Upcoming Races booked

21K Run to the beat September 26th 2010 & 50K London Ultra February 20th 2011

Facing Africa: NOMA

Hi Guys,

I thought I would post a video about Facing Africa to give you all a better understanding of their work.

It gets you thinking...

Please donate!

Click here to watch

Facing Africa Profile

Quick update..

My profile has been put up on the Facing Africa website.

You can see it here: ME!

Had the 10K Hard as snails race in Guildford this weekend. Lots of hills and sands so good training. Sore legs today - Wake up call!

Race Diary

Runs to date:

Hard as snails 10K Guildford 2010
LongLegRun 10K Guidford 2010
Phuket Laguna Beach Half Marathon 2009
Flora London Marathon 2009
Reading Half Marathon 2009
Woking10 Ten Mile Pre 2009

Upcoming Runs:

Run to the Beat 2010 Booked
Marrakech Marathon 2011(still to book)
Jurassic Coast Ultra 2011(still to book)

The Marathon Des Sable: A Lesson

Some of you that I send this blog to won't have heard about this race so here is a quick low down:

The race takes place in Southern Morocco through the Sahara Desert and runs annually (excuse the pun)over March/April with approximately 800 competitors (120 from the UK).
The distance can vary slightly year on year but tends to be around 250KMs over 6/7days.
It is a stage race which means that each day there is a start and a finish.
Each stage is around one marathon, apart from the 4th which is 50 miles.
One or two of these stages takes place over the famous Moroccan sand dunes.
Each competitor must carry their own food and kit however tents are provided at the end of each day.
This is the typical kit a competitor should carry:
Survival gear

* Backpack or equivalent (best suited to each participant)
* Sleeping bag
* Flashlight with spare batteries
* 10 safety pins
* Compass with 1° or 2° precision
* Lighter
* Whistle
* Knife with metal blade
* Tropical Disinfectant
* Anti-Venom pump (insect poison remover)
* Signalling mirror
* One aluminium survival sheet

A survival kit will be supplied by the organisation and will include the following:-

* A Distress flare
* Salt tablets
* luminous signal stick (non-stop stage)

Why am I doing this?

Well that is to be decided.....I'm still not quite sure!

First of many many many posts. The training starts

So. Here we go. The start of 2 years and 2 weeks of training before the big day, or should I say, big 7 days. My training started on Monday which was fantastic because Monday is always a 'Rest' day so it wasn't too tough! This week hasn't been too tough, just three 6 mile runs and a touch of cross training. I'm slowly easing myself in since my race in Phuket 6 Months ago.

Races to date? Not many. I ran the 2009 London Marathon, a handful of Reading Half marathons, a few 10K's and the Phuket Half marathon (at 4am!) 6 months ago. My race portfolio should take a jump over the next year as I concentrate on perfecting my marathon distance ready for Ultra-marathon training in 2011/12.

I'm off for the Saturday 6 miler. Shame it's raining...