Can you count how many times I say "UMMMM"?

But I have an idea, one that will eliminate this suprise we suffer every year. How about we just give this period of time a name? Something that's short and snappy but sounds cold and grim. Something to refer to when talking about this particular time so that we are not all completely unprepared when it comes. I even have an idea for a name. Lets call it...... Winter.

There we go, problem solved.

It was minus 9 degrees (the melting point of Bromine) as we headed out on the train to Farnam for the start of the two day XNRG Pilgrims Challenge where we'd be covering 33 miles of the beautiful North Downs way each day. Allan Rumbles said at the start that Surrey was his favourite county to run in and it's hard to disagree, even if it does have the highest population of Man Utd fans in the UK. Beautiful hills and trees and trails. There is no mention of something that'll kill yer here, it's lovely.

What is less lovely is the sight of so many men in tights. I think I was one of two runners at the start wearing shorts. So long as it's sunny it's still shorts weather. I was sporting a week long beard though, I like a warm face in this cold weather and that's what beards are for. And come Valentines day I will shave it off at that can be Gemma's present. Two birds and all that.

I started at a nice pace and would have been happy to get around without getting lost. I settled into a small group with some guys I just met, Richard, Bill and a girl whose name I don't think I got. She was running her first ultra though which must have been pretty exciting. There are only a few slight gradients on in the first half before we hit the steps of Box Hill.

I caught up with Jen Bradley around half way who as always was having Garmin problems. This time it was stuck on "map" mode meaning she knew that she was on course but not how far she had gone or how long she had been running for. Or the actual time but then no one wearing a Garmin ever knows that.

At around 18 miles we ran into the Denbies wine estate. I remember this from last year when I was marshalling at this point and we dropped the tortill chips all over the floor."Quick, scoop them up and put them back, they'll never know and they'll be delierious by then anyway". At this checkpoint were Ed and Phil and it was great to see them. I don't think Phil recognised me and was worried that I was not dressed correctly and thought I was a bit out of my depth.

I struggled a little with the asthma which flares in cold weather. The hills started, a runner near me commented "wow, this is the hill that just keep on giving". It did give a lot until the notorious Box Hill steps. I can't remember how many million there are but there are lots and certainly enough to make be briefly reconsider my choice of bodyweight.

Not long after the hill there was a lovely section of trail that led to a junction where a sign had been removed. Left or Right? Who knows but in these situations I was always tought that if in doubt go uphill. I did and a few guys followed me. Not long after we arrived at another sign which did not mention the North Downs Way on it at all. By this point we were a bigger group getting bigger by the minute. The more people who were there the more confused everyone got. It was obvious that if we are not not on the NDW then we should have turned right at that junction and not left. However as soon as you get a committee involved everyone becomes incapable of logical thought. At some stage it was suggested that we phone Neil. But all we would be able to tell him was that we were on a path that was not the North Downs Way. Not very helpful.

Anyway I went back down the other way with some others and soon we were back on track. I was pretty lonely in the last section but I didn't mind because the views were so nice. I plodded into the finish in just over 6 hours, pretty pedestrian but still quite pleased.

I love the atmosphere at the end of these races. Some time to put your feet up, have a beer, find a place to sleep and just chat to others who you may not have seen for a while. I caught up with Mark Collinson and Mimi Andersen and it was great talking to them. Mimi and I were plotting a cool thing to do next year. I also met Sam Robson for the first time and later discovered he was the chap who ran the London Marathon and then ran back home to Cambridge. He is a very quick runner with lots on this year.

I was giving a presentation later on may LANY race and it seemed fitting that this felt like some of those places we camped in the USA. More people but the same set up of sleeping bags and food in a canteen. The difference here is that I had so much more time. There was no rush, I'd finished by 4 and had all the time in the world to faff and eat and chat before going to bed at 10 and not having to be up till 6 in the morning. A lie in.

I think the talk went well, I felt like I missed loads of bits out. In the Q&A section Mimi asked me how I get out of the low points and I said I thought about my own funeral. It really works a treat. Imagine yourself in a box while everyone else is just banging about how awesome you are. No one is going to say anything bad are they? You can go on a complete ego trip. "James Adams was possibly the most important person ever to live on earth, and he was a snazzy dresser too". No one is going to call you a dick are they? And if they do they are not invited.

Anyway I didn't sleep too well on my punctured mat (I forgot that). It was like a nights sleep in the USA so was not too worried about not being able to run. The ground had been covered with snow and facebook had been covered with "My road race has been cancelled". There was not chance of this happening here though. Neil had worked through the night to keep this event going and it was going to. He admitted that even if he'd cancelled he knew half of us wouldset out anyway to get back to Farnham.

The trail was wonderful, it was like were were running on a completely different path. The trees were bowing under the weight of the snow and I ran with Dan De Belder who was complaining about having to crouch so much. It looked magical though and it was a little warmer than yesterday which was good for my chest. I was still in shorts as per the rules.

There were a lot of MDS runners here and this was great training for them. You don't really need heat or sand just tough conditions and snow definitely counts. I caught up with Mimi who looked like she was struggling a bit with her asthma. She admitted later she just needed to be told to man up. She did around half way and flew off into the distance.

I was thrilled to see that the girl I was running with yesterday (whose name I still don't know, sorry again) had decided to celebrate running her first ultra by running her second ultra the next day. Awesome.

The descent of box hill was interesting, trying to to fatally slide down the steps and soon were were on a big open field where hundreds of kids and parents were there hurling themselves down on sleighs. It looked great fun. I was going ok in the snow, my new bomb proof Columbia trail shoes holding out quite well. They are not that comfortable to run in but I am breaking them in for the end of March where I need something I can hurl bricks at and not feel a thing.

Towards the end of the day the snow turned to slush which wasn't so nice to run on but I was still glad I was out here rather than anywhere else. It was great weather for penguins, great weather for me. I thought about Oklahoma quite a lot though.

I finished the second day in about 7 hours, an hour slower than yesterday which seemed to be the norm. There were no McDonalds on the route but there was a good burger van at the end as well as cake and coffee. Great rewards for a job well done.

I can't recommend enough the XNRG events. I've done about 5 of them now and they are always a blast. Great for the first timers as well as giving the quicker guys a chance to race. The courses are always great and the scene at either ends of the races are great too. The extra work they had to put in to see that we had a good event to run on Sunday was immense. Thanks guys and see you at the next one.

Holyhead has a chip shop for every five houses which made carb loading the night before quite simple. We stayed in a B&B just a short distance from the start at a sailing club where the huge Endurance Life tents and registration area was. These events have certainly grown in the past efw years, there will be over 600 people running in the half marathon/10k/marathon and ultra.

There were only 50 or so starting the 32 mile ultra which consisted of the marathon followed by the 10k loop at the end. We were told we were to climb the "mountain" of Anglesey. It didn't look that big though but then it was quite far away. It was nearly a disasterous start for Jen Bradley who managed to lock her Garmin and was unable to get it to start. It's hard to imagine how anyone can do a run without a big beeeping contraption telling them how slow they are moving. Anyway all was averted as someone knew the magic combination to get it working.

Kris Duffy was here too, he is taking part in all 7 EL coastal events because there is a special T-shirt for doing so. He likes dorky things like that. The 50 or so of us started down a road into a car park and then onto the lovely trail of Anglesey.

I was wearing three layers. I think this was a record. I don't think I have ever worn three layers. Within a few minutes I was roasting and had to faff around with my bag to get by coat back into it and the entire field overtook me. It was windy and overcast as we plodded through some fields and then onto the rocks of the coastal path. I was wearing the NB minimus again which had faired well for 43 miles last weekend but was a little worried that they might not be as comfortable on sharp rocks. Jen had opted for a pair of canoes which were great for sailing across puddles.

The rain switched on and off all say, there was loads of great trail, some road that my shoes also struggled on. I have this theory that if I smash my feet on hard surfaces in minimal shoes it might strengthen my calves and feet like hill training would, without the hills. I suspect I will actually have to do some hill training at some point as I am still really shit at going up and even worse at coming down. If there is anyone out there who can make me a black belt downhill runner in 8 weeks, preferably in the sytle ofMr Miagi then please get in touch.

I felt pretty good running on my own and was amazed at just how well the route was marked. I did not take a map but every twist and turn had an arrow saying exactly where to go, it was impossible to get lost. I did try once but that would have involved jumping off a cliff so I knew I was going wrong. I was overtaken by Richard Webster who was 2nd in the marathon (I thought he was 1st cos I didn't believe that the guy who overtook ages before was in the marathon) and then later by Ian Corless (who I said was in 3rd but he was in 4th). Ian has just launched an Ultra Podcast Talkultra with Ian Sharman which looks cool. I was also very pleased to hear that Richard has sent off his entry for the Spartathlon this year too. It's going to be an awesome race for the Brits. And the boys are going to win this time.

The "Mountain" was much harder than anticipated the second time. I had left Jen and ran on, feeling pretty good at halfway and suprised it was going so fast. She said "say hello to Kris when you catch him, he always sets out too fast". I thought I would but after about 20 miles I had a bit of a down but perked up a little when the route joined the half marathon course. They had 6 miles left and were all moving quicker than I was. Then there was the second climb of the mountain that coincided with the really heavy wind and rain. Going up was hard, coming down was harder again, the wind actually pushing us back up the hill and the rain hitting like bullets. There were lots of coastguards up there making sure none of us got into any trouble. After that is was a long hard descent to the marathon finish, which I had to ignore to going round and do the 10k loop in addition.

I did not have a finish time in mind as I had no idea how hard this would be but I would have liked to have finished in 6 hours so that I had time at the end to faff a bit and not have to rush to get into town for the talk about LANY I was giving later. I was following the arrows for the 10k which were the same as the Marathon and started to get paranoid that I was going to end up doing the marathon again. I was completely alone out there. Fortunately I hit the checkpoint which signalled 3 miles to go, via that nasty mountain again. Thanks Israel Archuletta for this great photo which realistically captures my average pace.

But this time it was easy though hours of pounding hard rocks with little on my feet felt like I'd been wandering around lots in barefoot treading on lego. I think it's cos my feet are not hard enough yet. Give them time. Feeling the ground beneath your feet is wonderful, apart from when there's lego on it.

I crawled in in a time of 6.33, not far from last and way behind Kris. I had to rush a bit to get back to the B&B and then on to talk about what I did last summer.

I have not really done public speaking before and I still can't really believe that people would be that interested in what I've done. I love banging on about it and can talk to death in the pub to my friends but it still suprised me that people who don't know me would sit down and listen to what I have to say. I was a bit nervous about it but think I have enough silly tales to at least raise a giggle in the audience. I think it went well (despite Ian and Gemma telling me I "ummed" all the time) It was great talking for Endurance Life and no doubt I will come back and tell them how I lost an eye or a limb in Barkley later this year.

It was really good to meet the other talkers too. Gary spoke about a brilliant event in Sweden called the OtillO which involves running and swimming from island to island. Billy Isherwood then gave a great talk about his battle with alcoholism and how he was written off by his doctors before taking up marathon running and eventually running the Atacama Crossing. Dave Cornthwaite came on last to talk about all the mad things he has done, skateboarding across Australia, paddle boarding down the Mississippi and dating 100 girls in 100 days. Gemma was less than impressed with me suggesting I might try to break one of those records.

Anyway, great weekend with great race organisation and friends and a wake up call to do some hill training.

And I wish my proper trail shoes would f****G arrive.

Claire, Drew and I got to the start pub early before the train from London arrived where more than 50 others would pile in and block up the toilets. One of the two toilers got blocked anyway and we still had to queue. Ahhh toilet queues I have missed you. The strained faces on those who are waiting, the relaxed strutting of those on their way out, the idiot who only needs a wee and queues with everyone else despite all the urinals being free. The strange moment when you hold the door open for the next person to go in, as if you are asking "do you approve of what I have done here? Smell that". UK Ultra running I have missed you.

It was freezing. -3C as we parked. The UK has escaped a proper winter so far but this was the coldest it's been for a while. It was great bumping into some guys I've not seen for ages again, like Steve Gorden and James Elson.The usual suspects were there, Oli, Tim, Dave Ross and loads of others who I didn't see because there were more than 200 people there. I saw Robin Harvie in the crowd too who looked nervous from doing his first long run since the double London Marathon last April and also a chap called George who said I gave him advice about the UTMB in a race last year. I remember it now, he said I told him not to use sticks cos it's cheating and he didn't use them and finished the race respite the horrific conditions. He spoke about wanting to run the Spartathlon this year which was great, using it to qualify for Badwater. I'd suggest doing them the other way round.

Thanks to Ian Berry for the photo. And thanks for getting at least one of me running. Kind of.

Anyhoo, the race started and the key here is to get ahead of everyone else in the first 400 meters so that you can get over the gates that lead into the narrow paths. Hold back and you risk having to queue for ages while everyone else lifts their creaky body parts over a stile. I ran ahead near Tim, James and Oli and managed to get into the fields before most of the others. I was then free to run at my own pace, after an asthma attack.

I ran behind James, Drew, Claire and Danny who all seemed to be going fast. Drew usually sets out fast in this, trying to impress some girl. I was trying to keep up as I had no intention of getting the maps out and these guys seemed to know the way. I was struggling though, I'd like to think it's because I was a bit poorly and had a cough, or that I was wearing the minimus shoes again and they were not quite working but the most likely explanation is that I am just a fat unfit bastard.

I slowed briefly to mourn a dead badger on the road and soon after I lost everyone and started walking along what I thought was the right way just to wait for someone to catch up. I got the map out but realised I had no idea where I was on the map. Fortunately Dave ROss and a group of others came bounding along (Dave had got lost and added a few miles). I followed these new guys.

Given how crap I was feeling in conparison to last year I thought my time would be much slower. The second half of this was on canal and last year as soon as I hit the canal I increased the pace and overtook quite a few people. Now as soon as I hit it I just stalled, knackered and groin really hurting as I mentally prepared myself for the 3+ hour slog to the finish.

The checkpoints on the canal had a lot more food which was great. Sausages, sausage rolls and pork pies were being scoffed and I drank a lot more water than usual, the sky was clear and the reflection on the water meant that we had two suns glaring at us. It still wasn't as bad as Okalhoma. I passed a guy running who said he was having trouble keeping his heart rate below 170. I didn't really know what to suggest other than "take the HRM off".

At the left turn on the canal, 13 miles to go I unexpectedly caught up with Claire and Drew. Obviously they had set out too fast too and the easy running of the canal was now difficult. I shuffled past, expecting them to come bounding along again later.

This was such a contrast to the last year where I just felt myself getting stronger over the last miles. I took a few walking breaks and had to sit down a few times to stretch but fortunatley the familiar last few miles of the canal came and it started to go quickly again. Trin caught up with me with a couple of miles to go and we chatted about future plans. She has a lot on this year including the amazing GUCR which I am really looking forward to running again. Even though I feel knackered now I will be a whole lot more knackered after 143 miles of canal come June. I said to Trin that the lead woman was just ahead of us, we could see here and whether she fancied a sprint for it. She didn't but still managed to pull ahead of me.

Completely unexpectedly I finished under 7 hours and only a few minutes slower than last year where I thought I'd run well. I then found out that James had run it in 6 hours flat and I was with him for the first 20 miles. Obviously we smashed it in the first half and most of us struggled for the second half. The pub at the end was good though. Nice steak and chips and several pints and chatted to James, Tim, Danny and others. It was a great day overall.

All in all not a horrific day. How on earth I did that every day for 70 is currently unthinkable.

I did this race 3 years ago and it's quite good fun. It's a marathon that everyone is supposed to finish at 2.30 and your start time is determined by your average time from your last 7 road marathons (removing the fastest and slowest). I had to go back a long way to actually get to 7 road marathons, London 2008 in fact. I just don't do them anymore. My list was thus;

Oct 11 - Leicester - 4.09
Feb 11 - Enigma Quadzilla day 1 - 3.33
Dec 10 - Enigma Winter - 3.39
Dec 10 - Portsmouth Coastal - 3.17
Apr 10 - Brighton - 4.44
Apr 10 - Paris - 3.17
Apr 09 - London - 3.18

And this somehow got me a start time of 10.47, giving me 3.43 to finish. I thought this was a bit soft. Silly me. I had a healthier breakfast than usual, a McDonalds bacon bagel (instead of the usual double sausage McMuffin). Well actually I had two bagels. I was running a whole marathon.

I got there and saw Dave Ross for the first time in ages and chatted to him (he was due to start 40 minutes after me) about stuff. Pam Storey was her usual excitable self and Allan Rumbles was in charge of making tea. There were loads of runners already out on the course and as soon as I started the 5 lap race I was passing some of the early starters.

It was great bumping into some people I have not seen for a while. Anna Finn has been out injured for a while but she was back, Ruth was looking quite ill but still having a go anyway. Plus loads of the usual 100 marathon club people who I always bump into at any flat 26.2 mile race in the UK.

This was the first time I was going to run more than 10 miles in my New Balance Minimus that I have been wearing all the time since I got back from the states. They are the train version and I have the road version in the post which should arrive just in time for when I stop doing any more road running this year. It was a risk wearing them, my achilles feel like they are going to snap any day now. A few miles usually gets them sorted though.

The course is quite nice in a weird way, about a mile along a road then into a farm for a couple of miles then a park for a couple of miles then back to the running track for a jelly baby and then out again.

After the marathon they were holding the AGM where there has been a lot of debate about what "counts" as a marathon. Views vary, from "It should only count if it is officially certified, exactly 26.2 miles long, on a road, in a big city with at least 10 celebrities running and validated with overpriced photography" to "Just take the total horizontal distance you have travelled in your life and divide it by 25". All fun and games.

I've decided not to join the club proper till I have done 100 26.2 mile races (or at least those advertised as a "marathon", some might end up being long). It might take me a while, I do about 5 a year now. I think I am on around 70 and on about 50 ultras (Trans USA only counts as 1 ultra).

Anyhoo, stamp collecting aside the race felt much harder than it should. It's always good to know how fat and unfit you are at the start of the year and this was telling me plainly. My lap splits were something like 40, 41, 42, 44, 48. The last lap was a great relief and we all started to crowd together reaching the finish. Lots of "last lap", "Home straight" and "Nearly theres" were being expressed until one chap said "Nope, I've still got another lap to do".

I finished in around 3.35, got my medal from Pam and then noticed that everyone else seemed to be running around the track. "Do we have to run around the track?" I asked. "Yes, have you not run around the track". Doh. I handed back my medal and then did a lap of the track. I don't want to be accused of coming from Sunderland.

So, a nice painful slow one to start the year. Somehow I did this in 3.14 a few years ago?

Five laps of a park in Kent. I imagine Barkley will be similar.

Total Miles Run - 5110

Total time running - 1086 hours (6 weeks 3 days 6 hours)

Total Time Working - 480 hours approx

Running Related Hospitalisations - 2 (New Mexico and Bletchley)

PB's - 2 (45 miles and 5k)

States of the USA run through - 13

States of the USA defecated on - 14

Calories Burned Running - More than half a million

Which Equates to- 1000 Big Macs (USA), 1100 Big Macs (UK), 2750 pints of beer, 7.1 tonnes of Celery, John Prescott.

Shoes - 15 pairs

Hottest Temperature run in - 47C

Highest Humidity - 99%

Highest Weight - 86kg (Ealing January)

Lowest Weight - 71kg (New York August)

Weight Now - Closer to Ealing

Times visited an Ambulance - Once (to get some paracetemol for a headache I got while watching a triathlon)

Average Heart Rate - F**K Knows.

Words of book written so far - 90000 (Just landed in California)

#

Friends made - Too many to count but you know who you all are

Continents left - 6

Expected DNF's in 2012 - 1

I only found myself doing this because I was late turning up to the club and missed the runs. Dressed to brave the freezing outdoor weather I instead went into the cycling room and decided to try an embarass myself trying this spinning thing that all the cool people seem to be talking about.

To get you in the mood for furious pedalling some shite is pumped out of a speaker. I don't know whether it's called "Garage" or "House" or whatever but at this stage I thought the harder I work the more my ears fill with fluid and hence the more bearable the noise becomes.

The lady taking the session warned us that she had already taken 3 sessions today and was unlikely to be putting in the effort that we were. I was sweating quite a lot and looking at the clock. I like running, particularly from point to point because it feels like there is a point. Here I was sat looking at a clock with no finish point in mind, just watching a clock tick down while I slowly saturated myself in sweat.

Then somehow the music got worse. I believe this genre is called "R&B" which used to stand for "Rhythym and Blues" but now stands for "Stupid halfwit banging on about the tedious details of his tedius life". The pace slowed, I assumed to give us time to reflect on the profoundly thought-proving poetry that was now oozing out of the speakers, gold such as "I was driving down the street to find something to eat, then I saw a bee and it flew into a tree, the tree was green, you know what I mean, Yeah".

But luckily it was getting to the end of the session. I was warm and sweaty but not really tired. I imagined being outdoors running towards the end of the 7 mile run I'd normally be doing tonight and looking forward to a few pints and a burger that such activity would earn. I think in this instance I was due a lime soda and a rice cracker.

Then the music took a turn for the better. At it was near the end we had the smoochy romantic classic "Lady in Red". The Boys and Girls then got up and went to bikes at opposite end of the room while just looking across at each other.

45 minutes it was done. That's the least I have travelled in 45 minutes in my life. I was a bit gutted that I could not do something more fun that night like run and to commiserate I had more to drink than I usually do, proving that cycling makes you fat.

I don't think it will catch on.

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Further afield there are some other races I want to do. I need to knock off the UTMB but would much rather run (walk/crawl) the Tor De Geants, 200 miles in the same area. The Donkey Run 135 mile run in Cyprus sounds harder than Badwater. A 100 miler in Andorra apparently makes the UTMB feel like Norfolk and of course the Spartathlon, a race I will always want to go back to.

And I still want to do so much in the USA, putting my name in the hat for all the 100 milers and just seeing where that gets me. Western States, Hardrock, Leadville, Wasatch.

WHAT DO I DO???? Photo coutesty of Matt Mahoney http://www.mattmahoney.net/barkley/ (There is no official website of the race)

Well, before I signed up for anything I sent an email to a crazy guy who organises a ridiculous race in the Frozen Head National Park in Tennessee. It's on my list. It's the Barkley 100. I was instructed a while ago to send an email in November to put myself in the hat for the race. I did this on November 1st, worried that I would sound a bit too keen I awaited the response.

And it came within 24 hours. An email that started with the words "commiserations" and then went on to tell me that I was one of two people who had emailed him on the 1st Novemeber and hence got a place in the race. The Americans will find out sometime after Christmas whether they got in.

So what is it about this race? It does not claim to be the toughest there is but this is the opinion of all those who have tried (and mostly failed) to complete it. It has a 1.5% finish rate over the past 20 years, with 10 out of about 600 people completing the five laps. The race was inspired by an incident where a guy escaped from a nearby prison and was found 55 hour later about 8 miles away. The race director said he could do 100 miles in that time. In 20 years not many people have done that.

So what makes it so tough? How can 100 miles be so difficult to finish in a 60 hour cut-off? I just can't imagine myself but clearly there is something (or lots of things) that prevent so many great runners finishing this. A few things it could be;

• The 20 mile lap is apparently more like 25 miles. I am not sure whether it has been properly GPS'ed and such devices are banned anyway
• The elevation is over 50000ft. It's like going up Everest and down again twice. The UTMB is less than 30000ft. There do not seem to be consistent and long ups and downs like in Hardrock or UTMB, it is just constantly up and down
• The trail. There isn't one. You are fighting through trees and points.
• Navigation. There is lots of it. I can only hope I can tag on to some guys who have done a loop or two before so I at least stand a chance.

But realistically I might not even finish one lap. Lot of people are saying I am wasting my money (The entry fee is $1.60) by flying out there to run what could be 3 miles of tree climbing and do come back with a DNF. A DNF is almost guaranteed in this. The guys who have finished this before are not only mentally invincible and resilient but they are also bloody good distance runners with records for long distance trails and wins at Hardrock and all that. My pedestrian amble across the States and a couple of middle of the pack Spartathlon finishes will probably make me the baby of the event. It's a feeling I've felt before, like at my first GUCR, my first Spartathlon and in LA.

But I think I've done enough now to at least give this a shot. I did not have to submit an essay to do this (as the US based runners do) but mine was simply going to read "I've finished most of these so called "hardest" races in the world and it's getting boring". If I get 3 miles in, break my leg tripping over a tree root and then spend 20 hours trying to find my way back to the starting area then at least it would make a great story. And that's the most important thing isn't it?

So I better get some hill training done and hope that my reason for being accepted is not to be the "Sacrificial Virgin".

We were in a restaurant last night. Bit of a posh affair. The price of the meal was pretty steep. You may have detected from my blog that I am not really into fine foods. All I can think of it the £/Cal ratio.

And so on paying for this I worked out how many Big-Macs I could buy for the same price (about 100 in the USA) and then how many calories they would contain (540 each in the USA gives me 54000 calories to burn). At around 100 calories per mile I could get over 500 miles done. Or as I see it the width of Algeria, or Columbia, Spain or Poland. I could run from the Red sea to the Gulf of Oman, across India (in the middle) or get most of Japan or New Zealand done. I could do Oklahoma again?

I think the actual calorific value of this meal would have just about got me across Leicester.

Anyway.

It's been a while since I have written anything here. I thought I'd just blather on regardless. It's funny how my motivation for running has disappeared since I got back from the USA and in turn I have little to write about which then perpetuates the cycle of indifference. I am not too worried about taking a break from it all but I have pretty much put the two stone back on that I lost running across the States.

I had a vision that when I finished this race I'd be in the shape of my life and ready to continue running forever. Instead I am a bit broken and still tired from the effort. No more Ultras this year but really looking forward to next year.

About a month on returning I ran the Oxford Half Marathon, I fell apart after about 7 miles and hobbled in with a really sore groin. I figured it was not a good idea to attempt the Spartathlon a week later but I went out there anyway to support all the Brits who were doing it. It was an amazing experience and I learned so much more about the race and have made that the big one for next year*. I have so many races I want to do next year that I am going to be unable to fit timewise, moneywise and bodywise.

I ran the Leicester Marathon in just over 4 hours, again falling apart after about 7 miles and having to hobble the rest. That one hurt. Last week I did the wonderful Greensands Marathon (my favouritemarathon in the UK) and had a really nice mimble around the lovely course. However it was the first time I have run on hills for about 6 months and one week later I still can't walk properly.

I have so much to do now. I am working on the book. I am working on a presentation that I am going to give to a few groups of people and I am actually working, in a job now too. Scary stuff but I guess something has to pay for the Big-Macs. The book writing is going OK though I have not even looked at the America bit yet. I have not even read the blog yet. I'm a bit scared.

Since writing this I have heard about another silly race that goes through every English county in October, 1600 miles in a month. Sounds interesting.

And I've never run in Worcestershire before..

I did not realise just how much I say "you know".

http://www.marathontalk.com/podcast/episode_93_james_adams.php