Marathon des Sables

Congratulations to Mike Blamires on his good run in the desert recently. I would think he'd be very pleased with his run (289th place out of almost 900).

In Stockport yesterday I was speaking to someone from his club (Neil Bant ? from Beverley AC) and he confirmed that Mike was having a good time and doing well.

Seen the blackbird about in the garden recently so the dead one I found a few days ago isn't the one who nests in our tree.

William Sichel is going well too in the Athens International Ultramarathon Festival - leading the seven day race after the third day.

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.