news ...

William Sichel has almost finished the 1000 mile race in Athens - only 100k remaining and he looks set to come away with three records.  More details about those later.  Wolfgang Schwerk won the event by completing the distance in just a shade less than 12 days.

Full details of this amazingly inspiring race here.

A few days ago the Wharfedale & Airedale Observer had a piece about me being selected to represent UK in the World 24 hr Championships.  Read it on the media page as it isn't on their website yet.

Race day planning (pacing and nutrition mainly) is going very well at the moment but in some ways it still seems a very long way off.  Only six and a half weeks to go now though ... and three of those involve tapering.

Fay has developed a really bad cough.  It began about ten days ago and almost disappeared after about five days - but then came back with a vengeance and yesterday she began to develop a cold too.  She's not too happy at the moment.

I wish I were racing too

I'm now well into my second week of proper training and it seems to be going well except that when I'm doing a paced run my actual speed is all over the place. It'll come back with practice though.

Good to see the Barry 40 results in last weeks Athletics Weekly - one ultra race which makes the results pages every year although there should be an in depth article about this race considering the number of world bests set there over the years.

All the best to Sharon Gayter and Paul Tranter who take part in the Marathon des Sables later this month and to William Sichel who's in Athens as I write this for a 24 hr race.

In the accompanying 7 day race Wolfgang Schwerk seems to be doing very well (839k after 5.5 days). I also notice that the Italian bloke who just beat me in the London 24 hr race (last October) is also doing very well - he's in 5th place at the moment with 677k.

I'm just jealous of you all, that's all. Still, it won't be long now before I'm back racing.

Hope everything goes well with Pam Storey too and her 12 hr & 6 hr races in Crawley - wish I could be there Pam.