Well, its been a long time since I wrote my first and only blog so far – its definitely time I updated you on my progress! The lead up to Christmas started well enough. In October I ran my first marathon – the Beachyhead marathon at Eastbourne on the South Downs – what a first marathon!! First of all it was off-road and second I don’t think there was any level gradient in the whole 26 miles – the hills were relentless. Anyway I hear its about 40 mins slower than a regular road marathon so my time of 3hr 54 with a pack was not too bad, particularly since the furthest I’d run to that point had been one 18 mile run! After that I had the usual and rather predictable lead up to Christmas – November was a good training month and I averaged around 40 miles per week but December started and I definitely eased off! There seem to be more Christmas drinks parties every year and one thing I’ve worked out about myself is I’d never be cut out for a monastic puritan lifestyle! Anyway as I’m sure many people get bored of training its not too bad just to ease off and enjoy yourself for a while. The actual Christmas period itself wasn’t too bad in the end – I went home to Scotland and the quiet family Christmas gave me a great opportunity to get out into the hills/mountains and get my legs used to running up and down hills again – its amazing how quickly you lose your hill legs! So in the end I managed a good number of 2hr + runs over pretty steep terrain, albeit often with a bit of a red wine/port hangover to contend with, but you cant have it all your own way! Well I have been back in London for a couple of weeks now and have started the proper training this week – its gone well so far. In the lead up to Christmas I’d been really irresponsible in terms of my running shoes ie. I hadn’t replaced them for way too long and as a result started to get niggles in my feet – schoolboy lesson learned! With a new set of trainers on my feet I’ve managed almost 75 miles in one week which is the furthest I’ve run in a normal training week before and I actually feel fine (so far!). I’ve still been reading the other blogs with interest and I guess I have started to think about kit. The first decision I have made (I think) is to go for the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon 32l pack – think the shape is good, it’s a bit of a tried and tested classic, plenty of space and not too fiddly (any thoughts anyone). I also have been mulling over sleeping bags. I’m not flush enough to buy something that I can only use for this race – I want something I can use afterwards as well for little expeditions. I looked at the Western Mountaineering range suggested in the expert kit blog – look good but almost died when I saw the price! Think I quite like the look of Rab Endurance 250 which you can get for a pretty good price and compresses to a very small size. Anyway I’d be interested in any thoughts. Finally, as I am raising money for Help for Heroes, as part of my fundraising effort I am organising a charity party in London on Sat 21st Feb – its fancy dress and should be great fun….if this sounds good and you’d like to meet up – I will be there obviously along with 3 other fellow Atacama competitors drop me an email! [email protected]

My name is Adam Versteeg. I am 30 years old and despite my surname am a Scot living and working in London! This is my first blog….the first I have ever written in fact and I really just want to explain a little bit about myself, why I have decided to this event and the charity I am raising money for.

 

 

 

I currently work as a Project Manager in London and have been doing this for about 6 months. In February this year I left the British Army, where for 7 years I had been an Infantry Officer serving in a Scottish Regiment. I will be competing alongside a serving Army Officer, Oli Dobson, who I’m sure may also write a blog – once he returns from Afghanistan that is!

 

 

 

Although I have never even competed in a conventional Marathon, I have always been a keen runner. Ironically it is only now that I have left the Army that I feel that I have the time and inclination to do something like this. I have absolutely no desire to run the London Marathon yet everything I have heard and read about the desert type-ultra events makes me think this is something a bit special.

 

 

 

What about the charity then!? Well having served in Iraq a couple of times and having witnessed from afar the experiences of soldiers in Afghanistan at the moment, I did want to do something for the guys who haven’t been as lucky – it seems that while we hear a great deal about the fatalities (and that is quite right), the statistics we hear nothing of are the injuries – while these guys have been lucky enough to survive, their injuries are often life changing and require months/years of rehabilitation. Help For Heroes is a great charity which is all about helping the injured British soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Oli and I are going to try and each raise £5000 for the charity.

 

 

 

I have to say that March 2009 seems like a long way off – that is until I logged on to the 4 deserts website and started reading other blogs!! I obviously had already underestimated the preparation I might need. Having said that I do a lot of running and a about a month ago starting upping the mileage a bit. Now I don’t know if there are other London based competitors out there (I’m sure there are) but its not a place I especially enjoy running in particularly having been spoilt with a nice rural Scottish upbringing! However, I run to and from work each morning, using extended loops which make use of the river paths and the parks in the south west. So for the past month I have managed about 50 miles a week and can do a half marathon with a rucksack in about 1hr 25mins. Clearly I still have a long way to go! Once Oli gets back from Helmand we will be trying to do our longer training runs together – I’m sure the miles will pass quicker with a bit of banter!

 

 

 

Anyway that’s about it by way of introduction – thanks already to other bloggers and the people who contributed to the chat forum for this years event – If it wasn’t for reading Christian Lamberts threads I wouldn’t have found out about the Thames Meander – definitely a training target for February!

 

 

 

Adam Versteeg

 

 

 

I will be updating my blog shortly.