lead now and clearly was out to push that lead rather than sit back and try and hold it.

Loop 4 began in daylight but quickly descended into darkness so I had my torch and a second layer ready. I started to hike a lot more of the trail and knowing that I had 4 hours 30 for this loop I could afford to conserve a lot of energy and have a faster last lap as a result. As I went through 65 miles or so, Ian came barrelling back down the trail past me with Meredith and we had a shouted conversation whereby he informed me he was running a half an hour under CR pace for a 12:45 projected finishing time. I was pretty much speechless. He was obviously going to stamp his name into the record books and put his name on the map of world ultra running. I tried not to get too distracted in his success as I was aware I had a big job left to do myself. I pressed on through Dam Road and on the long lonely ATV trail up to the 70 mile Far Point timing mat which I reached almost bang on 12:30 still pacing perfectly. As I head up the single track from mile 70 to 72 I could feel my leg tightening but nothing worse than I'd had all day. The temperature had dropped massively, around 20 degrees in the space of only an hour and a half and I could feel the cold starting to get in to me so I pushed the pace a little out on the dam and into the aid station at mile 73. I grabbed a large cup of mashed potato which I'd been eating all day and was frankly a revelation and made my way out of there without stopping. At that point I had spent a maximum of 30 seconds at any one aid station all day so hadn't wasted any extra time. As I got on to a section of slightly steeper descent at around mile 74 my right knee pretty much gave way. Anyone who has had ITB issues in the past will know that feeling, when you're running along with no issue and all of a sudden it feels like someone has jammed their thumb right into the side of your kneecap and it almost makes it feel like the leg will collapse. I gathered myself quickly and tried to walk through it but it pretty much seized up and the flex I'd had in it to that stage went entirely to the point where it was locked pretty much straight. I knew I had 2 miles to the aid station so figured I would walk it in and try and shake it off over that time.

This section of trail is a jeep road which undulates down the far side of the park on really easy and very runnable packed sand. I was, however, reduced to an absolutely crippling hobble, striding with my left leg and swinging my right around like a club foot, placing as little pressure on the knee as possible and taking all my weight back on to my left as soon as I physically could. I carried on for maybe half an hour in that fashion with my head down just plugging away. As the knee became tighter and tighter I could feel the ITB stretching across the knee and literally creaking as i held it in place. The temperature was back down to single figures and I knew that wasn't helping the situation. That jeep road became an absolute bastard and I was reduced to going tree to tree for the 2 miles. I managed to make it in to the aid station at mile 76.2 in just over 15 hours. When I worked back I realised it had taken me over 2 hours to cover 3 miles and that had been with a pretty good pace for the first mile of that. I knew my race was out of the window at that point and that I couldn't shake this problem off. I had two choices, continute on and with 15 hours left in the race, hope that my leg eased up a bit to allow me to continue at the previous pace of just over a mile an hour and finish the last 24 in time, or call it a day.

I went back to Rocky Raccoon this year for one reason, to see how fast I could run 100 miles. That would seem to be a little pointless to some people but in the 3 previous attempts at the distance, all of which ended in success but ultimately included long stretches of walking and struggling, I felt I hadn't really had the race I was capable of. In 2009 in my first 100 miler I'd run the course in a very respectable 22:54. When I worked out the average pace I'd need to complete the remaining 24 miles in, I knew it was impossible for me to better that time albeit I was, even with the 2 hours of crawling along, way way ahead of my 2009 splits. I actually left the 76.2 mile point and made my way down the trail back to the start finish. Around 5 minutes in I'd only made a couple of hundred yards at the most and could still see the lights behind me. I stood still felt my knee which was severely inflamed and thought screw this. It wasn't even that difficult a decision. I knew I would hate myself for DNFing a race but I came to the realisation that 1. I have another opportunity to run a decent 100 mile time at Umstead in under 2 months time and that having managed to get into Western States this year and the Grand Slam, this race paled into insignificance versus those things. If I did lasting damage by battling out the rest of the course I would be inconsolable. I turned around and made my way back to the aid station and that was that. 76 miles of very hard work and 12 weeks of training undone in under 3 hours.

That for me exemplifies the massive gulf between 50 miles/ 100km races and 100 miles. That last 40 miles of a 100 is a totally different level to any other running. Of course the longer you are on your feet, the greater the opportunity there is for something to go wrong. The last 40 miles of a 100 will, for most people, involve a huge amount of walking. Given that, you end up being on your feet for the same time again as the initial 60 miles might have taken. When it gets dark and cold and you're whole body is depleted and in pain it is easy to make mistakes like forgetting to eat and drink or take on salt, or, in my case here, get injured by being sloppy with your gait/ tripping over etc etc.

I hitched a lift back to the start line with one of the volunteers and dragged my leg the 20 yards or so into the start finish tent where I found Ian sitting in a chair surrounded by ultra running legends and admirers alike. He had finished in a time of 12:44 and in the process set the fastest ever time for trail 100 miles on US soil. Tony Krupicka and Hal Koerner had come in shortly after him in 13:18 and 13:24 respectively, both also astonishingly quick times. Ian was humble but obviously elated and after about an hour of sitting around everyone dispersed and head back to their respective hotels.

When I got up the next morning my leg felt dreadful. Negotiating stairs was almost impossible, but we jumped in the car and went back to the start finish to watch some of the last runners come home. There is something really special about watching people who have been out battling their inner demons for 28/29/30 hours finally cross that finishing line. It's a moment you don't forget in a hurry and obviously from my perspective I had huge pangs of regret for not struggling on round to finish. At the same time I also felt what I can only describe was almost pride in myself for not being as stubborn as usual and going on to cause long term damage to prove a point I had proved many times before.

Having spent a little time there we head over to the post race breakfast where Ian recieved many contgratulations for his stellar performance. Watching him sign autographs was kind of surreal and I know he felt the same way, but this is a big and growing community and all of a sudden he had gone from a recognised name albeit on a kind of unknown level, to stardom, overnight. I felt delighted for him that he'd achieved something truly special and that he was about to start getting the kind of support and respect he had probably deserved for some time. It's going to be seriously exciting to watch him race in the future.

For me the question is how long will be off my feet. On top of the knee I have some serious plantar fasciis going on in my right foot and an exacerbated shin split problem in my left leg. I have 8 weeks to umstead so whilst it was no bad bad thing to have got in a 76 mile training run, if I'm out of action fo 6 - 8 weeks it will make Umstead a race too soon. I will travel there irrespective as I have pre paid for flights and entry but as to what capacity I'll be in, racing 100, running 50 or pacing pete for a lap or two who knows. As for Rocky Raccoon you can never say never but I doubt I'll be back. Finishing it once ticks the box and this years DNF doesn't detract from that at all. I still had an awesome time and am pretty sure that if my knee had lasted the course I would have been able to pocket a time somewhere between 18:30 and 19:30 which would have made it a successful start to the year. Still you roll with the punches and in ultra running you will get KO'd occasionally. Hey after all Scott Jurek dropped at 60 miles so I feel my decision was kind of validated by his ;)

Until next time....

Wednesday 2 February 2011

3 Days to Go

Fly tomorrow 11:40am to Houston with Continental Airlines. The last time I got on a plane I was off the back of a 3 day drinking session and had a major panic attack. I will try not to do the same tomorrow but I am anxious to say the least.

Have spent a lot of today visualising the race. I think it's fair to say having run this in 2009 that I know what to expect, but the reality is 100 miles is such a long way that at some point something will inevitably go wrong, it's just about how you cope with it. I want to run the first 60 miles the way I ran the first 42 at Badwater. Just in a nice comfortable zone where I don't push the pace but keep it moderate and steady and the time just flies by. I have a pacing plan but I'm not going to put it on here because I don't want to jinx an already finely balanced situation. Last time I ran 22:54 and that was with a significant delay at the 80 mile aid station and a massive amount of walking on lap 5 from mile 80 in to the finish. It won't take much of an improvement this year to annihilate that time.

Hope to update tomorrow from Motel 6 off the side of the interstate running from Houston up to Huntsville, Texas. It is forecast to snow there tomorrow so I've had to pack all of my cold weather gear. A slightly interesting turn of events to say the least!!!!

Tuesday 1 February 2011

4 Days to Go

pm: 4 miles.

I fly on Thursday morning so I will fit one more short run in tomorrow and then get my stuff together for the journey. Heathrow to Houston. Houston to Huntsville and Huntsville to the State Park where it will all go down on Saturday morning.

I've enjoyed watching this a couple of times in the past. Look foward to running the course in August.