charity begins at the office

This might be tempting fate but I am becoming more and more amazed that I am not pulling any muscles in my weekday runs thrugh London. this is more amazing as one of the girls in the office managed to pull her shoulder muscle lifting my backpack to get into a drawer. This might be a sign it's a bit full. and heavy. I am now starting to estimate its weight at around 20 kilos. Now, I am not saying that to show off (well maybe a little) and yes, I appreciate that Marine yomps normally have around 50 kilos or whatever it is on their backs as they head along Brecon, however, I am starting to get concerned that as soon as I put my not inconsiderable 95 kiilos onto the sand with that weight, I am going to sink up to my neck á la Beau Peep. Anyhow, going back to my thanks for people who have contributed, I was left with a dilemma today. One of my colleagues has suggested that he will sponsor me when I return. I would be fine with this if it wasn't for the reason he gave and I quote 'If you die half way around, you won't have finished it and therefore my sponsorship would have been wasted'. For his benefit, I would like to point out a c few things. 1) I am definitely not going to die 2) I would consider any contribution to Mencap a good use of money and 3) if i did die, I would be concerned that my coleague's first thought was that I hadn't finished it. So, here is my final thought today. If you are prepared and intelligent, there is nothing a man cannot do. So as I fall into the former, I give my self a 50:50 chance. Also, please check Farnborough News for my article this week.

a big thank you

One more thing.

I want to say a big thank you toeveryone who has contributed to my cause and apperciates the effort that I have put in. Thanks to your generosity, I have now raised £6,000 (more if you include the tax) and this is wonderful. I am very, very touched by the contributions and even more so by the efforts of others to raise money on my behalf, especially my Father. Thanks Dad x

MDS training

It's now starting to dawn on me that the running of the Marathon Des Sables (MDS) is only the start. There is still more fund raising to do and even setting up a blog (something that a luddite like me has never done before) so that I can inform anyone interested in my training progress and my concerns about the race. As a bit of background to anyone who has never heard of it, the Marathon Des Sables is a 153 mile race across the Sahara desert over 6 days. If that wasn't enough, the organisers also make you carry all of your food and water, plus any other items you need to take with you (clothes for example). It was this list that really awakened me to the stupidity of the journey. One of the compulsory items is a venom pump!!!! I have never had the desire to be anywhere that this might be required. Nice hotel rooms tend not to be overun with bitey, stingey or generally crawley things but never mind. I am now around 60% of my charitable target of £10,000 with 10 weeks left to go before the race. Time is now getting tight and my training schedule is ramping up with every other activity. If you see a sweaty individual running along the Thames path at around 12.30 every day wearing a grey backpack that looks extremely heavy, please say hi, wave or at least give me a small look of sympathy. If I can say Hi back I will but that probably means that I haven't been running hard enough as I normally can't run and talk all at the same time. On the positive side, I had to pose for one of the photographers of the local Farnborough paper on Saturday. Now, I accept my limitations and a fashion model, I am not and will never be. Especially when it's freezing cold, I'm wearing very small shorts and holding a rucksack full of books to simulate the weight whilst running. Still, look out for me in the next edition, it will be amusing to say the least.......