First Win!

So I am a serial runner-up or nearly-there or also-ran..........The first time I have ever lead an ultra was this year at a 30 miler and in the last 10 mins or so, took a wrong'un and ended up 6 miles off course.

This all changed this week. I won something! I have the lovely Keith at http://www.ULTRAmarathonRunningStore.com to thank for that........a Twitter competition in which I won a Nuun hydration bottle and half a dozen Nuun tablets to go in it. Great stuff as I needed a new bottle anyway.

Not only that, I will be putting a small ad on the blog as the last 3 ultras I have run with one of the excellent rucksacks that are stocked by Keith.....the ultraAspire Revolution which is a bottle holder which can fit an OS map and a jacket and food in and is the first ever racepack I have carried since the excellent Salomon Raidlight that fits me and doesn't either chafe/fall apart or otherwise. I'll do a product review in due course.

I'll be purchasing the FastPack later in the spring after the Xmas bank balance receives fiscal stimulus in the paypacket department. I'll want to run the SDW100 without a crew and depending on the date my awesome sister-in-law Kim plans her wedding date in I will also be running another 100 this summer.

Ok, the win was a small one but out of small acorns, mighty oaks (winnings) grow.

Final piece of news this week is that I am off to Eldoret in July. Eldoret you say? WTF is that? It is in the mountains of Kenya. Yes......I have been asked to supervise a group of teachers and 6th form students from school to go to the mountains above the East African Rift Valley. I will be staying about 5km from the athletics track that Brother Colm O'Connell trained the greats including David Rudisha. Obviously I have work to do in the school but I will be finding out everything about the 5am runs that these guys get up to.......and perhaps introduce them to 100 mile ultras which I hear is not the "done" thing over there.