Yesterdays run was a nightmare. Obviously I went pretty hard the first four days but these races can be won or lost with huge margins disappearing or being made up over the 74km of the long day. The slower pack went off an hour earlier in the morning before the top 29 took off at 9:30am. Whilst 74km would ordinarily seem to be a long way it becomes a lot further when the first section is formed of 15km of salt flats which was largely unrunable. What was good about that was coming through the slower pack who were all very generous with their words of encouragement. Checkpoint to checkpoint became a longer and longer struggle as I was also keeping one eye over my shoulder for the pretenders to my crown. Joey in 4^th place passed me at 35km so I knew then I was out of the running for his spot. I tried to press on as hard as I could and eventually cleared the last check point whilst the light faded at 7:30pm. The last 9.5km was unfortunately the worst section of any race I have gone through before. I had totally cooked myself getting there and wasn’t sure as we began the climb that I would make it. Almost two hours stumbling and dribbling through the darkness and I made it. Much thanks to the help of Nicola the Italian Stallion. As we crossed the line 48 miles later in 11 51 I was so tired I couldn’t eat or drink and went straight to the tent. Luckily I woke up feeling good again this morning!

With 5^th place all but secured as my margin going into the final 10km stage tomorrow is 1 hour over 6^th placed Shane I can almost relax. My list of ailments now mirrors the stress of the week though. Sunburn has removed the skin from the left hand side of my neck and face and blisters cover my ear and upper left arm. My feet are shredded with missing toenails. My stomach is ok today but yesterday I visited the gents (side of the road) 11 times. Chaffing has also taken its toll on my buttocks. I dread to think whats going on back there but I m not gonna look till tomorrow!

Its been another incredible week and barring disasters, our tent of 7 will take home the team award, 20 – 29 & 30 – 39 age categories so a massive haul.

Beer and pizza and shower and burgers will all never have tasted so good as they will tomorrow night. Hope you’re still seeing some good vids and photos on the website they ve taken enough of us!

Looking forward to seeing you all on my return and spending a month unwinding on some hard earned Guinness and tequila.

James

So no blog yesterday. We had a ridiculous sand storm when we came in. Then to top that off we spilt a bottle of water all over the floor of the tent (cheers hully)  so I took my stuff outside and slept outside under the stars. It was stunning until it got to minus 6!

Still going strong. Finished 5^th again today. Pretty consistent so far with 6^th 5^th 5^th 5^th! So much of the course is unrunable its untrue. Today we went across 10km of salt flats which were torture. In the heat of the day being able to move only 4km an hour is pretty hard to bear. Four marathons down. Just the 80km day tomorrow which should be a breeze. If I have a good one I can steal fourth place as am 4 mins back from joey the rockstar. If I have a bad one I  can lose my 3 and a half hour lead on the next qujickest guy in my age category (20 – 29) and throw away all my hard work that I have put in over the last six months and especially this week. The good news is I feel strong and my blisters are bearable despite losing three toenails today.  BRING IT ON!

Thanks for all the messages of support although some of them seem to be from deceased pets or people I haven’t spoken to in a decade. Cheers boys!

Lots of love to you all, Happy birthday grandma and love you lisa x

Today was a massive test especially after yesterday which pete bocquet the ironman legend in our tent called the hardest one day event he has ever completed. Distance of 41km today which started with a run straight through a river before climbing up out of enormous canyon. To make everything just that little bit worse we then descended off the top of a ridge down an enormous sand dune. With wet shoes. Consequently I have finished the stage with 8 blisters, starting the day with 1. Having said all that the weather was great, around 38 degrees so my sunburn is now ridiculous,one half of my body is lobster red, the other protected from the sun is albino. Stunning.

Camp is good tonight. Our tent is 50 yards from a blue salt lagoon. Almost felt like a holiday until I got out and the salt caught between my red raw butt cheeks started taking off skin like nobodys business.

Seriously though as bad as this all sounds I am having a great time. The boys from the Gobi are on fire, I still feel pretty good at the end of day 2. I am currently placed 5^th which is a bit ridiculous and I can’t keep that up but its been nice while it lasted. Today I traded places with Dean Karnazes 5 times & is currently sat to my right blogging on www.runnersworld.com. For those who don’t know dean he is the worlds most renowned ultra runner holding the record for longest non stop run at 384 miles. As you can imagine he’s pretty unfazed by all this and I think he will cane the long day. Also ahead of me are joey Kelly who is in our tent. Joey has completed 13 ironmans, badwater 135mile etc etc. He is also a famous musician in with number 1 hits in his native country. He also has longer hair than any one I know which is frankly a little disconcerting but he’s a good lad.

I will write again tomorrow if I can although temps are supposed to rise again so it will be agony. We’ll all get there though, im sure of it.

Love to all.

James

A day of extremes for everybody today. Last night the temperature inside the tent dropped to close to freezing and with a lack of warm clothing to make the pack lighter I was bitterly cold come this morning. Around two hours later and on the way to checkpoint 1 the temperature rose to boiling point  The first section was 13.4km and involved hellish rolling hills. Section 2 a nice 11km downhill section but the fun really started between 2 & 3. an 11.4km section that involved the most tortuous rocky terrain followed by a long uphill slog in the burning heat was hardcore to say the least. I passed a few people on this section mainly as people flaked out due to the heat. Got in to camp about half anhour ago after a 5 km finishing section. 6^th place was far better than I expected I only hope I haven’t overdone it! I feel ok though and have one blister, on my finger believe  itor not. Looking forward to tomorrow. Team trifecta not in yet but are close behind and rumour has it ahead of the Chilean team, their competition .

Going off to have a nice shower and rub down now. NOT.

Love to you all.

Lisa: Hope you’re ok on your own ! Miss you loads.

Last night the team from tent corona visited the local for a few last minute beers in order to ease the pressure of the impending race. Unfortunately whilst this was beneficial to most, the smell of cold corona immediately turned one Peter Bocquet into a rabid animal and stools were kicked over as he was wrestled slurring and dribbling from the bar.

Intimate areas have been shaved this morning using a variety of techniques. This is an essential part of the multi day racing process as chaffing can litterally cause a man to 'grind to a halt'. Whilst Peter Wilson was discussing the merits of the dry shave approach, Frank Fumich made his finishing touches using an electric razor. Michael Hull was on hand to assist with health and safety but luckily no bandage was needed.

Well rested and with many miles of altitude training under our belts from this week's acclimatisation camp the team called trifecta are ready for the journey up to camp one this afternoon. More to follow tomorrow following the 25 mile first stage. its not an issue.....

Money money yeah yeah

Love to all

James

After a 3 day training camp in Calama in order to get the jump on the rest of the field I feel strong.

I have been lucky enough to hook up with the guys from the Gobi March & have been training with Team Trifecta who are confident of a podium place in the teams event. Just this afternoon we made the journey across the border to Bolivia where we enjoyed some hill repeat work on the flanks of the countries highest volcano. Michael Hull commented 'this is the dogs up here. i feel as strong as a ox on epo'.

With one day left to go till check in time there is calm in the camp at race hq Dan Thomas hotel here in san pedro.

It promises to be a hard but action packed event with some laughs along the way.

More to follow tomorrow.

Love to all.

James

My latest brush with a multi-day event came in the form of a 3 day bicycling race around the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, named Vuelta de los nos faros. Tour of the Nine Lighthouses.

I have had the tendency in the past to massively underestimate an event & I can safely say my expectations of the tour were a long long way short in all senses.

I should start by telling you a bit about my cycling background. With increasing knee problems caused by pounding roads, I was urged to consider purchasing a bicycle around September of last year. The fact that I am entered for Ironman UK this year also necessitated this so out I went a bought a nice shiny trek madone. Come christmas I was still averaging twice the number of running miles as cycling miles. A bit of a worry with the event coming up, nevertheless I thought my basic fitness was up to hammering my way through 3 days of cycling. Surely if I could run for 50 odd miles in 8 or so hours I would be ok? No chance.

Sleeping in New York airport on the way to the caribbean i arrived the following evening and prepared myself for the 4:30am start the following morning by joining my psychotic uncle for a nice italian meal and a couple of el presidente's or some such local beer.

The start came in the beautiful old city of San Juan. The kit that emerged on some of the 200 characters there to take part was nothing short of special. Skin tight lycra, tri bars and buckets of drink mounted on the front of the handlebars, national cycling jersies, tubs of vaseline being passed about & bulging calf muscles all made me feel a bit queasy. Nevertheless there were a feew less 'athletic' customers out there and this helped me. 2 hours of cycling through the city in the dark which brought us to our first drinks stop. I felt good. The pace had been ok but then we hadn't seen a hill yet. As the day wore on & the miles added up and the hills became more dramatic i started to suffer badly. My quads were absolutely screaming at me by mile 50 and with another 100 to go after this in just the first day I was worried. Whilst this was not strictly a 'race' the guys at the front seemed to delight in pushing an average pace of 55 km/h over the rolling hills and i almost died.

Coming into the hotel on the first night at 6pm I was cooked. I averaged 155 HR over a 13 hour period incuding rest stops & used 8800 calories. I tried to replace this through pizza, beef jerky and protein drinks as fast as I could before collapse and didn't manage much else.

The following two days saw 100 miles and 130 miles of more pushing respectively and my knees were done by day 3. I was also unfortunate to witness a very nice older American rider from Washington state have a heart attack sitting next to me in the bus on the third day. A funny thing watching it happen and a very good experience for the future. His hr shot up from 70 to 250 in the space of around 5 seconds. Partially caused I believe by the fact that from the moment he sat down next to me his eyes didn't leave his watch counting his bpm. We raced up the road towards the medical assistance and they hauled him onto the roadside and plugged him in to a defibrillator and god knows what else. He proved to be ok in the end although he spent a couple of days in the hospital.

All in all this was an experience never to forget and as always with these multi-day events fantastic camaraderie, amazing scenery and a truly punishing physical work out in an exotic country left me feeling pangs of loss & that awful feeling of not being able to really convey to people what it is you've just been through on your return. I shall never quite be able to get over that feeling I don't think, but I wouldn't want to either. An opportunity to reset yourself and put everything into perspective in your day to day life should never be passed up.

Finally I met a very nice New Yorker with a cracking tattoo on his calf. In the Gobi desert I wrote pistons on my legs in order to raise a little extra for charity. This guy has taken things one step further.....

Hello all,

Well here goes with the first posting. I'll mostly be posting stories on here as I love a good story. Whether about training, a race or not much at all hopefully some of you will take something from it!

The first little tale is about Mick n Phil. Any regulars on the UK race circuit across all distances will have seen & probably met & chatted to Mick and Phil. Hopefully Mick won't mind me putting his words out there for you to read as he is a very very nice guy.

Sometimes when you think you’re strong and digging deep, someone else comes along and makes you realize just what being a real hero is all about….

A couple of weeks ago I ran a 35 mile race of 7 x 5 mile lap format. There was also a marathon of 5 and a bit laps around the same course running at the same time. The beautiful thing about that is you see people regularly all the way around and there is lots of support. I saw these two twice on the way round, With Mick in tears. Twice.

Micknphil: Marathon Lads.

Hi all, I'm Mick, DOB 1.6.58, I'm luckily a very healthy & fit man, i'm a highly experienced runner, i still consider myself to be a Serious Competative Athlete, though my days on my own are over, as far as i can see , never to return. luckily for me though, still emmensly physically and mentally strong... Young Phillip DOB 28.8.88, on the other hand, is a Chronically sick and disabled young man, suffering Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, and multiple problems, Including NO SPEECH, and doubly incontinent, he is completely dependant on Mum & DAD, though Mum's health is rapidly detioriating .... Mine and my wife's heart's and Souls died on us i'm afraid, when Phillip was diagnosed, never really recovered... We suffer mental health problems and deep depression to this day...Though Phillip is happy, as he know's no difference ... I've had many happy years running, albeit sporadically, as caring for Phillip has taken it's toll, Phillip's mobility is very poor, he has no self awareness, and has no co-ordination to self propell... So, Phillip's Mum, in early 2002 gave Dad an ultimatum, Take Phillip with you or pack in your running So, here we are, at present, 259 races, including 24 Full marathons , 154 HM's it's been so much fun sharing it all with Phillip has given me my life back, as much as possible, i really cannot find words to explain, what it has all done. my mental illness is not curable, but it is controlled by running, and you see, we are totally, completely obsessed with it all. All of you fellow runners make us laugh and happy, but the pain and anguish of nursing the SON, who i cherish and adore, sadly never eases Bless each and every one of you Mick n Phil Marathon Lads & So very proud of it !!


Draycote Marathon Race Report:


It just got worse and worse, completed lap two by around 1.57 ? - then set about lap 3 , i was beginning to feel in desperate agony, the pain seized my leg completely, i was hobbling along, at times little feeling in my whole leg,

what do i do, - this was it, end of race, i considered withdrawing, as we were never far from the finish, i almost at one point took Phil's Number off him,

i wobbled on, walking with a one legged limp, and then trying to jog, i stopped, i sulked, i carried on, this was time to refuel, we fed - then comes along Tracey G, , id already been giving myslef a bloddy good talking to, i examinded every pscyhological area of my stamina that i had, i knew i was desperate, i talked to tracey, i some how forgot my pain,

i was approaching the end of lap 3 , though, hang on, i'm not ill, it's a super day, therre's only 2 to go, not 3 !!, it's so easy to call it a day ... NO, NO, NO - i'm not having it

we completed lap 3 in about 3.20, if only i could make lap 4, i was in with a real chance, i walked, i jogged, i cried, i kept saying to my self, - come on Mick, this isn't us, were not here to show off, were not here to impress anyone, were not here as a team, were not here to win anything .. it's a super perfect day, we are here for us ,

i knew had i have been a novice, with or without phillip i stood absolutely NO chance, i had to dig deep into all my reserves - all my experience, all my skill, all my physical strength, all my mental satmina - there was to be NO submissions, no cowards,

it was onwards, me and Tracey G, we plodded on, so to end of lap 4, it was 4.29

i could have just died there and then, i was in so much pain, I knew how much i wanted this marathon, etc, so, it was one lap to go , about 1 hour top go, i passed my car, i thought, NO, - onwards, my physcological strength and self belief ws paying dividends,

i was happy, tearful .. NO regrets at all - it was onwards, just hobble, jogged and walked, up through the wooded area, oh the finish was smelling sweet, - i knew i had it, i 'd done it, against All the odds, i wasn't beaten after all , my leg was sore and paining from my calf up to my thigh

we hit the long wall towrds the finish, i must have cried with emotional joy all the way, i spotted 25 miles, time did'nt matter, i was the champion, we were the masters, we Would NOT give in to pain, we would never surrender

we turned the corner to a 5.25 jubillant finish

i had no celebrtation left in me, only emotional tears - then Bless him, Roger Wilkes presented us with a gift, i don't know quite what he said exactly i was in pain,

i was seventh heaven, i want to THANK all of you fellow Fetchies for everything

I've slept well, i 'm tired, i'm happy, it was a disasterour PW of 5.25, but it's made me strong.

it has NOT depressed me or demorolised me , as a matter of fact it's done the opposite, it's left me feeling high