Number 44

Yesterday marked the most important date in the UK running calender. 36,000 runners descended on our city from all over the world to run the London marathon, taking in the quiet streets around Greenwich and Bermondsey before coming back into the centre of town for an epic finish down Embankment past 10,000's of cheering fans and loved ones into the Mall for the finishing line.

Whenever people find out that I run marathons they always ask me 'oh really have you run London?' My answer is still no. Four failed ballot attempts I mean WTF do I have to do to get into my local race? Honestly every year I fill out my form for the lottery draw I KNOW Im not going to get in. In the last 4 years Ive run 44 official marathons or ultras in Washington DC, Texas, Virginia, Amsterdam, Western China, Northern Chile, North Africa and even in Antarctica and yet still, I don't get to run my hometown course.

Instead I got up at 7am and drive 2 hours to run the Shakespeare marathon in the picturesque town of Stratford Upon Avon & I had a wonderful day. I parked up about 5 minutes from the startline, was a bit late so got to warm up by jogging 1.3 miles to the finish line and registration tent to pick up my race number which I had had sent to the wrong address and then back to the start. We all took off and I decided immediately I wasnt going to go on another 3 hour busting run. I cruised around the first 13 miles and loved every minute. Nobody passed me as id started right at the back after being caught short in the portapotty as the gun went off. In fact my gun time was 2 minutes slower than my chip time as it took me that long to finish up and get through the actual start. I went through halfway in 1 35. The sun was out but not too hot, I drank lots and ate a bit and it felt like id been running for about 5 minutes. Second lap all the half marathoners disappeared and I carried on at the same pace and felt so good. Through the quiet villages there were kids with super soakers drenching hot runners and others running around alongside high fiving and cheering. Being near the front kids are used to guys hammering past without glancing at them so they always look suprised when someone comes past who actually wants to be chased with a water pistol. In the end I was genuinely disapointed it was over. I finished in 3 12 and I felt like I could have carried 7 minute 20 mile pace through for ever.

For years and years I have run races and always waited to see how long it would take for my legs to hurt. Normally at 20 miles I can feel them aching. Yesterday there was no stiffness, no soreness, no pain, just easy fluid cruising. It gives me great hope that if I can start to build on this and take that feeling on to another 50 miles by slowing it down enough, I may just be able to get through at least half of Badwater without feeling like my legs are going to die. I will have enough to worry about with hydration and nutrition without wondering whether I can actually go for 135 miles in one hit.

From here its about massive mileage. After this weekends big three day cycle from Lands End to somewhere around Birmingham I will park the bike in the shed and start upping my weekly mileage to 100 plus. I genuinely can't wait its going to be an incredible journey.

When I broke 3 hours at Washington a few weeks ago i actually QUALIFIED for London next year. I intend not to waste that opportunity....

100 milers

 

This year the aim is to knock off Badwater and UTMB from the running Bucket List (see link right). Next year its all about 100 milers. By the end of the year however it will hopefully be clear which 100s will be run in the UK. At the moment we're limited to Caesars Camp 100 , Cotswold 100 , Lakeland 100 and the Heart of Scotland 100 . Of these the Lakeland 100 is one on the list. The heritage, terrain, natural environment, size and quality of the 100s in the States are way more appealing, so here goes for the potentials in 2011:

Umstead 100
Old Dominion 100 
Western States 100 
Vermont 100 
Leadville 100  
Angeles Crest 100 
Wasatch Front 100 
Heartland 100 
Javelina Jundred 100 
Keys 100 
Bear 100 

 

WS, Vermont, Leadville and WF make up the Grand Slam . Add Angeles Crest in the middle of Leadville and Wasatch plus Old Dominion to complete the series known as 'The Last Great Race' .

That just leaves in 2012: Hardrock 100 WILD AND TOUGH. Id do it next year (if I got through the lottery) but its the same weekend as Vermont plus I need to finish Bwater or UTMB to qualify.

 

Footnote: I found an online copy of 100 mile profiles under comparison the other day on Stan Jensens awesome website www.run100s.com. This reference Ultra Running Magazine 1988 but gives a great visual comparison of some of the bigger 100s vs Boston Marathon for example. Its kind of hard to read here but the distance and miles 0 - 100 is along the bottom. Altitude in feet is along the y axis. Boston is bottom left barely visible (heartbreak hill is the tiny kink towards the end), Old Dominion and Leadville are similar in terms of gains and losses but start at very different altitudes. Western States has the huge downhill pitch after the initial climb up Squaw. Angeles Crest and Wasatch are just extreme. Hardrock would not fit on here, its upper limit at Handies Peak after a 5000ft climb tops out at over 14,000ft:

Jurassic Coastal Challenge

This year it didn't really suit the programme to hammer out the ONER with travelling to Washington and my 3 hour busting attempt, but I thought the three day challenge would give me a chance to actually enjoy myself and cover the distance of the old course albeit split into three pieces. 

I had roped Pete into doing this one with me. I had run his first marathon with him last year and also the Country to Capital 45 miler in January. This was going to be his first multi-day so had raised around £1000 for charity. Paul Rowlinson a friend of mine from the Sahara Race was also running so we all took the train down together after work on the Thursday night.

The base camp for the race was Chesil Beach Caravan Park in Weymouth. We got there about 8pm and ate a plate of lasagna before heading back to the caravan. The caravan was FREEZING on account of the paper thin plastic walls and I had to bang the 4 ring gas hob on for 2 hours to get it warm enough when we got in.

Caravan Bedroom: £19,250 new. RIP OFF.

One very good thing about this race was the down time. We'd be running from about 10:30 each day for between 4 and 6 hours, then back to the caravan park where we could put our feet up in the freezing cold in front of a tv and get fed in the mass cook tent each evening.

We got up on Day 1 about 9am & head down to the race briefing. It seemed pretty straight forward, we got in the bus and head south west down the coast to the start point. The finish that day would be 26.2 miles later back at the caravan park. They started us on a stretch of single track just before Golden Cap, a mightily impressive and extremely steep climb & the highest point on Englands South Coast. We ran down the hill and then began the hike up it. Immediately I settled in behind the front 10 runners or so and everyone power walked it as opposed to running, it was that steep. From the first slight incline my calves felt like they still had a lot of stiffness and soreness from last weekend in them. I definitely pushed myself harder in Washington than I would usually but Im still unsure why it took that long to get back to 100% again, usually Im ok within 48 hours of a marathon or most ultras. My plan was to go reasonably hard and see how I felt towards the end but this turned out to be a SHOCKINGLY bad strategy. The first section was extremely challenging to say the least. We climbed repeated hills and dropped down which tends to be as hard on legs as the climbs. 

Early Climb Day 1 its steeper than it looks trust me

Start of Day 2 heading out to Portland

Once through CP1 the hills petered out pretty quickly and we were into running along a muddy farm track alongside of the beach, flat but still very slow going due to the thick mud, regularly flooded. By CP2 I was gone. I hadn't eaten much and knew that I was about to start slowing down. As we progressed towards CP3 a few runners came past me and I began to pass a lot of runners and walkers from the earlier start times. To CP3 I was kind of all over the place actually feeling like I was pushing myself too hard but going way way slower than usual. I began to pick the pace up after CP3 and actually managed to make some pretty good time up in the final stretch but at that point I went wrong along the beach and lost a few minutes whilst i retraced my steps. In the end I came into the caravan park in about 4 hours 49 and went back to the caravan. Pete came in only a quarter of an hour later so a great first day performance from him. I had had a shocking time, hadn't enjoyed any of it and generally felt tired and p*ssed off about how badly I was running and not overly delighted to be back in the caravan. Despite all that I had actually finished 15th overall so not a disgrace out of 240 starters. Today totaled 3160ft of climb.

Day 2 I woke up and generally felt pretty tempted to get back on the train and go home. I just had no interest. Id heard good things about the views and the stage in general was touted at being faster than yesterday but I had ZERO motivation. In all honesty if Pete hadn't been there & more to the point if I hadn't dragged him down to the race I would DEFINITELY have canned it. Instead we put on our wet, muddy trail shoes and walked down to the bottom of the caravan park where todays start would be. The first 13 miles of todays stage were out across Portland Harbour onto the island of Portland itself, followed by a circumnavigation of the island via Portland Bill lighthouse before coming back down the ferry road into Weymouth. At that point we'd head East through the town and along the beach before the final 10km section of climbing up and over the hills past Durdle Door and into Lulworth Cove. I could NOT BE ARSED. We started running and Pete was quite clearly feeling pretty good and motivated to do well. I really envied how he was feeling right now, a bit daunted Im sure by the 2 marathons still to come but believing 100% that he was going to finish and therefore knowing that he was going to achieve something really great this weekend. I had discussed with Paul the previous evening how we on the other hand had entered on a whim because we felt like it and therefore had no motivation to compete other than to enjoy ourselves. When you're hating every single minute you do have to question WHY you still get up and carry on but WTF as Hully always says, any day on the trails is better than any day in the office....

I kind of got dragged around Portland by Pete running as slow as I could whilst not losing him into the distance i really did not give a toss about times and positions at this point but we'd decided to run together for Stage 2. Paul and his mate Jonesy an ex MdS runner were also with us. I had bruised the top of foot the previous day and that was really starting to affect my ability to run downhill jarring the front of my shin bone into the front of my shoe. Still it was fine on the flats and ups and I think we went through 13 miles in 2 hours 10 and then out along the coast we made good progress. By the end of the day the sun was out and we were on a stunning section of coastal path. I actually started to feel better about things probably because as a result of not running as hard I was eating constantly & had more than the 20% energy I felt like I had the day before. Pete seemed a little out of it towards the end but stayed extremely strong and actually managed to take a couple of photos of the scenery (below). We dropped down the steps into Lulworth Cove and finished in just over 5 hours. A much better day all round, 3195ft of climbing today.

Descent and Climb towards Lulworth Cove Day 2

Day 3 I went to the paramedic in the morning about the bruising all over the top of my foot. She said it didn't look good but that I should be ok to continue so I thought I would. The day began with the biggest climbs yet. For the first 10 miles it was pretty relentless culminating in one ascent which involved scrambling with use of hands & then this insane giant staircase climb into CP2 at 13 miles. In fact the days total climbing far exceeded either of the previous two at 4360ft.

13 miles into Day 3

Those two miles preceeding that staircase took us 24 minutes and 18 minutes respectively. I guess that 42 minutes for 2 miles puts the terrain in perspective, especially given that we finished in the top 20% of the field. Anyway at CP2 I met James Adams for the first time, running the ONER. James is running Badwater in July also so it was great to finally meet him. He looked tired but went on to finish the 78.6 miles in one hit a brilliant effort. 

The last 13 miles again I was just out of energy, not motivated, needed the lav and my foot was starting to punish me. We ran all but the now dwindling uphill sections and then emerged out onto the beach at Studland with around 2 miles to go. It should have been a pleasant way to finish but I was totally uninterested. On each days run I had ended up just switching off and putting one foot in front of the other to cover the distance. It wasn't overly hard, I always felt like I had running left in me and that I would finish without any issues if I could be bothered (which it turns out I could) but with just no motivation at all to go faster or to enjoy the stunning coastline which the last day showed the best of to us. Again Pete kind of dragged me over the line, we or rather he could probably have gone faster Im sure but I genuinely couldn't be bothered to push the pace anymore. We went up and over a sand dune and down a half a mile of flooded track into the finish area. Pete had done a great job and he was understandably pleased to be done. I grabbed my bags and we hitched a lift to the ferry across to Bournemouth, from where we got a taxi to the station. I got home about 8pm, actually not that tired because we hadn't gone that hard over the previous 2 days. 

As long as you don't mind caravan parks this is a good event and actually quite challenging. I think I finished 28th and Pete 34th overall so we did ok and really didn't go that hard (apart from my blow up on Day 1). I will be back to do the ONER but will make sure I don't rush to the States and back in 48 hours the weekend prior to run a sub 3 marathon next time.

Finishing Photo

Suntrust Washinton National Marathon

The Capitol

Coming Out of the Underpass Mile 10

Finish Line: 2 58 29 Gun Time. Absolutely over the moon.

I'm sitting back at Franks house in Arlington, Virginia just outside of Washington writing this. I flew out here last night with BA straight after work (5pm) who bumped me off of the flight and then managed to find me a seat back on it.

This morning we got up at 5:30am and had some breakfast before heading down to the start area at the RFK stadium. We ran a little late so had to drop the car and jog to the startline. It actually worked out pretty well as it was cold at the beginning and we didn't have to stand around more than 5 minutes. The played the national anthem which was moving as everyone seemed to take it quite seriously, and then off we went.

I had been training for this race specifically for a bout 5 weeks. My core training has gone well and I knew coming into Feb I was about as quick and as fit as I've ever been before. My intention therefore was to do a little bit of pace work and then throw down a sub 3 hour effort. Pace work for me involved going to the track and to the gym and running sessions of between 40 and 80 minutes at sustained marathon pace which needed to be 6 minute 52 second miles or less, or occasionally slightly faster. The faster runs were all 5ks where I would knock out 18:30 for the 3.1 miles. It was boring but I knew I was in with a shot.

I set my virtual pace partner on my garmin as we went across the start finishline. This tool on my watch basically tells me to the second and to the metre how far ahead or behind of a dictated pace I am at any time. It also beeps every mile and gives you a split for that mile of how fast you've gone. Simple enough, I run 26 and a bit miles all at 6 minutes 52 or less and I've done it.

The first mile was ok, a downhill start but there were the usual crowd of people who think that their 'gun time' actually matters. In these races everyone wears a chip so that even if you cross the startline 10 minutes after the last person has done so, the computer records your time to cover the course, that way you dont get everyone crowding the front of the field to get a better time. Theoretically.

After Id skipped round these people the field opened up a little and half marathoners were mixed in with us as the course was going back to the stadium after 13 miles where they could finish and we'd go out on loop 2. I started with a 6:33 mile, then 6:29 then 6:13, 5km in 19:25. Too quick but it was almost all a gradual descent so I wasn't worried. 6:33, 6:42, 6:37 and then a climb at mile 6, 6:58, My 10km split was 39:45. Mile 7 6:39, 6:27, 6:32, 6:35, 6:51, 6:37. Half Marathon Split 1:26:04. My legs felt ok, a bit stiff in places but I never stretch and we'd started cold so I figured that would ease up. The sun was fully out by this stage and starting to become a factor. I had eaten a couple of mouthfuls of mars bar and drunk pretty much nothing but now I knew I was within shouting distance I planned to slow it up just a little and drink at every aid station, taking on salt to stop cramping problems. Next 10 miles:

6:55, 6:57, 6:46, 6:34, 6:18 (under a bridge so this was wrong), 6:45, 7:00, 6:50, 6:57.

At this stage, Mile 23, I was having some minor doubts, I kept almost bonking (hitting the wall) but keeping it just in line. I was pretty much red lining the whole way, working at maybe 85% to 90% of capacity so no suprise in that. I've learnt to listen to the very early warning signs of most things that can go wrong. As soon as there was a hint of stitch coming in I eased of about 2% and it went in under 20 seconds. Similarly when I felt a twinge of muscle fatigue or mental doubt I eased it off the same 2% and just put a mouthful of food down. I stopped at every aid station to drink half a cup of water and threw the rest over my head. When I say stopped I mean ran straight through at full pelt grabbing a cup and throwing it at my mouth so that some would go in. It feels a bit like when you're at the pool and you breath in water through your nose. The turnaround at mile 23 allowed me to see who was directly behind me for the first time in almost the whole race. Another feature of big marathons is that they have pace setters or guys wearing coloured vests who have either a balloon or a flag stating the time they are running for. With the slower groups at 3:15 and up there are big groups running just in front of behind of these pacers. When i spun around at 23 I found that the 3 hour guy was 1. alone ie. no one was sitting on his shoulder for pace purposes and 2. he was 40 seconds behind me. That was not a good sign I was supposed to have about 3 minutes in the bank at this point. The next 2 miles were over undulating roads which were a pain in the arse as every uphill however slight was starting to really hurt. I got over these and into the aid station at mile 25 bending around a nice downhill corner. 7:07, 6:58. 

I took on the last of the water and went as hard as I could for the last dead straight dead flat mile straight up to the stadium, 6:42, The last .2 mile or 365 yards bent around the outside of the stadium and into a finishing shoot. At the 26 mile marker I had 3 minutes 30 to finish and I knew I'd done it. I came through the sizeable crowds and couldn't refrain from a massive fistpump a few yards out, crossing the line at 2 hours 58 minutes 7 seconds and puking everywhere. To many this would seem a pretty ordinary feat as elite runners are busy hammering other marathon courses in 50 minutes less than this, but it was a big deal to me. I hadn't really ever trained to run a fast marathon and had put the groundwork in to do it, whilst this isn't particularly fast in the scheme of things it is nevertheless satisfying to see your hard work pay off. I finished 40th out of 2324 runners.

Frank had a mixed day but ultimately beat his own PB also running 3 hours 23. He was headed for a great time but hit the wall a little way our and slipped back considerably as a result. He wanted 3 20 to qualify for Boston but nevertheless he put in a great effort on little training and plenty of sleep deprivation as his newborn twins are up every 3 hours for feeding at the moment. They are 12 days old and 4 lbs each. He came across the line and puked on my shoes so it rounded off a pretty great morning.

Steyning Stinger Marathon

The second year in a row Ive run the small but exquisitely organised Steyning Stinger marathon. Peter Boquet my good friend from the 4deserts series was in town from Singapore for work and so he managed to schedule a flight for Saturday and squeeze the 'race' into the schedule.

I picked Bucket up from Heathrow Terminal 3 on the Saturday night and we head out to Steyning at 7am Sunday morning from Battersea. On route I had to have a quick pit stop behind a bush which made us late. In the end we turned up at Steyning Leisure Centre at 8:25 and I convinced the guy on the car park entrance to let us park right there. We registered and ran up to the start line to see the competitors heading off into the distance. We'd missed it by 40 seconds. They held us back and set us off exactly one minute after them. Classic entrance.
The first 5 miles tracked along the base of the downs before the first of 4 'Stings' sent us up to the South Downs way path. We started with 10 minute miles but slowed after the first couple due to the frozen ground and muddy hills. Once up on the Downs we kept a steady pace, without overtaking anybody and just enjoying the incredible sunshine and views across the Downs to Shoreham and the Channel.

The sun began to warm up the ground as we plodded on through 15 - 18 miles and the frozen mud began to turn into clay like porridge. Pete began singing/ screaming vocals from Iron Maidens live back catalogue as we rounded the golf course just outside Shoreham.

On the way down from there we hit checkpoint 4 at the 19 mile marker. Pete was interviewed by one of the marshall's who recognised he may have been from out of town given the revealing tight lycra shorts, muddy arse and beaming smile at least 4 hours in and with another couple to go. The man in the ambo popped his head out and asked if we were ok. We were more than ok we were ROCKING.

We hit the 18 - 21 mile section of the course where you get sent off to round a big hill. On the return section rounding the last bit, Bucket slipped on the porridge and fell on his arse into a thorn bush. There was a muffled scream of protest but he got up and soldiered on like the true endurance hero that he is.

We got through to 21 miles and began the 2.5 mile climb which is the final sting up to the downs. At this point the conversation somewhat died but we muscled on through to the last aid station at 23.4 miles before eating some biscuits and heading back down the track and to the leisure centre. 

We were out for a massive 5 hours 55 in the end. A good 2 hours and 8 minutes slower than my race last year but it was a throughly enjoyable day out. Bucket seemed to have a great time, made better by the free fry up and shot glasses at the end.

We drove back and went down to the pub for a few beers, some wine and some cointreau. In the end we hit the sack about 11 ish after skyping both Frank and Hully.

What a great weekend.

Early 2010 Training

Starting to get the kind of miles in that I hope for on a regular basis. I still get frustrated that really I only have enough energy for 10 miles a day during the week and then something longer at the weekend once but I have to be realistic. That sort of schedule can still add up to 60 miles per week and from experience is easily enough to get me through most events and then have a period of exceeding this for a few weeks leading up to really long races. I know from experience that running 12 - 13 a night plus a 18 - 22 at the weekend (albeit with a heavy pack) is enough to run me down into the ground and require sleep at during the day. 

This year has been ok so far but even with 4 marathons/ ultras under my belt in 2 months its still not really enough for me. I have lacked real quality long training runs at the weekends, rarely exceeding 10 miles in one go in fact. Each week consists of 8 - 10 runs during weekdays ranging from 3.5 miles in and out of work (most days) and then a 10km at pace thrown in once or twice a week at lunchtimes. I figure this is enough but I wonder if I would be better taking all of the mileage in a day and running it in one hit rather than breaking it up ie. 14 miles on a Monday rather than 4 in to work, 7 at lunch, 4 home again. The problem is this isn't the way my time works out, if i didn't do it the way i do i would sit on the bus to work - boring, stay in at lunch - boring, and be late home every night ala desert training - a problem. Whether this new regime will pay off or not will be dictated by performance at Washington in 2 weeks time. All my long runs this year have been as part of races. 3 hours 59 on the first weekend of the year just to get back into it and prove to myself I could still run a comfortable marathon after the excesses of the Sahara. 45 miles at Country to Capital very slow just building up strength. 30 miles at Winter Tanners the weekend after, massively pushed sections of the course and was a very tough work out. I tipped just over that all to easy to cross line of exhaustion for about 48 hours after this and that may just have been enough to tip my over the edge for the following weekend and throw me out of the Thames Trot 50. London 50km was the first sign that things were pretty good. The first 10km I was flying under 7 min mile pace by a distance and I was through 26.2 in 3hr26 without much pushing. With wandering around lost for so long in Richmond Park my true marathon time there was probably about 3hr15 and I could have shaved masses off of this. So all in all I have to accept that my marathon effort in Washington should be ok but I would feel better with say an 18 miles at 6:52 p/m under my belt rather than just 12 or so. Who knows what that last 6 - 8 miles will be like but if I get myself in a good position at 2 hours ie. 18 miles I should be able to go for it and hang on.

Badwater and FC508 are paid for now so just the logistics to sort out. Im not even going to think about FC508 until Ive run through Death Valley and over the Alps at the end of August. There's no point.

So the next 4 weekends I'll be running 5 marathons. That will really make me feel a lot fitter and healthier especially if i can break 3 hours at Suntrust and finish the JCC without issues. I need to tell myself to enjoy that 3 dayer rather than race it but for me sometimes those two things go hand in hand....

Winter Tanners 30 mile

I got the results of this race sent to me today & I was 4th fastest over the course so I figured I'd write about it.

Winter Tanners, like all LDWA events, has a format of 'start when you want' within a certain timeframe, in this case 7:30 to 10am, run or walk the course going through checkpoints on route, to a finish where you are logged in and given your time.

I started this one about 9 o'clock mainly because I couldn't be bothered to get up before 8am. I put my clothes on, drove the 45 minutes to the start and stopped in a petrol station and ate a mars bar just before i started. I kicked off on my own and ran a mile or so to the start of the hills. Id been warned it was hilly but I was pretty suprised with what we were instantly posed with. There was about 7500 feet of climb over the 30 miles of cross country running, all off road and it was, in places, severely muddy. 

I've gotten better at the downhills now and it felt pretty heroic just to hammer past people on the regular long downhill trail sections. Of course with the event being in this format you have no real idea of how you're placing and these events are not billed as races because of the format but most people complete them as quickly and as well as they are able too. You can only tell how you're quickly you're going in relation to those that you are running past or vice versa. There were about 130 runners and nobody came past me in over 5 hours of running. It felt like I was on fire. I really pushed it in places but in others just kept a steady pace so as not to burn out. I had a lot of gas left in the tank at the end and on some of the bigger climbs between 24 and 27 miles I started to open up and stepped around a lot of people on the single track trails. In the end I came across the line in 5hrs14 which was apparently the 4th fastest time of the day. It was a great day and I felt well within my limits the entire time. Coming the weekend after the 45 mile Country to Capital I took this as a pretty good sign of fitness.

London Ultra 50km

I came into this race in pretty good form. Monday I ran a hard 10 miles and Tuesday I head down the track for 6pm and turned out 11 miles in 1hr13, working on sub 3hr marathon pace for Washington in March. Wednesday 5km at pace and some hills in the gym plus 8 miles of bike, Thursday 16 miles of bike, Friday rest. 

Saturday morning I woke up and felt lethargic, I didn't really have the urgency to race but I knew Id be fine once I got going. We started down at Streatham Common and there was a good crowd of people. Patrick Bauer, the race director for the MdS had been invited by Rory Coleman the RD here and he stood on top of a car at the start and gave us a typical send off speech ala MdS and it actually made me feel a bit sick inside, as it reminded me of each morning in the desert in Morocco 4 years ago. It struck me only half an hour later that actually if it wasn't specifically for Patrick I wouldn't be where I am now ie. it was his event that first captured our imagination 5 years ago and set me on this path to ultra running.

The atmosphere was pretty good at this race. I had a look at my map and it seemed relatively straight forward but I did have concerns about drifting off course again. Id set my Virtual Pace guide on my Garmin watch for 8 minute mile pace figuring that I could push a bit at the end and come in under 4 hours total. We kicked off, ran down the hill to the A23 and instantly took the wrong turn left across the way to Tooting. It was clear that most people were hoping not to have to look at the map all day and realised within 400 yds that we were all in trouble.

I went from being at the front to being in the middle of the pack and then having to go around people to get back into clearer air. I ran the first 10km hard, almost as if it were a road race as it was pavement and tarmac to that point. I came through 10km in 41 minutes, stopping to go wrong once. I threw in a 5 25 mile and a 5 49 mile on the downhill sections so was moving pretty close to the limit without quite stepping over it. Through checkpoint 1 I felt I was still in touch with the guys at the front, we cruised along following the capital ring signs and not worrying too much about getting lost whilst the sign posting was so good. I kept a good pace until CP2 here but went totally wrong coming into it and went through the wrong exit out of Richmond Park, down Star and Garter Hill before having to come back up again. I think I lost somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes and once Id backtracked with another young guy back to the last point on the route we'd been correct for sure, we saw the runners off in the distance and went across to rejoin the route. I was pissed off, I wanted to run well all day and get somewhere near the front and Id pretty much thrown it away right there. Instead of being through 13 miles in 1 25 I went through in 1 40 and was suddenly in and amongst a bunch of guys wearing packs and clearly doing the event as a training exercise for bigger things. I spent the next 10km overtaking people probably passing between 20 and 30 over the course of 6 miles. At CP3 I was starting to claw some time back but not enough to make the difference. 30km to 40km I ran a very strong leg. At CP3 I was in roughly 25th position and by CP4 id just come through a group of people who were moving well together, around 8 of them all in a bunch. At CP4 I was back in the top 15 and kept on pushing up and over Harrow Hill and down into the grounds of Harrow School. I overtook 5 guys coming into the park here and promptly went wrong again. By the time we were back on course Id had enough of racing I figured there was no point as id blown it by getting badly lost twice. In the end I ran with a group of about 6 who were all quite strong, including a guy called Alex entered for UTMB in the summer so I just spent the last 7km cruising and enjoying chatting for the first time all race. As we came to the last 3 km there were about 10 of us all running together, a short steep climb split us open again and it did strike me to blow up and over the hill as I still had plenty in my legs but I just took my time, jogged it but took my time with Alex again. we cruised down the other side and into Wembley where we had a crappy run down the high street and past the stadium into the plaza hotel, nipping round a guy just at the end.

My GPS registered 32.79 miles, the guy in front had 31.6 miles so I knew Id gone badly awry compared with others. 4 hours 24 as a finishing time was almost half an hour slower than id anticpated and actually 3 47 won it with 4 hours dead good enough for second. If id stayed on course throughout i would have been at around 4 05 I think so a real shame that it all went a but wrong. Ran hard enough to really feel whacked at the end. Finished in 14th. 200 starters.

Country to Capital 45 Mile

We started this race in Wendover at about 8am Jan 16th. This was Pete from Clear Channels first ultra so I was pacer and videographer for the day. We got up about 6 and got a cab from Battersea to Marylebone and then took the train up there. It was raining really hard at the start, there was still snow everywhere because it was freezing cold. What had actually happened is that the snow had stayed on the ground and the rainwater had formed puddles in it so that we were basically wading through shin deep ice cold water. 


Mile 4: It had taken some time already to get to this point after following some clueless people, much like ourselves, through a flooded forest. Pete had already fallen over once. He was probably wondering at this point what I'd gotten him in to.  

Mile 12: Our maps had disintegrated in our soaking wet hands so we were basically leeching off of these poor people who had thought to water proof theirs. Over 2 hours 20 for the first half marathon. Not the start we were looking for.

Mile 17: Coming up to CP2, we found some flooded roads and had to wade through some more puddles. A long way to go still and we'd split away from the rest of the group so I was now map reading off paper that looked like used toilet roll.

Marathon point. On the canal by this point. The race splits evenly in to two halfs, 22.5 miles of trail running and map reading. 22.5 more miles of flat, straight forward canal tow path. If it had been the other way around it would have been horrific.

35 miles: Still on the canal path. My fear coming in to the race is that we were going to be walking a lot of the last 15 miles as Pete had never run more than 42.2km before. He didn't need to walk. Thank God.

Mile 40: Pete had had a really low point just after I put the camera away the last time. We walked about a mile, he apologised but there was no need he was still doing a great job and finishing was never in doubt. We ended up picking a slow jog back up a few minutes later.

Finish line: Actually 43 miles. Finish at Little Venice right by the white boat house and the bridge. Less than 50 yards from where Jim and I ended the Tring to Town ultra in 2006, our first foray into the world of the ultra marathon. Finishing time: 8 hours 6. In 2006 it took us 10 hours 30 something and we walked for about the last 25 miles. Pete still felt pretty good and got picked up by his mate. I got changed in the street, walked to Paddington, bought a double whopper meal and got the train home and went out for Charlies birthday.

The Sahara Race 2009

The Sahara Race kicked off during the last week of October and I flew out the night before our transfer into the desert as Id already used all of my holiday allowance from work for the entire year. This was the last desert in the series for us all and I had been injured in the run up with achilles tendonitis and shin splints causing me to drop out of a few races over the summer, not the greatest preperation. In the end the only objective really was to finish, but then again thats pretty much the only real objective anyway!

I landed in Cairo late, around 11pm and Bucket had arranged for a cab to pick me up. On the way from the airport to the hotel, the cab crashed into the back of a truck on a roundabout and ripped the bonnet off of the front of the car. After the driver had tried to fight the truck driver unsuccesfully we limped to the hotel which was an hour from the airport anyway and I got searched by the guards entering into the hotel lobby, clearly security was a major issue here. Then when I got to the room where Bucket was staying, I found out there was an absolutely MASSIVE wedding reception going on in the huge pool/ bar area outside of our terrace doors. Pink strobe lights were coming into the room and the bass was so loud it made everything shake. I must have got about 3 hours sleep before Hully came in the morning and woke us up. We went to breakfast and then went through check in as usual where they go through your kit and make sure we'd all signed your life away officially one last time. Everything felt a bit rushed as I hadn’t been in town more than about 5 minutes but it was GREAT to be back with the boys with new addition to the group Mickey, a Scot living in Sydney.


Eberhard Frixe whom Id met in Chamonix in August did my kit check, I had everything I needed & my pack weighed in around 7.5 kilos as planned. Then we were all shepherded onto buses for the 7 hour transfer into the desert. We were all in pretty good spirits but that quickly faded when we realised how epic the bus ride was going to be. We had the added issue of passing through a number of security checkpoints. We also had an armed guard on the bus with us at all times. Half way into the journey one of the buses broke down and Mary was forced to call in a replacement from Cairo, which would take a few hours to reach us. We ended up all waiting together in a roadside service station in the middle of the desert where we started to meet and chat to some of the other competitors. These included Annabelle Bond who had recently become the first woman to climb the 7 highest peaks on the 7 continents inside of a calendar year. She was racing with 2 friends, one of whom had just Denali to go before achieving the 7 for herself. Clearly we were in distinguished company. We sat back on the bus as it went to refuel and the driver hopped out and popped in the petrol nozzle. When we looked out we realised that everyone in the petrol pump area including the driver was smoking. We promptly all got back off the bus and walked a good distance away from the area. Hully also took the time to give a couple of young american guys a some pointers on blisters: 'you'll get them son don't you worry' ....


We carried on driving late into the night and arrived at the campsite some time after midnight after a few minutes of snatched sleep. We were led off of the road into thick, soft and now cold sand and through some sets of glow sticks into the ring of tents. We found our one and all bed down for the night. Not a good start regards getting some proper rest before Day 1.


In the morning we woke and went through the usual desert routine, repacking, preparing drink mixes and stashing food and enduralyte salt replacement tablets in accessible places in around the front packs for the Days Stage. Alain Wehbi a Lebanese guy sharing our tent told us that he would definitely be first back so would get things ready for us. Clearly he wasn't short on confidence. Mary then gathered us together around the fire in the centre of camp and introduced the staff and the race. She also gave the five of us, Hully, Willo, Frank, Bucket and myself a mention as the only 5 in the field looking to complete the series here. The guy in charge of course marking then went over the days terrain and distances and we lined up at the start line. Right before the air horn went off I met Team CHASE for the first time, Mark, Paul and Luke whom Id been in contact with during the preceding few weeks. We wished each other luck. I had little idea at this stage how intertwined our races were going to become.


The first day was around 40km & the first 10km went out in a straight line over majority flat and reasonably well packed terrain. The one competitor I knew something about was Mehmet Danis, a previous winner of the Gobi March. Mehmet went off extremely quickly at the beginning and didn’t look back. The pace was relentless but I seemed to find it ok to sit in the top 10 or so runners. A German guy wearing all black was also racing and seemed to be sponsored by Red Bull so clearly he was no slouch. He had a camera crew with him filming also and they spent the first half of today’s stage driving up and down the field taking video footage of us but also blowing massive amounts of dust into us from debris kicked up by the wheels which certainly wasn’t making breathing any easier. At the 5km marker I looked at my watch and realised Mehmet had gone through in about 20 minutes so it was clear that we were off at a ridiculous pace. Already the field looked pretty strung out behind us. Into CP1, I got some water and then moved on. The heat even by this relatively early hour was absolutely oppressive. I had started without a hat on as Id forgotten about it and realised at CP1 that I needed to get it out or I was going to go down in the next section as I was already dizzy after 45 minutes of running. I lost 2 places just getting it out of the back of my bag. The next 10km I ran all of but at a much more reasonable pace, getting passed by George Chmiel a young American runner who yelled out ‘how awesome is this, its much easier than I thought’ as he passed to my right. There was a short sand dune climb into CP2 which I walked but had still made good time and I guessed I was around the top 8 or so still. The next section became difficult. I looked behind and couldn’t see anyone approaching and Id also lost sight of the next nearest runner ahead so I was struggling to pick out the pink markers. This was extremely unusual and actually the first time it had happened to me in a desert event.

In the end I stood still on top of a hill for a minute or so just trying to pick out the course. By that point a Canadian runner Ash Mokhtahri had joined me from behind and we followed a long sweeping curve around into CP3 at 30km. I left the CP just before Ash and head down the hill into a section of enormous solid rock slabs. The heat by now around midday was intense, in fact each day got to between 45 and 49 degrees centigrade. I was really struggling to keep my body temperature down with the fully laden pack. When Ash and I hit the slabs we lost all site of the course markers again and because we were surrounded by rock it was obvious that there was nowhere to place a pink flag. In the circumstances we drew a line from the last two markers and head out across the expanse in the same general direction. Twenty minutes later we hit a sand runway, delineated by rocks and thought we could see a pink marker way off to the left. We head down the sand road to it and promptly discovered it was a coke can. Now it was around 1000 metres back to the previous flag, we had little idea of what direction it was in and to press on forwards would have meant potential major trouble. After around 5 minutes of running around and searching the distance for any sign of life, a car pulled up and drove off past us into the distance. We could see it was a racing the planet vehicle so followed it but they too were lost and had been following Ash and myself. We then just stood still in our tracks whilst they drove back off into the distance behind us searching for the correct path. Eventually they stopped and stood on the roof waving to us. It was a good 5 minute run back to where they were and by this stage Ash and I were annoyed and frustrated. Still at least we weren’t in the middle of nowhere waiting to be eaten by camels. The last 3km were over rolling thick sand dunes, which forced us to walk uphill and around a rock formation into the camp. It was obvious here that others had got lost too. George the young American turned into the finishing straight just ahead of us and from a totally different direction, before crossing the line and berating the RTP staff and volunteers for the poor course marking.


I felt pretty whacked as I sat there Id finished around 8th and only a few minutes behind those just ahead of me but I realised I didn’t really care. I went back to the tent and laid down with my feet up. Tonight we were camping in the white desert with our tents pitched in between incredible limestone structures, it was truly spectacular and a great place to finish the day.


About 20 minutes after, Mickey Campbell came in having had a really great first stage. The boys from Team Trifecta followed only shortly after that before Ken, another US competitor joined us. Ken fit into the tent atmosphere beatutifully he was a great addition to the clan for the week, by the end he was almost as unsociable as we were and was fully amusing the entire tent with his tales. Only later on did Alain make it back. He had had knee trouble in the first 10km and had been forced to drop out at CP2. He spent the rest of the week hanging out with the top 5 runners after each stage and didn’t run again. Bucket came back late in the afternoon after a very long day out in the heat. He seemed very tired and instantly mentioned that he hadn’t been sure he was going to actually make it through the day. It was a time for just sharing the pain between us and acknowledging how hard and how hot it had been. The boys from Team Trifecta were in the lead in the teams but by only a few minutes so they had a lot on their mind also. Erik made it into camp later having dropped out at CP3 again with injury. When it began to rain just as the sun dropped below the horizon we had to smile to ourselves that you just never know quite what the desert will throw at you.


When we woke up in the morning for Day 2 I felt dread rather than excitement. This was the difference in my mindset between a strong build up to Atacama and an erratic and tiring build up to the Sahara. We kicked off and head over some rough packed ground before heading across a sandy expanse to CP1 at 10km. I had no intention of pushing the pace today, it would cause me to potentially blow up and have a shocker and I couldn’t face a huge long walk, Id rather just jog slowly and get on with it. Quite quickly it became obvious that plenty of others felt good and wanted to take advantage of the cooler early conditions where temperatures were about 10 degrees lower than they would be in a n hours time. I got to CP1 in about 12th just before the real heat of the day. It was like running into a brick wall. It was hotter than the previous day and we were totally exposed to the heat. I found myself running with people I hadn’t seen before as Id fallen down the pecking order with my slower pace but I kept running the flats and downs and walking the ups into CP2. Just before CP2 I felt like I was going backwards, people kept overtaking me and I was slipping further and further down the order, all the time feeling worse and worse due to lack of energy and massive overheating issues. I wasn’t concentrating on eating enough and hence my reserves were being eaten in to, way to early in the day.

As I moved through CP2 it became clear that actually everyone was feeling the same way and as I carried straight on I left behind a tent full of people just trying to cool down out of the heat. I pressed on quickly now power walking with the poles out. I went through some very low points all as a result of the heat and felt like I was really struggling to keep control of my body temperature and keep moving forward at the same time. I’ve no doubt that if I’d run those sections I would have ended up collapsing and power walking was actually enough for me to pull a long way clear of anyone behind me. As I exited the rough dunes section we hit a long downhill open stretch of sand where we could see CP3 in the distance. From there it was a hard left turn straight up the hill and into some incredible sand dunes before the drop down in to camp. I reached CP3 where Eberhard was working with his usual enthusiasm and he filled up my two bottles and sent me straight on. As I plugged up the hill to the dunes a Racing the Planet car came past on its way to the evenings campsite and the whooping and hollering from within helped keep my motivation up. Once into the dunes it was very hard going, two steps forward for one back as the sand slipped from under my feet. I made it over and down the other side a half an hour later, running up the hill and into camp. I had turned a disastrous first half of the day into a strong finish which I was massively pleased about.


Day 3 began with a procession up and over a small set of dunes and onto a long downhill plain, before carrying us up a long and slow ascent into CP1. For the whole of this first 10km you could see everyone stretched out ahead and behind and it was quite a sight. Again I found myself pushing the pace but running only about 15th - 20th as people ran so relatively hard early on. As I made it through CP1 again the field began to spread out and I lost sight of most people behind as I ran as hard as I could down the long downhill section into CP2. This truly was fast going and my hope was that by turning this section from 1hr 20 minute walk/ run on the flat into a 50 minute downhill jog, I could effectively finish half the day with almost no effort and go on to an early finish, maximising recovery time. Actually this section held more up its sleeve than that. Just shortly after I passed Erica Terblanche the leading lady who was taking a photo of a spider, I noticed that the runner ahead had collapsed in front of me. I caught up to him within a minute and it turned out to be Webbo from Team Chase. Their team had disbanded the previous day as each of them felt more comfortable running at their own pace. Webbo had blown up badly the day before and had overcooked it again, he was clearly very dehydrated. A medic van was already on its way back so I stayed with him until they arrived and then pressed on the 500m or so in to CP2. I urged Webbo not to accept an IV or a lift unless he really really needed it as I was concerned his race would be over if he did either, when some time recovering in the shade of the vehicle would hopefully get him good enough to continue.
 In the end Webbo made it through that section and finished the day. CP2 to CP3 was absolutely intense. I passed a young English guy, Chris, going through CP2 again, now becoming a common occurrence as I would take the water and walk straight through whilst those ahead of me at that point would sit in the shade and drink for some time. CP3 was at an oasis and we could see an outcrop of very out of place palm trees at the top of a hill for about an hour before we got anywhere near it. Prior to that we face a long trudge up an enormous heap of sand. When I reached CP3 I was caught by Paul Rowlinson also of the disbanded Team CHASE and Eberhard urged us both on at the same time. I couldn’t face going up into the oasis, the energy to walk an extra 100 metres seemed a waste.


CP3 to the finish was just a long hot walk. I had a good chat with Paul about the race and back home and we stayed together for around 5km before we split up very slowly and I pushed on ahead to the finish passing Mehmet the pre-race favourite in the final 3km who was struggling massively with his stomach and therefore his hydration. It was a long finishing straight over which you could see the camp for around 40 tortuous minutes, but once there obviously a great relief to be in.


After Team Trifecta arrived shortly after, with Mickey in tow once again, I made up my mind that I was going to stick with the boys all day the following Day 4. I had no interest in racing now and wanted to enjoy it as much as possible without slowing down too much. Their pace was only ever slightly off of mine each day anyway and therefore it made sense to stick with them and try and help each other through. They were also now clear favourites in the team race after the disbanding of the CHASE boys who would have pushed them the hardest, but they were not yet fully clear of a Canadian Team so needed to keep the pace going. That day was a whole new experience for me. Frank led the boys off in a run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes strategy, which included walking any hill and running any downhill. This made things easy as I could just run alongside and follow the regimented programme. They all helped each other out passing drinks, food, words of encouragement etc and it was nice to be out of the solitary world of running as hard as possible each day, for the most part entirely alone. As the pace was slightly slower than usual it also meant I ate more, had more energy and therefore found it actually more enjoyable. There were a few moments where Willo in particular felt lower than the other two and I tried to help out where I could in getting his drinks bottles/food out of his bag for him. Once again today I passed Webbo who had gone hard once again and dehydrated badly. We offered him anything he might need but he wanted to just walk on to the next checkpoint where he said he’d spend some time. He carried on but unfortunately was forced to take an IV to solve his problems at the next aid station and drop out of the race. We carried on as a team, catching up to Mickey between CP3 and CP4 where he was singing Proclaimers 500 miles to himself over and over. It drove Frank nuts but it certainly broke up the silence for sure. As we made it into camp that evening I felt better and stronger than at any point during the race. We sat outside together to the rear of the tent in its shade and tried to rehydrate as best we could. One day left, the long day and we’d have finished the 4Deserts Series.


Day 5 was 56 miles. This was going to be the longest RTP stage we had ever run. It was certainly a daunting prospect and I was annoyed to hear that I would be starting in the fast runners group, 3 hours behind the rest of the field. Team Trifecta were going to be in the slower group kicking off at 6am. After they had all set off, Mickey and I, the only 2 from our tent in the quick group tried to get some more sleep without success, so we ate some more and sat around trying to pass the time as best we could. At 9am they gathered the 16 of us on the start line together and set us off into the desert. The group consisted of Luke and Paul from Team CHASE, Mickey, Mehmet, The German Red Bull guy, George the young American, Chris the British guy id passed each of the first 3 days and another Brit, Guy, another German who was leading overall, a Spaniard and an Italian who had completed the race before and would go on to win both the day and the overall event. Lastly our group contained Erica the leading lady. When we set off it became clear that the guys at the front wanted to set a fast pace knowing that the event would be won or lost today but also that they would soon be running through their tent mates and the rest of the field. For this reason alone the long day is always my favourite. There is always someone else to chase into the distance or chat to on the way past, you get lots of encouragement and kind words and so the incentives to keep moving well are huge. I started off running like the others but a lot slower and quickly found myself 3rd from last out of the 16 with only Paul and Mickey behind me. Within about 6km I had caught up to Erica and we started to run together and chat. And that was how it stayed for around 6 hours. We ran the first 42km together all paced almost exactly at 5 miles per hour. We seemed to work brilliantly as a team and this was by far and away the best running section of the entire race for me. In fact today everything seemed to come together and Id go on to finish very strong, this early part having been the foundation for that. Erica’s experience in adventure racing was extensive having covered many extreme multi day non-stop and multi-sport courses. She had always raced as part of a team, but in the races she’d tackled, the requirement was to have at least one woman. Of course over that kind of duration men tend to be stronger and therefore Erica had been the sole female team competitor in teams of stronger males and knew that pacing was absolutely critical to success. With 4 deserts under my belt I also now finally understood how important pacing was and the tiny subtle adjustments we made over the course of the morning kept heart rate consistency almost metronomic. For the first 4 checkpoints we ran easily and freely, always in conversation and the time flew by. As we passed other competitors, people were extremely complimentary of Erica. We got called rockstars and heroes, which frankly helps a massive amount when you’re trying to run 56 miles. I passed Erik de Haart around CP2 – 3 where he had one of his bottle straws stuck up in his nose. I asked him if he was ok as that should have been bothering him immensely and he said yes but it was clear he was in pain and unfortunately his day would end at the next CP.


When we got to 40km I caught up to Bucket who was resting under the canvas in a small village. They fed us some sweet tea and Erica and I pressed on. I had agreed with Bucket that if I caught him at CP6 we would finish by walking in together but he knew that I couldn’t walk it in from this far out if I felt as good as I did. This next section Erica and I started to work more as a team. When the wind started to blow hard she ducked in behind me for some limited drafting and we started to progress uphill into the dune climbing section. It must have seemed at this point to everyone we passed very much like we had run the whole race together at this point the way we were working, where in actual fact it had been that first section of the long day only. We made it up the dunes and into CP5 at 50km where there was a pool of water. Erica wanted a swim and she had been slowing significantly urging me to move on so I did do, again passing Chris the British guy at this point. I ran up the hill to the next CP6 passing many of the faster competitors from Group 1. I felt better than ever and surprised by how much running I had left. I put my ipod on at this point and just loved every minute of it. Just before CP6 I moved past Annabelle Bond and her team as well as the German who had been leading and some other runners from Group 1. CP6 was the overnight stop where you could sleep if you needed. There were probably a dozen runners there just taking it easy and resting after 60 hot kilometres but I wanted to seize the good momentum I had and so Sam filled my water bottles and I moved straight on. I was running into the dark now and there weren’t many ahead of me, roughly 10 from Group 1who’d started 3 hours ahead and 6 or 7 from our fast group. At this point the guy putting out glow sticks came past in the truck and disappeared into the distance leaving a trail of electroluminescence for me to follow. I got to CP7 at 70km once again with Ash Mokhtahri from the very first day who was ahead of me by an hour or so in the overall standings. He was in pain but felt better running so we left CP7 together and ran at an insanely quick pace to CP8 and 80km. I was totally out of breath for that hour or so as we pushed as hard as we could. It seemed to be that we could really keep each other going by finding different tracks through the sand . We hit CP8 and Eberhard was there for us topping bottles up again and blaring rock music out into the silence. He was in great spirits as usual and we refilled for the last 10km into camp. We stayed together for the first 5km here before Ash started to pull away from me, ending up a couple of minutes ahead by the finish. In typical racing the planet style this last stage was about 3km longer than advertised and it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get through it. It went on forever over dunes until I literally just stood still in frustration for how badly they’d judged the distance of this one again. Every race they do the same thing it seems, the last Stage of the 2008 Atacama Crossing was also 30 minutes longer than It should have been, small in the overall scheme of things but massive when you’re in it. Eventually I rounded the bottom of a dune and was faced with the big uphill into the finish, a dune which was pure soft sand and borderline impossible to get up. The drum beat kicked up again as I crossed the finish . I can't remember my time but it was about 12 hours.


I got my water and head to the tent where Team Trifecta were all spread out not yet asleep. They’d had a great day and had finished about an hour ahead of me albeit 2 hours behind given their earlier start. I lay down and felt the pain in my legs properly for the first time. My hip flexors were on fire I literally couldn’t lay on my side for the burning sensation firing up and down the outside of my legs. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep with my feet up on a stool before Mickey came in and then after the sun had risen into Day 6, Bucket came in. The last competitor finished in the early afternoon with only a few minutes to spare to the cut off.


The rest of that day was spent sitting around eating, sleeping, relaxing and doing interviews on camera for the RTP website. Late in the evening there was a rumour some kids were selling crisps and beer behind one of the sand dunes. I thought it was worth a shot so head over there and found out it was true. I spent every penny we had between the 8 of us and we got a few packs of crisps and 2 beers to share between us. Great time to break the rules, just before the last stage…


The following morning we got up around 7 and we were bussed back to Cairo, stinking and tired for the final stage around the pyramids. When we got there we waited for about an hour whilst they set everything up for the media and then we started our 20 minute walk up and past the sphinx and the biggest 2 pyramids before arcing round and finishing on a small climb. We crossed the line together, Lisa waiting for me the other side gave me a big hug and we got hold of some beers and pizza and wandered across to the buses to go back to the hotel.


I felt relieved that it was over but also a little disappointed at how little Id enjoyed this experience in comparison to the others. Each one of them could easily go down as the best 2 weeks of my life, except for Egypt. It all felt a little like we’d been there just to see it through, rather than for the enjoyment of running and competing. I guess Id known in a way that I would feel like that since we started the series and Id told everyone I wasn’t bothered about every going back to the Sahara.


The awards ceremony was excellent as always and we had plenty of beers and drinks before we were asked to come up and accept our awards for the 4Deserts Series. I made a speech on our behalf and Mary announced me as the youngest person every to finish the series, a nice add on to the end of an incredible 3 years.

Charlotteville Cycling Classic 100km

Pre-race prep. Its important. In fact for a multi-day desert race its everything. Prepare to fail, fail to prepare. I learnt this at the MdS a few years ago in 2006. For that race I turned up at the airport with no hydration system because there wasn't space in my undersized pack to get the camelbak in. So i bought a 750ml BLACK Adidas drinks bottle in the sports shop the other side of customs. When i needed a drink i had to ask Jimmy to pass me it out of the side pocket and then put it back in, this isn't a joke. Let me tell you also that black drinks bottles do not work well in the desert. They tend to absorb heat and cook the disgusting energy drink inside to a chicken soup. Suprise then that on Day 2 I de-hydrated so badly i ended up throwing up for 12 hours straight and couldn't eat or hold food down for almost 24 hours. I also turned up with no space left for the sleeping bag so i strapped it to the bottom of my pack with cord and it banged against my a*se for 4 days until i had eaten enough food to get it inside. I learnt on that trip don't be the one turns up an event without trying your damn pack on first EXACTLY as your going to start the race with it. Don't sit there 5 minutes before the 'gun' looking for bits of rope to tie stuff on to the outside of your pack and wondering if 750ml drinks bottle is enough to get you across each 10km/ 2 hour section in 45 degree heat. Its not. I finished that race but from the middle of stage 2 to the end of Stage 3 over 120 people dropped out that year and I still can't believe i wasn't one of them. In that space of time i ate and kept down 10 pieces of dried pineapple. Jimmy was not impressed and frankly mental fortitude was required in very large doses.

Last Sunday I got signed up in a group to take part in a cycle ride, not race, ride called the Guilford Challenge arranged by Charlotteville cc. It was a 60ish mile ride featuring some climbs and descents and the route wove in and around the North Downs, just to the South of London. Sounds easy & nice day out. It was an eye opener for sure.

I got on my bike about 6 45 am and cycled a couple of miles to get a lift. On arrival, typical at this sort of event, there were people with some seriously nice equipment, notably some pretty dangerous looking time trial efforts. I got my bike out and set it down and realised that the front skewer was still broken from the last time i rode it. Nothing i could do so I went to the mobile food truck and had a bacon sandwich. The 7 of us got ready and rode out on to the course at 8 45. I should add two things at this point: 1. I had ridden a 3 day, 200 mile tour of the Somme and Flanders in June with the same group, 4 days after running 100 miles in Virginia and frankly I found it really enjoyable and pretty easy. 2. The week leading up to this Id run London to Brighton, a 56 mile cross country race involving map reading and a lot of ascent/ descent and been training all week finishing with a 2 hour run on the night before so all in all prepared for a nice easy ride chatting and laughing in the sunshine.

We were let out of the starting gate and for some reason the pace from the other riders just went through the roof. I didn't really know what to do ie. were we gonna ride as a small group or should i go at my own speed? In the end 2 of the guys from our group chased the pack and so I went with them. We were averaging about 23 - 24 mph and to say the course was undulating would be an understatement. Every time a hill appeared the guys at the front just grinded right over the top and blew people off of the back. For 25 miles i sat there, lactic acid building in my legs and with ZERO energy from a weeks hard training with my wheel making a squeeking sound with each revolution. I bonked after an hour. I was unprepared and over trained but as usual i thought id just go with it so i stuck it as long as i could. I eventually lost the back of the pack as we hit the bigger hills of the north downs.

In the lead up to the race, one of the guys had been talking about a couple of renowned steep ascents to be wary of and he wasn't lying. We got to barhatch lane at 30 ish miles or so and the road just went vertical. I was cooked, no energy from all my training the week before, eating everything i had with me just trying to put fuel into the system and just as i chowed down on my last bit of mars bar the sign appeared on the right 21% gradient ahead. I just sat in the saddle and looked at the floor peddling in squares. The road just went up and up and up before plateauing out for about 50 yards prior to the 21% section. I was going so slowly i thought my bike was officially broken, if in doubt blame the equipment. I don't know anything about bikes but im pretty sure this problem with the front wheel wasn't helping. I was wobbling around like a drunk taking a massive breath with every turn of the pedals, i thought i was gonna just fall of sideways still clipped in to the bike. To be fair, pretty much everyone else was walking up the hill and some on some pretty nice bikes so i figured as long as i stayed on it i was a hero.

I got to the top and just spun down the other side trying to cure the cramping and lactic acid problems racking my muscles. In the end a car came past and sat between me and the riders in front whom i had no hope of catching on my own so i did what any cyclist truly out of his depth would do and sat drafting the car all the way back up the group. What a cheap way of covering some miles. Shocking. When the car turned off it felt like i was dragging something heavy behind me on a long rope. I managed to get over the hills and down to the finish with two of the other lads. 94km in the end it measured. It took me, wait for it, 3 hours and 49 minutes. I rode a similar distance in a half IM in about an hour less than this.

London to Brighton 2009 56 mile

The last two months have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs and whilst I guess I am out of the other side of this patch now I can't help but feeling all in all my training has not gone well despite being in as good a shape I think as pre-Atacama Crossing in 2008, the last time I really fully built up to an event like the Sahara Race.

At the beginning of August I started adding some hills into my training in order to build up strength for the UTMB 103 mile Ultra in the Alps. Whilst on holiday in Italy I found a particularly good training route out of the Tuscan hill town of Montalcino which involved a sharp descent over 7 miles back to to the main road & therefore a nice climb back from that point. Unfortunately before we set off I wasn't able to get hold of a new pair of road shoes and my old ones were wrecked so I opted to travel with just my inov8 heavy duty trail shoes which I used in Antarctica. The hill repeats up and down the climb felt ok, i was quick descending but had to hold back a little because I could feel the extra impact caused by the lack of cushion in the soles and turning round coming back up the hill felt heavy and was putting a lot of additional strain on my achilles. In the end I destroyed my tendon and got horrendous shin splints.

On getting home I went out for an hour and I was in a world of trouble. I ran home from work the next day and really pushed the pace, its about 6km and I was really flying as its mostly downhill on the way back and by the time I got in to Battersea Park for the last mile to the house I was hobbling along. My foot had lost all of its flex and the achilles felt swollen and my shins were screaming at me. I gave it a week off with ice and rest jogging only intermittently and it seemed to improve a little but as soon as i upped the pace again I went back to square one. In the end I went to see a physio and he stated the obvious, that I had both chronic shin splints which had been lurking in the background for some time plus achilles tendonitis and advised me not to run for 6 weeks. When I told him I was still considering racing UTMB the next weekend he looked at me as if to say 'well if you do that you aren't going to be running the Sahara' so I spoke to Frank and made the call not to run.

In the end it was the right decision. I crewed Frank & Alex around the 103 mile course which took them 42 hours and whilst I can't say I enjoyed driving round France, Italy and Switzerland non-stop for 36 hours, I got a lot out of it. It was the first time I had seen an ultra up close and personal and watched people struggling when I wasn't in it myself. I was early at the first CP and had the pleasure of seeing Killian Jornet & Scott Jurek come steaming through and later in the race to see the carnage unfolding at Champex-Lac 122km in. The scenery looked out of this world and while i was awaiting Frank and Alex's arrival at Arnuvra, took the time to run up to the top of the mountain pass coming out of that aid station and then across to another peak which was utterly deserted and had a marked trail leading up to it which defied belief. It was so steep i used hands and knees for over a quarter of an hour, dropping my handheld bottle in the meantime and watching it fall about 200 metres down a ravine. Coming back down was shocklingly hard and I slid down most of it hanging to tufts of grass in the process and thought to myself most of the way, my god if the physio had any idea I was out doing that right now he'd give up on me.

After seeing Frank and Alex through Champex I drove back to the start finish, had a few hours sleep and ended up seeing them in to the finish that morning. The afternoon I ran from the end of the race backwards up to the Tete Aux Vents, the last of the climbs and descent into town and it was breathtaking. I made it on to the course as the last 3 runners were finishing so that the markings were still out, ran backwards past the guys jogging down the mountain picking up the markers, risked it for another half an hour or so and then followed what I knew back down the hill into town picking up the marker collectors near the end. It was great to see two of the climbs and get a sense of what was involved for next year, but most importantly my foot held up.

On return I went back to the physio and reported good things but acknowledged that to have taken on 100 miles with a niggling problem would have been a guaranteed DNF and longer lasting issue. In the end I signed up for and raced a marathon the following weekend pacing a friend around trying to break 3:30. It went well for the first half which we covered in 1:42 and got a fist pump from Barry Mcguigan the Great British Boxer on the way past. Unfortunately Pete had consumed 3 litres of water before the start unbeknownst to me and therefore at Mile 17 threw up everything he had in him and had to walk to 22 in order to get going again. I walked from 17 to 20 with him and then ran the rest ahead at a good pace as I was impatient for going slowly for a good while, ending up finishing in 3 37 (the 4th time Ive run 3:37) and Pete came through a quarter of an hour later.

I started building the training back up again then on a daily basis and actually dared to pull out the training program I used for the Atacama and started following that which I knew would do me well. It was ambitious to start with and I wasn't ready for the pack yet but with a couple more physio sessions I felt like i was returning to strength. In the end I opted to run London to Brighton on the 21st September and took a decent weight pack (about 4.5 kgs) in order to get a feel for how far Id come in that 3 weeks since kicking it up again.

At 56 miles and with no course markings its not an easy race. They set a 13 hour cut off this year after the 12 hours allowed only 15% of people to finish in time in 2008 the inaugural event. I ran 11:40 last year having spent litterally hours walking around a patch of woodland called Lavender Platt in the middle of the course after I got disorientated and totally lost with another racer. Last year I recorded the distance at 62 miles and this year at 60.1 so I did better with the new track this time around.

I got a cab to the start in South East London at 4:45am, got a new race number handwritten as Id lost mine and started at a fairly relaxed pace at 6am. For the first couple of miles or so there were only about 4 people ahead of me (I think about 200 started?) and I wasn't pushing plus I had a lot of weight on compared to the most others who had only a waist packs or just bottles so I was a bit confused by that but I kept moving anyway. I went through 10 miles in 1hr22, last year I was there at 1:38 (with two toilet stops totalling ten minutes which carried on all day) so a good start. I didn't stop and went straight through onto CP2 at 19 miles which I reached at about 2:46. By this stage I was running with a couple of other lads from South Africa who'd both run 7:11 for the 90km Comrades course in May & another Brit who's marathon best was 2:42 and was planning to run from Lands End to John O Groats next year so I was out of my depth actually.

In the end we made a few wrong turnings at 30 miles or so and wasted a lot of time looking at the map so a couple of groups of 4 came past us. I ended up splitting off at this point as we were all running different paces by now but really started to struggle with the map. I was also starting to rue the amount of weight Id chosen to carry as to be honest over that distance its already hard enough without trying to add to the equation to challenge yourself even more.

The sh*t really hit the fan at 35 miles though. I went through the aid station and spilt PSP Energy drink all over my pack, arms and legs and that stuff is STICKY. Ive always felt it tastes a little like chicken if you blend a lot of powder in and at this stage the chicken smell started to come out. I arrived at a road crossing at Chailey 40 miles in and no doubt because of its attraction to the energy drink a wasp flew straight up the right leg of my shorts and stung me about a quarter of an inch from my nuts. I went crazy. By this stage Id run out of water and had another 5 to go to the next aid station, had bad chaffing anyway from the salt and sticky drink but now the wasp sting just started to rub with every step. I did wonder at that point what i was doing but just kept moving albeit on a parrallel course to the one I should have been taking.

Eventually I got the next checkpoint and got enough water to wash myself down, changed my shirt (the beauty of carrying extra stuff...) and plodded on. I ran to the bottom of the beacon, the really major climb around 50 miles in just before you drop down into Brighton & the finish, again getting lost in the process and knew that I was still in or around the top 10. Just before you come to that point there is a huge open field around a mile across at which point you can see the spectators in the distance cheering runners on to the big climb and look behind you to see the competition. As I got to the bottom of the climb I turned around and saw literally 15 people emerging out of the woods together and out on to the field. They'd obviously joined up with someone who knew the course and had used them through the tricky section. Bunch running in races like this is something i have gotten used to over the years. I climbed well and caught 2 guys but as I got onto the downs my pace went from under me. Eventually people started passing me at around 50 miles as I jogged along they flew past and none of them had any kit with them, only 1 carrying a pack. I guessed a lot of people had met others and given them excess baggage for the final section etc and some weren't bothering with anything at all.

I dropped down into Brighton and finished in around 11:01 which I think was about 35th place in the end & Id counted 22 people go past me in the last 6 miles. A little disappointing as a finish but to be expected. I felt on a good day with training and no pack I could easily have covered it in under 10 hours and if they keep the course next year I'll be better equiped to race it properly and see.

At the end I was pretty tired but not horrendously so but I had to walk a couple of miles down the seafront to where Lisa was parked which I could have done without. Nevertheless the event was a good training run and at a good point in the schedule.

Since that weekend Ive stepped back into the 2 hours a night with full weight pack regime which is tiring but worked well before. The new Raidlight stuff Ive got on has taken the skin off of the small of my back and Im getting some pretty severe pains by Thurs/ Friday but nothing that hasn't gone by the following morning. One more big week, a marathon next weekend and thats it. I'll do a 2 week taper again as it seems to work ok. Just a few 45-60 minute runs in the week and thats it. Just got to add heat to the equation now and its on!