 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Trained @ CLS to the
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 On Easter Sunday, just when you are munching through your first Easter egg, spare a thought for me and 1,080 fellow competitors (from 40 different nations), as we start Stage 1 of the Marathon Des Sables Ultra Marathon ( 250Km race over 7 days, split into 6 Stages, ranging from 35K to 90K/double marathon). Set in the Sahara Desert, Morocco, in temperatures that can vary from 0 °C to 50 °C; we are have to run, walk, crawl, (in that order) over sand, rocks, and whatever else the desert throws up, carrying up to 15Kgs in our backpacks. All the race organisers provide us with is: 1. around 10 litres of water a day (depending on how the organisers feel on the day);2. a basic open ended tent to sleep under at night (accommodates 8 people);3. up to 2 saline drips in the event that you collapse and need to be revived (anymore than two drips and your out of the race); and4. a helicopter ride out of the desert if you are too ill to go by road. Needless to say I am looking forward to this once in a life time opportunity/adventure. I fly out to Quazazate, Morocco today with 275 British national or people like myself who call England home. I will be in good company as James Cracknell (Olympian and adventurer) and Tom Aikens (Michelin Star Chef) will also be competing this year, with rumours that Madonna might turn up!!!! Follow my race progress (and Madonna’s) at this link, where our results will be posted at the end of each race day. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 As well as being a once in a lifetime adventure for me, it is also an opportunity to raise money for others less fortunate than all of us. Given the nature and location of the event I thought it appropriate that I raise money for not one but three charities.
Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is a UK based charity and as the name suggests, focuses on generating funding for research into blood and lymph cancers; cancers that affect over 28,000 people (young and old) in the UK each year.
The Jack & Jill Foundation provides care and support for children with severe neurological development issues, as well as offering some respite to the parents and families in Ireland (where I am from).
Facing Africa raises money to pay for surgery for children with a disfiguring disease called Noma; an acute and ravaging gangrenous infection affecting the face. Facing Africa is the unofficial official Marathon des Sables charity.
Here are the names and links to my on line donation pages and thanks a million.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Having spent two and half years on the waiting list I was eventually offered a place last September, which left just over six months to train. In the meantime I had completed in a number of marathons (London) and triathlons (Blenheim, Dorney Lake, London, Hyde Park and Little Woody). Since gaining entry I competed in the following marathons.
23 October 2009 - Beachy Head Marathon
25 October 2009 - Dublin Marathon
These marathons were just two days apart, leaving little or no time to recover much less travel to Beachy Head to Dublin.
I have competed in the London Marathon in April 2009 and will compete in it again in 2010 on the 25 April (assuming I can walk, having competed in the Endurance Life Ultra Marathon in Cornwall the previous day!!!!). I think I shall be walking at least one if not both of these events and enjoying the scenery (Cornwall) and the people (London).
I have competed in the following Ultra Marathons in the last year in preparation for the MDS:
January 2010 - Tring to Northampton and Northampton to Tring Ultra Marathon - 145 Km
February 2010 - London Ultra Marathon - 50 Km
February 2010 - LDWA Punchbowel Ulrea - 50Kms (day after the London Ultra)
February 2010 - Pilgrims Challenge Multi Day Ultra - 110 Km
February 2010 - Endurance Life Ultra - Devon - 44Kms February 2010 - Moonlight Challenge - 53Kms (pulled out after 20kms having ran in the Endurance Life Ultra in Devon that morning) In terms of training I went to Norway at Christmas for a week cross county skiing and have just come back from 10 days warm weather training in Lanzarote where I did loads of walking. Despite all the training I realise that I will end up walking much if not most of the MDS. This is the case for most athletes as they develop blisters and suffer in the heat. Outside of the above I walk into work a few times a weak carrying 10Kg of sugar in my backpack, waking with lightweight poles and .5 Kg weights on each hand. Needless to say I get some strange looks as I walk along the Thames towards Farringdon in my strange attire. During the race I will carry a backpack with all my food, clothing and camping gear bar a tent which will be provided for. In all I hope to carry no more than 10Kgs in my pack but the average weight is 13Kgs. I will reduce my pack weight by bringing very light weight specialist gear designed for ultra running. For example, my cooking stove is 10 grams!!! And my fuel 50 grams which will be supplemented by twigs picked up off the desert floor. I have to carry a few mandatory items which include a venom pump for snake and insect bites, an emergency flare, whistle, mirror and emergency blanket. I have to bring a minimum of 14,000 calories (2,000 per day) which is 500 less than the recommended amount for a male and 6,000 less than what an average competitor would burn on an average day during the | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
