May 2013
4 posts
The Toughest Footrace on Earth: Stage Four – Part...
We arrived as the sun’s harshest rays wear beating down, so we decided to take a break to hydrate and eat and wait for the temperature to drop slightly.
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It’s tradition in MdS that on the long stage the top 50 elite runners start three hours after the main group, I’m not entirely sure why this is but I knew they’d soon be catching up with us. As we gathered our...
The Toughest Footrace on Earth: Stage Four – Part...
Stage Four: 75.6 km
It’s the day that everyone dreads, the day that most see as the start of the race, the day the MdS prays on all of your weaknesses like a bird digging for worms.
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Before arriving in the Sahara I saw the long stage as the actual start of my race. Have a good day and you’ll jump up a lot of places, have a bad day and it could be curtains for your MdS...
The Toughest Footrace on Earth: Stage Three
Stage Three: 37.7Km
By day three you realise that there’s no easy day when it comes to the Marathon des Sable.
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After sleeping reasonably well - with the help of a sleeping tablet kindly donated from one of the Scots - I felt almost refreshed.
My legs surprisingly didn’t feel too bad despite the previous days exertions and although my toe was painful I could ignore it when...
The Toughest Footrace on Earth: Stage Two
Stage two: 30.7km
“This is the toughest stage I’ve ever run” said Mohamad Ahandal, 5 times winner and 9 times runner up of the Marathon des Sables.
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After a tent realisation that perhaps my stomach problems the previous day were caused by me not letting my freeze dried porridge hydrate for long enough in cold water I decided to use hot water. Five hexi tabs later...
April 2013
5 posts
The Toughest Footrace on Earth – Part Two: Stage...
Stage One: 37.2km
After not much sleep - an unplanned pre race ritual of mine, I began prepping my breakfast, high calorie expedition foods porridge with strawberries eaten cold. Whilst I was struggling to consume the 800 calorie breakfast we were informed by one of the many French representatives that the race was due to start at 9 after the race briefing. After filling myself up with so much...
The Toughest Footrace on Earth – Part One:...
The Toughest Footrace on Earth – The Marathon des Sables, April 2013
Done and dusted. Two years of worry over after just 6 days of running. But what’s it actually like to run 150 miles across the Sahara desert?
Arriving at Gatwick you’ll start to do one of two things; get excited/ nervous and begin to weigh up the “competition”. Everyone does it, whether you’re a...
Purpose » Matt returns from the Sahara! →
And the return interview
Purpose » Running is mental! →
Work caught up with me before I left for the Sahara
T- 2 days
Hello, this post - and all those for the next 10 or so days - will be written by me, Nadia, Matt’s girlfriend. Don’t worry, I haven’t hacked in, I have his permission to keep y’all updated on this “little run” he’s doing. If you know Matt or follow his blog, it will come as no surprise to you that he is currently in Morocco for Marathon des Sables 2013. If...
March 2013
2 posts
February 2013
1 post
The year's just racing away...
It’s always a good idea to test yourself
Training can be boring. If you ask any professional athlete they’ll tell you that, at times, doing the same thing week in week out can get a little tiring and not just physically.
With this in mind, last year I made the conscious effort to mix up my MdS training with a few races. Admittedly the months from January to April sees a slight lull in...
December 2012
7 posts
WatchBrooks Pure Grit after a bit of wet weather running
Brooks Pure Grit Trainer – First Impressions...
14th December – London
I’ve been searching for a decent race spec trail shoe for a while now, have I found what i’ve been looking for with the Brooks Pure Grit Trainer?
A while ago I wrote a review for an UltraAspire waist belt and since then I’ve made a conscious decision to throw in product and gear reviews along with my usual storytelling posts.
I get through trainers like...
Well Equipped...
25 Nov - London
Like most sports, running has a rather large selection of bits and pieces, some are worth buying more than others.
I like to think that, with the amount I run and the positions I place in at races, I can be considered a good source for what to buy and what not to buy. You don’t spend almost a quarter of your life running without discovering what does and doesn’t...
November 2012
4 posts
“And I would run 100 miles…” (Part Two)
24th November – London
A 31 mile race after having completed a 62 mile race the week before should be a walk in the park (or Royal Park if you prefer) right?
Having completed my longest race so far in my ‘career’ the previous weekend I must admit I was feeling pretty confident about the inaugural Royal Parks Ultra. I spent most of the week prior to the race resting with only a...
"And I would run 100 miles..." (Part One)
13th October – London
A 60 mile race and then a 31 mile race the next weekend certainly establishes me as an Ultra runner, hopefully.
If I had a pound for every time someone had asked me “What’s it like to run 60 miles?” then I certainly wouldn’t be worrying about a pension. There’s no easy way to answer the question, if you want a one word answer then i’d say...
September 2012
2 posts
Weekends just run away...
6th September – London
If you thought that running dominates my life now just wait till you hear what I did a few weekends ago…
The marathon des sables is renowned for its soaring temperatures and huge sand dunes, so why on earth did I spend a weekend up north miles away from the sand and soaring temperatures?
A running holiday wont appeal to most people, especially an ultra running...
August 2012
1 post
99 problems ...
3rd August – London
“If you having girl problems I feel bad for you son…”
Sometimes I envy those people we call athletes.
As previously mentioned, i’ve been running on and off for around 5 and a half years. Sometimes i’d run in the morning before work, sometimes after work or like the last 2 years, running to and from work.
There’s a lot of people who will say...
June 2012
2 posts
The Olympicnic Ultra ...
30th June – Greece
A picnic with no gingham or scones, sad times.
At the beginning of the year I started to look at this years race calendar and select ones that I thought might be beneficial to my training. I chose a couple of half marathons and a couple of 10k’s all because I knew I could comfortably race these distances.
But training’s not supposed to be comfortable now is it?
So I...
May 2012
2 posts
Let me be Brutally honest ...
5th January – London
The Brutal 10k. …
A few rainy Saturday’s ago, in the early hours of the morning, my little brother and I both experienced relatively new and exciting things.
Ever wondered what they do with quarries once they’ve finished digging up all the goodies? Well they set up running courses, of course. These aren’t the most glamorous of courses mind, they twist...
March 2012
2 posts
Footy footy footy ...
March – London
This ones about feet rather than football, so if you’re expecting a rant about the England squad or Joey Bartons twitter addiction then I’d stop reading now …
Those of you who know me may of heard me mention custom running inner soles before. Well it’s that time of the year where I need to start looking for yet another pair of trainers, as well as this time,...
February 2012
4 posts
Sugar, ah honey honey ...
9th February – London
Trimming the fat, and the sugar and the anything bad for me ...
I’m not what you call a religious man but still I like to partake in the whole giving something up for lent. One year it was bread, the next diet coke, but now I’m faced with giving up these kinds of things for the next 14 months.
Refined sugar, as most athletes, doctors and dentist will tell you is...
The 50 mile plan ...
19th January – London
Well the 52.4 mile plan to be exact …
Saturday 28th April, Gravesend to Hampton Court Palace. It doesn’t quite have the same glamour as Lands End to John O Groats but it’ll do.
I’ve had crazy run idea in my head. I start at Gravesend in the morning and then follow a route of 52.4 miles along the fantastically meandering River Thames, ending up at...
January 2012
6 posts
The Fun in Fundraising
Cake sales, bathing in a bath of beans, sponsored silences, shaving your hair off, organising parties, making balloon animals are all ways to raise money …but actually getting people to part with their hard cash can be tricky.
After you’ve been asked many times to sponsor someone, the warm fuzzy feeling you get about doing something for a charity starts to wear off. Throw in the fact...
I guess it rains down in Africa ...
19th October – Still in Morocco
The Marathon Des Sables 2013 aka The Toughest Foot race on Earth aka 156 miles in 6 days aka Stupid …
I’m a competitive person, whether it’s against someone else or myself, I always strive to win or at least “do well” (obviously winning is far better than “doing well”). I’m not one of those guys that hates losing...
Run fat boy run ...
19th October - Morocco
I like to think that somewhere inside, perhaps deep inside, everyone there’s a runner.
See I used to be a fat kid, then a chubby graduate and now I’m a ‘athletic’ adult. There were many reasons why I starting running almost 5 years ago, most of them stemming from an inner desire to look and feel better about myself and part from boredom.
It was...
