FEBRUARY 2008

'Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon.'

  Alan Cabelly

Much of my training over the past few months has been done alongside my friend and fellow competitor Chris, who signed up for the Atacama one fateful night last year. Chris had expressed an interest in the race and the subject came up again during a very pleasant dinner party he was hosting. After the meal the wives retired to the kitchen whilst us boys put a sizeable dent in the red wine. Before long the internet had been fired up and the credit card had come out. To cut a long story short, Chris woke up the next morning hungover, several hundred pounds worse off and as a signed up competitor for the 2008 Atacama Crossing. Of course this was in no way my fault and for the record, I for one would never do such a thing without first consulting my wife. Shame on him.

Towards the end of February we agreed to meet up one weekend for a long trainiing session and agreed to run from Dorking to Sevenoaks along the North Downs way, a distance of around 30 miles. The North Downs takes in some excellent scenery and we had a cold but clear day to enjoy the views. It can also be a fairly challenging path, with plenty of decent climbs to get the heart racing. Unfortunately though we never quite made it to Sevenoaks. After exactly a marathon in distance (26.2 miles for the uninitiated) we found ourselves directly outside a very cozy looking pub, advertising real ales and log fires. Clearly this was a sign and not wanting to upset the gods of fate, we decided that the best thing would be to stop immediately and head inside for a pint and plate of chips.

This still marks the longest single distance I have done in training and I'm happy to report that it didn't leave either of us crippled with the effort. In fact the next day (after a few more of those pints I've already mentioned) we managed another 14 miles in the opposite direction, so all in all a fairly successful weekend and a good confidence boost for the real thing...

...which suddenly seems to be just around the corner! If I wasn't so busy with everything else going on with my life at the moment I would probably be starting to panic round about now.